Nationals 2023 - STXC - Bear Creek Mountain Resort - 07/06/2023

 TLDR: This was my first short-track race, and it was at the USA Cycling National Championships. I got 10th place out of 31 girls in the 13/14 category. The course was super punchy and a little over half a mile long. I gave it all I had and I'm really happy with my first top 10 finish in short-track. 

It was also the first race that I was able to race under my new team, Virginia's Blue Ridge (VBR) Team Twenty24, which is an international team based out of Roanoke, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge mountains. We had stopped by Roanoake several days before the race to ride with a couple of team members and to get my jersey. 

We had to wake up around 4:00 in the morning to arrive in time to pre-ride the short-track course. I rode the short track course, which was in the grass, and went straight up the ski hill. It then joined with the XC course and went down a downhill section that was in the field. It then looked like the course turned out of the XC course at the bottom of the hill onto a gravel road and joined back up at the starting chute. After I pre-rode I went back to the hotel to get some sleep. 

I woke up around 8:00, to get to the venue in time to make my start time of 10:30. They had changed up the track, so I went and pre-rode the new section that had been added several times. Instead of cutting out of the XC track, we continued on it up a little hill and then down a set of berms, then we cut out through the feed zone area. I was really nervous because I'd never done a short-track race before and I had no idea what to expect. Also, it was a national race, so I put extra pressure on myself. 

At the starting line, I was really nervous, and my call-up was 24th, so I was in the 4th row. When the whistle blew, I was boxed out and forced to slow down, so I was the last one up the hill. I passed a lot of people on the opening loop and then came the long slog up the hill. I was eating up bunnies on the hill, and when I rounded the corner to start on the downhill, I was able to breathe again. There was a girl about halfway down the hill, so I got low to the bars in a speed tuck and hauled down that hill. I caught her and passed her at the bottom, but that was when the new section started. I went up the second hill and while going down the berms, I got caught behind a girl I wasn't able to pass on the uphill. I managed to pass her in the feed zone. When I went through the finish, the announcer announced there were 2 laps left. 

On the second lap, we didn't have to do the opening loop. I passed a girl on the long hill, but when I crested the hill, I heard her next to me and saw her front tire out of the corner of my eye, so I sprinted down the hill. I was getting pretty tired by this point, but I kept pushing. I almost caught someone at the bottom of the first downhill, but then they started writing up the hill, and I almost gave up. I almost accepted whatever place I was in, and gave up trying to catch this bunny. Then I said to myself, "What's one more bunny?" and I sprinted up that hill to catch her. I passed her before the berms and then sprinted across the finish line. And then promptly collapsed in the closest shade I could find. 

I was over the moon happy with a top 10 finish for my first short-track race ever. You win or you learn, so my take-home lesson for this race was to have a more aggressive start, so I could be further up from the start. I had a great first race and I'm excited to race another.