Cross 2013 Race #8 - To the riders, to make much of time

Image posted by Woodcock Cycle Works

This shot was taken  on the fourth lap of the 40 minute race at the Provincials, which was race eight, which was the last race of the season, which was held at The Forks in Winnipeg, and which will be the course (more or less) for the Canadian Nationals next year! This shot exemplifies three of the unbeatable elements of cross racing: diversity, egalitarian participation, and the ride(run)-your-ass-off-while-you-may-old-time-is-still-a-flying spirit. 

On the far left, U13 female racer, MH, is grinding away at it with the rest of us (Did I mention that she's an U13 racer!?). Next left is me, a 40+ master (oh the misnomers!), knowing there will be one more lap to go, and wishing they'd hoover up the sand we've just plowed through, so I don't have to do that again. In the middle left is LK, a senior (23 - 29 yrs) female who some of you may recognize from other significant pursuits in other cycling realms, suffering along with the rest of us. In the centre, and overtaking me is DL, who plays the wait-and-see game first, and then the go-faster-now game in the later laps - great tactic ... if you've got the lungs. On the right is DS, a 50+ MASTER (never was there a truer category bestowed) who started in the second wave 2 full minutes behind the wave the rest of us started in, and he's sending us all out of the classroom, and up to the office. And the front right (you can just see his rear wheel and right pedal) is GF, another 40+ master who LK and I have been battling back and forth with (forthwith?) the whole race. 

This is our provincial championship race and the above panoply of types of racers are on the same field of battle, at the same time! We are meeting at The Forks! The cross-road! Name another sport where that can happen! Full intensity! Full range! What I'm marvelling at here is that all 6 of us are fully, fully, fully engaged in this thing. We are making much of time. So much. Sure our results will be posted in 4 different categories, but here we 6 are, hammering hard up the same run-up, getting in each others' way (well, we were all friendly and cooperative, but it wasn't like we could just ignore each other and do our own thing), and getting things done! 

Why? Why is this awesome? Because we are all at once and at the same time in the flower of our youth when we're out there in the smiling to-day of the moment, and we are also all at once and at the same time riding in the knowledge, some of us more than others, that each of us, to-morrow will be dying.

I'll leave the rest of this cross-season eulogy to the last three stanzas of Mr. Herrick's imperative:

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he 's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he 's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.