Auckland secondary school race 3 (woodhill)

7am I'm starting to get up and have breakfast.  Another race day.

I realised that usually I would be all nervous by now, but not this time.  After the recent not-so-great races, I had no pressure on me to achieve a top result.  I decided that this would be a great opportunity to test some ideas I'd had and learn.  The only question was would the learning step be through "brawn or brain" -  injury, mechanical or just my fitness.

Arriving at Woodhill Forest about 8:30am,  I requested dad to stop at the Bike Park so that I could ride to the event venue deep in the forest through the trails as a warm up.  Really wanted to ride the brand new trails (and damn, they are so good - well done Haydz and crew).

Anyway, it took me only 15 minutes to get to the venue and as I lined up to get my number I met a few mates who wanted to go for a slow ride around the track.   Once we had finished that it was already race briefing - phew a bit too close for comfort.

The intermediate boys group was the largest with about 25 riders, and I managed to get close to the front of the bunch.  After a good start with a sprint up the forestry road,  I had manged to get into a good position and was feeling that I could do well.
 

Entering the 2nd lap, as I started to climb the single track, my gears started to slip which allowed the two racers behind my to get past - damn!!!  Should have visited the team and R&R before hand.

When I finally got back on pace, I was close to the half way mark.   But the effort to catch up in a hurry had taken its toll.   My right leg wasn't feeling right and after about 10 seconds it completely seized up - OMG!!!  the pain.  I had never had cramps come on that fast, or that bad.

I had no choice but to sit down and stretch.  5 minutes later and it still wouldn't go away. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get my spot back, let another cacth theleaders - my race was over.

Thinking I was probably close to last now, I decided to continue but go slow and stretch out my leg. It took me the balance of the second lap to get rid of the pain.  Going into the last lap I decided that I couldn't just give up on the race and to "harden up".   I could stretch out the last of the cramps at the finish.   Well, it was a lesson I was after, and it was a lesson I got.

As I sat through prize giving all I could think about was what I needed to do next time - particularly making sure I have a magnesium drinks for the week before a race so that I don't cramp ever again!

Its been a painful entry into the intermediate boys category this year - and I would like to thank R&R sport for supporting me even though the results weren't what I wanted.

The positive thing is I feel really motivated to train hard for the results and want next year to be my 'year of glory'.  Ah! mountain biking - the drug of choice.

Auckland Secondary School race 2 (rivierhead)

The Secondary Schools Race Series is something I really wanted to do well in this year.  I was sure that for that for this race I could achieve outstanding performance after the not so great result in the previous one.  I was fit, relaxed and feeling good.

With all my thoughts on the race, I knew Riverhead wouldn't be easy, but I was well prepped. Arriving at the event, it was obvious a lot of competitors from the previous race had been spooked by the thought of Riverhead (particularly after recent rain) and the numbers were well down.

As I was about to go for a warm up, I caught up with some fellow riders/ friends who were fully coated in mud - not good.  Now I started to get nervous about the race. 

Race briefing finished and as everyone headed to the start, I could see a lot of serious faces. My confidence started to go down as I realised that this was going to be alot tougher than I had imagined. First the seniors raced off, with my group, the intermediate boys next.  Even with a furious race start I seemed to be in the top 5 or 6 racers - I was feeling great.

After about 30 minutes into the race I was coated in mud from top to bottom. Not only did my bike (and everyone elses) sound like they were about to snap, but it was twice the weight!

I was able to keep up the pace up the top riders heading into the 2nd lap but was really starting to hurt.  I had dropped about 20 seconds behind 6th and my speed felt as though it was getting slower. Just to make it worse,  I hit a huge mud puddle which sprayed mud into my eye and caused me to be unable to see for a few seconds.   My confidence had left me, the mind games began - could this race get any worse?

By the time I reached the last lap my eye sight was getting worse, I was making poor decisions on lines and my speed was now really slow.  I must have dropped about 3 places and my mental toughness had deserted me.

Sadly I was just glad to even finish.

Both me and my bike would need the MEGA clean (what a fun job to do after you've freezed your @$$ off and have no energy left).

After prize giving as we headed home, surprisingly I was not disappointed in my race because I had actually finished and survived the race.  Yes, I might not have gotten the placing I wanted but the race was extremely hard in those conditions, and even with eveything that had happened, I held my place again some really good older riders.

Yet another huge learning step before next year.  Bring on race three!

Moonride 2013

The Moonride is one of few races that my family plan months before it happens but this year it was a whole lot different.

The race had been planned to be at the previous years venue up in the Kaimai Ranges.  It had had great facilities but very few people liked the course- we had been thinking maybe it wasn't worth doing this year and from what we had heard, heaps of others were thinking the same thing.

About 8 weeks out from the start the race organisers announced that because of not enough entry's they would be moving the race back to the original venue in the Redwood's (Rotorua). Suddenly we got interested again.

A lot of rush organisation in the Jafakids forming teams saw a number of teams being formed and entered.  A good mate of mine formed a team more social than serious, but all good riders.

As the weekend approached alot of people decided to get to Rotorua on the Friday evening and watch the start of the 24hr race. To save money, my parents decided to just head down Saturday morning early.  A good decision in hindsight.

After a 4.30am wake up,  a drive down in pouring rain, we finally get Rotorua around 9am for breakfast.  The rain had eased by then and when we get to the race area we were all expecting to see muddy riders throughout the tent city.  Instead we see half the event area flooded and only about 300 people with no-one racing - it had rained so hard that night the 24 hours was canceled!

A lot of the 24hr team had elected to stay and complete in the 12hr event instead, so it was going to still be a reasonable crowd.   As the teams warmed, minutes before race start my guys decided that I would be starting, causing a wee bit of panic to get my gear on and warmed up.

My nerves were kicking as the start approached, but I did not want to let my team down because of a slow start.  It was a messy start with people going over the handle bars, people smacking into each other and going off-course, but somehow I was able to get around all of it and found myself in top 20.
 

It was a fast lap - 15 minutes later and I was back at the transition, not to tired and happy with the track.  About 2hours into the race it started to hose down again and when our rider came back he told us the course was deteriorating and getting really hard to ride.  I didn't believe him until I went out for my next lap and man! was it bad!!!

The worst thing was that we had about9 hours left, and with the number of riders going over each section and the weather not improving, it was looking sad.

At the halfway mark and the 6 hrs teams finished,  things became a little easier with not as many people on the trail. Having said that, the race organiser were constantly on the track reparing sections, shiftng others and slowing riders as necessary.   Very interesting - they did an awesome job.

As we come to the last 2 hours, no one wanted to ride anymore - the track was really, really hard work.  People who had started with 15-16 minute laps were now doing 25-30 minutes for the same distance, and hurting.    The only thing keeping us going was that we were in 3rd place.

At that point the race organisers announced they decided that the tracks were almost unrideable that they are goings to finish the race 1 hour earlier - you could hear is the sigh of relief from every tent!

With only about 20 minutes left and we had sent our last rider out with plenty of time, so we all sat back and started to relax, hopeful that we could keep 3rd. 

At prize giving, we had no idea of the final result.   Everyone was shattered, no one could walk very well and had nothing left in the tank - thank got we hadn't had to ride for another hour.  It was worth staying for prize-giving because not only did we see our friends go up to get medals but our team had secured the bronze medal - yeah baby!. 

I have to say two huge thanks to my sponsor R&R sport and also mum and dad thank you so much.  Cost a fortune in fixing the bike but the guys at R&R really helped - brilliant.