Collegiate race #1 and #2 - King University and Brevard College
I had heard collegiate racing is completely different than the high school league, and I knew that racing in Tennessee was polar opposite of racing in southern California. Yet, I was still curious as to what the whole collegiate racing was like.
Starting the second week of August my family and I packed up and departed from Bishop, California on our way to Milligan College, Tennessee. This was a much anticipated trip to send me off the college and we had a well planed itinerary for it, consisting of lots of riding and sight seeing.
Two weeks to the day, we arrived at Milligan College - my new home! After visiting some of my Mom's friends (who I am named after), running errands, and moving me into my dorm room, I said good bye to my family who started the drive home.
There was not much time to totally settle into college life before the first race weekend, which landed on the first weekend of school. The race was at King University and consisted of a team relay, short track, and cross country races.
The first of the races was the team relay which I was a part of. I was second to go, behind Jonah Sanchez. We had pre ridden the course many times since it was so short (about two minutes). I knew how the course snaked through the grass field, dipped through a creek and mud turn, up a quick climb, through a speed eradicating dip, and down to the finish. All I had to do was maintain, or advance, the position Jonah left me to defend. It seemed simple and I knew I was ready to go. The whistle blew and Jonah took off hard; he was toward the front when the group got out of sight and I knew I only had a minute or so until it was my turn. I watched the woods and it was Jonah to led the group out of the first lap! It was my turn, and I sprinted from the line. My job was to maintain the position, so when one of the other racers passed me, I stuck on his wheel. Through the grass and into the creek I followed his wheel. I was about half an inch to the right of the guys wheel through the creek... or at least for the first two thirds of the creek until my front wheel clipped a submerged rock, sending me over the bars and flat into the mud bank on the other side of the creek. I tried to get up and out of the mud fast, but the damage was done and I had been passed by many other racers. I was all out to the finish to limit the added time from my crash. Down the last wooden ramp dropping to the finish I almost slid out again, but managed to keep it upright and to the finish. Then it was all on Madeline Bemis and Ruben Bacon to finish up the relay. They both crushed it bringing us back up to a second place!
There was a break before the short track race in which I snacked, hydrated, and warmed back up. The race was approximately thirty minutes long, where you completed as many laps as possible. I started on the front line with Madeline. The pace was high from the start and I was just trying to hold on. I fell off of the lead group fairly early, and then I tried to keep it steady to not loose places. A couple laps into the race I started to feel better and started to increase my pace and pass girls one-by-one. I stayed up the whole race and had no problems, leaving me with a fourth place finish.
Sunday morning came and we were heading to the cross country race. The race was held in a city park with fun singletrack and some technical sections. We went out in a pre ride lap to see the course. It was good, there were not to many wet places on course, but there were many more roots than I am used to. The race soon started and was in second place behind Madeline. At the top of the first climb I was holding on to second place, but was soon passed by girls on the descent. By the end of the descent I was sitting in fifth place. I slowly worked my way back up through the girls that had passed me and ended back up in second by the end of the lap. Going into the second lap I worked to drop third place on the climb. It worked and I rode through the next three laps solo, attacking each hill and trying to be as smooth as possible in the descents. I ended up finishing in second place to cap off my first weekend of collegiate racing!
The next weekend we were up and driving again to our second race, at Brevard College. The first race this weekend was the cross country followed by the short track on Sunday. We got the venue with time to pre ride the course, it was fun plenty of areas for powering and fitness and not many technical spots. The race soon started and I was in third place behind Madeline and Hannah. Once we got to the first semi technical down hill I fell off the wheel and was dropped. From that point on I just tried to power on all the climbs and flats and not loose time on the descents. Through the three laps I held my spot and finished in third!
The next morning we all rolled back to the race venue to race the short track. A couple of laps on the short track and it was race time! The race started off fast. Up the hill and back down, through the grass and then a barn and back to the finish. Laps went fast, and my legs were screaming mercy. This short track discipline is a different animal... I was sitting in fifth when I was pulled from the race, leaving me with a fifth place result.
I was extremely pleased with my results from my first two ever collegiate race weekends! I had room to improve and motivation to get it done!