SpoonBoy

With the lyrics from the underworld circulating around my head, dawn had broken over the Inabaanya camp ground just on the outskirts of Majura pine forest in Canberra. I had already been awake for a little while; the police dog facility down the road clearly fed the dogs at 5am and the first set of planes were just starting to fly into Canberra airport. All in all this made sleeping well, interupted. It didn’t help that someone decided at midnight to arrive and set up camp, that’s their whole camp not just a tent and pull out a few sleeping bags.

So far my morning wasn’t going real well, besides the not getting as much sleep as I liked, the dodgy chinese I had for dinner was clearly well…. dodgy, and my stomach had decided to remind me. I did however have camp setup, bikes ready and sitting in my chair with a cup of tea and breakfast in hand, was feeling decidedly relaxed.

Once again, we hade made the trip to Majura for the Australian Solo 24hr nationals. My goals this year were hardly lofty, simply to put in a solid effort, fine tune or figure out a few things and finish the race. I kind of knew that if I could do that, then the results would come anyway. One thing lacking this year was a gob of fitness. For one reason or another, I’d taken a bit longer than I planned to over summer and as a result, was no where near as fit as I liked to have been. But it hardly mattered since I had already qualified for the worlds and well, I had nothing to prove really. Having felt like I had pretty much everything organised and knowing there was nothing I could about fitness now, I think this all contributed to my relative state of relaxation.

This year, I had convinced BigDog and Lauchie from Dirt Works to run support for me. BidDog had helped support Craig Gordon in his Australian title win a few years back and coupled with my Support Guide, figured I was going to be well looked after.

The race….

Standing around comparing HRM readouts before the start, it was clear I was still pretty relaxed, reading some 20bpm slower than Jason English. That wasn’t going to last long as the start gun goes and the usual stampede into the single track ensued. A small 2nd tier bunch had formed and after a couple of laps to test the waters, a few of the guys seemed still keen to push the pace, so I had to let them go. I was clearly faster through the single track, just not as strong on the climbs, so knowing that efficiency was going to be the winner here, I felt confident that I was going to real them back in, albeit eventually.

I could only chuckle as over the course of the night I would real each one of that origional bunch in, some standing beside the track with cramps as early as 3hrs in. By 10pm I was looking pretty solid, feeling good and having just past Craig Peacock like he was standing still. At some point I managed to lap my mate Jason McAvoy and shortly later on the same lap, Dreggsy would be left once again by the track side giving the plants a water ;) Pulling into transition for a bottle I could see Neil Dall in the bunch ahead also about to be lapped.

Just short my first battery change, my handle bar unit failed. First thoughts turned to the battery, but with the light flickering on and off, was starting to get the impression all was not well. With some faffing to try and get the unit to work, off the bike it went, I’d have to rely on my vicious head mount from hear on in, not a major catastrophie but less than ideal. On lap later BigDog had sourced another bar mount; a set of Ay-Ups I think courtesy of dreggsy who had since retired due to achillies issues… The Ay-Ups wern’t as bright as my Lumin8r but with the roughness of the track and the amount of dust around, the bar mounts were pretty important.

Midnight rolled on and I had started to slow down. Jason Mc had unlapped me during the light debacle and was sure others were catching. I wasn’t sure what was going on and was starting to think the lack of sleep the night before might be catching up with me. Things were starting to hurt too, especially my upper body but with more than 12hours on the rocket clock figure that was probably pretty normal. Popping a couple of nurofen shortly after 1am, I continued on getting slower and slower, even starting to hit granny gear on a regular basis.

realising I was hurting, I backed the pace off a bit. I just had to make it to dawn, and from there we would have to see what happens. Eventually Tristan Bennet on the SS (nutter) passed me back but still only had clackers and Jason English passing me with Dan Mckay and Mark Fenner only occasionally popping through. 4am rolled through and I was determined not to have a snooze in transition. That little patch of pine needles beside the track however ;) Fighting off the sleep monsters was tough but I’d come this far, and couldn’t let BigDog and Lauchie down. My upper body was starting to really hurt with the nurofen really only taking the edge off it. Oddly my quads wern’t in real great shape either or perhaps not so odd considering I was rolling into 18hours on the bike…

Breakfast clocks on with the sun rising over the hills. I’d planned to stop for a change of nicks, a cup of tea and something to eat about now anyway, so pulling into the tent I nude up, change, woof down a cup of tea & mudcake and head straight back out. Pain management was starting to become a real problem but I was too tired to think clearly and well, hadn’t taken any additional pain killers. I’d made it past dawn, in a few more hours I’d be counting down to the finish so just grit my teeth and dealt with it. The pace had dropped right off, granny on the climbs and barely into middle on the flats, it wasn’t long before Jason McAvoy had passed me back. From here it was the beginning of the end…

Really suffering on the climbs, the descents were not much better as the bumps would punish every aching muscle I had. I realisd I wasn’t drinking as much as I should have been pulling into transition to swap out a full bottle, but seemed to be keeping the foods up. I still wasn’t thinking straight but determined just to make it to the end I just kept plugging the laps away while the pain was getting worse. By 8:00, with only 4hrs left, I was pretty much gritting my teeth in granny on anything that had the slightest climb to it only to prepare myself for the pain that was the bumpy descents with the only respite the smooth fire trails. My times had started to blow out, but pulling into the feed zone for what would be the last time, BigDog tells me I only have to keep lapping, and I’d have a top 10 in the bag!

Two more laps and I can stop for another feed! finishing off the first one, I blast through transition area for my 2nd lap. Grovelling back along the single track with BigDog running beside me yelling positions and encouragment my body was really hurting. Things were getting rapidly worse struggling to make it over some of the easiest of obstacles. I was slowly making my way around though untill finally making it to the big descent. The pain over the braking ruts had become intense, but the faster I could make it down, the quicker I’d get back to transition. I seemed to be losing energy fast, grovelling along the flats and gritting my teeth just to hold the bars, I wasn’t going to get another lap in without doing something. The muscles in my upper body had started to seize up, hands were sarting to well, not function and after nearly stalling trying to climb up through the last 500m’s I finally get out onto the downhill firetrail to the camp ground.

Pulling in, my left hand pretty much toast, my right grasping the front brake with several fingers, too tired to even lift my head, I burst into tears, the pain, lack of sleep, and thought that this was probably the end of my race too much. Plopping down into a chair, it wouldn’t be long before I grabbed the attention of the medical staff and comissaires. And right there, curled up in pain in a chair, my race would end 2hours shy of the finish. After some pain killers, a long shower and some food & drink I was able to saunter around camp. Trying to make it up to transition to watch the finishers, I ultimately had walk (saunter) away lest burst into tears again… I was gutted, disappointed I had tried so hard and come so far, yet still proud of what I had done and achieved with my race. Live and learn though and with the worlds only 4 months away I still had plenty to time to refine things. At least no one could say I didn’t know how to hurt ;)

Laps: 35
Distance: Approx 320km’s
Time: Approx 22hrs
Climbing: 4945m’s
Position: DNF (10th)

Tech & Tips

Plenty of stuff out of this 24. Ultimately this would be my best and worst race ever…

Bikes ‘n stuff: I once again brought two bikes hoping the course would be smooth enough to bring the hardtail out if I needed it. One lap of the course the day before and it was clear the hardtail was going to stay at home. So we (well mostly BigDog) spent a couple of extra moments in the bigger breaks keeping the dually running (thanks BigDog!). Ultimately I had bugger all issues, a few minor front shifting issues later in the race and that was all. I definately have Pete and the boys at Burwood Cycleworld to thank for that who worked tirelessly on my bike the week before. I have a new bike on the cards for this year so rather than selling the current one, I’ll just keep it around as a spare.

Tyres: Sycnross FLT 2.0 front and Conti Twister Supersonic rear, run tubeless at relatively low pressures (30psi). These worked a treat for the hardish packed yet very dusty track though not sure how much life is left in rear tyre; A few of the side knobs are barely attached and many showing signs of the carcass with appropriate Stans leakage. Not sure how much longer they would have lasted, clearly 400km’s is about their limit.

Pacing: Given I dived off after midnight, I was wondering if my pacing was screwed. I got to 6pm though feeling great which is a usual pain inflection point and had to keep reminding myself to slow down. Looking at my Polar graph, I don’t think my pacing was too far off, and thans to Jason’s Excellent overview I think my times blew out after midnight more than they should have though looking at my graph (below), apart from the first couple of laps, I was well within my limits for the first 12 hours…

Speed & Fitness: Very happy with my speed; smooth and fast through the single track and on the descents, I was typically dropped on the climbs. When the “faster” guys lapped me, it was great to compare things, at times, depending on what section they passed me, I even had to brake for them at times. Definately the group I was with at the start was slower through the sniggle, which left me happier to let them go early as ultimately being more economical with my energy was going to be (and proved to be as the night progressed) a winning strategy. This race actually leaves me with confidence on this front as the gap is nothing that straight out training and hardwork isn’t going to fix. I might have to do more upper body work, the brutally rough track proved to be hell on my arms and shoulders, and I think contributed somewhat to my overall fatigue. I struggled to hold on to the bars at the end so ’nuff said really.

Nutrition: Nutrition is something I need to work on. This was the first race I didn’t have any stomach issues. Once again I used the food in a cup for feeding which had a two fold aspect to it, it was a portion I had to eat for a lap, and a portion I could only eat for that lap reducing the risk of over eating I had done in the past. I think I kept my hydration up though at times realised I was about to hand back a half empty bottle and tried to drink as much as I could before going through transition. Hydration definatly lagged early in the morning where I did definately go to hand back a full bottle. Where I definately think I was lacking is variation on flavours, and protein. On both fronts I’m going to investigate a few different products out there just to get a little variation in what I’m eating & drinking. Ultimately, a combination of fitness and nutrition mistakes I think possibly were the major contributors to my well… going splat in the morning.

Caffine: I’ve had mixed results with caffine in the past, so have avoided it in race situations. Everyone was on the no-doze it would seem so well, time to give it a try me thinks. Sort of have limited races left so I think I might pop one or two in the middle of an 8hr and see what happens.

Summary

This race proved to be my best and worst race ever. Each time I push myself harder and further than before, and each time I find a new way to break myself. None the less, I’m proud and happy with what I achieved in this race and I think it overall bodes well for the future. I just have a few things to fine tune I think and I’ll have a pretty solid race package. A little frustrating that it’s been 5 races, and I’m still making mistakes yet some of the guys out there have done one, two or three and putting together solid races already, but potentially such is the way with endurance racing. I’ll just keep plugging away at it and improving on the mistakes that I make and who knows!

Anyway, at the very least, the track was a dead set blast! a wall ride in a solo 24hr!? who’d have thunk it ;)

Upmost thanks to everyone who supported, or gave me encouragement over the weekend, but especially to:

• BigDog and Lauchie who ran support all weekend, you guys were sensational!
• Ray & Jaymz for helping out at times through the day & night
• Alex kiendl’s support crew for the kind words at some silly time in the morning
• To the Jason’s (there’s a few of them :) for the healthy competition & comradre over the weekend
• Burwood CycleWorld for working tirelessly on my bike the week before hand (Especially Pete and Nick!) Bike ran beautifully! thank you!
• And of Course the KHS Bicycles for giving me a fantastic and comfortable bike to ride for 24hrs. No red raw butts here!! :)

Happy Trails!

Cheers
Craig