I have previously competed in 12 and 24hr races in a team of 2, but you don't ride for more than about 2hrs before you have a break at those events. This time I was keen to see how I would go at something really long and continuous.
My lead up training hadn't been stellar. I had been doing my usual riding to work (about an hour a day) as well as the one weekend ride for about 2hrs. The weekend before the race I rode up Nebo and back again, just to make sure I had some sort of major hill training to speak of. What I was hoping would pull me through is having done rogaining, as well as the other 12/24hr races, I have a pretty good mental attitude to this long distance stuff. I have done 15hr rogaines, which set me up mentally to know how to pace myself and to push on when needed. Also, the rogaining has taught me when my body is likely to cramp and I have developed my own systems to try to prevent cramps occurring in the first place. Most importantly for me, I wasn't there to race, I was there to finish it at my own pace and not to wipe myself out doing it.
Enough of the prelude, onto the race.
It was an early start that saw us on the road to Kooralbyn (we almost didn't make it as I hit the "off" button of my alarm, rather than "snooze" but that's another story). We arrived in reasonable time and I registered and collected my entry pack.
The weather looked fine and the Bureau predicted "showers late" so I thought I would be fine with my inital tyre selection of ADvantage on the front and Larsen TT's on the back (if the weather was looking more wet, I was going to go ADvantage front and back).
Lining up on at the start, it was a strange mix of bikes. There were the obligatory dually's of course, including my new Giant Trance 1.
The hardcore and the not so hardcore were on hardtails of every description, including one guy on a road bike and one on a hybrid that looked like it had seen its best day 20 years ago.
So 08:10 and we're off. 5 min later, we hit a slippery mound that no-one seems keen to ride and we're already pushing our bikes. Not really what I imagined. It seemed to be on and off again for a while as we had a number of traffic jams on hills as the throng of riders tried to get around each other. Eventually things started to spread out and we started doing more riding on the hills. Here is a profile of the course, for those following along.
The ride through "The Udders" was fairly pleasant track through farmland. It went onto gravel roads and across fields and was not too taxing. We arrived at the "Grassy Knoll" which I insisted on riding (if I'm getting my places right). I got over the top and realised why everyone else was walking, as we were coming up on the Marbles. Here's what it looked like when we got there.
This was actually the easier of the two climbs. There seemed to be a hell of a lot of walking going on in this race, not what I expected.
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On we rolled to "Breathless". This area was particularly scenic, so I stopped for a few pics.
And of course there was a climb involved.
I walked part of this hill as well, along with a heap of other people. This was starting to become a recurring theme. One thing I did know, all this steep walking was making my calves hurt and that was a sure fire way of getting a cramp.
Once over this, the run down Kamakazi was intense. According to both my bike computers, I hit over 70km/hr on what was a gravel road. It was a nice (if not a bit crazy) way of heading into Boonah.
I met up with Judy, Gabriel and Cheryl at the Boonah checkpoint. I was there about 10 min, having a stretch, something to eat and getting my sunglasses cleaned up.
The ride through "No man's land" was exactly that: unremarkable riding on bitumen/gravel. The hills seemed to come and go, and I ended up riding with three other people who were about my speed. We seemed to stay together until the top of the first "Sugarloaf" where they stopped for a rest. I was intent on carrying on, so I left them to their devices. At this point I was alone, and would stay that way till I hit "The Wall". This suited me fine, as I was enjoying the scenery and liked riding with no distractions.
Up and over the second Sugarloaf, and it was into "Free Fall". This was a steep bitumen road, but interestingly enough, I didn't end reaching my previous speed of 70+km/hr.
Then came The Wall.
Everyone talks about this. The description of the ride mentions it specifically, so I was expecting a hell of a wall. Also the fact that it comes after 50km of riding, makes it even more demanding. To ward off cramps I had been stretching my calves and hamstrings on every single downhill stretch I could, mostly to save myself for this part of the race.
You hit the wall at a RH turn, and face what appears to be a short hill, all bitumen. It's fairly steep and I'm in the lowest gear, but it was easily manageable. Once on top, this is what greeted me.
I thought, "That was relatively easy", and I appeared to be halfway up, according to the profile map (which I had laminated and kept in my pocket). Not having read it properly, I didn't realise that it was only the small bump right down the bottom of the profile. In reality, I was probably only 1/8th of the way up. As it turns out, I was better off being oblivious to this fact.
After the run down that bit of a dip it was back to climbing. Back into the lowest gear and head down into a rhythm. The hill contained a number of bends, each one hiding the next section of climbing. I saw people walking in front of me, but as a point of fact, I hate walking up hills and find it much easier to ride, so I used that inherent dislike to keep going.
Every so often I would look up and the top just seemed too far away, so I looked down and fortunately the visor on my helmet stopped me from looking up unless I lifted my entire head up. I just focused on the few metres of bitumen in front of me and just kept my legs spinning in a constant rhythm.
Slowly I started passing all the walkers, which was motivating, and most of them gave encouragement as you went past (albeit very slowly). Round one corner, the Race Elements guys had painted slogans (and advertising for themselves), a'la the Alpe d'Huez. There was also one of them there cheering you on, which was pretty cool.
Eventually I hit the turnoff for Green Hills Rd, thinking the worst was behind me. I felt reasonable at that point and continued on. It turned out that this next bit was the real killer, and it wasn't specifically Green Hills Rd, but the small hills up to Everest that nearly stopped me. I perservered however, and made it all the way before stopping for a minute to get some water from the checkpoint on the last peak of Everest at the top of The Slide.
The run down The Slide was another fast one on gravel. This led into the Marbles in reverse, which were just as scary looking when going down them, but I rode them all the way down.
Back onto the Udders, I was feeling quite good. I could feel the tell-tale twangs of cramps starting to come, but I kept stretching on the bike and adjusting my riding position to keep them at bay.
Since The Wall, I had started to pass people, which for me was quite novel, as usually I'm the one being passed. Most of these people were walking up The Wall and associated hills, and a lot of them were in obvious discomfort from cramps and associated injuries. My strategy of managing my body was seeming to pay off. I ended up passing around 30 people before I finished.
The last part of the ride was back on the single track of the Kooralbyn 24hr course. I was feeling really good at this point and thought if I got a cramp, I only had a couple of km to limp home so I went for it. I ended up racing another guy home who had caught me on the single track and I gave it everything. I only had the slight twangs of cramp and beat him at the end by a good margin.
My final time was 5hrs and 54min. Before I started the race I looked at last years results and arbitrarily set myself the goal of finishing in under 6hrs, so I was pretty happy.
What were my overall impression of the race? Well for a start, it's not a race for purists. There is scant single track, with most of the riding done on bitumen, gravel roads or fire trails. Also, all the walking that may be necessary would also spoil it for some people (however if your skill level was higher and you were out in front, it probably wasn't necessary to walk a lot of these hills). The course suited me, as I am decent at just grinding along on roads where very little skill is necessary. Personally I really enjoyed it. I managed to push just hard enough to keep my pace at a reasonable level whilst keeping the cramps away. I'm sure the new dual suspension really helped in this regard as the reduction in jarring of muscles would have reduced the stress on my muscles and thus the likelihood of cramping. I rode completely alone for large sections of the race which I really enjoyed. The scenery was on the ride was fantastic, and because it is open country, you can see it and appreciate it.
I would certainly do it again, perhaps with a little more training. Maybe next year I'll try for 5 hours...
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