Final preparations

June 03, 2016

Final preparations

May has gone past in a whirl of adventure. The only way to keep up
was by piling kit and clothing in different corners and using any spare second
to address the to do list (which invariably involves tedious things like sorting out specialist home and travel insurance, bike boxes, jury duty summons and even sometimes some work).

The month started off with Glen Affric Duathlon, a truly beautiful
race which I last did in 2009. This time round I was delighted to see a huge
improvement in both my run and my cycle. In particular, I think Niall's
downhill running sessions with the Westies really helped to boost my confidence
and I managed 2nd lady in the end. Just as well the run wasn't longer really as
there was some strong competition and they were definitely gaining on me.

Some surprise snow in May in the Scottish Borders- getting nervous about the Selkirk mtb marathon to come the next day!!

Start of the Whangie hill race

Air maiden returned to Glentress for 2016 and I had a brilliant
weekend learning from the coaches and other riders and I even managed to
survive the big kicker, which I would never have been brave enough for in
previous years.

Chased by Nics in my first ever urban cyclocross in Peebles (photo from Off the back Photography, more awesome action shots here)

May has also included an
urban cyclocross in Peebles, hill races at beinn dubh, dumyat and the whangie,
a work trip to Mull, Jo's hen do and Highland games, a real Highland Games in Carmunock and some excellent cycles
with Paula. Not to mention my first time as organiser for the Park Life dirt
crit for the Glasgow Riderz. Luckily I had a massive amount of help from the
other coaches with this as there's just an unbelievable amount of stuff that
goes on behind the scenes. I am in awe of anyone who can announce podiums on
the night for all the different age groups!

Packing for post-work bike tour with Paula. Loved the lightweight bike-packing compared with panniers!

Beinn Dubh hill race (thanks to John D for a photo that really shows how much and why I love hill running)

It has been a brilliant month but I'm now I'm so excited to be going out to join Neil in Alaska. He has been off having his own adventures these past six weeks and it's going to be great to see him again, if I can find him under the beard he'll no doubt be sporting.