Scott 24 hour...

Amazing how time just sneaks past...  One day I had plenty of time to prepare for the Scott 24 hr and associated travelling, the next day it was time to pack up and go!  As usual I totally over-packed, with plenty of ‘just-in-case’ clothing and other items!  I had a pile of lists to tick off and was still panicking about what I might have forgotten!  Mind you, for someone that used to have to go back and check that I’d turned the heater/stove/dryer off at least once after leaving the house, it’s hardly surprising.  We did, however, make it to Aus intact, relatively calm and with everything that I’d intended to pack.  We’d decided to ride  the day of our arrival – made for a long day, but would hopefully ease my mind about the nature of the course.  The plan was for a recce of the Red lap, with a quick look at some of the Blue if there was time.  I was pleasantly surprised by the tracks – they seemed much smoother than I remembered, with far less alligators hiding amongst the rocks.  I was a bit worried about the section that used the DH track – for no reason!  There were some cruisey nana lines – and the gap jump was to be closed off for the race… otherwise I would have hit it, honest!!  The first not-so-happy piece of track that I met was Blackberry Climb.  Not steep, but early on there’s a corner in to a short pinch up a rock…  not tricky if you’re committed, but rocky pinches are a real struggle for me.  I finally managed after a few goes and some very unladylike words!  From there, we headed back to the car park via the Red lap. The second time down the DH descent I rolled down the ‘B’ line – which was to become the ‘A’ line for the race – with the help of my dropper post.  I decided to use the chicken line in the race, but it was fun (and scary) to bounce down in practice.  Highlight of the day was the huge gathering of ‘roos, just hanging out watching the silly humans!

 

Then it was off to the camp ground to get settled in, find food and decent coffee!  I really struggled to find brew that I liked when we were here 2 years ago – not the case this time!  We went back to Café Essen several times during the week… they did pretty damned good food as well!

 

The next day was cold, but fine.  Time to get out and attack both laps!  The red lap went smoothly – I really enjoyed this part of the ride, just being out and riding with Shane.  Then I met the blue lap!!  It wasn’t too scary, just had plenty of my favourite rocky pinches, a couple that I struggled with, and a nice long rocky climb that looked worse than it was.  The trail was called Deep Creek – you can guess what I renamed it to!! Most of the technical riding needed a bit of commitment and momentum; both of are on my ‘work in progress’ list!  I’d tentatively planned to do a lap at night, but after 3 hours of riding, sifting and looking I decided to rest my legs instead. 

Drove to the airport to meet Charlotte, then dragged her off to do a lap of the track in the rain!  I thought Australia was supposed to be dry and warm?  I managed to clear the sections I’d struggled with on Wednesday – the rocks were surprisingly grippy in the wet, unlike the ones that I’m used to.

 

The next day’s ride was a little less successful.  Charlotte’s bike decided to go on strike, I rode not very well and had a particularly plonker-ish fall on a rocky corner as the line I’d been using had disappeared underwater.  I also found that the rocks, while grippy in the wet, were not so grippy with lots of wet dirt/sand dragged up on to them!

 

Throughout the week I was getting more and more nervous… not about the results, but about whether I could perform well enough to justify the cost of the trip and the effort put in by Shane and Charlotte (who’d given up any hope of a birthday bash to come and help me out), plus all of Gav’s work on my bikes and my amazing coach, Jess. 

 

I indulged in a little retail therapy – there were some seriously good bargains on CORC branded clothing, plus event shirts from 2010 (when I was there last).  Nothing like shopping for bike stuff to take your mind off things.

 

Race morning!  I was utterly hopeless, luckily I had people around me that knew what needed to be done!  Shovelled some breakfast down, then headed for the venue via the mall for some last minute supplies.  Shane arrived back at the car with a gorgeous little fluffy cat toy that reminded me a bit of our cat…  I cried happy tears, I was just so emotional and wound up – then cuddled the poor cat pretty much until the start of the race!  Best news of the day – no Le Mans start!  I downed a coffee (pre-race essential), then spent far too much money on bargain clothing – purely for stress release, you understand!

 

All too soon it was the countdown to race start – and we were off!  The solo riders had a 5 minute head start, so we avoided the usual mayhem of a 24 hour start.  The whippets headed off in to the distance, while I joined the procession through the muddy but rideable singletrack.  It takes me a good hour to warm up, so I was quite happy to settle in and get used to the course.  First red lap was uneventful, I felt slow but OK.  My drink tasted vile – like mould – but I forced myself to choke it down anyway… the laps were long enough that I couldn’t afford not to eat for that long.  I thought that I’d possibly not cleaned my bottle out well enough, but it turned out to be an ‘off’ tub of Perpetuem.  I’d taken my own with me (unopened) as the Australian stuff tastes different – and threw my poor crew a massive curve ball as they had to try and locate something to keep me fed (I had enough for most of the race, but possibly not for the whole 24 hours). 

 

I ended up in a really strange and unhappy headspace for quite a while – I was convinced that I was going far too slowly (even turned my speedo under my bars so it wouldn’t upset me) and was walking far more than I should have been, that I was letting everyone down…  I kept apologizing to Shane and Charlotte for how badly/slowly I was going – not believing them when they told me I was doing just fine.  Turns out I was travelling faster than we’d estimated and they were both pleased with how things were going… the effort that I put in on the bits that I could ride was obviously working.  Then it started to rain.  The slightly slushy track turned to mush in a lot of places, plenty of hike-a-bike – even the team riders were hiking some sections.

 

Flat tyre # 1.  I’m not sure how long it was partly flat for before it got bad enough for me to realize what was going on (rear) – re-inflated it with my trusty pit-stop, then swapped bikes so Shane could check the tire and sort the pressure out before my next lap…  bloody thing went down again next lap.  I put up with it flapping away on the climbs, then stopped and used another pit stop before the downhill section of the lap, figuring that I could handle a half-inflated tyre up the fire road climb, but not a singletrack descent!  This time we just swapped the wheel out for Shane’s spare rather than risk another deflation.

 

Night laps – headed out on a red lap, having trouble seeing and realized that my helmet light was dim.  Not wanting to do the lap by Braille, and not 100% sure of the rules about leaving/re-joining the course, I ran/walked back to the pits, grabbed another battery and stomped back to my bike to carry on.  Well – it wasn’t the battery as it turns out, it was the connector on my ay-ups that was failing!  By halfway around the lap my helmet light had faded to almost nothing while my bar light was dimming as I’d taken too long on the lap and gone past the time I needed to change it.  I walked at least half of the lap, riding only on the fire roads and crit track.  Grr.  I lost track of when and how often I fell off – I took a couple of heavy hits to my ribs overnight, in the same section of track!  A few spd moments plus the results of some general muppetry and tiredness left me feeling pretty beaten up.  Strangely enough, all of these hiccups only made me more determined to keep on going, to keep giving everything that I had to give. 

 

I had a great chat with a bloke called Josh during the night – he wasn’t that fond of night riding, so was quite happy to follow me around for a lap!  I have no idea what kind of crap I babbled at him, but was grateful for the company.

 

At one point I was off the bike and felt brambles or prickles pulling at my legs – I remember thinking “can’t worry about that now, but it’s going to hurt later”

 

Charlotte was giving me hot food – I need to learn to eat faster!  I don’t think she believed that it was possible to eat mashed potato that slowly!

The first hint of the new day came with the sound of the birds singing, chirping and squaking… (a pleasant change for the constant croaking of the toads!) – they seem to know when it’s about to start getting light.  Once the sun finally came up I managed to pick things up a gear and start riding harder.  I could see lines through and around most of the rhino pits I’d been avoiding at night; although I was still walking several rideable rocky sections due to having stacked so many times.  The end was in sight, I was still going, sore and tired but still had some gas in the tank thanks to my lovely crew being spot on with my feeding.  Towards the end I was told by Charlotte that I had 2 laps to go – I misheard Shane and thought he said I probably only had to do one – so spent the entire lap talking myself into it being my last lap!  I was tired (well, d’uh!) –

I’d crash on another lap, I wouldn’t have time…  etc.  Apparently the lady in 3^rd place had put in a couple of fast laps and there was a chance that she could overtake me if she did a last lap and I didn’t.  I hesitated before going out again… but if they said I had time, then it was worth a shot!  I put even more in to this lap than I had on what I’d thought was my last lap – destroyed myself up the fire roads, gritted my teeth on the downs and walked what I felt I needed to… never really believing that I’d make it back in time.  When I saw the 10km to go sign I knew it was possible, but only really started to be sure when I had 5km to go.  The last section of the blue lap was endless – a series of tracks with ‘gum’ in the name that wound their way down the hill, taking forever… until I popped out in the event village – trying not to get too excited, I could still crash or get a flat…  Whee – over the finish line with a few minutes to spare!  Yes!!  Hugs all round, then I staggered back to our site, eased myself in to a chair and I was done… that is without a doubt the most broken I’ve ever been in my life, and I was so glad to feel that way! Stoked that my crew made me go out again – not for the result, but for allowing me to dig deeper than I ever have, or ever thought that I could, and find that I still had more to give.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with how things went... but still plenty to work on for next time!  As mentioned earlier, but really can't be said enough, - thanks to Gav for getting my bikes in to race shape, Charlotte for being A1 support crew, tolerating my whining and generally being wonderful and organised, the amazing Jess Douglas for coaching, mentoring and believing... and finally to my incredible hubby, who got me in to this silly sport in the first place & continues to support me in every possible way.