LadyToast's blog

Entering this race with man down might have been seen as in a negative light but as we won our class in the most recent 24 hour JetBlack race we thought we had a good chance of at least making the podium of Masters 4s. I was in a team with Carlgroover and Whisperer. Carlgroover was positive we had first place in the bag before even starting!.

The one thing I am not going to do is complain about how wet and cold and muddy it was, it was obvious from the forecast that it was going to be wet, I just had to HTFU and get out there.

Anyone see that inconsiderate idiot that cramped on the canoe bridge and held up stacks of people for about 5 minutes? That was me
Sincere apologies to anyone behind me. There really was nothing I could do, movement was not an option, I have never had cramp that bad.

I thought I was on for a cracker of a time up till then too, as it was, with the 5 odd mins. lost on the bridge and from having cramp for the remainder of the ride, loosing loads of places etc. I was only in 2 mins. slower than last year. I suppose I could be pleased with that, if it wasn't for the shame.

Track was perfect today, nice and tacky mostly everywhere. Happy with the 1:37 mins in light of the lack of training recently, I don't think that is far off my old times. It was good to get some hill training done after the race as well.

Well done to Steve and Gazza for a nobmob 1, 2. Sorry I wasn't around to make it a 3 as well, but this is one hellish competitive race

Actually I shouldn't call it hell, it was completely expected. It really felt like there was a lot of climbing for this race but in fact it was only 694m in total. The downhill section after Demtel was fine, I was expecting all sorts of surprises but most people I saw took it all very slowly and it was all pretty straight forward. I got a pretty rubbish start but I'm not going to use it as an excuse, I just need to do more interval training.

Well done to the fast guys that finished in front of me (how competitive is this little group getting!), and bad luck to the DNFers.

Due to injury I haven't been training for 2 weeks and it really showed today. I found it hard to keep with the leaders on the first lap and I wasn't enjoying the pace one bit, None the less my HR was often up around 97% so I wasn't slacking off. I made a couple of silly mistakes and was getting a bit loose so I was much happier when I backed off to around 90% HR.

This was always going to be a competitive team, just look who is in it. From the start I thought we had a good chance at a podium finish, and finding out on Friday that I wasn't able to compete in the Mont 24 due to work commitments I was ready to give this race everything I had.

The downpour on the way up should have given me an indication of what was to come. It stopped long enough to fool me into racing, then on the start line the heavens opened again. Alongside me on the front of the pack was Gazza, who on hearing the news that this race was to decide our year long race numbers was like a bulldog off the leash when the hammer fell and led the pack to the first corner. I was about 5 back and quickly realised I required more sight than was being allowed me by the mud and rain and had to back off.

it's been quite a while since the last race and it showed.

I love this event. I loved it last year and I loved it more this year. I love the children's paintings in the woods, I love the water bottle free thing, I love the way the village really get behind it, the organisation that's just first class, the volunteers that rock (along with their beards!), and of course the track. OK so it doesn't have heaps of single track or testing technical but it still has great sections and some good long fire trails to get some rhythm time. It's no walk in the park.