Race Weekend in Siem Reap

Two races in Siem Reap last weekend: one DNF and one DQ! ... but it was a cool couple of days. Here's why:

On Saturday I entered my first bike race. 100km. I guess this fits with my tendency to plunge right into a big race and hope for the best. Naomi and I set our alarms for 4:15am to meet other cyclists in town and ride 10km to the start as a warm-up. It was barely light at 5:45am when our four-lap race around the Angkor Wat temple complex began.

The first lap was mad fun! My heart was pumping with the excitement of the race but I also had a vague race plan to try to avoid 'bonking' (yeah.. kinda funny word that one...) Anyway, I was finished the first lap in 48 minutes and felt good. Half way through lap two I hit a pothole and blew a tube. I was carrying a spare but didn't have a pump. A policeman gave me a ride on his motorbike a few kilometres along the race route (with shouts of 'good race tactics!' by some cheeky sod as he cycled past). The police officer then turned onto a dirt road, continued for a couple of km's and dropped me in the middle of a sleepy village with nothing like 'support crew' in sight! A boy of about 10 years walked me along the street to find a bike repair guy. I handed over the 75 cent service charge and then the boy wanted his cut. Instead, I asked the kid if he wanted a ride of my bike? Yup. So I helped him get steady on the seat and jogged beside him as curious neighbours looked on! We said goodbye and I gave him the chocolate bar I'd stashed in my jersey for 'race nutrition'. At the start of lap three I was trying to motivate myself to keep up a decent pace. Respect the race. Finish the race. Unfortunately, I hadn't completed the third lap when I got another puncture. Two flats. Game over. I rode the final kilometers at a snail pace and quit after 75kms, having been lapped by at least a quarter of the field.

Call it race experience? Yeah. Say I was disappointed? Yeah. Call it motivation for training for another race? Heck yeah!

On Sunday morning over five thousand runners converged at the Temples to run 21km/ 10km or 3km. I was planning to cheer. A couple of days before the race, however, I received a text: 'I booked you in the 10km'. At first I thought it was a joke. On Saturday, after a visit to the registration point and a dozen calls & texts, I had a race bib and a timing chip in my hand. But I realised that 'I got you a number' doesn't mean quite the same thing as 'I have officially registered your name at full price through the appropriate channels'!!

I started half way though the pack and ran a very conservative first few kilometers. It was a bit of a surprise to get to the turn-around point at 5km and realise I was the fifth female. I soon passed the two women just ahead of me, maintained a consistent pace and found some kick for the final few hundred meters for a comfortable third. Then I got disqualified! No worries... I didn't have time to stick around for the prize ceremony anyway because I had a to rush home to give a speech in Poipet for the youth soccer league at midday!

I'm really learning to 'reframe failure'.. and I would never have expected that a DNF and a DQ could be so much fun ; )