Update on My Life

Needless to say, these past few months of my life have been insanely busy!  By the way - people who say that JUNIOR year is the hardest year of high school are completely wrong.  Senior year has been the toughest, busiest year ever, but I’ve loved it :)
Seeing that I just passed a major milestone in my life, I wanted to update my blog and write about what has been happening in my life since I last blogged…

In 2013, I raced for Jet Cycling, a women’s junior development team based out of California.  California’s season is much earlier than that of Michigan, which meant that I got a lot of early season racing in. Some of the races that I got to do were San Dimas, Redlands Criterium, Valley of the Sun, Sea Otter, and the Tour de Murietta.

At one of the races, we had all of the team come and race which was a really great experience to be able to ride with such a big team.

I was also training hard back in Michigan. One of my favorite rides is the “D Ride,” ridden by the not-so-secret secret group called the D-linquents where we ride to Detroit and back (yeah I ride through Detroit. I guess you can say I’m pretty bad ass). I also rode a charity ride to Detroit, and was so cool because I’ve never seen a pace line that long before!! 

Before the school year ended, our marching band had the opportunity to march in a parade through Disney! It was so incredibly awesome to be able to lead the band (as a drum major) through Disney World (in Florida).

From L to R - Joe Pink, Maria, Me

I also went to junior prom (juniors only. Seniors have a separate prom).

Then was the big week - road nationals!  Unfortunately, I am no hill climber and the road race course was incredibly hilly this year.  My best event was the crit, where I got 4th place.

Crit.

Road race.

Crit Race.

Road race

As soon as road nationals were over, I had the most amazing week of my life.  I got the opportunity to train at the OTC (Olympic Training Center) in Colorado Springs. Yes. I repeat the OLYMPIC TRAINING CENTER! It was just a dream to walk down the hallways and think “oh my goshhhh all the American Olympians have walked down this hallway!!” Not only was it amazing to get to train there, I met some really awesome people and trained under the direction of some really awesome coaches (a big THANK YOU to Travis Smith and Brian Abers)!  The whole week was full of intense training, hard work, and learning, but also a lot of FOOD (the food at the OTC is the BEST!!), smiles, and laughs. 

When training at the OTC was over, we drove down to Trexlertown, PA to participate in the 2014 Track Cycling National Championships. Well. This was the best national championships ever. I’ve been chasing that stars and bars jersey for a few years, never been fast enough to get one.  However, this was my year.  Everything played out to my strengths and I ended up winning the match sprints and scratch race, going on to win the omnium. My team also won the team pursuit, and Emma Fickle (who lives in my home town) and I came 2nd in the team sprint!   It was also great to see my friends from the OTC getting great results at nationals - Dom Suozzi winning the men’s 15-16 national championship, and Edward Alex Horvet who podiumed in the 17-18 sprint, flying lap, and team sprint!

Our team pursuit.

Team pursuit team 

Me and Dom Suozzi - pretty cool that we both
went to the OTC camp and then got the stars and bars. 

Edward Alex Horvet, a good friend from the OTC camp

Emma Fickle and I. Both from the same town in MI. Team sprint partners. 

The omnium podium

After that, I attended the Tour de Rimouski, a junior’s international stage race in Quebec. Our team finished 2nd in the TTT.  This was one of the only times I've ever even done a TTT and we had a fast team! The most intense stage for me was the crit because I wanted the win so badly!! After an incredibly fast crit race with a climb in the course every lap, I actually ended up winning the stage.  I really liked having my brother at Rimouski this year, though. It was great to be able to race and then watch my brother have the same experience, too.

Me, my teammate Tori, and the Chicago Velo Campus boys (the team my brother rode for) 

Maddie Boutet from Alaska, Mille, me, Tori

In one of the stages, I actually got a call up because I just won track nationals.
Now THAT was really cool :)

The Crit race

The whole Jet team - members from Oklahoma, Missouri,
Canada, Mexico, California, Alaska, and Michigan

First time I've ever done the arm thing. SO glad I didn't fall haha

The season ended with some really fun races locally in Michigan.

August eventually rolled around and my senior year of high school started.  Which means… College apps, college apps, and more college apps.  If you ever would like to read an essay on the meaning of zero (University of Michigan’s app) or on my “favorite Bazinga moment” (Lehigh University) or on how I could “enrich the diverse and inclusive community of the University of Colorado Boulder, and accomplish [my] hopes and dreams there,” feel free to contact me!  Doing the IB program on top of that meant that academics this year were incredibly challenging. However, I definitely learned a lot and think it payed off in the end.

I did band camp in August and was excited to start a new marching band season with my two favorite Joes - Joe Isaac and Joe Greene! We definitely all bonded a lot over the course of the marching band season. 

Soon there was senior homecoming…

cyclocross season….

varsity ski team…

We also had our last band concert…

where I was presented the John Phillip Sousa award.

All the seniors. I'm in the middle

In the middle of all this, I also had to make an important decision - where I am going to go to college next year! I applied to 11 different colleges all over the US and narrowed it down in April to the University of Michigan, Furman University (which I really didn’t know much about), UCLA (Uni of California Los Angeles), and Marian University. However, my mind was soon made up after a visit to Furman University (SC) where I fell in love with the smaller school, beautiful campus, new but growing cycling team (under the direction of Coach Rusty Miller), incredible pre-med program, and great music program. It was a perfect match! 

Senior prom also came around which was by far the BEST dance I’ve ever been to!

Me and my brother Luke 

My bestie Tess, her date (my brother), me, and my date Joe Greene

Me and the Mullis men :)

Before I knew it, I graduated a valedictorian and was then an alumni!

This was the start to my summer, where I decided to finally make some money, too (seeing as I didn’t have online classes or the extended essay to write) and am now mainly tutoring calculus 1.

This season, I am riding for Andrie Machine Star, a junior development team out of Grand Rapids. We did some great races together, like Mount Pleasant and Glencoe (part of the NCC calendar and my first professional race). I upgraded to a cat 2 for this season.

Signing in for my first pro crit

I also raced as a cat 2 on the track in Indianapolis in the Midwest Challenge (part of the NTC calendar).  I gained a lot of experience riding with some of the fastest women on the track in the US.

So what am I up to now?

Well. I leave for the junior track cycling national championships tomorrow and race Wed - Sun. Then I fly back to MI an spend Monday at home and then leave on Tuesday for the road national championships (where I’ll be racing the TT and crit).  Updates will follow, but right now I’m going to be sprinting my butt off against the best junior women in the USA!