FRA relays - Black Ribbons and Bike Caps

View from the hill

 Last weekend was the FRA relays from Church Stretton and Pennine were out in force (7 teams plus dedicated supporters!!), running in memory of Daz. Black ribbon and cycling cap in place, I was a bit aprehensive before the start as my lasting memory from the stretton hills race was fast unrelenting running  on steep hills and I was a bit tired for that! My legs didn't seem to want to move on the warm up and Jim told me to stop yawning in the start area.

Me and Claire before the start

 Thankfully as soon as we set off all tiredness was forgotten. Unrolling my map I quickly realised what Neil Northrop had meant when he said 'I don't know where to go' while running up the start funnel...it was a lovely navigation leg, with enough route choice to keep you thinking but lots of runnable terrain as well. Thanks to the planner for that!

Just spotted Ambleside Ladies on our shoulder - photo courtesy of Al Tye

 I took a 'run as hard as you can and when it hurts run harder' approach, there was going to be no half measures today! From control 3 onwards we found ourselves in a tussle with Ambleside which helped keep the pace up and by the end I don't think we could have run faster!
I've always known how powerful the right mindset can be for long races, but Sunday proved the influence it can have over any distance. Any other day I doubt I could have run that fast!

Running in to control 4 - photo courtesy of Al Tye

I think everyone in Pennine found an extra gear at the relays with the V50s finishing 4th, the womens team finishing 5th, the V40s 12th and the Men 18th! I'm pretty sure Daz would have been blown away by the performances in his memory. Daz's parents got to experience what it was about the fell running community that he loved so much. Thank you to all the teams and friends who called out support to pennine at the relays, it made it a really special occassion and moving day that will not be forgotten.

Yesterday Daz's family and friends gathered at Bramcote Crematorium to say a final goodbye. There were so many people there, family, friends, runners and cyclists (complete with revolution kit and bikes - I think Daz would have loved that) that we filled the place and then some! Steve (aka Amex...care was taken to ensure all forum names were referred to in the service) gave a eulogy to open before Daz's cousin gave a moving account of the two of them growing up. Andy (aka Loveshack) recited a great poem written by Lis, she put Daz into words so well! The final reading was of Josh's words, thoughts which I wouldn't have been able to put down on paper.
The unlikely gathering of family, friends and fell runners (suited and booted, a rare sight for some) then spent the evening recounting tales of races and memories of Daz. A fantastic dedication to such a great friend.

Finally, I'll leave you with Ewan MacColl's song 'The Joy of Living'. The song was played at the end of the service, it was meant for Daz: http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio...oyofliving.htm

Laid Back Fell Runner

This has taken some writing. Like everyone else who knew Daz,  I struggle to find the words...

This weekend was the Ian Hodgson Mountain Relays and at a little after 10am myself and Claire Aspinall were heading up to the Knott from Hartsop. It was a beautiful day, crisp with blue skies, fantastic racing conditions. We shared the odd word with the other teams in passing and even got into a proper tussle with the Ilkley ladies heading down to the hand over. I found myself tearing down the hill from the final control, Claire in hot persuit, elated to be feeling (after so many months of being the injured spectator) the thrill of going full tilt over the rough ground, almost taking off a few times.

A couple of hours later and we were waiting in the finish field, elation gone, for what turned out to be the worst possible news. Darren Holloway had collapsed and died whilst running leg 4. That last sentence still doesn't really compute. Thanks have to go to all those who stopped to help, everything that could be done was done and it meant Daz had as much support as he could have got anywhere!

I was about 18 when I first met Daz, around the time he first donned a pennine vest. My initial memory being that of the vest I would tear off after at the start of a race, normally only for him to disappear a few minutes later, but always there at the finish with a grin on his face. I couldn't have been finishing too far behind could I? The plan was to inch closer each race....well that wasn't going to happen as Daz transformed over the last few years, setting a pace I could only dream of! And maybe I was finishing just behind.... but maybe this was just part of who Daz was, as interested in everybody elses races as he was his own, always encouraging and supportive, still always there on the finish line.

Much as I'm stealing this description from others, it sums Daz up: 'Hard as nails but with a heart of gold'.

We'll all miss you Daz, my thoughts are with Amanda and Josh, I don't really know what to say, I've tried to see it as you were doing what you loved at the time, but the time was just too soon. So I'll leave you with Daz's words after the Scafell race, this is why I run:

'Someone is telling me about the Wasdale Head show in a couple of weeks and I wonder if I can do that as well. So many events and so little time.
We are so fortunate to have this wonderful sport.
Only 99 runners today but I did not see one unhappy person and as I drive away I wonder where next. Where will this sport take me.
After hundreds of fell races the sport still has that magnetic pull that it had the first day that I wore a set of fell shoes.'

Polaris

Been meaning to write this for weeks, I've failed so will driect you to Planet Byde: http://planetbyde.com/2012/10/08/polaris-challenge-askrigg-wensleydale/

Lastminute.AR Sting in Stirling

Team Lastminute.AR at the end of the Terrex Sting in Stirling

This is going to be a long one, it's been a busy month and for the first time this year, due more to excessive amounts of exercise than excessive quality time with my computer :-).

Firstly, and pretty importantly given my plan to race the Sting in Stirling, I taught myself to run again. It had been so long since I'd been out on foot that the first four mile attempt left me grasping at the banisters in order to make it down stairs...to cure this I went out for 9miles the next day....and then almost had to resort to bum sliding downstairs. I take back anything I ever told my cycling friends about running being easy :-).

Thankfully given a couple of days to recover my third attempt at running was less painful and by the following Friday I found myself running into the night, carrying an obscene amount of lucozade and fruit cake, as Wil completed his Bob Graham Round. Two legs of the BG felt like a good bit of training for the Sting.

Visiting Dollywaggon1....and Dollywaggon2...

I get all the best jobs!

 My next problem was having a team. With a late decision on the Accelerate Team, Lastminute.AR were formed 1.5weeks before the start date and met for the first time pre race on the Saturday. We also had an unorthodox line up with 2 guys and 2 girls, JD Eskelson, Jon Ellis, Vanessa Harding and myself. So it was off into the unknown....

We registered and got the maps, then came some plotting...made rather difficult by not really knowing or having any idea how fast we were likely to move!
After looking at the maps we decided our plan was to go for full course for as long as possible, expecting to be able to keep to this for stages 1-5 before making  a call on the long trek when we had determined our pace a bit better. Then came the kit faff..

Prologue
So on Sunday evening we found ourselves at Stirling Castle, a pretty stunning location for the prologue to the Sting. The prologue consisted of a trail run (Vanessa), an Orienteering section with the added twist of the use of an 1898 dated map (Jon - phew, escaped any nav disasters..I can manage those on a 2012 map, never mind 1898 :-)), a MTB round the golf course (me) and a MTB to the Wallace Monument (JD). Teams had to serve a time penalty of 2xtime behind the winners later in the main race at Grandtully.
If this was a sign of things to come...well, it wasn't a good sign. Vanessa had a stormer to bring us back well up the field, Jon maintained this in the Orienteering, then I went out on the bike. By the bottom of the descent it was apparent there was something up with my bike, I thought I'd hit it on a drainage ditch during the descent, but when I checked my back wheel for looseness there was nothing wrong. So back on with it. Then I 'changed gear' or rather tried to.....I looked down in horror at what appeared to be a bent and non functioning front mech! After an epic effort to get myself back up the hill in far too high a gear my bike got a thorough inspection. Thankfully it wasn't bent, instead it had been shunted round when somebody caught my bike in their desperate leap for the start line. By the time JD got back my bike had a full range of gears again :-). Then bike mechanical no2. JD had come off whilst trying to avoid a dog and discovered his hire bike had a rather short seat post...and now a rather damaged frame....
Thanks to some incredible generosity from Team TriActive Stirling JD was sorted out with a lovely Scott hardtail to race on!
After all of that we didn't come off too bad, a 21minute time to be served at Grandtully.


Day 1
Stage 1: Run around the Wallace Monument, 8.64km 212m climb
Stage 2: MTB to Killin (full course), 88km2065m climb
Stage 3:Paddle to the run on Tarmachan


The start of the race was fast and furious and we tucked in to a comfortable group, just behind Mountain Hardware and got round the first run without incident. Onto the bikes and we were working well as a team and keeping the pace going well. We arrived at Doune Castle just as the leading teams were leaving. Here we got to explore in the castle itself, whilst doing good impressions of olympic race walkers!
Back on the bikes we headed for the Lake of Menteith, the only lake in Scotland where we jumped into a rowing boat! It was good fun and we even had time for a rendition of 'row row row your boat' with Mountain Hardware (heading in the other direction). Half way across we had a small hiccup when we didn't spot FGS heading towards us from the opposite direction and the two boats got intertwined. Thankfully no lasting oar damage!


The final leg of the bike over to Killin took us up a good steep climb or two. It wouldn't be Lastminute.AR if we didn't have a bike mechanical....Jon got a puncture that wouldn't seal just as I inadvertantly hit a ditch and got a good bruise down my left knee. A change to an inner tube and we were off...until the next climb when my crank fell off! That has never happened to me EVER! This was starting to take the p*!%.
The last mechanical for us for the rest of the race thankfully was JD's brake stopping working. This made for some interesting descents but we were at least back on the move!

Riding the bikes - all 3 working....JD hanging on round the corner with only 1 brake!

 At Killin I'd like to say we smoothly transitioned into the canoes, but this would be a bit of a lie....we did get into canoes, around 45minutes slower than the teams around us on the results....transitions it turns out were not our strong point.

Day 2
Stage 4: Run on Tarmachan, 27km 1819m Climb
Stage 5: Paddle down lake and River Tay to Grandtully, 38km
Stage 6: MTB to Mar lodge with Canyoning and Orienteering, 82km, 2029m climb

Here our plan began to fail. Transition faff left us with a hard tactical decision. We had to reach the river before 10am the next morning, we estimated 4hours to get there and wanted to allow an hour leeway which meant leaving on stage 5 at 5am. That left us roughly 8hours to trek.
Could we get all 4 controls? There were 2 on either side of the valley with a drop to a big climb between each set of 2. It was going to be tight and as such we chose an anticlockwise route as this offered the most flexibility, with easy access to a third and possibly 4th control if time allowed. As it happened we might just have got the 4 if we'd committed early, but as it was we got three, made it back to the boats and down to the river in time, now officially short course.
The river had some good rapids to negotiate and I'm happy to say we all stayed in the boats! Not bad for 4 people who had never met let alone paddled together before!

 The portage at the end of the river hurt, but it hurt Vanessa most as we were about to find out. Off on the bikes again we made quick work of the section over to the canyoning, however it became apparent that Vanessa had hurt her back whilst carrying the canoe. After a bit of medical attention it was decided it would probably not be best to go slamming her back into rocks...it would in fact be much better to spend some time with a chiropractor!
The Canoying was ace, even if I did hit my tailbone on a rock whilst on film! Some good jumps into white water were pretty exciting!
When we finished, Vanessa was still in quite a bit of pain so after a short deliberation it was time to scrap the plan and make a new one. At this point there was an option to short course so we took it! Hike a bike into the second night felt like it went on forever but eventually we reached the top and after a mandatory pushing section were off down the hill. I wish I'd put more layers on at this point as my wet hair had made it hard to get warm again after the Canyoning. By the time we arrived at Mar Lodge I was freezing. Here we planned to get our first sleep of the race and the sleeping bag was more than welcome! A couple of hours later we were ready for some orienteering....until advised this was a silly idea as it was taking the leading teams almost as long as the time penalty. So plan revised again, it was now an easy decision on the long trek. The bike up Mount Keen just wasn't an option with Vanessa's back and it made much more sense to try and clear the trek from Glen Muik.

Day 3
Stage 6c - Mar Lodge to Glen Muik, 44km 818m Climb
Stage 7...a...Trek as far as Glenshee

The bike over to Glen Muik showed some good teamwork, with the weight of Vanessa's bag reduced and tow underway. We made it up there and were the 3rd team to go through the transition. The first 2 Munro's had 2 checkpoints a piece, one for the scrambles en route up and one at the summit. The techy scrambles were good fun and took the mind of the height gain. On the summit of the second scramble we set a good pace across to the next control, spurred on by the thought of getting all the controls before Glenshee in the light.

Then came a bit of a bog trot to the 6th control on the route...but thankfully a good route choice. Coming off the marshy tussocks was great! Just after the 7th control adidas Terrex caught us (having completed the full course of course). We had a bit of a chat before, at the 8th control we made the decision to miss the last optional control and head for Glenshee as it was getting dark...and we'd just inspected the second half of the trek properly...

Glenshee - a quick nap

 At Glenshee we were met by Nick and James with cameras that were blinding in the dark! Inside there was space to sleep and we met up with our 5th team member: Clive Ramsay, who did an excellent job of keeping us fed throughout the event! We planned an hours sleep, however I got a bit carried away at the 'coffee bar' chatting to Sally and Claire...Sarah had to send me to bed as soon as I'd finished my risotto (thanks Sarah ;-)).

Day 4
Stage 7...b..Glenshee onwards, total trek length 55km 2665m Climb.
Stage 8 MTB to Grandtully, 48km 929m Climb

The night air was cold, made colder by how warm inside had been. We headed onwards and me and Jon shared the nav in the dark, checking up on each other and meaning we got through the stage without incident. At least 3 more Munro's bagged I think....

Heading up the last one and 3/4 of the team were starting to drop. Somehow my brain was still functioning. I'd not had one sleepmonster yet and was still wide awake, especially now it was getting light. This was new!
A ten minute power nap while I surveyed our route down to the track and transition seemed to perk everyone up!

Although the thought of sleep must have been pretty strong at transition, we went straight through and back onto the long course route (not without a faff of course....oh and a bike mechanical). By the time we left  Terrex were with us again and we rode with them for the best part of this section, sharing the gate opening and closing along the way.
I was carrying a lot of stuff on this stage as we weren't sure at what point we'd see our bike boxes at Grandtully and once we arrived we were going to be timed out! Free Sleep! So I had the tent and half of Vanessa's stuff to lighten the load on her back...it did look a bit ridiculous....
However it wasn't until we were collecting the last two controls on the route that I felt it. I must have forgotten to eat enough along the way bacause I was getting pretty tired, but ever time I ate a mouthful of sweets was fine. Here I had my first and only gel of the race.
Once on the road again we sped along to Grandtully, helped out by team mate number 6: Terry, the 10 year old on holiday who wanted to race against us just outside of Grandtully.

We arrived at around 5pm so had 13hours timed out. Of this time I spent 1hr sleeping, 1hr faffing and eating,3hrs hoping Clive was about to turn up, another 1hr eating and blogging, 5hours sleeping then some time eating at Clive's and taking boats and kit down to the water.

Day 5

Stage 9 Paddle to Perth and Orienteering 60km
Stage 10 MTB Perth to Sterling, 64km 864m Climb

We had a fun paddle down to Dunkeld, again with Terrex for a bit. At Dunkeld we flew round the orienteering, good to see the trek hadn't completely distroyed our running ability.
The river to Perth was loooong however a bit of fisherman slalam livened things up, as did the more rapid sections. 2 paddles and 0 swims!

Leaving Perth, those lights cost us ages! :-P

At Perth we transitioned. Yes that right, we didn't faff (well, not as much) and set off on the bikes! We rode strongly for the first half of the ride, it wasn't until just before the last climb of the race that the pace dropped. Here I found pushing hard in a big gear up the hill kept my back in a better position than twiddling away so injected occasion bursts of speed. Shame my legs weren't actually capable of pushing that gear all the way! Cam racers were moving off into the distance ahead, and in doing so consolidating their 1st position of the short course and 5th overall.
Once at the top we sped down into Sterling, catching back up to Cam racers and arriving at the finish pretty much together.

Punching the finish

We finished the race having covered a total of 518km and 11,400m Climb, in 6th position. This was more than we had hoped for on the start line and a well earnt result! Thanks to Open Adventure for another amazing journey, the added detail of Clive's van and the friendly volunteers at transitions made for an excellent race!

I have just about stopped eating twice as much twice as often now and have even made it out on the bike and for a run....and an accidental intervals session (my legs didn't thank me for that), but the plan for the next few weeks is to get ready and rested for the polaris...watch this space!

5 jours O'VTT de Samois-Sud77

The run in - the only control I reliably rode well on :-)

 It already seems like ages ago that I was in France racing MTBO, but it was only last week!  It's been a week of many firsts, first head to head MTBO race, first time I have shot a knome with an air rifle at a wedding and first time I've had to present at a conference proper.
Since last Thursday I've travelled from Fontainebleau to Sheffield via York, down to Taunton for Shelf and Lorna's wedding (CONGRATULATIONS!) complete with welly wanging and air rifles! Then back to Sheffield and on to Liverpool for the launch of the Centre for the Integrated approach to Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA) and finally home! Phew...

So, back to Fontainebleau, one of the most varied racing weeks I've ever done. Race 1,2,3 and 5 were a bit of a write off but race 4 almost made up for it!

 The first race of the week was a bit of a warm up for the World Ranking event the following day so I rode it with the aim of getting back into smooth riding with nav. It was all going so well for the first 4 controls, despite riding hard into a tree (oops), however control 5 was in a quarry and here I caught Chalie, looking in the same place as me for the control. We had both interpreted the map wrong (easily done in this section) and lost a chunk of time. Wouldn't have been too bad had it not been for the next control at which I promptly lost another 5minutes as there were far more paths on the ground than the map.
A bit cheesed off, I got back into the flow for the next few controls but my head was no longer in it and it was only a matter of time before I made another mistake en route to 14.
After this I chose to employ my age old tactic of 'If in doubt ride harder' and promptly finished the race off in style losing 3-4mins at control 15 before doing a superman impression over the handlebars on the way to 18.
It's fair to say I've had better races, however finished mid field...
I decided to learn from my mistakes and knew I was riding (and when fully concentrating navving) well.

 The next morning we arrived at the race just after 9am, I wasn't racing until 12:16 so there was plenty of time to prepare. Well there would have been if I hadn't accidentally been missed off the WRE start list. If I started at 12:16 I would have missed quarentine and not count for the WRE. So at 9:20 it was sorted out, I would start before the rest of the WRE riders at 9:39!

I ran back to the car, got changed, sorted my bike out and was on the way to the start before I knew what was happening. It was a few km to the start and I could have done with some tri bars and an aerodynamic skin suit to get me there in time. Sadly I had neither and the track was wet and sandy, bit of an effort but I made it with a minute to spare. Windy then kindly explained to the start crew, in French, that I needed to start whilst I caught my breath, then I was off! Adrenaline pumping like never before!

I was slow off the mark, not too surprisingly, and several of the tracks were basically overgrown, could have done with a few people through before me to break track....But the nav was smooth and all was well to control 9 this time. On the way to 10 my compass indicated I was on a different track to the one I had aimed for, so I corrected my 'mistake' and headed for 10....sadly there had been no mistake and so I lost about 3 minutes correcting the true mistake.

At 11 I learnt what it meant to be out first on this course, the track was so indistinct from the direction I came that I had to play it safe and ride 2 sides of a triangle to reach the control. Another minute lost but still feeling reasonably in control. 12 was a long leg and here I really felt the adrenaline had worn off!

Another mistake at 13 due to another overgrown indistinct track at a star junction cost me a minute or so but the rest of the course was reasonably ok. I progressively got slower, as did my mind and finished, more pleased than day 1, but still having made too many scrappy mistakes, in 14th position.

Team GB - 'there were 10 bottles of bubbly, sitting on the wall....'

The next day was the sprint which I was really looking forward to but I kept my disasterous streak going, losing well over 4 minutes on control 5 (amazingly only a fraction of the time lost by Ursina on the same control apparently) and making a small mistake 3 controls later. On the plus side I practiced track stand punching and made it on all but 3 controls, including an awkward spectator control :-). After the mistakes I just rolled around, knowing the game was up and enjoying the forest tracks.

The thing I was most looking forward to during the week was the second WRE, the long distance. This had a bit of a twist as it was a mass start event, basically the first leg of a relay if the relay was a long distance race. In essence perfect for me :-) in theory....
Before the start I noticed my compass was doing odd things but whenever I checked it appeared to be working. Thankfully for the race it wasn't needed anyway really.

I loved this race. It started with some long legs with a bit of route choice and I felt strong, overtaking all the way through the first 4 controls (my map folding abilities need some practice). This was the hilliest day in an all but flat area of france and I kicked on up the short but realtively steep climbs.

As I headed for control 6 I was looking ahead to 7. There was some  confusing marking of OOB on my preferred route and I was scrutinising it when I looked up to see Ingrid! I was still not far behind her as I swung into the track to pick up 6 :-). Sadly, concentrating on 7 instead of making sure I reached 6 meant I made a mistake, picked up number 1 again instead of 6 and headed off for 7.....I worked out my mistake when I stumbled upon the actual junction for control 6 and corrected but the damage was done....about 3:30 lost. Thankfully not a mispunch though, phew!

I carried on riding hard, only losing another minute or two on some less than optimum route choices. As I picked up the third  to last control I reovertook Pippa (she passed me at my number 6 faff...) and rode really hard for the penultimate control. Age old bloomin mistake, I reached a junction and turned left, thinking I should see my control. It wasn't there so I turned around, ah there it was, but Pippa had caught me again. I punched  and bombed it off for the finish. I only noticed my mistake by pure coincidence as i passed my actual penultimate control en route to the finish. I'd punched a 'paralell' control by mistake. Near mispunch number 2 avoided, numpty!

Ingrid went on to win the day and I finished in 9th position, however 35seconds would have got me 6th and less than 1.5mins to 5th. As I had visited 2 more controls than anyone else I'm not too disappointed by this :-).

Although I made mistakes I was happy with the race,  I loved the head to head aspect as it allowed me to see where I stand on both riding and nav. I learnt I really can ride well atm and I can't really complain about the nav as I just haven't been practicing. Up until control 6 I was in the mix and with a bit more training time my nav will improve.

Sat on the train back from Liverpool today I suddenly realised I don't have to do anything this evening. The string of deadlines that have meant some insane working hours and not very much training since January have come to an end. I'm shattered!
Tomorrow I can actually start training again :-) I'm going to ride a bike and go for a run :-). And I don't envisage any more deadlines until....well...at least next week!!

Skedaddling Around Eastnor Castle - 3rd at Mountain Mayhem

Womens Open Podium - Saddle Skedaddle in 3rd

This is a bit of a long one, but then again, this was one EPIC race! I have finally found a MTB race that leaves my legs feeling properly tired!

In the middle of a looooong 14hr day of work a few weeks ago I found out the name for our mountain mayhem team 'Need a Skidaddle Holiday Now!'. Quite fitting  really!

Last weekend I raced for Saddle Skedaddle with Steph Fountain, Iwona Szmyd and Emila Zielinska in my first 24hr MTB race - Mountain Mayhem.
There have been a lot of firsts this year, but this one was the one I had least clue about. I knew I could keep going for a long time, for days in fact, but going, then stopping, then going again was a new concept. How fast could I push it and still be able to get out of the tent in the middle of the night to ride again? That was what I was about to learn!

One thing I had learnt from BUCS however was that muddy conditions really do require mud tyres, so I made sure I had some fitted! There had been ample rain in the last week or so and the weather forecast was for rain from 10pm to 4am...lovely

After a brief discussion about who could run, it turned out I could...so the decision on first lap rider was sorted. I set off without knowing exactly how far it was, but knowing it was long enough to not be a sprint. I felt comfortable with the pace, but glanced at my watch after a while and was suprised to see I'd passed through a mile in under 7minutes, in a swamp, with a hill, in bike shoes! Too fast?
No, I jumped on the bike at the 1.2mile mark and felt good, phew. Also, I assumed job done as far as getting a reasonable position to avoid queueing at the single track goes, as Nick Craig was announced as crossing the start line as I reached my bike, 100m from the line.

I was 1st woman after the run but lost a few places on the stretch over  to the 'Kenda Klimb' and was sat just behind the first womens open team at this point. I was pleased to stop the flow of overtaking and take a few places back up the steep climb, staying with the woman ahead. The first bit of single track slowed everything down a bit, but the queueing wasn't terrible, I have now officially learnt where to start in a race after Kielder 100 - not at the back :-)!

Mountain Mayhem Route for reference: http://www.wigglemountainmayhem.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/1.jpg

This was going well, it was good fun! Then we hit 'Wiggle Woodlands' and I wish I'd never thought that....Here I found the 'Mud of Doom' which clogged my wheels. No worry, I scraped off the mud with a stick and set off running again, keeping the bike to the side to avoid the mud. 10m later I cleared them again...10m later I cleared them again and snapped the stick....10m later I cleared again...'insert rude word here'.

I shot backwards down the field, unable to move more than 10m in one go. The one womens team ahead turned into ALL the womens teams ahead, anyone with 1.95 tyres or less could still get by riding, riding with 2.1s like me and you were screwed! I slogged on thinking 'what if it's all like this, I am literally going to be here all day and be writing the whole race off'.
Thankfully it wasn't, I got out of the woods eventually, cleared the wheels one last time and got back on the bike, hooray!

I came through half way in 65mins including the run and headed off up the 'Niterider Grinder'. Legs back in it now I was on the bike I overtook and overtook again all the way up :-), this was more like it! The descent from 'Hope Shit Shifter Summit' was ace! The 'Weldtite Washout' at the bottom was a different matter and here started the chain suck of destruction...

One bottle of water over the chain/mech  later and the situation had not improved for more than a minute at a time. Water gone I was on the hunt for puddles to avoid snapping my rear mech. With none in sight I did a fair bit of pushing again. After a couple of puddles in the woods at the top I attempted to ride again. A badly timed bit of chain suck on a corner then saw me do a super man into the brambles much to the amusement of everyone behind me - I like to keep people smiling! Eventually I reached the final descent and had great fun down that and into the finish in 2hrs4mins! Wow that was a long leg!

Whilst Steph, Iwona and Emila rode I hunted down some thinner tyres and the wonderful Saddle Skedaddle support team had them fitted in no time! Iwona had flown round in 1hr36 and there were rumours it was getting nicer to ride...then Emila handed over to me with the words 'OMG, its horrible!'.

So off I went with no expectations on my second lap at all. Reaching 'Wiggle Woodlands' again I took a deep breath and got ready to dismount. Then turned the corner and found it rideable! Go 1.95 tyres! And thanks to all those nice people with wider tyres who suffered with me on that first lap, removing the worst of the mud and taking it with them!!

This made life much faster! I was through half way within 45minutes and off up the hill, where I even had enough time for a short chat with Rickie Cotter.  Then I found out what Emila meant....this side was definitely not as nice as before. Still, for a while I was moving well and it looked like I'd come in in a similar time to Iwona's last lap, but the chain suck of destruction hit again, earlier this time. The water ran out. By the end it was 5 pedals forward to 3 back to try and keep moving...however still a BIG improvement on the first lap (1hr48)! By now we were no longer last and were in fact 3rd! All to play for!

Skedaddle Corner! Beautiful conditions....

Dusk had hit as Steph went out and the heavens opened not long after. Met office was spot on with the forecast!
In a way this was a blessing in disguise. The whole course became wet mud and my 3rd lap at 2am was probably the easiest to move through. Slower on corners but a welcome relief from the treacle during the day!

I had a sing along with a guy in the woods and heard him move on from 'if your happy and you know it' to 'wild rover' at a doubling back of the course later on.

After coming through half way in an hour (which I was a little disappointed with) I suddenly realised why I was dropping off the pace. The tell tale signs of bonking arrived, I couldn't really concentrate on anything and keeping my legs moving was an effort, let alone engaging them in a coordinated manner. All I wanted to do was sit down. I stopped and crammed half a bag of sweets in my mouth, sit down? What was I on about, that was a bad idea! I then started pushing my bike, hoping my legs would follow. I'm not sure how long this lasted but  I managed to get back on the bike at some point and ride most of 'Niterider Grinder', even if my vision was a little bit wonky..whether due to the lack of blood sugar or lack of a left contact lens I just don't know! But I do know why the grinder name exists now.

I stopped half way up to eat the other half a bag of sweets. By the top they kicked in and I was away, enjoying the downhill, getting through 'Weldtite Washout' and up the hill without incident as long as I remained in my granny gear, loving the night riding! Given all of this, this was my slowest ride yet (2hr9) but it was great fun!

I finished at dawn, just as the rain stopped :-). This was where it all got interesting. The commentators announced us as leading, none of us could work out how? We checked the leader board, it confirmed it! Had both the teams ahead had mechanicals? An hour later we were demoted back to 3rd....our chip had somehow registered twice for Stephs lap...boo...

While Emila was out we worked out it looked like Iwona would get back at 11:40 after her 4th lap, so here came the decision - who to do the last leg? Neither me nor Steph were that keen so we left it to the brake pad gods. If a new brake pad could be found for Iwona's bike then I would ride the last lap. If not, Iwona would ride my bike and Steph would ride the last lap.

The brake pad stall was shut - yes! The saddle skedaddle team produced a quick fix - doh! At 11:58am I set off on our last lap still in 3rd. If either of the two teams ahead didn't complete this 14th lap, we'd move up! Always worth a shot!

With Mandy Faint from Big Bear Bikes and the quad bike back marker hot on my heals I rode through the wet mud after a quick manual gear change (front mech useless for changing down now) and up 'Kenda Klimb'. The first bit of forest we hit, which had been fine earlier, was now aweful! Mud clung everywhere, clearing it was impossible, my wheels didn't turn, 1.95 tyres now no longer doing the trick. I dragged my bike through the forest and attempted to clear it at the other side. I asked the quad bike driver what the second half was like, the reply: 'I don't want to tell you'....great! Nice then! He also confirmed these were the worst Mountain Mayhem conditions ever! I decided grudgingly that it was time to head back...

Then Mandy appeared having corrected a slight route detour...and when I asked if she really was going all the way she didn't even blink and replied 'yes, theres no rush for me to be back!'. Ok I'd carry on! It takes a lot for me to quit!

20m, 3 attempts as breaking my rear mech and 2 attempts at clearing my wheels later, a guy emerged from 'Wiggle Woodland', the worst part of the first lap, yelling 'Don't do it! It's not worth it!'. Alright. I turned around and straight lined it back, crossing all my fingers that the other two teams had completed 14 laps....

They had, we finished 3rd with 13 laps! Woooo!
 
Thanks to the great team of Steph, Iwona and Emila and team 'I'd rather be on a Skedaddle Holiday' for making my first 24hr MTB race a memorable and enjoyable one! What an epic introduction to 24hr MTB racing! And thanks to Saddle Skedaddle for all the support! It would have been a whole other story without their bike washing/mending and rider feeding facilities! 'I'd rather be on a Skedaddle holiday', including adventure frog, finished just behind us in 4th, so a great weekend all round!

Mandy rode in during the prize giving after an incredibly long lap! Hats off to her, I thought it was actually going to be impossible! (I think somebody needs to tell her that its ok to not finish a lap if you already know your position on the podium is not going to be altered by it :-P). Edit: Worth the effort to make sure they secured 3rd!

Adventure Frog

I can't finish without mentioning Julia Hobson winning the solo women's race. Amazing riding, 11 laps in 24hrs, with time to spare! The mental determination to do that in those conditions is astounding! Well done Julia, I would have sat down in the mud and not got up again well in advance of 24hrs!

Riding Without a Board - 4th at BUCS XC MTB

Erlestoke 12

A couple of weeks ago I took a deep breath and removed the map board from my mountain bike. It's been well over a year, maybe 2, since I raced a pure MTB race and the Erlestoke 12 would be my 4th attempt at it!
Me and my friend Becky were racing in the 6hr race as a female pair under the name 'Shé-velo'. I rode around the course early in the morning to get a feel for it and it was excellent. Dry and fast singletrack for the first half, then a big climb followed by a huge bomb hole and swoopy singletrack wiggly technical riding down (and up and down again) to the change over.
By midday and the start it was roasting hot! I set off a bit too low down the field and spent my lap sprinting the open sections then settling in behind a queue of people on the singletrack. Still - this proved to be my fastest lap in the end.
As the afternoon wore on it got hotter and hotter! By the end of my 3rd lap we knew we were in the lead (not the most populated race catagory tbh) but it was looking more and more likely I'd fit a 4th lap in within the six hours as Becky was coming through consistently strong! The 4th lap was tough, by the up/down singletrack fun my back was wrecked but I only dropped a couple of minutes all told and we held onto the lead :-). A good start to racing without a board! 

Such a fun weekend and great to see Pete and Andy (Becky's boyfriend) fight it out in the 12 hour race to come 2nd and Tom and Andy pull off 11th with only one working bike and the most layed back transitions I have ever seen (including time for a cuppa...well almost)! Great efforts all round!


After a week of excessive work I was ready for a holiday. So it was a good job we had one planned, after a quick trip to Horton-in-Ribblesdale it was off to the Isle of Man. 

80-100miles of cycling and a lot of tea, pub and watching fast motorbikes ensued. The only bit of proper MTB we fitted in was on our hunt for a pub on Monday - race day! We rode 14miles, found some fun descents, an indistinct river/ footpath, 1 inaccessable pub (whilst the roads were closed for the TT races), an ex pub (doh...so close) and finally an open pub! One mile from where we started...

View from The Railway - Union Mills. A pub 1mile from where we started looking for a pub.

 Thoroughly relaxed I arrived back in Sheffield in time for my second MTB race without a map board in 2 weeks! The British University MTB Champs at Birchall Golf Course. I had no clue what to expect (except a wet mess after this weeks weather) or how to race it. The recce at 9am revealed a wet course but not impassible given a bit less tyre pressure. 2 races later...well..

This was the first time me and Helen would race each other without a map, it was going to be interesting. 4 laps but if you were lapped by the leader you finished on their 4th lap.

Helen shot off and I immediately realised I was in the wrong gear - massively. Rode the start probably in about 12th position. But then we turned the corner onto the golf course and I overtook very quickly - back past Helen and another couple of girls.
We set off about 2 mins behind the guys so caught them up just at the start of the killer hill. So boggy at the bottom it was miles quicker to run - which allowed me to overtake again.
The singletrack at the top was congested so I hung back accepting we weren't going to be able to overtake all the riders ahead until the short bit of open. The Manchester girl behind me thought otherwise and started yelling 'riders coming through'. I let her past to deal with the guys ahead.
She made it about 3 guys ahead. Then there was deep mud and running and I was right back on her tail. Somewhere in this mud fest singletrack she got a minute on me (according to lap times). I had real trouble with non mud tyres - own fault though!

Really enjoyed the last bit of the course with the bomb holes and proper downhill fun! Even got the comment 'your riding it better than a lot of the guys' hehe. I might have to admit I am a mountain biker one day soon...

If possible lap 2 was muddier. I was still in touch with the Manchester girl going up the climb and planned to dig in and try and stay with her at the top - then I got distracted by somebody saying they thought I had a flat (turned out not - just running low psi) and the few seconds stopped to check was enough to lose contact. Another girl overtook in the gloop at the top which I had had to dismount for. That put me back in a bit of a race mode and I overtook her and put distance between us quickly. Still, no sign of Manchester anymore.

By lap 3 the course had deteriorated badly - churned up unridable sections now clear though so I knew where to dismount and where to push through. No sign of girl ahead or behind. Towards the end I started to expect the first girl to lap me and when my chain came off in a bog I thought it was over. But no, got through finish without being lapped so off on lap 4...

The mud was now no longer wet mud but sticky mud. Got the dismount sections firmly in my mind but had to stop a few times to clear mud to keep wheels turning. Tyre tread completely saturated - just like riding slick tyres! But no sign of girl ahead or behind so dug in and enjoyed the descents at the end for the last time.

I was amazed to learn at the finish that I was in 4th overall! This is way more than I expected. Rode all the technical downhill well and only messed up the row of 6 bomb holes once when my tyre slid out on the mud on lap 3. Needed less than a min a lap to reach the podium (cough:mud tyres/being less clueless) - next year :-).