So I lied, oops.

So, I’m here next to Mr. P. Ennis watching Talladega Nights. We just got back from the awards ceremony and I just happened to pick up some purdy jerseys. Yes, I said jerseyessss. Plural.

It’s been a while since I wrote, so I’ll try to play catch up a bit. Last weekend T-had took us up to the LMC track and we rode a few laps. I did five laps in total and I think I finally knew the course by the end of the day. It’s a pretty tough course to remember and to hit all your lines. Very slow and methodical, too much speed will get you nowhere.

Monday and Tuesday were probably the best days of my fall break. Me and Marshal met up and ate waffles at Huddle House and then rode up to the Bakery. But on the way we saw Jockey eating at Sunrise so we stopped and had some more food. Then after a short bit of more hang out we went on to Bracken Mtn. and had some more food and coffee. Then we went for a chill 2 hour ride in Pisgah. It was nice. On Tuesday we did the same thing, except that I ate a ton of stuff at Sunrise and then went to Pescado’s and ate with Squirrel.

Had to go to class on Wednesday, which sucked but whatever, it was the only day of class I had this week. Thursday we headed up to Banner Elk to preview the nationals course and get ready for the weekend of racing starting on Friday. The track hadn’t changed much and I tried some more lines and found a few good ones and some bad ones too. The LMC course was especially hard to get right because you had to set up for so many corners early to get them right.

Friday was an early start with a 5 o’clock wake up and breakfast before heading to the course for the opening event of the weekend. The cross country. Good warm up and everything, rode the trainer in the trailer to stay out of the wind and stuff. Dad got a movie of the girls warming up and the trailer bouncing up and down, I’ll see if I can find it someplace. Anyway the race starts and some dude (Zach Winn) takes off from the start and I had to cover the attack. He rode a little ahead of me for a lap while Logan Wetzel caught me and we worked together for a while to bring back Zach. Logan dropped off the pace after a bit and I slowly pulled Zach back and attacked with a lap to go about half way around the course. I was able to hang on for the win.

Everybody was pretty stoked, I got hugs from everybody and within a few minutes I was on the phone with my grandparents so that was pretty cool. I froze myself talking to people in the cold so I went back to the trailer and got changed before watching a little of the girls race.

The short track was pushed back 30min on Saturday so I was able to sleep in a little longer than normal. I had actually been getting up at 6 and going for a ride at 8 for about a week and a half before the race in order to prepare. So once I was up things were better. Anyway long story short. We got to the track; I changed to spikes for the super, super muddy race and got called up first. I got hole shot before Zach again passed me on the short climb into the woods. For those of you who were watching, I did not say anything to him, just a quick glance to see who it was. I followed Zach for about half the race waiting for the right moment, when his teammate looked to be closing in with three laps to go I went. I barely hung on for the second win of the weekend.

So I’m super into writing a ton about Sunday’s race, I’ll do short bits. Props to Mr. P. Ennis for taking out Moto Mike in the round of eight, props to Joh for snatching the omnium and slalom wins, and props to that really, really tall guy for qualifying second behind the defending national champ. The team ended up getting fourth, one point behind Warren Wilson.

I was going to do this after the team got back, but didn’t really want to be made fun of so I’ll do it now because I figure most of you read this anyway. I’m not trying to be sentimental or soppy or anything here. I just wanted to say that I really wish I could give each person on the team a part of my jerseys because it wasn’t just me who won. I have learned something new from each and every person on the team and the jersey belongs to us not me. I was the one who crossed the finish line first because I used something from everyone. All of you have helped me out and I really appreciate that. So like, the jersey is ours, not just for me. Thanks guys.
While I’m at it I need to thank everyone else who helped me along the way. I hope these are not going to be my only national championship jerseys. So like here goes, I’m probably going to forget someone so my bad.
First off my parents,

The KOP
Chris Herndon
Coach Thad
Little Ethan
Andy
Mike
Jon Dalman
John Jones
Kelly Parham
Pinnett
Chaput
Tamer
Nathan
Dave Hall
Malcolm
The Linders
All the guys at Northstar

And……my sister.


Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I did try to take some pictures but my camera is starting to get wallered. But here's one that I really like.