There's a cross practice at the end of the rainbow...

Indeed there was last night.  Attended my first official cross practice, which I had been planning on doing a month ago.  Not having a bike built up kinda put a stop to that.  Now that I have a bike, though, you will see me at practice every week from now until the end of the season.  Now that I have my cross bike built up, I can race too, and I did that last weekend.  Last Sunday (had to work Saturday) I pulled on the colors of the Dark Side and let my legs do the talking at Day 2 of Charm City Cross.  I suppose that's my home course now.  Well, since I didn't race the MAC opener at Puma Cross, or Day 1 of Charm City Cross, me legs managed to talk their way from a start in 105th to a finish in 78th.  There's only so much you can do when you're starting two rows from the back.  I would have almost rather started twenty or thirty feet off the back of the pack, but the officials were standing there and looked like they would have none of it.  It was a fun race though.  Had to wait a lap or two until the pack thinned out (and I remembered how to race cross) before I could start making moves.  After a complete screw up over the barriers first lap (hope nobody saw), I remembered how to do it and felt pretty damn good doing cross-type things that I don't normally do during the year; like dismounts, remounts, and carrying my bike over stuff.

Dark Side!

A pink staircase run-up should be a must at every 'cross race

So I've started training again, because it's 'cross season, and I'm sick of sucking (results wise) at 'cross.  It's time to pony up... Whirlybird is next weekend (held at my high school wrestling rival school... boo ANC), and it's off to the races from there, literally.  I leave you with the money shot, courtesy of Ms. Geology (other photos courtesy of her too).