This year Original Source Mountain Mayhem was brought to you by an awesome but hard course; A pain in the arse shower that went from cold dribble to cold spray to warm spray then off; repeat 'til cold and pissed off; and 5 collarbones, 1 leg and a KO!
We all arrived to camp on Friday afternoon. Free on site camping means that there's loads of people at Mountain Mayhem. LOADS!!!! We got a really good spot just across from the infamous Kenda Klimb and set up camp.
The course was available to test ride between 4 and 6 pm on friday but it was raining on and off and it didn't seem worth getting wet and muddy so we put the pasta on and had a beer.
The rear mud tyre was fitted first thing on Saturday morning, after lots of overnight rain. Ratio changed to 32:15 fixed and out for a 10 min test run. I didn't want to overdo it because of the dodgy leg. All seemed fine and Simon had convinced me to start fixed and see how it went - this would end up being the right decision.
Race order agreed - Simon, Racey, Alex, Me
Strategy agreed - 2 sets of 1 lap each, 1 set of 2 laps each, 1 set of 1 lap to finish
Rider briefing at 11am and we explained the setup to our race virgin - Racey. He was excited.
Simon had agreed to do the run - Le Mans start (Al had a newly fixed knee and I did it last time!).
I was designated helper and bike indicator. The run was 2.5km and Simon did it in 12mins (very good!) but he thinks that ruined his legs for nearly the whole race!
Back to the camp for me and a bacon sarnie to settle the pre-race nerves. Followed by a lovely lemon drizzle cake made by the missus.
First lap nerves on in the handover area waiting for Al to come in. In he comes and we're off! Try to keep it steady, don't get too excited or go off too fast, remember this is an endurance race. The leg injury grumbled to start with, a bit tight on lap 1. The course was really hard! Loads of climbing and some slippy sloppy downs. Glad I put the mud tyre on. Over the bridge round and back in a good time - 1hr 5mins.
Back to camp for a pot noodle and more cake. Cramming in the carbs to keep the fuel topped up.
Raring to go and onto lap 2. Another steady consistent lap into the sunset 08:20-09:25. The views were beautiful from the top of the course but when I pointed them out to other riders I just got a grunt! Lap 2 the leg was achey and grumbling and I had some paracetamol overnight because it was acheing. Pain in the arse shower before bed with a 4:40am alarm call.
Two ibuprofen and two paracetamol were downed with a coffee on the handover before the sunrise lap, just in case. More grumbling from the leg on lap 3 but then it just seemed to ease on the double sunrise lap from 5:20am. I was really looking forward to something to eat from half way through Lap 4, so I treated myself to a Latte and a HUGE danish pastry in the arena. It was lovely!
On the way back from another fun lap and the danger of this business hits home. It was horrible to hear over the tannoy "Please can Clare Miggins please go to the timing tent. Her husband has had an accident on the course and we need to find her as soon as possible". Some riders were hospitalised even before the start when riders were doing practice laps due to the slippery course. All that training and organising and you don't even make it to the start. I didn't mention any of this to the missus when I checked in. We heard of 5 broken collarbones, 1 broken leg and a KO throughout the race.
More cake, bacon and tea before my final lap. Timings meant I would be doing the final glory lap into the arena. The weather had been dry and windy on saturday morning and the course was rapidly drying out. I flew round the last lap! Nailed all the climbs. Loving the ups and keeping the downs smooth as possible. And keep looking forward to the next up! I had a chat with the 2nd place Solo women - Lisa - who did some riding with us earlier this year and with
Nick who was doing his first solo 24hr. I was also accused on not eating enough pies!
I got round the last lap in 1:01:03 - the fastest lap of the team all race!
Results of the event are
here
We were awesome!
We missed out on a podium 3rd place in the singlespeed teams by just 5 minutes - maybe next year!
