Yelowmundee 4hr Enduro - WSMTB Summer Series

A perfect morning for an endurance race. Got up in the dark at 5:30 and set off by 6 for a 7am rego and 8am start.
The sun rose as a giant orange ball in the sky behind me as I drove out there, and there was mist on the paddocks giving it a crispy feeling. Perfect for riding! Met up with Gav, V and Onegear in the usual spot, and after the usual rush to get everything organised the race began.

I set out with a clear objective to do well, finish strongly and see how I'm measuring up in a solo 'race of truth'....
The first couple of laps I pushed it a bit, getting my heart rate up into the 90's (% of max), so I could establish a position on the track.
Then backed off a bit and kept my hr average between 82-83%, as that works for me pretty well in the long distance events. The laps ticked off, and I got my lines smoothed out and dialed in, keeping a steady pace. I did my first stop at 2:15, filled up the camelback, grabbed some food and took off again. I'd got a bag of ice on the way out there, and my water bottles were crispy cool, which was a good thing as the cool morning temperature was long gone - it was pushing 30 degrees at about the 10am mark...
As I hit the 3hr mark, I noticed I was overtaking a lot of solos. Feeling good, I put in a couple of really solid laps and must have picked up about 10 places. With the lap times I was doing I figured I'd come in in the 10 minutes before cutoff, so could squeeze in one last lap.
The heat was really getting to me by midday (up to about 34), and the last lap was done on an empty tank - I was wasted by then, but thought it was worth it to get an extra lap up. Not having any idea where I was placed, it was a matter of just finishing and hoping for the best. So I ground up the last few hills, even used the granny a couple of times and came in to finish. I think I slipped back one place - but everyone on the last lap was taking it pretty easy so the pressure was off.

Gav, V and Onegear were sitting back looking far too fresh. Gav and V had both one their classes, and V had wrapped up the series in first place - what an awesome effort!!!!

My final result was 15th out of 98 starters in the open mens solo, so pretty happy with that. If they'de run a master's category would certainly have been at the pointy end!

Congrats to the team - great to be out there in such great and supportive company!

Whisperer