Midlands XC round1

I was up at 5.45 am on sunday ready to travel down rugby way for the 1st round of the Midlands series.

On arrival the weather wasnt the best, it seemed a little cold and not anything like the warm weather i had expected. We quickly got sorted and did a lap round the course. It was a fun but had little places to rest or feed so i knew it was going to be a hard race, especially knowing we had 5 laps to do. There were only 3 elite women entered- Me, Jenn (my team mate) and Rosara Joseph (9th at Olympics), so from the start i knew i was in it for 3rd but i just wanted to make the gap as little as possible.

After the practise lap i jumped on my turbo and spun my legs until the start of race. Now mountain bike races for me up until this point hadnt gone too great, so i was hoping for a better preformance today, but my legs were feeling so tired and rubbish so this worried me abit.

The gun went bang and of course Rosara Joseph from New Zealand was off. I clung to her wheel for the first hill but knew if i carried on at this pace i would suffer in the later part of the race. Jenn was off too so i tried to settle into my own pace and chip away at the laps. If im honest i felt awful all the way through. I never felt like i was on top of the effort and i felt like i was fighting the course all the way round. I kept pushing and pushing though and finished dreading that i would be nearly a 10 mins or a lap down on Jenn. To my surprise i was only around 3 minutes down and my laps had got faster as the race had gone on. This cheered me up but i know i still have a long way to go before im going to be up there in the national elite races, but this race was a good learning point and least i know now i am capable of finishing a race.

The afternoon consisted of watching coach race his first MTB race of the year whilst relaxing in the sun. It was such an enjoyable day and makes me now look forward to my next mtb race. I eventually walked through the door to my hosue at 11.20pm. it had been such a long day and my legs ached so bad. Im now back at work :( and its rubbish as usual. I have an easier week on the bike this week before the Cheshire Classic road race on Sunday. I cant wait for that race, as i do love a bit of road racing.

Thanks

Annie