FSC #2 Ft. Clinch

Shortly after arriving at Ft. Clinch, my Dad and I decided to check out the Endurance Factor Clinic. I have to be honest, I had a lot of fun riding with some different people for a change. (No offense Dad, Mom, and Kiki)!! Drew and Martin were awesome!! They showed me tons of stuff ...including some good lines to take because the course was super sandy.

Race Day:

Time to get into my pre-race zone. Most people think that I'm intense or that something is wrong with me, but I just don't like talking to anyone before a race. Today, I was dying! The race didn't start until almost 12:00. Way too late, considering we got here around 8:00 in the morning. Anyway, I always said that when I start racing in the novice category, my goal would be to beat just 1 person (not including my Dad)....But now, I'm thinking that is not good enough!! I don't mean to be a poor sport, it just stinks that I went from always winning to being at the bottom. I guess I can't be too hard on myself, I am racing people at least twice my age and size. Hopefully, not too many years away, I will be up on the podium again!!

Race time. I really wasn't paying attention to how many racers were in front of me going into the woods. But I do know that I passed 4 boys and a lady from another class...And I think 1 man passed me from my group. By the 4th or 5th mile I didn't see any other racers, so I swore I was in last place. My Dad said we weren't. I didn't believe him and started getting very frustrated. I was thinking to myself that this really stinks...I'm pedaling my butt off and I'm still dead last.

Well, my Dad was right. We were not in last place. There was actually 10 racers behind us and I ended up finishing in 6th place. Look at the man behind me at the finish line. He could have so beaten me at the end of the race. Instead, he chose to come in behind me and said I deserved the spot. Unbelievable, I know that will never happen again!!

1 down, 3 to go!!

Just A Little Training

My Dad and I headed to Morris Bridge for a some training today. I'm so used to riding at our family pace, so when I stepped it up a little...actually a lot...I got my butt kicked. I even wore my camelbak today. I hate those things, but I might as well get used to wearing it. Racing in the kid's race, I never had to worry about staying hydrated. The races were so short and there was never a need even for a water bottle. And I think I'm going to check out the Endurance Factor clinic at the Ft. Clinch race for a little extra help.

Mud and Mosquitoes

While most of the riders went to Tallahassee for the first race of the season, we decided to do a little riding too...but at Alafia. We did the easy loop in record time without stopping for breaks. It wasn't because we didn't want to take a break, but because the mosquitoes seemed to be setting our pace. If we were to stop even for a second, a gazillion mosquitoes would attack us. Not fun considering we forgot to bring the bug spray. And thank you Dad for buying my new tires. They worked awesome on the muddy trails. I thought for sure that one of us would take a dive in the mud, but we all managed to finish without any crashes.

I finally have some time to write about Labor Day weekend. With school and stuff...and just being busy, it's hard to keep up with my posts. Better late than never, right? So, here it is. My family and I were all sick on Saturday, but we didn't want to cancel our camping trip. We sucked it up, loaded up the car, and headed for Santos. After eating lunch and setting up camp, it was time to hit the trails. We decided that we would stick with the easy ones, so man did it make my sister mad when we headed down Cow Bone... the rocks were freaking her out. She made it quite clear that she would not NOT be racing here this season (Cow Bone is part of the race course). We hurried up with the trail and got our butts back on track... and maybe rode only about 10 miles before going back to the campsite. Oh yeah, before that, I road the red trail by the Vortex area.. and cleared it. I was pretty happy with myself. Anyway, since no one was feeling a 100%, we took it easy. We made a couple spears and a bow and arrow..that was actually pretty fun. Then, my Dad and I headed out for my very first night ride. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. I had trouble judging what was on the ground and almost crashed into a tree. I still would like to try it again sometime. And finally, we ended the night roasting marshmallows by our awesome campfire.

After we got home on Sunday, we decided to test out our homemade bow and arrow. Well, it didn't go so good. The bow snapped it half. So, my Papa took my sister and I to Bill Jackson's to get a real one. We had so much fun shooting our arrows...and even hit the bulls eye a couple times.