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A month and a half late but better late than never. How are we all? XC season is over now and time to focus on track or triathlon depending on your disciple. Hmmm well what a race this was, I found it super tough for a number of reasons but ultimately, I probably shouldn’t have raced (whoops), although I am so glad I did, I love XCs and the atmosphere at the bigger races. Previous to this weekend I had just started my 5th year placement rotations after a week of shows for our musical which left me absolutely exhausted. Dancing and singing every night for a week was the best experience but the late nights, high energy and singing on top of trying to train and teams meetings left me absolutely exhausted and with a lovely chest infection. 3 days before the race I thought I would be dropping out but after a lot of naps and resting I thought I would just go for it. I told myself before the race I would not be stubborn, I would try my best and if I was just feeling too unwell I would DNF. Arriving at the venue (Prestwold Hall) was such a good feeling, the last time I raced there was pre-university, so 4yrs ago. This race used to be one of my favourites, a proper XC course with lots of mud and hills – contrasting to the Nationals this year at Bolesworth Castle (see previous post). Luckily the weather was sunny and relatively warm. It had been snowing all week and very cold and I knew the cold would not help my chest… therefore I was grateful for the sun, as always. I met up with Alice, we collected our numbers and began to warm up. Neither of us were feeling great, I was struggling to breathe, and Alice had just come off night shifts at work. We both agreed to just enjoy it as much as we could and be glad that we could finally race this course together again. As always, it’s like a stampede when the race starts, I felt quite strong initially. Anyone who has raced at Prestwold Hall knows there is a long hill before a downhill, then a super muddy section and a wooded section. I felt good on the hill for the first lap, overtaking people and trying to catch up with a few other athletes on my team. However, my breathing became very laboured on the second lap, I was struggling to take deep enough breaths which left me with a tight, painful chest, in need of my inhaler. I knew that if I kept pushing as hard as I was, I was not going to finish, however if I slowed down a little, I would (maybe not in the position I would have liked). I would rather this than have to drop out. So, this is what I did. Obviously, it was hard mentally but not every race is going to be fabulous and there were lessons to be learnt from this. ** If anything, since injury I have really learnt to listen to my body, whether I always make the right decision is a different story, but I find it easier to tune in to how I’m feeling and action on it. ** Hitting 7.6km on my watch I thought it was time to push a bit more before the finish at 8km however when I saw that the route went onto another field, I had an ‘oh s**t’ moment. This was one of the toughest bits of the race (of which my teammates agreed) as there were no supporters on this field and we were all expecting the race to finish at 8km. 1km later I finally crossed the line with a sigh of relief and gasping for air ahahaha. Catching up with the Sussex team after helped me feel better about it all as they all found it super tough too, and they didn’t have a chest infection!
Even though this race may have not been my finest plan of 2023, I am still glad I did it. It did not make me more unwell, I just chilled out for the few days after and returned to normal soon.
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August 2023
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