lisa morgan

This weekend just been, while people back home were braving the mud and cold in Rotorua, I headed west with Tanya (click the link for some entertaining reading - she's much better at updating than I am too... and has pics) and Joanne for a 67km marathon, part of the Ontario marathon series.  My preparation?  Over a week laid up with sciatica!  The 'twinge' I mentioned in my last post causing me to make friends with the local physio got a whole lot worse until I could hardly move, or stay still for that matter - I don't recommend it.

Fortunately however, there are several physio's within a couple of kilometers and I seemed to luck upon a good one who gave me a few hours of treatment through the week.  Between sessions I was so busy with my exercises I barely would have had time to ride anyway.

The good news was after a few stretches on Sunday morning before the race I was able to touch my toes for the first time in about 2 weeks - and nothing hurt!  The same can't be said today - well, I can touch my toes, but I've got plenty of good soreness in the legs after almost 5hrs out on the bike yesterday.

The first couple of hours of the race were awesome - I was so fresh from my 'taper', and it's always fun to be riding in a new place.  The same can't really be said for the next 2 or so hours, for me at least.  I just felt like the scenery never changed and the only thing giving the tracks personality was all the trees that had to be jumped/ridden/walked over - fun for a while, but it grows a bit old!  There was also poison ivy everywhere - I hadn't been entirely sure how much I should worry about it, knowing I can react pretty badly to, well, anything - but the general consensus had been that it doesn't grow very high and should really only be a problem if you went off the track.  So I went for the option of oiling up (baby oil) pre-race and left the long socks in the bag (even though I'd got 5 pairs because they were on special - $10 for 5...), and a soapy wash under the hose afterwards.  I'm told I'll know in about a week if I got hit or not...  meanwhile, despite the 'low growing and off the trail' theory, it had rained so much that it was growing about twice has high as normal (around knee height) and appeared to like open spaces (the cleared tracks) so chances are everyone touched it.  Hopefully it's going to be a Canadian experience I can leave unticked.

I led the women for the first hour or so until Joanne came past me on a climb and I didn't see her again after that, finishing about 10 minutes down on her.  For a while I sat in 3rd, between 2 and 20 meters of her back wheel for about 20 minutes, but she let me pass and after that it was a pretty lonely ride being a fairly low key event and just a single loop.

After finishing and getting cleaned up there was a decent bbq with a good pasta salad and fizzy drink for all which went down a treat.  I'd ridden with my camelbak and 800ml bottle and had to fill the bottle at the last feedzone (52km) and drained everything by the line.  I won a pump for my efforts, and even scored a spot prize ('historic' Astana/Trek bottle).

But the drive home was when things got really exciting!

You know that moment when something happens and the colour drains from your face in about an eighth of a second?  Well, the colour doesn't drain from my face, but I can assure you the blood does!  Driving along the 401 (3-lane east bound highway), doing about 120 (that's Canadian for 100) we heard a sort of 'ca-dunk' up on the roof, where the 3 bikes were.  The thing that encouraged me immediately was that it wasn't followed up with a 'ping!', suggesting something had gone super bad, but not catastrophic (yet) and if we could stop in a hurry we might just avoid said catastrophe.  We were in the centre lane with a truck to our right so Tanya had to speed up to get past it to cross all the lanes and pull over. Joanne could see the back wheel of my bike and thought that was where the problem was, meanwhile I looked back from the other side of the car and saw her back wheel hanging off the end of the roof and when we got out of the car we saw that in fact all three bikes had been shunted back as the front crossbar had come loose and gone to join the back crossbar.  They basically looked like they were ready for launch, and NONE of us thought to take a photo in our haste to get the bikes the hell off the car which was still pretty close to the highway with massive trucks constantly barreling past.

And that, ladies and gentlement, is what is known in these parts as a 'raccicident'!

We got off pretty lightly really - all the bikes are perfect, we didn't cause an accident, and Joanne's parents were close enough at their cottage to come and get her and her gear and bike so we had room for our bikes, gear and the racks in Tanya's car.  We were still 2 hours away from Ottawa - a pretty big ask for a mercy call!

Not the way I'd choose to get my thrills, but kind of thrilling none-the-less, in that waking up from a really really bad dream like you were naked in public and just realised kind of thrill (ok, not really a thrill - but there's definitely an adrenalin rush involved!).

I've now got another weekend off racing but now I'm fit and healthy again I'll be able to get out on the bike and get some solid training in the bank before the next block of racing.  Craig will be over for those races - I haven't confirmed them all yet with some different options having cropped up, but either way there should be 2 marathons followed by the next Canada Cup out in Edmonton, and a chance for him to see some of the country.

I've got some footage of the Ganaraska race but haven't done anything with it yet but I should be able to put a few of the more interesting minutes together and get something up in the next few days.

Till next time - those of you reading this in NZ - keep warm and dry if you can!  No, I won't send you any sun and warm, but I will think of you as I bask in it (and just to make you feel better, it's been raining a bit lately).

Podium shot shamelessly stolen from www.theveganvagabond.blogspot.com