Last weekend, I made the trek to the nation’s capital for the annual Capital Punishment 100km MTB Marathon race.
Previous years’ XCM series status was not forthcoming this year, for various reasons, but the field was still packed,with over 700 finishers crossing the 100km finish line at Stromlo, first of whom were Andy Blair for the Elite Men and Jenny Fay for the Elite Women. A further 709 riders finished the 50km version of the race from the National Arboretum to Stromlo, led home by Bradley Morton and Kylie Webb respectively.
For my part, I rolled into Kowen Forest at around 6am, parked my car in the dark and saddled up for my 7am start window, stopping only for a coffee and a return to the car when I realised I’d sleepily headed for the start sans helmet and gloves. A good start, huh?
I’d rather ambitiously lined up in the first 10% of riders, based on my results at the 2012 Kanangra Classic – my only 100km start since getting back on the bike in early 2012. This was ambitious, but not absurdly so.I’ve got quicker – substantially so – since last October, and my fitness is measurably better. I’ve also tuned the bike into a faster riding position and worked on managing my hydration and food intake during rides. I had this part sorted.
I worried, however, that my pre-race preparation had gone a bit wrong. I hadn’t eaten as well as I’d hoped on the night before, and had struggled to sleep in a noisy backpackers hostel in Canberra CBD, and hadn’t really got in a decent breakfast either. I’d also skipped pre-flight checks on the bike because, well, it was dark, but all that was forgotten as we streamed into the Kowen Forest’s network of well-groomed singletrack at a fair clip with the sun tentatively coming up.
I felt like I was holding my own for the first 10km, despite feeling a lack of confidence in my first-time-out, too-soft tubeless tyres, which were flexing in corners a lot more than I’d like. Then, around 12km, proper trouble reared its head. Accelerating hard out of a corner to close up on the rider ahead of me, I felt my left calf snap into a painful cramp and had to drop off the side of the singletrack and let riders pass as I tried to control my now-spasmodic left leg.
It’s not usual for me to cramp this early into a ride, even one where I’m hammering to maintain pace, but it’s happened once or twice before, and the common thread is bad preparation – eating badly the night before, having a few beers in lieu of a proper meal and an early night, sleeping badly and skimping on breakfast – all that had left me depleted before I even started to ride, and worse, I’d forgotten to pack a couple of cramp-fighting magnesium tablets, as I usually do when going for a long ride.
So I made do with some energy gels and powerade, and regulated my pace at just below cramp-inspiring until exiting Kowen and Sparrow at feed station 1 nearly 40km into the race.
At this point, any hope of finishing in the top 10% was gone. I’d had to let a lot of riders past, and I’d also had a near five minute stop to try and rectify the tyre pressure problem that was giving me such scares in the corners. On top of that, the cramp had left me unable to move around on the bike properly, which on singletrack is a problem. If you can’t shift your weight around freely, you end up too upright on the bike in corners, which means you’re slower, less stable and more at risk of a crash, which in turn means you’re not as fast in the next straight and the whole thing just crumbles from there. My split times in Kowen back this up – 279th and 283rd in terms of split pace. Not great.
After feed 1, the trails open up somewhat, with more firetrail taking the riders through the live fire range toward Majura Pines. and the start of the untimed section. I was quicker through here as the pain subsided, energy levels went up and the need to be quick in corners was replaced by time trialling down wide dirt roads, and soon there was the last climb to the timing pad and the 10km toddle through Canberra’s suburban bike routes.
Time to take stock and eat some energy bar, get the fluids back up and have a chat with some other riders. One companion had had a fairly nasty stack and was trundling through the untimed in search of a first aid marshall. Another had also cramped badly, but later, and was considering calling it a day at the next aid stop.
Once at the aid station, I took in plenty of water and endura energy drink, took stock, chatted with another BMC rider (on a rather nice carbon FourStroke) and made a relatively prompt exit. 55 minutes was allowed in the untimed section, but I was in no mood to mess around. I had time to make up and sitting around would do nothing more than cool me down.
Back on it and heading for Black Mountain, and firetrails leading to the National Arboretum. Just before the timing mat, a large pack of riders was having their last rest, slathering on sunscreen and procrastinating. I joined them for a minute or two, girding my loins for the last push, then headed on.
This part was lots of firetrail, a little rocky, a bit more up-and-down, but with some opening up to scenery as the arboretum came on. Then out onto the bike paths for a tarmac time-trial in gusty conditions to Stromlo Forest Park.
I ran out of water just before the entry to Stromlo, cramped again slightly just before the actual park, and struggled a little with the opening dry, dusty singletrack, but from the final aid station, climbing to the top of Mt Stromlo and towards the Luge descent, I registered my strongest sector of the day, managing to get past a couple of riders for the first time since the live fire range and genuinely enjoying putting the hammer down.
At the top I had the conversation with myself. If you’ve never done that, it runs something like
“You’re nearly 40. You’re an adult. You’ve got a job and a house and responsibilities and all that stuff. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING RIDING A BIKE UP A DUSTY MOUNTAIN, COVERED IN GRIME, TIRED, SCRATCHED AND HUNGRY WITH YOUR HEARTRATE SITTING IN THE 165+ RANGE, EXACTLY?”
The answer to which turned out to be “Enjoying myself immensely, shut up”. And having got that out of the way, I proceeded to do the most fun section of the day – the downhill sections of Stromlo, carving (finally), letting the bike do the work and putting down some proper speed. As I got to the final tarmac section on the Stromlo Crit track, I even managed to put in a sprint finish, and hammered past the guy in front of me, suspension locked out, my sunglasses flying off the back of my head with the sheer exuberance of it all. 204th from a field of a bit over 700.
Brilliant day out on the bike, I just wish I’d got my prep right and finished a little higher up the leaderboard. Still, it’s all a necessary learning experience for someone who’s only been back on the bike a little over a year.
I’ll definitely be back in 2014 for more, and this time I’ll get it right – mark my words.
Oh, and photos will follow shortly, once I juggle the budget to pay for them. Those ‘reponsibilities’ are getting in the way of the vanity budget but they’ll be cleared up soon.
