Flung out...

After missing out on the Angry Doctor, the Highland Fling was last big MTB marathon race on the calendar for the year so all my prep/training was aimed at a having a solid crack. I had a conservative Scott 24, a good Around the Bay (roadie), a good Sydney to Gong (roadie again) and various training rides with Steve 01/02/03, Bruce and Gaz in between. I had also made sure that the Rush was in tip top condition before I left Sydney, so I wouldn't have a repeat of Dirt Works earlier this year.

As the folks were out from SA, my wife decided to book a place to stay in Bundanoon... I know, how unfortunate is that! Comfy bed, space to lay kit out, hot showers, not having to wait to use public toilets, not having to listen to MoB snoring. I did briefly think about the campers in the cold, but after the TV channel was changed I lost that train of thought...

After having a quick warm up ride to the start, I arrived at the Start/Finish area just before briefing and luckily Steve had secured a spot 3 or 4 rows from the front. After guiding Whisperer in, we settled in for a fast paced ride!
The race started with the standard chaos of ppl trying to get off and create their own personal space around them, which doesn't really work in a mass start. Panic sets in and ppl seem to lose their riding skills, which is always fun if you are stuck behind. Luckily I managed to avoid some 'altercations' in the first couple 100m and was able to get some open road. I paired up with Whisperer and thought Steve was on my wheel but after a few minutes, I realised that I had picked up some other riders. I thought that they would catch me in the paddocks so I kept the heart rate at the mid to high 80's (%). Managed to pick up a nice little group and worked well together up to the first transition. I stopped to buy a quick drink as I was travelling light (1 bottle of USN and 1 litre of water) and thought that the 2 Steve's might be coming through soon, but keeping in mind that the 5 minutes of neutral time in transition was ending soon, I decided to head off again.

Luckily I was able to pick up another group and we sped through the first couple of Wingello goodness, not to mention a few ups and downs in between. At about the 52km mark I heard someone calling "Track on right if you can?" and I thought it must have been Steve playing silly buggers, so I looked over my shoulder and was surprised to see the first of the elites coming through. The top 4 came past as if they had started only a couple of kms back, not the same course 50 odd kms in and a 30mins deficit! After that, the group I was with seemed to pick up the pace somewhat as I sure they (as were I) where feeling a little 'miffed' by that.
A few more kms on, in some lovely sniggle, I had a brief lapse in concentration while going through some tight S-bends. A rather large tree (planted by Steve 03, I'm sure) seemed to lean into the track as I was cornering... I let my left leg hang out a bit too much (note to self, don't take tips from Moto GP!) and whacked the tree dead on.
I eased up a bit as the pain was excruciating but I thought that after a wee bit "She'll be right"... After a couple of nasty ups the pain seemed to get worse and every down stroke was starting to play havoc on the muscles around the knee.

I stopped for a while at the Virgin water stop and tried to massage the area around it, and then I'm not sure it was the Halfway Hill or the Kick that pretty much sent me over the edge...
Soon after that Steve caught and past me (around the 68 - 70km mark), I was now crawling along just trying to make the transition... I was in so much pain that I had decided to pull out and catch the sag wagon back to the finish. After using granny for anything that resembled a hill and coasting all the flats and descents, I eventually made the transition and got some pain killers from the medics and sat down for about 30-45mins (wasn't paying attention to the clock at this stage) trying to massage the muscles around the knee, watching ppl come and go...
Just when I was about to hop onto the sag wagon, Whisperer and Gaz pulled in so I waited a bit more to have a chat to Gaz (and missed the wagon in the process) then thought, maybe I could just limp home, and not have the dreaded DNF title. I thought Gaz and Whisperer would ride together but it seems that Gaz was faffing too much and Whisperer rode off without him...
I then went off with Simon (from TORC who had been having mechanicals on his new Scott Scale) and after the the first river crossing pulled away from him as I could see Whisperer in the distance, so I picked up the pace and caught up (meds were working a treat) and we rode back together chatting like it was a social ride, and making up quite a few places which made the next 15 odd kms quite doable...
The last 6kms the meds wore off, but the finish was close so I had to "vasbyt"... We started pushing it at about the 2.5km to go mark and rolled up to the finish feeling happy that we had finished and not to have pulled out of the race.

Bummed about the knee as I was on plan for a really good race time, but that's racing!

Great race (as always), great weather, great company - can't wait for next year!