October 3rd 2005: Reno CX

So, i made the trip up to Reno yesterday, to do the first race of their 4 race series. This one was held at Callahan park. It was a challenging course that had 2 creek crossings and a lot of sand (especially on the turns).

I was able to only do 2 practice laps before the race begun, and after doing those laps I was a little intimidated about how well i was going to be able to do due to a few crashes in the sand. The race was Mens C combined with Women and Juniors. On the line were 5 Men's C, 3 women and 3 juniors. I seeded myself not on the front row because of those practice laps, but then, once the race begun i went right into 3rd place, behind one Mens C and one junior.

After going around the course a few times I was able to get a better handle of how it was laid out--mainly gradually uphill on one half of the course with a double barrier but no other technical section and the other half of the course had one forced dismount to climb over a pile of boulders, and there were 2 creek crossings, and 2 semi gnarly sand pits. I ended up running both creeks and both sand pits. I didnt think i could make the creek crossings (although later I saw most of the Mens B's doing just that) and I felt much faster running the sand than riding it.

I ended up getting passed by one of the women about half way through the race. And ended up finishing 4th overall behind one Mens C, one junor and one woman. It was a good race, a good course (although I would have liked more road section) and the results were out within 24 hours.


Juniors
Danny Auerbach 27:46:00
Derek Gossi 32:14:00
Tyler Blodgett 31:29:00-1 lap

C's
James Herzman 28:40:00
Jeremy Burlingame 30:54:00
Lance Molinari 32:37:00
Eric Blodgett 28:00:00-1 lap
Sean Martin DNF

Women
Robyn Embry 30:24:00
Paige Galeoto 31:05:00
Catherine Sullivan 33:46:00