Same old story with me, having lost fitness again after a few months off the bike I needed something to get me motivated again, after a Come and Try day out at DISC a couple of months ago I decided I wanted to get in to some Track riding and possibly racing, I headed out to Croydon Cycleworks a couple of weeks ago and checked out the Trek T1, within a week I was out at DISC doing a training session on it, decided I loved it and went out to DISC on the Tuesday night to get an hour in on the bike before the racing starts, another Sunday session, this time with another chick who had just started out and I was hooked, came out to DISC again last night to ride for an hour before the race started, didn't feel great at all, I think my legs were still suffering from the 3 hour session on the Sunday. I was heading off to the change rooms to get changed and watch the racing when a couple of the ladies I had met asked why I wasn't racing, I explained I was only new to it all and seriously unfit but somehow they convinced me to race, it really didn't take much, well I came up with every excuse but they had an answer for all of them, I figured I might as well have a go.

I waited around until 7.30pm and started my warm up with the others, my warm up hurt and I wasn't even up on the boards! Not a good start, I had just done 1hr of fairly steady riding so wasn't a great idea to be racing, also had no food with me and hadn't eaten well all day so was seriously unprepared, I had my number on though and I was committed to doing it so I just had to get out there and see what happens.

Now from those who have read my previous posts you will know I am fairly self conscious when I am racing, I think everyone is looking at me thinking 'look at that loser, she is so slow' etc. etc. when in reality nobody gives a shit at all, I tried to tell myself that before the first race but after I got dropped after the first or second lap I was totally embarrassed and very disappointed in myself for not being able to stay with the others, I just wanted to get the hell out of there, I pulled off and sat by the fence wallowing in my own sorrow when one of the guys came up and told me to just get out there, he pushed me off the fence and back in to the race, struggled to get back on to the bunch so went as hard as I could for the last couple of laps, as much as it hurt and as bad as I felt not being able to stay with the bunch I actually felt quite good about it all, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and I actually enjoyed the pain for once! What!? Kat enjoying pain? I know very unlikely words from me but it is different to anything I have done before, road and mountain bike racing especially is very easy for me to slack off, pedals stop turning when I want them to and I can be lazy and stop for a breather if I choose, here I just couldn't, well I did attempt to give up in the first race but to no avail, the second and third races were interesting, the second race had 2 sprints in it so I knew I had no chance of hanging on at all, I went out this time without worrying about anything or anyone and just figured it was good training even if I did get dropped, on the start line they announced we were doing 10 laps, what? we only did 8 for the first race, I figured it would go down each race, wasn't to be, I got dropped very early on, hung back for a lap and attempted to get back on again but they just flew straight past me, I rode the rest of the race on my own, the last race was a 15 lap scratch race, we went from a group of 9 to just 5 and I felt a bit better about riding with the others and rolling turns so I stayed with them until I was nearly on front but the guy in front of me was just too fast when he was on the front so I got dropped here, stayed out there and went as hard as I could for the rest of the race, hurt a lot and sounded like I was having an asthma attack but I really enjoyed it so didn't care at all.

I am really happy I decided to get the bike and have a go, hopefully I can build my fitness up for the Summer XC season and hopefully finally get my first XC win.

Thanks to Croydon Cycleworks for their continued support and many thanks to everyone I spoke to out at DISC last night for encouraging me between races

Until next time, happy biking

Kat