It has been a good week after my inaugural BMX race weekend and I'm pretty sure my legs still hate me. Despite having raced numerous DS and 4x races over the last years, my legs were still not used to sprinting until my eyes bleed 3 days in-a-row and on Sunday's national, it showed.
Friday-Friday started off with high hopes and anticipation through the roof as I drove to Morristown for my first ever BMX race. Fresh off a days rest from my lifting schedule and a belly full of food, I couldnt wait to get to practice and get a feel for how the weekend would go. For the over 15 people, we were able to practice at noon and at 2pm. It is surprising how much practice one can get in when the course is only about 30 sec long and you have an hour to practice it. Even with the line at the gate taking around 5-8 min to cycle back through, an hour was plently of time! I was surprised at the course layout, but even more surprised at the steepness and harshness of each roller and how rough turn 2 was. Never the less it was a great practice day!
Saturday-Saturday can only be described in one word..CRAZY! Luckily I managed to keep it all together despite having the usual race day jitters and being nervous about not sucking infront of my parents and 2 best friends that were there. So after being filled in by the wonderful parents and other racers about the structure of the race, I lined up for my first moto of the day. Right away my gate blew everyone away and I felt great as I exited turn one in first. My mountain bike background showed through as I then lost 1st place and dropped to 2nd as my pedal speed could not match Brant's (4th in the nation in our class). The next moto would prove that when I get pissed I can find that elusive extra gear. I ended up taking 1st in the 2nd moto despite a few mistakes. The 3rd moto came out same as the first moto with a 2nd. With 1st eluding my two times during the day, I really wanted to win the main. My gate was out of this world as I pulled out a half a bike length ahead of the rest of the field and had to cross over from gate 8. But then, as I was about to exit turn one, my chain came off!
Sunday- Sunday's race would prove to be little better with me going 2,2 and 2 in the main. My legs didnt have access to my extra gear. Never the less, 2nd place for my first ever bmx race behind the kid who is ranked 4th in the country(and now moving to expert) made me feel really good about my hopes for my 2016 goal...
Thanks to everyone from blue chip racing who supported me the whole weekend and helped me not to feel totally out of place. I realized that having a team will reduce a significant amount of stress at a race. Thanks to my friends and family for sitting around all day just to watch me race around a track. and Thanks to the ETSU SPEC program ( http://www.etsu.edu/athletics/spec/)
for helping me by designing my resistance training program down to the T so that my power would be enough to get me the holeshot every race on Saturday and allow me to crank through to a amazing first race result.
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