1st place Salem!

So Today was cyclocross day in Bettendorf. I have been debating taking Salem. Keith is on call and could not go, but Salem was 2nd in the series and this is the 4th and final race of that series, so he was going to get a medal. It wasn't that I couldn't handle taking him, it was more I didn't want to hold up the other racers with Salem being the last one on the course. This course is always pretty tough, lots of ups and downs, long grassy stretches too which is not his forte. You know he's slow...he's a 1st year beginner though and only 10, so quite understandable. It's just me trying to be nice and polite. On the other hand we have seen nothing but good things coming from everyone while Salem races. Lots of people ask him name to cheer him on personally, rather then yelling "go junior". They support him and tell him what a great job he does, before during and after the races. So in the end I decided to forgo sleeping in and take him.

It was a chilly day, but sunny. Salem's race started at 11am and we got there in time to register and have him warm up a bit. There is a HUGE killer run up on this course, but I told him to just ride the beginning section a few times to get the legs going. We had some "special" jelly beans to energize him that he wanted to try. I don't think they helped him during the race, but he liked them and they didn't come back up, so that's good!

Salem raced with the beginners and juniors and there was only 6 total! Small field! Ends up the course was changed from last year and the back section was shortened, good thing! The front was longer though, but not too bad. Salem was able to stay with the group until the first set of barriers and then he was dropped. Those guys with longer legs have it easy over him! There is a small jump in the back section that Salem tried jumping every time. He got a little air, if he would have gone faster he would have gotten higher. He was excited thought he got some air.

The thing with Salem, if he has people cheering him on...or yelling...no it's constructive criticism...in my case, he goes faster. But when he gets out in the sections with noone he zones out and slows down to nothing! I kept telling him he needs to motivate himself to keep going. Whether that means talking to himself, or singing a up beat song, something to keep his pace up and keep turning the pedals over faster!

Salem was lapped by the whole field, not too surprising, but he was only lapped once! He finished 6th over all and 1st in Juniors. Secret...there was only 1 junior there today! The other junior chose to race in the higher up class, which is okay cause he would have killed everyone in the beginner group!

After the race we went to go get some lunch. The race had a raffle and prizes which were to be awarded after the final race at 1:30. We first tried Pizza Hut which was a delivery only, then Dominos which was inside a scary gas station, so we passed on those two and we went to Happy Joe's pizza. Never been to one, but it was yummy pizza! Much better then some greasy burger! It was nice to sit down and relax and eat. After lunch we headed back to the race to see the Elite guys off. The raffle was up and Salem won a t-shirt! And to his surprise they had one in his size a youth large. Okay I think it was kind of rigged that way, but that's okay, Salem was happy! Cool Surly t-shirt.

They were taking the course down and Kaden wanted to help, so we walked around taking all the caution tape off the stakes while we were waiting for the awards. Kaden got the best award! After all was taken down Kaden was saying how he wanted some of the tape for home, so I told him to go ask the guy if Kaden could take some home. He was a bit shy, but got Salem to walk with him to find the guy. I knew they threw away all the tape so I figured it wouldn't be a problem to take some. In the end out trunk was FULL of caution tape! I'm guessing we have over 5000 feet of the stuff! Kaden was SO ecstatic!! I made sure to tell the guy how happy he made my child, lol. And then later on I was talking with another guy who puts on races and I was saying how Kaden makes cyclocross course in our yard and the guy said he should have Kaden make a kids course next year for them! We'll see if that happens, but once Kaden uses the tape in our yard I'll take pics and send it to their team to show him.

Awards were nice, lots of money being handed out. They forgot to do the medals and trophies (only Salem got them so not on everyone's mind). But Salem went up afterwards and asked for his, the guy was sorry he forgot to hand them out, but glad Salem had come to the races and hoped he had fun. Salem got a 1st place trophy for today's race and a medal for his 2nd place in the series!

Salem has one more race this year, Jingle Cross next weekend. Tough course, tough competition! I expect to see quite a few juniors there, all older than Salem with a few more years experience. But we tell Salem if he keeps it up, he'll be like them in no time.

We stopped at Wendy's on the way home to get a frosty, yummy!! And Kaden has to wait until tomorrow to use his caution tape, since it was dark when we got home. I think everyone is going to crash hard tonight, some deep sleep! Fun day!!!