Nowak Report: CCC Round #7 - Northbrook

Hi all,
  Last week was round 7 of the ChiCrossCup series in Northbrook.  For me it was a one and done (race the 40+ and race home to go to a birthday party).  This was almost the race that didn’t happen as initially the Village of Northbrook and its Park District didn’t want to have the race.  After some significant soothing by the promoters, they were able to modify the course significantly and hold the race.  Also another factor that played into this was the BEAUTIFUL weather that we had in the several days up to the race.  If it had rained like it did in the previous 2 weeks, I am confident the village would have canceled the race.

Overall, the course was still a nice mix of technical, power, and speed.  There were several nice off camber sections that for the first race of the day were slippery.  Some other areas in the open were soft yet to maintain speed, required significant power to work thru them.  There was also a nice sand pit.  Very little recovery was available, and it was on the throttle the whole time.

Personally I had a good day.  I felt strong the whole race.  Unfortunately so did everyone else!  For me the most frustrating part is that there are people just in front of me, catch them, but then can’t pass due to the course and then have a bobble and lose a bit of ground.  I just need to race smarter with what the course throws at me, and keep my mistakes to a minimum.

I still have an overall series goal of being top 10, and am still working as hard as I can to reach that goal, but with only 4 races left, my chance is slipping away.

As a team though, ABD is staying in the top 10, showing that as a group there is quality.

This week is another close to home race in Bloomingdale at the Hilton Indian Lakes Golf Course on Schick Rd just east of Stratford Square Mall.

For me it will be about a 10 minute drive from home.  Seeing as it is so close to ABD country, I am hoping that there will again be another great turnout of ABD’ers.  I hear those of you cheering and it definitely helps push me along.  For those of you who have not experienced what a ‘cross race is about, this is the venue to hit.  There will food, drink, and lots of other activities that are happening.  See the CCC website (http://chicrosscup.com) for all the details.

Thanks again for reading,
Jim