After spending about a month in Boulder training and loving every single second of it, I have now flown to Germany. I will be spending the next month here in Europe- I have 'Challenge Roth' this weekend, followed by two weeks in Verbier in Switzerland- stage 19 of the Tour de France finishes in Verbier and the next day is a rest day- gotta love that!!! I then head to Antwerp for the 70.3 at the beginning of August and then it is back to Boulder to train up for IM Canada- busy- yes, but wouldn't have it any other way.
But for now I am trying to get myself mentally prepared for Challenge Roth- this will be my sixth time racing here and I have to say- it is probably my favourite race in the world. I have had the same homestay family all of this time and they are just like real family to me now.
Unfortunately it has not been a great start- we arrived here on monday afternoon and on tuesday morning I went out for a ride. I must have only been ten minutes into it when my world came crashing down around me- a car decided to turn left right in front of me and the end result was me in a muddled mess on the ground. I was sore everywhere and honestly I think I was in complete shock- I just couldn't believe it had happened to me here in Roth. The driver was obviously in shock too as he got out of his car, looked at me on the ground and then turned around, got back in his car and drove off with not so much as a word. I could not believe it- how could someone, another human being, leave someone lying in the middle of the road like that??
When it finally clicked in my head that he was not coming back, I scrapped myself off the ground, took a look at the parts that hurt the most, cringed when I saw the state of my left hand, winced when I felt the lump on my left leg and then swore black and blue when I discovered that my brand new Fi'zi:k cycling kit was completely destroyed. Of course I checked out my bike from front to back- amazingly not a scratch on the frame itself- well that was because I took the brunt of the collision. But I pulled it together and managed to make my way back home. I was then driven straight to the emergency room at the hospital by race director and good friend- Felix and my husband Justin. They were so great and managed to somehow keep me calm- no easy feat under normal circumstances let me tell you.
Once at the hospital I had a great team working on me- after x-rays and ultrasound it was determined that there were no broken bones or torn muscles- just loads of bruising and road rash. My fingers were badly sprained and I think the most painful thing was the removal of my wedding rings (I would not let them cut them off) so they had to be pulled off over all of the swelling- they looked like pigs trotters by the time I got to the hospital so I could not even watch them attempt to pull the rings over all of the swollen skin.
After what seemed like an eternity at the hospital I was finally allowed home. I must admit I was not coping with the incident well- I felt sorry for myself and couldn't understand why it had to happen to me. Justin let me sit in misery for about an hour and then he decided it was time to snap out of it and just accept what had happened and move on. It was not the end of the world, nothing was broken, I was OK and life would go on. He was right- this was nothing compared to what others have had to endure. I gave myself a good kick up the bum and went about trying to limit the damage done and look towards what could be done from here on in so that I could make the start line on sunday.
Well it is now three days since the crash and each day I am feeling a little bit better. I had an allergic reaction to one of the pain killers so had to return to hospital the next day for a couple of hours, but after a shot of cortisone I was almost back to normal. Today I was able to mange a 30min run, 3kms in the pool and 45mins on the turbo- a long way from an Ironman but a start. At least I now know I will be on the start line and the next goal is to make it to the finish line.
I will keep you updated on my progress but things are looking a lot better for sunday.
Tomorrow is another new day and lets hope I wake up tomorrow with a little less swelling, and a bigger smile on my face :)
