12hrs Solo at Taupo
Or not.
Firstly, I am now aware I have been blogging on about my life for at least 12 months now, because I wrote up my effrorts at this event last year, when I also tried 12 hours solo. This year, well I was in better health, but not quite as bike-fit, and carrying about 5kgs more than a year ago.
Secondly, I got beat up so bad last year riding this course on a rigid singlespeed, that this year I went with sanity and chose my lightweight bike complete with 27 gears and front suspension.
Thirdly, well last year I was merely using the event as a training exercise, and this year it was the main event, so to speak. So I was fairly adamant I would just ride around in circles for 12 hours, and made my first goal to do more laps than I did last year (14), and my second goal to try and complete at least 20 in total.
Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.....
What you really need to do in an event like this is pace yourself. From the start. I knew this before, and I know this now. But dammit, when the countdown rings out, and the gun goes, something in me forgets all that and Im racing.
My first 2 laps were, for me, blistering. I was ahead of all the other 5 TEAMS that I was pitting with representing MTB Tauranga, at the end of my 2nd lap. Stoopid really. I actually thought I was going really well at that point, and I started pitting almost every lap, just for a minute or 2, to either swap out a water bottle, and/or grab something important to eat. I knew hydration and food were going to be important after last years effort. But as the hours went on I started to really feel it in the legs. I took Blake out for a (slow) lap for my 9th lap, and my knees were sore from that point on. At the halfway point I had started into my 12th lap, so I was well and truely ahead of my 20-lap goal for pace, but I was hurting pretty bad, and slowing up in a major way. I then put in 3 laps on the trot without a break, because the temperature had dropped, and I knew that each time I stopped it was taking about half an hour to warm up again.
Now it was getting dark, so I stopped to fit the night light set-up, at least 5 minutes stopped. Ate and drank some more of my high energy homemade nut/choc bars, but what I really needed right then was something hot and filling. And a support person to pat me on the back and tell me how well I was going.
I headed off for my first night lap and instantly the pain set in, I was probably under-dressed for the cold, and I didnt warm up for the entire lap. I decided during the lap that I needed to stop when I got back to the pits and eat something hot. I really hoped Heidi would be there (she had gone away to feed the kids and put them to bed). Alas she wasnt back when I pulled in. Never mind, I chucked on some warm clothes and rummaged around to find my wallet so I could go buy a hot punnet of ships or something, cant find it anywhere. A quick phonecall to Heidi revealed that she was still over half an hour away, and oh yeah, she had my wallet. D'oh!
Hang-up, look around, hey look theres some beers I have got waiting for when I finish!
So I guess that was it for me. Some lessons learnt, least of which is just how important a support person is when you tackle this type of thing. I massively under-estimated it. I still put in 15 laps, and in only 8.5 hours, so I did more laps than last year in less time. But on the whole, I sit here tapping away on the keyboard over 1 week later, and Im still a bit disappointed in myself. I still dont know if I want to try that again, maybe its too big a mental challenge for me?
