A Suffering Unicorn

Saturday's CX race was on Halloween weekend, so of course I had to dress up.  I have always wanted to experience what it is to be a magical unicorn.  

Photo from the Seattle Times. 

While it was great fun to get all dressed up, and I definitely felt magical in some ways, my unicorn powers certainly did not propel me to the front of the pack.  The course wasn't my type of course- fast, flat, smooth, nothing technical except those stairs. I was instantly dropped by the roadies, suffering at the back of the race with only a butterfly to keep me company.

Photo by Bikehugger.

About two laps into the race, my left unicorn leg got caught in my rear deraileur, so I stopped and spent a good minute or two getting it untangled and ditching the leggings (thanks to my friend Dan who graciously caught them as lobbed them in his general direction).  The butterfly fluttering way ahead, I spent the rest of the course suffering alone, wishing I had the power in my legs a real unicorn surely would.  Although I wished for more magical results, there was some comfort in seeing Unicorn make the Seattle Times as well as Bikehugger's Sufferfaces.  

Grit and Gloom- Olympic View from the back

It was 42 degrees and raining.  I was soaking wet and covered in road grime, my feet were blocks of ice, and the sunblock I'd put on my face that morning had been streaming into my eyes for the better part of two hours, adding a nice sting to my already itchy eyes, inflamed from some serious seasonal allergies which had kept me up most of the night. I was running on roughly three hours of sleep, a bowl of oatmeal, a peanut butter clif bar, and enough ibuprofin to keep the menstrual cramps at bay.  As I grunted and struggled to turn my pedals over a few more times to get to the top of the hill, the other two ladies I was chasing - Susanne from Blue Rooster and Jackie from Bikesale, both 15 years senior to me- looked over their shoulders at me from the top of the hill. 

"Meghan, let's make a pact right now.  We will wait for you, but you can't come around us at the finish and sprint to beat us, ok?  We don't want to see any front-of-the-pack tactics..."