Ho Hum

I had fun but am a little disappointed with a few things that went wrong to slow me down on the day.

The start was a little sluggish my legs felt like they were filled with cement and I just couldn’t get a good rhythm going after the 25km mark I started to get the bike moving and it started to feel like it had some flow and the race started to feel good I hit the 50k water station in 2hrs 48min filled up the camelback and continued on up the hill in good form with my legs and body finally warmed up.

I was having way to much fun on the descents and probably going a little too quick on most of them especially the descent to the road just before the canoe bridge and pinch flatted and lost 10min changing a tube but was still happy until I rode down the road and saw the line up for the canoe bridge I lost a good 10 or more minutes waiting for all the walkers here so was not happy. I rode the bridge got the wristband and headed on for the hardest part of the race from the 75k point onwards.

The last 25km I walked a few but mostly rode a lot of the pinches and all the medium climbs no problem but had to be careful as my legs where starting to indicate they may cramp and I did have to spend a couple of minutes overall stretching out a few cramps. Then the best part of the whole race the final descent its smooth and fast so no fear of a pinch flats so off the brakes and let gravity take over I got a bit of air here and there and was grinning from ear to ear by the bottom.

A quick look at my watch at the bottom confirmed I may still be able to salvage a best time for the race even if I wasn’t going to make it under 6hrs so I spun like a mad man all the way to the end to take 1 minute and 22 seconds of my best time but I missed out on 8th place in my category by 2 seconds hmm.

No more softman for me I am going to listen to Paul next year and run a 32 x 17 to smash out a fast time.