EMMA SMITH - XTERRA

Xterra is awesome as it pairs mtb and triathlon. Although the distances are Olympic distance save for the bike which is a 30km mountain bike, it takes at least an hour more than an Oly and your body takes a beating so I think it's the equivalent of doing a half ironman distance race. It's an upcoming tranche of triathlon so it's an exciting sport to be part of with a great community of organisers and athletes. Being an off-road tri, it means the locations of the races are often spectacular and you get to go to some far flung beautiful places.  There's also the added excitement of anything can happen and every race varies so much, so you dont ever get bored. You also need extra skill, not only to do the mountain bike but also the trail run. There's all sorts of obstacles and challenges you can face which makes the Xterra unpredictable and ultimately the most rewarding and exciting triathlon races there are.

I am passionate about bikes and in particular, mountain biking. Unfortunately, with that comes endless crashes and injuries (or at least for me it does!) so having a fantastic physio team behind me has been a key component of my successes to date.

Before I got into the crazy sport of triathlon and mountain biking, I was a highly competitive field hockey player and horse rider. Whilst at uni, I ran the London marathon but broke my ankle in the lead up to it.  My physio recommended some low impact sports like swimming or biking which is when I had my first taste for triathlon and the Birmingham Running and Triathlon (BRAT) Club helped me get a bike and got me hooked to the sport. A year or two later, I also ended up doing Duathlon as swimming was impossible whilst recovering from a fractured shoulder.  This turned out to be a good thing as I won Bronze at the World Champs and Gold at the European Champs!
 
In 2007, I had a horrific high impact, high speed crash on my mountain bike in Canada. I was extremely lucky to not cause myself more serious damage than a fractured sternum.  I had extensive physio which got me back on the road to recovery and made me stronger than ever.
 
Most recently, I've enjoyed pairing my love for triathlon and mountain biking in the form of Xterra (off-road triathlon).  This wasn't without mishap of course, I broke my nose but fortunately otherwise I had a stormer of a race in Maui, Hawaii to win the World Xterra Champs.  This year, I won the UK Half Ironman (1st overall amateur) despite having had problems with bunions, severe bruising/haemotoma to my hip from a mountain bike crash earlier in the year and a broken ligament in my wrist.  Fortunately I've been in the best hands at Physio 4 Life where I've been seeing Mark and Nicola who have coaxed me back to a speedy recovery and into a full training schedule again.  I've also been to their pilates classes which has been key for injury prevention. Hopefully I wont be seeing them for sometime for any more injuries but I think we all know that's not going to be the case! At least I'm safe in the knowledge that if/when anything does happen, I know I've got a fantastic physio team I can trust and who have got the skills and knowledge to get me back to my peak and higher!

Emma Smith
World Xterra Champion (25-29)