Kowalski 50Km

This was my second ever 50Km race - the other being last years Fling.

In the lead up to this two things happened.

Firstly, I took Mr Shippards advice and rode as much single track as possible.

Secondly, I got a cold.

Swollen glands and a bastard of a sore throat greeted me every morning for the last week and I seriously considered pulling out or at least dropping back tot he 25km race.

But, I woke up feeling better than most other mornings of late and had dragged the whole family down to Canberra, so I felt good(ish) to go. Nothing a couple of Panadol and a teaspoon of cement wouldn't fix.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first 30kms or so and am indebted to Ant Shippard for sage advice. I was off the brakes and railing corners fairly well (for me at least) and found myself working though a few people ahead of me, having started in the last wave.

I was hoping to get around in under 4 hours, and I was well on track for most of the race, but going up Escalator the body started giving me signals it wasn't happy. Twinges of cramp in my right thigh and a cough that came up from nowhere (well, in fact from my eldest I suspect but I wasn't expecting that mid race) and so when I got to the coffee stop at the 36Km mark I was not feeling all that crash hot.

I gobbled some fruit and guzzled my isotonic bottle and set off to find out what Romper Room and Stairway to Heaven were all about.

Kowalski's Sideshow was great fun, but that was the last of it for me. As I started up Rolling Thunder my right thigh kept on cramping almost every time I tried to pedal through a corner, but I struggled to the top of Romper Room.

With fresher legs I would have really enjoyed that trail, but I was blowing smoke by then and walked a few particularly gnarly sections. As someone said out there, it was a little confidence destroying.

But then, if there was any remnant of joy left, we came upon Stairway to Heaven. In all seriousness if they want to name it after a Led Zep song, it should be called Heartbreaker.

All credit to the Kowalski Brothers - it is very well built. But it broke me.

Any hope for a sub 4 hour time evaporated fast on the bloody hill.

But, hey, the weather was great, everyone was great, on balance I am very happy with my time and beer tastes good.

Bring on the Fling.

PS - Thanks again Ant!