Southern Regionals

The Southern Regionals flat track races were held at the Pioneer Recreation and Sport Centre in Christchurch on Saturday. We got there around 8:20am and warm-up started at 9:15am. Enough time for me to get everything sorted and changed. During the warm-up I soon found out that my wheel choice wasn't the best as I was slipping in the corners, but someone from the club said that they're gonna wipe the floor before racing starts. No need to worry then… We started with a 300 m time trial and I was the last one to start. I watched all the others slipping around the corners and even Mark who I normally skate with at training slipped. I asked him if the track isn't any better than before and he said no. Yay. I didn't have time to change my wheels or anything, so I just had to put up with it. I started and slid through the first corner. This was no fun at all. I skated to the corner, slid, slid, slid, started skating again and sprinted out of the corner to get enough speed again, got to the next corner, slid, slid, slid and so on. Fortunately I only had to do three laps, but it was still very tiring. I ended up getting second overall (behind Mark) and won my categorie (we were only three girls). Next up was a 1'200 m relay. I was with Vicky from our club and we skated against two other teams but because Vicky was always too late in the changes, I couldn't push her properly so we fell back and ended up being third overall and second in our categorie, but that was ok. We then had a 800 m (8 laps) where we started with the skaters from the intermediate categorie. I was second off the start line but couldn't really hold up with Mark and still slid around the corners, but I comfortably got second. I then changed my wheels and hoped the new ones would grip a bit better. We had quite a long break as artistic skating was on so we had time to go outside for a bit and have lunch. In the afternoon we had a 1'500 m with the intermediates again. My wheels gripped a bit better so me and Mark shared the leads. With five laps to go he sped up though and I couldn't keep up anymore but got second again and first in my categorie. We then had another 1'200 m relay but this time I was with Mark and we won it easily. All the changes were perfect and we just ruled it :D. The last race of the day was a 3'000 m open, so that meant we had 4 categories in one race. I first thought that some of the Juniors might beat me because they didn't look too slow when I watched their races, but when we started and I was second off the start again, I wasn't worried anymore. Me and Mark shared the leads again but my legs got more tired with every lap. We had 30 laps in total and after about 15 laps I couldn't keep up with Mark anymore. I don't know what happened a couple of laps later, but I suddenly fell in one of the corners. There wasn't even anyone around me and I can't remember if I tripped or something, I just fell. However, I quickly got up and started skating again when the guy who skated about half a lap behind me ran straight into me and we both fell again but this time hurt more because of the impact. He got up a bit quicker than me but it only took me two laps to catch up to him again. I then just skated behind him and let him do all the work and with four laps to go I attacked but he couldn't follow me so I finished half a lap in front of him and got second in the race. I asked the guy who ran me over why he ran straight into me (cos there was enough space to go around me) and he just said that he didn't see me. Duh! I'm not that small… The others from my club were pretty concerned though and everyone asked if I was ok. I only had two little grazes on my knee, but it seemed like a big deal to them. It was cute :). By the time all the races and presentations were over it was 6:50 pm and we were all pretty tired from a long day. We drove home, quickly took a shower, got dressed and went out the door again to go to the fundraising dinner for Mark (so that he can go to worlds). By the time we got home it was 11:00 pm and I was so tired that I just fell into bed.

On Sunday we slept in (8 am, haha) and lay in bed for a little bit before I had breakfast and finally unpacked my bag from Saturday. I did a two hours training on the wind trainer and felt pretty good. Racing on Saturday felt more like a training cos there wasn't really anyone who could have challenged me and the races were too short to make me tired (except for the last one). We had pancakes for lunch, I did the laundry, we went to the mall and by the time we were back home it was 5:30pm already. I was tired from walking around so I really couldn't be bothered doing off-skate but I knew I should. So I got ready sometime after 6pm and did my warm-up, 40min worth of off-skate and a cool-down. It was a loooong day again and no need to say that I was very tired again that night.

This week is recovery week so I'm more than happy about that. In the afternoon all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and watch a German tv show or so but it is Monday and that means I had to do some cleaning. I just finished before so I finally have time to sit down for a couple of minutes. It looks like it's gonna rain, so I don't think we'll be going to club training tonight. Either way I'm gonna have to leave soon because we have to go food shopping as well. I also have to change the wheels from my skates, fix my track pants… yes, you're right – it's another busy day :).