Surfcoast 6 Hour

Headed out to the race with team mate Nick De Kam at 11am, with a couple of pit stops along the way to pick up last minute supplies we arrived at race HQ at about 2.30, said hello to the usual suspects then went for a quick spin to check out the course, first impression was not a great one, I was on the hardtail with frozen front forks and this was a very bumpy course, we were only 1klm in to it and the bumps were already annoying me, not a good sign, pulled off the track near where the rider brief was being held, went to use one of the 4 loos they had to accommodate the 450 riders which nearly made me sick (very weak stomach), again not a great start, so rider brief started which I didnt hear a word of as I was busy chatting as usual, its all the same anyway, so discussed with Nick the race plan, plan was I go first and take it from there pretty much, so head down to the start line and in true Kat style I usually forget something or have something wrong with my bike, this time my front tyre is on backwards, so I discuss with Andrew and James whether or not it is too embarrassing to change it on the start line in front of the other riders or just ride with it like that and change it after my first lap when nobody can see, decision was made to change it there,so we are waiting on the start line and finally we are set off, I am towards the back but knew I would have to make my way up the field so as not to get stuck way back at the first bit of single track, so overtake a bunch of riders, power up the hill and go flat out down the other side only to come to a complete stop for what felt like about 5 minutes waiting to get off in to the single track, riders in front going sooo slow and falling off in front and mucking everyone up behind so was very slow going for the first half of the lap, passed a few riders in the first half but they all caught me back on the first climb, man I suck at climbs! We ended up with 4th in the mixed pairs due to Nicks huge effort.

I have the Hitler mo happening here

Nick De Kam in action

First lap went ok, a bit of carnage along the way with riders getting caught out on the descents and sandy corners, I managed to get through it unscathed and pulled in to hand it over to my race partner Nick, its a wonder he recognised me coming through transition I was just black from head to toe, completely covered in dust which was well and truly stuck on from all the sweat, was a tough lap so didnt care too much about how I looked after the finish line, quickly went and got some food and more water and waited back at transition, i dont have official times yet but Nick came 2nd last year in this event on a singlespeed so knew he would be probably under 30minutes so not much time to muck around, headed out for my 2nd lap and hills, heat and sand were taking it out of me pretty quickly, those bumps just never let up either, only break is a few short fire trails, I was trying to go fast for Nick but hit the wall early and knew I had probably only 2 more laps left in me, again managed to get through the lap unscathed, well apart from copping a fly in the back of my throat and nearly throwing up on my bike, couldnt get it out so a swig on the water bottle and down it went, Nick went off again, super fast of course and I waited feeling pretty crappy about my poor performance so far, Nick cam in and I told him I thought I only had 2 more in me so decided I would do the next 2 laps and Nick would finish it off for the night laps, so went out for the 3rd lap, legs were gone going up the first climb, descending felt just as hard and was mucking up everywhere and had a few close calls, then stacked it on a corner, nothing major, lucky was nice soft sand to land in, took off again and struggled through the rest of the lap, back through transition and on to my final lap, usually knowing I am on the last one is enough to motivate me to go as hard as I can but I was really struggling at this stage, back, shoulders, butt, head, you name it, it was sore, not to mention all the dust I had swallowed throughout the race so far was making it hard to breathe, last lap was getting pretty dark and I didnt have lights so had to push hard to get back before it was too dark, so had a few more crashes towards the end, again nothing serious but just frustrating. Made it back and handed over to Nick to finish off, he did 4 laps straight in the dark, huge effort and he was really hurting by the end of it, I felt so bad not going out for another lap but knew it would be a waste of time, I was really hurting and just had nothing left.

The atmosphere at this race is great, everyone is friendly and the serious guys and gals take it seriously but its not full on race mode like some races, everyone has a chat on the way round and is pretty relaxed, I was in a daze pretty much after my first lap so didnt even realise there was a live band playing there until I had stopped racing, hung out with the usual boys in between being there for Nick on his pit stops and met him at the finish line on his final lap, we were both stuffed Nick more so than me so we didnt hang around for the presso.

I dont know that I would do this race again or not, if I do I will probably do it as a 3 hour solo, here are some words that were going through my head the whole race to give you an idea of what it is like, f****** bumps!, f****** flies!, f****** dust!, f******bumps!, f****** sand!, f****** bumps!, f****** heat!, f****** bumps!, f******climb!, oooh nice view, more f****** bugs, gotta keep my mouth closed, f****** bumps!!!!, aaaahh finish line. For a cleaner more positive outlook on the race I am sure Troy Bailey will have something nicer to say about it so read his blog.


Well I am back in to to the XC and that's what I love so should be hopefully getting some more exciting stories soon, off to Adelaide this weekend for the first round of the Nat's cant wait, also this Thursday is my last day at my crappy job and have 2 weeks off before I start my new one so can not wait for that!

Until next time happy biking!

Kat

Sandown Crits Are Hard!

That's all

Lysterfield Duathlon

Raced my first duathlon today, well only competed in one leg of the two so cant really take credit for having raced a duathlon but half of it, i did the ride leg, surprise surprise and my race partner Kate did the run. The race started with a 4 klm run then back to transition to hand it over to me for the 20klm bike ride, we started off heading across to the Red Gum trail and on to the Com games track then to the Blair Witch and back to the finish, I did the ride in 1 hour 22mins, 5 minutes faster than Jane Ollernshaw which I am pretty happy about as I have never been close to her before let alone that much faster than her, however she did it solo where as I didnt have to do the run so I would have been alot slower had I just run 4klms before the ride. We came in 67th overall out of 85 so not as good as I had first thought, seemed like we came in before alot more than that but anyway not a bad result for the first one. Had a good race as far as everything felt for me, didnt have any big stacks and knee felt great, I know I have alot of work to do on my climbing, I had a guy behind me for most of the race and I would get well ahead of him on the decents and flat areas of single track but he would almost catch me back on all the climbs, so definitely will be working on that. Overall it was alot of fun and look forward to doing the next one, well sorta, the next one is at the Youee's and considering half of the course is made up of climbling there I have alot of work to do before that one.

Some good news on the personal front for me, a couple of weeks ago I cracked the shits with my work and handed in my resignation without having another job, 2 days later I had an interview with a company close to home and they offered me the job, any normal person would have taken it but when she questioned my 'passion' for the company as we were negotiating dollars I pretty much told her to stick it, so back to square one for me, turns out it was a good decision as I didnt really like the company anyway and got a much better offer for a great company still close to home. I finish up at my current job on the 30th of October just in time to head over to SA for the first round of the nationals, worked out my resignation perfectly as I was not allowed to have any time off on that Friday so would not have been able to do that round and then I start at my new job on the 17th of November so I have 2 weeks off in between so guess what I will be doing??? Yep riding riding riding for 2 weeks, just to break it up a bit I will go away for a couple of days and do some riding elsewhere, so luckily I have a few riding buddies that are bums and dont have normal jobs so will have some riding partners during the week and plenty of racing coming up on the weekends to keep me busy, oh and the Dukemeister moseyed on home the other day too, dirty stopout must have been livin it up with the girls somewhere but glad to have him back, unfortunately nothing will bring Axel back and I am still missing him heaps but have plenty to keep me busy so not thinking about it too much now.

Anyway all seems well with the knee and riding pretty much every night now, doing the Crits at Sandown on Tuesday nights, Dirt crits at Wantirna Wednesday nights and then will do a few of the Westgate ones on a Thursday night then just some road riding and rides out at Lysterfield the other days, also have to start doing some running for the Katmandu Adventure Race next month, Andrew and I did about 3klms last week and that was about as much as I could handle for one night, not quite as much fun as going for a spin down Beach Road or around Lysty.

Thanks to Andrew at the Duo on the weekend for cheering me on near the end, had some guys not in the race annoying me and Andrew just happened to be there when it was happening so put me in a better mood after that.

That's all from me, until next time happy biking!

Kat

2nd Road Crit & Forrest ride

Well this morning's crit was not too good, the first 25 minutes was a fairly good steady pace then for the final 3 laps it was a sprint for the finish and I just couldnt keep with them so pulled out, didnt hang around to see how the other grades went, hung my head in shame and just took off straight away for my Mountain Bike ride out at Forrest which turned out to be pretty eventfull. So I meet my riding buddy for today and we head off on to the trails, about 2 kilometres in to the Marriners Run track I am riding along just lovin life and the good company trails etc. and next thing as I am exiting a bit of a berm and fair pace and right in front of me in the middle of the singletrack is a snake, so hit the skids which obviously startled it and was lucky to unclip and not end up on the ground, said a few choice words and just froze freaking out that I was about to get attacked by this snake, stood there for a minute then slowly rolled my bike back and it slithered off to the side of the track, rode off and every little stick that flew up and hit me in the legs made me paranoid thinking it was a snake biting me, so first snake since the warm weather started again, snake count last summer was 3 hopefully I can keep it at where it is at now, not the best thing to come across when you are miles from help.

I seem to be having alot of blonde moments lately, I cant really blame it on anything so might as well have fun with it and share with you. So maybe I might just have a little Confucius say thing happening rather than my usual famous quotes, so here is one for today

Kat say, (oh Kat just does not work like Confucius)

Do not press front brake while spinning back wheel and tell friend that back brake is not working, look like idiot!

Had a couple of these moments today, couldnt blame it on the trauma of seeing the snake, just one of my moments.

Still missing my little man heaps, house is just not the same without him.

Until next time Happy Biking.

Kat

Axel

Well unrelated report here but my best buddy Axel was put to sleep on Wednesday, anyone that knows me knows how much I love my animals and have spent thousands of dollars on both Axel previously when he had to get some tumors removed once before and then a shitload more on my horse when he got sick too, needless to say it was a very upsetting time for me and I am missing him heaps and heaps! Axel was always with me, even if I was just a drive to the Milk Bar he was always there, not to mention him having to be my patient subject for many photo assignments and coming along to keep me company on my Landscape photography shoots, many summer nights at the beach and kicking back together on a Saturday night before a race watching Funniest Home Videos, pretty strange that a dog could rule your life like that but I even gave up going to the World Cup because I couldnt bring myself to let someone I dont know look after him for the 3 days, he got sick very suddenly and was still happy and running around like a maniac the day before so at least he didnt have to go through any pain, so no more cuddles from my favourite little man anymore:(

Also the little Dukemeister (Duke is the cool cat) went walkabout so in one week I have gone from 3 pets to just one, Mr Attitude Oscar (the feral cat) has decided to stay with me, probably cos he is too fat & lazy to be bothered venturing off in to the neighbourhood.

Missing ya heaps

Kat :(

First Road Crit

No photos unfortunately, although if there was a photographer there I probably would not have had a photo taken of me anyway, started at the back and ended at the back. Was pretty nervous for the first lap and stayed a fair way back then the Specialized boys gave me some tips to make things easier for myself which was to stay on the person in fronts rear wheel which I was handling ok on the straight but would get nervous being so close to other riders anound the corners so would back off there and then have to catch back up after all the corners, had some help from one of the spunky specialzed guys pushing me along, and I mean literally pushing me, I was nearly thinking of pulling out and then heard the bell for the last lap, what a relief, still didnt have it my legs to stay close to the group as they sprinted for the finish, beat 1 rider! next week better make it 2. I have a 3 week licence so mught as well use it and if I am enjoying it then I will keep up with it, definitely alot harder than the Mountain Biking, well more in the regard that you need a great deal of strength in the legs to keep up with the other riders, will obviously be beneficial for the Cross Country races so will try and keep it up. Anyway sized up the competition there and decided there were a few easy beats there, one being one fairly young rider who was actually really quick and had calves twice the size of mine and then a few older riders and not so skinny riders all of which blitzed me, well all bar one, good to se heaps of girls there, big difference to the Mountain Biking.

After the race I went for a ride from Ringwood up the 1 in 20 then through Olinda and back again, didnt think I would make it up the 1 in 20 had heard a fair bit about it and thought it would be too tough, not a great time though, took 30 minutes to reach the top, will do it again during the week and hopefully knock a few minutes off that, definitely had more in me when I reached the top, the descent was a bit sketchy, getting up to 70 klms an hour with a tiny bit of rubber under you is not very comforting, had a great ride though and will be using that as my new training ride, so the Mountain Bike will be having a rest for a while and the legs will be getting a good workout, lost most of the weight I wanted to lose too so my first XC race back I should be back to where I want to be, first XC race will be a National round so nothing like jumping straight in the deep end first race back.

Now daylight savings last year I had an important Motocross job on that weekend as well a Presentation night on the Saturday so I will blame the heat and tiredness for screwing up the clock and putting it back last year but this year I have no excuse, I went to bed and for some reason put it back an hour instead of forward then woke up at 3 am wide awake and stressing about being a dud at the Crit and decided to get up,lucky! as it was really 5am and I was planning on getting up an hour later anyway so had I gone back to sleep I would have missed my race.

Thank you's for today

First off to a lovely lady by the name of Karen who so kindly lent me her bright blue and yellow socks as I had left my nice black ones at home, cant say it was a good look but better than riding with no socks at all and secondly to the A grade riders that helped me along the way.

Quote for today

"At least I didnt come last!"
Me

Couldnt be bothered surfing the net looking for anything today

Until next time Happy Biking

Kat