As the title may suggest, I might have had a little slip up. But before bringing the bad news I'll start with something more optimistic.
If you follow me on Twitter (@LoosyScott) then you will have seen my TT bike, if not...
I can't thank the guys ay Starley enough for their support and I look forward to continuing to work with them. I even got my position fine-tuned in store on the day, brilliant service.
Now moving on to the Grafham Water duathlon. Here I reiterate a great quote my coach told me after the 'incident':
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising after every time we fall"
The 'incident'? You ask. Let me begin with a brief race overview. Waiting at the start line I felt nervous, and little chilly on that cold morning. I'd be running with an injury (my ankle) and I knew it was going to hurt. Because of this my run training hadn't been up to scratch in the weeks leading up to the event. Throughout the first 5km run my ankle got progressively worse but I felt quite good, there was nothing I could do about it now so I had to run through the pain. Coming into transition my ankle was really sore but I knew that cycling doesn't aggravate it. My Mum shouted out my run time to me, just over 21 minutes. This gave me a boost because I did not expect that kind of time considering my run fitness and the pain of my ankle. Setting of on the bike I felt relaxed yet excited to be racing on my new Starley TT! I settled in and overtook a couple of people, feeling pretty good. But then at about 2km things suddenly because a lot harder. It felt like my legs had bonked and my speed dropped. The bike was still moving in a straight line and I hadn't felt or heard anything like... a puncture. It was only when I went over a little rough patch of road that the front wheel swerved a bit, this confirmed what I'd been trying not to believe. "I haven't got a puncture, I haven't got a puncture." Pulling over I prodded the front tyre, damn. All I could do was to turn around and get walking. Upon returning (thankfully only a 2km walk away) I found Mum and got a bit emotional.
Unfortunately I just got served a big dose of bad luck on that day. Made worse by the fact that there will be no team GB duathlon for me this time round. Punctures are just one of those things that can happen to anyone in any race, I'm just glad that I don't have a bad performance (i.e. myself) to blame. It's hard to get over missing great opportunities but with some amazing support from my coach, Starley bikes, Knutsford tri club, friends and family it wasn't hard to start feeling okay. Thankfully I have my running club's training camp to now look forward to in April 2014 as well as the qualifiers for the European and World sprint triathlon championships.
So to finish on a happy note, I won't be dwelling on the duathlon because I have so many exciting events coming up in 2014 and I know that I need to look forward not back. Training, especially on the bike, is going superbly at the moment thanks to my brilliant coach Hamish Shaw (from Oxygen Addict coaching) for scheduling plenty of turbo sessions and getting me on the super weekend rides with the club.
Also on Saturday 30th November I attended the annual Northwest triathlon series awards dinner to collect a couple of awards I had won this year. They were the Northwest sprint triathlon overall female champion and female junior champion. These were from the Boundary Breeze sprint triathlon in July earlier this year.
So there's a good update for you. If you wish to keep more up-to-date with me (almost day-to-day) then follow me on Twitter- @LoosyScott
I'll leave you with a parting shot of my bike (what else?!) and if I don't post before then, Merry Christmas!
Stay motivated,
Lucy
