Blogs

This being my second MTB Marathon since March 2014 I really had no idea how I would go.

I have been riding a bit so I knew I was going into this with some fitness. I’ve also been paying attention to what I eat and have managed to drop a couple of kilograms which is always nice.

After heading down Friday afternoon with Michael, checking in, picking up a race number we headed out for dinner with Dave and Gary. Besides the restaurant forgetting about our meals everything was going like clockwork.

What a great event... My second only CP only wish I'd done more

I'll keep my race debrief short...

Pre-training = Going in to the event I'd covered a huge 302km so far this year
Objective = Stay alive
Expectation = Struggle to stay alive
Outcome = Awesome... knocked 14mins off last years time and significantly improved overall and category placings

This event came at the end of a 3 week road trip that involved hitting up the trails and beaches at Mogo and Broulee, the Snowies MTB Festival, some high altitude training at Falls Creek, riding the East Gippsland Discovery Trail and then spending a week in the Victorian Alpine National Park, including a couple of shortish rides at Horseyard Flat and in the Wonnangatta Valley.

This was my first attempt at this race and hate to say it will be my last only because they are not running it next year. What a shame it is, I did the 50km course and it was fantastic. It was also the first time I had been through stromlo and that place is a mountain bikers paradise. All that single trail and the bermed corners through luge and other trails I can't remember the name of. In fact the only thing harder than building that park would be naming all the trails.

Well tomorrow I am finally off on an adventure almost a year in the planning. About this time last year I was excitedly following the race reports from the SXC racing team who were riding in the Cape Epic. Unfortunately their race did not quite go to plan but now it's my turn. I entered somewhat on the spur of the moment but have had a whole year to prepare.

It's been a long year of training, a steep learning curve (I am relatively new to cycling) and lots of early mornings. I've ridden heaps of kays, climbed lots of meters and I guess I am ready as I'll ever be.

(I wrote this two weeks ago but haven't gotten around to posting it until now. I thought people may enjoy reading the story of how I got to where I am now.)

This is a piece I had planned to write for my 21st birthday, but being in the middle of semester, that never happened, so thought I'd take this opportunity whilst I'm recovering from being separated from my wisdom teeth and not allowed to cycle to reflect on the years gone by and think about the future.

I'm not sure exactly why I thought it was a good idea to enter this race as I've had pretty bad luck with it in the past. But a whole bunch of friends were going down camping at Jervis Bay so I thought why not.

We stayed at the beautiful Booderee NP and I had a fairly restful night. Woke up, stumbled around in the dark getting ready and off to the new event centre. Decided to line up in the middle of the pack this time as I was feeling frisky.

(I don't normally write blog entries for such small events, but this one was so spectacular that I'm making an exception.)

When I was in Year 12, a motivational speaker named Glen Gerryn came to my school, who's favourite line was, "Pick yourself up, dust yourself off. AND TRY IT AGAIN!" I think he'd be proud of me for this effort, because this is LITERALLY what I did*

A new event on the calendar – and quite a good one at that!

The Snowies MTB Festival was held at Lake Crackenback resort – a little holiday camp style place halfway between Jindabyne and Thredbo.
The resort host the start and finish of each of the 4 stages over two days.

Had a great time at this first time event last weekend.

Entered the 2 person team category for this event, as neither my mate or I felt up to the full 4 stages over two days. We ended up being the oldest team by a fair way I think.