Most of you already know of my of 3rd place result in the Mountain Trails HillBilly 24HR but there is much more to the story of my 24HR race. This will be a bit long winded as it’s for my future reference of the events on that weekend as much as anybody else so get ready for war and peace.

I took Friday and Monday off work so we could get down to Kellevie and camp Friday night to avoid the long drive down just before the race plus camp Sunday night after the race as we would be a ‘little bit tired’ after the event. We spent a couple of nights getting all the gear together and to be honest we had every scenario covered off 3 times over and we took way too much stuff but you never know. Sharon had organised so many food options I was going to waste time in transition just trying to choose one but food options are a vital part of 24HR racing as your body does strange things during the event I am told. Friday morning I dropped Sharon at work, picked some loaner bike light batteries up and headed home to pack the camper and bikes. I just managed to fit everything in and around 1PM picked Sharon up from work and we were on our way to Kellevie.

Hobart had been experiencing storms the previous day and when we arrived at Kellevie there was a lot of mud around and plenty of puddles. We were directed to “sicko alley” the area where all the 24HR solo riders were separated from everybody else with our own  pits so we didn’t wake everybody else up all night. We immediately recognised Andrew Flakemore (father of Campbell – team BMC rider). We had ridden with Andrew on our Mt Buller MTB trip. Andrew was crewing for Peter Barrett and they sounded pretty darn confident about the race and if you can believe it they had twice the gear as we had plus some. Peter had also been mentored by Darryl Smith a previous winner of the event as well as myself and a few others it turned out. We setup our camper next to them on the dryer side of the pits and put the annex on the camper for only the second or third time since we have owned it. Our setup was perfect for Sharon to hide in out of the cold and prepare coffee or re-heat risotto for me during the night and 2 tables were setup with drinks and nutrition for easy access.

While setting up everything it started to rain again with showers coming through. Others started to turn up and a few locals setup and went home again to sleep. Andrew Turnock turned up and started to setup the largest tent I have ever seen all by himself in the rain and wind. I just had to help him but after it was eventually up there was quite a bit of water inside it and I am sure you could have house several horses in it! Roy Langman also arrived who was an instructor at Mt Buller as well. Liz Smit and a whole bunch of other people from the North were scattered all over the camping area. Rain continued on and off for a while then a bit of wind with only one more heavy shower during the night. A good nights sleep but I was wide awake at 6am a full 6 hours before the race start. I installed my number plate and “solo nutter” rear plate and made sure the bike was ready to go with a final prep.

There was plenty of time to socialise before the race briefing at 11:20AM with race start at 12. I had spoken to Duncan Giblin the organiser and they had removed the back hill section as it would be an unridable mud bath after a few laps shortening the course to about 9.5km. I was not sorry to see that section go really. Race briefing came around and the start loop had been modified as well due to the very boggy fire roads. The new start had the 6HR’s head off at 11:55 and the 24HR’s at 12 (teams and solos). I went for a small warm up ride and as I came back the 6HR had left and I quickly headed to the start line still with no real race plan. All to soon I was lined up on the third row with mostly the faster 24HR team riders in front of me. Suddenly the siren went and we were off, it was very real now.

There was a bit of a scramble into the first section of single track and a train of riders quickly formed but the pace was good. Soon I was looking to get off the wheel in front of me and started passing riders for the rest of the lap. I passed Vanders the nutter on his single speed bike after he dropped the chain a few times on the first laps. Eventually I got some clear track and settled into a rhythm although I was going a bit hard I though so early. Feeling ok I stuck with it and passed a lot of other riders ending up in second position at the 4HR mark. Ticking off the laps at a reasonable rate I hit the lead somewhere after that and held the front spot for a few hours. Nothing to be excited about as the race is won in the last 12 hours not the first 12. I was eating bars, bananas and swapping between water and an Endura sports drink. Later on I moved over to hot risotto reheated in vac seal bags, small potatoes and a lots of other goodies we had available. The last 5 laps I swapped to energy gels, one per lap.

At 47 minutes past midnight on lap 19 my race came crashing down onto the rock pavement at 22.3km/h, my front wheel jagged to the right for a still unknown reason and I went flying over the handle bars to a very hard landing on the rocks. I am pretty sure I yelled and expletive out as I landed head first and then flipped over onto my back from the momentum knocking the wind out of me. My helmet had forced my glasses into the bridge of my nose and two front teeth had gone part way through my tongue. I honestly though I was not getting up again and how they might extract me. I did stagger to my feet eventually in quite a bit of pain and stumbled over to my bike that was hanging in some small wattles off to the side of the track. I had to get off the track before I was run over by another rider in this fast blind section. Soon after a rider passed me and I said I was Ok as I gathered myself. The bike looked Ok and I could move my legs so I got back on and rolled around the 2/3 of the lap I had to ride to get back to transition.

It was obvious I was not in a good way when Andrew in the next tent saw me arrive and said “fuck what happened to you” and then asked if my nose was broken. Sharon freaked out a bit as I went into our annex and slumped into our camp chair as apparently there was blood everywhere which I knew as I kept swallowing it for the rest of that lap from my tongue. I was shaking apparently and a bit incoherent. Sharon was worried my nose was broken and or needed stitches and it had apparently swelled quite a bit up by this time. Quite a bit of broken skin on my left shoulder, leg, forehead and arm. Sharon did a concussion test on me and eventually I convinced her to patch me up. All I wanted to do was get back on the bike but it took a bit of will power to do so. Twenty minutes after arriving back I rode out on another very slow lap.

This was the start or the acceleration of my slide back through the field. Sharon apparently lost it a bit after this and there were plenty of hugs and support from everybody unbeknown to me at the time. She told me later that I looked like a sick wounded animal hunched over the bike for the last couple of hours and it was hard for her to watch. Quite a few of the Launie riders would have a chat as they passed me and particularly Jody Bush really pepped me up riding with me several times during the night for a few minutes chatting away. Lots of the 6 and 12HR riders would cheer you on each time through transition as well. One of the only 2 female 24HR solo riders only decided to do the race a few weeks before it was on. Caro was very slow but managed a great 20 laps in the end. Roy Langmans parents (aged 70 & 72) crewed for him and almost everybody else in the 24HR transition, they were great value apparently. Sharon was fielding many mobile calls for updates, SMS and Facebook updates. Plenty watching the live timing.

My plan of absolute minimum time in transition went out the window now calling back in every 1 or 2 laps. My wrists, hands and shoulders were starting to suffer and at one stage around 3 or 4AM I was having real trouble getting back on the bike as holding the bars stiff enough was getting very difficult, this was my darkest moment during the event. Sharon rubbed some cream in and gave me some drugs to try and ease the pain and eventually I went back out again with a slight dulling of my wrists. My lap times had dropped by 8-10 minutes a lap as well and with all the time lost crashing and getting patched up I slipped back to 4th place by early morning. My lap times did not improve for the rest of the race still 8-10 minutes slower than before the crash and they would stay that way for the rest of the race.

I was just circulating as best I could trying to ignore my aching wrists. Another lot of different drugs had no affect on them and it was mind over discomfort for the rest of the race. Clinton Turner pulled out after 18 hours with a crook hip and I moved back up to 3rd place. Peter Barrett was in 4th and the front 2 were doing faster laps than me and I had no hope of catching them now. The last few hours became a race of strategy only doing just as much as I had to do to keep 1 lap in front of Peter so I finished in 3rd place. It came down to doing 2 laps in 2HRS to keep 3rd place in the end but even then the legs were still working well and as much as I tried to go as slow as I could I still went around in 53 minute laps at the end. My lower body had no issues all race. I got to the finish line 15 minutes early and lined up with a few others waiting for the 24HR to tick over and cross the line as you must cross the line after the 24HRS to be classified.

The team 24hr riders were still pumping out low 30 minute laps with a fresh rider every couple of laps and they were whizzing by still trying to get an extra lap on their totals. One team went through with 4 seconds left so they had to do another lap much to the disgust of the rider he swapped over to. After they counted down the last 10 seconds I hopped back on the bike and crossed the line with some fist pumping knowing I had made the podium in my first 24HR event. I even managed to lift the bike above my head for a good finish photo. Sharon had a nice ice cold Guinness for me back in transition to celebrate with and there was plenty of hand shakes and congratulations coming from all around. Sharon did an awesome job of crewing for me as she had to try and take the emotion out of what she was doing, not an easy thing to do when I was busted up.

A BBQ was put on for us all and they must have had a 1,000 sausages and only 1 bottle of sauce that quickly ran out. Several types of sausages though and I sure ate my fill while we waited for presentations. Sitting in the marque I was nodding off apparently as I had been awake for 37 hours by then. When I stood up without the bike under me I was a bit unsteady on my feet and staggered around a bit like I was drunk. Got my trophy, handshake from Duncan, hug from Sarah, a few photos and headed back to clean up and shower. Lots of chatting and stories around camp and then nearly all the people bar us, Mountain Trail guys, Caro and the Cider guys packed up and left.

I had a shower and packed a few bits up and we decided to try and stay awake till a normal (ish) bed time so we didn’t wake up in the middle of the night. I fell asleep while Sharon had a shower as I woke up when she came back to the camper. Tea and then it was all to much for me as I got into bed and was asleep as my head hit the pillow around 6PM. We got up the next morning around 6AM for a wee and dozed for a while after that. We had breakfast and then packed up very slowly as there was no rush to get back. I jumped on the bike and did a couple of laps around the camper and everything felt good.

Eventually we did get packed up around 11 and headed down to Dunalley only a short 16km drive away. Sharon had seen the Dunalley Fish Market on the Gourmet Farmer Afloat and we treated ourselves to a seafood basket for lunch in the quirky fish shop. The guy said “off you go I’ll come and find you when it’s ready” and it arrived wrapped in newspaper as we sat in the sun next to the canal. Now these were no ordinary fish and chips, there was octopus, squid rings, squid strips and at least 5 different type of fish plus some chips and lemon. Hands down the best fish and chips ever and only $15, all locally caught as well. We stopped at Copping for a coffee and headed back to Launie getting home around 15:30 in the afternoon. My body had stiffened up a bit by now and some of the hurt was coming out and I had a bad nights sleep. I got a massage on Tuesday afternoon and then went for a ride out to Legana and back to stretch the legs and felt pretty good considering the weekend ride.

So I have been asked several questions post race:

• Did you get bored – no
• What did you think about all race – just the track in front of me, where I had to eat and drink each lap and some random things like a tip from Jessica Douglas “if your limbs are still attached and the muscle has not been torn off the bone then you can suck it up and keep going”!
• Would you do anything differently – Take less stuff to simplify choices and preparation. Improve my upper body endurance and training regime.
• Would you do another one – Yes, ‘maybe’ the Scott Australian 24HR championships in 2016 as I turn 50 next year and move into the next age category of super masters.
• Have you got unfinished business from that race – no I achieved everything I set out to do.
• Did you get a sore arse / rubbed – no a good quality endurance chamois in my nicks, plenty of Aussie But Cream with reapplication as required (3-4 hours)  kept me in fine shape.
• Cramp up at all – no
• How did the bike perform – Perfectly the whole race. 1 by 10 with a 30 front chain ring was exactly what was needed. Gear change could have probably done with a slight tweak for the last 1/4 of the race but I left it alone.
• Did you ever feel sleepy on the bike – I never felt any hint of sleepiness for the whole ride until I had finished. Sharon tried to kip when she could between my visits.
• Could you have finished higher – 3rd or maybe 2nd was the most I could have achieved in that race even without the crash. David Mason was just too good on the day doing his 33 laps with well over an hour to spare. 33 laps was probably my maximum on the day without the crash. David could have done another 1 or 2 laps time wise if he needed to.
• How cold was it during the night – It got down to 2 degrees and there was a slight fog / mist at one end of the course.
• What did you wear during the night – Just a light merino thermal, lycra vest and during the coldest part of the night a riding jacket and skull cap. Lycra short nicks for the bottom half all race. I changed to a thicker warmer glove for the coldest part of the night as well.
• Wildlife – a couple of startled small rabbits is all I encountered and a stray black dog.
• Stats – 301.5km, 5,350M elevation gained, 22HRs on the bike, 2HRs not moving (2+ laps lost there!), lost aprox 2Kg in body weight.
• How the race was won and lost – Lap 19 was my crash