(My) Kona 24 Hour

I have managed to deftly avoid entering any races for quite a while now. I am not exactly sure what the reason for my slippery-ness has been, but I have a few ideas.

Partly weather induced- in not wanting to enter a race, then have it cancelled due to rain. Partly financial- not wanting to spend a heap of coin to finish in 264th place.....again.....! Partly because I now know of more than enough interesting trails that I can ride, if only I can find the time.

So, I am not 100% sure why I entered the Kona 24 hour race. Or why I entered as a solo.

There were possibly three factors. One, my daughter wanted to be my pit crew for the race and I had promised her two years ago that she could do it at the next 24 hour race. Two, I really like the trails out a Hidden Vale. Three, Dean0 talked me into it! Oh, yeah, and it would be fun to go "solo" and bounce sh#t off of one another for 24 hours.

So, I found myself out at Hidden Vale on Friday afternoon with enough equipment to outfit a small army in the field. After wrestling it out of the car and assembling it into a campsite, despite being caught in a wild horse stampede, we finally sat down to a prawn curry that my lovely wife had prepared earlier that day. Now this was camping!!

The next morning dawned a bit overcast and humid, but no too hot. We got ourselves ready for the kids 24 minute race mid morning and to say the kids were a bit excited is an understatement! The kids race went off on time and was fun for all with great commentary/encouragement for them over the PA system and a nice little 2km course that had them lapping in about 5-6 minutes.

They even managed to get podium places this time around! Two prouder kids you would not see!

The main event was rapidly approaching and I was taking it pretty casually. I was still in "civy" gear 10 minutes before the start and putting air in the rear tyre about 2 minutes before the start. My plan was to just head off after everyone else had started. After all, why jostle with the crowd when I would be riding for a 24 hour period and taking sensible breaks anyway?

That was the plan but I just couldn't help myself. There is something about riding off with a few hundred other riders that is fun so I slotted in near the back of the 24 hour field just as the gun went off. Tootling along gently taking in the atmosphere was fun...until the 4 hour riders started zipping past. I suffered from a bit of red mist and (stupidly) put the hammer down a bit. Fun, if not real smart.....

So, I came around the first lap in about 50 minutes. Waaaay too fast for a 24 solo rider. I dialed it back a bit on the next lap though. It helped that I chatted to another 24 solo dude out on that lap who looked like he knew what he was doing. He (turned out to be Darren Caruso) suggested keeping my heart rate right down to save myself. I replied that I was doing that by planning on sleeping for about 8 hours...but his point was taken. I know I can ride for ever if I keep my heart rate around the 140bpm mark. Not the 160-170 that I had been maintaining.

The laps were in the order of 16.8km (10.5mi) with 320m (1050ft) of climbing. It doesn't sound like much, but the rocky, technical nature of the Hidden Vale course means that there are very few places to rest, either physically or mentally and yes, 24 hours is very mental. There were some corking descents that made the pain disappear as one held on and railed some sweet trail though. It was impossible to get a photo of these trails as you really needed both hands on the bars.

However, I was feeling pretty low after just two laps. It got quite hot mid afternoon and I was feeling a twinge in my legs and my triceps already. Not good just 2 hours into a 24! Thankfully, the cloud thickened, I drank lots and ate some to keep the system going. My pit crew was "slick as" despite no previous experience and I must attribute my good condition to Lucy's top effort here! As night fell and I switched on my lights I was feeling pretty bloody good. The cool night air was like a recharge for my legs and I fell into a great rhythm for a few hours.

Derek, Andrew, Geoff (trail building regulars/champions) and Kreston were kind enough to share their pit lane tent with us and at about 8pm I stopped for some pizza and a think about my "plan". My lead up to the weekend had not been very ideal with five 4am starts for work so I planned on sleeping. Lots. I wasn't going to win this thing so why bury myself? Just to have fun was the main item on the agenda.

So, I called it off for the night. Six laps done gave me 94km (59mi) with 1800m (5900ft) of climbing. Not bad for my level of fitness and I still felt pretty good, despite how I looked. Time for a hot shower and some solid sleep.....but my pit crew chief wasn't happy. She was expecting me to ride all night (so she could stay up all night!)

Setting the alarm for 3:30am, I wondered about my commitment to get up when it went off. But not for long, as I was asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.

When it did go off, I reset it for 4am! But I couldn't get back to sleep as I was feeling pretty good. I woke my pit crew chief (not a pleasant job at that hour) and we were off to the pit lane tent again.

After faffing around for about 30 minutes I finally headed out at about 4:15am for another lap. I felt incredibly "rusty" and took it pretty easy after giving myself a few scares on some nothing pieces of trail. Coming into the pits after my first lap, my 10 year old pit crew was huddled up in a chair, wrapped in a sleeping bag, sound asleep.

I was feeling good and quickly grabbed some more water and headed back out in my quickest turn around of the race. As one other blogger put it in her write up, after 6-7 hours of this you reach a level of discomfort where it isn't any more uncomfortable to go on. That is not to say it is comfortable by any stretch of the imagination, just no worse.

Another motivation for me getting out there quickly was the glow on the eastern horizon.

The sunrise lap is always special. With the broken cloud cover it certainly was something special Sunday morning. The fuzziness of this photo perfectly reflects the situation as I was seeing it!.

It stayed nice and cool for another couple of laps and the increase in traffic on course was noticeable as other sleepers rejoined the fray. I must say that everyone was friendly and courteous out on the track. Good people, these MTBers!

Dean0 was up again and pounding out laps on his single speed. While I grovelled up the climbs, he smashed them as if with fresh legs. Very impressive!

The morning was starting to warm up and Steve very kindly handed me a bacon and egg roll, as well as a coffee. Much appreciated mate! You just can't beat real food on these long rides.

 I still felt good but decided to stop riding so as not to bury myself and thought it would be nice to do a "social" lap with Dean0. We headed out for one last lap that saw us back at the pit at around 11am. Dean0 was feeling awesome, so he went out on another. I thought cool, we will have the same lap count. As it turns out, the sneaky bugger was already on the same as me (I thought I had one more than him from earlier that morning) so he ended up with 12 laps to my 11. Bloody great effort on his part. Slack, lazy one on mine as I know I had another 2 or 3 in the tank! ;)

But, I was still smiling so the main aim for the weekend was achieved. I rode lots (176km/3600m), I ate (very) well and I had fun. 

A huge thanks to the "Last and The Furious" lads for their pit tent space and the "atmospehre". They managed 11th in the 4 man teams race. A bloody great effort as they were all on 6" travel dual suspension bikes that aren't made for cross country racing.

Thank you to Hayden, Fleur and their team of volunteers for putting on an extremely smoothly run event that everyone enjoyed. While the Easter weekend may have seen entries down due to people's regular Easter family commitments, for those that made it along, it made for a relaxed atmosphere having those few extra days off for most people.

Andrew's face says it all after he smashed out his best lap Sunday morning...on flat pedals no less!

Cheers and thanks for checking in.

A Day In The Sun

Sunshine is finally bathing South East Queensland again and I have been out working on getting more than my fair share.

I managed a ride on Sunday morning with Dean0 that worked some of the kinks out of my arms and legs that were put in there on Saturday morning at trail care. That ride was much needed. Thanks mate.

On Saturday it had been basically just Neil and I absolutely burying ourselves with what felt like countless barrow loads of rock and gravel to keep the berm builder's efforts fed. 

Neil had the good sense to go home at 9am and afterward I was wasted for the rest of Saturday. I even suffered the embarrassing forearm cramps later at home while trying to wash my hair. And its not like washing my hair is very taxing on my strength any more!

The trail is looking awesome and you can't really blame people for wanting to go for a ride with such magnificent weather after the last 6-7 weeks of rubbish we have been dealt. Although, that rain is why the trail is looking so awesome, actually.

Thanks to the regulars again this morning. You know who you are. 

Almost "The Epic"?!!

It is that time of year again when over a thousand mountain bikers descend on Spicer's Old Hidden Vale for the 9th running of the Flight Centre Epic.

This year the route had been changed from the traditional point to point race leaving Toowoomba and finishing at Hidden Vale to a loop leaving and arriving back at Hidden Vale. This was mainly due to damage to the trails from the floods back in January in the Lockyer Valley. From a logistical point of view this year's format made it much easier to ride without a support crew to get you to Toowoomba for the start. But with this new course being only 75 kilometres, down from the traditional 100km, would the Epic be well...Epic?

Sunday morning saw me lining up for the start contemplating how little training I had done this year. Chatting with friends...contemplating how I have been sick for the last two weeks. I told myself I would just take it easy, take some photos and enjoy the ride as a ride, not a race. Ok. How hard can it be? It is only 75km. Hmmm...as I see it I haven't ridden a mountain bike that far in one sitting all year. This might actually hurt!

When it was our turn to head off we shuffled through the start gate to the electronic warbling of the timing equipment and then we were off. Nice and steady, chatting with Andrew while warming up gradually made good sense. It was nice to have a few kilometres of farm road to help spread the riders out a bit and it made for good social riding too. That was until the trail pointed downhill at the beginning of the "Epic" singletrack. For the next few km it was time to grin. It was time to also observe how many riders drag their brakes on even slight downhill sections. To me, Mr Unfit, this is sacrilege! All that effort to get up the hill then they turn it into heat in their brake pads rather than forward velocity?! Anyway, I made at least twenty places down this descent that seemed to go on forever. I was passing some riders at about twice their speed! I was only to be passed on a downhill once all day long and that rider came past here, so I tacked onto his back wheel and we whooped and hollered all the way down until the trail spat us out onto the sealed road for the next climb.

Over the next few kilometres the race leaders began to power through the masses. I find it hard to conceive how these guys can ride so fast up hill! They would be sipping icy drinks long before I was finished slogging over sweaty, heartbreaking climbs!

Over the next climb and the knarley downhill and it was onto more flat sealed road in the tiny rural township of Mulgowie. I was wishing I had some support crew here to meet me so I could stop and give my legs have a little respite. Powering into this headwind I found myself to be out in it all alone. I look up the road and there is a train of riders slipstreaming. Looking to the rear I see the same. Yet, here I am, all alone. Pushing this damn headwind! Maybe I smell?

Turning off the sealed section onto the dirt again and I am steeling myself for the climb up over the range again. Gee, I am glad I saved my legs on the flat road section......Grinding away here I am being passed by a lot of riders and when I spot Jimmy going past I realise they must be the last group to start. The sub 5 hour riders.

We then turn off the dirt road into a paddock. A cow paddock. The cattle had been doing their best postholing work while the ground was wet earlier in the year! My bike has turned into a mobile jackhammer as it judders over umpteen unseen indentations! Add to this the trail going up and down small, steep hillocks and it is pure torture. I pass a rider wheeling his bike back along the trail, his front wheel a huge taco. I make a mental note to ride super smooth, be gentle on the front. There is some killer climbing in this section which is pure walking territory for me. I ride the descents with massive amounts of attention and brake! Everyone else I see is either walking or crashing. Hehehe.....this is sorting out all those psuedo mountain bikers!

From about the 38km mark the track is back onto the Hidden Vale single track and it is hard going as I tackle Yowie and Western Creek with rapidly fading legs. Hmmm..I may have gone out a bit hard early on. The next 10km proved to be very tough for me. I backed off the pace to conserve the legs and that feels like the right move but I am getting held up on this section of trail by riders that cannot get over even small obstacles. My frustration is sapping energy fast but then as I see a rider tumble bacwards into a rocky creek I remember my status today. Not a racer, a cruising paparazzo! So I stop to take some photos(creek boy was ok by the way) and munch on an energy bar. So, nicely mellowed I press on.

As I approach the point where the 50km riders split from the 75km nutjobs I ask myself some tough questions about my status, like "can I finish this", "is there enough left in the engine room"? I decide to ride on the right side of the track and not look at any of the support crews waiting for their riders as I pass through the arch. No way am I going to quit. Do not turn left!

About 5km down the trail I want to quit..........badly. The first twinges of cramp are nibbling at my quads and even gentle slopes reduce me to walking. In fact I am walking as first Neil, then Gav come cycling past on a hill with a gradient to match Lake Eyre! Shortly after they leave me in a heat haze I happen across The Caterpillar. I decide to take a break in the shade, eat my banana and slyly check to see if it has the key in it! If I could drive up this next insane 28% climb I would. The fun thing is that everyone that passses "The Cat" askes the same thing. "Is there a key in that thing"?

With nothing else for it I forge forward and upward. Along here I start chatting with a guy who assures me that on the next hilltop is a tent where they are handing out free ice cold Cokes and massages. I believe him for about 3.5 seconds, but they were a blissful 3.5 seconds. In reality there is no tent, only relentless ups and downs as we scamble along a fire trail that is cut into the very ridge top. I look to the left and have a magnificent view out over Hidden Vale and to the right is the Lockyer Valley. Here I am, stuck in the middle with pain. To put into perspective how much I was hurting by this stage, the final suicidal, never ending downhill off this ridge line required me to stop on the only flat section to give my arms a rest. Never!! As I do I see another guy actually blow the hose right off his rear brake caliper! It got so hot, the pressure blew the hose to smithereens!

From this point on (actually from about 5km before this point!) I decided I was in limp home mode. I wasn't sure I could finish, but I wasn't going to quit! Even if I had to walk in on my lips! So, limp I did. The pace seemed very social for about 10km or so until I came to the Epic singletrack again and I couldn't help myself, upping the speed and having a hoot. Out the other side of this trail and I was in limp home mode again as we crossed open cow pasture. I finally drank my Camelbak dry here so stopped to add some Nuuns and Staminade to my water bottle.Hmm...my last 750ml of water. I wondered if I would make it or if the Hidden Vale camels would stand over my withered body and laugh?

After yet another walking climb I happened upon a goddess standing under a shade asking "Would you like some water"? "Er, yes please" and "how much further to go"? I am told "just 4km"! You beauty!! It is funny how you will believe what you are told even though all the other indicators point to a different answer. My Garmin was saying I had another 10km to go, but 4km sounded like music to my ears. Even better, I was at the top of the "Rock Bottom" singletrack. My second wind had arrived and I set the spinnaker to catch as much of it as I could! Through this section I was powering, passing about a dozen riders including Chris and Nick who had opted to do the 50km. Up Escalator I was even passing people. At the top a very nice chap was shouting something about 50km riders turn right, 75km riders turn left. Left? That was away from the finish line?! "How far to go mate"? I yell. 6km is the response......I cannot reprint what was said after that......that goddess under the shade, the one with the honest, pretty face had lied. I was gutted. But even better, I was angry and I smashed the pedals, called track left/right to every wobbling rider I saw ahead and actually enjoyed the hell out of that last 6km! Looking at my heart rate data for the last 10km and it went up from around 150bpm to almost 180bpm as I gave it eveything I didn't know I had left! I passed quite a few riders in this last 10km which no doubt assisted in catapulting me into......drum roll please, 205th place outright!!! ;) Yes, I think I missed my chance at glory by about two hours.

Sitting back, gnawing on cool watermelon and not able to bend my legs lest the cramps grab me, I reflected on what I feel is the hardest race I have done in my four or so years of mountain biking. It may have been the lack of training or the fact that I had a cold for the preceeding two weeks ,but in reality I think this course would have ripped my legs off and beat me with them no matter how prepared I thought I was.

 See you next year. :-)