We had managed to talk Brett into racing this season and his wave took off at 5:45pm. I rode in with Warren as we were due to start till 6:30pm. This is because the two of them had talked me into racing Expert this year. I was feeling a little unsure about this. Last year I was racing Beginner. Yes, quite the jump and some may say this is pretty confident, but when I thought about it I usually rise to the level of competition around me so maybe it was a good idea.
4 Eagle Ranch doesn't have too much climbing, but a bit of a grind on the first part of the course. It is a jeep road and you are pretty anaerobic in the first 5 minutes. You need to go fairly hard here as then, you are somewhat stuck in that position as you meander through the sage bush and it is really tight to try and pass. There is a section across a paddock that is really fast and pretty bumpy but all in all for me this was a good first race, not to technical and pretty straight forward. Just try not to come DFL!
From the start it seemed like us girls had sorted ourselves into position within the first 5-10 minutes and we all stayed there! I had a look at last year's finish times and was hoping to finish in under 1:05. I ended up finishing in 1:00:12 and came 5th of 6 girls. I was happy enough with this race but didn't feel like I really went as hard as I could - oh well, plenty of time to work on that!
What I absolutely loved was that I heard so many people cheering for me. As scary as it was jumping into my first Expert race I was psyched to have so much support from my friends, thanks guys.
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