Santa Clara PAL BMX 11/17/13

Daddy doesn't know if he's ever been so proud of Alessandra. She's been practicing her starts, and staying focused, and it payed dividends today. There were 6 riders in the heat with 5 transferring to the main; and again the fast kids were out (except for Cody). Alessandra got the holeshot in the heat race, and kept Tyler behind her all the way to the beginning of the last straightaway where Tyler passed her going up the steep tabletop. She was able to stay in front of Andrew to take 2nd place.

She got another good start in the main, and was right in the thick of it with Tyler and Andrew. Tyler was able to pull away a little, but Andrew and Alessandra were keeping him on his game in pursuit. Alessandra ended up with a solid 3rd place finish as these three clearly separated themselves from the others. 

Alessandra was awesome! And she was pretty happy to get a trophy again (although she preferred Anthony's first place trophy).

Santa Clara PAL BMX 11/15/13

It was a beautiful night under an almost full moon, but it's definitely not summer anymore. It was just the heavy hitters in tonight's lineup: Cody, Tyler, Andrew and Alessandra. Alessandra needs to get better starts to be able to mix it up with these boys. They're all older (except Andrew; he's three), more experienced (especially Andrew; they're racing 3-5 days a week), a maybe just a little bit stronger than Alessandra.

She finished 4th tonight (5 were in the heat race, and 4 transferred to the main), but it was a step in the right direction. She stayed focused for the whole race, and didn't finish too far behind the others. We're  just starting to get out to the track a bit more frequently lately, so I think she'll be getting sharper pretty quickly. 

Santa Clara PAL BMX- 11/1/13

Alessandra was having fun, but definitely not in race mode. The highlight of the night was that she actually finished in the middle (3rd out of 5) instead of finishing last, or close to it, as she has often done when she's in one of her "less competitive" modes. Anyway, she had fun, and actually earned her third place trophy. 

Full Moon Friday with Bachan 10/18/13

Not too many Striders tonight, but it was a beautiful fall night under a full moon. Alessandra was pretty casual in practice on the little track, and the big track. She went fast when she wanted to, and just strolled around, and looked up at the lights at times; sometimes just stopping on top of a whoop and looking around. But when race time came it was serious business. She got off the line well, and controlled both races, eventually taking another pair of wins. It was just her and another 4 yr. old tonight, but Alessandra had everything. under control, and cruised to victory.

Santa Clara PAL BMX 9/13/13

Alessandra surprised us when she woke up from her nap and said that she wanted to go racing. After last week we thought that a break from racing was in store. It was a good night overall. She was having fun in practice, and the kids were all having fun lining up and doing some practice starts.



We thought that they were going to let them all race in one race, but at the last minute they separated out Tyler and Alessandra (the two four year-olds), and had them just race each other. Too bad, a race of six would have been much more fun. Tyler beat Alessandra pretty bad in both races. He's definitely older than Alessandra (he may even be 5), and far more experienced. He actually already races a pedal bike on the full track in the 5 and under class. Alessandra was definitely capable of going faster than she did though; unfortunately once someone gets away from her at the start she just lets them go, and get's into stroll mode- something we have to work on.
A couple of weeks ago she was in a race against Cody ( the boy that swapped wins with Tyler last week), and Alessandra only finished several bike lengths behind him, whereas she finished way, way behind Tyler in this one. Oh well, she still got a second place trophy, and she deserved it! She did well.

Santa Clara PAL BMX 9/6/13

It was a rough night! Alessandra was acting up little before we took off for the track, which is never a good sign, and then she was just not her usual self at the track. She was crying for momma, stopping on the whoops and looking up at the stars (she did comment that it was dark out, which was a new experience for her; the days are definitely getting shorter), and getting stuck up high on the banked turns and whining. We should have just took off because she wasn't even having fun. She ended up taking two third places (out of three), and she was way behind the leaders at the end: Cody and Tyler swapped wins.

Blackjack Nationals Reno 8/31/13

Well, like the Midwest Nationals, this was all about the trip: the stay in a hotel (which Alessandra loves more than anything), and the play time at the hotel's pool. We (Alessandra and I) were getting ready to head up to Reno on Friday of Labor Day weekend when, about 15 minutes before we were gonna leave, Erika says "I want to come" (meaning the whole family; of course including our 9 day old son. "Alright, get ready as quickly as you can". Less than an hour later we were on the road, and heading east. Our lunch stop at In n' Out Burger in Fairfield was costly (traffic wise), but essential since we didn't have time to prepare meals for everyone while rushing out of the house. Ultimately it wasn't so bad; we made it through the Sacramento traffic by around 3:00 or so, and were checked into our hotel room (the Peppermill) in Reno by 5:00, with no reservations. We were in the pool by 5:30, and the kids were happy. We attempted our first dinner outing with 3 kids that evening, but it didn't work out too well. We had to pack up all of the food before it was delivered to the table, and retreat to the room. Oh well, we tried!
We woke up on Saturday, race day, and daddy made a quick trip to the track to get Alessandra registered, and then to pick up some breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the pool for a little more fun in the water, and then we packed up and headed to the track.



THE RACE: Not much to write about here. Although it's a cool event; with the big nicely groomed track, sponsor booths, and fans, unfortunately, much like the Mid West Nationals in Illinois, these nationals aren't good for the Striders at all. They just rush through the program as quickly as possible in order to get on with the schedule. Oh well, we know better now, and unless the trip (i.e. the destination, hotel, pool, etc.) is really worth the while it's much better racing at our local track for the Striders. Alessandra got bad starts, and finished 3rd in her 3 heats. She almost caught the leaders in the second race, but the track for the Striders was really short (about 1/3 of the length of what we use at our home track), and it was pretty hard to recover from a poor start. Because the 9 riders in the 4 yr. old class were separated into two groups she probably officially finished 5th or 6th, but who knows. They originally posted Alessandra as the overall winner online, and then changed it and only listed the top three. Overall it wasn't that great. Alessandra wasn't really into it, and the organization was terrible.




After the race we were all packed up with nowhere to go. It was early Saturday afternoon of a three day weekend, and a 4 hour drive home didn't sound good to anyone. We probably would have stayed another night at the Peppermill (because it was a pretty nice place), but the room we had the previous night, which was pretty nice, wasn't available. We looked into going to Downieville for a couple of nights- no luck; considered staying in Reno for about two seconds, and then came to our senses, and then realized that due to the Yosemite fire, and the smoke in the area of Tahoe, that our chances of jumping over the hill to South Lake and getting a hotel room were actually pretty good despite it being Labor Day weekend. After a quick call to the South Lake Tahoe chamber of commerce our beliefs were confirmed. We were able to get online and book a suite the Tahoe Resort Hotel, right at State Line.It was perfect: we had some fun in the pool; great dinners; a gondola ride to the top of Heavenly, and water tubing for Alessandra; and then topped off the stay with the Sunday night fireworks show, which was just a five minute walk from our hotel, and most importantly, the kid's first fireworks.