Oh my, where to begin…

Billy and I rolled into the track late and didn’t have time to make practice. When we got to the track, I walked over to the gate and watched the other riders in practice rail through the whoops section. Watching one rider after another made me even more nervous and scared about the idea of racing for the first time. I wasn’t really sure why I wanted to race considering I couldn’t even get through that section without crashing. But through some divine intervention, I walked over to the tower with Billy and signed up for my first race. I signed up for the Women’s Open class and I was very relieved when Pynne told me that the women were on the gate with the Big Boy class.

Now that there was no turning back, I got my gear on and waited for my race to start. The women’s class was race #8 and while waiting, all I could think of was how bad it was going to hurt when I crash and embarrass myself in front of all these people.

The announcer called for race #8 and I knew that it was now or never. I got my gear, checked my gas and rolled my bike over to the starting gate. I parked my bike away from the other girls because I really didn’t want to take out anyone at the start. The 2minute board came out and as I sat there waiting for the gate to drop, I cannot believe how many butterflies I had in my stomach! I took a deep breathe, made the sign of the cross, clicked 2nd and got myself into position. The gate dropped and I almost stalled it right off the bat! I gave it some more gas and as I expected, was one of the last riders to make it to the first corner. I felt really great my first lap, granted I was dead last. I took my corners to the best that I could but I was still only jumping the table tops. Through the first and second lap, I even got through the whoops section without crashing! I was so ecstatic that I even jumped the double in the back straight for the first time in months!! Then on my third lap, I crashed on the corner before the double going away from the bleacher. All I could remember was getting my bike leaned over and thinking “Oh man too far!!” I leaned my bike way too far into the corner and when I rolled on the throttle; the front end dug down and snapped eventually sending me over the handlebars. I did the baby scoot off the track and needed help getting my bike. With the help of the race crew, I got my bike started and just rolled through the finish line jump. My corner crash had given me a bruised right rear and a bruised tail bone.

My 2nd moto was definitely more embarrassing and disappointing than the first. Rather than get into the details of my 2nd race, I will just summarize and say that I ended up stalling right off the starting gate which made for a really bad race. I was very tired and disappointed which culminated into numerous riding errors. One of those errors being that I seat bounced the double and almost crashed landing GO HUGE. I was not gripping the bike with my legs while landing and from what Billy saw, my arms were like spaghetti. In the end, the race ended for me when I tipped over in the whoops section. The awesome race crew helped me pick up my bike once again and for the last time that afternoon, I rolled through the finish line jump.

My first experience racing was definitely both exciting and scary. I was very embarrassed that I crashed out both times and I’m very disappointed in myself for making mistakes. I’m going to use my first race weekend as a learning experience and practice more before the next race at Ocotillo.

As I sit here icing my bruises, I want to thank Coleman and the whole Eloy race crew who helped me out on race day. Plus, I want to say thanks to Denise for driving down from Tempe to watch me crash. I also want to say thanks to Billy and John for believing in me – even though I don’t