Hi everyone, it's Megan here again keeping the team's purple, red and black flag flying!
The CXNE race at South Shields had me a bit worried as I hadn't raced for
a few weeks and was nervous that I'd dropped behind even though I was still out training. Both college work and a recent bout of illness were preying on my mind however I wanted to give it my best, dig my teeth in and have a bash.
It was a really cold morning so the warm-up laps required
layers, lots of layers in fact and the frozen grass crunched under my wheels although that didn't last for long. The course was pretty good, lots of tight corners, some long straights and one relatively small hill that eventually turned into a thigh-burning assault! Throughout practise the ground was inevitably being churned up becoming muddier and slippier, I knew this was going to be a problem with the tough off-camber sections later in the day.
Not long afterwards it was time to head for the starting line. Everyone was in great spirits nattering about Christmas and what we were all up to, especially the ladies, well you know how we can gab! There were a lot of good vibes.
Off we went. I had a really good start, jumped up, slid straight into the pedals and got comfortable right away. I headed off to the front with Jenn Batey and followed her for a lap.
Coming to the off-camber section my earlier fears were confirmed, it was incredibly slippy and backing that up it was here where I came off my bike, lost some time and the other ladies started to catch me. I jumped straight up, lifted my bike and ran towards the flat section, remounted and got my cadence going again. It was just a few minutes later where my hip began to really throb, damn you adrenalin! I must have landed on it rather funny, anyway, not to worry I knuckled back down, northern grit and all that! I was now following Jenn and Natalie Batey and it wasn't long before Wonder Woman Nicola Davies caught us all up then everything settled down into a steady race pace.
Well, that was until coming to a simple corner where I slid off and landed like a tonne of bricks. It was a silly old fall, just down to very poor riding where I completely lost it, and oh boy did it hurt!
It all happened quickly, the adrenalin kicked in again and after jumping straight back up realised I couldn't actually stand properly as my hip was in agony. Hobbling along as I pushed my bike, being thankful of its support, I realised I'd twisted my bars in the fall and by this time, I was just exhausted.
Sadly I had to pull out of the race and hobbled with my poorly bike over to the car park where Jamie Brady spotted me, picked up my bike and took me to the paramedics for a check up. Thanks again Jamie, you're a star!
An unlucky day but as I've said
before, it's all good experience and something to learn from.
See you all the next round,
Megs x
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