Dicko's blog

The Highland Fling is the highlight race of the season, everyone who is a marathon racer is there and everybody wants to do well. I was no exception, and with the added incentive of having the SXC Team at the event in numbers we all wanted to perform well.

After postponement due to the current fire’s we were looking forward to the next round of the STM series. After taking out round 3 at Awaba in both the Mens Masters and Mixed categories the SXC team were keen to perform well again.

Perfect conditions and a fast track, greeted two SXC Racing Teams on the weekend. With the MTB season ramping backup, the Masters team have thought the STM series is a good way to sharpen their skills in readiness for some of the bigger races. Whilst Gary Harwood and Martine Robin in the Mixed Pairs are currently series leaders and wanted to add to their impressive results of the season.

Well what can I say - great event, well organised and great course !

For those that love singletrack then this is the race for you. It was hard to imagine a course that can push you to your limits and put a smile on your face at the same time.

I didn't have this race on my calendar at first, but when a spare ticket came up, and we had a crew from SXC Racing Team already going I thought what the hell, how can I miss this. I am glad I didn't miss this one.

For full Race report:

http://sxcracing.com/jet-black-12-hour-sxc-racin...

Well after a lot of time in the planning, the Jetblack 12 hr at Dargle farm represented the first real team hitout for the SXC Racing Team.

After are few last minute injuries and a bit of team juggling, we managed to enter 3 teams for the event – Masters Men, Open Men and Mixed Open Teams.

The weather for the day was spectacular, and after a pre course recee ride the course was also in perfect condition.

Awesome event, great work team !

For full race report go to:

Race Report

Mentally Challenged !

Unlike all the races leading up to the Convict, I was feeling mentally and physically drained from the last 5 mths of training and racing. So I knew this weekend was going to be hard, but given it is my 'local' event and the last event of this years first half of racing I knew it had to be done. On top of this, our training group had a couple of recent hit outs around the course and even though mentally I wasn't quite there I was still riding physically strong.

Well this journey starts way back in December last year. After some disciplined training and racing in 2012 I wanted to take this a step further. To do this I had a chat to Ant Shippard, outlined what I wanted to achieve, and asked if he was willing to help me get there. My goals were quite ambitious, but Ant agreed to help and said that he would do what he could to put me into a position to achieve these goals, but all the hard work depended on me.

For those interested, these goals were:

1. Be faster than Jenny Fay in an XCM Marathon

The Capital Punishment is not one of my favourite races. Maybe it was the first years mud fest, or a combination of timed / untimed sections, or the logistical challenges involved with the event.

I had found myself entering this race again this year as it is important race as the first race in the XCM series. But with the XCM series being cancelled / put on hold this year I was lacking motivation for the event. Though after a good result last week at the Willo, I wanted to backup again and get some more race practice before the Marathon Champs next month.