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I was training well for the Fling when disaster struck. My 3 year old got the flu and passed it onto me, fever, snot, and a chesty cough about 3 weeks ago. It knocked me out training for about 8 days and really got me worried as I looked at the Strava data for my riding buddies and saw them smashing out intervals during the week and putting in some serious weekend rides. My lip was dragging along the floor, my wife was ready to kill me, and my 3 year old was indifferent.

Well I have been counting down to the Fling for what seems an eternity and was very pleased with preparation. Inspiration was not only coming from the impressive riding from the other SXC lads, but also wanted to erase the memory of not finishing well last year.

A cool day for the race was good in my book, taking dehydration out of the picture. But standing in the cold drizzle at the start chute, we cringed a little thinking ahead of the 100 milers heading out for their second loop of Wingello and wished for ourselves that rain would hold off till after the finish.

In the lead up to this event I had seriously stepped up my training in the last couple of months and in the month prior I was on the MTB every weekend. The aim was to finish in 5hr30 which would have been a 20min improvement on last year.

The end result was finishing 10mins slower but with a higher overall and category placing, it was indeed a tough day.

My first words after finishing was "none of that was enjoyable".

My biggest mistake, and I had a few of them, was using this event as an excuse to get out on the bike more. Up until 6 weeks ago I'd put in only 200km since November last year. Between purchasing a renovator and attending to our little boy, now 18 months old, and our 3 month old baby girl their isn't much time left in the day. So that's the first excuse out of the way

Being 6'5, 95kg riding a SS I struggle with keeping myself cool, hydrated and fed in nearly all the races I do, it was nice to have no problems during this race with the cool weather. Both transitions I headed to the portaloo for a piddle which meant Hydration was fine with less than 3 bottles consumed, still a bit much fluid for the conditions but I'd rather over hydrate than suffer.

Back in June after having a break from all the races in the first part of the year I approached Anthony and Kyle for some ‘official’ help with training. After working out what races I was planning to do, come July, Kyle was set to coach me.

I was originally signed up for the 100km but a nasty accident a couple of weeks ago left me with 11 stitches in my chin and a busted shoulder. I was doubtful of racing at all, so decided to hedge my bets and do the 50km.

It was the first time I've done a 50km, with all my previous races being the 100km's.

Only one training ride in the two weeks leading upto the race didn't fill me with much confidence. The only ride I did was a slow lap of the dam to test the new wheels which had been express ordered to replace the tacoed ones after my crash.

Well that was a race, as my first full fling ever and first race of any sort for a couple of years I wasn't planning on setting the world on fire.

Things got off to a bad start when the diff on my car destroyed itself somewhere near Campbelltown on the way up but the gods took pity on me. I took the bike out the back so people would know I was a rider and stuck my thumb out and literally 30 secs later a car pulled up with a spare rack on the roof and room for all of my crap. My new mate even let me sleep in the back of his wagon and gave me a lift home on Sunday: Simon, you're a legend!

I came into this event feeling relatively positive, whilst I don't follow a training plan I felt stronger than last year, and riding with the Sxc Racing boys in the lead up to the race I seemed to be going ok. A week in Brisbane for work before the event meant I was at least rested.

I wasn't too worried about the rain and tried to stay positive as the forecasts turned from biblical, to torrential, to rain periods, then a chance of it holding off in the morning.

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.