Soft Encore

As I said elsewhere, "Mont24 - pretty much repeat of last year. Only with female support, faster laps, more rest and no rain. What's not to love about that? :)"

To which someone has commented, "You forgot the dust ..."

Well... meh... the dust wasn't that bad. I didn't even wear clear shades on the night laps (because had leant a pair to Ray and couldn't find the others, then forgot to rip them off his head at transition ) or experience any backscatter from the headlight.

The race for me was almost as expected... felt really good on lap 1, got in a 56:55 while trying to conserve energy for later which was a bit nicer than I'd hoped for. First of the double night laps, again trying to conserve was slower of course, but the second of this pair felt really, really slow, even though there was only 3 minutes difference.

The experience last year taught us, riding 36km of pretty much 100% single track, non-stop, in the dark requires a massive amount of concentration. Forget the physical effort for a second - the mental strain really takes it out of you. It's a fine line we ride - at least twice on this lap I'd swear my bar ends went through trees, very surreal! On the second of this pair, from before the 7km to go sign the legs began to feel cooked. I was just hanging out for that 2km to go sign, but knowing it was a long way off. Very worrying as although my energy levels felt good, the legs felt on the edge of cramps pretty much all the way from then. I normally don't cramp but had done a massive number on my legs at Ourimbah last week and perhaps that was still in the system? All I could do was select the highest gear I dare and chug all the fluid I could.

As usual, it's great to have some banter on the track, especially at those times. Not being too serious helps I guess and there were some choice comments being thrown around. Think my favourite might be the corner I turned to find a guy standing by his bike, "You OK?" was answered with, "Yeah... I'm just bored". Like he decided to stop and read a book by the side of the track. Well, it was funny at the time - guess you had to be there?

No shower again after the night lap (despite asking prior to going out if they would be open all night and being told they would - grrrrr) but the balmy conditions allowed for a rinse at the water tanker before a fitful sleep - just a couple of twinges of cramp in the night, and numerous bathroom breaks as a result of trying to prevent them.

Come Sunday morning, I really didn't feel much like riding again. Luckily the team was strong and knowing we all couldn't get another lap was happy to volunteer to skip the last one. Felt a little slack, but happy all the same. Almost 75km for the weekend isn't a bad effort, and the race laps were at a faster average speed for lower average heart rate so took that as a nice improvement... although don't know if that's technically correct or not

To be honest, think I have more fun at the Stromlo 24 hours for some reason. But you know what it's like... we just can't help ourselves - will be back for more next time all the same!

P.S. Race connect thingos...