Last weekend was the second race in the SERC race series in Columbia TN. The weekend was a full and fun one for me. First of all, it was the beginning of spring break on Friday after school. I was excited about that for sure. On Friday, I went to a really neat jazz type concert. It was a really fun band to see. Then, on Saturday, I went to go see one of my favorite bands called Vampire Weekend at the Tennessee Theatre here in K-town. It was an AWESOME concert. I had so much fun. However, because of that concert my dad and I had to drive over to Columbia on Sunday morning.
So, on Sunday we woke up at 6 AM and were on the road by 6:30. I was proud of us! We had a perfect drive except for we just sort of took a "different" route than was originally planned. I didn't really make any difference though. We arrived at the race in plenty of time. I was so excited and sort of nervous when I got there that I got dressed way to early. haha. It was a rather cold day when the sun went behing a cloud, but when it decided to come out every now and then, it was quite pleasant.
As we sat and waited for our race to begin, we were really excited to see all the people from the first wave coming through absolutely COVERED in mud form head to toe. I know that really got me excited to race. There is nothing I love better than a peanut butter covered mtb course. lol.
So, I started my warm up, and my legs were actually feeling fairly good. I was glad for that. It sucks to do a warm up and you can just tell that you are gonna ride slow. Anyway's, we all got lined up, andit was a fairly large feild of 16 pro/expert racers. We went off and then the suffering began.
Once we hit the single track, we disovered that there was absolutely no hope of steering our bikes or staying upright pretty much. The trails seemed to take me where ever they wanted to. I was all over the place. I tumbled down a lot of the descents, but it did not ever hurt really. Sometimes it can be a little bit fun to wreck if you don't get hurt. Some of these wrecks were a little bit fun I guess.
After the 3 laps of suffering, slipping and sliding were finished I was totally covered in mud. I like to think of it as getting one of those fancy mud facial things. It had gotten much colder duringt the race, and all there was to clean off with was really cold water out of a hose. I got all cleaned up though, and then I felt warm and good. After the results came out I saw that I got 8th out of the 16 that lined up. I was really proud of that. That is good for me!
I also had a really good pit crew at this race! It was my dad. He did all kinds of stuff to help me get ready for the race, and he helped me out a lot afterwards. It was really nice. Thanks a lot!
Also, my Trek bike did perfectly in all of this mud. I did not ever have one single mechanical problem. That is saying a lot in conditions like those! Thanks so much to Trek and all of our other awesome sponosrs!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
This weekend was our annual team camp in North Carolina. It is always a really fun weekend, because Scott, one of our sponsors, always comes with us and takes us around riding the awesome trails all weekend.
The weekend started out with carpooling up with Amy. Her GPS led her to my house with no problem, but it apparently did have a problem knowing that I-40 has a rock slide over it. So, we ended up having to turn around and find a new way, which was not the most efficient route, but we made it. We were getting really close, and it seemed like the GPS was working great, and it was leading us to the right place, but when we drove up the gravel road it showed us as the cabin, we found ourselves at the SCARIEST house I could have ever imagined coming to at night. This house was sketchy. There was an ocean of trash surrounding it, and I mean old cars, refridgerators, washers, dryers, and anything else you could imagine. I knew that someone was going to come out of the house with some sort of weapon any minute. As we realized where we were, Amy instructed me to, "lock my doors" as we found a way to turn around in the middle of the sea of trash. It was quite an adventure.
After we got out of the scary trash house, we called Kym, and made it safely to the cabin. We had some delicious burritos, and played Scrabble Slam. It was really nice to see everyone, and we had a great time together. After the Scrabble, and some questionable words, we watched some of the olympics. I finally figured out who this Apollo is that everyone has been talking about! I don't really think he's quite as hot as people think, but he is a very good ice skater. Anyways, after that, we went to be to get rested up for a day of riding.
The next morning, we woke up early in the morning and had a delicious breakfast of bagels and stuff. I was excited to ride, of course, but I had other things to be excited about as well! First of all I was getting my NEW BIKE! I was soooo excited to see it. It was like Christmas morning!
I absolutely love it! It is a Trek 9.8. First of all, it is really pretty. I love the colors. It is a great combination of white, black, and red. It has a really fast and racy look to it. (hopefully it will be more than a look.) It is a carbon fiber hardtail and it weighs, like, 16 lbs. It is sooooo light. It feels great to ride. I am really excited to do a season on a hardtail after a few years on a full suspension. It just feels so fast to ride. I am in love with it.
Anyway's, I got on my new mountain bike, and we all went for a group ride. The tails were covered in snow, but it was early enough in the morning that it was all still frozen. After the sun came out though, the trails started to thaw, and it was lunch time, so we went back to the cabin for some sandwiches.
After that, we set out on a road ride. I did not have a new bike for this ride, but I was still excited to ride with my team. The ride had a lot of climbing, and I guess I suffered from not eating at all during the 4 hours of riding we had done because, I was hurting very bad, and riding very slow by the last big climb. I ate some nuts though and then I was fine.
We got back and had a delicious dinner, and played some more scrabble. The next morning, we woke up for another mountain bike ride. I was excited to get on my new bike again. We rode some fire roads, and then we hit the part of the trail, that had all of the downed trees. : ) We carried our bikes for about 2 hours over the trees, but we all decided that it was WAY better than school or work, and that we were just glad to be with Scott and our team mates.
We made it back in, and then it was time to head home. We had a great weekend, and we really thank Scott for doing it for us. We had tons of fun with you! Thanks!
The weekend started out with carpooling up with Amy. Her GPS led her to my house with no problem, but it apparently did have a problem knowing that I-40 has a rock slide over it. So, we ended up having to turn around and find a new way, which was not the most efficient route, but we made it. We were getting really close, and it seemed like the GPS was working great, and it was leading us to the right place, but when we drove up the gravel road it showed us as the cabin, we found ourselves at the SCARIEST house I could have ever imagined coming to at night. This house was sketchy. There was an ocean of trash surrounding it, and I mean old cars, refridgerators, washers, dryers, and anything else you could imagine. I knew that someone was going to come out of the house with some sort of weapon any minute. As we realized where we were, Amy instructed me to, "lock my doors" as we found a way to turn around in the middle of the sea of trash. It was quite an adventure.
After we got out of the scary trash house, we called Kym, and made it safely to the cabin. We had some delicious burritos, and played Scrabble Slam. It was really nice to see everyone, and we had a great time together. After the Scrabble, and some questionable words, we watched some of the olympics. I finally figured out who this Apollo is that everyone has been talking about! I don't really think he's quite as hot as people think, but he is a very good ice skater. Anyways, after that, we went to be to get rested up for a day of riding.
The next morning, we woke up early in the morning and had a delicious breakfast of bagels and stuff. I was excited to ride, of course, but I had other things to be excited about as well! First of all I was getting my NEW BIKE! I was soooo excited to see it. It was like Christmas morning!
I absolutely love it! It is a Trek 9.8. First of all, it is really pretty. I love the colors. It is a great combination of white, black, and red. It has a really fast and racy look to it. (hopefully it will be more than a look.) It is a carbon fiber hardtail and it weighs, like, 16 lbs. It is sooooo light. It feels great to ride. I am really excited to do a season on a hardtail after a few years on a full suspension. It just feels so fast to ride. I am in love with it.
Anyway's, I got on my new mountain bike, and we all went for a group ride. The tails were covered in snow, but it was early enough in the morning that it was all still frozen. After the sun came out though, the trails started to thaw, and it was lunch time, so we went back to the cabin for some sandwiches.
After that, we set out on a road ride. I did not have a new bike for this ride, but I was still excited to ride with my team. The ride had a lot of climbing, and I guess I suffered from not eating at all during the 4 hours of riding we had done because, I was hurting very bad, and riding very slow by the last big climb. I ate some nuts though and then I was fine.
We got back and had a delicious dinner, and played some more scrabble. The next morning, we woke up for another mountain bike ride. I was excited to get on my new bike again. We rode some fire roads, and then we hit the part of the trail, that had all of the downed trees. : ) We carried our bikes for about 2 hours over the trees, but we all decided that it was WAY better than school or work, and that we were just glad to be with Scott and our team mates.
We made it back in, and then it was time to head home. We had a great weekend, and we really thank Scott for doing it for us. We had tons of fun with you! Thanks!
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