FTR Hare Scramble #1 - Lake Butler 09/15/2024 - Master C (5th place)

It felt good to race again after a 5 month break, during which I didn't ride at all. Living in south Florida does not make it easy to practice, so with such a long break it was not easy to get back on the saddle, especially to race right away. I managed to take a great start and ended up 2nd at the first turn, missing the holeshot from not much. Two guys passed me right away and I settled for 4th for a while, before a tree jumped at me and I fell quite heavily. The time I get back on the horse and find my pace again, a couple of guys passed me indeed and it took me the rest of the lap to catch up with them. I was expecting a lot of traffic but it was not as bad as I thought, and I'm getting better at passing slower riders so it made it easier to come back to the front pack, unfortunately I was not fast enough to catch up with everyone, I finished a few seconds behind the 4th, and about a minute or so behind the 3rd of the race. It could have been a podium for me without that crash possibly, but for a first race with no practice for 5 months, I'm happy with 5th. See you guys at hs #2.