I always struggle in winter, I tend to
hibernate and my training suffers. While Newcastle winters aren’t much to
complain about compared to what those Canberrans go through it’s still pretty
darn uninspiring at 5am when the alarm goes off for that training ride. As I
mourn my lack of training I console myself with chocolate which really doesn’t
help the power-to-weight ratio either.
And so, having entered my hibernating cave
after the Convict100 I was a little worried that my kit wouldn’t fit and my
legs wouldn’t work for this June round of the five-race series. Actually, I had
managed to drag myself out of bed for a couple of weeks back on the training
wagon prior to Sunday’s race at Ourimbah but with only 3 weeks back on the
training wagon and a month of slothfulness prior to that… well it might just be
about to hurt!
After anxiously watching the forecast we
got up Sunday morning and it was raining in Newcastle. With Ourimbah only an
hour away we just had to hope that it was just far enough inland to stay a bit
drier, and luckily the weather gods were kind.
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| Chats on the start line |
The trail head was packed and the ground
was dry when we showed up, and the rego line was almost down the road. Martin
and Julianne run such great events that every man and his dog had showed up…
not that I was interested in the men and dogs it was the women who caught my
eye. Liz Smith the female Australian 24hour champ, Nienke Oostra my 100km
competitor… this was going to be interesting! While the rego people could tell
me the Nienke was out to smash up the four-hour field, Liz Smith was indeed
going to be challenging me in the 7-hour solo.
With tables set up with bottles and food it
was off down the fire road to assemble for an uphill fireroad sprint to sort
out the pack. With a good position on the start line I managed to hold a fairly
good position into the single track but not good enough to avoid the usual
stop-start, track-standing and unclipping bonanza that happens when 300 people
are overexcited and racing. Luckily things cleared up a bit by the infamous
“drop-off” and taking the A-line (for anyone wondering YouTube can show you the line ) let me overtake a crowd on the B-line (which isn't much easier) and into
fairly clear track.
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| A hill sprint to wake the legs up |
The Ourimbah track is my favourite track to
race on, it suits my technical skills and I simply love riding it. That’s not
to say it doesn’t challenge me – the grazes on my knees can attest to that –
but in general it’s a track that I do well on. Coming towards the end of lap
one and I looked down to see that I was on track for a sub-30 minute lap! Well
I was, until a left turn put us into some rain forested track I’d never ridden
before, complete with slippery roots to trip up unwary riders and a few mud
holes to avoid this bit of track added several minutes to the track used last
year.
As it was I was lapping in just over half
an hour, and figured that 12 laps or potentially 13 would be attainable. I had
a sneaky goal to be the “virtual” winner of the 4-hour event as well, just to
give myself some more competition but my main aim was to hold off Liz in the 7-hour
event.
After the first hour I settled into a
rhythm and started to tick off the laps, I started lapping girls in the 4-hour
event and became quite confused about where they all stood in the standings. I
hadn’t seen Nienke or Liz so I assumed they were both behind me but probably
not far behind.
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| Cruising the flowy track! |
In the men’s race Mark Tupalski and Ed
MacDonald were whizzing round at stupid speeds and as a result lapped me
several times during the race. Each time they had a nice chat and Ed even
complimented my riding up the rocky section of Jelly Legs climb… personally I
am huffing and puffing a bit too much at that point to chat, they make it look
so easy!
As the 5-hour mark rolled past I started to
really feel the course take its toll. After clearing the rocks in the first 8
laps, I made mistakes and missed my lines up Jelly Legs in laps 9 and 10. I
hadn’t had any time checks so I didn’t know how close Liz was but I could feel
that I was struggling and her 24-hr background I was tipping that she was still
be strong.
The last three laps were a struggle; that
small chain ring I’d ordered for Convict100 was finally on my bike and I found
myself spinning granny gear on climbs very thankful for the extra easy gears. I
found my rhythm at a lower speed and cleaned the line up Jelly Legs twice more,
but I was just ticking off minutes and waiting for it to end. My back was
killing and all I wanted to do was get off the bike and lie down, I had lapped
all the other solo girls except Liz and I knew that now I was probably holding
her off rather than pulling away from her.  |
| hurting |
Finally on my second last lap I asked
timing for a time check, 14 minutes up was the reply and I breathed a sigh of
relief. I had calculated that I would come in super close to cut off and having
a decent buffer meant I could avoid pushing hard for an extra lap. Plus barring
a mechanical I wasn’t going to lose 14 minutes in two laps.
On my last lap I lapped Catherine for
second time and she told me cut-off was actually at 6hrs45mins not 7 hours due
to daylight – I had somehow missed that part of briefing… so I definitely was
only doing 12 laps and this was definitely my last WOOOHOO
Rolling across the line was pretty sweet,
the same number of laps as last year in a faster time but also on a longer
track – not bad for someone who has to be dragged out of their hibernation cave
in the morning!
I was stoked to beat Liz but also pretty
aware that had the race been a few hours longer she probably would have caught
me. I’m not planning on giving her the chance to prove it but hats off to her
and her 24-hour efforts – 7hrs hurts more than enough for me!
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| 7 hour solo winners |
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