This was an all together great weekend. It started on Saturday morning when I hitched a ride with our good friends the Flanagans, who are coaches for the SCV team. We got to Lake Perris and I tried to find Blake Wray or Turner Conway to pre ride the course. Blake was already leaving with his sister Hannah and Turners sister Skylar. I had to change my plan. I was able to kit up at the Conways and then I went down the pit area to see if I could run into someone who hadn't pre-ridden the course yet which was really hard to do. I finally joined the Simi Composite team for a bit and then ran into my friend Devon Woolston that I haven't seen since the start off summer at the PedalFest race series. I talked to him all the way up the climb. When we got to the top he waited for some of his teammates but I kept on moving down the descent. I was looking for lines, which were almost identical the to year before, but there were big changes to the course itself. The first one was the G out, where another racer broke his jaw last year, we had to do a little detour to go through the G out slower. Second, was a two parter, right before the finish in years past on the beach there used to be three back and forths that were moved into the wood chips after the finish line which I was kinda happy about at the time of the pre ride but wished we were back on the beach after the actual race. Lastly, it is kinda small, there were a few more flat turns through the grass to make it a bit more technical so it wasn't such a straight roadie course. After finishing the lap I ran into Blake and one of his buddies and we went out and had a little fun finding different trails a little off the course. Once we got back on course I was able to look over some of the new lines they added again. At one of the last new turns, right after the feed zone, I saw Devin Debruhl and Levi Mason looking at lines for a sprint finish which was difficult because there was a single track about 200 yards before the finish and whoever got into to that first, in my opinion, is who would win their race. Later, after looking at the lines I went to talk to coach Jason Ranoa to see how he was doing and get some words of advice. I also ran into TASCO and one of my dads buddies Lucas Rowton. After that I headed to the Wray and Conway compound and got back into regular clothes, rested and then watched the Middle Schoolers go off. At around 3:30 my parents where finally heading down while Turner, Blake, Devin and I sat at Turners RV and played xbox which has now become a regular relaxing event I look forward to, at all the races the Conway's attended. At 6:30 my family finally made it to Perris. I headed over my RV to say hi to my parents grab some dinner and then headed back over to the Conways to keep playing xbox. At around 9:30 I went back to my RV to get to bed for race day. 
That night I had a good night sleep and though I felt the nerves coming in, I was able to stay relaxed. I stayed in my RV for most of the morning but went to support my other teammates from the Devo team. After seeing them go off I went back into my RV to rest, stretch and get rolled out. At around 12:30 I got on my trainer and did some openers listening to my music and tried to visualize the course in my head. I headed down to staging at 1:05 with a big smile on my face and tried to stay relaxed. When I got there I was able to see my friends again crack some jokes which helped the nerves. Then they started our call ups. VARSITY. It was the first time that it finally hit me I'm in the Big Time with some super fast dudes and that all my hard work has paid off. I was the 5th call up. On my way up I went to give my mom my empty GU packet and the guy calling everyone up was blocking my way a bit so I tried to sneak past but I got too close to my mom and got my bar caught in her sweatshirt and almost went down before the race even started. After making myself look like a complete idiot and providing comic relief for the crowd, I felt like all the nerves disappeared. We sat at the start line for a few minutes, then headed out to the real start on the road where everyone was lined up to watch. We all went off together, not in an all out sprint, but we were all just pushing a solid speed till we got to the climb. As soon as we got to the climb it was a slug fest. Turner and I took an inside line then a group of about 13 ish took off on the climb and I was in the second group from 14-18. We got to the descent and I was stuck behind people so I had to wait for the fire road after to try and catch the leaders. I was able to fight back to be in contention for the top 10. We got in a nice group with three other guys with one being a teammate Ryan Landis. We stayed together for the whole second lap holding a constant speed with me and one of the other kids doing most of the work at the front. This affected us because on the third lap climb Ryan and the other kid took off and I tried to fight back but I worked too much and didn't have the same power. I was able to push away for the other kid and tried for the remainder of the third lap and forth lap to catch up but I was in no mans land. NO HELP. Just me and my own will power to keep on pushing. I used the people in other categories as my carrots to chase up the climb. I also had my dad at the bottom of the last part which is the hardest part yelling at me to "dig deep" which I definitely did. It was also awesome to ride across the beach with literally everyone cheering you on, it looked like a tunnel with people on both sides. On the descent I pushed so hard to be as fast as possible and took the straightest lines. When I got onto the fireroad I used my new E*Thirteen cassette with a nine tooth cog (which is one of the smallest you can get p.s. smaller is faster) to try to catch up to the group for 6-11 position. I know that I'm a good sprinter so if I got in there I thought I could very likely get a top 10. I was pushing as hard as I could but still in the back of my mind thinking to save some energy to sprint at the end if need be. When we hit the beach the group was slowing down and they had about 10-15 seconds on me so I picked up a bit of speed and tried to tag on the group. I heard my mom yelling across the beach to catch on to the group. This was my last chance because as soon as they hit the feed zone it is three turns away from the finish and they would already be sprinting and I had already pushed so hard. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, I got within 5 seconds but not close enough to catch the group. This is where I wish there was still 3 passes on the beach because I feel this would've increased my chances of catching the group and increased my odds of a top 10 finish. I was able to come in 12th and I'm super happy about this. I did not take my training as seriously as I should've , until it was too late. I have had to really find out what I wanted out of this year and with the help of a new coach I think I'm on track to achieve the goals I have set for myself. This race, my goal was to finish in the top 15 and I did. Knowing that I was that close to the top ten is a huge booster and is making me push harder. I can't wait to race Vail in 2 weeks time. The course is always a blast and its like a second home to me especially, this year with having 8 races there.
Special thanks to Physiophyx, TASCO, Rudy project, Kenda tires, Roger is the best and Boosters are awesome!! Ellsworth, ESI grips and Matheny Endurance.
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