milton was a tough race physically, mentally, and emotionally.
i hadn't planned on doing this race but somehow talked myself into showing up in milton - a place i'd never been to nor thought i'd ever come to - alone on an early summer morning. conditions were incredible for racing; it was the type of beautiful day that only few can appreciate.
leading up to the start of the race i was distracted mentally. i had to keep reminding myself that i was there to race, forcing myself to snap out of my daze to concentrate on what was important that morning. this was just the beginning of my mental setbacks for the day.
the race was tough physically for obvious reasons: many parts of the run course were on broken, uneven off road trails, and the second run started with a steep uphill ascent. the 30k bike course was climb after climb after climb. shortly after starting my ride i realized that they don't call the area Halton Hills for nothing. headwinds gusted at 60km/h, and at one point i was actually riding on an angle because i had to lean into the crosswinds to maintain a straight course.
but what made this race really tough physically was an unexpected fall coming into transition 2. i came into the bike dismount area too quickly and wasn't fully able to get my left foot clipped out of my pedal. i threw my right leg over my bike while i was still moving, hit the brakes, slowed down abruptly, and must have run into the person in front of me. this stopped me dead in my tracks quite suddenly, unexpectedly. with my left foot still clipped in, i fell hard to the ground and, jacked up on adrenaline, i pounced back to my feet, picked up my bike with the help of one of the race volunteers, and proceeded on with the transition. the whole thing happened so quickly and all at once, and i quickly moved on to the second running leg of the race.
approaching the 1k mark of this 7k run, my right leg started feeling funny. something was off. i initially thought that my leg was having trouble adjusting to the rough, uneven pathways. because i don't normally do a lot of trail running, moving along at full-out race-pace on terrain that i'm not used to seemed like it should be to blame. i'd fallen on my left leg, after all, and it was my right leg that was bothering me. i had come into transition 2 in the lead but was overtaken by the eventual race winner by the 3k point of this run. i was having difficulty getting into my groove because my leg was hurting, but eventually found my running legs and settled into a pace that i could hold without too much agony.
for the remainder of the run i was able to hold onto 2nd position. thinking that i'd made up ground on the leader and was catching him approaching the end, i had a hard sprint to the finish line. it wasn't until i'd caught up with and passed this person that i realized he was not, in fact, the duathlon race leader, but rather a triathlete that just happened to be wearing a similar racing jersey.
pushing yourself mentally in a race is difficult at the best of times, but when you have an injury and something feels off, it's even tougher. it's hard to find a balance between wanting to keep pushing yourself as hard as possible because you're in the lead, and wanting to back off because you don't want to over-stress yourself and cause even more harm. i've never had to run injured before and it was a difficult exercise in mental focus. even before my fall that day, getting through the bike course was a challenge. when your legs are pounding, a headwind is slowing you down, and the top of one hill leads to the bottom of another, it's easy for your body to want to give up. i had to keep reminding myself that i was going to eventually be coming down all of the hills that i was climbing, wind at my back.
why this race was tough emotionally is a whole other story. some unexpected highs and harsh lows had been happening over the weeks leading up to this race. i went there alone which was a new experience for me, and an unexpected feeling of melancholy caught up with me while i was coming down the last few hundred metres of the race. the experience redefined my reasons for racing; i realized that i'm not just out there racing for myself. normally there's someone there waiting for me at the finish line, someone to say hello to, someone to ask me how my race went. every time i come to the end of a race i somehow feel that i'm crossing the line and finishing the race just for them. racing is a very social experience that always involves traveling to new places, seeing some familiar faces, and enjoying the event with loved ones and friends. without that special someone there by my side, my experience that day felt empty.
but all that aside, i came across the finish line on my injured legs in second place, pleased with my overall time of 1.29.32. as i'm a much stronger runner than cyclist, i was pretty psyched that i was able to catch up with and overtake the race leader on the bike, even though he ended up catching me on the second run. because of my injury i've decided to adjust my racing schedule and will be taking nearly a month off of competition in order to fully recover. my next race was supposed to be on june 14th in binbrook, but i'll skip that race and won't compete again until june 28th in welland. by that time i hope to have my injury taken care of and want to feel fitter, faster and stronger. i can foresee it taking a few races to get back up to 100% because i'll have to take it easy for awhile right in the middle of racing season. that may affect my fitness level. but only time will tell and i'm already looking forward to coming back to racing at the end of the month.
