What has ensued since my last
blog post has been the highest of highs (so far in my short little Elite
career) ... And a fairly challenging slump in there too. If there was ever a
four month window that perfectly represented the yin and the yang in unison,
then the last few months has been just that.
On a
perfectly still, crisp Autumn night at the end of March, I came surprisingly
close to running a time over 3km that I always truly believed was reserved only
for female runners far quicker than I, and certainly in a whole different
league to me. Some felt bad for me that I was just two seconds off breaking
such a significant barrier - so agonizingly close - but for me, being that
close, it was enough. It was an eight second PB (run only 5 months earlier) and
gave me a belief in my running that I had previously lacked.
From
there I returned to Port Arlington for the Gatorade Triathlon where I had
finished second last year, coming a mere 30 seconds short of running down first
place (after being 2 minutes down off the bike). Suffice to say, I had unfinished
business this year. Feeling good, and posting the day's fastest run, I finished
as the fastest female overall, turning the tables from last year.
And so
things were going along pretty well..... But as my favourite Youtube video
describes, "momentum is a cruel mistress. She can turn on a dime with the
smallest mistake". From there, I endured a string of three very
disappointing races. I'm not talking about places, times or outcomes really,
but more that I felt I was underperforming my abilities and my level of fitness
at the time. Each of the three races knocked another dint in my rapidly
increasingly fragile confidence. I had a shocking swim at our season ending
Gatorade triathlon, leaving me to ride solo and run, what I believe, was far
from my best. From there I went to Queensland to race the Luke Harrop memorial.
My swim there was ok, but then my bike was deplorable. I had nothing. For the
first time in my short career, my legs just would not ride. I lost time I
should not have lost, but it was more that I just felt terrible. Strangely, I
managed to then have one of my best runs to date, running within ten seconds of
one of the best runners in Elite International triathlon. A small glimmer of
hope but it couldn't make up for such a disappointing bike leg.
As they
say, bad things come in threes. And so I went to China for my first ITU Conti
Cup of the year. The day started with a deplorable swim, where I just couldn't
get my heart rate up. I couldn't push. It was odd. The bike, I rode my guts
out, but started feeling very strange by the end, shaky and just not right. My
run was sub par, and more of a formality to get me to the finish line than being
anything special at all. Again, I couldn't push, I just felt off. I was strangely
relieved then to be engulfed with a bad flu within hours of the race, vaguely
consoling me that my performance was therefore not a fair reflection of where a
healthy body was at. And then, to add to training and racing not going all that
well, I had found out amongst all this that my coach would be leaving us to
take up an amazing opportunity with another federation. Absolutely so well
deserved but it obviously threw up a bit of uncertainty and a lack of
direction, and adding to the wavering confidence from a few bad races.
Obviously, none of this was dire but it wasn't an easy few months.
I'm fast
learning that this sport is a roller coaster, even more so, I feel, than other
sports. Maybe it's because it's a juggling act of three sports, all of which
need to be “on” for a good performance. Or maybe it's because triathlon is an
endurance sport and as such, we train so hard that we're always an inch away
from either being great or over-trained and sick. Either way, I'm learning that
prospects in this sport change very quickly. You have to appreciate the good
days, and similarly, know that bad days won't last.
From three of my worst races
ever, I hit "take two" on my ITU season and headed to Mauritius for
the ITU African Cup there. And, I won! My very first ITU Gold Medal (well, my
first ITU medal of any colour), my very first national anthem (which they
initially couldn't find because they assumed the top ranked South African would
win), and my first champagne popping (which I failed miserably at). Poetically,
the win came on my last day with my coach Jarrod Evans and my last day with
Endurance Team. A perfect bookend for the journey and progress we've made as a
team, Jarrod and I: From a runner and nothing more, to a Conti Cup gold medalist.
Chapter one in my triathlon story coming to an end in the most perfect possible
way.
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And so
brings me to the end of my time with my Endurance Team family. The family unit
is quite a unique concept. You're all different, you squabble at times, and get
irritated at other times. But above all, it's a family, and everyone has their
place in that family and makes it what it is. To break up a family unit creates
a sense of grief no matter the day-to-day relationships within it. Our little
High Performance Team at Endurance Team was a family, and I will miss each and
every one within it. But what looms ahead is very exciting, and I couldn't be
more keen and motivated to get to Spain and begin a new, challenging and
rewarding journey with a new family, under the excellent tutelage of Warwick
Dalziel. Onward and upward.
