Rakahuri Rage

T

On Sunday the 20th of March all the year 8s drove down to the Rangiora race course to compete in the Rakahuri Rage.

We load my bike on the back of my mums car. Filling up drink bottles and packing food was finally done and we were ready to go. As we were driving down lehmans road on the left side there were hundreds and hundreds of cars. We drove in and parked in the car park.
The loburn tent was choc-a-packed. I parked my bike and collected my teams bag. None of my team were there! "Hurry up Jess and Emma" I thought. Finally they arrived. We each got a drink bottle, some swim pass's and cafe vouches.
"Time for the briefing" aloud voice boomed off the speaker. We all hurried off to listen.
I was the first biker. I sat on my bike in the crowd of other bikers. They were all wearing fancy biking suits. The ones you see the professionals wear, the tight, tog like materiel body suits. Proper biking shoes that clip into the pedals. I felt well out of my depth. 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 GO! They sped off! leaving me in there dust. I biked fast dying to keep up with them. My first mistake. After 10 minutes in was puffed. Being the first biker in my team I had to complete an extra 2.5k. It was all in the open. Finally I entered the bumpy, but shaded track through the forest. Going from there was easy. Up and down. I was biking up one of the hills round the start of the forest track and a biker came up behind me and rear ended me. I fell off and looks around to see who had ride into me, but they were no where to be seen.
Finally I came up the last hill and could see all the hundreds of tents. I biked along the grass getting closer and closer to my drink bottle. Finally I passed over the timing mat. I biked round the tents to the loburn tent where Emma was waiting to bike. I raced round the corner and came to a sudden stop, tagged Emma and walked over a plonked myself down. There was sweat dripping down my face. My time was 32 minutes.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. On one of my laps I accidentally took Benj's bike. I looks the exact same as mine. So our team didn't get counted for that lap.
There was this one lady that I know who I passed on the side of the track with a punctured tire. A man was helping her. Then about 5 minutes later she passed me and then she turn the corner to go down a hill she fell off and tumbled down the hill. She got back on a kept biking. There team ended up winning the family division.
I think the day went well and I would definitely do it again. Maybe when I'm a bit older though!