10 Under the Ben

I'm not sure if I took a wrong turning on the road on the way up to Fort Bill this weekend, but it felt like I was in France . . . scorchio! The best thing about the heat . . . .nae midgies, the worst . . . . . . I had 10 hours of cycling to do! Ouch!!

So after a few years of entering such events as a team, G and I decided it was time to go solo, yikes!

Look left, thats me on the podium (in the middle). . . . . . pretty happy it's all over! (8 laps in 9:49:11), Katrina Brown (blue top) 2nd (7 laps in 9:27:19) and Helen Findlay 3rd (7 laps in 9:57:12).

Here is the story of how it went:

The start . . . . oh the start! The start is always an interesting one at 10hour events. Take a few hundred people and some how try and spread them out on a firetrack road before entering singletrack sections of courses, lets be honest its always gonna equal disaster! This year a couple of trials guys led us out on motorbikes to try and spread the field. They held a relatively easy pace (something that was nice when compared to the madness of the XC races), however instead of speeding up to spread the field more, they held the pace, before long we turned off the main road, the track narrowed, people slammed on their brakes and the carnage started! It was pretty mental cycling along as everyone jostled for places, a few guys hit the deck! At one point one guy cycled into me, we locked handle bars and then he was sent flying off to the side, bit to close for my liking! Before you knew it you were into a small descent where I lost my first water bottle of the day - doh! I didn't panic though knowing I would be through transition soon enough where I could collect another bottle!

Lap 1 - Felt good, it was really warm on the open sections of firetrack road, there were a few hold ups at some of the natural sections of the course, on the whole I was pretty happy with how things were going!

Lap 2 - Everything was ticking along nicely until about 5 minutes into the lap when I reached down for my water bottle to find there was nothing there noooooooooooooooooooo! First reaction total panic, thinking in this heat a lap without fluid could be race over! First plan . . . to check out everyones bikes and see if anyone was carrying a spare bottle, I got slightly fixated by this, more so as my mouth got dryer (so sorry if I saw you out there and I was looking rather strangely at you!). Anyhoo that plan wasn't working, no one had a spare bottle oh oh! Then just like a knight in shinning armour a motor bike guys went scooting by, I managed to shout him and ask if he had any spare water . . . . . . luckily he did! He went up to the top of the hill and gave me a bottle as I passed! So I had fluid and managed to finish the rest of the lap in an ok fashion!

Lap 3 - hated it, it felt horrible . . . . . I wanted to go home! It was hot, hot hot!!!

Lap 4 - Felt better again but it was starting to get soooooooooo hot! Feet were getting a bit sore!

Lap 5 - My feet hurt really really badly! Not a good lap, could hardly stand on the pedals during the descent. Started to question my sanity (yip that was an easy one to answer :) !!!)

Lap 6 - Straps were undone on the shoes, two clicks of the ratchet on (they were hardly on my feet!), stream dunk every lap, water need . . . . more water! Couldn't really remember what number of lap I was on, everything was merging into one! Met some nice people on the course, good banter!

Lap 7 - Its all downhill from here I'm pretty happy!

Lap 8 - Last one woop woop! Great feeling, wrist feeling a little sore but so delighted to almost be finished!

Feet were painfully sore, lay in the back of the van for a while and felt a bit sorry for myself! (I know I can hear the violins playing!)

So that was it 8 laps in 9:49:11. I finished 1st in the female solo category and 14th overall out of 177 male and female solo competitors! Yaaaaaaaahoooooooo! God that is such a good feeling! On reflection I really enjoyed the event, some parts of the course were a bit boring but guess you will always find that cycling around and around and around the same course!

Graeme Short (Glentress Riders) also put in a great performance completing 9 laps in 10:30:21, finishing 5th Vet and 10th overall, yee ha!

I was maybe out there doing the cycling on the day but 3 great people made it possible for me to achieve what I did - Kerry, G and Sarah! Those guys stood out in the baking heat for hours making sure that at the end of every lap I had everything I needed! Kerry suffered from heat stroke because it was so warm but that didn't shift her and she stay right to the bitter end making sure I was cool. G is not only responsible for getting me to the start line in such good shape he also kept my biking running smooth, had a few mad dashes to the other side of the track when I had forgotten a bottle and kept me up to date with what was going on behind me! Sarah was a little Pikka, running around like usual making sure I was tickety boo!

Kerry and I stayed at Achnabobane Farmhouse for the weekend! We got a lovely welcome from Neil and Elizabeth and truly enjoyed staying there. Although its called Spean Bridge the accommodation is only 2 miles up the road from the Nevis range so you don't have to worry about all the Fort William traffic . . . . perfect! Nice rooms and great breakfasts! They also love mountain bikers :), if your up that way check them out at - http://www.achnabobane.co.uk/.

Ok, this blog has been a bit of an epic but a few more thanks are in order - to No Fuss Events for another well organised event! All the marshals / helpers that were out there on the day always cheering and asking if you were ok! And last but not least all my sponsors (The Hub, Bloc, Luvians, Baillie Gifford & Tunnocks).

Fort William next weekend for the world cup???? Who's gonna win? Come on Rue!

Yee ha

Les