Saturday was the junior high race, but before that Brian got their bikes ready. The high school kids also did one last pre-ride before their races the next day.
By 2 pm, it was time to get the junior high kids in the zone and warmed-up before they headed into their staging areas.
It was a hot and hazy day. The temperatures were in the 90s, and some fires up north were really making the air quality poor. Normally the views from McDowell Mountain are beautiful, but you could barely see a mile out there.
First up were Robby and Nathan in 8th Grade Boys. There are 72 kids in this wave. It's huge!
The Ravi and Sahil started five minutes later with the rest of the 7th Grade Boys. It was another big group.
I love this one of Sahil. He's normally last to the trail and followed by the sweep, but he doesn't care and we don't care. His dad is so proud, raising his hand in triumph that his kid is out there doing this.
And all the boys are off for two 3-mile laps.
Here are Robby and Nathan out on the trail. Robby made it up the hill even if that kid he passed didn't.
Ravi and Sahil followed soon enough.
While the boys were out, Lindsey had to get ready for her race in 8th Grade Girls an hour later. She was nervous but less so than her previous two races.
The boys worked hard and brought it home.
Robby got intense as he approached the line! :)
I was volunteering at the girls' start, so I didn't get good shots of Lindsey. She had a clean race and was happy to finish again!
By 8:30 am, Nicholas was getting lined up in staging and ready to race in Sophomore Boys.
While waiting for Nicholas on the trail, I saw this peculiar fellow. It was hot, and I guess his mom really wanted to keep him out of the sun.
I hiked a little bit to try to get good "wilderness" photos. I was impressed at Nicholas's speed when he showed up!
I thought this would be a good shot, and it would have been if Nicholas hadn't gotten caught up in some traffic at the bottom of the hill. Aww man.
As Nicholas was out there, Brian was giving Elizabeth some tips.
Here's Nicholas as he approaches the finish. They pass the pits, do a u-turn, and then come back up the parking lot to the finish line.
By 10:30 am, Elizabeth and Brian were in the staging area getting ready for her call up and race start.
Matthew is on the left taking a video of her start. :)
I again hiked out a ways to get some good trail shots.
She had just climbed a big hill here. And did I mention how hot it was out there?! haha But the air quality did improve significantly from the previous day.
Here are some photos that Nicholas's dad took out on the trail, too. It's nice that we have a professional photographer on staff.
She finished in 9th place after a tough race. She kind of psyched herself out before the race even started, but we encouraged her to do her best and work hard. She did.
And it looks like Blogger won't let me add any more to this post. Maybe because it's tired? I have asked it to do a lot here. I'd like to share photos from Joseph's race and our team dinner Saturday night, but ti's not allowing me to. I even restarted my computer; that concludes my troubleshooting abilities!
In any case, Joseph was ready for his comeback race, but the heat and technical course took it toll. He was pulled after two laps so he didn't get the chance to complete his race the way he wanted to. Nicholas could relate so he offered moral support, and we all agreed this was a tough one to come back to after being injured in Prescott and missing a few weeks of practice. He got over it quickly and was already looking forward to the White Tank race in two weeks.
Overall, it was an awesome weekend. It was super warm here, but I guess it could have been in the 100s rather than the 90s so we're grateful for that. We're proud of our Knights. They've really come a long way.
