After racing up in Toronto twice this year and seeing what it's all about, I knew that I wanted to race nationals and see where this sport can take me since I'm always up for a new challenge.
I started the week off with the 500m time trial, placing 12th with a new PB. On day 2, I raced the team sprint with Katie Uhlaender who is a 3 time Olympian and world champion in the sport of skeleton. Both of us are very new to the sport so it was really cool to be paired up with another multi-sport athlete!
Day 4 was the day of racing I was most excited for: the keirin. I had only raced one keirin ever before this one, so I was pretty nervous but also excited. I ended up winning my heat, automatically moving me into the semi finals. Top 3 were to qualify to the 1-6 final, and the other 3 would race again for 7-12 place. I ended up in 4th place, so I raced again for 7th but ended up with 3rd place across the line in a very close finish giving me 9th place overall, which I am extremely pleased with.
I went into nationals with basically no expectations, but being an elite athlete you still want to do the best you can so I set small goals for myself such as beating my old PB times, qualifying for the sprints, and getting a top 10 finish. By the end of the week, I accomplished all three things, and had fun while doing so.
I started the week off with the 500m time trial, placing 12th with a new PB. On day 2, I raced the team sprint with Katie Uhlaender who is a 3 time Olympian and world champion in the sport of skeleton. Both of us are very new to the sport so it was really cool to be paired up with another multi-sport athlete!
On day 3, it was finally time for the sprints. The top 12 girls qualified, and I qualified in 12th.. again. I have qualified 12/12 twice at worlds in the time trials, so it was really nothing new to me. However in skating it just means that you run your final first, in cycling it means you get to race the top qualifier in the sprints. Of course, that happened to be my teammate and good friend Mandy. I lost the first round and went on to the reps to barely miss qualifying onto the quarter finals, so my day was done.
Day 4 was the day of racing I was most excited for: the keirin. I had only raced one keirin ever before this one, so I was pretty nervous but also excited. I ended up winning my heat, automatically moving me into the semi finals. Top 3 were to qualify to the 1-6 final, and the other 3 would race again for 7-12 place. I ended up in 4th place, so I raced again for 7th but ended up with 3rd place across the line in a very close finish giving me 9th place overall, which I am extremely pleased with.
Overall, it was an amazing experience. The US has a great group of girls I was happy to race against and become friends with.
None of this would have been possible without all the hard work my coach (Andrew Harris) puts into our team's training. There were a lot of long days, early mornings, and days where I just didn't think I could do it, but thanks to Andrew and my amazing teammates, I made it through the rough winter of training in the dungeon.
Who would have thought 3 years ago when I started training with Sprinter's Edge in the gym that I would become a cyclist? I guess it was just fate!
Up next are collegiate nationals in Colorado Springs September 17-19 where I will be racing for Penn State Lehigh Valley!
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