Metros: Bugged out...

Sat 26 May 2012: Woke up that morning feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. Geez. Legs were fine – that’s all that mattered (or not!). A light drizzle at Harcourt as we arrived for the Metro Champs. I was really looking forward to this race – this was where I’d done one of my very first road races last year, and I was certainly keen to measure my improvement from that of last year’s.

A wee bit nervous, though with a bit more experience this year, I was certainly a lot more calmer. I must admit I wasn’t in the ‘bestest’ of moods that morning – preparing my bike seemed to take forever and I couldn’t really get my act together. Oh well – I just shook it off and went for a warm-up with training/trackie partner Laine.

18 women lined the start line this year, definitely a great reflection of the growth in women’s cycling from last year’s 8. More competitors, deeper playing field - good. Due to some roadworks that were going around in the area, the course had changed to a 2x out and back loop.

The race kicked off and it was only a couple of k’s in when we got to the first hill drag. Miranda Griffiths tried putting the pressure on – and poof!!. Just like that I was shot to the back of the field. It was almost like I had my gear in Reverse! And no matter how hard I tried, I just could not get my Heart Rate high enough, nor get enough power into the cranks. That certainly caught me by surprise as the field rode past leaving me struggling to drag myself up. From being competitive last weekend, to having nothing this… something was just not quite right. 

Not one happy camper (Photo by jxpphotography.com)

I soon managed to haul myself up the hill, caught onto Laine and Claire who were dropped and started working turns with them to chase the bunch down. 3 vs 15 was never going to be an easy feat. Each time we rolled downhill we seemed to get closer and closer, though never quite enough to close the gap. It was raining hard by this time, and we were all soaked to the bone. My legs were feeling pretty ok but somehow I just could not get my body going. I knew we had to try to catch them before the u-turn, otherwise, once they saw us, they’d put the pressure on again.

Once we got to turnaround at the 10k mark, we had dropped Claire it was just Laine and I working turns now. The bunch were soon out of sight. We spent the next 10ks working together but the race was slowly but surely slipping away. As we rolled onto the next section on the course, I was dreading this moment, but knew it had to be done – “I don’t feel well at all – I think I’m going to have to pull the pin on this one– sorry!” I was freezing and shaking, my body was feeling like crap and there was just no way I was in a reasonable shape to continue to race. We both sat up and rolled round the next section, taking time to catch up on things and enjoy the countryside before pulling off the course.

Well, it turned out that it was the start to the dreaded winter flu bug that kept me away from the bike and work for the next few days. Quitting is certainly not my thing -  but I don’t regret my choice that day. Sometimes when things go a little haywire, you’ve just got to take 1 step back, before taking 2 steps forward! Now it’s time to recover and get better - 2 tours lined up for the next 2 weekends!