As I mentioned previously, there were races in both Nashville and Little Rock over the weekend. Even though the cross scene is more established in Nashville (i.e. tendency for a better course, better organization, and more competition over a “budding” scene), the women’s top 3 payout was arbitrarily lower than the men’s top 3 at the Nashville races, so we went to Little Rock. Saturday around lunchtime, Ryan and I headed west to Little Rock for the Kanis Park night race.

When we arrived, it was clear that the park was a little sketchy. We registered, and I suited up to pre-ride the course before it got totally dark (something I learned from Cyclocrunk over the last two years). The course itself was sketchy- ditches, random holes, buckled pavement, sandy, pine-needle covered turns… all breeds of sketch! Definitely my type of course.

I soon learned that Heather Ladd would be competing. She and I have toed the line together many times- last year, she kicked my tail at the Outdoors, Inc. race, then this year, I eeked out wins over her at the Spa City 6hr and Ouachita Challenge races. So, I knew it’d be a horserace. Lucky for me, she was competing in the Halloween costume contest and was dressed like an M&M…

BTW- she wasn’t the only one. Other entries included a gorilla, a bumblebee, and (the winner) KISS…

When the race started, I took it somewhat easy over the buckled asphalt and into the first turn. After that, it was all turn and burn. I didn’t see the other women again until I was lapping them, and took to catching as many of the men as possible (they’d let the cat 4 men go about a minute ahead of us). I don’t know how many I caught, but apparently, it was most of them.

Afterward, Ryan raced the men’s race. After a bad start, he pushed his way up to 4th place. We both felt like our Cyclocrunk experience helped with the course, which, even though it was short and filled with hazards, was a lot of fun.  We decided to skip the post-race after party, and in lieu of hanging out at a bar and listening to live music, went to ElChicos and split large margarita before crashing at the hotel.