Preperation
With all the travelling away for events this year my family wanted to stay at home & that men't there was more time to go fishing after the event for me, so I thought it would be a great chance to get away with my dad for the weekend camping & fishing after the event.
We left Port Macquarie at 3pm Friday afternoon for the 4hr trip over the mountains to Lake Keepit State Park where the event was to be held travelling through a large storm in the winding mountains as we drove through Gingers Creek, Gaining altitude I wondered whether we would be putting up the tent in the rain & racing in mud. We reached the plateau & the weather started to clear as we made our way to Keepit, arriving just before dark to set up the tent in the cooler temperatures after another day in the low 30s but you could see there had bee a bit of rain during the day with the ground making it easy to hammer in a tent peg. After setting up I gazed down at the Dam level & was amazed at how low the water level was compared to last year. The water had fallen from a low 25% to a very low 10% in the last twelve months.
As dark set in we were treated with a spectacular lightning show while having dinner, followed by rain falling on the tent as I got to sleep before the 7am race start.
With only 5km to go my legs had had enough & decided to start cramping as I was watching Pete slowly getting away from me. Not now I was thinking to myself after all I had pushed myself through to get to where I was in the field of riders. Luckily the cramps subsided after a few minutes & I did not loose any more positions, but it was too late now to challenge Pete as I watched him go up the final climb to the finish.
Overall winners in the Male were Billy Sewell 1st, Fraser Ashford 2nd & Liam McQuire 3rd.
Overall winners in the Female were Em Parks 1st, Holly Harris 2nd & Sara Mills 3rd.
After looking at my data on the Garmin I noticed I had raced for a total time of 1hr 42min in the lactate zone 4, a zone that you can normally not sustain for too long because of the lactate buildup causing the muscles to get that tiring & burning feeling. No wonder the race hurt & I cramped toward the end.
After the Event
*Thanks to both my sponsors Graham Seers Cyclery & Enriched Health Care for supporting me during the year
*It was great to get away with my dad for the weekend & although we did not catch a fish once again out West we had a ball exploring the area & gaining new memories. Thanks dad for coming along for the weekend :-)