Karen Darke | Athlete | Speaker | Author

A few weekends ago, I raced across a finish line in Germany, wheel to wheel with the current World Champions female handcyclist. I’ve never been so happy about losing a race. I was 0.1 seconds closer to her than I’d ever dared to imagine.

In that race, I felt I could fly; strong, perfectly tuned, my mind so utterly in the zone that I didn’t notice the heat, the pain of the hill, the difficulty of the 180 switchback or the sharp corners. But, this week I’ve been feeling close to broken - every muscle and tendon in my shoulders screaming for reprieve, my usual natural approach to wellbeing abandoned for antibiotics and ibuprofen.

One minute, I think I can win Gold, the next I wonder why I’m bothering, how on earth I think I can do it, and whether all the sacrifices are worth it. But, I remind myself, its all a cycle (excuse the pun) of highs and lows; one minute we feel we can change the World, the next we feel good for nothing.

Now, I sit on a plane, on the way to another race in Belgium, and I’d reminded of that cycle of ups and downs, reading the inflight magazine and the wisdom of Howard Schultz, the CEO and main man of Starbucks (whose Chai Latter I’m slightly addicted to…)

“It is possible to rise, fall, and rise again, recapture lost dreams, dream bigger, and succeed in our ever-changing complex world.”

As my Paracycling team mates well know this week - total crashes in the last 3 days amounting to 6, and 3 of those involving a hospital - all of our journey’s get tough at times; but we can come back, chase dreams of all shapes and sizes, and succeed.
In the meantime though, cycle safe, and if you don’t, drive safe….remember those trucks and cars are bigger than we are…