Xterra Greece, the awakening of a peacefull mountainous village by crazy off-road fanatics

 Whilst travelling to Greece I had a very bad race at the European Championships fresh in my head. This memory was worsened by the news of being dropped by the Dutch Elite team for the World Championships. If it was up to me I would have turned my car around and hid under a rock somewhere for a while. But my life loving coach was waiting for me in Greece with the only expectation of me to finish the race. Which with the state of mind I was in was a challenge in itself. If it was  up to me I was ready for retirement.

I was travelling with fellow athletes and friends James Walker, Johnny Perry, Llewellyn Holmes and Louise Fox. We had rented a couple of cars together in Greece from which we had to endure a long journey on Greek roads to the little village of Lake Plastira where the race was held. Very quickly I snapped out of my sulking mood whilst hanging out with my “Xterra Family” during our little road trip.

 

Lake Plastiras (Greek: Λίμνη Πλαστήρα) also called Tavropos Reservoir (Greek: Τεχνητή Λίμνη Ταυρωπού) is an artificial lake fed by Tavropos (Megdovas) river, located in Karditsa regional unit, near the city of Karditsa, Greece. The lake is named after the Greek general and politician Nikolaos Plastiras, who was the first to visualize the construction of an artificial lake in the area.Today the lake holds up to 400 million cubic meters of fresh water. It is used for irrigation and as a power source of a hydroelectric plant,[1] but also as the main water source to the city of Karditsa. Due to its altitude (one of the highest in Europe) the Tavropos Reservoir is a popular tourist resort in Greece, as the formed landscape is quite unique. A perfect little place for an Xterra!

I immediately fell in love with the location on arrival, its beautiful surroundings and peacefulness dipped in the Xterra spirit made for a very warm welcome by all the locals and a very easy acclimatisation. After a long day travelling, Louise and I decided to have a swim in the lake and on our walk down run into Xterra Legend Sam Gardner (also Louise’s Coach) travelling athlete Will Kelsal and his girlfriend, and super star, good friend Helena Erbenova. Old friendships were reinforced, new friendships were made in typical Xterra style and I was very happy to be here and not hiding under a rock somewhere back in Scotland.

 

Xterra Greece Head boss Konstantinos Koumargialis had done an absolute amazing job with the course, accommodation arrangements, food availability, everything was very well organized and he together with all the organisers involved made sure we were happy and well looked after. Nothing was too much for these Greek stars. I was living the dream for a few days!!

team Organicoach

 

The following days I took the advice of Nico and spend my time practicing the course with my friends without worrying about the race and I absolutely loved it. The bike course was great; it took us right up in the hills with nice long climbs, spectacular scenery and great single track. In typical Xterra style stories started to develop; vicious dogs chasing athletes on their bikes, massive turtles escaping death in near collisions with riders, giant snakes held under control by reptile whisperer Nico Lebrun on the run course saving Kathrin Muller from being attacked.

 

Helena and Kostas

I really enjoyed spending some quality time with Helena, she had been teaching her daughter English which had improved her own language skills immensely and given her a lot of confidence in engaging in any form of conversation. I met her properly last year in Italy, and having always been in awe of her athletic performances it was great to get to know her as a person and learn about her day to day life. I find it very interesting you can connect with people coming from such different cultures and backgrounds; share a sense of humour and outlook on life even though there might be a slight language barrier. It’s a spirit which is recognisable and the key in forming strong friendships.

Xterra Greece Crew

 

As usual race day arrived way too early. Nerves took over and as much as I tried to fight it and Nico trying to talk confidence in me, my last race was so fresh on my memory and as much as I loved this course I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off. A talk with Nico the night before made me feel slightly more settled. “we are taking a step back, it’s about finishing tomorrow, I will chase you with stick if I have to!!”

Walking into transition on race day, the pro racks had given our own name cards with our national flag on it, I loved this little detail, so very cool!! Nothing to really write home about my performance other than that I didn’t completely lose my head this time.  It was great to have Nico on course helping me with the race. I managed to swim ok,  on the bike I was wondering why I was breathing so hard without my legs hurting and on the run I had Nico’s wife Alex who was having a great race breathing in my neck which motivated me to keep pushing. I ended up making a lot of mistakes which was a bit frustrating. But I did what I came to do, I finished. I finished in 6^th place.

Helena, Kathrin and me

 

 

I walked straight into the always positive Kathrin Muller at the finish line. She had another stellar performance for the win. She has always so much energy to give and it was great to be in her company whilst being slightly disappointed after another underperformance from me. A great chick she is.

A race recap with Nico reinforced what we already suspected. “after seeing you today I know it’s nothing physical he said, your training performance and race performance don’t match, we have to find a way to unlock your body”

Francois winning

 

The organicoach team did brilliantly with Francois Carloni winning the race and Rory Downie coming 4^th and Alex winning her AG! It’s always nice to see people who really deserve it do so well!! In the females it was Kathrin smashing it with Helena coming second and Brigitta Poor for the first time on the podium in 3^rd! It was nice to meet Brigitta properly in Greece after seeing glimpses of her at races last year. She had an amazing race for 4th at the European Champs and now another great performance. My roomie Louise Fox had a very good race coming 4^th.The Xterra podium was personalised with cool Xterra trophies for the top 7, another small touch of Kostas and something which put this race miles above others.

Coach Nico

A great few days with awesome people, the love is back, I am not quitting yet. It is time to train the mind. Next stop Xterra France.

"always believe that something wonderful is about to happen"

 

 

 

 

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Magic days with Aloha Racing and friends at the ETU Cross Tri Championship Sardinia

'All is not lost' were the wise words from one of the best veterinarians around, Jim Marks, whilst discussing the poor performance of a top class race horse with me. Many times I have told my race horse clients “a bad race doesn’t make it a bad horse”
To convince myself of both of those two statements after a horrible day at my biggest race to date was a lot harder to practice than to preach. “it’s just a race” said someone trying to cheer me up, a slightly irritated Maud Golsteyn also after a bad performance herself due to stomach upset mumbled “ it’s not “just a race” its European Champs, we will get over it but not right now, let us be disappointed”  While I was aiming for a top 10 result, Maud was looking to dominate the podium after a super performance coming 2^nd to Kathrin Muller last year. And she was so right, after months of hard training and commitment we were allowed our moment of disappointment.

The trip home after an awful race experience always seems to last forever. I had so many questions in my head without any answers. But to stay positive I remembered the reasons why I love this sport so much in the first place, the people in it,  and they didn’t disappoint last week, quite the contrary  and in the end those are the memories which will stick the forever.

Ian, Renata and me having fun on the beach

I was invited to join Aloha racing for a pre-race training camp, a small but super talented female only off road racing team existing out of Swiss Miss Renata Bucher, flying Dutch Girl Maud Golsteyn and Japanese champ Mieko Carey. Renata is one of the most smiley people on the circuit and is able to put a positive spin on any bad situation. For me she has always been a huge inspiration, and has pushed me to try be the best I possibly can. Above a great athlete and person, she is also a great friend and it was awesome to see her  smash her race and come 2^nd after an injury riddled start of

the season.

Maud and Renata

I met Maud  and her partner Lars last year in Switzerland and we hit it of immediately. A mutual interest and love for animals, sport, and other things in life made for heaps of topics of conversation and I was happy to be able to practice my Dutch again. She is one of the most earthy elite athletes I have ever met. She talks her own performances  down by saying “it doesn’t really mean anything” 
She doesn't receive the credit she deserves after many years racing herself consistently on the podium in duathlons, running races, cross triathlons, road triathlons and Xterra’s against stacked elite fields whilst maintaining a full time job. Her modesty and sober attitude towards things makes her even more likable and like Renata her positive spirit is contagious.  I am looking forward to see her race well this season and be put in the spot light for a change. I haven’t met Mieko yet but being part of Aloha racing I can only imagine she is just as lovely as Maud and Renata.

                                     
                                                        
the girls are very stylish kitted out in Coeur racing clothes and get their fast swim times by using Kathrin Muller’s wetsuit brand Mako. On top of that the girls race on Storck MTBes often posting the fastest bike splits in their races. They send out a message of being courageous, friendly, athletic and fun and loving their lifestyle of racing and travelling to some of the most remote beautiful parts of the world whilst doing this.

Other than the girls of Aloha racing we were joined by members of the Swiss team and their support network who were all great people which made the week leading into the race very enjoyable and relaxed. I was joined by my Organicoach team mate Rory Downie from Scotland, and for his young years he shared a lot of life wisdoms with me at moments I wasn’t the most optimistic about stuff. It was great to have him around.
The always energetic and bubbly Kathrin Muller wasn’t staying in the same hotel but joined us for meals and training sessions. A sporty fun bunch of people brought together by what we love doing most; a passion for the outdoors and sport.

Rory flying out of T2

So what went wrong in my race? I wish I could tell you, I felt great in training leading up to the event and had worked hard during the winter to improve my running and swimming. A big part of the problem is my own insecurity and the feeling of not belonging in an elite field of athletes.

I had major problems with my bike the day before the race which didn’t help the situation and I was so thankful for Rory being there helping me out to try and fix the issue with the local Italian mechanic. I was also battling a mild cold a couple days before but these are probably all excuses to make sense of a bad situation. I just felt awful from the 2nd boy in the swim until I decided there was no point. My first DNF in my 4 years of racing triathlon.

Kathrin Muller showed she is turning into a real off road specialist tackling this tough course in an elegant manner leading from beginning to end. Renata showed that she is back in the game after a month of no running coming 2nd and Helena Erbenova managed to get herself back in the race after she nearly got washed away to mainland Italy during the swim, coming 3rd. Awesome girls on the podium!!

Renata, Kathrin and Helena

Things were put in perspective for me after chatting with Helena post race. She had only just figured out that I have so many animals pictures on my Facebook page because I am a veterinarian. Very excitedly she wanted to know all about my job. When the topic came back to racing and I told her about my bad race she said "that doesn't matter, you go back to a very cool job!!!, I go back to the boring every day the same life, nothing exciting!" "no way!" I said laughing to her "you win big big races!!" to which she replied "in my next life I want to be an animal doctor!!" Which made me realise although I dream about winning big races and being a full time athlete, I am also very lucky to be able to combine the two passions in my life, and when one disappoints I have the other to fall back on.

Pre race banter

"All is not lost" another day, another race. The season has just begun, time to start having some fun!! Next stop Xterra Greece.

"Often in life we forget the things we should remember and remember the things we should forget"
 

 http://www.aloha-racing.com/aloha_racing/welcome_to_aloha_racing.html

http://www.mako-sport.fr/

 http://www.storck-bicycle.de/en/web0.asp?ID=1000

http://www.coeursports.com/