Saturday night was the Dark Knight cyclocross race at the University of Calgary. It was my first nighttime race though, being in the first group, meant most of my time was spent in the early twilight.
It was an interesting course with two distinct sections: a hilly, twisty section on an embankment by the tennis courts and a more open section near the student residences with two sand pit sections. The forecast had been promising rain and snow all week but it didn't happen before my race. Due to the mayhem of last year, this race had different categories and didn't belong to the official ABA calendar. My group contained 65 riders of a variety of abilities. This meant I always had someone to race and the first trip through the twisty section was slow due to the numbers and some people unable to ride some of the hills. I was able to get more flow in my later laps as things thinned out. The crowds were great and really loud. There was lots of encouragement for anyone, like me, who could ride the sand pit or some of the steeper hills. The most memorable part for me was the steepest descent. As the sky grew darker, the descent and the following corner became bewildering due to the flashing lights and loud music. It was definitely a rare experience for a race.
I ended up one lap down so I completed four laps. It was definitely getting too dark for me to continue as my last lap was 40 seconds slower than each of my second and third laps. I did 9.6 km in 38:45 for an average speed of 14.8 km/h and a maximum of 32.8 km/h. There was about 25 m for climbing each lap. I averaged 169 bpm with a maximum of 187 bpm.
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