Well it had to happen....I have had such a good run of races that eventually something had to go wrong and it really went wrong last Saturday at the British champs at Dorney Lake.
It started so well. We pitched up at a lovely campsite about 2 miles from the race in beautiful and warm sunshine. We had dinner and settled in for a good nights sleep - only no-one had told the M4! We soon realised that we were effectively sleeping on the hard shoulder and so spent a completely sleepless night. Not fantastic preparation.
Race day was a glorious -warm and sunny and I was soon in transition meeting up with all my friends who I hadn't seen since last season. We were all soon comparing our trainers as there were a lot of On Running shoes about. It seems they are getting really popular now and no wonder, I think they are the fastest trainers around.
Maybe it was because I was tired but I should have realised something was wrong when I forgot my goggles and only just had time to run back and get them before we started. My swim was poor - I just couldn't get going but I came out of the water in 6th place and set off on the bike. Again I didn't feel 'on it' but soon passed 3 girls. I could see Maria Powell and Catherine Linney in front and just concentrate on staying with them. by the 3rd lap I was feeling better and I passed Catherine so there was just Maria about 20 secs in front. And then I did the most stupid thing - instead of going into transition on lap 4 I just carried on to do a 5th! Why? no idea. Then I had a panic. I could see transition but I couldn't get to it. I tried to turn round but there were so many cyclists coming it was dangerous so I shouted to a Marshall and he told me to run across the grass and back onto the course. I thought I was going to get disqualified but he said I was OK to carry on and amazingly I was still in second place.
I ran out of T2 in a right panic. Mark was looking confused as I had lost a minute and he didn't know why. I could see Maria way down the road at this point and I tried the best I could but there was no way I was going to catch her. I made up over 40 seconds but it wasn't enough.
I am so cross with myself and beat myself up for a few days - how could I be so stupid, I'm supposed to be good at this sport! Then I decided I was being a complete diva. I'd won a silver medal at the British Champs for goodness sake! Lots of people would love to do that and here was I moaning about my bad luck.
Then I read Jodie Stimpsons blog - she had a disaster in Japan this weekend and ended up cutting her foot so badly she had to have stitches and she may not be able to race in London now. After winning the last 2 World Cup races she must have been gutted. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter how experienced you are things can go wrong. The important thing is how you deal with the disappointment. So I have decided to move on, learn from the experience and never camp on the M4 again!
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