am i recovered enough while chasing the sun
It felt unnecessary as I drove the 6 hr drive passing the turn off to James Estate Wines where I was the weekend before & the sun seemed to never set as I headed West away from the coast.
The plan was to stay in my hiking tent at the event but I was offered to stay with Jason Moxham & Ian Butler in warmer accommodation & with not much hesitation I jumped at the offer arriving the accommodation in Geurie 20 min South East of Dubbo at 7 pm Saturday night.
Jumping out of the car is seemed cool, but not as cold as I thought it would be after all the weather reports showing snow along the same longitude down as low as 600m.
While driving I had the Dream Pot in the boot slow cooking my dinner & I sat at a park bench eating it acclimatizing to the cooler temperature while waiting for the boys to return from there trip into Dubbo to drop of Jason English's bike so he could ride it as a warm up to the race in the morning.
what went down
The race was men't to start at 8am but it did not get underway till half hour after & by this time I was feeling really cold as I shivered on the start line wearing double socks, winter gloves & arm warmers to try and keep some warmth. I managed to position myself one row off the front line & had a good start going around most riders in front of me before entering the first section of single track.
The first part of the 16 km loop was slightly down hill with tight corners that were slightly wet giving what the punters call hero grip. Not far in front of me I was looking at the leaders & not far behind that was David Speering who was in 3rd position in the Masters series points next after me & right behind me was Jason Morgan who was in first place in the series.
As we started to climb back up again I found my muscles in my legs feeling really tight just like the week before in the 12 hr & I was struggling pedal any harder in the cold conditions. At this point I was over taken by Jason Morgan & Super Masters leader Garry James. I tried to respond and stay with them but my leg muscles would not let me.
One lap down & my legs were now starting to feel like they could do some work, but the boys had long gone now in front of me & I just had to just ride my own race with pain starting to set in again in my lower back.
The track had a bit of everything. Mud, rocks, jumps, berms, drifting corners & sweet downhills as well as challenging uphills. On the Western side we rode past the event feed zone three times before traversing the Macquarie rivers banks past a guitarist & drummer having a jam as we negotiated our way through the hidden trail in the long river weeds.
The Eastern side of the trail had a lot more hills with very rocky outcrops & fast descents around tacky mud berms with the odd rock drop off.
My back pain was now starting to shoot down my right leg & preventing me from pulling up on the pedals, slowing me down even more on the climbs. I figured I was sitting in third place & with the pain there was no way I could go any faster & all I had to do is not let Trent gain any ground on me leaving me to come over the line after 5 hrs in 3rd behind Jason Morgan 2nd who was behind David Speering with his first winning his first race in the series on his trusty singlespeed.
The Solo Open results had Jason English 1st, Shaun Lewis 2nd & Andrew Lloyd 3rd.
Solo Open Females had Brooke Rowlands 1st, Lis Smith 2nd & Leah Childs 3rd.
Congratulations to the winners in the Fly Orana Masters Male category in the Dubbo 300.
Posted by Evocities MTB Series on Monday, 20 July 2015
the people that made it possible
Enriched Health Care classes have been awesome building strength & stretching muscles with there Stott Palates classes.
I could not have done it without the help of Jason Moxham & Ian Butler from #TeamMacDesign helping me with nutrition & quick pit stops during the race. Also thanks for sorting out somewhere warm to stay.