NICA 2023 - Race 2 - Bramble Scramble 1/29/2023

 TLDR: First time racing JV (high school). I'm the only 7th grader racing high school, and only a handful of 8th graders are doing it. I was the fastest JV girl in both JV2 and JV1 out of 31 girls. I turned the 4th fastest lap behind 3 of the Varsity girls. 

This was the first NICA race of the season, though it was technically the second because the first one (at Troy) was rained out. Now, it's a 5 race series, so the stakes are much higher. I only get one throwaway race. This race was out in Muenster, which is a 5-hour drive. We would have to wake up at around 5 in the morning to make it in time for the pre-ride. I don't know about you, but I can't do that. We got up at a more sane time and got there at about 12:45. My plan was to ride the GRiT ride, and because I am a GRiT ambassador, man the clothing swap tents afterward. My teammates that were there, Amelia and Mea, and an independent rider who rides with us, Elizabeth, came with me on the GRiT ride.

I rode with Elizabeth to pre-ride, and at first, I thought I wouldn't like the course. It was one of the punchiest courses that I've raced, and it was crazy. When you start out, you have about a 10th of a mile before you're climbing, and that climb is LONG. The climb was about a mile, but it felt like 5. You put in so much effort, but the snails on the ground are going faster than you. It's a little demoralizing, but then once you get done with that it's one of the most fun courses I've ridden. It has swoops, up and down, left and right, and on the pre-ride, it was just the tiniest bit stickier then hero dirt. My tires made the most satisfying sound ever, and the corners stuck. There was practically no fear of washing out. I also saw an armadillo! All of the dips, you could pump your bike into and you would keep the momentum you'd been holding, not need to pedal out of the other side, you would be going faster than before, and it was super fun and fast. Then, in the last mile or so, the course went along the side of one of the hill/mountain thingies and felt super fast. You could also see super far behind you, so I mentally marked that spot in my mind as somewhere to see how far ahead/behind the next person was. The finish was downhill, so that was relatively new to me. After we got back from the GRiT ride, I went back to camp to get changed and then went and hung out at the clothing swap tent. I just love being a GRiT ambassador, it's so fun and you get to help get more girls on bikes.

I went to bed around 10:00, and woke up at 7:30. I tried to go back to sleep, but the butterflies in my stomach were keeping me awake. They just wouldn't let up, so I decided to get up. Guess what I had for breakfast? Oatmeal! After that, I tried preoccupying myself so that I wouldn't get too nervous. I got kitted and set everything I needed for the race at around 10:00, and started to warm up at 10:50. My dad got a huge speaker, and adapted a warm-up by a professional athlete made for racing shorter XC and sync'd it with some of my playlists. I think it really worked because I felt ready for the race. We rode over to the starting gate, and my call-up was 18, so I thought I would be in the 4th row, but a couple kids didn't show so I ended up being the last person in the 3rd row. 

When the person counting us down called 30 seconds, all my nerves went away. Poof, the butterflies evaporated, but then after 15 seconds, I was anticipating the start so hard. When the whistle was blown, I had a pretty good start. I got clipped in right away, and I followed Sabrina. My dad had told me Sabrina was going to punch a hole, and my goal was to stick Sabrina's wheel. The thing was, Sabrina got stuck between two girls, so I took the left route. There was a turn, and I got boxed out on it, so Sabrina was 2 girls in front of me. I kept the pace up, and after the creek, I passed one of them. When we got to the hill, I passed the second girl in front of me right as Sabrina passed the one in front of her. I called out, "Rider back" or "One more" so that I didn't have to find another spot to pass those same girls Sabrina was passing. We worked our way to the front like this, and then I passed Sabrina. We were halfway through the mile hill by this point, so I pushed until I could almost taste blood in my mouth. I could hear someone about to pass Sabrina, so I took that chance and pushed hard. I got to the top and managed to catch my breath, but through the trees, I could see someone right behind me. It was Hannah, another GRiT ambassador, and I met her at a GRiT event. She was really nice, and apparently, really fast. I pushed as hard as I could through the top section, and when I got to the last bit of the hill, I looked behind me and couldn't see anyone. I took that opportunity to push harder and get a drink of water to be ready for the feed zone. 

I crossed the finish line and started out on my second lap, going through the feed zone, which I did without too much trouble, and then circled around the pond to start my second lap. I had to climb this big, straight, long hill next to the pond, which I didn't have to do in the first lap because it was what connected the main trail to the finish line. I was a little gassed by that point and took a breather before I reached the mile hill and climbed it for the 2nd time. The mile hill really took it all out of me, and once I finally reached the top, I found myself sitting in to catch my breath. I reminded myself, 'If you sit in, you're sitting for second.' I knew that if I stopped pushing as hard as I was, Hannah, Sabrina, Jenna, or somebody was going to catch up and I would have to work twice as hard as I was to keep them off of me. I kept up the pace and continued pushing as hard as I could, carrying the speed and pumping those dips. I came up on the road to the finish line, got in my hardest gear, and sprinted as hard as I could. 

I finished, and once I came out of the race tape, I fell to the ground and was filled with so many different emotions. Relief, elation and everything of the type came bubbling out of me, and I started crying. Just a little bit, and I soon caught a couple breaths and moved my bike out of the way when a race official asked me to. Oops. I saw the rest of the girls in my category come in and congratulated them, and then Sabrina showed me her tiny puppy and all was good. I watched the middle school boys start, and then went back to camp to get changed. I was so happy and proud, I felt like I would burst. Once I got back to camp, however, I heard that the podiums were postponed due to technical difficulties. I was a little disappointed, but I knew it would still be awesome when I got to step on that top post. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep this streak going for the next race, and the next, and the next. See you next time!