Adventure Race race (Killafergus) 4:49:31 [4] 55.48 km (5:13 / km)
A very chilly morning in our 1920’s loggers cabin combined with the twinge of a hangover made me pretty reluctant to get of bed for this one. But since I had to I decided to be cheerful about it. That really pisses Rach off.
Got to the start with plenty of time up my sleeve, surprisingly little map mark-up was required so I got that out of the way and got prepped for the days entertainment.
TA1 – Photo Phun
There was not a massive amount of enthusiasm off the start until Jon went the suicide break. I attempted to help him for the camera’s sake but he stayed upright. Up the first hill my right hammie and glute let me know that they had not recovered from Tuesdays twinge, I really felt like I lacked drive out of them all day, especially on the run legs.
Got to the maps in about 7th, had a quick look at the aussies and decided that for 5 min bonuses it was not worth deviating too much and plotted a loop that got a few of them. As I took off I saw Fletch had had similar thoughts so I went the age old Killa technique of stuffing the map in my jocks and following him to Wiggins, he seemed to be heading north of the next one I was aiming for but not north enough to be going for a different one. Being stupid I followed still with a small break to fall over in some mud. Lovely.
Once I realised he was lost I ditched him and cut back west to where I could see a control, turns out it was Rogers, the one I had intended on getting last so I reversed my loop and collected all the same controls without drama. Probably a good thing as it meant I climbed back over the ridge to where Jill took my map off me, I had missed that bit in the instructions and I was just heading back to TA. Got to do the bog run as a result and throw mud at Dalto and Tooms. I doubt I was the only one.
TA1 – TA2.
Came into transition in about 10th just behind Fletch, not really happy about that but I hopped on the bike and chased down Rach and Kirsten and another pair on the way to MB1, didn’t get the trail I wanted heading to MB2 but since I had missed it I guessed it was overgrown so I stuck on the nice track and cut back into it at the end, probably the best way still. Looped around the hill and almost caught another solo guy at MB3, he just left before me and I saw him staring at the track heading down to the river and his map. I heard a few people went that way???? MB4 I saw Fletch taking a leak in the bushes on the other side of the trail from the control. Whilst what he said about the map makes sense when I looked at my compass SSE was on the left hand side of the track. Kept riding to TA and took the shortcut through the unmarked single track.
TA2. My brain hurts.
I am really keen to see the splits for this leg but I figured it would be worth collecting all the controls except #1 on the course. I started out through 9 (silly) then back onto the main trail and out the Leonard half to cut into 8 on Wal’s return, went straight west and then when the trail ran out shouldered the bike to cut across onto Wal’s to get 10. Since it worked for me the first time when Wals went west I kept going straight north through the bush to get back on the Leonard half, then up that to the old fire trail that 7 was on. I met Mike just after the 7 as he was trying to fix his derailleur, we tried to fit my spare but it was the wrong shape and then looked at the possibility of using cable ties to hold his axle on so he could make it a single speed but then gave up so I left him for the walk of shame.
Got the one in the creek on the Leonard half by just following someone into the bush, this was the first one I had met off the trail so I started paying a bit more attention to the descriptions after that. Got led into 3 gain though by Wil then as I was leaving I was trying to pick which one I was going to get last and somehow turned the bike towards #1. I really don’t know why and I am convinced it wasn’t worth the effort but I still did it. The ride from 1 back to TA was a bit painful, especially since I was staring at the map and counting controls when I went over the handlebars. Someone had put a log across the trail and I had ridden straight into it. I have got some good bruises from that.
Out on the run I went to 6 first in the log park, which I punched as 4 but realised as I was running away so I went back to 6 just as tRicky and a pair got there. I followed tRicky to 4 proper then he went a bit north as I went for 10. I pulled the compass out to check the bearing and went face first again. Ow. Started cutting cross country and saw Mike pushing his bike back who yelled he had got his 7 bike controls. Popped out on the trail near 10 exactly on the saddle and met Team Dolf, ran through to 2, 13 and 11 meeting Mike again who had dumped his broken bike and was now running. Nutter. Back into TA for the last time and to explain to Karen my punching dyslexia.
TA2 – TA3. Wheee.
I always enjoy the Grizzly, doing it in a race is fun since you have that sense of urgency to hammer it. Still hit most of the jumps and logs though. Wheee. Almost made a fool of myself going around Jacko when I hit some soft stuff and started sliding but recovered in time.
TA3. beer beer beer beer.
Briefly considered getting the clues but since there where a fair few people out in front of me I just figured I could follow them. Juffy was one of those and when I saw him stopping to look at his compass I guessed the he had the bearings so I followed him through the first few, once I realised they were easy to spot I kept pushing, that hill was steep though.
Wasted an opportunity to put some time into tRicky be blurting out the beer name. If I had of whispered sweet nothings into Rays ear I might have made some time here. Silly.
TA3 – TA4. What sort of idiot would stuff this leg up?
Blasted along, tRicky got back past just before the TA.
TA4. wine? But there wasn’t any beer.
Already gave my opinion on this leg but since I was just following Oscar and tRicky and letting them do all the work it was to my advantage. Leah was near us as well and having a much easier time ducking through the vines that I was. Damn short people.
TA4 – TA5. In the lead?
Left TA4 in first place briefly before tRicky blasted past. I was hoping he would overshoot the control but Marcus and Jude where there to guide us in. Oscar was on my tail from here but annoyingly kept coming alongside to block me up against the left side of the road. I told him that it made it harder for me being forced wide then cut across his line so he dropped back. The boy needs some pack experience since we could have worked together to peg back tRicky.
I dropped him on the last Leonard climb then would have enjoyed the blast down if I didn’t know that we had to climb back up again. I went to the north of the Evedon dam then paused when I saw the “track” leading up the creek. Since it matched the contours I followed it up to where more photographers wanted to see me looking in the wrong spot for the control. Or the right spot. Whatever. Tooms tried to tell me I was in with a chance for first. He obviously didn’t know how my legs were feeling at that point.
I left the control and promptly missed the left track across the creek, rode along in denial for a while then left the track and headed straight west up the hill, I figured I would be walking up it regardless so I may as well go the direct route. Got to the top, through my bike over the fence I rode into TA.
TA5. ouch, ouch, ouch.
Really struggled to run out of TA, even down the hill. I had no real troubles navigationally on this leg other than stopping short on the northern most control. My legs were so tired that the brain had no trouble keeping up. Oscar came past at 8 and I hung on till just before 10 when I sunk in a creek and my hammie cramped whilst he ran up the hill on the other side. But he had told me that he had a 15 min penalty so all I had to do was not let him beat me by too much. Which I managed. The last couple of hills were really hard.
A fun race after all that. The race management joined the majority of race managers in the country and tried to screw me in the results. Good thing Karen was there to stick up for me.
Body was really battered at the end, 4 falls running and 1 riding was a lot for me. Plus just the effort of the hills combined with my dodgy glute/hammie almost bought me to a halt at times. I was happy with how I rode though.
The TA1 and 2 exercises were good, TA3 and 5 were OK and I didn’t think TA4 was worthy of inclusion. Especially since I had done so much research on Wovenfields Shiraz Viogner. A particularly nice drop. Still got a bottle at home I think. Should have done better on the tour names as well but I quickly realised that there is more pointless trivia in the tour than in test cricket so plenty of questions they could have used.