Mudelicious

That was tough today. This was my first 100km race on the 29er HT.

I started today’s race with Wayne. My plan was one stop at the 56km water stop which I knew was cutting it fine but thought as it as cooler I should be ok.

The gun went and heading up the golf course my race was nearly over when a stick flew up into my rear wheel but I was lucky after it freed itself with no damage.

Just further up the track there was a traffic jam happening and riders behind getting a bit edgy. With no vision past the rider in front I give the “When your ready” call and get a reply “Yeah go left”. I put the hammer down to pass and hello, there’s no space to pass. I collected some decent size rocks and immediately felt I had lost about 20psi and had to pull over watching all the riders go by I had just worked so hard to pass . I added some air and was off again.

Again I put the hammer down to catch Wayne but didn’t end up seeing him until I think about the 80km mark.

I get to the first water stop but didn’t stop. At this time I was feeling great, I was eating and drink well and felt even with the crappy conditions it was going to be a good time. So I’m enjoying the single track about 45kms in when I take a salt tablet, go to wash it down and, oh no, I’m out. There was just enough to get it down but with no more water I couldn’t eat and I knew the salt tablet wasn’t going to sit well at all. I had to now back off bit time as I was starting to twinge and totally couldn’t concentrate on the track. All I was doing now was just counting the kilometres down. What made it worse was I’m reading 53km when I approach the 50km sign. This is when you starting thinking, I’m done and I’ll pull the pin.

I get to the water stop and just in time as they only had about 10 litres left as well with a string a riders approaching. At this point you could take the road back which was 7km back to the start. I was in two minds but decided to push on. They fill up the back pack with water and I was off.

I was starting to feel good again and pushed on to the next water stop. I decided to stop and fill up just in case. It wasn’t long after this Wayne caught me which I was surprised as I thought he was ahead. Apparently after my flat when I was hammering along I missed seeing him, doh.

I did the last bit with Wayne and I was actually feeling good, still totally exhausted but good considering the conditions. Not far from the finish I had to take a nature stop and it must have been the fact I had stopped. I went to take off and just had nothing. I finished and my garmin said 6 hours 20 minutes so I was happy that I didn’t pull the pin and pushed on.

I’ll be back but wont even bother turning up if its been wet in the lead up. That said, gee I saw some funny stacks in the mud today. So many times people got stuck, couldn’t unclip and over they went. At least they had soft landings

I’m up to Port Macquarie for the Bottlebutt 100 in 5 weeks. Please, can we have dry tracks.

One last point, man that 29er rolls so fast.

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