Since I don’t really know where to go to find trails, I decided to join my friend Lory at a Hare Scramble in Arrington, Virginia.
Lory has years of experience riding dirt bikes, but luckily he didn’t mind showing me the ropes on my first ever race.
The classes lined up on race day and left the starting grid at roughly one-minute increments. Since I didn’t want to be in anyone’s way, I decided to forego the holeshot and instead let my heat enter the trails ahead of me.
In the woods, I tried to follow other riders’ lines and keep an ear out for faster riders behind me that might want to pass.
The format for the race is four laps of eight miles each. On the first lap, I had a few slips, but eventually got the hang of slowing for the quick turns without grabbing too much front brake.
Eventually, the entire field of riders was intermixed and I was constantly mindful to give way to the front of the pack as they approached from behind. I wish I could say the same for all of us “slow guys” but I repeatedly witnessed riders logjam the course instead of simply pulling to the side to let the real racers by.
One memorable off happened when I accidentally bumped the throttle, rocketing the bike toward a tree! Luckily I was fine, especially considering that I’m nursing a snowboarding injury from about a month ago.
At a couple points in the race, I decided to pull over to take a breather, drink some water, and generally relax since this was NOT a race in my mind, but rather an opportunity to ride the trails. These breaks meant that I only had time to complete three laps, but that was still PLENTY of riding for what was really my first time ever on singletrack.
The series is packed with races all throughout the summer, so I expect I’ll be attending a few more this season.
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