Today I raced in a cyclocross race near my house. I've never raced it before and had a blast. It is essentially a cross - somewhere between mountain biking and road biking, with obstacles thrown in. I was the only one on a mountain bike, and that was a bit disappointing, because I'm not that fond of the road biker attitude, but hey, I had fun, and hell, I even passed a few of them.

The course is just across the street from my house (on the Chase Farm). It is about a 2-3 mile circuit up a hill, down a hill, around a pond and back down a small hill. It felt like we did at least 20 but I bet it was about 10 laps. I was dead though. Distance racing is just a lesson in pain tolerance.

The biggest surprise were the obstacles. There were two sets of 2 ft. high plywood barriers that you had to run through carrying your bike. It was really cool. They were about 6 feet apart and the really impressive cyclists were able to dismount, leap each in one step, and get back onto their bikes - without breaking a stride. That was cool! If you can do that, you can have your road biker attitude!

They are every Wednesday for the next few months. I'm torn between skipping one to take pictures and racing. We'll see how I feel next week. Meanwhile, I'll just have to pick out which bike I should buy as my special extra birthday present to myself.