Started the day with the forced enthusiasm of someone who would have preferred to stay in bed. Ross arrived and the mood didn’t get any better. Jas was full of beans and Will seemed focused, so much so he focused his energy on anything but putting up the marquee. J I’m learning.
Got kitted up, put out my food and drinks. From looking at the start field for the women’s solo, I’d pretty much got the mind set, go out, ride and race yourself; the other girls are going to be WAY up the road, if you try to race them, you’ll blow up and only ride a 3 hour.
First 2 ½ hours cruised by, was getting passed on the fire road ups, only to zoom past on the single track downs. Soon learnt to push harder on the fire roads, to get good position going into my favourite single track sections so I didn’t get grumpy being held up on the fun bits.
Between 2 ½ and 3 hours my legs decided that they were going to warn me of oncoming cramps. Crap! I’d forgotten to have my magnesium this week to prepare. Oh well. More Staminade, toilet stop, Rich lubed my chain and off again. 3 hours to go and I was asking Tom (out on course doing Physics study) for some questions to keep my mind occupied. Alas, he was fine, so no problems for me and mind back to figuring out where the chick in the black and the one in the Fitzroy Revolution kits ended up after my toilet break.
Saw the black kit girl, only to have her blast away on the fire road. Crap! Really got to learn how to not blow up on those. I know they can be helpful, as evidenced by her. In the early stages I’d catch her back up in the single track, but soon she just had more legs than me. So back to the early mental game of just keeping consistent laps and racing myself. Might need to work on how to actually race other people...
Came in with 20 minutes to go, to be greeted with Coke in my bottle, put there by Rich (thoughtful one!) and I left with a huge grin on my face and the knowledge that there was only one more time up the bitch fire road. Found legs (I don’t know where they came from, perhaps the Coke) and pushed hard to finish in front of whoever was following me.
Great race, great team, great support, great iced chocolate post-race and a great sleep to follow.
