Getting smoked in Boulder

Last night I stopped by the CU Short Track race that happens every Wednesday night throughout the summer in Boulder (which is known by locals as the Wednesday Night World Cup races). The race is a fundraiser for the CU Boulder Cycling Team and breaks down into three categories for men: A, B & C. Seeing as folks like Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Heather Irmiger race in the A's on occasion, I figured the B's were probably a better spot for me since I should be moving up to Expert in the next race or two that I do. Oh how I was wrong...

I lined up a little over 6pm with the 40 or so other guys in the B category. The race takes place every week on the same small strip of land located right inside of Boulder. The area of the course can't be any bigger than 2 football fields or so, but there are a lot of different trails packed into that small space, with lots of banked corners, short, steep uphills and small jumps (here's a news video about the race series). Every week the course is changed up to keep things interesting. The race started off with a mass sprint for the single track, creating a huge dust cloud that didn't really settle until the last race crossed the line. Speaking of the last racer, I think it might have been me (results aren't online yet). The race was only 25 minutes long and with laps taking 3 minutes or so, I held onto 10th or 15th position for 3 laps or so, before I started imploding and moving backward in the field quickly. I was so happy that I got lapped by the winner because it meant that I had one fewer lap to do. I'm not sure if it was the huge amounts of dust, the extreme heat, the elevation or the wicked pace that kicked my ass, probably some combination of the four. That and the fact that I've favored long slow workouts over intensity stuff in preparation for Mt. Evans. Regardless, It was a really fun race with fast turns that required good steering (which I was able to appreciate only after pulling myself together and finding a sprinkler to stick my head under)! Maybe I'll do another short track race next week after Mt. Evans...only this time I'm racing the C's! The photo on the right is of Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski crushing everyone on the Mens A race.