2019 Port Angeles NW Cup #2

Hi all,

This past weekend I attended round number 2 of the NW cup race series in Port Angeles, Washington. I was very excited to come back to this venue to race after racing the GRT there a month prior. So, I felt like this would be an excellent opportunity to build upon what I was working on at the last race. There was something different about this race; it was dry. Which is something that doesn't happen in port Angeles very often? Usually, it is pouring rain, and the track gets raced in the wet, which makes this race different because of the consistency of the dirt.  At this race, they changed up the track quite a bit. There were now some open high-speed sections which added a bit more of a bike park element to the course which quite suits me (coming from whistler). When I got on track for the first day of practice, I felt like I was riding quite well, and I was scanning the track for different lines and experimenting with various options. By the time practice was over, and it was time to head up for my seeding run, I felt I was already in a great position so early in the weekend. I dropped into my seeding run with absolute authority and confidence I was unaware I had, and I had a flawless run, hitting all my lines, and carrying terrific speed in the corners. This seeded me in 3rd place in a very stacked field of competitors. Achieving so much so early in the weekend gave me so much confidence going into race day. I made sure that I did everything I could that evening to set myself up for success the next day, from eating well to stretching to getting a good night's sleep. I awoke the next day feeling rejuvenated and prepared for race day. I headed up for my practice runs and approached it like any other race day. In my first run, I went at 60% effort and then on my second I took it up to 90%. I was riding well and not taking to many additional risks. I felt solid on the bike and was prepared to throw down for race run. When I got to the top, I was putting a bit more added pressure on myself just because I wanted to uphold my great seeding time. So, when I entered the start gate, I got distracted by the result instead of thinking about what I needed to do to achieve that result. I dropped into my race run hard on the gas and was hitting most of my lines fairly well, but I was not as calm as before. I was feeling almost jittery on my bike and not as stable as I was previously; this resulted in me making one big mistake that cost me a lot of momentum. I ended up having an ok run after that landing myself 5th place, but I was only a second or two off the podium. This run was a tough pill to swallow knowing that if I had just thought about what it was going to take to get the result instead of just the outcome itself, I might not have made that mistake causing me to lose those precious few seconds.