I travelled up to Avoca on Saturday afternoon to register and have a quick spin around the start and finish of the course, wasn’t feeling great on Saturday and just hoped I would come good by the morning. I awoke on Sunday morning to beautiful blue skies and sunshine and most importantly headache free.
I arrived at the course at 7.15am and had a chat to a few of the riders then decided I needed to go to the ladies before the start, I lined up at 7.45 and next thing I knew it was nearly 8am and I was still waiting to go when the announcer was calling for all riders to head to the start line, luckily I made it on time and before I knew it we were off and racing. My tactic early on was to get a good a lead on the girls I knew were in my race on the flat section of road before we hit the hill, that really really big hill I was dreading. I stayed in front of one of the girls in my race and then got passed by a female, as it was a mass start of all categories I had no idea if she was in my race or a longer distance, in any case there was no hope of me catching her on the hill so I had to let her go and just carry on at my pace.
After what seemed like an eternity I made it to the top of the hill, or so I thought, had a quick downhill section followed by more climbing! My legs we already feeling it and I hadn’t even made it to the half way mark yet, I struggled through the walking trail section of the course, as it turns out all of us had to walk it, apparently a bunch or horse riders had come through the day before and made a mess of the course, I was with 2 other riders at this stage and one was determined to keep trying to ride it but was going slower than us walking so we just kept walking until we got to the next section of fire trail and headed in to the feed station, now this race has the best feed station of any race I have competed in, it is all laid it out for you, doughnuts, slices, lollies, coke, water, hydration products and best of all, Oranges, ever since I did this race last year and had the oranges there I have made it part of my race nutrition, just seems to give you a really good boost, I downed a few oranges and had a little chat to the crew manning the station and suddenly remembered I was in fact in a race and I should probably get a move on, at this stage I had no idea where I was coming, only that I was still in front of my arch nemesis Megan, I saw a few riders heading up the hill and took off in front of them, after the feed station it is mainly downhill with some seriously steep climbs thrown in, my legs were just really flat at this stage and I didn’t think I would be able to maintain a good pace to keep my lead. I did what I could and managed to get through the seriously fast and sketchy downhill section unscathed and finally came across a sign telling me I only had 5k to go, I was so excited to see the sign until I saw the next sign, 4k to go, I seriously thought I had just pedalled 4klms and would only have 1 to go, not to be, the next 3klms went very slowly, or so it seemed and then finally the finish line was in sight, as a cruel twist they send you down between the grape vines along the grass and then up a slight incline before you cross the finish line, all the pain stops when you cross the line and all of that hard work is finally worth it, I was told I had come either 2nd or 3rd, I was pretty happy with that as I was hoping for a podium, I hung around for presentations and was pleasantly surprised to get top spot on the podium, I ended up winning my category by 47 minutes and just missed out on top 10 overall with 11th overall, very happy to beat a whole bunch of guys and very happy with what is finally my first legitimate podium, nobody pulled out in order for me to win and I wasn’t the only female so I am happy to say I have finally actually won a race!
So where to from here? Well unfortunately my study is keeping me really busy so I have no big races planned but will be out and about at some of the enduro’s and club races and hopefully getting a good amount of training in for my goal race in November at the State XC Champs, next summer I hope to be competitive in the B Grade womens St Kilda crits and hopefully get in to some track racing at some stage this year.
If you haven’t raced this event before I suggest you give it a crack, it is regarded as one of the toughest marathons in Aus and for good reason, whether you do the short, middle or long distance you are in for a tough day in the saddle, it is run really well and the organisation cant be faulted, well all bar the toilet queue.
Once again I would like to thank my coach, I know he hasn’t been too happy with my training of late, uni seems to be getting in the way at the moment but I am doing as much as I can
Thanks to Croydon Cycleworks for their support, I will be dropping my bike off for some much needed love some time soon
Until next time, happy trails!
Kat
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