Trailers and throttles and danger oh my

Just when I think things are settling down, the day I have dreaded since I uttered the words "yes, buddy you can race moto-x this year" has arrived. The night before race day, I had to make sure everything was taken care of. Sean had to rest his foot from having surgery and then being rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with kidney stones, of course I obliged him. Nothing could've prepared me for the flood of emotions that I was about to experience. We woke up at 4am, yes 4am, I was running on complete auto-pilot. Sean, Liam, "Moto" and I arrived at the track about 7:30am. We (a/k/a me), registered Liam for his race class. I took Liam with me to sign in, it was organized chaos, thankfully everyone was completely understanding and willing to help. After collecting our forms we were off to the first station, the transponder table, we chose to rent a transponder this year. I'm a bit frugal and can't see shelling out $200 for a device that may only be used once. The cost to rent each race is $15 with an additional one time fee of $5 for the housing to hold the transponder on the bike. Next up race class registration station. Sean had previously asked around and was told a new rider should be registered in a 50 Novice class. Since I'm the ignorant one when it comes to all things MX (moto-cross)I registered my little guy as a 50 Novice rider. Next up, racer registration station (which I had pre-registered) after confirmation he was in the "system" I paid the race fee of $25. When we were done, we ordered some breakfast. A gentleman standing behind us overheard my "dumb" questions throughout each stop and explained he registered his son for the same Novice class but, suggested, Liam would be better suited in the 50cc Junior class. He explained to me the differences between the two classes and it would give Liam more track time. Having this new knowledge I added Liam to the 50 Junior class race and paid another $25. Finally I could eat breakfast,and wait for the riders meeting at 9am.

With my race schedule in hand, we head over to the riders meeting. The riders meeting explained so much, from the order of the races, races that are combined or eliminated, how many laps per practice and for each race. As the anticipation mounts Sean gave me a quick tutorial of how to prepare the bike to ride. Liam starts in second gear, I learned how to put the bike in neutral and then in gear. I never realized how heavy that bike was and every other parent seemed to breeze by with their childs bike. I'm going with the bike being heavy. I know I'm slightly out of shape, okay largely out of shape, but that bike was heavy.

I set him up at the starting gates and I gave Liam the most lame encouragement speech I could. "OK, Be careful and most important, have fun!" We did a little "POW" handshake. The flagger turned the 10 second sign, the gate fell down and my little man was ready to go, he waited for everyone else to go ahead of him. He was a little slow at the start and I began to think that maybe I made a mistake. My little man so ambitious and confident getting trampled over by 7 other boys all older then him (he was the youngest rider, the next youngest was 7)the age group goes to 10 years old. I waited patiently for him to finish his second lap

We planned on bringing healthy snacks, lunch and drinks as we thought the concession stand would be "fair-type" food. With all the careful planning we didn't do any of it and went straight for the concession stand for all our meals. Needless to say we felt terrible by the middle of the day.

Once I was able to just sit and realize the whirlwind I had just flew through, I was excited to watch my little man race, he did so well. I made my head spin accounting for each moment of the day so far. The early morning trip, the line of people, the lesson to get him ready to go, the starting line, the waiting, the gate going down and Liam not sure what to do, watching him chug along, feeling like I made the wrong choice letting him race, I remember thinking as I watched him fall farther and farther behind how crushed he was going to be that someone was faster then he was. When his second race was over all he said was "Mummy, that was SO COOL! Did you see me get in front of that guy and the big hill, it was scary but that's alright, right Mummy?" I confirmed he was a-maze-ing and so proud that he finished the race and he just beamed from ear to ear. Liam declared on the ride home "Next time, I'm gonna get in front of those guys and go down the big hill".