Convict 100

This was my 4th time doing the Convict/Dirtworks and so far managed to better my times each year. This year my goal was to break the 5 hour barrier which I thought was going to be touch and go given I did 5:14 last year and didn't think I had it in me to shave off another quarter of an hour. In my favour was my new 29er Epic. But to counter this were back problems and some loss of training and skin due to a recent conflict with a car where I lost.

I started in the first wave and decided to push hard and keep up with the middle of the pack. It wasn't long before my back started signalling that the neurofen I had taken was not going to help and this was going to be a tough 100km. I tried not to let it slow me down too much and pushed on.

At around the 40km mark when tackling one of the rough rocky sections I thought I heard my rear tyre pop. I thought I was in luck at first but soon realised otherwise and discovered I had a sidewall tear. This was my first time dealing with a flat on an endurance race and how demoralising to see a constant stream of people riding by. I struggled to get it fixed but when I finally got back on my bike felt like the sub 5 hour was well out of reach.

But it made me mad and all thought of the back pain was gone whilst I rode as fast as I could not caring there was still another 60km to go. I was soon making good progress and doing a lot of overtaking. I hit the halfway mark 10 minutes ahead of last year and realised that I could still achieve my goal if I continued at this pace.

My anger continued to fuel me and I continued to overtake people. When I hit the first big hill after the kayak bridge I knew that this is where the real test would begin. The back pain was getting worse and the distance markers had me missing out on my sub 5 hour. The hills were hard work but I decided that I would at least try and beat last year's time by as much as possible. This was enough to give me a reason to push as hard as possible up the hills.

As I hit the road section I knew that this is where the epic would allow me to make up some serious time so locked out the fork and went flat out. A few people tried to draft behind me but that just gave me all the more reason to push harder and found myself out of the saddle for all the climbs. I continued to pass more riders.

I kept an eye on the watch and a part of me kept hoping that I was still going to come in under the 5 hours. I don't know where I got the energy from but I found myself running through the final river crossing and riding as hard as I ever have. The back pain was still there but I had other things to concentrate on.

I found myself on the final road section and then realised that my goal was back in sight. I was back out of the saddle again and still overtaking people. I crossed the line with over 2 minutes to spare and the sense of achievement took me back to my first ever Dirtworks race which was also my first taste of endurance racing. I was a happy man.