As I always seem to do, a short disclaimer - the next three blog posts are going to be pretty long. I was originally going to post just the one, but its kept expanding until it needed to be split. I've been writing the posts on the train to and from New York and it seems when I handwrite I tend to babble on more than when I'm directly typing in the entry.... As always, please comment: I like to hear what you think and welcome any constructive criticism. All that said - here is:
PART I: Pedalling Photography
It seems like ages since I last posted, but I've had a hectic couple of weeks, so sorry!
So much has happened that I'm going to fill you in on the main three events - the Highland Park Cyclocross race, my Mum and Dad visiting and the KEEN Happy Hour - oh, and not forgetting the great American tradition that is Hallowe'en!
So when I first turned up at the Rutgers Cycling Team welcome meeting we were warned that to get our free, snazzy, Rutgers Cycling kit we would have to volunteer at the HPCX race in November and the Rutgers Road Race in the spring. Not too bad considering we would be getting $200+ worth of kit!
I had never hear of cyclocross before coming to Rutgers and had certainly never seen a cyclocross race before, so it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I arrived at the Rutgers Student Center parking lot on a drizzly Hallowe'en afternoon.
Gradually more and more members of the cycling club arrive, introduced themselves and I promptly forgot their names (remembering names has never been my strongest suit - I only found out one of my flatmates names 7 weeks into term, and even then it was only by looking on his departmental website...). We piled into various cars, trucks and minivans and headed for Jamesberg, the site of the annual cyclocross race held by Rutgers and Highland Park Hermes.
I don't know what I was expecting, but I don't think I expected just a regular park, complete with tennis courts, play park and small forrest. This was going to be transformed in just 5 hours to a 3mile cyclocross course with everyone riding from amateurs to Olympians... yeah, right!
Well I was soon proved wrong, after 4 hours of raking leaves, staking the course and putting up multiple gazebos the course was finished and members of Rutgers and Hermes tested it out. I expected a pretty basic loop course, but I was way off mark here. The course wound about, went up and down hills, had sharp hairpins and one particularly interesting section where, in the space of 20yds it went up a hill, had 3 90° left handers, one 90° right hander and went back down the hill it started on! Mental! Clearly cyclocross wasn't as simple as I had imagined, and on the Sunday I found out this was clearly the case...
It was great to meet all the other members of the cycling team - I had only briefly met a few of them at the meeting and I got on really well with everyone - and it got me very excited about eventually racing with Rutgers.
Heading back to the apartment I had a quick shower (the course was already quite muddy) and got changed ready for the evenings Hallowe'en party. I had originally planned to go into NYC for the Hallowe'en parade with Tarek, Natalia and Berna but with an early start needed for the race on the Sunday I decided instead to head to a party held by one of the older math grad students.
To that end, I was picked up by Justin and with Shashank, Moulik, Li Zhan and Xiao Ming we headed to Sara's in Highland Park. By this time the rain was really pouring outside (not a great sign for the race...) and after getting lost and rather damp we arrived at the 'Haunted House.'
That certainly showed me how much more seriously Americans take Hallowe'en than back home. Sara had completely decorated her house with severed heads, floating ghosts, singing pumpkins and flying witches.
Sara herself was in a Jack-the-Ripper-esque costume and two of the 4th years were "Lowe Deehi" and "Heidi Lowe" forming the mathematically geeky double act of the quotient rule... If that wasn't geeky enough, Shashank had gone to a party the night before with a piece of paper with "i" written on it - it was an imaginary costume... *groan*
There were creepy snacks (including 'mud pie': chocolate pudding with jelly snakes) and an American 'Hallowe'en classic' on the TV - something involving Snoopy and Charlie Brown. However, about an hour into the party the spirits were at work and suddenly the electric went! Now the assortment of battery operated ghoulies were pretty innocuous when the lights were on, but in pitch blackness and a small amount of candlelight they took o another level. I'll happily admit that happening upon a floating head in the doorway at the toilet I nearly leapt out of my skin (luckily I managed to stifle a shout...).
It seems like electricians enjoy Hallowe'en just as much as every other American, since it was a good 90 minutes before power was restored. So we spent the time telling ghost stories/gossiping about our professors (perhaps the same thing?) around a coffee table filled with candles and fake skulls.
Unfortunately, at around half ten I had to head back to the flat. The first CX race was due to start at 8am so I had to be at Jamesberg (where the race was held) at 6.30am, meaning a 5.20am meet at the Student Center, resulting in a disgustingly early 4.30am wake up... I realise that from rowing I should be used to early mornings, but this was ridiculous - even by Boat Club standards! I had one saving grace though - American Daylight Savings Time is a week later than the UK, so although it confused me regarding time difference for a week, I have never been more grateful for an extra hours sleep...
I got picked up by Nick at 5am and started on my many cups of tea that morning. If I was going to last the day then caffeine was a definite must.
Arriving at the parking lot, team members started arriving in varying degrees of consciousness and we headed back to Hamesberg for a course check before racing started. It had been raining constantly all night, but had slowed to a small drizzle by 7am - so the ground was more than a little soft underneath. This, I was told, would make the racing a little slower but certainly more 'interesting'.
Now I had been warned that once racing started there wouldn't be too much to do as a volunteer - mainly it would be keeping an eye on the course and performing any necessary repairs when the riders crashed through the tape barriers (as I was assured they would). Because of this I had decided to bring along my DSLR - if I was going to have a load of free time I may as well take some photos.
So once racing was underway, I positioned myseld at various parts of the course and started taking pictures. And more pictures. And even more. I ended up with around 700 photos (with at least half being pretty bad) and kind of became a team photographer - taking pics of racing as well as podiums and even the BBQ guy for his website.
I've put my photos up on my Flickr Page but before you check them out I should probably explain how CX works.
CX is a unique mix: part road cycling, part off-road cycling and part cross country running. The course is a loop, generally approx. 3 miles, and the number of laps is calculated mid-race. The first two laps of your category are times and the laps are calculated to roughly equal a set time: 30mins for beginners and working up to a full hour for elite men.
The course is mainly off-road and its generally rather twisty, with a handful of sprint-worthy straights. The other distinctly CX feature is the presence of 'barriers' - a pair of them in HPCX> These are planks of wood hammered into the ground across the course, forcing the riders to dismount, shoulder their bike and jump (if they have the energy left) or stumble (generally if its the last lap) over them before remounting. This isn't the only part that riders dismount: generally when a hill is particularly steep, or a section particularly muddy, it seems beneficial to dismount and run that section, followed by a quick remount and a nice lead over your rivals.
I don't think I am quite doing CX justice here, it is something that has to be seen to be believed, but hopefully my photos give a flavour of the mud, sweat and tires involved... CX certainly looks 'fun' (read that to mean painful) and I can't wait to try it out next season. At the moment I'm going to concentrate on getting fit for road - and photography! I feel that I got a few good shots and am eager to keep up the cycling photography.
Arriving back home that night, instead of getting started on the weeks work I started uploading photos and tinkering with them - resulting in the following team collage which the team hopes to print off and hand out to sponsors - something I'm pretty chuffed about!
Thats the end of part I, but stay tuned for part II (Parents) and part III (Prizes).
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