lisa morgan

It's time for a change of pace for me here in Canada - a bit of a break from structured training and the strict routines that go with it and the pursuit of results in pure XC racing, hence the reference to ' a change of pace'. 

With a few weeks left to simply enjoy I first spent a few days with the NZ U19 team as they raced the Ottawa Grand Prix (which I raced in 2008,) in preparation for Tour L'Abitibi which has just finished and in which they managed some great results.

The boys training in Gatineau Park and feeling the heat

Start line smiles at the Grand Prix

2nd place ahead of the field for Nick Sutton - the boys took half of the top 10 spots in the junior race.

I had a great time meeting these young guys and helping them out for a couple of days, and learning about the road programme that's been in place for a few years now, which is obviously working pretty well!  I'll be watching these guys over the next few years, that's for sure.

While I was out at the Grand Prix I ran in to one of the Tall Tree riders who was waiting for his race to start.  He asked if I was going to do the 8 hour the following weekend.  I'd heard about it, and briefly considered it, but hadn't made any attempts to get a ride to it, but when he said he was going alone we touched base later and confirmed I'd better get my entry in because it'd be silly to go all that way and not be able to race.

That's right, I said 8 hour.  And by that I mean solo.  Again, refer the title of this post: 'change of pace'.  I've ridden a bike for 8 hours twice before.  Once in the 2004 Moonride where I managed 11 hours of a 12 hour solo, and again in 2006 when I managed only 8 of the 12 hours in much harsher conditions in the same event.  Those efforts were done without any formal training, or knowledge of how to ride such volume and especially no idea how to fuel my body for them, but I survived - so I could survive this, right?

The race was on Saturday so on Wednesday I thought I'd better wake my legs up (I'm not training remember - the bikes and my legs have been in sleep mode since Edmonton) and spend a few hours pedaling.  I cleaned up the Felt and headed over to Gatineau Park to explore the trails outside of the Camp Fortune trail area (ie, the more recreational trails).

Mama deer ran in to the bushes but these little guys were curious enough to wait for me to get my camera out.

4 hours of picture taking and wrong turns on a mix of sealed paths, easy and intermediate trails left me feeling pretty good, so I felt confident about surviving the 8 hour so long as I paced myself and prepared to be in a world of pain for the last couple of hours (hopefully no more than that!).

On Friday afternoon Mike and I packed up and drove to his friend Ben's place - very conveniently located all of half a kilometer from Hardwood Hills and smelling like freshly baked cookies (chocolate chip and VERY tasty!).  Ben is one of the mechanics at Hardwood and is involved in coaching the junior development squad, plus runs guided tours and training camps in South Carolina in the spring.  He's also a fairly handy elite XC racer.  It's safe to say he knows his way around the sport!

Mike and I arrived in the solo pit area around 8:30 and were given some space under the ezi-up of Matt, another of Mike and Ben's friends.  I went and registered, laid out my bottles and food, and basically got ready to go.  Not long before 10 there was a group of riders at the start and I saw Tanya who was racing this event in a 2 person team, or 'tagging' as they call it here.  She introduced me to the girl next to me, Robyn, and said she was one of my competition and they discussed who else might be here.  They both seemed to agree that Sarah was likely to be the easy winner.  I reiterated that my goal was survival, pure and simple.  Racing and competing isn't on the agenda while I'm on my break.

When the gun went I set off nice and easy.  I didn't know the course at all but did have a feel for the nature of the trails after the Canada Cup here (the DNF...) so I knew there would be some fun out there.  The first lap included a 4km start loop of fire road which spread things out really nicely - very few bottle necks or hold ups in the first lap - imagine that at the moonride!  But still enough people around to sit behind and prevent myself from going too hard early on in such a long race.  I went with the strategy I used at the '09 Moonride 6 hour of sitting behind people for much longer than I normally would to make sure I was saving my energy.

The 9km course was so much fun.  The first lap was my first look at it and for the first half or so it seemed like it was going to be very tame, but after that a few climbs kicked in and there were some tricky little bits with logs, rocks and roots made trickier by a bit of moisture that stayed all day, and there were some wicked awesome descents that made it fun to go out lap after lap, including what must be the parks best trail - Coffee Run.  After 3 or 4 runs down there I had that thing so dialled the fun was over too soon!  As a bit of a comparison to the Moonride course, in 2009 I was in big ring for most of my 6 hour.  Here I never went in to it and even used granny from the first lap for the steepest of the climbs - they were short, but killer over and over and over.

My first objectives were to pace myself and to make it to the 4 hour mark without doing any real damage to myself.  The first lap was HOT (29 degree average over the 8 hours) and I was sucking back a lot of fluid thinking if it stays this hot I'm going to run out of drink.  I started out with my camelbak on for 2 reasons - first because I didn't have enough bottles to last 8 hours!, and second because it meant I could get a solid start without stopping to pick up a new bottle for at least 2 or 3 laps.  So I rode the first 3 laps straight through, by which time it had cooled down enough for me to feel comfortably warm all day.  It was humid, but almost 3 months of Ottawa living prepared me for that!

After 3 hours I started to feel a headache coming on so upped my fluid intake and it eased after a lap or 2.  By 4 hours my hands and fingers were hurting from all the gear changes so I started shaking my hands and arms out every now and then.  My next milestone was 6 hours and once I made that it didn't matter too much what happened because when you've done 6, another 2 is a drop in the ocean.

At the 8 hour mark approached I had to start doing some maths.  The last lap had to be started before 6pm (8 hours) and completed before 6:30pm.  When I came through after my 11th lap I had 50 minutes to complete another lap before the cut off time and my longest lap until then had been 42 minutes, so it was easily doable.  But I'd just lapped Robyn in 3rd place so I knew I didn't need to do the extra lap to maintain my position.  The question was whether I could gain a position - which it turned out would put me in first place.  I checked the timing (special laptop set up for solos at transition giving place, time behind leader and next place time behind leader).  When I went out on my 11th lap I'd been 4:25 down but after passing Robyn I'd pegged it back a whole bunch - I wasn't super keen on another lap but knew I could do one if Sarah made the mistake of finishing before I came back through.  So by the time I finished my 11th the gap was out to 8 minutes - not a gap I could chase down in a lap, but she'd still had to go out on another lap to ensure the win, while I went and got nice and cleaned up and had a burger - YUM!

Points of note:

• Endurance racing is good for asthmatics - trouble breathing?  Just peg it back a notch and you don't lose 15 places!
• Multi lap endurance races rock because you know the course so well you can impress people with your grace and skill after 7 hours of racing simply because you know every root, rock and divet.
• I never had to go in to the XC hurt box or redline - made a nice change.
• Watermelon ROCKS!!!!  From laps 4 to 10 they were handing it out to solo's as we came through transition and it did the trick super well
• Having a cute guy cheering you through transition every lap doesn't hurt either
• 1km to go signs are awesome
• 1km to go signs at the bottom of one of the toughest climbs on the course are not so awesome...
• Your host for the weekend cooking up a feast of ribs for after the race is the BEST EVER!!!  Oh.  My.  God.  That was one amazing meal!
• I also caught up with Mandy (from Kamloops and Canmore in 2008,)!  She was meant to race solo too, but the cast on her arm when I saw her after the race explained why I hadn't seen her out there.
• 8 hours and 100km of riding in nice weather on a wicked as course with great marshalling and friendly other riders makes for a great day out on a bike

So what's next on the agenda?  It's kind of nice not knowing!  This weekend I'm going down to Lake Placid (back to NY) for a few days (another long weekend in Canada).  There is great riding and a ton of activities at the Olympic Centre - including bobsled rides so I'm going to see if I can't get the timing right to jump in one of those!