Yesterday I did the gravity 12hr mtb race at Beechworth and competed in the
"men's marathon pairs" as team "Chafed and Confused". I haven't seen final
results but we were in 11th in our category at around the 10 hr mark of the
race....here is a summary of the day.
0345h - wake up, breakfast, drive from Melb to near Beechworth
0800h - arrive at the course and find my riding partner. Also wandered over
to the Felt tent and met Rhino (posts here sometimes) and admired his long
socks.
0845h - race brief......not really concentrating until they mention that the
"heartbreak hill" is definately a granny climb as it is at 22%
gradient........wtf!!!! Also mentions that there is a second climb that is
only 20% gradient (yay) and that each lap is just shy of 13km. There are
also a number of creek crossings that are pretty wet and muddy (yay again).
0900h - race starts.....pretty chaotic and my partner takes off for first
lap whilst I go and get my [censored] sorted out. Whilst doing this I realise
that I have forgotten my mini-pump!!!
about 0952h - last minute [censored] and then wait for transition.....get mini
pump from partner, put it in a jersey pocket and off I go.....
about 0953h - stop and remove pump from jersey as it is falling
out.....spend about 2 minutes or so getting it stowed on my vistalite
battery holder on the frame. In hindsight, I went too hard on my first lap
(final time on my speedo was 47min) but it was good fun!! I managed to stay
on the bike for all of the climbs and was sitting on 5km/h and under for the
22% climb!!!! There were some really nice flowing sections of downhill
singletrack that were very enjoyable as they really only involved trying to
maintain as much momentum out of each corner as you could and minimise
braking. It was on one of these sections that I realised I had lost my
waterbottle and so I went back about 200m or so to the last "rough bit" and
found it. I tried bending my bottle cage to hold the bottle in tighter but
I realised that it was pretty stuffed and the bottle fell out a couple more
times during my lap (luckily I realised each time and only had to go back
10m or so). There was also a heap of muddy sections and I had a few times
where I was getting serious wheelspin on the back wheel and only just
maintaining forward momentum!!!
about 1045h - finish first lap....hand back minipump to partner.....go to
on-course bike shop and buy minipump. Was going to buy new bottle cage but
ended up cable tying some old inner tube to the cage so that it would grip
on the bottle (this worked a treat for the rest of the day). I actually
found that the "breaks" between laps didn't leave much time for recovering.
I did a 5 min or so easy cooldown on the road behind the camping area and
then had to wash down the running gear on the bike (using hand-pump water
sprayer) and re-lube the chain and derailleurs. I then did some stretches,
wiped the worst of the mud off myself with an old towel, and tried to get
some water and food into me. I also refilled water bottles and put them on
ice so that they would be ready for at the end of the next lap. By this
stage it was pretty well time to go and wait for my buddy and then I was off
again.
2nd lap - pretty well the same as the first lap.....went hard again (pretty
well lactic on every uphill) and finished up a bit slower than the first
one. I had to get off and walk for the last 40m or so of heartbreak hill
(after a bend to the right) but I wasn't Robinson Crusoe and I managed to
ride up the rest of the hills. It was starting to get pretty hot by now and
I had sweated pretty heavily for both laps and I started to feel like I was
close to cramping by the end of the lap.
3rd lap - went hard again (in hindsight this was pretty stupid) and started
cramping badly on every uphill. Ended up walking the bike up about an extra
20m of heartbreak than the previous lap as well as a couple of other hills.
As I went up a short, muddy hill that was only about 200m or so from the
start/finish line, I was applying a bit of "body language" to keep the bike
moving and just as I got out of the mud I got simultaneous cramps in my
right quad (towards the inside) and my left hammy. Basically I managed to
unclip from the bike and then fell stiff-legged to the ground as I couldn't
straighten my right leg. I was hurting pretty bad as I couldn't even bend
my right leg to stretch the cramp out!!!! A spectator and 2 or 3 riders
came over to help me and I ended up managing to roll onto my back and one
guy pushed back on my left toe whilst another managed to bend my right leg
(only after I gave the cramp a few good punches to get it to loosen up). I
was there for a good couple of minutes before hopping back on and using the
granny ring for the last 200m. Was pretty shattered and took advantage of
the shower truck during my break.
4th and 5th laps - went much slower (55min I think) and managed to lose
track of how many laps I had done. Despite my efforts to stay hydrated, I
was still suffering cramps and basically had to walk up most of the steep
hills that were longer than about 20m or so (this was made worse by the fact
that I would cramp every time I got off or on the bike). My lower back and
neck were also sore and I was getting a bit of a headache (prob from
dehydration). At the end of my 4th lap I boiled some water and made myself
some sui-min? noodles and ate half of them (mainly for the sodium). After
my 5th lap, I ate the rest of them and drank the broth then sat in a chair
for a couple of minutes rest......I then woke up about 5 minutes before I
was due to go out again and had to madly rush to get my drivetrain clean
(cursory spray with lube) and fit lights to my bike as it was after 1830h.
I also fitted my helmet light and basically was ready about 1 min after my
buddy arrived (we weren't stressing too much about transitions anyway).
6th (and final) lap - At least it was finally getting cooler!!! Was very
slow on the uphills but I think I was just as fast on the flowing, downhill
singletrack bits as I pretty well could remember all of the corners that
were coming up. I managed to go over the handlebars when my wheel got stuck
in a bit of a hole on a muddy decent but managed to land softly on a grassed
area (lucky no-one was around to see it!!). I finished my lap at the
11hr05min mark and told my partner to feel free to get another lap in but it
would mean that he would be doing a double as I was done for the day. It
was lucky that I had put on both the bike light and the helmet light as I
didn't end up using either of them!!! (if I was out for another 10 min or so
I would've had to though).
I had another shower, some water, and a feed and then waited for my partner
to come in. He got in about 5 min or so after the 12hrs was up and so he
avoided having to line up with all of the guys who had come in and decided
not to cross the line till after 9pm.
I was going to stay the night at the camp but actually felt OK so I packed
my gear and headed off. I stopped at Glenrowan for drink and toilet then
managed to drive to about 50km short of Seymour. I then stopped in a truck
parking area (saw a couple of other cars with bikes on the roof there) and
set my phone alarm for a 20 min powernap. Got up 20 min later and felt like
[censored] so I decided to just sleep until I woke up.
0300h - woke up, drove to servo just South of Seymour and stopped for fuel
and coffee. After being told by the female attendant that I "looked
exhausted" to which I replied "good, cos I feel exhausted", I got in the car
and drove the rest of the way home.
0430h - got home pretty well exactly 24hrs after leaving.....took bike off
of roof racks and put car and bike in the shed and then crashed.
0830h - kids woke me up demanding pancakes (my penance for having a day away
riding) by jumping on my legs (this hurt a lot). Spent the rest of the day
hobbling around with sore legs and lower back.
This post is getting way too long......might have to follow up with "lessons
learned" from the activity. Despite struggling for a good part of the day,
I really enjoyed myself and still have loose plans in place for a solo 24hr
in the future.
Ride On,
Gags