Bubba at Spanish Lake

My first cross race ever was at Spanish Lake in 2007. I was coming off an exceptionally strong season of 6-12 hour endurance mountain bike racing with some expert races thrown in. I had won 6 of the 13 races I finished and finished 2cd or 3rd in the rest. I had 5 years of racing and massive training volume in my legs and was training with a purpose. I did my last mountain bike race of the season in Late October, bought a cheap cross bike and lined up with no experience whasover in the A's the next weekend at Spanish Lake. My love of cross began with a 2cd place finish (to Chris Harre) and a sprint finish with my good friend "Rico" aka, John Matthews. 

I only had the chance to ride once the week after Faust and then ran myself into the ground while down in Key West because it felt good and I thought it would keep my fitness rolling. I hadn't ran that kind of volume or intensity in quite some time but I was feeling pretty sharp and the weather was great so I kept pushing. We got back to St Louis at 1 am on Saturday after our last day drinking at the pool and while I knew it was a bad idea, it was only right to move up to the B race.

The track was pretty much the same as I remembered it from 2007- dry, dusty, fieldy, flat with a few "roadie sections." I got in a good long warm and it was clear my legs were torched from all the running. It was reasonably warm and very dry. I started pretty well and was feeling reasonably relaxed for the first lap or two and then place by place I started sliding backwards. My mouth got dry, my legs were twinging and I was suffering. People were going down in nearly everycorner as it was dry and there were acorns all over. I stayed up but waterfalled all the way to the back, 2cd to last I believe. 

I had a white chalky residue all over my mouth and I was happy to be done. 

I rounded out November with 160 miles on the bike, many of which were racing.