Before today's race I didn't feel mentally very prepared. I was really tired because I felt like I didn't get enough sleep. When we got thereI started to actually feel a little more pumped. We warmed up quite a bit and everybody on our team were trying to explain the course all at once so I was a little confused and worried that I'd go the wrong way.
We finally started. I ran down that first strip really fast, which helped a lot because I stayed up in that closer to the front pack almost the entire time. We went on a really bumpy trail, then onto a dirt road which brought us into the trees. I knew there were three MC girls in front of me and Riley and Kaitlin. We went on a really narrow trail down a pretty steep hill right after we got into the trees. Right before we turned onto another trail, I slightly twisted my ankle and it hurt a little, but I kept running. While we were going up this little hill a MC girl was in front of me going slower than I'd like to, but I couldn't pass her and my ankle slowly stopped hurting as we went up that short hill. Then we did some crazy twists and turns and I passed one of the MC girls up a hill. At some points I was slightly confused on where to go next, but they had the trail marked pretty well and I never got totally lost. I did twist my ankle another time, but it didn't hurt much. When we finally got out of the trees I thought we were almost done and I passed the other MC girl. I thought after you go up the hill you went into the finish, but actually you went around the same loop we started. Before I got onto that trail, a BE girl passed me unexpectantly. I caught up to Riley and drafted off of her because there was a slight headwind. On that final sprint I tried to pass Riley, but she would sprint which is great for her. I tried a couple times, then we sprinted to the end.
I felt super good at the end and neither of my ankles hurt which was really weird. I don't know why, but I was talking really loudly and easily right after which makes me kind of feel like I didn't try hard enough, but I just felt so good. I was happy about my time and our team is doing so well which I am so happy about.
Afterwards we did a quick cool down.
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