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Showing posts from October, 2014

12 Hour Solo Mcleans Island 2014

I made the crazy decision a few months ago to enter the 12 hour solo event at Mcleans Island. Despite every intention to train for the event, my longest ride leading up to the event was only 3 hours long... Not exactly ideal but in the end it seemed to work in my favour (not that anyone probably believes I did barely any training). The race started in typical fashion with a compulsory sprint around the first lap despite the long distance ahead of us. After that first lap I was sat comfortably in the lead bunch with the eventually winners of Open men and Vet men as well as 2nd and 3rd place Vet men. I was expecting the pace to drop off at any moment but when it didn't I made the decision to drop off the back and ride at my own pace because it felt like if I kept going at theirs, I would blow. I was soon passed by Dave Slater and focused on trying to maintain my position and keep my lap times fairly consistent. Mentally the race started to also become tough from here with fres

Edoras Challenge 2014

Glorious weather saw 23 teams compete in the annual SCARC 12hr Adventure Race, The Edoras Challenge at Mesopotamia Station and Forest Creek Station on Saturday, 27 September. It was our first race together as a team, building up for Godzone, and my first serious race for quite a few months apart from a few club kayak races. With a shot gun start at 7am, teams had the choice to either trek first (30 km around Mesopotamia Station) or MTB (50km around Forest Creek Station), we made the call to bike first as we thought the weather would come in fairly early and would result in a slower bike time than the effect would be on the trek. We were pushed on the bike leg by team Heartland Ricoh but due to them making navigational mistakes and then ultimately forgetting about one of the last checkpoints, we managed to take the lead into the trek section.   This is where I knew things would begin to unravel as I had been focusing on my riding for the upcoming 12 hour solo at Mcleans Isla