What fun...

I absolutely loved this race! I'm looking forward to next year... from last in category at Dirtworks with the elite social riders to sub 7 hours, I'm over the moon My bike was awesome, it felt so light with the new bling wheels, it was serviced on Thursday by CBD and ran without issue the entire race.

I was unorganised the morning of the race and still packing the car when the elites started, I got to the start in time to start with the 7:16am wave. This got me caught out on a few hills in the first 50km where riders in front would all stop and I'd have nowhere to go and have to walk hills with them. The third time it happened I was cranky and let out a few swear words, woops.... it did get the people in front of me moving out of my way pretty quickly though! On the first two downhills I provided entertainment for the people behind me with my rear tyre getting loose and ending up skidding around the corners.

I had a little bonk at the top of the climb at around 8km, I put this down to not getting up early enough to have breakfast. After a snake and some endura a couple of minutes later I felt great again. I got to the 30km water station and spotted Shawn, Bruce and Buck, Tien turned up shortly after me. The traffic started to thin out after this drink station which was great!

No memories really stand out between the 30km and the 50km mark, I was working at keeping my pace constantly around 14km/h. At the 50km water station I meet Don, thanks for lending me some chain lube. I filled my bidon and cambelbak, ate a bun and downed a red bull then headed out. The second 50 compared to the first 50, is like chalk and cheese, the second 50 was awesome.

Towards the very top of the big climb that ended about the 78km mark, my left quad felt like it was suddenly full of fluid. It was strange, I was glad that it didn't feel like it was going to cramp. I stopped at the top and had a salt tablet and an electrolyte table and then kept going. For about 3km I'd been talking to the rider in front, he had run out of water so at the 75km mark I stopped to give him some mouthfuls out of my camelbak.

Some of the people I had passed on the way to the 80km mark looked in bad shape, when I got to the 80km mark there was a number of people there that looked absolutely smashed. I still felt pretty good so grabbed a handful of lollies and refilled my bidon and kept going. At times in the last 20km I was worried that I had taken a wrong turn as there was no one ahead or behind, this was great for the downhill single track at the 85km mark, it had me changing up into the big ring and going for it, it was heaven!

I really didn't want to see the finish line, I was having so much fun and didn't want to stop. My training is definitely paying off, I'm really looking forward to the Scott now.

Jay