Ham Lake CX

Held in the mostly wooded strolling paths of a Baptist Lake Camp in Ham lake, this cross course was the closest to being in Belgium Minnesota might have to offer, at least from an environment standpoint. Loose sand-parts, muddy pits, tall pines and wide singletrack worn-well by hundreds of high school lovebirds over the summer.

I woke up to a morning filled with many family-needs and left for the race in a most-distracted mind set. I knew pulling in that my race was between my body and my mind. Placing high was not the intention.

As usual, I had to cut the warm-up time short and had to line up third row. Whistle blows and the lot of us funnel into the wooded path for a slower-than usual acceleration. Soon we’re huffing it. First barrier and there’s a tumble and a mix up. Big gap between the leaders and the rest. Fine with me, I’m fighting the lazy-dog inside me and I’m trying to get the shit moving.

I’ll save you the boring details of my boring race. Never really got going. I will tell you that the course was cool and generally fast. I’ve got to learn how to corner at speed better. That needs to happen for me no matter what kind of race I’m doing.

Course came out from initial wood’s straightaway pretty fast onto road for maybe a ¼ mile. Back into woods for some twists and mud hole, then lots of shallow hills-nothing too hard. Also plenty of soft ground, just enough to keep you honest. Barrier at the end of a hill and back into the wood’s straightaway.

I went home, put family hat back on.

Several hours later, I got real down on myself for not leaving it all on the course. Not trying hard enough. I’ve got one simple race left for the year. I’ll leave it all there. A year’s worth of regret has to be left, or I’ll go into the winter wishing….

And that cant happen. Not this year.