Pretty much say the title says it all... the last few weeks
have been one WTF after another... and I’m wondering how many more things that
are out of my control that can possibly go wrong. It’s not been much fun.
I've race Xterra Italy, Brittish X-Tri Champs and today I
attempted to race Scottish Sprint Championships... I say attempted because I
got 2km into the Bike and got disqualified...
I have been competing in competitive sport for around 15
years now and I’ve only just turned 23 years old, so I’d say almost all my life.
I have never been disqualified from a race until today. Given the Choice
between crossing the centre white line of the road and going through the back
window of a car, I know exactly which I would pick every time and getting
disqualified for it seem to me, harsh. I’m
currently wondering why the motor bike thought me swerving cause I couldn’t stop
in time for a car slamming the brakes in front of me thought I was cheating or
gaining any benefit what so ever. I could understand it no problem and no
questions asked if it was for me to gain an advantage and simply cheating but
it was for my own safety. But I guess I broke the rules of the race even though
it was for a valid reason but a little discretion would not go a miss. This may
be a little controversial but I’m not tiring to start an argument or anything
but it’s my blog so I’ll say what I like. I think it is totally wrong to do 3
mass starts at a race and not setting the fastest athletes off first... There
is a reason in major races the pro athletes start before age groupers. I
personally thought the race became dangerous as the faster swimmers caught up essentially
the slowest athletes in the race at the start of the bike and travelling much
quicker creating congestion and panic in the less established cyclists as
faster ones go past them... Dangerous for both parties involved.
Onto disaster number 2 of 3... Ha. As you may have guessed this
is not a happy, fun and cheery blog post from me today. Xterra Italy, a race I
was so ready for it sickens me that I wasn’t able to do myself justice. I was
crazy nervous before the start, as it was my first pro race... but things went
well I lead out the water with Ben Allan, probably the most consistent Xterra
racer in the world at the moment. I was in the best company. Riding was going
good, until 6km into the ride this happened...
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| Ripped tyre side wall |
I ripped my tyre side wall while I was running tubeless. As
you can imagine it was somewhat of a disaster. I tried to use a pitstop but didn’t
realise the rip was so big till it started pouring out the side and covering me
in a white foamy substance... if I wasn’t in a situation where everyone knew
what had happened it might have looked a little awkward. Being Scottish, we are
certainly not quitters so I tossed my bike on my shoulder and started to run...
4-5km later I stumbled across a camera man who had ridden his bike out and
happened to have tyre leavers and a pump so I managed to repair my tyre... It
only took an hour! Haha. Finished the bike and started the run, sucking it up
and doing the best with what I was able to. I finished my 1st pro
race, all be it, it wasn’t quite the result I was looking for.
Finally, disaster round 3, British X-Tri champs in Coniston.
In keeping with my recent form of swimming out the water first there were no
surprises here, lead Tim Don out of what felt like swimming in an ice bath! Then
rode okay till 20km where I then pretty much had an upper body bonk... my legs
could still produce the goods but my arms could barely hold the bars and it
then became a story of survival. I’ll
leave it at that.
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| Leading the swim out |
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| Finishing the run at Coniston |
Always good to end with a little positive though! Passed my
dissertation and over all University Degree. I won the Callander Hill Race last
week and I have a start to the European Under 23 X-Triathlon Champs in 5 weeks
which I’m super stoked about to represent GB. Hopefully disasters only come in 3s.
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| At the Top of the Crags in Callander |
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| Leading the Crags hill race... good time! |
