It is all my fault...

Today I wore this jersey to the Hood River Double Cross race. I am never wearing it again, at least on a race day or when BYU plays. I thought I would wear it to show support for the Cougars and for some good luck. I figured that since the Cougars had been doing so well this football season, maybe some of that would rub off on me. Umm, that would be a "no". Today was a bad day I guess for all things associated with BYU perhaps.



Recently, not including today I have worn it to work and have gotten flats 2 of the 3 times. The last time I sliced a very nice tire beyond repair. I didn't really put much stock into this as being caused by me wearing the jersey. After all, I have worn this jersey in the past several times to work.

But after today I will be careful when I wear it. Here is the breakdown:

I got a bad start off the line and got squeezed between a few guys and had to dab and then ran into a guy who slowed down for some reason going through the first little bit of sand. The collision caused my bars to be tweeked a bit down. There was a loud "POP" that was associated with this I and I feared that something broke. A close inspection later today revealed no damage luckily. At the time I wasn't sure, but kept riding anyway.

Then, I again nearly ran again into someone's rear wheel that suddenly slowed needlessly in a turn (in my opinion) and so I had to dab and lost a spot or two.

On the 2nd or 3rd lap I dropped my bike down a little too severely following the first run-up of the lap and the chain fell off on the inside of the ring as the rear end bounced off the ground. I thought I had it back on and started to ride and if fell off again because it wasn't I suppose. After muttering several curse words I got it done correctly and started back up. I lost a good 5 to 6 spots and much of my motivation at that point.

I soldiered on eventually able to put it all behind me and had a pretty good final 4 laps of the race. I finished 23rd out of 41 after being probably near the 27th or 28th after the chain dropped judging by the guys I passed later. Had the race gone well I am sure that I would have finished around the 15th or so. So it is not like I would have won or anything, but still...

Anyway, crap happens right?

Then on the way back home I checked on the college football scores. I root for a few teams, one being USC since I grew up in Southern California. They got beat by Washington. Bummer. But that loss could have helped BYU, where I did my undergrad. Nope. Later in the day, they got their butts whooped at home by FSU. I am really glad I didn't see that game. I did check on it frequently though while at work. I don't know what was up during the game, but that game put me in a foul mood.

Then tonight near close at work I was going to pick up a couple of parts for the Cernitz ButterCup singlespeed cross bike and my PayPal Debt card was declined for some reason. I think it is probably because I have ordered some parts for it from various places around the US and the credit card company probably suspected fraud. This happened once before a few months ago. There is no problem with money in the account, there is plenty from selling a bike or two recently. That just topped it off today.

I blame the BYU jersey. I have never worn that jersey to a cross race before and that must be the reason all these things happened today. Either that or all things associated with BYU today got slapped down. I should have stuck to a my Dad's Root Beer Jersey or my Fat Cyclist jersey. Both of those are proven winners, especially the Fat Cyclist jersey. I have gotten my best results wearing that one. Needless to say, I will be wearing that one for Alpenrose in a couple of weeks.

*****

I will say just a bit more about the race. I expected rain. It was pouring down in Portland when I left. The forecast said the same was expected in Hood River. Umm...not so much. I didn't eat enough prior to my race nor drink enough. Halfway through my 8 laps I would have traded my...well, for sure my jersey for a nice bottle of water or something cold. My engine was starting to overheat. I kept pushing, hoping after my 5th lap that I would only have a couple of laps left. But nope, I had to do 8 laps, just like the leader. While it is good that I finished on the lead lap, it really sucked the big one at the time. I was dying. Still I pushed and managed to pass two guys that last lap. Barely holding one of them off from re-passing me at the finish line.

After crossing the finish I barely had time to dismount before I was dry heaving. I didn't have much in my stomach but some mucus and so that is all that came out. After a few minutes I felt OK. I have never dry heaved after or during any cycling related activity. In fact the last time I remember dry heaving following an athletic activity was back in high school when I ran on the track team. That happened no more than twice back then.

Anyway, I was spent. I did my Team ButterCup best, at least the last half of the race, and just gave'r.

Congrats to Tim and Packfodder Jim who both are going to be on our ButterCup team. Tim placed 2nd in his first cross race ever in the Beginner Class. Jim placed 8th in Master C. Marcelo killed his back this week, hopefully he is well by the start of the Cross Crusade series.

(And Jimbo, if you have any pics of me, send 'em my way. That one on your blog looks great!)