Here we are at Soldier Hollow. The first race of the Mountain Bike series was at Heber City. As you can tell it was held at the area where they held some of the 2002 Winter Olympics events.
We got to the venue on Thursday, a couple days before the race and had a great time riding the trail and getting ready for the race. The Soldier Hollow RV Campground was really nice and within walking distance of the course. The reason we arrived a few days early was because Emily had her first Cross Country race close by as well. She raced Friday morning at the Regional Athletic Park in Salt Lake. This was about an hour drive from our campsite verses a 2 hour drive from home.
When we got to the park in Salt Lake on Friday morning, Emily met up with her cross country team and got ready to race. Since it was a pre-season race, it was pretty low key and fun. There were a lot of teams there to race though so there were a lot of kids running.
The girls were the first to race and all of the girls ran together. They all lined up along the grass and when the gun went off, they all stampeded forward. Since this was her first race, Emily didn't really know what to expect but she did amazing!
My favorite part about cross country races is cheering for all of the runners. We ran along the course from one area to the next cheering for Emily and all of her teammates. It was so exciting to watch. Emily did so well and came in about 7th girl on her team.
After the girls finished, all of the boys ran. During the boys race we didn't run the course cheering but stayed in one spot that the boys passed a couple of times. It was fun to cheer for the boys too. I need to learn the names of the kids on the team but I am sure that will come with more races. After the boys finished there was an award ceremony and the top 25 runners got medals. I don't know what place Emily got but it was just outside of that 25... Good job, Emily, on your first race!!
Once the meet was over, we headed back to Soldier Hollow and to our trailer. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the trailer, helping to set up the mountain bike course, and exploring the Olympic sites at Soldier Hollow. I was even able to go on a short trail run along the various mountain trails at Soldier Hollow.
I stopped to take a picture of the big Olympic Torch sign. It will be interesting to see how these old Olympic venues will be upgraded and improved when the Winter Olympics are back here in 2034.
Saturday was the first Mountain Bike Race of the season. Soldier Hollow is a pretty simple straight forward trail. There was a fear of the weather messing this race up but we all hoped it would just blow over.
Colby raced first thing in the morning and the weather was amazing. He had a great race and gave it his all. He always comes across the finish line wasted from giving his all and working so hard.
He was excited because his bike did not break on him during the race!
I (Russell) have also had a great time being assistant coach and seeing all the kids race. The whole Mountain Bike thing is great. I have a blast doing it. I have found another way for me to relax and have a good time helping my kids and other kids have fun. I had the opportunity to ride with Nick Davis, a boy on our team who needed special help during the race. It was fun lining up on the starting line and getting him ready. During the race it was fun to keep him motivated and to keep him on his bike. We did a short lap for his race and it was around 3.5 miles. He was the first boy to finish in his division. I heard over the PA saying here comes our first boy in the freshman group. I laughed because they thought he was really fast. He did a great job and was excited to finish.
Emily's race was not until 2:00 so we just hung our in the pit zone waiting for her turn to ride.
Unfortunately, around noon the clouds started to come in and we were all worried about the predicted storm. We all hoped it would just blow by or hold off for a couple more hours. But the storm came in hard and it stayed. It was a fierce storm with crazy hard winds and hard rain. We all had to pitch in and get the pit zone down before we lost everything. The league temporarily postponed the race until the storm passed. About 30 minutes later though it was still not looking very good. Emily was bummed because this was her second race to get cancelled since she has been on the team. We were hoping they would still allow the kids to race, but needless to say the league cancelled the rest of the races due to more thunder and rain. Now that we think of it, it would have been a horrible race with the mud and it would have torn up the trail and the bikes.
We went to the trailer and hung out to let the storm pass by. Once we waited long enough and the weather was not letting up, we finally bagged staying and got the trailer ready to head home. The rain didn't end up quitting until around 7:00 that night.
We ended up having one happy rider and one not so happy rider for the first race. Emily would have done really well in this race if the weather had not come in. Well at least she got to run and do well in her cross country meet. We are looking forward to more bike races and more cross country races over the next couple months.
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