Photo by Pete Miner "I can't find a pulse," said the nurse who was pinching my right wrist. My ghost white body lay unmoving in the Millenium Medical facility. My eyes were closed and blood pooled under the heal of my left foot. My 2nd Cyclocross race was only 11 days away but I was starting to doubt that I would make it. I was having a little struggle with mortality but, as Billy Crystal's character in The Princess Bride said, I was only mostly dead . A Doctors voice urged from my left, "Come back to us son, open your eyes." They slowly opened to the light. "You're gonna be okay." I was surrounded by people and they sounded very worried so I tried to reassure them with weak words, "I'm here. I'm alright." "What is his blood pressure?" The Doctor was holding my hand while giving directions. "60 over 30." He nodded, "Let's get him some oxygen." Plastic tubes slid into my nose follow...

The first rule of racing is that things usually don't go as planned. I learned this during my maiden season of cross country mountain biking up in New England. Back then I was new to racing (of any kind) and so I was never fully prepared for the challenges to come. I took those lessons with me into the sport of BMX and became a better athlete. However doing laps only 50 seconds long always left me feeling unsatisfied. I needed to get back on a big bike and that is when I was introduced to Cyclocross. I'm always up for trying something new so I bought a Nashbar CXSS and started training. Fast forward six months and here I was about to enter my first CX race. The build up hadn't been ideal (See rule #1). My training had consisted of eight weeks of riding, 3 to 5 rides per week at about 30 to 80 miles or 3 to 7 hours in the saddle. I coupled this with 1 to 3 hours of strength training. The result? I felt fit and strong. The downside? I had a nagging foot injur...