Monday, 22 August 2011

Sedbergh Hills - a race to forget or learn from


I have just started to come to terms with Sunday’s race and my appalling performance. I finished outside the points so have no long counter for the English Championships. I am bitterly disappointed. In the cold light of the day after I can make a few excuses, but also I can see that I have taken my eye off the ball, so to speak as well as loosing out on a split second decision.

This started well enough and although I knew I wasn’t up there I was doing OK, it’s a tough route so I knew I’d benefit from being strong in the latter stages. This meant I didn’t panic and set off too fast, and true enough on the off path part between checkpoints 3 and 4 I started to pick people off, and make up ground. I kept this up on the climb up the Calf and that was where it all went really wrong. The mist was down and I didn’t concentrate hard enough and managed to cut the wrong corner off coming off the Calf. By the time I realised (and I took another lass with me who followed) it meant we’d lost a fair amount of height and in gaining the route again with height, the wind went completely out of my sails. I started feeling very tired, and to be honest hadn’t probably eaten enough either. So all in all looking at the results I lost over 10 minutes from this one stupid error.

Once back on the right route, I struggled to keep any pace up as I knew that it was over. I managed some effort but there was too much lost, and finished well down the field feeling angry and upset. I have started to get over it and maybe it will give me a kick up the ass to re-focus, but for now I have sore legs, and feel tired and deflated. 

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