Rhino Rally Desert Race- Sat. February 28th.

Well, we left Friday morning for St. George to get settled into the hotel and to register for the race that night.  We got up at 7am on Saturday, got dressed,  and had breakfast, which I had a hard time eating, all because, I normally don't eat that early, and I may have been the slightest bit nervous. After all, I had promised my mom that I wouldn't get seriously hurt or die the night before, and I wasn't so sure that I could control the outcome of that. We got to the race sight around 9am to get ready. The race was actually a bit across the state line in Arizona, I'm sure because the Environmentalist Groups mainly Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance gave the race troubles.  Anyway, we spent the next couple hours taping our assigned numbers, which consisted of our initials and racing class, to our bikes and doing a little maintenance to our bikes. When the time of the race drew close we geared up and headed for the starting line.  I continued to grow more and more nervous.  We had a quick meeting with the racers about trail markings and check point rules.  Then we got lined up in three waves.  Expert, aka - Pro racers left first.  The Amateur's next, then the biggest group which all of us were in, Novice.  I'm guessing that about 230 of the 300 racers were in this wave.  It was so incredibly dusty that we had to wait 10 minutes or so between each wave for the air to clear enough to see. So, finally it's our turn to pull up to the starting line.  We had a great spot.  One that avoided going through one less ravine, and it had me headed straight to a trail of sorts that led through the cactus patches and had less rocks. At that moment, Joe told me to start in 2nd gear to get a better start.  (Usually, the better the start the better chance of getting ahead and winning.) So, while waiting for the flag to drop I made the final decision that I would wait till the dust had cleared a bit before I took off - a bomb run race with that many bikes in the dust heading into a bottle neck trail seemed risky, and I just wanted to finish the race. The flag goes up.  At this moment I concentrate and all feeling of nervousness leaves me. The flag drops, and we all start our bikes.  With electric start, its easy to get into the lead.  But I waited, watched Joe and the others take off, then held my breath till I could see.  I then, took off.  When I got to the bottle neck, it was crazy! There was a ravine that you had to go through and tons of bikes and people were, crashed, stuck and otherwise not moving all over in it.  I did my best to quickly go around them and moved on. I'm sure I passed at least 50 people right then. My wait till the dust clears approach paid off! We went into a small wash and then came out of it to a trail when I watched a guy in front of me, for no apparent reason, go down and take a roll through a cactus patch.  Ouch!  I kept on.  Went around a few more corners when my back tire picked up a bush and after a few minutes of it circulating and whacking my fender, I pulled off on the top of a hill and pulled it out.  Just then I watch my brothers friend pass me.  I said out loud, "oh no you don't!" I jumped back on and took off.  There had been talk earlier that bets were made that I would beat him.  Didn't want to let anyone down. We got down into another wash and I pulled up on his tail.  The trail forked and I took one and he took the other.  Just then I watched him stall his bike at the top of the hill, I gave it more throttle and I blew past him.  So I keep a good pace, but then on the road in the horrible dust, I get passed by Joseph and then my little brother Alex.  I couldn't believe that I had been ahead of them! Not long after that, I had my first crash.  I was going down a hill that had some small ledges.  I had slowed down to take them easy since there was a cliff on one side.  Just then, a guy on a blue bike flies past me and clips my handlebars.  My bike gets thrown to the right and I jump off as its going down.  The bike ends up hitting my right knee as it falls, although I barely felt it at the time. I have never picked up my bike so fast!  When I was getting back on and starting it, 2 girls passed me!  I wasn't going to put up with that.  I took off fast. Two corners later I find the guy that knocked me over, sitting in the road holding his arm. HA!   At about 15 miles into the race, I had been alone for a couple miles and I came upon the first big hill to climb.  Very rocky and had a turn in it.  There was about 7 bikes crashed and piled up on it cause one guy crashed in front of them.  There were others at the bottom of the hill waiting for them to move.  This is a race people!  I went for it.  Put it in first gear and made my way around each person and passed them all.  It was so great to see how mad these men were that this woman riding a small not so powerful bike out did them on a hill and passed them.  The further I got into the race, the more competitive I got.  Whenever I spotted someone on the trail ahead, it made me drive harder and faster to pass them.  I switched places in one wash with 2 guys several times.  I passed them, then went down in some soft silt so they passed me.  I caught them when they wrecked and passed them again.  Then I was going to0 fast and piled myself into a big bush.  So I finally passed them again when we came upon the hardest part of the trail for me. It was a really long hill made up of big rocks.  Had to have been at least 10 people crashed on it. I put my bike into first gear and started at it. They have the power advantage to go fast on their bikes.  I have the super low gear advantage.  I can go really slow on the rocks and that allows me to stay in control, while they have to try it fast and end up crashing as they bounce out of control.  It was so great to see them all struggling as I putted past them. It reminded me of the Berenstain Bear's book for kids that is about these big fast race cars racing brother bear's little red car.  The fast cars all end up wrecking somehow, and as little red passes them, it says "Putt. Putt. Putt. Goes little red." By mile 30 I was loving it, although the dust was caking around my lips and nose and my mouth and throat felt like sand paper.  I had my camel back to drink from, but during the whole race only had time to take 2 or 3 sips from it.  And I paid for taking those sips.  I had passed one of the woman riders while she stopped at the gas truck to refuel.  One of the joys of riding a 4-stroke is not running out of gas.  Well, I thought I had a good lead on her and was dying for some water.  I slowed pace a bit to take a sip of wonderful, refreshing, life saving, water.  When I hear someone yell, "watch out! Passing on the left!"  She busted past me.  That made me forget about thirst.  I immediately pursued!  I got on her tail and passed her going into a wash.  She then passed me by picking the better trail when the road forked.  I worked hard and passed her on the next split in the wash.  I thought all was great when I tried to corner a tight bend too fast and went down in the silt.  I almost got up in time to stay in the lead but failed to get my bike started in time.  She passed and I tailed her for the remaining few miles of the race.  It was a blast!  When the finish came into view, I couldn't believe it was over.  Had 55 miles really went by that fast? I could have gone on longer with the way that race adrenaline was pumping.  But I rejoiced in the fact that I had finished what I came to do.  I pulled up to the trailer to see Joe, Alex, Alijah, Brian, and Chad already finished.  But turns out I had beat 2 of their friends!  That race was one of the most fun things I had ever taken part in. After getting off my bike, I began to feel my knee.  "Oh, my knee kinda hurts."  "Actually, more than kinda!"  I went to the race results board to find out that I had taken 3rd in my class out of 7!  And I don't really know for sure yet, but I'm guessing a little over 100 on the overall! That means I beat more than 100 people! And my bike was smaller and less powerful than all the bikes there except one. (I think she was on a 125.) I was so excited.  Joe took 5th in his class and took 18th overall!  Dang good for not racing for so long. 

The whole race my cell phone was beeping every 5 minutes, cause I got a message right as we pulled up on the starting line.  Didn't have time to check it before the race started.  So I check it now that I'm back and it's Angel who is watching my kids.  She says that she is taking Emmett to the doctor cause he cried all night long.  So I call her back and sure enough, Emmett has infection in both ears really bad.  Poor kid.  That's the third time in a little over a month.  I'm glad that I left him with Angel who is very capable of handling stress like that.  She's great with kids and will be a good mother when her baby is born.  I'm so nice to give her and her hubby a good warm up for when their baby comes!  Anyway, it was a great experience and I really want to race the next one that is coming up.  

The next couple days, my body felt like I'd been hit by a train, but it was so worth it.  I ended up with several large bruises and tons of little ones.  Even with all the gear that, as you will see in the pictures isn't exactly slimming on me. I still ended up getting pretty beat up.  So I'm glad that I had it, or it could have been much worse. Here is a picture of the worst one from my first wreck.