2011 Northstar Pro GRT

words by Mary Moncorge

photo credit: Mike Lord

Last weekend was the last stage of the Pro GRT and fortunately it was being held at our "local" mountain, Northstar, so lots of friends were there to cheer and there were not too many miles to travel - yay!

The race took place on Sticks and Stones: I'm not that comfortable with rocks, but I've been working on it a lot this past month and it finally paid off.

Also, not being injured (just a sprained ankle - I rolled it a couple weeks ago being too confident on a XC ride) was pretty awesome. I've done all the races injured this year and it's not a good feeling.

Northstar had a weird schedule for the weekend: DH quali and 4X race on friday and DH race on saturday.

I had to take it easy at quali as I had the 4X right after, so I posted the slowest time as I didn't wanted to tired myself too much and I also washed out in a sandy corner and my foot was stuck in the pedal - grrrrr! Anyway, I knew I could shave at least 20 seconds from quali to race run, so I wasn't too worried. Then I had to run over to 4X quali, change bikes and get on the Jackal. Getting to the quali for 4X, I started to feel light headed and weak. I took 2nd in the race: I realized I hadn't really ate all day and the Jackal wasn't the best bike for that course.... blablabla excuses.  I had fun but I learned that I definitely need to remember to eat because of this silly low blood sugar, as I almost passed out after the race.

Mary with Becky Gardner, Andrea Napoli and Robyn Embrey

Saturday was race day: good breakfast and off to the only practice run allowed before the race - as I got there late, it was my warm-up run too and I wasn't really happy with it.  So I went riding with Maggie the dog to cheer me up, took a run on my own and realize I had to eat 2 hours before the run to have time to digest and have strength.  Then I went for another run with Maggie the dog and one with my BF Peter and I realized I was late for my race run, so I rushed to the top and luckily I still had 10 minutes before starting!

During my race run, I kept telling myself: "keep it together, keep it together" or "get your ass off this saddle and pedal. Pedal harder"!  I definitely got more than a couple of "oh shit" moments during my run but got super stoked after cleaning a line I only made once through the water fall.

I was so into it that I screamed crossing the finish line and it took me a few minutes to catch my breath.
I got a 5:09 which put me in the hot seat until the last 3 riders came down and Darian got 2nd and Katie took the win.  I placed 3rd and stood on my first national Pro podium for DH.

Podium Joy

I'm so thankful for my BF Peter that kept me positive and pushed me to get better in the rocks and also my teammates and my friends that cheered for me.

I had an awesome time and I can't wait for the last 3 events of the season in a month: Race for Tara (it's going to be interesting to do almost the same course on a smaller bike), Parkfield Classic (DS and DH) and Ridge Trail Festival (Super-D and DH).

-Mary