Grace and Eli have been training, and today was their first Spur Schools MTB league race.

They both rode really well and it was great to see them going for it. They also made history as Newberry Montessori’s first entrants into the league.

Eli is in the Sub-Nipper category and they did 2x 1.6km laps. His legs were spinning fast (a bit too fast) in the first lap, but I could see him settle into it in the second lap.

Grace is in the Nipper category and they also do 2x 1.6km laps. She settled in nicely from the start and rode well, but then I could see she was running out of steam in the second lap. Afterwards she said her back was getting sore, so will need to check out her setup.

Eli loved it, wants to ride in the next one and thinks that was his best race ever.

Grace didn’t have the same experience. She first got separated from us and couldn’t find us before Eli’s race, which doesn’t help her fear of getting lost, and then was quite upset about someone who fell and everyone just rode past. She was coming down a path going the opposite way to the boy, but she felt bad that she didn’t stop to help him (even though she wasn’t quite where he was and there were adults on the way).

We did spend some time processing that and I think it was good to reflect on how people are more important than races. It is also always good to see our children having empathy for others. We’ll see how she feels when the next race comes around.