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Sonia Foote

@mumraces

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🇳🇿Mum*4, axSpA
🇳🇿Current NZ Elite CX National Champion
XCO,XCM,XTERRA Elite titles
World Champs: MTB,Du,XTERRA,UC eSports
2006 Commonwealth Games

POSTS STORIES REELS

🌿 NZ National Cyclocross Champion 🏆

5 consecutive CX National Championships participations
5 top 5 finishes
2 podiums
1 bike

This year, Nationals were held in the North Island, in Taupo which meant no travelling for our family for the first time. Thank you @taupomountainbikeclub for hosting and all the hard work that goes with this also @cyclingnewzealand and commissaires for officiating the event for us. It was a tough punchy course and an awesome day of racing. Just one weird thing, I was the sole Elite female competitor this year.

If you know me, you'll know how much I love cyclocross racing 😎.....
And when a dream come true is so close....you look to find a way to make it happen.

1 2027 UCI World Championships selection ✅
1 opportunity to race in a sea of crazy Belgium cyclocross fans 🇧🇪
1 last chance to pull on the fern at Elite level

🤘🏼😎 by @mumraces

I'm a bit work/life exhausted for expanding on my last couple of races but they were both a blast.

Oceania Deadly Dozen Championships May 9, Auckland.
A PB, 5th place and qualified for World Champs. I really need to learn to run with those weights!

First round of Fog City Cyclocross May 17, Hamilton.
2nd after a traditionally hilarious le mans start followed by good game of 😺 and 🐭 to the finish line. Won coffee and beer for the boss 😎

"Anything but Activewear" challenge at the gym...I did the whole class in full moto kit and won a game of Monopoly - Rotorua edition - for the kids 😂

Never stop playing 🪄 by @mumraces

Filling in the gaps.
A pretty average summer given my dumb injury. It became a game of, it's last minute, but, I think I am able to do it, so I'm getting in there! Last summer I missed out on everything, so this year as I became physically capable of participating, I did. This meant I was jumping in wildly unprepared with lowered expectations. The mental cost of this gradually accumulated.

I participated in Karapoti, my favourite MTB race. I now know what it feels like to line up without training for it 😂 I had to manage my legs all day, that was wild. About a half an hour slower than my usual time. So happy to be out there though!!!
Bloody hope I can race again next year.

Then National XCO. At home in Rotorua so I really wanted to join in. Absolutely scungy day 😂 I had begun tapering off my nerve meds (finally) and that was quite a shit show to be honest. Anyway, I had mentally prepared myself for the prospect of rolling party laps if nothing magical happened...which it didn't 😂. Coming across my biking bestie on the track on lap 3, severely injured, wasn't in the game plan either. It was an easy decision to park my bike and stay with her. A new challenge emerged as we navigated an exit from the forest, ambulance to hospital and emergency treatment through into the evening. Hospital challenges continued for Jeanette for an entire week. We're quite trauma bonded! ❤️‍🩹

Anyway. That concluded a summer of defiance. At Easter I finally began to feel more like my old self on the bike which was sooooooo nice! For the last couple of months I've been preparing for Deadly Dozen which is now just ten days away. It's been fun to be running and doing some specific station work. Hunting for improvements is very stimulating!

Enter curveball number 7699. Methotrexate has blown up my liver. Last week my GP called me in after my latest blood tests and told me I have to stop my medication for my psoriatic arthritis. Lord only knows what will happen while I am unmedicated and waiting to see the rheumatologist for alternative meds, but....this is life. Time will tell.

Until then I'm enlisting that mental energy I've recharged to BELIEVE that I'm ok 🤓 by @mumraces

I love trying new things. When I reflect on all my years of racing, something that was so exciting in the beginning was that every event or discipline was new to me and, I was often out of my comfort zone. Thankfully people keep creating new events for me to try 😆
Last weekend I raced my first @deadlydozen_nz in Tauranga. It was so choice.

A fitness race, a little like HYROX in that the functional fitness labours follow a run. This time 12 x 400m runs on the athletics track and 12 labours set inside the centre of the track - farmers carry, deadlift, lunges, snatches, burpee broad jumps, goblet squats, front carry, push press, bear crawl, clean and press and devil's press. I haven't been able to do any overhead work due to my disc herniations so I knew I was going to be really weak on those labours, and my arm is still weak due to neural misfires and inhibitions .... push press was absolutely my death 😆. I did run ok and I am really enjoying it too. Three of our four munchkins were with me and I am grateful for Amelia, 💕 looking after her little brothers while I tried to finish as fast as possible 😆 so we could go to the mall.

Have signed up for another go in Auckland in May 🤙🏼
Thank you for the 📷@diegomalheiross and Amelia 🌻 by @mumraces

14 January MRI Cervical Spine

Disc bulge at C3-C4 and C4-C5,
Disc herniation at C5-C6 and
A disc herniation with nerve impingement and mild spinal compression at C6-C7.

That explains a lot! It's been rough.

Even to me (who constantly likes to push through pain and bounce back from adversity in a hurry), it is somewhat unbelievable that I managed to compete on Sunday. After 6 weeks of everything being dumb, and constant pain over Christmas, I had no idea if I would be able to even consider HYROX. BUT after I was able to move again, I just kept following my body's tiny improvements each day, with determination but not pressure.

In the end, I chose to accept that it is a privilege to move my body in the way that it will allow me to....and on Sunday in the warm up zone, I lay on the floor with my eyes closed and really sat with that. I knew I might just be participating, I knew it was possible I may have to even stop.

And then I raced 😂
But I was peaceful and consistent, no spectacular stations or performances.

A PB 1:18:07
Truly mind blown 🤦🏼‍♀️

And actually not a long way from a podium flag. 5th. 3rd was 1:17:29. I'm going to get a flag one day!!!

Super grateful for my awesome family.
And Cabin for appearing to calmly accept that he can trust me to trust myself and look like I know what I'm doing 😅 by @mumraces

Oh how life changes in a heartbeat.
This past week has been a reminder that living with axial psoriatic arthritis is far from predictable.

I developed an acute cervical flare that irritated a nerve, causing severe pain at the site and radiating pain through my right arm and hand, causing altered sensation (including numbness) and a complete halt to normal life. No gym. No biking. Not even a gentle walk. Lots of pain at a max level, tears.

In fact, everyday tasks have become real challenges again.

Two trips to ED before Xmas - a total of 10hrs in the waiting room and 5hrs being assessed and despatched with prescriptions for pregabolin and severodol. And advice to rest, unload the nerve and let it settle.

What has been confronting is how quickly “normal” disappeared — and how much care it is taking just to get through each day, with rest, unloading positions (I basically have one - my hand behind my head) and a literal handful of medications keeping things tolerable. Even when pain eases briefly, I have learned that it doesn’t mean the body is ready to resume activities.

There’s no clear timeline for recovery, and that means some immediate goals may need adjusting.
It’s the reality of living with an autoimmune disease — learning to adapt (again!) - whilst trusting that healing will happen.

BUT it's also Christmas!!! And that has been very joyful with our 4 beautiful kids and my Mum and Dad. Hopefully this nerve settles down enough so we can travel to Palmy soon to be with Cabin's Dad for a second round of Christmas.

Finally, while I've been laid up I got stuck in online and completed a coaching certificate, the HYROX Foundation Course through the academy which was pretty cool!

Happy holidays! 🎄🎅🏼🎁⛄ by @mumraces

Spring MTB Cup Round 5 - Tokoroa

Final round of the series and with our best 4 results counting, I had already secured the Masters Mid Category leader's jersey for good!
So......I elected to challenge myself and race Elite for the final round.

I was super nervous Sunday morning before the race!!! However, I had some lovely supportive messages from my equally aspirational "out of cat Elite racer" @jeanettegerrie which was awesome 😎. Neither of us are ready to hang up our Elite licenses yet. This race was my big test ahead of the 2026 season....

I hung on to Dulcie's wheel on lap 1 of 4, just 7secs adrift as we concluded the lap. Then, I had to settle a little and tore around out of sight for the rest of the race, finishing up 2:27 back. Milla was off up the road from the gun and at the finish line my deficit to her was 4:58. Super inspiring racing by these young ladies ✨

For me, a third place I am proud of. I was not out the back door despite having 30 years extra on this planet...which when said out loud sounds.... quite absurd 🤣

Anyway, the hugest hurrahs and thank yous need to go to the amazing @spring_cup_xco crew - apologies for the (hilarious fun we had) cheating in the paper scissors rock contest 🤣. Another highlight of the day was lapping the cricket field in a warm up train on the boundary line. Old school shenanigans.

Peeps if you feel like you missed out on a wicked race series, it's because you did! Get into it next year 😍

Time for a wee pivot - HYROX NZ in T-6 weeks!

📷 Credit to the incredible @ncp_images 🤩 by @mumraces

Spring MTB Cup Round 4 Pirongia
Up. Down.
Repeat.
Heaps of fun!
And we had a rad time at the pools and playgrounds in Te Awamutu. It was a really awesome weekend 😎🤙🏼
Three Rock Riders on course today but we've yet to get a pic together!

Thank you @ncp_images 📷 we are so lucky to have all these snaps each week! by @mumraces

These nasty little buggers have given me my life back. This time a year ago my entire body was grinding to a halt. The months and months that followed were so foreign and scary.

Every single day I am grateful for the basic things that I can do once again - I don't think I will ever take that for granted. And being able to properly train and PUSH my body again - I had accepted that those days were likely over, that I might be simply exercising.

That feeling of really pushing, it's probably my most favourite. I just love chasing it. It makes me SO happy!

Taking my first dose of methotrexate was also scary - a quick Google will tell you why if you are curious. My rheumatologist jokes A LOT about poisoning me 🤣.

It works.

It could fall over again at any time, but until then, I am living life!!!

🌻 by @mumraces

Spring MTB Cup Round 3 Te Miro! My first time riding here and man what awesome trails!

I'm truly loving racing my bike 💜 And afterwards enjoying lots of yarns with friends and then bush exploring with the boys. We all had a great day.

Another brilliant event brought to life by passionate people making this @spring_cup_xco happen 😍 It feels a little bit like the old days of National Series (now fondly remembered as the heydays) when we had 5 or 6 rounds and the same crew of riders would roll up week in week out. Very few photos from those days though. Now we have amazing captures by @ncp_images 📷

Anyway, be sure to check out my sweet AI video 🤣😂🤣😂 by @mumraces

Spring MTB Cup Round 2 Taupo
The Queen's Stage = Double the distance= 40km.
I was really uncertain as to whether I would blow up so my idea was to ride more conservatively. Chasing the U19 girls off the start line was not conservative 😝 then soon after that we started catching master men.
Carrots.
Turns out I'm at least part donkey.
I opted for a CamelBak in order to be self sufficient and not need feeding for this race. The trails were super fun and it was an awesome summery day for racing! I did have to manage my legs during the last half hour, the second time up the KOM was pretty rubbish 🤣 but on the whole they did alright! My shoulders were dying at the back end because I'd been mucking about on the rig the day before trying single handed dead hangs 🤦🏼‍♂️etc. Nincompoop.
This series is a bit special because all the category leaders are given leaders jerseys to wear and defend 😎 Pretty amazing aye!
We even get another race this coming weekend 🥳 then a week off, and two more rounds back to back. Thank you @spring_cup_xco masterminds.
📷Credit @ncp_images by @mumraces

Spring MTB Cup Round 1 Pukete
What an absolute bloody joy to be RACING 😍 last Sunday!

So thankful for these meds that have slowly given me my life back. Now I'm even at the point that I can start to push again and that makes me SO happy. My sinuses have been wildly full of crap and being sick had sparked a disease flare but none of that could steal my race happiness 😊.

Not to mention the absolute rocketship of a bike I am now the insanely proud owner of. Woweee what a mental upgrade from my mechanical hardtail 🤙🏼 Yes it's Sammie's and yes it's fast!

Super, super fun racing with the girls, I can't wait to roll out for Round 2 in Taupo this Sunday 😎

Credits: 📷 @ncp_images and 🎥Cabin by @mumraces