7 weeks after rupturing a disc in my back I found myself on the start line of the ITU Cross World Championships in Spain, what the heck was I doing? My training and prep for the race were far from ideal. However, I figured this was a chance to race somewhere new and an opportunity that may or may not present itself to me in the future, so heck I should go do it. For several weeks I was unable to workout and then I was confined to the elliptical machine for a few weeks before getting back on my bike and running about 2 weeks before the big day. I knew going into this race that I was not fit and my only goal was to finish and have fun.
After a long day of work on Tuesday I hopped on a plane and managed to sleep most of the way to London. I had no issues making my connecting flight to Madrid and was totally bummed when I arrived and my bike did not make it. After waiting in line for an hour and a half I filed my claim with lost baggage and was told my bike would be delivered to me in the morning. I hopped in my rental car and was off to the race site. Only problem was that navigating the Madrid highway chaos was more challenging than I expected. Finally after almost 2 hours of being lost when I found myself on what appeared to be a walking path I stopped and asked a nice couple for directions. They were impressed by my Spanish and asked if I was from France I said "no the USA". Oops, should have lied on that one because the nice man then rolled his eyes and walked away. I finally got on the right road and made it to our house at 1am. Mel's man Ross is awesome and waited up for me to make sure I made it. Thanks Ross!
To make a long story short the next 2 days were spent fighting with British Air about the whereabouts of my bike and Mel's bike. The fight ended with us still not having our bikes on race day. I was lucky enough to stay true to Specialized and borrow an Era from an age grouper, thanks Jo! It was too big for me but a few adjustments, swapping pedals and putting my seat in (don't ask me what made me put this in my checked bag rather than my bike box) and I made it work. I was missing my super light Stan's wheels but continued to remind myself that I was here for fun. A little more running around to get the tire pressure right and I was suddenly left with 20 minutes before the start to cram into my Xterra wetsuit and get a swim warmup in.
On to the race. The start was on a pontoon. Did I mention I hate diving into water. I really wanted to jump off the stupid pontoon but I sucked it up and dove when the gun went off. I wasn't swimming great but wasn't last either. I was with a group of 3 other girls and was sticking on their feet until one of them kicked my outstretched arm and my shoulder dislocated a bit. I stopped panicked and screamed for the boats to come to me. I've never felt like I was going to drown until that moment. I managed to give my arm a good yank and put it back where it belongs. I gave the boats a thumbs up and decided to keep going despite my shoulder hurting with every stroke. After my 30 second break I still managed to catch back up to the group I was with, wow hello adrenaline. This reminded me that those exercises I learned at PT the last time this happened to my shoulder are indeed important and I somehow need to find time to do them.
Onto the muddy bike course which consisted of 4 5km laps. No hills, lots of mushy grass and puddles as you literally rode in the lake. I was able to pick off quite a few girls, which was surprising. At the same time the big girls, Mel, Shonny, Emma, Christine, were all putting time on me, not surprising. I coasted quite a bit where I could to stretch out my back and was glad to get to the run. My run was nothing stellar and I had to spend 15sec in the penalty box for apparently mounting my bike too early. I saw the man holding the penalty board with my number on it and did a double take of #25 on the board and hmmm #25 on my body, yep that's me, guess I get a little break. I ended up 17th and was honestly glad to have finished given the circumstances of the last 2 months and the chaos of my trip. I know I should be closer to the top women but I'll save it for later in the year at the "real World Championships". I have a few more PT sessions for my back and should be 100% ready to train in another few weeks. It can only get better from here!
I was super excited that "real Xterra girls" not ITU ladies swept the podium. Mel 1st, Shonny 2nd and Emma with a huge breakthrough race in 3rd. That's two team Specialized racers on the podium, awesome!!!
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