My first downhill race, I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. I planned for a casual affair, no pressure on myself, no specific lap time goals, just go out there and have a kickin' time with my mates and try not to crash :) Turns out it was far more fun than I had hoped...
CORC downhill organisers are a lot more relaxed and easy going than their XC bretheren, and the atmosphere was more carnival than race. 60 odd downhillers there, which was cool in itself. I am used to down hilling in groups of half a dozen or less, so it was a thrill to meet some new faces and see some other down hillers, there are more of us than I thought!
I travelled down with Choad, Cam, Bill and Dan. We met up with Brett and Sam down there. Cam generously offered up Shrek, the big green Ford Territory for our lift vehichle. We found a 20ish bike CORC owned bike rack on arrival, and traded in the trailer we were going to use for it. That meant we could lift a lot more bikes, helping out some of the poor souls that had no lifting available at all.
We got three good practice runs in, I had no serious lap time target, but I did want to keep ahead of the guy in behind me, and not get overtaken, I was starting 3rd in the race line up, which was due to me registering so early in the day, they run in order of rego... The fast vets do the course in 3:30 or so, so I set my target at sub 4:00 Thinking this would mean I shouldn't get passed, which would be awkward and potentially dangerous with my crappy bike skills, or I might just piss off the poor soul I held up if he couldn't get past.
I had previously only timed myself at Big Bit once before and I'd managed to come down carefully from 4:05 to 3:55 then onto a 3:43 when I made myself get off my arse and pedal a bit, damn I am lazy :) So I figured I should be okay. I was stoked to improve in my practice runs and pulled out a PB of 3:36 in one of them. I couldn't believe it, I guess I was running on adrenalin big time as there were a lot of others practicing as well, including the elite guys that run this course in 3:00 flat... so I was nervous about getting in their way. Puffed out from that run, I decided to wait out the 4th practice run at the top with Dan, and we watched the others practicing while we waited for the race start for half an hour.
In no time at all it was time to get on the line and have a go, Bill yelled out some excellent advice while I was on the start line with 20 seconds to go, "just breath" he said. I thought, yeah matey, I know, I am breathing! When I was told to go I pedalled off the line, taking it fairly easy as the top is pretty tricky, but after two corners I could feel myself going purple.... I had completely forgotten to breath! Bill was right (amazing hey :)), a few more corners in and was getting into it... I mucked up 3 corners in top section, coming off the track on 2 of them and having to back up and get going again, I was concious about that guy coming 30 seconds after me... so I gave it all I had for the rest of the run to try and make up the lost time. It was pure adrenalin and pure fun. No thought for anything else, just make the corner, hit that mark, land the jump, hook that corner... it was awesome fun!
At the finish line I got off my bike and checked the polar, I was on 185, crikey, that is high for me, higher than I had ever been, I felt pretty weak, so I took a seat and puffed like an asthmatic for a few minutes, laughing with the rest of the vets about how we were all so fit and in shape :)
Just the best riding I have done. Ear to ear grin when I finished my laps and drove home (via the Nelligen pub for a mandatory beer with the lads!), what a great day! I'll be back for the next one, that's for sure!
Thanx to Cam and Bill, for giving me lifts for the day and some great advice, you guys are legends.
The crew:
| Cam | Weewee |
| Choad | Stinky + Boxers |
| Bill | 5 Spot |
| Dan | Giant AC2 |
| Jason | Giant DH |
The Stats:
| My Race Time | 3:41 Race Lap 1 |
| Results | I came 3rd last in Vets, I should have entered the sport class though, I would have come 2nd :) haha |
| My maxHR for my Race Lap | 98% (185 bpm) a new high score for me |