This year Perris seemed to come so quickly and by time the weekend rolled around I could not believe it would be the start of my last So Cal season! Going into the weekend I couldn't help but feel the usual pre-race nerves because I had no idea of how I was going to do. On both Friday and Saturday I did two laps just to get down the new sections that were added, which I thought made the race more fun and exiting. The rest of Saturday consisted of hanging out with my teammates around the race venue and getting everything ready for the next morning.
On Sunday I woke up around 7am and got my things packed up and ready to roll and then it was time to hit the road to Perris! When we got there Hayley and I set up everything, which was made easy by my Scicon bag because I knew all my race essentials were packed in it and ready to go. Then we talked over strategy with Coach J and went to warm up. During the warm up I put my headphones on, cleared my mind, and began to focus and think about my goals for the race. Before I knew it it was time for staging, thankfully I had a fourth place call up so I started in the front row.
3...2...1... and were off! Once all the varsity girls took off we all grouped together and made our way to the climb. I expected once we hit the dirt everyone would start sprinting, but the fire road climb was surprisingly set at an easy pace with only a slight sprint at the top to get into the single track downhill. By this time the top six were all together and we stayed in a line for the rest of the fist lap.
Going into the second lap I maintained my top five position, still hanging on with the front pack. The climb came and we started to pick up the pace a little and created a gap on sixth and seventh, once we headed on to the beach I could see everyone cheering me on and I was driven to stay with the pack and hold on for one more lap.
On the third lap the pace picked up a lot on the climb and I fought to stick with the pack. Around the top of the climb everyone started to sprint and I fell a little behind going into the single track, but I didn't want anyone to catch up to me since the top four were ahead and I had no one to work with, so I petaled as fast as I could. Once I was on the beach I sprinted with the energy I had left and crossed the finish line in fifth place. It was a great feeling finishing in the top five, knowing I would be on the podium for my last race at Perris and leave it on a high note.
Overall I am happy with how my race went, and I could not have done it without all the support from my coaches, family and team. Congrats to all my teammates who did so well, especially Hayley, Marjie, and Mady who all got on the Varsity podium as well! Also Yucaipa got 2nd place division one team, so that was super exiting too. I can not wait till Vail and I'm super exited for the rest of season! A huge thank you to Ellsworth bikes, Kenda tires, Rudy project, ESI grips, PhysioPhyx, Rynopower, Scicon and the Devo team !!!
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