Blogs

What a great team effort by team Toasted despite the horrendous conditions you guys all kept a smile on your dial and soldiered on well done.

On the Friday I had the day off and worked from home – I had numerous texts from friends asking if I was still REALLY (?) going to the race – being the only girl I could hardly pull the pin and knowing the boys I was with I doubted very much any of them would. So, I did the thing that most women do – I packed enough clothes for about a month and enough food for about a week – I got a lift with Junkie, who called to say he was running later than expected – every time he said that I packed more clothes...

Great experience!

At some stages I was thinking that I didn’t want to be there, but looking back I’m so glad we persevered. I’m happy they pulled the pin at 9pm because I didn’t have enough pads to make it through the night.

I went through 4 sets of pads. One brand new front set lasted only one lap!

Big thanks to the Rocky Trail and the rest of the organisers and especially to the guys at the lube station for keeping my drive train running and the boys at Blackmans Cycles for their on-site repairs and brake pad supplies.

What can be said about this race that cannot be gathered from the pictures? It was top fun despite being a little wet and muddy. Sadly it was a bit of a bike killer but c'est la vie.

The course was short and 30 minute times were expected so we elected to do double laps in daylight, triples at night and play by ear on Sunday. Not being present at the previous night's 'democratic' vote I was sent out for laps 1 & 2 but given the staggered start (solo, 2s & 3s + 1 minute, 4s + 2 minutes, rest + 3 minutes) didn't expect much traffic. Little did we know riding first would work very much to my advantage as things played out but more of that later.

It was raining on the way down there, it was raining when we put the tent up, it was raining on every lap, and it was raining when we packed up and went home 24 hours later. Not just sissy rain, but proper hard man rain. Myself and the rest of Toasted decided that we would camp - in tents - in a field - in the rain - Oh how I envied the orgainsed bods that had pre-ordered cabins. Lightweights

This was always going to be an interesting race, ever since I saw who was signed up for the team. Sadly we lost Carlgroover at the last minute who selfishly went and got sponsored, but who redeemed himself by offering entertainment throughout the whole weekend, and got first place solo 24 40's to boot - awesome. Happily Tod stepped up in his place. Despite the incessant torrential downpour, moral in the team was high, and we spent most of the race switching between third to sixth position. Wayne was always on hand at the tarp to keep humour following, and reheat his never ending supply of pasta. Critty was there simply to smash out fast lap after fast lap, he didn't disappoint despite the multitude of technical aggravation's his bike was dealing him.

Kinda weird, but in spite of the conditions it was a great weekend, everyone was in 'disturbingly' good spirits.
Can't say I've done a night lap before where it is teeming rain, the mud is inches deep in places, the downhill is treacherous, the creek single track section a case of join the dots of traction, and the brake pads last between 1 and 3 laps.
But then, getting out at 7.30 this morning when the track had a chance to stabilise overnight, it was good again.

After having an amazing time with Gav's friend Ian on Saturday (we saw a fluffy goat, spoon bird, a snake with no teeth and fish) We took the train with our bike and big bags direction to the house of MTB 24h soloist mentor John alias Carlgroover. When the boys were talking, I was working on finishing a really important part of the ARC grant application as I had a big dead line ...Gav called me to have dinner and I had gluten free pasta and supa salty cheese and pasta sauce (no beer).

Well, that was the hardest 8 hour solo i've done so far and i've put the blame mainly on one thing, it wasn't the weather,my fittness,my equipment or the track. it was BEER!

After a big night in bondi on wednesday night, i foolishly backed it up by having another big night on friday after a hot day at work!
i made sure i drank litres of weak endura all day saturday and took even more magnesium than i usually take on a daily basis.

Interesting race this one, but have to say am very happy with how it went to be honest. Well - for me - for poor old Cupcake it sucked quiet badly.

Having hastily moved from a trio with Junkie, Cupcake and I begrudgingly formed a pairs team at Lisdale. It would seem no-one wanted to ride with a 'pest' and both of us were too soft to ride alone so worked for me.

Yesterday I was speaking to a fellow rider who was scoffing at my 'training' lately, and didn't think spending a day playing with trail building would help.

Well, I'm here to tell you that if you get stuck into it, trail building is as good a workout as you'll get. Admittedly it was a bit warm at Del Rio today (low 30s with a nice breeze), but after a couple of hours of shovelling I was drenched as I sat for a welcome break. Was wearing a tee and long pants (lightweight, treking gear - I've walked in the Sinai desert in these!) and not a dry spot on the whole outfit.