3 Weeks of Racing

Alisha says: I just finished up 3 Saturdays in a row of racing on the mountain bike. It was a lot of fun and good times.

Race #1: The Showdown 8 hour relay race as a duo with Dave. This was a super fun event that consisted of a 12 mile loop in Usery Park which is basically in our backyard. Dave started first and put in a great lap to get things started. From there we traded off every lap which was about 45-50 min. My first lap was my fastest and we just kept going from there. The cool thing about this race is that there are 4 timed segments out on the course and $100 is given to the fastest male and female for each one. Dave and I rode strategically and each gave it a go on the segments and we ended up taking home $600!! I won fastest lap, levee drag, cats peak, and cats peak bypass. Dave was the fastest on the levee drag and cats peak bypass. The other really fun part of this event is hanging out with all of our friends between and after the race. We each finished 5 laps (60 miles) for a team total of 10 laps (120 miles) in 8 hours to finish first in our category!

Race #2: Cave Creek Cycling Classic - C4. This was a 23 mile race in Cave Creek that I went and did by myself. I was super nervous at the start because I had never ridden any of the trails before, it was a mass start and there was a good field of fast women. I lined up early but the first 5 miles were still so crazy as we started out in town on paved roads so there was a lot jockeying for position and the group stayed together until we finally hit a little uphill into the single track. I was the first women into the single track and just tried to keep it going from there. The course had a little bit of everything, climbing, chunky loose rocks, downhill rock drops. It was a hot day and a hard effort. I knew I had won coming into the finish and although I have won other races this was the first that I sat up and actually put both hands in the air to celebrate! I have to admit that it was fun!

Race #3: 12 Hours of Fury at McDowell relay race as a quad female team with Victoria, Nicole and Lisa. This is another fun relay event around a 15 mile loop and with 4 people you get to hang out a little more between laps which is always a good time. It was a perfect day with temperatures in the 80's and some clouds. I started things off for us and had an good lap. My second lap was my favorite and the fastest female lap of the day. My 3rd lap was our last and in the dark. Everyone rode awesome and we were first in our category (unfortunately out of only 2 teams, but we did stack up well when compared to the other categories and was 22/100 plus teams) by finishing 8 laps (we probably would have had time for 1 more lap but we really didn't need it so we didn't). There is so much more to cycling than just riding a bike it is also the cool people you meet, friendships you make and experiences you have and it was fun to hang out and ride bikes all day with friends. Dave