Highland Fling

Well I would like to start last year....................... Last year it was my first full fling and it was the longest distance I had ever rode.....whoops

Needless to say that I felt like crap by the end. I walked more than rode the last 30k's and felt real bad.

I particularly remember I was walking up Broke Back Mountain and I saw the 100k sign with another saying only 10k's to go, that this is the worst I have ever felt in my life.

I swore to myself I was going to do it again next year but I was going to ride up that bloody hill! At the end of the day I did finish the ride but did it in 8:12.29. I didn't even touch the bike for 2 weeks after the ride. The longest period I have been off a bike. I even drove to work during that time.

Well after I picked myself off the ground (literally and metaphorically speaking) I went into 'training' I got myself a road bike (shock horror) and rode with a bunch of guys from the local bike shop.

I have ridden over 5,000k's on my road bike and did a more time on the mountain bike compared to last year.

All with one thing in mind 'ride up that bloody hill'.

In the process I lost 10kg's and thought the bike should loose weight to so I bought tubeless wheel set for the bike.

Well the race came around this year and I had a plan. Ride as much as I can. Not much of a plan but a plan nonetheless.

It was a real friendly race for me this year as I have family in Wingello and my uncle is a rural fiery. My aunt was at Wingello checkpoint 27 and I stopped to say hi, she told me to hurry the heck up it's a race! hahaha

My wife was convinced to marshal at checkpoint 28 and I stopped to see if she was alright. The highlight of the day for her was seeing a person she works with riding his bike but was 25mins behind me. A fact she reminded him on the Monday after the race. I also reminded her later as she was at the bottom of a hill and I lost all momentum from the previous downhill to speak to her. The hill hurt going up it…..

I kept riding and at the bottom of the long 3k downhill my uncle was at the check point with the fire truck. So I stopped to say hello also to motivate myself to get up the KOM! Which I did without getting off the bike! woohoo.

I kept to the plan and kept riding and by the end felt good.

At the 100k mark Broke Back Mountain, and yes I rode up that bloody Hill, success!

I finished in 6:17.29 nothing special but considering I took off nearly 2hrs from last years time I was amazed!

Next year I want to do it in the 5 hour bracket, even if I get 5:59.59 I will be happy.

So more training for me now but first I have to wash the bike.

See you all there next year!