It has been a few weeks since my last blog but as you all know I am not just an athlete but an athlete who also has a job and a life outside of sport and writing. So I’ve been busy: I went to Plett in November to visit family and friends whom I haven’t seen since March 2021. It was important for me to reconnect with family and friends who I may have neglected for a few months while I was focusing on Tokyo. I also visited Gill (who went to Tokyo with me) and her family for two days. The timing was perfect as my two week visit happened when I was nursing a knee injury so I didn’t have to feel bad about taking time off from my cycling. When I returned it was back to try to balance training with work. Then I was on 2 weeks leave from work but trained intensely and I had my mother visiting so once again there hasn’t been much time to write. I started writing one blog about my Tokyo road race but it has became a three part blog. I hope to post all 3 on same day or over this weekend so that you can really sink you teeth into the story or read each one at your leisure.
A few weeks ago I asked my followers to request a topic from my trip that they wanted me to write about. I only received a few so I wanted to write about the day of my road race because to me and those who witnessed it first hand, it was a very significant day. By now much has been said and published about that race as it was the day that the cameras caught Stuart Jones riding next to me to encourage me along the way, but at the same time there is much I have not said about my race and what a victory my 8th place finish was.
My road race was on the Thursday after a really long week. This was the furthest I had ever travelled, with the most time differences I had experienced in my cycling career. (I have been to the USA which is an eight-hour difference but that wasn’t for a race.) Just to get to our hotel in the Yamanashi area on the slopes of Mount Fuji took us about 36 hours of travel and after just a day and a half I was back on the rollers and the next day we starting training on the Fuji race track. Most of my teammates, and probably competitors, were on the track every day but with a week still to go before race days I knew I had to be careful. The balance between training, resting, and racing had been a fine one. As I wasn’t training as hard as the others on the track, Gill and I were afraid that I would be seen as not pushing hard enough while in Tokyo, and that it would put me in a bad light for any future trips. However, from previous experience I knew how much stronger I was for racing when I was well rested and I was really glad that I had spoken to Carol, my coach, about it. I could take comfort in our planning.
My road race came about 10 days after our arrival in Tokyo and a day and a half after my time trial. My first memory of that day is Gill parking my wheelchair at the breakfast table and asking what I wanted to eat. I could not answer her- I had no energy to reply! I think I mumbled something to her but I really trusted that by this time she knew me well enough to get me what I wanted or needed. As I sat there dressed in my team kit watching the rain fall outside and hoping it would stop, I had no idea how I was going to cope on this day. In just a few hours I had to get on my bike and race against the best in the world, in the biggest race in the world, yet as I stared at the plate on the table in front of me I could not even contemplate finishing this task. The traveling, the training, the transfers from the track to the hotel (50 minutes each way in a bus on multiple days), the lack of sleep due to jet lag had all got me and I was done! When I am this exhausted I tend to get nauseous from eating but I knew I just had to shuffle something in and when Gill had finished eating she sat and fed me so that I could save some of my non-existent energy. I prayed that somehow my energy would reappear so that I would be able to finish this day stronger than I started.
My next memory was sitting in the team car as Ricky drove Gill, Pieter (mechanic) and myself to the track. I was still on empty and was grateful that today I was the only SA cyclist racing so we had the team car at our disposal and didn’t have to use the bus. I had my earphones on and was eating a Bar One trying yet again to kick start my body into race day mode any way that I could. We had planned our departure time to meet Siya, the physio, and Carolette, our team doctor, at the track at 11 so that I could have my pre-race massage. Suddenly I was awoken from my mental and physical battle by Ricky making a U-turn and heading back the way we had just come! As I lifted my earphones from my ears I found out that Ricky had forgotten his accreditation at the hotel and we had to fetch it. Our original planning had not left time for a detour of about 30 mins but this was what was happening and I just had to accept it. I went back into my world of music and sweet tasting chocolate and hoped Siya and Dr Carolette would excuse my late showing.
The next thing I remember is Gill pushing me into the athletes’ lounge at the track as we searched for Siya and Carolette, firstly to apologize for being late and then to start my new pre-race routine (new because Tokyo was the first time in my career that I had access to a physio and team doctor). Almost immediately, I think, the two could see I was in trouble. I think I was hanging in my wheelchair and my words were hardly audible. We had a brainstorming session right there and then. I could only think of downing a Coke which usually gives me energy but the team doc suggested something that would last a bit longer. After a team discussion it was decided Siya would just give me a very light rub down and then the doc would boost me up with a Berocca. The question of whether I could/should even start the race did come up, and I decided to give it a go. In the past when I’ve felt like I did at this point, I managed to perk up and race once I got on my trike . I wasn’t about to quit before I started and leave Tokyo with thoughts of ‘what if’. I could see the scepticism in a few eyes around me, that starting a 26km race in the rain, the way I was feeling, was it even a good idea? But once I had decided they were fully behind me. I also knew that should this backfire I had a team to pick up my pieces afterwards !
After my massage my foam cup of bright orange fuzzy liquid was handed to me. Before I knew it there were three other white foam cups around as one by one the team around me put their hands up for a Berocca – it had been a long week and I wasn’t the only one needing a boost. We decided to record the ‘Berocca party’ as it is now known, in the form of a photo. Unfortunately the quest for the perfect photo took a bit long and Gill and I started to stress about the time. We had arrived later than we had wanted to and we were still playing catch up - and there was still a lot to do. We joined Ricky and Peter, who I think were still unaware of the discussions and antics that went on upstairs. I think it was roundabout this time when I took a look outside and saw that my hope of the rain stopping, wasn’t going to realise. All morning, during breakfast, in our room and during our journey to the track I had looked at drops dripping from any surface outside, and hoped it would cease. By now I was coming to terms with the fact that today, of all days, when I needed any possible encouragement and advantage, we were going to be wet, very wet and soaking from beginning to end.
After getting dressed into my race gear, it was time for lunch. Gill and I think Carolette, who was never far away and ready to assist, embarked on the mission of getting food into me. My mind knew I needed to eat, I had a long afternoon ahead of me, but it was not the easiest to do. When I am extremely tired my system wants to reject the food. A sandwich, a banana and a future life sachet was on my menu.
Once the struggle to eat was done it was time to do a quick warm up. During the warm up I started to perk up slightly but was far from my best. This was no way to start a Paralympic road race. Suddenly time had been swallowed up and Ricky said we had to hurry up because we had to head down to the starting line! It was a flurry of activity to do the final things and as I started to roll out the garage Pieter was still adjusting my race numbers on my back. My whole entourage for the day each grabbed an umbrella and followed me into the wet. They were with me for as long as they could be. We were held in the line-up for quite a while – or so it felt. We used the time to take some precious photos before Ricky stepped forward and gave me some final race advice. One phrase was repeated a few times – the roads are wet, take no chances!!
The day before my road race I was grateful to sit down with Carol Cooke, my Australian coach. We were staying in the same hotel and although the Australian team was trying to stay separated from other teams as much as they could due to their government’s and team’s Covid rules, Carol had suggested we meet when I have lunch. While Gill was dishing up our lunch, Carol joined me at a table that I had chosen away from the other athletes to try and respect her situation. We each had brought a gift for the other from home and fed our gifts around the see-through plastic that was separating us. (As part of the Covid precautions the tables had plastic separators on the tables). We briefly chatted about the time trial that was the day before and I congratulated her on her silver medal. Then we got down to planning for my road race. To me this was pure gold. Sure Carol had been coaching me for about 3 months by now but this was all done through emails and a program called Training Peaks due to the fact that we lived on two separate continents. But to sit with her in person twenty-four hours before a race and talk race strategy, this is something no one had ever done with me. Carol explained that she knew I would fall behind quite quickly in the race due to the fact that I was racing against stronger riders including the stronger T2 class. She added that she thought I would be lapped and pulled off the course after the first lap and that it should not bother me that much. Based on what she had already seen, I had improved so much in the last two years since she had seen me, and she was proud of my cycling. I had made it to Tokyo and that was great.
Moments before riders were called to the start Gill spotted that my water bottle cage was empty and we had forgotten my bottle in the rush of getting to the start line! If I needed anything more to unsettle me just before we took off this was it. I knew the rain would keep me cool but I still wanted to have my bottle with me. Pieter offered to run back in the hope that he could find it and bring it to me but I knew there wasn’t enough time. As Ricky and Gill (Siya and Carolette bid me farewell at this point) rolled me up to the start Ricky said Pieter would have my water bottle ready for me as we came past the pits area halfway through the first lap, but no other info was given. After a little more encouragement from my two remaining support crew, Gill and Ricky then stepped away and I was met by my new friend, the rain, falling all over around me, already soaking me and my trike.
This story is continued in the next blog - Road Race Flashbacks.