FSC #3--Gainesville, Florida (10/1-2/11)

The third race of the Florida series took place at Haile's trails in Gainesville. Haile's is cool because the trail takes you through the woods, in and out of a lime rock quarry, and even around the edge of a deep pit full of water. It's only open twice a year, too; once during the SERC series and once during the FSC. The first time I rode it was in March, for the SERC series. I won the kids race, but didn't do nearly as well in the juniors class (I came in dead last).  This time, I had much higher hopes.

The kids race is always exciting at Haile's, and this time was no different. The big story for this race is how Nicho overcame a mistake that cost him a lot of positions to come in second at the finish.

Apparently, Nicho went the wrong way at the finish and didn't go through the scoring part and had to turn around and come back through. This cost him a lot of time and other kids went past him. Because I was racing too, I didn't see what happened, but my dad said Nicho got his determined race face on and took off like a rocket after the other kids. When he caught up to a whole bunch of them bottle-necked in the woods, he got off his bike and ran through the woods to get around them, ultimately finishing in 2nd. Way to go, Nicho!! That's awesome determination!

Start of the Juniors race

This week, while watching helmet-cam footage of the Juniors' start, I realized that I definitely need to work on getting off the line faster. I had a horrible start, which meant I had to spend a lot of time working my way through traffic at the beginning.  Overall though, it was a good race and I absolutely love the course. There were several position changes during the two laps with guys jockeying for spots all along the course, and gaining or losing positions due to wrecks or walking. I finished in the middle of the pack in 8th, which seems to be my spot lately. My goal for Alafia next week is to break out of that rut and into a podium spot.

My mom took some cool pictures in the woods and on the rocks section, and my dad managed to edit together a video of the race. It took him all week to do this, but I'll explain why at the end.

These next pictures were taken around the edge of the quarry pit, on one of the tough, rocky, technical lime rock sections. There are a whole bunch more on MTBMike.com's facebook page. Unfortunately, we couldn't get them to upload properly here.

Below is the video for the Juniors race.



The reason it took so long to get the videos done and the blog updated this week is because my dad fell during his race and tore his knee open on a root. He had to get a ton of stitches and hasn't been feeling too well, especially since he's going to miss at least a few races. Hopefully his knee will heal quickly so he can get back out on the trail with me.