I got an email about a month ago inviting me to a US Paralympics Training Camp at the OTC (Olympic Training Center) in Chula Vista, CA. and I guess I thought it was pretty cool. I mean I wasn’t overly stoked and at the same time was a kind of honored. When you get injured like this there are a lot of emotions and thoughts that run through your head. The reason I wasn’t overly excited was because I had always wanted to be invited to the OTC before I got hurt because I knew it was the best of the best that were there so now being invited just gave me really mixed emotions. I also figured that there were other women that would want to be here and here I am only having ridden for 4 months and get an invite. So I accepted and drove down with my good friend Aaron Baker who was also invited. Neither of us knew what to expect so it was sort of arms wide open kind of thing.
From the second I got here I knew it was going to be physically hard, but I didn't think about emotionally. Right when we pulled into the parking lot to check-in Arielle Martin pedaled by on her BMX bike. She quickly turned around to come say hi to me. For those of you who don’t know Arielle Martin was 1 point away from being the first and only female to represent the US at the Olympics in BMX. Jill Kintner ended up getting that spot, but Arielle is one of the baddest women on a BMX bike. As many of you may know I was doing my best to try and make the Olympic team for BMX months before my injury. Arielle was one of the women I raced against and to see her here and knowing that a year and a half or so ago I was competing against her was ridiculously hard. I never let on that I felt that way while I was talking to her, but it was all I could do to choke back the tears. Not only that, but a good handful of the best BMX men are here getting ready for the Supercross race in Copenhagen and seeing them was hard as well. Just knowing I was “one of them” and now I’m not is mind blowing and clearly something I still need to deal with. You know you think you’re okay and then something unexpected happens and BOOM you feel like you’re at square one again. So emotionally this has been a bit of a roller coaster.
The other reason why this camp is so hard is because it’s SO HARD!! I seriously have a whole new respect for handcyclists. It’s like it finally hit me that I’m pedaling with my arms. I know that probably sounds stupid, but I think to me I was just getting in this bike that looked different, but now that we’ve been doing Time Trials every morning and plan to the rest of the week I am WORKED. I think about what we’re doing and that I used to do all of that with a set of legs and it just blows my mind. When we’re done for the day I still have to lift myself and transfer in and out of my chair, in and out of the shower, in and out of everything and it is exhausting! The riding I was doing before I got here has been more long and steady so my body just wasn’t’ ready for this, but this is going to whip it into shape. I wasn’t’ sure where I would stand after the Time Trial the first day, but as it turns out even though I blew on about mile 5 and had another 4 miles to go I kept a steady enough pace that I think I impressed the coaches a bit. We’ll see if I’m still impressing them by the end of the camp, but I sure as heck plan on it!
I’ve learned a lot in the past few days and I’m know I will continue to learn. The other athletes here are amazing and have endured just as much or more than I have. There are other spinal cord injuries, amputees, and a two women that are legally blind that have to ride with someone to let them know when to shift if a hill is coming up or just to not go off the side of the road! Then there is Craig who was doing some training exercises in Maryland before being deployed to Iraq and a humvee landed on him. Let me repeat that! A humvee landed on him and clearly shouldn’t be alive, but he’s here and just killing it! The different issues and prejudices they have to overcome are so much that I could probably write a blog about them for the next year so I’ll just stop there, but you get the picture.
Every morning we head out on a road that a lot of other cyclist are on and I'd say about 90% of them either give the thumbs up or "hell yeah!" when they pass me, which is awesome. I appreciate that they appreciate how difficult it is pushing that handcycle. Truthfully I am going to work so hard that I am giving them the thumbs up and "hell yeah" as I'm passing them!
Cheers!
tara
www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com