As the first race of the year was approaching, I couldn't be more excited. I looked forward to seeing all of my friends and teammates as we drove out to Vail Lake on Friday night, as well as finally getting to race my bike again. Once we finally arrived, we got settled in and sat around the campfire with Mady and her family. The next day we woke up bright and early to get ready for the race and get everyone situated. It took a while to find all 5 people on my team so that we could register, but once we did, we were ready to go. After working out a few details, we all decided that I would go 4th after Alyssa, so I had a while to wait around before I started. As my starting time neared, I warmed up and waited for Alyssa to pass off the baton. When she finished her first lap and handed me the baton, I was having a hard time fitting it in my pocket and dropped it! I couldn't believe how clumsy I was and had to turn all the way back around to go pick it up off the ground, adding a good amount of time onto my lap. Once I was finally back on track, I tried to set a good pace so that I could finish my lap with a somewhat descent time without tiring myself out too much. I wasn't sure what to expect because I hadn't pre ridden the course, but I ended up liking it a lot. I was especially grateful that we didn't have to go up the dreaded Dam Climb like the last endurance race. After I finished my first lap, I waited around for another few hours before I could start my second. Although I got a lot of time to relax and hang out with my friends, I found that waiting around for so long didn't exactly help my race and was surprisingly a bit hard on my legs. At the start of my second lap, I was relieved not to drop the baton again as Alyssa handed it off, and tried to go at a slightly faster pace because I knew the course better. Although I felt like I was sprinting the whole time, this lap time was a little bit slower because I was still tired out from the first one in the morning. At the end of my second lap I was not excited to wait around until dark for my third and final lap. As I was hanging out by the campfire with a few of my teammates, I had to get up and get ready to go ride in the dark while they got to relax. My last lap was definitely slower and more difficult to see because it was night, and I was relieved to finish my long day of racing. To end the day, we all watched a intense super cross race with my dad's projector and then went to the podium to claim our prizes.
Our team got 1st place in the 5 man 12 hour category, although we were the only ones, but I still had a great time. And hey, at least we actually did it. The next day I was especially excited because we got to race enduro, my personal favorite, and on my brand new Ellsworth Rogue 60! As we climbed up the hill, I was a little nervous because Coach Jason had put all of us girls in the Pro Women's category.
There was only one girl who wasn't on the Socal Devo team in our class, but I was slightly intimidated by her. All 3 of my stages went smoothly and were so much fun on my new bike! My personal favorite was Rocky Top. I finished of the day with a 3rd place and even beat the other pro woman that I was nervous about! And not to mention, the top 3 finishers all got cash prizes. I was so stoked because I had never podiumed in a pro race before or gotten a cash prize. It was definitely a great weekend and I can't wait for the first Socal Dirt race at the end of this month!!