Leicester League CX, 24 Oct 2021

This was my first race back after a period of illness. I had a couple of weeks where I was unable to train properly if at all and another week where I was getting back into the swing of training again, which was the week before this race. I was feeling a bit worried and wasn’t sure how I’d fare in the race, but I couldn’t put it off forever!

The race was really close to home (for once!) so had plenty of time to get ready, but I still managed to forget my Garmin and race licence! Thankfully had an old licence in the car I used. 

We got to the venue and I signed on as normal and caught up with the rest of the team. I went on to do some practice laps and my bike handling skills felt rusty – I almost hit a tree as I’d forgotten how to corner!! Did a few slow laps. There were a lot of people on the course as they had V50-59, Senior Women, V40+ women and Senior Men all practicing at the same time. So, there were a few warriors whizzing past like it was the actual race. I finished my practice laps already feeling like my lungs were going to explode.

We lined up ready for the start and as expected I was almost right at the back. The whistle went and we were off. I went off hard and burned precious matches in the process. I was trying to get ahead as I knew this would be tough after having a few weeks off the bike. I have no idea what my heart rate was and that was probably not a bad thing, but it felt very high.

I picked my way through a few riders and we were into the woods on narrow tracks. I did start to fade after about ten mins and as there were so many people on the course, I had no idea where I was in terms of placing. I think after about twenty mins I didn’t even care. It hurt every bit as much as I expected it to. 

After about 30 mins into a 40 min race, I somehow found some energy from somewhere and sprinted on a tarmacked bit. Unfortunately, the tarmac led to a dropped kerb that was raised enough to snakebite my tyre as I ran over it at full speed. That meant the end of the race for me! I am a one bike owner currently (second in the ‘build phase’ - not helpful today). I’m still not sure whether I was annoyed or pleased that the race was over – maybe a bit of both!

Hopefully next Saturday’s race will be a little less eventful. It hurt and I expected it to, but I am so glad to be back to training and racing again.

Laura Powell