First Mountain Bike Race

Emily's first mountain bike race was on August 27 at Beaver Mountain Ski Resort.  During the summer months, Beaver Mountain is covered in mountain bike trails.  This race is our home course so we had to help with volunteering to put it on.  The weather was perfect for a race and Emily was excited and a little nervous for her first race of the season.  Here she is to tell you about it:

The race was super fun.  To start we had to wake up super early to get up to Beaver Mountain before my race at about 8 am.  When we got up there I got checked in and I got my race number.  Right before 8 they started calling us to line up at the starting line, my call number was 34 and I was closer to the back/middle. 

After the count down we were off.  The beginning of the course was hilly and it got quite packed with a lot of girls getting up the hill.  Once we made it to the top of the hill we all spread out and it wasn't as packed.  I've ridden this course before at practice so it was really nice to know what to expect on the course.  On the course there were a lot of people cheering for us.  It was a fun course, I even though I crashed once.

The course for my age group was one lap which was about 5 or so miles. The course was full of some rocks, bumps, hills, and switchbacks.  When I made it to the bottom loop I knew I was almost to the finish line and I've ridden this part of the course quite a few times.  On the trail a few riders were right behind me or I would be right behind a rider and there was quite a bit of passing.

When I made it to the opening and saw the finish line, I started to petal fast and sprint to the finish line.  I was so focused I didn't even see Mom and everyone cheering for me.

I was so happy to finish my first mountain bike race ever with a really good time and placing.  I finished in 26, so I moved up a few places, and my time was about 37 minutes.  A couple friends of mine started really close to the back but then really went fast they made it to the front and one even made it in top 10.

After I raced we had lunch and waited around for Dad's course marshal shift to be done.

To volunteer, Russell was the Roving Course Marshall.  He thought this would be a fun job because he got to ride his bike around the whole day.  After a few laps though he was getting tired.  The course was really steep and he probably rode that hill 5 times.  It was good for him though because he got to break in his new bike pretty well.

Oh race down, two more to go. Good Job, Emily!