This is LONG overdue...I think I am in need of a recap of every race that I have done this season. AND since that is not going to happen, I will just have to settle for a quick review of the entire season.
My year started out rough. I was not enjoying the cold winter and missing the sun. I wanted to be out of school and training, but once I was out of school everyone was still busy so there were not many people to train with. In February I went down to Austin for a couple weeks to train before heading off to a training camp with the RTC Guelph, NTC boys, and the Storm crew in Clermont, FL. I was feeling energized and revived after the camp and ready to go again and looking forward to my first Olympic distance race in Monterrey, Mexico. Around this time I also made the very difficult decision to go to university in Guelph instead of staying in Ottawa. I would miss my family, my training partners at ROCS and in the Storm, and all of my support with physiotherapy, and of course my coach of 5 years. I felt that I just needed the change and was looking forward to a new environment.
I got injured before Monterrey - I stepped on a rock while running - and didn't start running until 2 weeks before the race. I loved the Olympic distance and getting to hang out with the Canadian team. My race wasn't amazing and I crashed the day before the race, but it was a stepping stone for all of my races next year and into the future of my career.
When I got back from Mexico I made one small but very important mistake that definitely had huge implications for my entire season; when putting my bike back together, I put my stem a couple spacers too low. This would later contribute to a back / nerve injury three weeks later that would put me out of running for almost two months.
Being injured is hard. As an athlete it is something that you have to learn to deal with, and a lot of times that learning comes with "doing" and being injured and learning how to cope with it. I have learnt a lot this year from my four different injuries. You start to define yourself by your injury and your limitations. In my head, I was the girl who couldn't run. I didn't feel strong or confident. I cried when I tried to push and it still hurt. I did my very best to just stay positive and keep training the bike and the swim. When I broke down, my coach and my family and my friends were there for me.
When my back injury was still very current, I raced the Pan American Championships in Edmonton. Flying out to Edmonton to swim-bike was not exactly how I envisioned my season, but I had to play the cards I was dealt. I had what I think was a break through swim, coming out only 20 seconds back from the leaders, and then breaking away on my own on the bike. Stopping after the bike when I was in the lead pack was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I got about 500m down the run course when my coach pulled me off. I reluctantly turned in my chip to an official and that was my race in Edmonton. I got to watch Ashleigh Gentle run away with her first World Cup win and fantasize about next year while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and freezing in my capris. Later, I walked around the West Edmonton mall with two great Andrews and heard some awesome stories of life at Mac.
After returning home from Edmonton (this time putting my bike together correctly) I slowly started running again and was able to run for 20 minutes three days before the provincial race in Ottawa. Ottawa was the first sprint triathlon that I completed all year and it seemed that things were finally looking up.
Continuing with my streak of bad luck, about a week after the Ottawa race I was running through the parking lot in Mooney's bay to change into my bathing suit when I took a striding lunge to avoid stepping on a crab apple. Lo and behold, I stepped on a different crab apple and rolled my ankle. I think they call them crab apples because they can actually shift sideways at their own pleasure. I completed the workout that day, but later in the week my foot was very sore and by day 5 I couldn't run. I learnt that I had managed to pop out a bone again and I was more than frustrated. More tears.
After Nationals my prep for Worlds began. I only had a few weeks, and I ran through pain because I knew I needed to run and this was my last triathlon of the year.
Flying to Beijing was interested...the flight included holding a baby for a chinese man numerous times, a nap that was way too short, and many movies that I had already seen (luckily they switched to new films them on the way back!!) 13 hours later I was in Beijing and missing the sun through the smog. In Beijing, I was with the most amazing group of Canadian athletes and support staff. I think that this crew would compare to many around the world. It was so easy to prep for the race and focus on the task and race day came as quickly as ever.
I think my biggest mistake was switching my wheels to a carbon wheel with a deeper dish. I thought that it would suit me better in the rain, and since it was pouring rain and cold outside I was looking for advantages. As soon as I exited the water and chased the lead group that was just ahead of me, I knew that these wheels were different. I slid out on my first corner, my cheek coming in contact with the cool pavement and my wrist jamming into the ground.
I had two choices at this point. Get up. Lie back down. I didn't even think for one second of stopping and I was back on my bike faster than I thought I could move. By the top of the hill, I was in the lead pack and soon discovered that my left wrist wasn't working as it should. I couldn't brake or switch gears on the left side and had to reach over with my other hand when we went to climb the hill.
I was pretty useless in the pack - just staying at the back and braking hard before corners and then catching back up. I just wanted to stay on my bike. On lap two on the same corner I was cut off by a girl in front of me and with my limited braking ability I slid out again. This time I felt my hip and knee drive into the ground and my wrist was pounding. Up up again and by the middle of the hill I was back in the lead pack.
By the third lap I got it right ( or more like slowed down to a crawl to get around the corner) and then we were off on the run.
My legs felt like jello. Okay, so they usually do off the bike, but this was some super gooey jello that doesn't get left in the fridge long enough and you need to eat with a spoon. None of my movements felt right and my legs felt like they were just flailing underneath me. I ran hard and pushed until the finish line.
After the men's race I shook Alistar Brownlee's hand while he drank a bottle of champagne and teased me about the large scrape on my face.
After the race I climbed 1300 stairs with a red headed superstar, a hungarian bike mechanic, and a wizard of a doctor. The stairs were hard to get to and just reaching the bottom felt like a feat on its own. Once there, we saw that the stairs were nicely cut into the mountain. The first hundred stairs were fast, but soon we were breathing hard and had to settle instead for a steady rhythm. The stairs we long and shorter at times, and abrupt and steep at others, but we adapted to the terrain and kept plugging away. They winded up and we passed by lookouts and rest points, but we kept pushing on until the top. We contemplated briefly stopping at the halfway point, but we both knew that stopping was never really an option. The summit came just in time, and once we got there the view was blocked by the smog and fog. We were both a bit disheartened, but we made it. It may not have been what we ventured upwards for, but we still made the trek not knowing what would happen once we reached our destination. We climbed back down, satisfied with our effort and knowing that, had it been a perfectly sunny day, the conditions just right and the clouds chased away, the view would have been crystal clear and the lush green landscape would have unfolded underneath us with blazing finesse.
While debriefing quickly in Guelph, I was told that this is probably the year that I will look back on in my triathlon career and see as the year of improvement. I can swim with more confidence now. I can bike in a lead pack and catch up and persevere through pain. I don't get as cold as I used to all the time. I know just how important it is to have an amazing team behind you and people to lean on when you are hurt and broken. Canada is so clean.
So, I have to thank the amazing support staff in Beijing, my family that is always there for me, wherever in the world I am, my massage therapist Sharon Hopper, and my physiotherapists Francine, Jordy, and Jaime. I slept better and was always comforted thanks to my sport med doc, Renata Frankovich, and was welcomed openly by all the staff at PSI Physiotherapy. I want to thank Kunstadts and Asics for their help with getting me through training and all of my training partners in Ottawa, especially Matt Vierula, Jamie Stephenson, the pentathletes, my sushi gang, and David "sunshine" Markin. And to the people who get me fast; thank you John Hawes for all of your infinite wisdom and ridiculous good looks that keep everyone coming to the pool at 6 in the morning. Finally, thank you Greg Kealey for putting up with me for five years and teaching me to love the sport. I couldn't have done it without you.
And the pilot who flew me home without crashing.
If you are nervous just shake your body.
