obmal's blog

My intention was always to enter for the original date but work schedule has been nuts of late so I only got my entry in a week or so ago.

The crowd was well down on previous years and the event centre buzz was not the same, I really hope it was the reschedule that caused this and not the start of this race’s slip from popularity.

I have been meaning to get out and do some bike packing for a number of years, I even went as far as seeking appropriate approvals/justifying and buying a Salsa Fargo, bike bags, light weight camping stuff and a small hiking tent.. that has spent the last couple of years gathering dust and taking up valuable N+1 space.

I really like the Dirtworks/Convict race for a number of reasons, the spectacular scenery, the course (no matter how many times you ride it, there's some pain in them hills) and its the race that I use to motivate my rides and fitness for the start of the year.

Coming back for my second 100 Mile fling I was very ready, I had trained much harder than last year and was confident that I would smash my last years time, I had also talked a couple of reasonably fit guys into entering as well.. So with my training and bike fitness looking good I was all set to have some fun racing a couple mates over 100 Miles.

I raced out to StAlbans after work, registered and settled into the bunk accommodation that someone offered up at a property at the bottom of shepherds gully.

No beer and early to bed means that I got into St Albans early but stuffed around so then got to the line a little late, so I couldn't get into the first group.. Gotta love self seeding starts So I started in the second group.

I can’t exactly explain why I signed up for the 100Mile, there are many excuses that mask the complete lunacy of doing 100 (it’s actually like 165K’s and 3500M of climb) miles on a mountain bike, but I think the best reason is that 100K events just seem so “yawn” and don’t represent any real challenge

what they said...

tough race and happy to finish this one.

Ahh the dirtworks.. over the years this has been that “one” event for me, as it was my very first race of any distance just after I changed my life by losing a real lot of weight and got into ridding mountain bikes, the first year I did 8:10, next year I did 7:10 and last year I wanted 6 hours but ended up with a DNF.. so this year I really didn’t care who beat me or who I beat as long as I worked to my time of 6:00 I’d be super happy and as an extra bonus if I could finish the race without needing an ASS transplant, as I was riding a hardtail this year, I’d be super double happy.

As always a fun event, if a little cold!! (more than a little cold.. it was f%$#ing freezing)… seems that if it’s not raining then its freezing, at least we didn’t get the “raining and freezing” as that would have been horrible.

Last year I rode with a mate who pulled out at the half way point, so in the ensuing year I’m pretty sure that I bugged him on no less than 1000 separate occasions that he had unfinished business that needed to be completed and that I would see to it that he entered and barring terminal mechanical or physical failure that he finished this race.