Season's Last Cross Race

We went down to Portland over the weekend for the USGP cross races.
Since my season really, really sucked (if you've read this blog, you
know that), I really wanted something that felt like redemption. I
raced on Saturday in the freezing fog, with numbs fingers and toes. It
was a partially frozen, somewhat muddy, fairly technical course for my
race (women's Bs), and I ended up in 7 out of almost 40 entries. So
that was good, and I felt a lot better about life in general. I
definitely did much better than expected, though I know it was mainly my
technical skills that got me up in the top 10 and not my fitness, which
is pretty low. As the day progressed and warmed up, the course thawed
got muddy then got packed, so when Chris raced with the elite men, it
was smooth and fast and not nearly as technical as it had been during my
race.
I didn't race on Sunday because the forecast was for an "arctic blast"
with around freezing temps and really large wind chills. I really,
really hate being cold (yes, this is somewhat ironic for someone who
studies glaciers), so I didn't worry about the race. I'm glad I didn't
race, too, as the weather was terrible. It was sunny and pretty, but
the wind was terrible. I think it felt 10-15 degrees colder than the
actual temperature was. The course was totally dry and fast, too.
Chris raced single speed in the morning, so we pretty much took off
after his race.
It was good to go down and spend time in Portland with the Seattle
cyclocross racers. I really was reminded why I love the cyclocross
scene so much. As opposed to our Portland track racing experience with
intense, too-focused-to-be-friendly people, everyone was super friendly
and excited to see everyone else. And there was beer, oatmeal, soup,
waffles with nutella and coffee at the race, so that was good and
useful. Chris and I had packed in about an hour before we left Friday
evening and basically didn't bring any food/snacks. We ended up both
going in and out of low-blood-sugar mood-swings; it's really good that
we like each other. And I forgot the camera for this race, also, even
though I actually made an attempt to pack it (by moving it from one
place to a supposedly-more-conspicuous other place). Totally still
forgot it. I guess there's always road season.