It was: glorious, terrible, fun, hard, painful, long, great, awful and awe-inspiring.I finished in 3:58:11 against my goal of 4 hours. Success. Middle of the pack in one of the most brutal mountain bike races. Not bad at all for a guy who started biking in November. That put me 177th out of the 324 guys who started with me in the mens 30-39 category and 578th out of the 1000 riders.
I started very well, and was on track for a very good time when I went forward over the handle-bars on the tricky, rocky downhill about 45 minutes in. Another rider did the same at the same spot later in the race and was very seriously injured: I was luckier than that. With grazed hip and arm and bent gear lever I struggled on. Then ten minutes later my front wheel slid out from under me while dodging a puddle in mud on a little gentle downhill and I landed hard on my head and back. I think I'd over-inflated my front tyre to try and avoid punctures - which meant not enough grip when I needed it. Much kudos to the rider behind me who stopped and checked me out when I was lying in the mud with a sore neck. Guys like that make biking worthwhile.
I paused a minute to recover & slowed: on the horrible uphill struggles I still held my own, but the downhills were really hard on my bruises and bruised confidence and I lost ground there. My hip and neck hurt. I banged my front brake lever back into shape with a rock. Either I tired immensely or my front suspension stopped doing all it should: every bump on the final downhills seemed to hit my bruised right palm and make my grazed left arm ache. But I pushed on as hard as I was able.
My dad, dear S, and little Iris watched me finish. They cheered me on as I fell into a waist-deep hole in the last river crossing, jumped up and rushed on to the final finish.
Gordie and Brains did very well at 3:38 & 3:42. Scott came in at 4:03, a few metres ahead of his brother-in-law whom he was determined to beat. Those three also get full credit for helping me get the skills and strength to get around the course at all. Our team posted a very respectable total of 15:21 - better than the winning time for the corporate teams last year but sadly not good enough to win us a place this year. We are happy.
I finished. And I finished fast, going hard, on my target time and with a big smile. I was right, dear reader, it did hurt. But it was great.
2 comments:
Congratulations! I am very impressed. The Kakapo team came 4th and was the only corporate team to finish with only four riders.
You first rode a bike in Lethbridge in a small grassed park not far from where we lived, with Mum or I holding the seat. If anyone then had talked of mountain biking the Karipoti I'd have said, really? but not for my sons! Well, maybe. Perhaps. Okay. When?
1 March, 2008. Of course!
And if either of them did, and finished with determination and a touch of show in a river, he would add to the pride his parents have in their sons.
And you did.
Dad
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