Mountain Biking 5:48:00 [3]
Capital Punishment mtb race. Woke up to find heavier rain than i'd expected. Semi considered not going out to start but it the bullet and just decided it would be a challenge. Got to start with 2min to spare before start of 1st wave and rolled out towards the back of the first wave. It was still pretty dark and was a bit of a shock to hit the first fire trail which in the semi dark seemed very wet and slippery. In hindsight it was luxury. Had the tyres pumped up a bit over 40psi which was way to hard for the conditions making it even more slippery but didnt want to stop to flatten them a bit. By about 25km noticed that rear brakes were totally gone and decided that if i was going to finish i would have to be super smooth and just use the front brakes at a bare minimum. Passed Nath, Thomas, Cowie and Jules in quick succcession after that - all stopped with brake issues. Jules caught me back up on the big climb but then stacked it going down some steep slippery singletrack not long after. Could only call out to see if he was ok as i was sliding semi out of control just trying to stay on track. Once i got out of kowen i was hoping it would get easier but the slog along the bumpy paddocks behind the airport and up to hackett hill was hell. Tried to keep washing out the derailleur with the water bottle so could change gears ok which was working well but when we got to majura it was a mudbath. Pretty hairy riding through there just using the front brake in the deep mud. Battling the leading girls who were showing me how it was done. Had been sticking to the usual plan of a gel every 40 min up to 60k but then realised i was going to run out so took a few hot cross buns at the 60k feed stop as well as some more emergency gels. Got into a good groove with a few other blokes on the drag through the paddocks to the GDE and then relaxed on the untimed section there, had a power bar and then got back into it on the super slippery drop down through black mtn. Took 2 more hot cross buns at the last feed and then pushed hard through the fast fireroad in stromlo with a sniff of the finish but then had to slog through the mudbath that was the deeks singletrack, this was ridiculous and had to run a large section of it. Very releived to find thr stromlo singletrack wasn't so bad but it was still hard work with a lot of chain suck on the climb up stromlo and then the hairy drop down the hill with minimal brakes. Great to finish and have a cool shower in the very muddy stromlo shower to scrub the mud off then wolf down the pizza Al had bought me.
