My First 100km

Well this was my first 100km race and boy did I pick a hard one to do! I started at the back of the pack as I had no expectations of any heroics. We quickly hit the usual traffic jam as we entered the first single track. This eased up a bit though as we went into the next firetrail section and things started to spread out. Things went pretty much as normal in the first 50km. I was pretty much by myself for most of it. I only saw Loz when he broke down and again at the 30km water stop when he caught up. I saw Rob, Tien and Leo at the water stop too but they left shortly after I got there. Walked many hills too as I had no idea if my legs would go the distance. Cruised into transition and saw everyone there.

At this stage I had no idea how I would do another 50km! Rob wasn’t feeling so well but we made him go on anyway Gonz was quickly off into the distance. I drank too much so had to stop for many toilet breaks. I rode on Rob’s wheel for a while as he was looking pretty bad. He told me he would bail at the next stop for sure. Problem is the next stop wasn’t until the 80km mark! I left him and chugged on up the endless hills... again pushing up many. I also stopped a fair bit to eat as I didn’t want to run out of energy. Turns out I probably didn’t need to stop so much but it’s all a learning experience for me.

A section of track at the 70km was very memorable. It was some super fast downhill singletrack. Going at silly speeds round the berms was awesome fun. Slowly but surely I got to the 80km water point. Here I found Tien and Leo. Had a quick eat and we all headed off. Again I had to take more toilet stops! I took two in the last 20km which was a bit annoying as I then had to pedal hard to get up with Tien and Leo again. Tien was getting cramps so fell behind a little. I was riding a little behind Leo until the 98km marker. What a relief! I put it in big ring and powered down the smooth firetrail to the finish.

Crossed the line in a little under 8.5hrs. I was just happy to finish. I wasn’t really going for any time in particular. It was great the have the rest of the Nobmob crew cheering on as I crossed the line. I was a bit tired but felt pretty good as I never went overly hard the whole day. Overall it was a good day out. Sure was a rewarding experience.