lisa morgan

Flying Solo

The conversations had between Robyn and me,and Robyn and Jude the night before the 2009 Moonride captured fairly succinctly how we were both stepping a bit out of our comfort zones for the day.  For once I was told to hold back to ensure I'd last the distance, and Jude was told not to hold anything back on all her laps.  Why?  I'd jumped at the chance to do some endurance training on the dirt with the Moonride?s inaugural 6 hour category, and Jude was racing in a 12 hour team.  Given that I?m toast after a 2 hour race and Jude is just warming up about then, it was all a bit topsy-turvey!

As great as things felt during the Crazyman last weekend I was in no doubt that my endurance was lacking.  4 hours on the roadie with some good hills the week before had left me pretty shot, so it was with some trepidation I set out to see what I could do with 6 hours.

The game plan was quite simple - go hard at the start, but not xc-race hard.  Give the first lap a reasonable nudge then settle down and stay consistent.  Essentially, whatever I felt I'd be able to do in the 6th hour I needed to do in the first 5 hours.

I'd driven up with Mum on the Friday and it had rained all the way up.  When we got to the motel it was still raining, so I decided to save the bike from getting filthy and traded my spin for a bit of shopping - gumboots that look like jellybeans and an unhealthy amount of icebreaker gear.

Luckily though, by the time it was dark the skies had cleared and they stayed that way for the whole event.  The hardy 24hr souls would have cleared all the surface water leaving the rest of us a firm and dry track. 

Wanting a good start I spent about 15 minutes on the wind trainer before sneaking up to about the 5th rowback.  The rows were about 20 riders wide so there were a fair heap of people in front, and I was on the footpath and would have to negotiate the gutter off the gun - fun!  Fortunately I'd placed myself next to a right gentleman, Ken Feist, who offered to leave me a gap in front of him that I could slot in to to make things a bit safer. It worked perfectly and I got in to the main line of riders easily and without incident.

The start was perfect - exactly what I wanted.  Not too hard, but fast enough that I wouldn't be stuck behind too many people during the first lap.  It's tough out there with all the traffic,but worked quite well for me as it helped to keep me at the right sort of pace most of the time.  The start is a km or 2 on flat road which helps to spread things out a bit.  After 30 seconds or so I caught up to young Sasha from the JAFA Kids and knowing how fast she can be was content to sit in behind her and let her pace me to the forest. After the turn around point I could see there was a fairly large group that had broken away and we were in the 2nd bunch.  All well and good.

Once in the forest things went exactly as expected - a HUGE train of riders, pretty well behaved too.  Being the start of the race the only riders we needed to get past were the 24hr riders out on course.  I really didn't envy them.  After what must have been a pretty quiet night out on the trails all of the sudden these poor guys have literally hundreds of super-keeners with fresh lungs, fresh legs and fresh lycra amping to go as fast as they can to put in a good first lap for their teams. 

The course was excellent!  I'd forgotten just how short it was, or maybe it was just how short it felt doing lap after lap after lap - by a couple o fhours in I was almost feeling dizzy and when the 12 hour team at the beginning of the 12 hour sites cheered me through I called out 'and around and around and around'.  After that they called it back to me every time I came through so I entered the camp sites with a silly grin on my face - when I wasn't forcing down food, when I probably looked more like cookie monster without the food flying back out of my mouth.  Nothing like a quick pic-a-nic through the pits!

There was a fantastic level of support all through the pits from both friends and strangers and because the course was fun the time simply flew!  Before I knew it the half way mark ticked over and I unlocked my rear suspension. I'd decided I'd leave it locked out for the first half so I had something different for the second half - I have to admit, I was looking forward to it for a good half hour and I really do appreciate my fully, the difference was significant.  Oddly enough, my lap times started to get progressively faster in the 2nd half.  It was probably less to do with the suspension and more to do with the fact that I-d spent the first half constantly telling myself to ease back, ease back, follow the game plan, and around half way I felt like I was going to be very comfortable with the distance so let myself go for it a little bit. It wasn't exactly easy to go fast with the traffic, and I wasn't about to break any records but looking at a graph of my lap times I thought it was amusing that I lapped progressively slower in the first half, then pretty much progressively faster in the second half with the exception of a lap where abunch of us were held up while an injured marshal was driven out on a stretcher.

In terms of food and drink, Shane and Jude looked after me - relishing the opportunity to pay me back for all my bossing around of Jude during the 24 hour back in March.  For the first few laps I got yelled at to eat and drink more several times unaware of the fact I'd had a bottle and bar in the hour before setting off which would see me through for a while.  Soon enough they were getting empty bottles handed back to them (not thrown - not an XC race, hehe) and decided I was being obedient enough.  To prove I?d had plenty to drink I pee'd about once an hour for each hour raced after finishing.

The stats:

Laps -14

Race time - 5:39, and 20 minute warm up making this the longest I've been on a bike since my last attempt at a 12 hour solo (at the Moonride strangely enough).

Distance - 110kms

Average temperature - 9 degrees

Average speed -19.6kph

Calories burned - 4000 - may I take your order?  Sure, I'll have one of everything!

Laughs - about a billion

Number of times the play list was repeated - 4, same every year.

Number of 'on your right' calls ~300

Number of 'on your left' calls ~2 (a fun way to confuse people!)

Result - 1st female 6 hour solo, 6th overall 6 hour solo, 9th overall 6 hour category

I'm now feeling much more confident in my endurance and continuing to feel stronger every week.  The event that serves as the final key selection race for the Worlds team is only a month away so there is no doubt the clock is ticking, and pretty loud at times - but that's what I-pod's and earplugs are for :))