2008 Australian 24 Hour Solo National Championships

I just woke up and, by golly, I feel like I just had a dream that I came 6th overall and stood on my first ever podium, next to Mark Fenner, in my category, at a National Championship!... someone pinch me, this can't be real! So, how did this happen...

Two weeks out from my first shot at racing a National Championship; I strained my back lifting my bike off the car roof, how bloody ironic! This meant I had to spend the two weeks before the race flat on my back, unable to sit in a chair, let alone train. I was pretty concerned about how much damage might happen if I entered and raced with a back injury.
Two days before the race, I went to a sports physio and after a thorough check that my spine was all good and the injury was only muscle related, she decided I could race if I wore a back brace to support the injured muscles. It was priceless advice, and it gave me an elating green light to race!

Armed with my rented back brace I headed out to the course for a test lap, to see if I could indeed ride with it on. A lap of the course was uncomfortable, and my back ached a little, but I figured I could live with it, my back hurts on a long ride anyway, so how bad could it get? ;) So I registered and headed home to pack my gear for the race the next day...

Perfect weather greeted us for the weekend, fine 20'C with no wind. We had landed a great campsite right in the guts of all the sponsored riders tents, next to transition, I felt like a sore thumb with my plain old tent amongst all the marquees plastered with brand names! A quick unpack of all the gear and before I knew it they were calling us up to the start. A seeded affair, Ed and I chatted while they called up all the big names in the Top 20 to the start line, we were then allowed to line up behind them on the grid.

Right from the gun the pace was incredible, I tried my best to hang on to the top 20 (as it was my pre race goal to finish in the top 20), but it was futile, they were all going flat out XC pace chasing each other like men possessed. I kept my eye on the gap to Team KHS rider Craig Armour, as he and I were a very similar pace at the 100 Mile Fling last year. Ed Hood was on his wheel and they were advancing around a minute a lap on me. I dug deep and tried to hang onto them but the pace was way beyond me, by mid afternoon I was coming 31st (well into the bottom half of the field) and the field was dropping me, fast.

To add insult to injury I hit a small sharp rock in a dip at the halfway point on the course, tearing my tyre. I threw in a tube cursing as the rest of the field cruised past and the leaders, whose pace was so hot, lapped me. The tube I fitted was faulty and with only one CO2 cartridge, I could not try and inflate it again. I was dead in the water, 4km from help. The rules of this event state I cannot accept help from anyone, racers, support crew, marshals, so I had to run the 4km back to the start and get on my spare bike.

With the field now gone ahead of me, the leaders lapping me, and me stuck on my clunky old spare bike, exhausted from the hot pace and the 4km run... I was mentally broken. I'd come to do well at this race, this was my one shot to do well at a National Championship, and to qualify into the elite category at the World Championships this year. If I couldn't achieve that today, what was the point. I pretty much gave up at this point. I put in a couple of dismal laps, and pulled into transition and told my crew that it was over, I'd had enough. They were awesome though, and told me confidently that I should just slow down to my normal endurance pace and soldier on and not worry about what others were doing.

So that's what I did, I ignored everyone else and just plodded around the course at my pace...

At midnight, out of nowhere, the strangest thing happened, I started to catch the field, and fast. It was bizarre! I could tell I was catching people as I noticed I was no longer getting overtaken, suddenly I was the one doing the overtaking. My support crew confirmed my suspicion, but with a heap of icing on the cake... I was suddenly 4th place in my category, if I kept going I might catch 3rd and get a podium finish! I lifted my pace and was completely engaged back in the race again. I just kept on plodding along and tried to knock out consistent laps.

I was catching people left, right and centre, I went from 31st, to 12th during the predawn "witching" hours, and it was for no good reason, I mean my lap times were pretty slow, pathetic even compared to what I knew everyone else was doing earlier in the race, but later I would learn, the rest of the field had all cracked, trying to keep up with the crazy pace Jason English and John Claxton were setting at the front. Those guys were amazing, racing at XC pace, within seconds of each other, right to the end of the event, inspiring stuff to witness, but far from anything the likes of me could ever get involved in!

Before dawn I was on fire, I felt fantastic and kept my consistant pace, I was having a blast. I caught and passed 3rd place in my category and amazingly moved into 8th overall! I could not believe it! This was well ahead of my "dream" result of a top 20 finish and I was coming 3rd in my category, that's podium baby!

I knew that when the sun came up, most people lift and get faster again, and I probably wouldn't having chased down 4th and 3rd in my category, I was pretty tired. Fear set in that the others would all get faster and pass me again and I'd lose all my good work and the podium finish I had in my grasp. I'd never achieved a podium finish in anything in my whole life, so there was no way I was going to give this up, I dug deep and kept my pace up and hoped for the best...

The weird thing is that no one came, in fact, I just kept passing more and more people, I passed, and then later lapped, 2nd place in my category and slipped into 5th place overall by 9am. I had no business being in 5th place at a race of this caliber, 10th was good, 8th amazing, but 5th, this was starting to get a little silly. It was freaky, so freaky in fact that even my crew got a bit concerned and told me to back off. I had double lapped 3rd place in my category, so the podium was in the bag if I just knocked out a couple more slow laps, and I achieved well above my target top 20 finish. I had also achieved my qualification into the elite category at the World Championships. My crew were worried though, what if I crashed, my injured back finally gave out, or my bike had a fatal mechanical, we could loose the achievement and go home empty handed. So we opted for caution and took a long transition to check the bike, fuel me up and then pulled the pace back for the final three laps, I rode safely and carefully to be sure the bike made it and I grannied all the climbs to be sure I didn't crack either. 6th place must have gotten wind of where I was, cause he laid down a wicked fast lap and caught me on my last lap, I let him go, I mean, wow, I was still 6th, so long as I didn't fall back out of the top 10 I was going to be over the moon with the result.

Midday came around and I finished in 6th over all and 2nd in my category, best race finish ever, a real PB. I didn't really believe any of it until they called my name to come up to the podium, what a rush, getting a medal was something I've not done before and probably never will again. It was a moment in my life I will never forget!

Some heart felt thanks have to go out to the at least twenty friends and family that came to cheer me on, it really made a huge difference to how I went, seriously! Special, never ending, I'll-never-forget-for-the-rest-of-my-days, thanks has to go my core support crew, my wonderful wife Kylie and best mates Adam and Neil, you guys lifted me when I was down, I'd pretty much given up, but you guys never gave up and believed in me to the end, spurring me on and giving me everything I needed to get the result we did. And a special thanx to the others that lent extra unexpected help all day and night long, like Rachael, my beautiful sister Jodi and brother in law Brett who were all there without being asked, they just showed up and helped out well beyond what any normal person would, to support my support crew and tirelessly help me while I was too exhausted to show the thanx and appreciation you guys deserved. Your generosity is inspiring.

How lucky am I, to have such a huge and wonderful support network, together we achieved something amazing this weekend, as a huge team, you guys rock!

Some stats for fun:

Race Distance: 370km
Climb: 5.4 vertical kilometers
Energy Burned: 61,124kJ (14,623 Calories) - The equivalent of 155 Tim Tams
Speed: Average 15.5km/h
HR: Average 123 bpm
Blow Ups: 0
Wheel Failures: 2
4km Fun Runs with Dead Bike: 1 :)
Flat Tyres: 2
Crashes: 3
Result: 6th
Driveline Cleans: 6
Amazing People That Helped Me: over a dozen! (solo, bah, we were a huge team)
Training: 252 hours over 16 weeks

A quick look at my heart rate over the race versus lap times, my HR is way too high in those early laps. After the flat tyre I settle into a good rythm, dropping as night comes and finding my second wind around 1am when I caught the field back up. The spike on the 3rd last lap is us taking a long transition checking the bikes and me out as insurance I would finish intact, insurance against my first ever podium finish.

Here's an analysis of others lap times, just to see how it is I caught the field up, after being dropped so convincingly in the early stages. From this I get that most people might have "dropped me", but compared to Jason English and Mark Fenner, really, they were not that much faster than me, just enough to get out of sight and make me think I was being flogged. It was the flat tyre that did a lot of damage to me I think, and it took me many hours to make up the lost time from that, and by then the other boys all faded, where I had settled into a rythm. Interesting stuff, and now I don't feel like I was getting whipped that much at the start.

A percentage comparison of the difference in rider speeds (yellow bar is average lap speed removing laps with obvious breaks, and the purple bar is by number of laps), Jason English is a full 20% faster than me, while Mark Fenner is just inside the 10%, that's a massive difference between 1st and 4th place, let alone 1st and 6th place. Especially looking at the boys just behind me, where there is less than 10% between all of us (less than 5% based on average lap pace for laps without breaks). Those top 3 guys are amazingly faster than the rest of the top 10... how do they that?