It has been a long road to recovery for Christina Mackenzie, who will be representing the Western Isles in cycling at the 2023 Island Games.
In September 2022, Mackenzie, who is from Stornoway but is now based in Stirling, was left seriously injured in a hit-and-run. She had been out training when she was struck off her bike by a vehicle, whose driver has never been caught.
The 46-year-old endurance cyclist then underwent surgery after fracturing her pelvis in four places and had to learn to walk again.
Less than a year later, Mackenzie will be one of more than 100 athletes pulling on the Western Isles jersey at the 2023 Island Games in Guernsey which takes place between July 8 and 14.
She will be competing in three events – the road race, time trials and road criteriums, as well as being the Western Isles cycling team manager.
The Western Isles cycling contingent includes: Mackenzie, Kirsty Elliot, Kerry MacPhee, John Macarthur, Kevin Smith and Ian Macleod.
Guernsey will be Mackenzie’s third Island Games, having been part of the squad for the 2013 Bermuda and 2017 Gotland editions of the sporting event.
But the journey to Guernsey has been the most gruelling, as Mackenzie admits there were moments throughout her recovery when she contemplated if she even wanted to get on a bike again.
“I’ve used the Games as motivation,” said Mackenzie, who holds the Guinness World Record holder for being the fastest woman to cycle from Land’s end to John O’Groats.
“I knew I’d have the opportunity to go as team manager, but after the accident I thought there would no chance I’d be able to compete.
“I didn’t know whether I even wanted to compete. I was in so much pain that I didn’t know whether if I wanted to return to cycling.
“Now nine months down the line, I’m in a good place with my fitness and now feel like I’m race-ready. Being back on the road can be nervy and I get a bit twitchy from time to time with cars and vehicles passing by.
“My confidence has taken a bit of a dent, but on the plus-side we’ll competing on closed roads at the Games, so you won’t have any cars or traffic to worry about.”
Nothing taking for granted during recovery, says Mackenzie
Mackenzie made a remarkable return to racing at the Tour of Cambridgeshire in June where she exceeded her own expectations and qualified for the UCI World Championships in August.
And now she is back doing what she loves, Mackenzie feels proud of the adversity she has managed to overcome.
“I’ve started to take a step back to realise what I have achieved in such a short space of time,” said Mackenzie.
“I had initially thought I would take about a year or so to fully recover. It was a lot of hard work, physio and a lot of determination.
“I didn’t take anything for granted during my recovery.
“I started off on the turbo bike inside and even though I had the aim of the Games, I had in my mind to gauge my progress each month. The first couple of months were horrendous.
It’s been 9 months since my last race. At the weekend I headed down to Peterborough to compete in @thetourofcambs Time Trial & Road Race. It was great to be able to enjoy cycling again with friends & get back on a start line. pic.twitter.com/Nck5esZycL
— Lejogmack 🏴 (@Lejogmack) June 5, 2023
“It was so frustrating because in September I went out the door as a healthy athlete and came back to my house 10 days later not being able to walk.
“It was really tough because you see the fitness you’ve lost and you’re putting on weight, that in itself was a battle.
“Doing sessions on the bike, I was feeling sick and thinking: ‘why am I doing this?’.
“There were so many times I could have just thrown in the towel, but it’s moments now where I can go out enjoy it and get that love of cycling back which was the main thing.
“To put on the Western Isles jersey was my target and motivation to get back to.”
Mackenzie has medalled in previous games, but this year the only target she set herself was to make it to the start line – anything extra, the cyclist admits, would be an added bonus.
“I’ll go out there and give it 100%,” said Mackenzie.
“The training that I’ve been doing has been specific to the events at the Games, which is not normally the kind of long distance time-trialling that I do.
“I’m 46 years old now, so I know a lot of the athletes out there will probably be half my age. I’m not going to go in with huge expectations that I’ll be smashing or getting any records.
“I think if I can just do myself and the team proud that’s what I’ll be happy with. To get on the start line itself, that was my goal.”
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