Battle the Bear by Toler

Race Report by Toler

Hi everyone,
I was asked to talk to you about the Battle the Bear race down in Lakewood that happened this weekend. This is my first race report so I am sorry if I leave out any important details. Here goes!
Driving down to the race with my dad, I was relieved to see some cloud cover approaching the race venue, which would make for a cooler, if not completely comfortable, race. As soon as we got in the parking lot I began to feel butterflies in my stomach, but soon forgot those as soon as I saw my teammates also getting ready for the race. At the start line, there were almost fifty people, men and women of all ages competing in the sport category. The course was really fun, including a hard climb at the start of every lap and later on a fun, smooth downhill overlooking the reservoir.
My start was pretty good, and I was able to stay in sight of Chris for the first half of the first lap, but then he and Denzel left Cassidy and I in the dust. The course was really smooth when we were down in the trees but then got a little rutted out and a little rocky so that by the end of the race we could all barely feel our hands. On the start of the second lap, Cassidy passed me and was kind enough to pull me the whole rest of the race. With what I calculated as about five minutes left to go, I decided to repay my teammate’s kindness by trying to drop him and cement a place on the podium. As I came into the finish area, Cassidy was nowhere to be seen and I thought my strategy had worked out pretty well. When Cassidy rolled into the finish area with a flat about two minutes later, however, I realized that my near-death causing effort had been completely pointless, except for the gift card to a pizza place I have never heard of. I finished up a great day by going home and Sleeping!

— Toler