Bucktown 5K Plus Hopkins Park Cycocross Race = Sunday Funday
Why can't every day be Sunday Fun day? Woke early on Sunday morning and slapped on the race singlet and Soigeur embro and jogged over to the start of the Bucktown 5K, met up with a few friends and Karin to run the 5K and enjoy the post race 'Taste of Bucktown' post race party. Gun sounded and took out the first mile in 6:00 flat followed by a 6:24 and I think 6:29 started to shut it down around mile 1.75 cause this was just a warm up for the fun later in the day. Much to my surprise, when we hit mile 3, I knew we had more than .1 miles to go since we just went by my apartment and so I started to ramp it up again as the goal was just to slide in under 20 mins for the 5K. The final distance was 3.2 miles and I missed the mark going 20:10 but finished 10th / 244 in my age group and 90th / 3500 runners. We enjoyed some post race Crepes, mac & cheese, chips / Guac, Chicago Style Dog for the neighborhood spots.
Went home to take off the Running Away Singlet and put on the Running Away cycling kit. Drove out to DeKalb Illinois for the 2nd race in the Chicago Cross Cup. I was racing in the last race of the day Cat4B category which is supposed to be more beginner than Cat4A but the A race sells out so fast the field is full of sandbaggers. Line up very early and was on the second row of the holding pen but as we rolled out to the starting grid the course tape caught my seat post and had to untangle and by the time I got lined up I lost a row. Grrrrrrrrr. So I was lined up middle of the pack. AND off we went….
This course featured a fly over, which was a flight of stairs, a platform about 2 bikes lengths long to remount and then a downhill ramp which provide a new challenge.
Approaching the flyover for the first lap, the hecklers were out and this guy was doing Whiskey handups. 
First lap, My left foot was stuck and I couldn't unclip and down I went in a baseball slide fashion.
Starting moving my way up the field in the straight aways.
The second pass at the flyover, I had my choice of Whiskey, Fruit Roll up, or a Half Acre beer and some other poison cocktail
And much easier to clear the stairs when you're not picking yourself up off the dirt. 
With one lap to go I put in a big effort on the backside of the course which featured a 200 meters of pavement and sprinted ahead of these two guys knowing the first guy around the final turn (a tree) should get the good line for the final sprint.
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The outside line wasn't the fastest but it was the safest as the tree roots would bounce you off your line and lose momentum. The xXx racer gets caught up and here we go to the sprint…..
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big yellow and I winding it up for the final 150 meters of lung pounding fun. 
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I got on top of my gears quickly and dropped yellow in the final sprint. And if you're wondering, did I take any of those hand ups? Yeah, I took the money.
Final standing 28 / 70
Video of 4A on the flyover: https://player.vimeo.com/video/15530165
Next week is the Flying Elvis CX race and I'm racing back in the Cat4A
Here is the race from the front via Helmet cam the flyover starts around 5 mins in (not my camera, I'm further back)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDRQ...re=related
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