Christmas Break

My new reading chair and books Pump Track at Santos
Ripstiking around the campground

Alafia



Last downhill on North Creek

My favorite trail at Alafia

Christmas Break

I had an awesome Christmas this year. My Mom and Dad bought me a cool reading chair along with tons of books and even a book light! I think I am probably the only one in the whole neighborhood who asked for books for Christmas. Santa left me a Ripstik. It took me about (2) hours but finally I mastered it. Over Christmas break my family and I went on 2 camping trips. The first trip was to Santos. I had a great time exploring the trails, riding on the pump track, and riding my ripstik around the campground. The second trip was to Alafia. I rode about 17 miles which included my favorite trail North Creek and a small part of Bridges. The rest of my Christmas break I had fun just hanging out with my friends.

FSC #8 Race Santos/Banquet

Jeff Lenosky at Santos Bike Shop

Start of my race


Banquet


Wow, what a great way to finish out the races seeing Jeff Lenosky... his show was awesome!! I wanted to say thank you to Pua, my sponsor, for her support this race season. She's so cool, she even calls me after every race. I don't know of any other sponsors that would do that! Can't wait to race a couple more in the SERC series and I hope I can go to Alabama in May for the Jr. Olympics. I'm clipped in now and ready to race!

FSC #7 Alachua, Fl.

November 29, 2008
The Lost Family

After a 3 hour drive we finally arrived at San Felasco SP near Gainesville. My sister and I were full of energy and we were excited to ride someplace new. We checked out my course and it was super easy, pretty much like riding in an open field. After practicing a couple laps we decided to do the adult course. BIG MISTAKE...we thought that the course was 5 or 6 miles long, wrong...turned out to be 10. The ride was going really well for the first 4 or 5 miles. We enjoyed the trail. There were lots of gradual climbs w/ some fast downhills. We even saw a million deer. Anyway, about 6 or 7 miles into the course we started getting concerned. We had no idea how long the course was and after asking many other riders, no one seemed to know. Finally, on our 8th mile, a couple guys said we had about 2 miles to go. We began to freak out a little. We knew that we had to kick it in high gear to finish up the course. The sun was beginning to set and it was getting dark. The trail was difficult to see. I crashed going down a hill and scratched up my leg pretty bad. After that it was time to walk the bikes, it was too dangerous to ride as we could barely see the trail. At last, hope!! We came across a nice guy from Team Bike Works. He said we had about a mile left and soon we would be out of the woods and into the field where we could see better. Yes, we made it back and by this time it was pitch black. We caused a lot a people to be concerned. A rescue party was sent out to find us. Later we found out the person that was sent out to find us got lost himself. We are now known as the lost family. We finished up the night setting up camp, eating pizza, and laughing about our adventure.

November 30 ,2008

Race Day

Feeling great and ready to race. I was a little too anxious, I jumped the gun. We had to do 3 laps. IB was ahead of me on the first lap, I followed close behind and passed her going into the second lap. I held my position for the last 2 laps and finished 1st.

Turkey Trot

Clearwater, FL.

Today, we did our 7th 5k Turkey Trot. It was cold but still fun.

FSC #6 Alva, FL.

November 15, 2008
Practice Day:

I have two words for this course...FLAT and BORING!!

November 16, 2008

Race Day:

Today, I was happy that I had an easy course, I didn't sleep at all the night before. I had a really bad cold and cough. Even though I was not feeling well, I still wanted to race. I started out OK. I had to do 2 laps so, I knew I had to pace myself and save my energy when needed. I passed 2 boys on my first lap while I.B. followed very close behind me. I.B. passed me going down a small hill while I was stuck behind a couple boys. Then, shortly after I was able to pass her and 2 more boys. Finally, I had a good lead and came in 1st place. After the race I was dying!! I felt awful and had to lay in the grass for a little while to recover.

FSC #5 Miami

Part of my race course

My Dad FINALLY made fire!

Taking a little nap after practice

November 1, 2008

Practice day:

After a 5 1/2 hour drive, we arrived at Oleta State Park in Miami. My Mom rented a cabin at the park this time instead of staying in a hotel. Our cabin was so cute!! It was about the same size as our tent. Inside there was a big bed and bunk beds and it had a swing on the front porch. After checking out the cabin, we put on our riding clothes and headed down to the trails. My Dad and I practiced my course 5 times, then I had fun riding in the free ride area and on the mtb dirt jumps. I think we ended up riding for about 5 hours. We headed back to the cabin where my Dad tried to make a fire. It took him about an hour and he smoked out everyone that was nearby. Finally, FIRE...we had dinner, s'mores and then went to bed.

November 2, 2008

Race Day:

There were 8 girls that lined up to race this time. The whistle blew...I finally had a great start. I made it to the rocky mile first and was able to make all of the climbs. I finished the race in first place.

Here's some parts of my race that my Dad video taped.

FSC #4 Race Alafia State Park

October 25, 2008

Practice Day:

We arrived at Alafia (my favorite place to ride) late in the afternoon. I went out for a practice run with my Dad and found the course to be very difficult. There were 2 uphill rooty sections that I had a hard time climbing. After practicing the course 11 times, I knew that it would be faster on some of the hills to get off my bike and run up them. So, that was the plan for race day. Then, it was time to set up camp.

October 26, 2008

Race Day:

BURRRRRR..... it was freezing outside. I finally got out of my sleeping bag and put on some extra layers, had a little cocoa and was ready to ride. I raced 10 girls this time. I was a little nervous, I had an older girl on a big bike next to me lining up. Dave blew the whistle. I had a slow start but managed to get into the woods first and held the position for 2 laps. I ended up in 1st place.

FSC #3 Tallahassee

October 11, 2008

Practice Day:

We arrived at Tom Brown Park late in the afternoon. My Dad and I practiced my course a couple times. It was a pretty easy course and included the BMX track...same as last year. After practicing I headed over to the BMX track for a little fun. I think I actually caught some air!

October 12, 2008

FSC #3 Tallahassee

I raced 10 girls this time. For my warm up my Dad and I practiced the start going into the woods. It was downhill and very fast. After my first time down, my Dad showed me a faster way where I could avoid some roots. It was a great plan... I was able to fly past the other girls. I ended up in 1st place for my 3rd win of the season.

FSC #2 Fort Clinch State Park

practice day

After a (4) hour drive we finally arrived at ft. clinch state park. The park was really cool it was on the beach,but no time to look for shells it was time to get down to business. My Dad and I checked out the course, we were told it was the first 2 1/2 miles of the adult course. After the first practice I found the trails to be very flowie(is that a word???) and had a couple challenging hills.

Sept.28, 2008

Race day

Well, there was no time to practice today. I was a little confused on the whole going slow thing until we got to the woods. My dad thought maybe we were being paced by an adult because of safety issues. I also didn't know where the finish line was.... more last minute changes to the race. My dad just told me to pedal until someone stopped me. Dave had the boys and girls start at the same time. Rough start.... I.B. and I crashed while going into the woods. We got back on our bikes and continued with the race. I tried to follow close behind I.B. on the trail(I bumped into her tires a couple of times). Finally, I was able to pass her on a big hill with roots. Very close race..... but I was first girl , fourth overall , to cross the finish line.

P.s Pua I love the new grips.....Thank you!!!!!!

FSC #1 Gainesville

September 13, 2008.

Practice day:

We got to Gainesville late in the afternoon. My dad and I practiced my course about 7 times.The course was pretty cool..... it had 3 logs I had to ride over. After practicing we went to the Travelers campground where we set up camp and took a dip in the pool. The campground was awesome.... it had donkeys, horses, goats, peacocks, and parrots. We checked out the animals and rode our bikes around the campground for extra practice. Then, we had some dinner and went to bed early.

September 14, 2008

FSC #1 Gainesville, Fl. (Hailes Trails)

OK....something different this morning. I was awoken by a donkey screaming hee-haw, hee-haw. Then, we got dressed and headed for the race. I was feeling great, I knew I had practiced alot and was ready to race. There were 6 girls in my class that were racing. A couple of the girls were a little older and on bigger bikes so, I knew I had to step it up and go as fast as I could the whole race. I had a slow start (something that I'm going to work on this weekend), but was able to pass every one before heading into the woods. From there I never looked back and finished my 2 laps in first.

sneakers

The weather has been very windy from the hurricane. My Dad was walking through the backyard my Dad said(another animal to take care of). Then my Dad walked over to the baby squirrel and picked up Sneakers and then my sister yelled DAD FOUND A BABY SQUIRREL!Then daddy searched on the on the web to see how to take care of him and it said to feed him Gatorade.(Man that squirrel loves Gatorade).Then sneakers went back to sleep.

3 camping trips in 3 weeks

This past weekend we went camping at Fort de soto.We put up the tent and there were tons of rollie pollies. We saw a raccoon in a tree it had a home in a pomfron(It was so cute). after setting up camp we hit the beach. we swam and collected shells some which still had crabs in them.We finished up the day with a ride to the fort.

2nd camping trip--- hot and froggy

well... same campsite,very different experience. we got to alafia at 3:00 and it was about a gazillon degrees outside.I practiced my starts with my dad in the grass, my record was 14 .5. We had a little dinner, then hit the trails. We had an awesome ride.After riding, we headed back to the campsite, roasted some marshmellows, then decided to take a shower.First, when we got to the shower there was a gigantic gross whitish color tree frog on the door. After freaking out we decided to go in,then we opened the shower and saw another one on the wall....we freaked outagain.My dad came to the rescue and got one frogout then the other one jumped on my mom's back..... she freaked out. we took a shower and went back to the tent. While laying down we noticed that there were tons of frogs on the outside of the tent. We spent the next hourbanging them off.I had a hard time sleeping that nite.

camping at alafia

last Saturday me and my family went to alafia. when we got there it was storming my dad had trouble putting up the tent. Kiki and I blew up the air mattresses. Kiki had all here toys spaled all over the air mattresess.

the next day me and my family had breakfast (it was yummy)then we rode.

Took a short ride

today I took a short ride around the block. during the ride Kiki crashed! She landed face first and scaped her teeth on the ground. she was tough and road back home.

swimming is awesome

up up and away

Alafia

Last Saturday we went to Alafia. We were hungry so we ate our ham sandwhiches. then hit sandypine. Then kiki and I went on the playground. Then my dad and went on North Creek.

THE BEGINNING

It all started when my Dad brought me to to Reddick when I was only 4 1/2. I raced the first race in the SERC series and came in 1st place. I loved racing so much I decided to do the whole FSC Series finishing the year unbeaten and as Florida state champion in my age group.