Florida State Championship Series #1--Tallahassee, Florida (9/10 & 9/11/11)

The FSC is here! The FSC is here!! That's how excited I was to go up to Tallahassee for the first race of the Florida State Championship series this past weekend. It wasn't because that there was an individual time trial competition on Saturday to get things started. It wasn't because the course included both a BMX flow-track and an actual BMX race track (totally fun!). It wasn't because I was going to get to see a whole bunch of my racing friends and compete against some of the best kids anywhere. It was all of those things put together that had me so excited to be starting the Florida series.

I was the very last one to start the individual time trial.

My family and I got to Tom Brown Park with our friend, Dave, on Saturday morning. We all pre-rode the race course and the time trial course. I even rode the kids course just to make sure I knew where to go. Then, in the afternoon, we lined up for the individual time trial. I was a little surprised that only about half of the 11-14 year old's did the time trial, but maybe they were trying to save their energy for the race the next day. I know I supposedly learned my lesson about wearing myself out on race day, but I figured it was only one lap & I would probably just sleep very well that night. After all, one of the good things about being a kid is that it doesn't take very long to recover. I was really happy with my time and I ended up finishing in 5th.

 The next morning, I lined up with the 9-11 year old's for the start of the kids' races. It was fun to have so many kids in the class to ride against, including my friends Nicho and Bryce, who are very strong riders.

Bryce jumped out to a quick lead. (He's a really quick sprinter from the starting line.) I was in second, and Nicho was in third as we fell into a line before going through the fence at the bottom of the hill.

Austin is the rabbit for the first lap.

Bryce leads at the start.

 When we got into the trail for the second lap, there was a tiny little kid there with his parents and I had to check up on the brakes in order to not hit him. I don't think his parents expected all of us bigger kids to come riding up on them so fast and I know I didn't expect to find them there. Nicho was right behind me and I heard him yell in surprise when he came up to them too. I like it better when Dave lets the bigger kids finish before starting the 3-5 year olds. It's definitely safer that way!

Here are some pictures of some of the kids in the 9-11 class.

Nicho

Parker

Jordan

Blake and Josh

Bryce K.

The total course length for our group was a little more than 3 miles, and included the BMX track, so it wasn't an easy race. Overall, though, it was a really fun kids' race.

Rilyn

After racing against 12 other boys in the 9-11 class (which was a lot compared to the GSC & SERC races), I was totally stoked to see that there were 20 of us in the Juniors 11-14 class. I know that might sound weird, being excited because there were so many kids to race against, but I realized this week that the best way to get better at racing is to race against the best kids. This might also sound weird, but I think Florida has THE BEST junior racers and a LOT of them.

Several of us who rode in the kids race also lined up for the Juniors' race. I know my mom was worried that I might burn myself out, but I was careful to eat, drink, and rest between races and I was feeling pretty good. (See, I did learn my lesson at Helen.)

The injured rider

The start of the race was ok until one of the guys hit the fence and went over it. You can see how the boy and his bike ended up in my video. I sure hope he didn't hurt himself too badly. He looked like he was in some pain in the photo my mom took later in the race.

Me huffing and puffing

Zack Attack

Trent glad to be done

Vince

Overall, it was an awesome race! The course was fast and fun. Lots of my friends did the race. And I rode as hard as I possibly could for the entire 13 miles and finished in 6th. I was a little bit disappointed to have missed the podium by one spot, but I know I did the best that I could do, so I can't complain too much (plus, there are still 8 or 9 more races). 

Dustin takes the win

Talking about the race afterwards

 Check out the video of all the Juniors 11-14 racing action.

Next up, Fernandina Beach for FSC #2......

**Mountain Bike Mike would like to thank Mrs. Donovan for the cool starting line photo that I "borrowed" for this post.**