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Okay, I know how terrible this looks when my last blog was about how I am NOT an off-roader, and now here I am the very next weekend doing ANOTHER off road event. This wasn’t just another hour long WORCS event however, but a six hour team race at Glen Helen. And before you start thinking that I suckered some poor girl into doing it with me I just want to say that it was all my teammate Lauren Jung’s (AKA Jungle) idea. She is much like me where she has only done motocross events before. But her sister who rides mostly off road had put a team together and that’s where the sibling rivalry comes in. So she suggested it and of course I couldn’t turn down a chance to race.
Again, I am lost when it comes to off road and all of their weird rules. At the riders meeting they said it was going to be a “Le Mans” start, but I thought they said “Lamaze.” I had no idea what having a baby had to do with getting the holeshot. For those of you who have only started behind a gate, a La Mans start is when someone holds your bike and when the man waves the flag you have to run to your bike, start it and go. There were only a few women’s teams – I think that’s because women are typically smarter than men and know better than to participate in a 6 hour long event – so they started us with some of the men’s classes. There were so many riders, it was bar to bar all the way across the extra wide first straightaway at Glen Helen. It was going to be tough to get a good start…
Maybe it was my maternal instinct kicking in since I still kept joking that it was a Lamaze start. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that I love running, or it could have been my acrobatic bike mounting skills or the fact I have an electric start. All I know is they waved the flag and I sprinted to my bike getting to it before anyone else. But instead of swinging my leg over from the side like one normally gets on a bike I put my hands on my seat and leap frogged over my fender onto my seat landing with my thumb on my new favorite little button. My other hand was pulling in the clutch while my foot came down right on my shifter. I couldn’t have done it again if I tried but all I know is I was going down the first straightaway looking back at everyone who was still kicking their bikes. (Check out the photos)
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The adrenaline after getting a holeshot and having a clear track in front of me is the best feeling ever. It was a little strange having to follow the arrows since at every other off-road race I have ever done I have gotten awful starts and just followed the people in front of me. But I was enjoying every second of it and started to pull away not just from the other women in my class but the men as well. Then we got to the metal stair case that went over a bridge. Yes, you read that correctly – a stair case. By the time I got there the class that started in the row ahead of me was backed up and everyone was sitting in line watching as just about everyone either stalled or looped out going up. I am definitely not used to waiting for my turn to get over an obstacle. The funniest part is I pulled up right along side Ashley (Lauren’s sister) who also started in the row ahead of me. She had a team of two girls and one guy, so she was in a different class than us. We just sat and talked and had a drink (do I really want to admit I was wearing a hydration pack?) until it was our turn. Drinking and conversing during a race is also new to me. Now, I had never gone up stairs before but I must say by the time it was my turn I was just a little nervous since almost everyone in front of me was having problems. One of my biggest downfalls is judging myself off all other riders and not taking skill level into consideration. I made it up and over just fine that lap and the ten more to follow.
The lap times were roughly 20 minutes but the course was so fast in some parts my bike would only go 2 laps on a tank of gas. So every 40 minutes Lauren and I filled up and switched. The only time the bike got shut off during the whole race that I know of was when I stalled it once and got taken out once. Though I hear Lauren might have crashed a little more than that. After a crash that nearly broke her leg two weeks ago (she still can’t walk right), I am so proud of her for toughing it out like she did. I am also happy I was able to calm down just a little bit and not take myself out on the first lap like at my previous races. In fact the only major mistakes I made were due to other riders. The logs and tires were far from the hardest obstacles on the course but the dust, that was so thick I couldn’t even tell my fender was orange, and the other people crashing into me were the worst. While I was tired at the end and very glad to see the checkered flag, it wasn’t as bad as I had expected. It was actually pretty fun and on the last lap I still had enough energy to sing and dance on my bike as I went by my pit (not a pretty sight I know). Now I have to start thinking about a team for the 12 and 24 hour…
