One of your Psimet teammates pulled it for me this afternoon - she did say not all the photos from the last race are up yet 
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I did a cyclocross clinic on Saturday (11/4). This was my first experience of cyclocross. I used my 650b x 47 wheels and flat pedals on my gravel bike, and I’m glad I did. The first thing we did was practice cyclocross dismounts and mounts. Well, I was able to do a few dismounts without falling over. I’ll save the mounts for another day. Then, we rode the course. It took about 90 minutes to do about 30 minutes worth of riding with talking through things and taking turns. This was a beginner-friendly course in that it had only 1 set of low hurdles as obstacles. There was one scary part that had a significant camber (tilt) and looked like you would fall down several feet onto asphalt. The coach of my newbie group “scooted” through it, so no way was I trying to ride it. The rest of it was fairly ride-able, although I did put a foot down a few times. Given that I had already signed up for a “cider ride” on Sunday, and I was sore from Saturday, I did not go back for the race. Instead, I rode 54 miles and had donuts, hot cider, pumpkin pie, matcha latte, and a beer at the after-party. 
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Sounds like a fun clinic @CandaceC! Hope you enjoyed it 
I did another race on Saturday and had a blast. Each lap had 2 water crossings, a set of barriers and a crazy steep muddy hill. I finished the race drenched from crossing the water 10 times which by the way was freezing cold but it was super fun!
I had a terrible start from being in the wrong gear and not being able to clip in fast enough but was able to pass a few girls during the race and finished 3rd.
I also had lots of issues with clipping in after running up the muddy hill because my cleats were covered in mud and no matter how hard I was banging my shoes against the pedals the mud was worse and worse after each lap.
For this race I put much narrower tires on my mountain bike and that gave me more speed which was great on the grass.
Here is a short video from a few sections of the race:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CV_vgthJaxZ/?utm_medium=copy_link
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Crazy course @Covi! That rutted hill! 
Well done on a great race and finish!
Woo hoo @CandaceC! Sounds like a fun clinic, but the 54 mile ride sounds like even more fun 
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Awesome job @Covi!!! You are doing. amazing in these!!! Wait until you get a cross bike. And yeah, that’s 'cross! I’ve had courses with several mini-lake areas like that from all the rain and full of mud! That crazy steep hill looks rideable, if only everyone was not getting off the bike! hahaha! Covi, some people spray their pedals and cleats with cooking oil before a muddy race to reduce the amount of mud that gets stuck. I have Shimano SPD pedals and they are pretty good in the mud, although mud still sticks to them. Some races require spikes to be attached to the sole of the shoes so you can run in the mud!!
Glad you did the clinic @CandaceC Where were you sore from Saturday?
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@Covi, Neat video. Congratulations on placing!
@Coach_Theia, surprisingly, my legs were sore. I wouldn’t have thought I used any different muscles. My shoulders/neck were also sore, but that was less surprising given bumpy ground.
I like how the course that I did had red tape to your right and white tape to your left so it was easier to see the lanes. Here are two photos from real races. In the second one, it’s a little hard to see, but they had just come around the corner from the scary part, which looked scarier when I was riding it. The first photo shows the easier part of the course. There were also some climbs, obstacles, and a little single track.
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I DNS my cross race today… The race was at a Farm and after doing 1 lap of the course as a warmup I decided not to race it. I was not having any fun and besides the course being pretty technical, one of the water sections was ridiculous… the water was knee deep and the whole course was full of horse and cow poop… Most people didn’t seem to care and were having a blast so it’s definitely me not liking getting wet and dirty…
Not that I have done multiple cyclocross races but this one seemed more like an adventure race instead of a CX race to me
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I would have done the same! Knee-deep water and poop? Mud s fine but that stuff… no thanks 
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Hey hey hey, adventure racers don’t like poop any better than cyclocrossers! 
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Back to a fun CX race today! No poop and no crazy water crossings 
. It rained last night so the grass was slippery on the corners but not a lot of mud. This race had 2 sand sections, 2 sets of stairs and either a set of barricades or a gap jump with a much longer line.
The sand was hard! I couldn’t really ride it so had to dismount and run through it every lap. And same with the stairs, although I was able to ride those on the way down. And then I chose the gap jump on 3 out of the 4 laps just because I lose so much time dismounting and remounting that when I tried the much shorter line running over the barricades I was still slower than when using the jump and the long way around 
. Anyway it was great fun and my MTB skills definitely help with things like the jump.
Also I had a much better start today. I practiced my start and knew which gear I should use so was able to stay in second place until the first sand section where the girl in first place took off and I never saw her again. Another girl passed me on the second sand section and I was able to shorten the gap on the grass but as soon as there was another dismount the gap increased. A few other girls passed me on the 3rd lap but it was hard to keep track of who were juniors and who were in my category (which btw some girls are only 20 y/o so they all look sooo young!). On the last lap I was yo-yoing with another lady and she crashed right in front of me maybe half a mile before the end so I passed her and finished ahead. I finished 4th and loved having more women in my category to chase! It really kept me engaged and was able to finish really strong. My last lap was my fastest by 30 seconds so that felt good!
@Coach_Theia remember how I said that I had never gotten that weird cough from a hard effort while cycling? Well, I got it today and it took me a couple of hours to get rid of it so I guess I raced hard enough .
Here is a photo of me going over the gap jump. It wasn’t that bad (4 ft gap max) and with enough speed it was easy to clear it.
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Wow, that jump looks scary to me! Great ride!
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This Friday is CX Nationals! As this is only my second season racing cross, I am nowhere near the level of the other racers in my AG. My goal for this race is to give my absolute best and to learn as much as possible. My long-term goal is to podium at Nationals some day.
Below is the race prediction based on racers’ experience level and results.
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All the best, @Coach_Theia!! I race against Kristi, Tracy, and Margell regularly. Go get 'em! 
-Angie
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Good luck!
Yay!!! I was wondering if you were racing other than relay on Friday @Coach_Theia!!! I’ll figure out the time and be there cheering you on!!! 