James Williamson Enduro - My First Cycle Race!

Today I entered my very first mountain bike event - the James Williamson Enduro.  I feel shattered, elated and extremely grateful to The Cyclist for encouraging me to enter and for all the training he has put me through (with mostly endless patience).  He also did all the preparation to get us there this morning (getting my bike ready) and literally acted as a groom for my bike. It was like jumping on the horse all saddled up, going for a ride and handing it over to my groom afterwards to feed, water and put back in the stable.  All I had to do was get on the horse (bike) and ride!  What a spoilt princess I am...

The Cyclist and I Before the Enduro

So, how did I prepare for the race?  I carbo loaded:

 The Cyclist and I shared these 2 pizzas for dinner. I admit to eating at least my share - an entire pizza and followed it up with some Lindt chocolate.  It was mentioned that I was clearly carbo loading for the Tour de France and not just a 25km mountain bike ride!

For breakfast I had my usual oats, nuts, fruit and yogurt as a takeaway in the car.

We set off really early (around 530am) to be there for 8am registration.  Thanks to the kids for being (almost!) good on the long drive there and back and for all their support too...

It was a long drive...

Cycling Uphill

The James Williamson is in the Wingello State Forest, near the town of Wingello.  What a beautiful part of Australia and a lovely trail.  Half the race was on fire trails and the other half through pine forest.  It was twisty and very technical, with lots of roots, rocks and trees to dodge or manoeuvre over.

I found I was able to push myself on the hill climbs and gain places, which I subsequently lost on the more technical sections.  There is nothing like being overtaken by teenage boys!

Elated to be Finished!

How did I do?  Despite a little mishap with a tree in the last 5 km - the tree came at me from nowhere and my bike and I ended up second best - I managed to finished 4th overall in my category (Open Ladies 25km).  I ended up really struggling with those last 5km as my bike was skew and I only realised this after a few more mishaps!   At one point I even tried running with my bike but this was not really an option (my legs were shattered, cycling was easier).   I was then able to compensate for the skew bike by riding a bit slower and angling my arms and body in a certain way to try and compensate for the angle of the bike.



Here I am being interviewed by the race commentator at the finish as The Cyclist had kindly told him it was my first bike race.  I was even presented with a special prize, a beautiful coffee table book on the James Williamson Enduro.  I had to explain the skew bike over the microphone and felt it bit silly that all it took to repair it was a 3 second manoeuvre by The Cyclist... I have a lot to learn!

Being Interviewed at the Finish

Afterwards we stopped in the cute little host town of Wingello for coffee and scones.  I see they even have their own blog wingello.blogspot.com, so I will be checking that out and and saying "Hi" and thanks for the great hospitality.

A Well Deserved Coffee (Note the legs..)

Note to self : I've suddenly realised why The Cyclist was so wonderful at getting everything done for me and sorting the bike etc afterwards (he even refilled the used water bottles!), he was teaching me something:  I can now appreciate exactly how shattered he feels after a race.  I only did 25km, I can just imagine how he must feel after 100km or an 8 day event like the Epic.  I promise to be much nicer to him when he gets back from races in future and not have a whole lot of non cycling, home maintenance activities lined up!
  and his response..."yeah right!"


Would you drive 2 hours to compete in an event?

Do you think having support makes a difference to how you do/ whether you compete?