I love sport. I love following athletes in their pursuit of excellence at whatever level that may be. I love stories of adversity, overcoming struggles and disappointments. People who when the world has given up on them, will lash out and make the impossible happen. I get inspired by those real stories, the truthful, honest and relatable ones. It is what has inspired me to challenge myself, to dig deep, to push my own limits, chase dreams in what ever way, shape or form they may come. To not, no matter what the circumstances, ever give up.
Adversity is something I am very familiar with and to overcome them my true instinct has always been to fight against it, to push against pain. Wether that is physical or mental pain. It has resulted in multiple injuries including ignoring a broken back to the point I could barely walk and alienating a childhood which is just as much a part of me as my present. I have always felt that my ability to suffer in training and races is what enabled me to fast track through the amateur ranks to elite level after getting involved in sport late in life. Rather than having natural talent. And equally this ability to suffer put an end to my short lived pursuit of elitism when I nearly managed to destroy myself by ignoring all the signs of serious injury.
Chickensoup for the soul; bikes, trails and dogs
I have mentally really struggled in the last couple of months to redefine my dreams and goals as an athlete. Chronic injury and debilitating nerve pain prevented me to deal with the feeling of being stuck the only way I knew how to, by fighting through it. Thanks to my coach James McCallum who took the time to sit down with me, helping me make plans with very short term goals I slowly but surely have started to move forward again. Thanks to friends like Laura Cunningham who pulled me out of my own isolation and included me into her cycling family, I have started to feel inspired again. And as the pain in my legs started to recede, my mind has become calmer, or vice versa I wonder?
I am not someone who seeks company from other people to feel better but equally I do feel the need to connect with like minded people to feel inspired. With that in mind I entered the Dukes Weekender, a new race on the calendar involving a hill climb TT and a 65km gravel enduro race. The Dukes Weekender was advertised as a social cycling festival, including a
My support crew
Within minutes of arriving I had already made a friend in multi sport champ Pippa Tanner and her husband Nick. Before the weekend was over we were planning adventures together after discovering we only lived 20 min apart!
The event started with a 2km Hill TT, although not my strength, I wanted to really dig deep on the hill climb, empty the tank, give it all I got.The atmosphere was buzzing and hearing Rab’s voice yelling my name through the loud speakers made me want to go that little faster. The bells and whistles, the chalk writing of support on the tarmac disappearing underneath me, the sound of drums and cheering people, it was such a cool experience racing to the top of Dukes Pass. The atmosphere was electric and everyone was in such good spirits. Happy with my performance I went back to the start to cheer on Kerry and other competitors.
Hanging out with Danny Macaskill
The Dukes gathering on Saturday night was hosted by Rab Wardell and Lee Craigie. Entertaining, inspiring, and buzzing all at the same time having Andy McKenna and Greame Obree speak. Both men having this amazing gift of captivating people with their incredible presence. I had to pinch myself when I found myself engaged in conversation with Graeme Obree after the event. We chatted about his achievements, mental health issues and pursuit of acceptance. An absolutely fascinating brilliant man to talk to. Not much later I found myself in the company of Danny Macaskill chatting about his adventures on Killimanjaro. What a night! I returned to my van filled with inspiration and energy after an amazing day on the bike with awesome people. Squeezed in with my dogs and bike buzzing from the days adventures I did not get much sleep!
Meeting Graeme Obree and Andy McKenna
Waking up to torrential rain in the morning was not exactly ideal. I felt awful after a rough night in the van, “but its only 65km” I thought “how hard can that be?"
Very hard. Very hard indeed was the answer to that. It ended up a very wet, windy, tough cold solo ride for me. At times I felt like I was not moving through the insane headwinds riding over tyre sucking water soaked gravel roads. I completely messed up the racing style riding on my own, wanting to get back as soon as I could. Which resulted in not really having the legs to smash the timed really cool, twisty stages! There was a lot of cursing against the torrential rain, but I always find it amazing how these bad memories quickly fade after a change into warm clothes and lots of good food! The afternoon was spent with old friends and newly made ones, lots of laughter and planning of new adventures. We all took amazing prizes home with Kerry outclassing the overall women’s field and Pippa and I dominating the podium in the slightly older athletes category over the three races. I was most happy with my 2nd place in the hill climb! A huge thank you to all the volunteers out on course and the organisers for putting up a professional run super fun event. I will be back next year for sure!
Driving home I felt inspired in a way I had not felt for a while. I knew that I still had to take it one step at a time with a back injury which needed continuous management. But the Dukes Weekender had managed to awaken and inspire the competitor in me to keep on trying and chasing, to keep on at it. Dreams really have no time limit. And I needed to
remind myself of that.
remind myself of that.
A massive thanks to Sandy Wallace Cycles especially John Woodrow for being so supportive of me and coach James for guiding me through some tough months. I am very lucky to have a good support network around me.
Next stop for me; The Ride Dolomites.
Photo credit : Pam La Craig
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