Game On!

Quick ride before dinner at the Col de Abisque

I have copped a bit of flack for whinging and writing negatively! “There’s no time, we are too busy,” poor me etc. I promise I wasn’t negative, particularly in my early posts. I was trying to convey how difficult it is to change bad habits. I was struggling to improve my approach to paddling, and become open to learning instead of getting frustrated when I made a mistake. Change isn’t easy, but it is rewarding. , I did, however, enjoy whingeing!

The Pau World Cup was our first race since Olympic selection in March. In order to be fresh for the race, we took the opportunity to explore. Pau is my paradise. It is an hour from both spectacular mountains and great surf. One night we had dinner surrounded by mountain vistas, the next looking across the ocean. The mountains and the surf had successfully left me revitalised, refreshed and ready to race.

I find the build up to racing awkward. I want to paddle and explore every option, but I also need to conserve energy for the race. It is a balancing act. The build up to the Pau World Cup was particularly strange. It was the first time in two years that I will compete in just one class, and the first time ever in just C2. In the past two years, the World Cups have been such a rush in two classes. Now, I am forced to be patient till the end to race. I wasn’t patient. Somehow, I confused my start time. I thought we were racing an hour earlier. What ensued can only be described as a “comedy of errors”. I was in such a rush. I forgot our competition sticker, then nearly destroyed it, and harassed Kynan for not being focused or ready to race. I felt like such a fool when I was informed of my mistake.

We qualified for the semi-final in twelfth. The top half of each qualification run was equal to the fastest of the day. However, unnecessary aggression led to costly mistakes. We were satisfied with our performance and eager to improve in the semi-final.

Photo courtesy of Sportscene

Sitting on the start line, I was nervous, more nervous than normal. In hindsight there was an element of fear of failure. The fear provided an unnecessary obstacle. It knocked me off track mentally and left me feeling twitchy and unbalanced, which is how we later described our semi-final. We finished in a disappointing 16^th position, impatient for the next opportunity to race. World Cup 3 in La Seu D’Urgell, Spain, is our last race before the Olympics, and we have a lot to prove.