Dogfish Cross - Hermann, MO

This weekend I raced in the Dogfish Cross races in Hermann, MO.  This was my third year I've gone to the event and it never ceases to amaze me.  Jeff Yielding and crew do such an awesome job with the event and it is always top class.  This year they decided to avoid doing the entire stair section (I think it has 47 or so) and only did about 1/3 of it.  While I am not one to shy  away from running, not having to run 47 stairs 10+ times was a relief.  It has been quite dry lately, so both days were very dusty.

The Saturday night race under the lights was nice and cool.  During my warmup I was wishing I had something with long sleeves to stay warm, but as soon as the race started it was perfect.  There were 36 or so of us at the line, but only 30 finished.  I didn't get off to a great start since I was messing with my Garmin while the officials were talking to us and wasn't expecting the start whistle when it went off.  It didn't have much of an impact, but I was pretty tentative through the first several turns and fell to near the back of the group fairly quickly.  I finally got in a groove when the bunch started spreading out and I ended up in a group with 4 or 5 other guys.  At this point I made another mistake and sat in with the group for at least a few laps. I was pretty comfortable at that pace, which should have been an indication that I needed to attack, maintain my own pace, and suffer a little bit.  The group eventually dwindled to Peat Henry and I, and I eventually was able to pull away and ended up alone for the last 1/3 of the race.  Near the end I was reeling in the riders who finished 15th and 16th, but I ran out of time.  I finished 17th out of the 36 that started, so I was pretty content considering how last year I probably would have been near the back of the field.

Photo taken by Brian Singer.

On Sunday there were 28 or so starters and I made a concerted effort to ride my own pace and not get comfortable riding in a group.  I also did much better at the start to not just give up ground, but rather I held my line and tried to stay closer to the front.  I was mostly alone during the race and was able to slowly pick off riders here and there.  I knew things were going well when some of these riders were names of people who normally would have crushed me in years past.  I ended up finishing 8th out of the 18 that finished, so this was probably the best result I've ever had.  I've won some races in SS and lower geared categories, but finishing high up in an open category race is an entirely different challenge.  My wife told me that I was gaining on positions 6 and 7 near the end and I got within 8 seconds of them at the end.  So while I'm very content with the result, apparently it was close to being better.

Reflecting on the weekend, including my results and how I felt while racing, it is clear my training this year is drastically better than it has ever been.  I knew that coming in to the races, but I wasn't sure if it would translate into results or not.  I'm not getting too excited since there is no guarantee I'll produce high finishes throughout the rest of the season, but it is a nice start that I am pretty happy with.