Fish and Chips for dinner the night before wasn't smart, let alone McDonalds for lunch; What was I thinking? I know better, but damn, they tasted good! I paid for it dearly though, unable to eat anything solid in the race and I was queasy and nauseous from the get go...
Lining up on the grid at 7am, it was already quite warm, but a forecast of 27'C made me think my 3L camel back would be enough hydration, it wouldn't be; Later in the day when the mercury climbed above 30'C, most of the field was in a dehydrated world of pain, me included.
The start was fast, too fast I thought, my little 270W aerobic engine is pretty weak compared to most elite riders that crank out well over 300W, and the likes of Josh have 400W; I knew I had no hope of hanging on to these boys and backed off, letting them go. My only hope was to play tactics, and ride smooth. I kept the momentum going and tried to work in bunches that I could stick with. All my riding mateys dropped me and left me for dead.
The first 50k was tough, with six 100 vertical meter hills, one of them a vertical wall! We climbed almost 2 vertical kilometres all up and the legs were left pretty sore as we came through the halfway, I had held 240W, over 85% of my one hour maximum power for almost 3 hours. In hindsight, I think I had gone a touch too hard on the climbs, and would pay for that later, but when you are trying to minimise the gap those V8 engined boys in front and pulling on you, what can you do?
My oil filled belly was rejecting all solid food, I just could not stand it, so I ran on a Gu every 30mins, and getting that down was hard, I still had water, but could feel the day was getting warm, and it was like being in an oven on the climbs. One small luxury was a fantastic tail wind up the first big climb of the 2nd 50k, heavenly!
At around the 60k mark I realised I was in trouble, I was getting bizarre cold seats and flushes. I had never felt these before in a race, and I felt, well, sick, I really wanted to stop and puke. Then I got a headache, and as the kilometres wore on, it got worse, by the 80k mark, the cramping started and I realised I was out of water, this is the problem with camel backs, you cannot track how much you are drinking or have left. Then the dizziness came to visit...
Several crashes later I made the decision to just haul ass for the finish and get out of there, pushing myself harder than I knew was intelligent, but I just wanted it over. Head down, teeth grit I gave a fire trail hell in the dog, but missed an arrow leading us into single track and I just rode on, smashing myself, in the wrong direction... idiot!
Back tracking I found the course again and could see the damage, 10 people I had previously passed where now ahead of me again, fark! All that work and pain, and with one mistake I'd lost a lot of gains :( I tried to catch them back up and one by one I picked off 8 of them, for the 2nd time, but just could not catch the last two, I tried, but just did not have what was needed and ran out of steam... I had sat on 240W for the first half, but this 2nd half was done at 210W, a 15% drop in output.
At the 90k mark it was all over, I climbed in granny and rolled all the downhills, I had nothing left. I limped home. Luckily only 2 riders caught and passed me in my broken state, and I made it to the finish, where Kylie had coke, water and Opti waiting, what a life saver!
Word around the campfire at the finish was that everyone else suffered as much I did, it was the first hot race of the season I guess and no one was acclimatised to racing in these temperatures.
The highlights for me were the flowing single track in the course, which was awesome, and catching up with everyone at the end of the day, everyone had their own story of endurance to tell :)
Thanx to AROC for a great day out, and to all the crew, you guys rock! Special metion to one armed chops for cheers at the half way, much appreciated mate, and props to Spoony for a supreme come back race performance after 6 months off!
The Stats:
| Distance | 97kms |
| Result | 21st in Open (8%), 43rd Overall (10%) |
| Time | 5:28:01 |
| Climb | 3481km |
| Power | 186Wavg, 229WNP |
| VI | 1.23 (holly cow that is bad!) |
| Speed | 17.7km/hr avg |