You can ride a road bike on this?

My experience yesterday was... interesting.  I did another cyclocross race, but this one was about 50% single track (or what seemed like 50%).

If you know me, you know that my experience of off road riding consists of this:

-Attempting to mountain bike 2 years ago.  Getting terrified, shaking uncontrollably.  Staying clear of anything off road.

-Coaxing myself into 2 dirt road races this spring.  Before that, I wouldn't set a tire on dirt.

-Successfully mountain biking in September for about 35 minutes. 

It's taken me a long time to come that far, and cyclocross is really throwing me through the off-road gauntlet.  As I did a warmup lap, I convinced myself that the single track was too much and that I couldn't race.  I didn't even know you could take a road bike on this stuff.

Erin wouldn't let me do that.  I reluctantly went to the start line.  I did not do well in this race.  In fact, I got 2nd to last.  I'm not used to being bad at bike related things, but this is good for me.  It's teaching me that I don't always have to win, and I don't have to do well for it to be fun.  It was still a challenge for me, and I did finish!  I even made it through the single track section on the last lap without getting off at all.  

So for now, I will crawl through this cyclocross business.  I'm not even at a point where I can do these races hard because my technical skills are so behind.  How is it that I'm so bad at this?  I've been racing for a long time, and everyone else seems to pick it faster than me.  I guess this is my weakness.

At least it's not the engine that's the problem.

I'll tell ya one thing.  Cyclocross out here is a lot different than in the Midwest.   

Otherwise, things are going well.  I'm having trouble finding fenders that will fit on my Litespeed, my appointed rain bike.  I rode a hilly 35 miles today feeling pretty good.  Work is boring.