I’m always excited for a new race, especially early in September when everyone wants to race, get the cobwebs blown out, and remember how to lift our bikes over real barriers (spoiler: barriers are so high these days, why???).

Diane and I decided to sign up for Pineapple Crush and the weather was looking awesome… until Thursday when it took a drastic turn to rain. Whelp, I said I missed east coast cross! Diane and I drove out (separately, due to weather and our locations within NYC being quite far), laughing in our cars about the pouring rain.

But it was super fun and great! Somehow unfortunately during our race the rain stopped and turned to what felt like peanut butter. My bike became insanely heavy.

The 1/2/3 field was small but stacked. I always love racing against Stacey Barbossa, who is one of my personal heroes. I somehow got the hole shot and tried to keep going as fast and smooth as I could. Stacey passed me, then Erin, then Laura. That seemed right unless I was absolutely having the best race ever.

I ended up rolling in fourth which is exactly where I would have predicted finishing, so I was happy with that. I have very rarely raced in the wet and it’s always been a big weakness for me. It was great shaking out the cobwebs and cheering for Diane across the course when I saw her.

We finished the race and cleaned our bikes for what felt like an hour. I still found mud in weird places for days. I was somehow freezing as well. But it was so much fun, and for a first year race, with adverse weather, the organizers did a terrific job. It’s definitely on my list of races to plan for next year.