When we got to the race on Saturday afternoon, I was so scared since I knew it was going to be very muddy. I like when the trails are a little bit muddy but not to the point where I’m drenched. After the pre ride I was so hyped since I had ended up having a great time. At the hotel I started to get nervous about passing zones since there weren’t really any. I was scared that I was going to crash in the beginning and then have a crappy race after.
I started in C call-up which I wasn’t to happy about. When the race started all the nerves went away and I realized that I need to go my hardest in order to get a good position in the single track. I was sort of aggressive when it came to passing since it seemed like all the riders that I was with had literally just learned how to ride a bike. They couldn’t clip in and there was so much cussing out that it just made me want to go faster. I was able to pass a bunch of people which was awesome but it also took a lot of energy. Once I had secured my spot, all I thought about was passing the next person. Somehow I caught up to a 5 person group and passed them all. At that point I was just having a great time, that is until I realized I didn’t have my shot blocks. For some reason, not having my shot blocks made my mind go into a self destruct mode. I was thinking that I was gonna run out of energy and then I would bonk and get passed. But then I remember Jonathen telling me that I need to keep a happy mind and it will usually pay off. This worked and I was able to snap out of it.
There was his one turn that caught me off guard and I nearly crashed. Some kid was behind me and he passed me. I was so mad at myself when he passed me so I sprinted to catch up to him. It was almost like he teleported or something because right when I turned the corner he was long gone. It turns out that he was the person that came right before me but he was insanely fast. I ended up getting 15th which I’m super happy for. I hope that I will keep inching up race by race and hopefully get onto the podium.
echsmtb.com 