Cog Farm Sunday

Up early and out the door to meet Jeremy for our day's adventure into the sticks. Pace's Cog Farm was hosting a McEwen Cyclocross weekend complete with camping, food, and plenty of racing. Mike Pace has held similar events for the past couple years now and I've always heard nothing but great stories coming out of the hills and hollers of McEwen, TN. For once our schedules were going to allow us to get out and experience the wonders of the Cog Farm.

Hell yeah! Cross!

We arrived in time to catch the action of the first race (Cat4s). The farm was busy with racers and campers. Fires were warming cold fingers and toes and food was being grilled up near registration. Tunes filled the air. We milled about saying hey to friends and slowly made our way to the registration table.

Mike Taglio, aka Sierra' daddy. 

Sierra.

Supa-star!

Supa-dupa-Star!

The Max.

Take my picture!

Since Jeremy is a prima-donna roadie racer (totally not, he's going to beat me for writing that) and was too concerned with himself and his race preparations, there aren't any photos of me racing on my camera. Though there were several photographers around the course so hopefully a few will turn up. I was told I looked good out there, which is the most important part of racing, looking good. You can not "do good" or even "feel good" because the race will soon fade out of everyone's memory and the time gaps will be forgotten and only placings vaguely remembered, but photos, photos last forever. So remember, looking good always trumps doing good.

Here are a few shots of Jeremy working hard on looking good:

I'm so fast I don't even have to pedal. Wheee!

I did get a little payback for no photos...

by eating a burger and imbibing whilst Jeremy (in the background) visited the hurt locker.

Through the woods. 

Over the log.

Heading into the last lap, looking strong.

Running it in.

Sadly, he rolled his tire after the last log and had to run it in. Missing out on the - much anticipated by the crowd - sprint finish. But that's bike racing and Jeremy was a pro in taking it in stride (hah!).

It was a great day all around. Tag had a great race and motorman Tony Adair made his cross debut stand out with a solid 2nd place finish. Shannon Williams also came out to play and took 1st in both his 1st and 2nd cross races (he raced masters then immediately lined up for Cat3's). Graham, Nate, Marshall, Max, Brian, Rico, and Andy all made me feel slow and simultaneously happy about it. Getting out and hanging with my cross family was definitely long over due. When's the next race?

Tragedy did strike on the way home, however. These two fig newtons gallantly braved the wind for as long as they could before finally succumbing. Too bad, if they'd have made it they would have been eaten for being worthy.