2012 Convict 100

This was the race I was aiming for in 2012. Having done this the previous two years in 2010 taking 07:32:53 and 2011 06:27:49 my goal for this year was 05:30:00.

With the Capital Punishment being rescheduled this meant I had the Wombat 100, then the Capital Punishment and then the Convict 100 all in consecutive weekends. This meant not only going for my goal time I was backing up from two other races.

Come race morning I was up at 5am but it seems no matter how much time you have your seem to be rushing in the end. It ended up with no time for a warm up so Wayne and I headed over to the start to line up. We were up the front which was good because the road start can get a bit frantic. The gun goes and we were off. This is actually the first time I've been in a big bunch so tightly compact. It all seemed to go well although its a bit dodgy when there are oncoming cars and everyone starts moving over.

We get to the first hill and the first thing I was surprised about were how many people in the lead group were walking up the hill. My view is riding is always better because even though your HR goes through the roof I find walking really screws my lower back. Its easier for me to recover from a high HR then a sore back. After riding the first hill we were off on the fire road. It didn't take long before I could feel the previous two races in my legs.

I keep pushing just watching my average speed when I get to the start of the rocky stuff. This was tough for me. Being on a HT and carrying a hand injury from the CP I took this easy. I roll into the 50km stop where my split was 02:23:36. Pretty happy as I was on target to my 5 1/2 hours. Refilled with water, took some pain killers and I was off again.

I did some refuelling on the start of the ten mile hollow climb when I hit GNR. My thought was just to get though this and I should be good. Half way though I was hit with my first cramps of the race . Back to granny and just spun for a while until they passed. This whole section was quite slow. I was just rolling everything as I couldn't really launch of anything with my hand as sore as it was.

I finally get through and get to the bridge. I started to ride it and nearly went in. I must say I hate riding these sort of things. In the end I rolled across using my foot to push me along.

I did the road section solo for most of the way until a group passed me where I hooked onto the back. We got the Womerah and I was pretty shattered by now. I had cramps all though Womerah which caused me to stop a few times. Finally I get to Jacks track with only a few hills left I know I was going to make my goal this year

The road back was tough as I kept cramping quite bad. Its good when you do that last little pinch and you can see the finish. I came in at 05:14:16 which was good.

Next year my goal is to have a time that starts with a 4

Finally, this was the first and last year I'm doing this race on a HT