Maybe I shouldn’t be writing this straight away but I’m sitting in my hotel room, waiting for my mate to come back from the first race I haven’t finished. So I really have nothing better to do!
My training had been solid the past 5 weeks with my new start in NSW. I have been loving the training, the coach and the other athletes. So I was feeling great heading down to Canberra, aside from the normal taper week sluggishness, which is always to be expected. Arrived late Friday night and after a great night’s sleep, had an hour ride on the Saturday morning and was done for the day. Registered, racked my bike, attended briefing then smashed an amazing pizza and Mcflurry and hit the sack. A terrible night’s sleep but after a good one on Friday I wasn’t tired getting up this morning, just raring to go!
The forecast was for rain but when we were setting up in transition it looked like the perfect conditions. Off for a longish warm up jog my legs were feeling great. Cutting it fine as I seem to be doing a lot lately, I got down to what I thought was the swim start to find out it was another 200m swim back towards transition and I had 5mins to start time!! Whoops!!!! Made it there with 2minutes to spare! I wanted to stick with Nicole Ward and Michelle Wu in the swim. Lisa would be out in front with the men no doubt but I came out in front of Michelle at Yeppoon. Unfortunately I lost their feet before the first buoy and was swimming solo the rest of the way. Still only 1min down and could see them running to their bikes as I ran up to transition- that’s okay!!! A bit of friendly banter with my Canberra roomie though…. Was nice to chick a pro male!!! Sorry Adsy, had to add it in ;-)
Out on the bike and I was flying! I haven’t felt that good in the bike leg since probably my first 70.3 back in 2009!!!! Today was going to be the day! I felt it yesterday and it was turning out that way. My goal for the bike leg was to catch Michelle, because Lisa would probably hold her lead off the bike but Wu had potential to run her down for the win. And soon I was ticking them off- I had a feeling I was in about 7th position. The rain was coming down hard at that stage- so much for the good weather! By about 10/15km I’d caught and passed Nicole and another girl and could see another up ahead. By about the 40km mark I’d collected her too. Great 3rd place!! Down the sharp/ technical decent and I felt a little wobble but I was going pretty gun hoe and the roads were slippery. After the downhill was a short sharp pinch which I got out of my saddle for and the wobble got worse- FLAT- are you kidding me????? AGAIN????? Yup, sure enough my front tyre was losing pressure. Off the bike and tried the pit stop which lasted about 100m, off again to change the tyre, back on the bike for 10km and then wobble, wobble, flat again. All over red rover! Outta all my tools, pit stop, gas. Game over.
So there’s nothing like 3 flats in 3/6 races since August. And no- it’s not the wheels and tyres, thanks everyone for suggesting the obvious! The first two races with flats were on tubular wheels and so I went back to clinchers (because I KNOW I can change them!) and they were great for the 3 races in the USA, however today they weren’t able to withstand the rubbish that had been washed onto the road from the rainy weather.
I have nothing else to really say about it all. Congrats to Lisa for holding off Michelle for the win and to Nicole for 3rd place. X-tri: wonderful event as always. I just want to be able to do one of them properly one day! Maybe Singapore in 2012?
So wrapping up a very disappointing 2011. I want to put it behind me and forget it ever happened really. Things that I have learnt:
- Yes I’m still a hard arsed angry b***h: still finishing two of the races where I had flats (Yeppoon and Japan 70.3)
- I am having a crack and it’s not easy. Being a pro athlete is not at all glamorous when you are not quite up there (YET!). Sponsorship is NOT that easy to acquire and hearing ‘No’ 50 times a week is a little soul destroying and you question your chosen path. I am pretty much broke right now and scrapping through life, but that’s ok (I think!).
- I am learning to takes risks- I have left one life behind and all I know, moved interstate to a new place where I knew no-one to start something completely new and different (but am now questioning why I didn’t do it at the start of the year!)
- That I am blessed to have a mother that is my biggest fan and supporter out there.
- To have a few sponsors that are taking a chance on someone who isn’t yet one of the big hitters; Mizuno Australia, Enervit, Compressport, Allez Sport Mooloolaba and Cyclezone Mooloolaba. Your support makes life that little bit easier to handle at the tough times.
- That after today I am on the right track. I would love to have found out where my run legs were at and just how much of a dent I could have made on the second half of the bike but that’s something I’ll have to wait to find out.
- And lastly: listen to your bodies! No-one knows it better than you! If your body is telling you owie, don’t do a session just because it’s written on your program. Missing one session it’s going to make or break you. Better to miss one afternoon than a whole season!
- And things could always be worse: I’m attending the opening of Katie’s bench on Mooloolaba hill this Thursday. I still miss her terribly. 12 months ago I bet she never expected NOT to be here.
Merry Christmas to all.
2012 can’t get here fast enough!
Rachie signing out for 2011 xo
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