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Round 2 started out with the weather doing the rain/sun dance and at times was so iffy most of us weren’t sure if we were going to be swapping our rains out to slick/DOT’s, but that is the guessing game we play in this sport we love. After our practice sessions for our Novice group we hunkered down to relax before the races began and the skies decided to open up and just pour, so much for the mostly sunny with the chance of showers forecast. Some racers decided to brave the elements others decided to pull out, but my philosophy is if you are here, you should compete and I was in no matter what the weather was going to bring. The races were exciting, the speeds the experts race are just mind boggling and the precision they handle their bikes with is really amazing. I’ve asked Mark DeGross about how they know their bikes so well and his response has been time and time again, seat time, track time and practice. Note to self-gotta get more of all of that to be the rider I envision myself to be. I am not competing to be in the AMA, I am not competing even to really place, but I am competing to prove to myself that I can ride with some of the best boys around.
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Then came time for our race and at the sound of the horn and looking at the schedule I bolted on my bike to start/finish only to be frantically waved off by the staff to return to pit. Getting off my bike, taking off my helmet and earplugs, I walked over to another racer to find out that they were running behind. So back to pit to wait again to race, heart pounding and nerves uneasy. Watching the track, we saw the checkered flag raise and the last lap was up, the winners came in one by one to a roaring crowd and I started the process of gearing up yet again. Now it was our practice lap, then to grid, then off we went in one flurry as the light went out. I was in great position and I knew I had this race pretty comfortably in the middle of the group, the really fast guys were up in front and the really slow guys were in the back. Then the red flag went up after my first lap and passing another corner came the ambulance flag, a rider was down and an ambulance was on the track, we all had to get off the track and regrid. This time my start was poor and instead of just keeping my head and my patience to just be strategic I took unnecessary risks and paid the price, I was the next one to go down, I lowsided on turn 15 at The Ridge. At the time I was in shock, I couldn’t believe how fast it all happened, but after I got my bearings I got up and looked at the damage. I was fine, a little banged up, but my bike was not in the pristine shape it was in when I came…the nature of the race/competition. The disappointment was devastating, the ride home was full of replaying the incident and what happened, but I knew I wanted to make up for the loss of my poor start and I chose to make too many risky decisions. I know that if I had just been more patient and waited I wouldn’t have crashed, but that is something I can only work on in future races and I suppose you can even say I can apply that to real life.
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The lesson I learned from this race was patience, that alone would have allowed me to come home with my bike intact, a finish under my belt (point system) and no soreness from the crash (totally worth it alone). Ride CHIC (Confident, Hard and In Control)… Vixens Ride!
