Merida 12Hr - Port Macquarie

Its the best track ever!! You will have a ball... all things I had heard before... This time it was true!!

Pearso & I combined forces and entered in pairs for the 12Hr.  Upon arriving we learnt there was no "mixed" category, we were racing men, mixed and women's pairs... oh well lets give this a crack.

I went out for a practice lap in day light by myself... and came back grinning from ear to ear...  yup this was going to be fun! The plan double laps till we got tired and then singles.

Pearso was kindly given starting honours and as the second wave they were off and racing. Pearso pumped out 2 solid laps and we were on a roll out I went for my two yup all good loving this...pearso again another two solid laps as he was due in it started to drizzle nothing too heavy just enough to be annoying... Pearso comes through and yells out its getting slippery.. he was right, tyre slipped out on a wooden burm and ended up head first in a tree... Im still yet to work out my magnetic attraction to trees.

I retrieved my AY-UPs from the bush dusted myself off and got back on the bike, slowly made it back with a message being carried for me for Pearso to get ready for an swap..

Pearso went out and did 3 in a row while Kel bandaged me up and then we were on it again... somewhere in there we worked out that we were only about 5 mins behind another "mixed pair" and it was on... we had a real race on our hand... pearso and I pulled out our fastest laps as our last two laps each to come across the line 4 mins in front of the other mixed team.

So 8th to the mens teams but 1st mixed team over the line... can say we were pretty stoked with our result.

100 points to Kel, your pancakes always rock at 3am.

Pearso you can be my wingman any day. LMAO

Allio

Enduro Super Series 4 Hr

Heading to this race a little on the nervous side as the normal convoy of mates were not present, although MASSIVE thanks goes to Richard who came down kids in tow to crew for me. You Rock!!

A few familiar faces roll in including Chris, Nat & Jaryn, got busy setting up camp and trying to settle the nerves.

No time for a practice lap and I have never ridden OHV before. Oh well first lap is usually full of traffic so I can just roll around to get used to it.... or so I thought!!!

Roll.... this was not an option.... Mudfest is the one word to describe the track, the first 3 kms of every laps was just a bog hole, yet the whole track was wet and heavy and you had to peddle to get any momentum down hill.

I struggled through 4 laps in the four hours, I have never been so exhausted after riding...

I finished 8th in the solo women so was happy with that... lets hope the tracks not like that for the 24 in May.

Allio

LunarC

Well it's been 4 months since my last confession..

Since racing Boonah a lot has gone on in my life and Brisbane (floods) so I didn't have the preparation I would have liked for the LunarC;

Excuses aside;

We had a great camp set up with 6 of us riding solo and a great crew of Kiri, Kel, Aunty T, John, Chez, Georgie, Kirsty and of course all the kidlets. 

Rocked up just in time to go for a roll around the track with Boz & Richard in daylight.  This was a deceiving course... heaps of singletrack and lots of little pinch climbs. was going to be an interesting race.

Rolled around to 1130 all ready to go, nerves going crazy.. straight to the back of the pack for me, I was going to ride my own race and not try and get caught up in the bolt start.

Midnight.. and we are off and racing.. the actual race for me was quite uneventful no flats, mechanicals or even chain off's, I had a ball in the race although one of the climbs had got the better of me by the end of the race.

I didn't really have a clue where I was in my category but didn't really care either, just keep riding, riding, riding.

After completing 9 laps, I ended up 5th in the solo Women's and 50th Overall in Solos.

Pretty happy with my race and it just highlighted for me how much more training I need to put in..

Thanks again to the Crew, it was great to come round and see every ones smiling faces.

Till next time
Allio out,

Boonah Marathon Lite

Well the day has arrived.. The alarm goes off at 4am.  Boz and I pile into the yellow Vito with trusty Tomac steeds aboard and made the trek to Boonah... We arrived at the showgrounds about 5.45am.. It was a bit on the crisp side but at least it wasnt raining..
We went and did the rego thing.. I got my first T-shirt!! ah the small things..
So it was getting close to 8.30 and the people doing the Full were all lined up on the track.. the announcer shouted go, and then go again.. and then they were off and racing just like my butterflies..
8.50 and they called us up to line up for the start.. same again the announcer shouted go and we were off...

Off and racing butterflies and all.. Race plan = Finish... preferably not last..
So off we went, along the bitumen and then on to the dirt up and down then up again and again and again... where the hell did all these hills come from.. Not what I was expecting.. I reckon if you have to climb up a hill you should at least get rewarded with some single track down the other side.. but no.. I just kept chugging along until....just over an hour in we get to another hill.. up and up and up we go... I managed to get 90% of the way up when I couldn't spin my legs anymore and had to walk.. bugga.. although i did come across this lovely fella with water containers.. silly me forgot to try my electorlyte mix in my backpack and once racing found it so strong i couldnt get much down.. with the addition of the water and being at the peak of the hill I was good to go...

Down we go into farm land with as close to some form of single track as the race had.... this was fun.. then back on the flat and through the grass.. who knew grass makes you go so slow!!
Through the farm and out to the road, time for some food while I can manage eating .. off the road we hit the new trails network.. I was expecting some nice single track, unfortunately that was not the case..more like a slow winding dirt road wide enough to drive a truck along.. there was a little bit of fun had on the down hill of the trails.

I looked down, worked out I had about 8kms to go.. feeling really good and ready to give it everything I had left.  back in to the grass.. and up another hill passed a fella i had been yo-yoing all race and we exchanged obsanities about the hills and I kept trudging on past.. get to the top and there you go.... the finish line.. huh??? I'm sure I have another 5kms to go.. nope.. that's all folks...

I waited around for Boz to roll through and he arrived not too long after me keeping in mind he did an extra 30kms on top of the "Lite" version ..After waiting an hour and half for presentations and they still hadn't started we decided to bail.. I receiving a call from Bec on my way home and I found out that I actually placed 3rd in the 18-29 women's category.. Pretty stoked with that..

Thanks Boz for pushing me as hard as you do and to Rodney and Bec from SuperSports for helping me out with my faithful stead that didn't miss a beat my Tomac Automatic...

It all starts from here.....

This is the beginning of the end.... of my life as I know it...

I made the decision late last year to make the move from SA to Brisbane.. Since moving north I have spent many a weekend track side as crew trying to stuff food and drink into the head of one of my best mates Sean Bekkers...

I have had enough sitting on the side lines watching the wheels fly by.  So with a lot of help from Boz I have got myself aboard a  Tomac Automatic.. Which I LOVE!!!

Aboard my trusty steed I have been spending day in day out rolling around the pavement of Brisbane trying to get some time up and wear in my saddle ... and when Boz's timetable permits we go for a smash around Gap Creek to try and get some practice at this things called mountain biking..

So with only 4 days left till my first race (Boonah Marathon - The Lite version) I'm hoping the rain lets up so they don't cancel the race...

Wish me luck I think I'm gonna need it!!