As this race is the Australian National Marathan Championships, all the big names in MTB were there. Adam didn't want to get caught in congestion, so led Ian and I to the start line and positioned us 6 rows back from the front, as we stood there I thought, sweet, we won't cop any congestion...
What I hadn't considered is the pace these guys ride at, we were in the front group and they paced stage 1 very fast, well out of my comfort zone. Somehow Dan (who had started behind us) caught up to us, damn that boy has some pace, because I was cruising along above 90% on my heart rate monitor, I recall seeing 95% at one point, which is very high for endurance, usually I try and keep in the 70's. Adam, Dan and I sort of rode together for the first bit of stage 1, which was nice. I started thinking that maybe if I hung on the back of this fast group I might go alright in the race, I mean, it was only 100kms and I've solo'd the 24, so this should be easy... what an idiot! By the 70km mark I was hurting all over...
Stage 1 was fast and flowy, through private farming land that took us from Bundanoon to Penrose State Forrest, there wasn't many hills, so it wasn't too hard, a couple of creek crossing later (one of them deep enough to come up to my hips as I waded through it!) and I had made it to the first transition having managed to sort of keep up with some of the faster group, I was feeling pretty good and after a quick 2 minute stretch at transition, decided to head straight off into Stage 2.
Stage 2 is into Penrose and while stage 1 was 29km, Stage 2 was 50km, an had over a vertical kilometer of climbing. About 5 minutes into the first hill I was pedalling away when I heard a ka-ching, and felt my front gears go "funny". I looked down and the middle ring was wobbling all over the shop, being as smart as I am I just changed gears and kept pedaling, I should have gotten off the bike and taken a look, because the mounting screws for the big and middle chain rings had fallen out! I had foolishly gone into this race with a busted tooth on my middle gear, and figured it was the problem, don't ask me why, I did mention I was smart right? :)
Penrose really does live upto the hype, it is awesome. Fern lined and full of fast sweepy sections, it really was a lot of fun and the scenery was gorgeous. About half way through this stage though, I started to pay for the pace I had been holding, my knees were killing and my lower back was sore and I started to think "where is the end of this stage", it felt like it would never come.
My gears were grinding noisily by now an even the big gear was wobbling around, bashing into my derailuer as it spun around. I was still unaware of the missing screws and still unwilling to get off the bike and inspect the damage though, and pushed on, finally the 2nd transition came up and I rejoiced the bitchumen ride into the Train Station.
I got off the bike and thought I should rest and look at those gears, but within a few seconds I could feel fatigue setting in, like my body was turning to lead while I stood there... quickly I jumped back on the bike and pedalled off, thinking, I've done 80kms, it's only 20 to go... it's not though, the race is not 100km, it's really 109km. Hurting badly and unable to face another power bar, I made the switch to Gel, and started really sucking down the sport drink from my camel back. This last section had some very very technical sections and although the hills were not steep, there was plenty of them, and damn, did they hurt!
Keen to finish, and thinking I had less than 5kms to go, I started to put the boot in and lifted my heart rate to higher than I was during stage one, don't ask me how, but I was just keen to finish this race and sit down :) A few kilometers later, a crushing blow, a horrifying "10kms to go" sign.... "NOOOOOO!" I yelled, much to the amusement of a guy I was riding with at the time :)
There was no way I could hold the current pace for another 10kms, so I backed off, it was too late though, as cramping started to set in, I went back to climbing in granny gear, cruising the straights and free rolling the descents. I sucked down as much sports drink as I could, knowing I was dehydrated as it was 29'C and I'd been out for 6 hours and hadn't finished my 3L of drink. The drink seem to help and where the final hill gives you a choice, go the long way with a gentle slope, or the short steeper way up, I went with short and steep, only because it was shorter :) At the top we boke out onto very smooth firetrail and I got into riding with a guy on a cyclocross bike (what a madman!), well, he rode, and I drafted along behind him, for as a long as could :) We hammered to the finish at around 50km/h on the bitchumen and then I limped up the road past the camp to the finish, I'd made it!
Back at camp we found out Ian had had a nasty crash and had been almost screwered by a tree branch, a nasty scratch the evidence. Ian and Adam were riding together, and when they got to the 2nd transition where I felt like I might die but headed off anyway, they made a much smarter choice, and jumped in a car and got a lift back to camp with Ian's wife.
The stand out performance of the group had to be Adam's better half Mel, who finished the half fling (58km) without stopping or feeling like death like the rest of us, and having done no training! Most impressive!
I'm looking forward to a return next year, where I'll be smarter and not push it to try and keep up with those crazy fast guys that burnt me out, that was a bit stupid :) The course was awesome, I'd never been into the highlands before, it really is a stunning part of Australia!
The results showed my laptime was 6:11 and I finished 45th out of 274 (16%) in Veterans and 127th out of 638 (19%) overall. Hardly amazing results for someone that was trying I guess, but I'm pretty stoked that had the race been 100km (instead of 109), I would have made the 2.3vkm over 100km in 5:40, and that's well ahead of what I though I could manage, I was aiming for 7:00.
The crew:
| Jason | Giant Trance |
| Dan | Turner Flux |
| Adam | Scott Dually |
| Mel | Mongoose Dually with Busted Fork |
| Ian | Giant with the G and T removed, to make it an "Ian"! |
The Stats:
| Distance | 113km |
| Time | 6:41 |
| Climb | 1900vm |
| Speed | 17.9km/h avg, 53.6km/h max |