Mountain Bike Mike: Florida State Championship Series #2--Fernandina Beach, Florida (9/25/11)

Ft. Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach was the location of the second FSC race this past weekend. It was a pretty fun course. We rode through pine trails within walking distance of the beach and also spent a good bit of time on the road.

Last year, Ft. Clinch was my very first kids race and it was a tough one at the time. It was one of the longest courses in the series and I ended up finishing in 6th place. This year, I wanted to win it. Unfortunately, a bad strategy call by me, combined with some very good racing by my friend Nicho kept that from happening. See what I mean in the short kids' race video below.

{Unfortunately, technical difficulties in the camera department (my dad didn't charge the battery in the video camera & left the memory card to the good snapshot camera at home) limited how many photos were taken at the event and how good they came out.}

In the Junior race, I lined up with 11 other boys. Going into the woods I was in the middle of the pack and riding well. Then, 4 of us took a wrong turn on the course and my dad yelled at us and got us to turn around and get back on the right track. Of course, that cost all of us time and let the top 3 riders create a big gap.

Jacob finishes first

At the start of the second lap, I had made up some time, and was working with Trent to catch up to the others. Unfortunately, I didn't hydrate enough during the first lap. By the middle of the 2nd lap, I was so thirsty and tired that when I came back out on the road, I completely drained my hydropak. Then I felt better, but Trent, Eric and John Michael had pulled away from me. So....where did I finish? I finished in 7th. Not the best finish, but I'm staying positive because it's a long season.

Adam

Bryce

Dustin

Eric

John Michael

Taylor and Nicho

Nicho finishes

Trent got a podium with his 5th place finish.

In-Vince-able

One really cool thing that happened at FSC #2 is that I finally got to meet Madison. Who is Madison? Well, she is a 10-year-old girl who races mountain bikes and has her own blog. Last year, my dad showed me her blog (which I still follow) and it gave me the idea for this one. So I guess you could say that she was the inspiration for Mountain Bike Mike.

Anyway, I finally got to meet her and she is really cool. She's a little bit shy, like me, but a very good mountain biker. Last weekend, she raced against the Base Women and totally rocked! She came in 2nd place. Go Madison!! If you want to check out her blog, I have a link to it on the side bar of my page under Mountain Biking Related Links.------------------------------>

After the race, a whole big group of us went with our families to the beach to swim and play. That was one of the benefits of having a race in Fernandina Beach.

It felt really good to wash away all the dirt and sweat from the race. Somehow we all must have been thinking the same thing too, because we all brought boogie boards with us. It was a lot of fun.