Racing with the Big Girls

So yesterday I raced in my first pro race! Rock Shox Golden State #2 at Woodward West. Completely unplanned event. I arrive day of the race, fully planning on racing open (cat 1) women, no practice runs yet, groggy from a 2 hour drive, when I see Francine, a gal I've raced before in Cat 1, has a big ol' B on her number plate (this is the letter the pro women get at Southridge events). I think: "Well! If you get to race pro, then I want to race pro!" So I went and asked Donny et al. if that would be cool, and was granted permission and tada! My K turned to a B and I was racing with the big girls. I got a few good practice runs in, nothing too crazy on the course, some washed out sandy turns, but overall a really fun course even though it was short. I was really happy because I was clearing the tabletops. They were all bigger than any I have jumped before and I even overshot one of them a few times (jumping is fun!!).

I went into the race really relaxed. I figured that the jumps would be my accomplishment for the day since I wasn't going to have much of a shot at winning the race, so I might as well just have fun.

Wrong!! The first run let me see how close all of our times were. I think we all were within 1 second of eachother. Pretty crazy. Christine got the first round and I was in second, with Francine and Joy hot on our tails. This made me start to think a little bigger. I was thinking, wow, you know, I really have a shot at winning this race! Or at least 1 of the runs. Maybe if I just pedal a little harder, and brake just a little less.... and so next round, with a few more butterflies flapping around frantically in my stomach, I did just that. After I finished, as I was standing catching my breath, Francine came running up to me super excited, telling me I'd won it!! I couldn't believe my ears! Francine is awesome by the way in case she ever reads this. Extremely supportive and friendly and also a super speedy rider. She ended up coming in 2nd, so us non-real-pros ended up knocking the real pros off their spots. We both felt kind of bad about this at first, but were both also really excited for our finishes.


So, long story short, an awesome day. Glad I didn't decide to skip this race. I think this should help in my petition to actually go pro for next year. :)

Racing is really starting to boost my confidence in a lot of ways. This race also taught me that not freaking out before races like I usually do just might be a good thing! relaxed = happy = good riding.