We arrived at the hotel Friday evening.
Got up not so early on Saturday morning, and headed over to get Lacey checked in. After check in, we walked around a bit, and stopped off at the HOSS tent. They're a great bunch of guy's, and one of Lacey's biggest supporters.
We road around a bit more, trying to get some info on where she would be staging, and what time she would be racing. That's when we ran into Andy, and then just minutes after she finished her race, we met Impy.
Then the clouds opened up!
After deciding to not hang out in the rain, and get Lacey sick, we headed back to the Hotel. We were a little bummed because we had planned on riding some on Saturday.
Race day finally rolled on in, with the sun shining, and a nice cold wind blowing.
As we were riding around, getting Lacey warmed up, we met Neil, aka 1x1 Clyde. His sign on fits him perfect, he's a BIG dude!
Then after heading over to the staging area, we ran into Trung. He's always easy for me to spot, sporting his UC Irvine uniform.
After getting lined up, I knew that this was going to be Lacey's toughest race yet.
Her start off the line wasn't too bad, as she hung in the middle of the pack for a bit.
But with the first part of the course being on pavement, and she doesn't road ride at all, she fell back fairly quick.
I road up the course and planted myself on the finishing single track and waited for my little girl to come by.
As I waited I saw Padre come sceaming past. Then Neil, then Trung, the some of the girls Lacey was racing against, but no Lacey.
After a bit here she came, pedaling her heart out!
"Finish strong, it's all downhill from here!"
After meeting up with her at the finish, I asked her how she felt. With a big smile she told me she was happy to finish, and she felt like she did her best.
After heading to the car so she could change we saw, Chelle and her family, and Greg. They told us how Chelle had been doing, and how Sara had been kicking major bootty.
They asked Lacey how she did, and she said she had finished, and had fun, but we still needed to check the results.
Then the results got posted, and there it was....
sixthed place out of six girls.....last.
But, I couldn't have been more proud of her!
Why?
Because even though she didn't get the great result she may have wanted, she finished with a smile, had fun, and didn't make any excuses at all, for her loss.
When someone would ask how she did, she would say, " I did good, I finished, and I got 6th out of 6."
What more could a Dad ask for?
It was her first big race in the Sport catagory, and I think she learned a lot from it.
There will definitely be more to come!!
