Cross and knees
Well, today was my first time at seeing a cross race.
It was a typical New England Fall day. Temps in the lows 50's, stiff wind out of NorthEast and clear skies. My road racing team mate races for VeloBella Elite CycloCross women's team and so my motivation for going was to really make a fool of myself from the sidelines, screaming to motivate her.
Watching the race from the side was a strange feeling for me and made me realize just how much I love to be a part of the action and not watching it. Not to mention the friendships you build with the other women when you're in the mix.
So much of my road season there would be groups of us that would get together and just shoot the breeze for a while after the race whether it was at the venue, a local dive or Mc'Dee's (of course we always had the water and side salad :P).
From the word go the women went all out. the course would take about 9-11 minutes to complete each lap. Several barriers, single track, off camber sections and some paved. Overall a very fast course. Jumping over those barriers you could easily tell the ones who had been at it a while and the ones who had just upgraded to elite.
Watching all this made me wish my knees were good and that I had never had that ski accident that caused me to tear 3 of the 4 ligaments in my right knee. Even walking can be painful for me but as with so many things I have learned to cope and learn my limitations.
Yes Cross looks like a ball, hard, fun, fast, challenging but my knees would probably blow out the back of my legs and that is never a pretty sight. No, I'll stick with Road Racing and maybe I'll give track a try (after I am sprinter!).