On The Pegs March 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 3 | Page 82

On The Pegs
82
Obviously, I wasn’t running very fast, and I allowed the pole to throw me back
down towards the runway, landing with my bad foot first. I let out a totally legiti-
mate roar of pain and the trainers all came running. The athletic director never
knew the difference, and after my foot healed, I went on to win our conference
championship during outdoor season. Sometimes suf-fering through pain is
worth it.
Story Number Three: When I was a kid, I used to race the OMAs. I would say
from the time I was twelve to maybe fourteen. The promoter, Bill Gusse, and I had
a bit of a love-hate rela-tionship. If you don’t know Bill, imagine a crochety old
man whose greatest pleasure was mak-ing courses so difficult than nobody liked
to ride them and then listening happily while people complained about it. There
was one time he sent us through a mudhole so horrible at the Moose Run that
I got stuck, and then the quad that was trying to pull me out got stuck, and the
course worker and I had to walk back and get a third quad equipped with a bet-
ter winch to ex-tract ourselves.
I think because he was so old and set in his ways, he struggled to understand
that a little girl could enjoy riding motorcycles and be good at it. On the starting
line of the youth race, he would always address us with “Alright boys, here’s how
the course is going to be today”. And I would always wave at him until he noticed
me. Then he would say “Oh, hi Rachel”, immediate-ly ignore me and start over
again with “Now alright boys….”
But for about half a season though, I accidently became Bill’s favorite person in
the whole world. He was very lax about classes and entries, so the last year I rode
his series he would let me race in the youth race and then ride my supermini in
the adult C class right after. At one of the races there was a really big, steep and
root-covered downhill in the adult race. When I got to it, there was a cluster of C
riders sitting at the top who refused to go down it. Bill was sit-ting at the bottom
on his quad laughing at them. I stopped for a second, looked at the hill, shut off
my bike and slowly eased myself over the lip. When I got to the bottom, he asked
me what I thought of it and I said, “Mr. Gusse that was so cool! You need to put
things like that in our kid’s race too.” Then I started my bike and finished the race,
not thinking much of it.
As I was changing after the race, I heard Bill on the loudspeaker announcing
“Rachel Gutish, will you please report to sign-up. We need to talk to you right
now. I was worried, so I got dressed as fast as I could and ran right over. When
I skidded to a stop in front of the trailer, I saw Bill standing in a crowd of angry