My biggest concern before the race was the weather, I feel the cold quite easily, so made sure I dressed in warm, but not too warm clothing. I went through my typical race prep, and lined up for the start, we held a minutes silence over the tragic death of Burry Stander, South African Marathon racer, and a personal hero of mine.
For once I got a relatively good start, made good progress passing through the faster starters once the terrain ramped up. Working through the singletrack I caught and passed a rider I thought would be a front runner, this gave me confidence and i settled into my pace, but then disaster struck!
I landed on the back of my saddle, and the saddle clamp gave way. Game over, i got back to the pits and tried to tighten it but it was shot, I finished the lap, disappointed but that is racing sometimes, and mistakes are made. I spent the rest of the race cheering on my competitors, whilst trying to keep warm!
From the experience I will take that I can’t assume things that perform well during training will perform as well during racing, speeds are higher, forces are different. Racing goes on, I have no major targets until the National Marathon Championships in April, from now until then I will concentrate on quality training, with one week of warm weather training in Gran Canaria at the end of february, which is something i’ve never done before.
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