It's been hard the last couple of seasons not being there to watch Whitney race. Granted, at some mountains without getting a lift ticket I still don't get to actually watch her but at least I'm there to support her and hear in the moment how things went. These days if I'm not there, which is for most races, I get a phone call after that gives me the low down on how the race went.
This past weekend were the last two USASA races Whitney was going to make. Maine Mountain has one last bx race, the Rumble at the River, but she'll be in Oregon. Overall, she felt the weekend went really well. On Saturday she came in second but it was a good race day. She got some good coaching to help with a couple spots on the course she was having problems with. Her starts were better and overall she felt good about the day.
Sunday was a fun day for her. The weather was moving into the iffy range, the winds were blowing, and they were trying to get the races in before things got worse. The directors decided to seed based off Saturday's time trials so they could move things along. There were fewer racers on Sunday so that helped as well. When they looked at the brackets, they had enough girls to put most everyone in a group of four, except Whitney unless she wanted to race the little girls. Not a challenge for her and just really not a good idea. So they asked if she was ok racing against the men's jams group which only had two racers. Of course she said yes, she loves racing guys. She may not always beat them but it pushes her to keep up and improve.
They ended up running three races. In the first one Whitney almost false started; the wind started blowing and rattled her gate. She thought the gate was dropping and was ready to go so when the starter said "go" she was just a hair behind. The good news is that she caught up and was only half a snowboard length behind at the finish. A very respectable third place. The second race had a different result. She had a good start, passed one of the guys on course, and finished in second. A bit of excitement there! Even better was the final race. I'm not sure why they ran a third race since the racers were in two different groups (Whitney in women's open class, the two guys were both in men's jams) and the guys finished in the same order. Maybe they just ignored that fact and treated it as if they were all in the same group.
The third race sounded like a "typical" boardercross race. Whitney had a great start and was right up with the guys. One of them slid out and into a fence; Whitney wasn't fazed a bit and just kept going. She adjusted her line a bit and moved into the lead, which she kept until the finish. It's always a great day racing when you can beat the guys!
Another visit or two to the trainers, a few days of practice in Maine, then on Saturday she and the other athletes from UMF going to USCSA Nationals will head to Boston to fly to the other Portland for a week of racing in Oregon. Whitney is racing boardercross on Friday, March 10 and giant slalom on Saturday, March 11.
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