Feb 15, 2015

Broken arm didn’t stop me from European Championship

It was last week in December when I fell down and broke some small bone in my elbow. It was six weeks till my first European Championship. This championship should decide who will go to the World Championship. And this year I aimed to be in! But broken ar mis probably not the best way to fullfill the sport goals.

Anyway, I tried to keep me in alternative training and even took part at some Swedish ski-o races – skiing with one pole only. I admit it was pretty risky and if I would fall down on my broken boke, it would bet he end. Surprisingly, I avoided any falls. Two weeks later Czech doctors didn’t find any fracture in my elbow anymore. kinda weird? I started to ski just holding a pole in my „poor hand“ three weeks after the injury. A week later I decided to test my arm properly. I took part in two ski-o races in Norway. On Saturday, I didn’t go full speed yet, but my arm wasn’t allowed torest anymore. And it worked! On Sunday, it was time for a proper race. Can you image that feeling when your arm feels good?!?!? I wanted to cry because of happines! It was clear, I will be able to race at European Championship! Of course, my final preparation wasn’t perfect due to alternative trainings but at least I avoided any sickness this january.

European Championship was held in Switzerland, Lenzerheide. Snow conditions were more than poor. Actually, no snow at all just three days before the event. But two days before there was a lot of snow coming so organizers didn’t have to do any radical changes.

The championship started with sprint. I was pretty satisfed with my race however the result didn’t make me happy. It was a big disadvantage to start as a second athlete. It was profitable to do shortcuts but those who skied later had there „skiing highways“ which were much faster and laking less energy.

Next day was a long distance with mass start on the schedule. I started very fast. After first loop I was just a little bit behind many very good girls. But I was loosing power and it was a big mental fight to make it all the way to the finish. At last two kilometres we were four girls together. One of us took a better route choice to the prelast control point and we didn’t see her anymore – she was better than us in the finish. I put all my power (especially mental one) and catch Simona Karochová in last uphill. I was leaving last control ahead of her. Then it was just a downhill to the finish. I knew Simona had better gliding skis (we tested our skis together before races) but I beleived I beat her. I was wrong. She got so much faster from downhill and had much higher speed in last metres to the finish. Something to work on.

The day after were mixed realy. I was qulified to run in the third téma but I woke up with a huge cramp in my belly and wasn’t able to compete. Petra Hančová ran instead of me.

Last individual race was a middle distance. I started well but was loosing my powers. It was a little bit longer middle than usually. I started again as second and it turned again in a big disadvantage. Organizers used a piece of a new competition area – on open meadows. This part was at the very end. When I reached that area, I was supposed to take second snow mobile track to the right. I kept skiing and skiing and haven’t seen any track. I felt like I’d been skiing too already and I really did. Just come municipality stopped me. So back. And again, I haven’t seen any snow mobile track. The problem was that a wind deleted all tracks. It took a while to realize I will have to do foot-o with skis and lost many minutes in this area. A big disappointment…

Last race, relay, improved my mood. I ran second leg. Simona started first and came between lasts. But I was very satisfied with my race, manage to avoid mistakes and finatty made a race to be happy about.