NICA 2022 - Race 6 - Rally in the Valley - 5/14/2022

 TLDR: This was the last race of the season - so sad! Nevertheless, I had a great time and was super grateful to be able to spend those last precious days with the Bulldogs.

Place: 1st/9

Time: 24:38.52

Beat field by: 4:39

Story: When we got there there was virtually no one there. We set up camp and collaborated with some other people to make a shady area using popup tents. It was hot. Like REALLY hot. And guess what? We were pre-riding at the hottest time of the day! Yay! *sarcastically*  Luckily, one of the coaches told everybody to bring socks for a trick to fight the heat. Apparently, you were supposed to put ice in the socks - it would eventually melt and soak your jersey, keeping your core cool. I don't know about you, but this was entirely new to me. Before the pre-ride, I really wasn't buying it. Since I wasn't putting out any heat, it was just a really really cold spot on my back. When we started riding though, it was a lifesaver. About 2 minutes in, I was starting to see the appeal. It really made a difference. During the pre-ride, I felt really good about the course. It was basically what we did the first race, except some parts were done backward. I was feeling good about my cornering techniques, my power output, and my technical skills. Unlike the last time I pre-rode here, I was feeling really good, and not like I was putting out any unnecessary energy trying to keep up. After the pre-ride, I was enjoying the shade that we had set up. When some of my other friends arrived to pre-ride it when it was cooler out, my dad and I went to check out the A-line B-line situation. It was a little rock drop, and we had a long conversation about which line is faster. Sessioning was really fun, and we also talked about how to go over it. Because it was in the trail, the coaches didn't think you would get in trouble for jumping it, but they might have officials over there watching for moves that endanger others, so we decided that the A-line might be faster and to jump it a little bit, but not really obviously. The others went on to continue their pre-ride, and we stayed to play on it - I mean session it a little more, then we went back to camp. When we got back, I saw that the chicken nuggets were out! Being a growing girl, I had three servings. After chilling for a bit, I went to bed at 10:15 and slept for 8 hrs and 45 mins. 

I woke up at 7:30 and tried to go back to sleep, to no avail. Eventually, I accepted the fact that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep and got out of bed. I got dressed in my race gear but put on a t-shirt and shorts over it. For breakfast I ate - You guessed it - Oatmeal! Then I hung out in the shade and chilled. Then, around 10:10, I found out that my little sister was going to be staging me. SO CUTE! Right around then, we started warming up. That was when I put on my ice sock. It kept me cool throughout warmup, staging, and the race. For the last race, my dad tried a different warm-up technique. Instead of just putting on a timer and telling us when to go into zone 2 & 5 and whatever, he just put on music and for each song, he told us when to switch into different zones. Like, sprint the chorus, or zone 5 on the beat drops. He played Melody by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Bangarang and Ragga Bomb by Skrillex, Sleep Now in the Fire by Rage Against the Machine, and SUB-URBAN Run the Streets by D4VID. All were songs that I regularly use to get myself pumped up, so it was nice to have my warmup also be my pump-up jams. 

After getting pumped up/warmed up, we went to staging. This time, I remembered everything! Yay! After the last time, I came here and forgot like three things I triple-checked to make sure I had everything. When they were calling up the 6th graders, I thought they were calling up 7th graders and I missed my callup. Luckily I was able to slide in, but I was so embarrassed and mortified and it only increased my nervousness. Like all the times before, when the 8th graders took off, it increased my nerves, same with the 7th graders. When we rolled up to the line, I felt like my stomach was going to explode, or implode, or something like that. I know, I know, it was the last race, and I had the championships in the bag. But for some reason, I was super nervous. Maybe because it was my last chance to win middle school girls across the board, or because it was the last race and I wanted to do well. I don't exactly know what it was, but it was bad. Anyways, when choosing my gear at the line, I went one too big. So, when the whistle was blown, I had trouble getting started and some of the other girls got in front of me. The thoughts racing through my head were not positive. "I'm not going to make it." "They're faster than me." "I'm gonna lose the last race." Nevertheless, I pushed as hard as I could. They stuck with me, longer than I was used to until we crossed the timing pad. Then I dropped them, one by one. I pushed as hard as I could, already breathing hard at the top of the hill. 

On the fun downhill, which by the way I was so glad we didn't do uphill, I jumped way higher than I expected to and had to break into the berm, which I was really sad about, though I didn't have much time to think about that. I went through the g-out super fast, but on a feature that had a downhill before a bridge crossing a little ditch with a berm/wallride thing, I went too high up and skidded down, then I was in the wrong gear so I had trouble getting out of it. I lost a lot of time there. 😞 The rest of the race went pretty smoothly. I accidentally (not really) aired out the A-line and my dad got a video of it. After finishing (and sprinting through as hard as I could) I collapsed. Well, almost. I managed to drag myself to the

bulldog's tent, where I had 2 bottles of cold water poured over my head and another shoved into my hands. I asked, "Can I dunk my head in that cooler of ice water?" They said yes, and I did. Immediate relief. It was SO refreshing. I recommend to anyone who is racing in the heat to have a cooler of ice water close by. I watched others come in, then went back to camp. I changed into my podium outfit - My bulldog jersey and shorts - in the oven that is our car. Not very surprisingly, a black car sitting in the sun is a million degrees. Sadly, I had nowhere else to change, so I risked getting heatstroke from the car, not the race. Then, I went to see the boys off. It was so fun cheering them on. One of the things I like about going before the boys is the fact that I get to cheer them on. After that, I went to the bulldog's tent and informed all of the incoming bulldogs of the cooler trick. I hung around there for a while and then went back to camp. During the podiums, my category was the first to go, and then I had to spend the rest of the time sitting in the heat. I know I sound ungrateful, but podiums were extra long because of the championship situation. If they had done points for middle school, then it would've been a lot more interesting, but I don't really have any friends in high school, except for Reese who races high school as a 7th grader. 

That concludes the 2022 NICA season, and I am so sad to see it end, but at the same time glad for all of the memories and the mental and physical growth it encouraged me to seek out. I'm sure that I should find some moral of the story or say something really inspiring, but all I want to say is ride fun, race hard, and always do the best you can. 

Ellie Out!