She Rides!

Last weekend, Brian's mountain biking race series began. We headed up to McDowell Mountain Regional Park near Fountain Hills on Friday evening, camped in the Airstream, and listened to the rain all night. We woke up to more rain, but it eventually stopped and the race day officially began.

I was up first. But not in the way you would think. I had volunteered to do leg marking from 8:00 to 9:00 am. Brian's race didn't start until 10:30, so I figured that would be a good time to do it. All racers are expected to put in five volunteer hours, so I donated my time to him. It turned out to be 1.5 hours, so that's a good start.

One of my best customers during this time was Elizabeth.

Yes, that's right. I said Elizabeth. She decided that she wanted to race. Brian had taken her out there a few times so she could try out the course, and she thought this would be a good place to start. Though nervous because she didn't know exactly what to expect, she still wanted to give it a try. I applaud her bravery; there's no way I'd go out there and compete with other "beginner women" in my age group.

The beginning of her race was a long way off, so there was plenty of time for her nerves to really kick in. In the meantime, we watched Brian start and finish. The sky grew darker and darker during the hour that he rode, and we even got rained on a bit. We were excited when he finished because it seems like he was really racing against those two other guys at the end.

There were nearly 50 guys in his category, so his strategy was to get as close to the front as soon as possible.

He was really putting in the effort. 

He was successful.

He's completing the 3-mile loop here, and I was really surprised to see that his course was still so crowded.

Still having fun!

As he was finishing the 10-mile loop (and the race), he was clearly trying to make it past these two guys.

The one guy notices Brian flying by here.

This guy had no clue because it was so loud at the finish.

I was honestly afraid Brian was going to take out the old lady writing down numbers old-school-style at the line.

He didn't hurt her, but he did catch both guys.

After lunch, Elizabeth got ready for her race. That's a long time to wait for something, and I think the longer it went on, the more she started to dread it. But she lined up with the other 13-14 year old girls anyway with both excitement and the determination that she is not a quitter.

She got in line with the ten other girls, who if they weren't wearing a team jersey and sitting on a $3000 bike, they had faces like the girl with her hand on her hip.

It was clear everyone else had been here before, and Elizabeth's face was all relaxed and whatever like above.

That is, until she realized the horn was about to blow.

 It blew and they took off. Elizabeth followed close behind. :)

The juniors do three of those 3-mile loops. I figured she wouldn't pass anyone, so I just hoped that she would be riding her bike the next time we saw her and that there would be no blood on her arms or knees or anywhere.

At the end of her first loop, less than twenty minutes later, she was still upright with no injuries.

We waved and cheered and then waited roughly twenty more minutes for her to come by again. She was still upright and no blood was trickling anywhere. I was relieved, and we cheered for her again because we were so proud she was doing this!

As she finished, it started to sprinkle and we were so happy--and she was, too--when she crossed the line.

My Baby!

She came in eleventh out of eleven girls in her category, but the boys started at the same time as she did and she passed three of them. So she was happy to know she rode faster than three boys her age.

The results didn't matter to us. We were proud of her for trying something new. She said she didn't love it but she didn't hate it, and yesterday she decided that she would give it another try at the race next weekend. I think the worst part of it for her was that the kids who passed her could have been a little nicer about it by saying "on your left" instead of "get out of the way." She said that started to get to her, but she was able to calm down about it out there by reminding herself that she's been doing this for three months while those kids have probably been doing it for a lot longer. And if I wasn't already proud of her for being brave enough to do it, I was extremely proud of her for easing her negative self-talk, being kind to herself, and doing her best like the warrior she is.