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First Convict 100 and first race
Decided to take the plunge and enter my first race and thought if i am going to do this i am going to do it properly and go straight for the 100km race. So on Friday my mate and i made it up St Albans and get ourselves ready.
We set off on the Saturday and decided to stay together until we got to the first climb and wow what a climb. I tried to ride up part of the hill but as soon as i saw people unclipping in front of me and decided to join them as i didn't want to kill my legs on the first hill. After that my mate and i went separate ways and ran our own races.
After the first feed stop i was amazed by how rocky the trail was and i found myself really enjoying the challenge and the scenery. The downhill run through shepherds gully proved fun and found myself at the canoe bridge. Given the weather and my lack of experience with canoe bridges i decided to walk the bridge. After the bridge i found someone to share the load on the road section which was nice given the headwind (i hate headwinds!!!). I then got to the climb at Woomera and found i really don't like that section of the course and slowly made my way up. When i saw the 10km to go sign my spirits lifted and i started the run home where i ran into another guy doing the same pace and we had a good chat all the way to end.
So in the end i was happy with my time given it was a first attempt and my mate was only 30 minutes behind me.
It was a great day and i really enjoyed talking to lots of people along the way. Looks like i have been bitten by the bug and will be back next year
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that's a great time for a first 100k race, well done and be careful to treat that bug bite correctly, liberal application of convicts, flings and Monts are about all you can do to treat it...
Great ride for a first time out, and certainly a good thing that you enjoyed it enough to want to go back for more. Well done.
Thanks for the encouragement. That's the thing I love about this sport, I have only been doing this for 3 years and I have found that pretty much everyone is so friendly and helpful.
Antsonline, it's a pity you couldn't race this year but I did enjoy your commentary at the start and thanks for the training blog entries, they helped me as well.
Now I just need to test the n+1 hypothesis, while the stumpy was good fun to ride I think I now need carbon XC bike, although the wife may have a different opinion
Completing a first 100km - particularly on that type of course - is a great achievement. Indeed that first hill - no elevation chart or map can do it justice. Hope to see you on a few more of these with decreased times. A new bike will help of course, but it's the “engine“ upgrades that make the biggest differnences. Rest and recover now and make some plans.