Sometimes I wish I could have hand-picked which traits I received from each of my parents. For one thing, I wouldn’t have picked the big nose my father so kindly gave to me. And I would have gladly taken the height from my mother’s side, where I feel like a midget every time I visit my younger cousins – they tower over me. Instead of height (I know, to the rest of the world 5’7”, is tall for a girl, but not to the LaHaie family), my mother gave me her allergies.
Luckily, I survived my entire childhood without any symptoms of allergies. Then, last year, at the age of 23, I seemed to fall apart. Within the span of two months, I got allergies and had to get glasses/contacts (that came from both of my parents). The first time allergies hit me, I had no idea what was going on. I thought I was getting a cold or something. I was devastated when I realized what it really was because I saw how much they had bothered my mom all these years.
Until last week, the only thing I knew about was stuffy nose and watery eyes. Then I went to the WORCS race in Hollister. I went up early to ride on Thursday and Friday and felt so terrible I could hardly ride. Saturday morning, during practice, they finally opened up the trails and let us ride the whole course. I went two full laps getting hit in the face with poison oak, breathing in this dust that was coated in it. I came off the track and already my tongue started swelling up and my throat felt like it was closing in. Then I started hearing stories how people always get carted off to the hospital due to poison oak. First off, I think, Why in the world would any promoter run us on a course full of it? But mostly I was thinking, How am I ever going to do a full hour if I can’t even go two laps of practice?
Starting a race when you are not even sure whether or not you can finish it usually doesn’t have the best outcome. I spent the first half of the race just riding around in second focusing more on breathing through my nose than the task at hand. All it took, though, was getting stuck in a rut and watching third and fourth place pass me to get me fired up again and forget about not being able to breathe. I finally started riding like I know how and in the chaos of trying to pass back up, I never even saw Patterson on the side of the trail trying to start her bike. I had no idea that I had even won. I was even more pleasantly surprised the next day when my friend told me that not only did I win but after my little mishap I put in the fastest lap time by three seconds!
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Whether it is off-road or motocross, it feels good to win, and it does make it better when five of the eight women are WMA pros. Let me tell you I was almost getting used to the idea of doing off-road, until I woke up two days later itching. Itching so much I finally went to the doctor because nothing was working. Before giving me some steroids (hopefully I don’t show up to Glen Helen looking like the Incredible Hulk) he took pictures because he said it was the craziest case of poison oak he had ever seen! Not exactly something you want to hear from your doctor. And its crazy how the high of winning can simply disappear and now I am not so sure about all this off-road stuff. At least in MX if you are in the trees or bushes you are doing something terribly wrong. Even if I am the current points leader, I am looking forward to getting back to my roots and racing some moto very soon.
Now everywhere I go I get teased that I am an off-roader. It’s getting harder and harder to deny it. So I decided the only way to prove I am not fully converted to off-road is to show you my “on-road” riding skills. Observe the picture of Sidney and me on her mom’s pink scooters. No, this wasn’t just posed for the picture, we actually ride these babies around town. So next time any of you want to make fun of me I’d think twice. With a setup like this, Hell’s Angels run the other way when they see us coming through the streets of La Cresta.