First year without Bleeksie but probably the most idealic conditions in the history of the race with trails, weather and ultra smooth running organisation coming together. A big Thanks to Tom and Al too for such a well run event – not sure whether they made much but the smooth operation on race day was definitely there!
Only two originals Coach and Myself did the race but there were several associates, Cameron Darragh, Aaron Coles, Eliza Kwan & Milly Brent and not forgetting the forerunners Horratio Dunstall (100km) and Doggalini and Rusty (50km).
Coach and I started off in the 10-20% wave (Tom had rung me to ask about Coaches fitness and I lied) and all was well on the fire track with Coach settling in at the back to make sure everyone was okay and me about 10 back before entering the single track. The bunch seemed to have sorted itself out pretty well until we came across several 1st wavers and despite being held up for around 5 kms on the train we were able to enjoy the ride and lower the heart rate.
I had Alwyn’s voice in my head telling me to slow down as we’ve been doing some long rides on Wednesday’s and my achilles heal is to go off too fast. So sitting on a slightly lower ave of 165 (178 is race pace 1hr) , I just bided my time making inroads particularly on the Single track.
At the 30km mark we had unfortunately run out of the good stuff and were onto the fire road. I had been gaining about a hundred meters on the ST but sat up on the Fire road to wait for the train of 6 behind me to catch up. There were 3 of us working at the front but then worked out that I’d be better to conserve energy and hang at the back and gel up.
We basically stayed together through the ST at Sutton road were I caught up to Harry in his 3fidi colours and onto Majura – we lost the lead desiel engine who blew us apart up one hill but 3 of us finished together at the end of the first section. My time for this section was around 44th so that was good but the real test was to see how I’d hang on in the second sector.
I stopped at Dickson for a refuel but not for too long as I didn’t want to cramp and I wanted to just roll onto Black Mountain and kick on. I was riding with a friend of Aaron’s, Rob who was strong on the FR but pre race plan was to ride on and not stop again (rookie mistake – should have waited with Rob for the tow – he finished 5 minutes faster and in the top 50). Coach took himself off to a cafe for a latte 🙂
The ride across to Stromlo was hard but I was a lot faster than in previous years – yet my lack of strength for FR showed and I dropped a few places because of it. The ride up the red lap for 3 minutes slower than Blunnie and I had done just on Thursday but the ride down was a PR as there was no traffic and I finished the race in just over 4hrs – a pre race goal. Another pre race goal was to beat Jenny Fay but she whopped me by 9 minutes and told me afterwards to buy a road bike – I was too embarrassed to tell her I had one 🙁
Cameron came in feeling pleased with his time but realised he’d spent longer in the non- timed section than allowed and lost 5 places because of it.
Coach had a yo-yo ride, in a happy place – trying to find that happy place, but was glad it was over as he has had a busy week socialising. His first venture into Grand Masters netted his 15th in category.
Aaron broke his chain at the start but was allowed to restart in the 6th wave and powered through to take 2nd place in SS.
Eliza rode a consistent race to take out 3rd place in the Female Elite – becoming a pattern Eliza
Milly had a good race to take out first in her category too – Open Females
I should have race Open Males as I would have placed 2nd but ended up with 11th in Masters after originally having 10th. Happy with that as we were the largest category with 218/658 finishers and beat my previous time by over 35 minutes.
Results:
Aaron  47th Overall  2nd SS  3.55.03
James  58th Overall  11th Masters  4.00.46
Eliza  111th Overall  3rd Female Elite  4.13.23
Cameron 153rd Overall 46th Veterans 4.23.58
Milly  159th Overall 1st Open Females 4.25.04
Coach 232nd Overall 15th Super Masters 4.41.29