Highland Fling 2010 Washup

I have been looking forward to this event second time around hoping to better last years time. However, with some changes to the course (more single trails, yeehaa!) and a badly timed injury meant that the goals I set out to achieve have flown out the window. Reset, new goal was to get myself to the starting line to get walking again and able to ride a bike.

The Wednesday before the race I tested myself on the trainer with an hour session to see if I could ride a bike without any pain. The Session was a success and I declared myself fit to start the race. Props to the young physio at Newington Family Medical Centre who worked very hard in getting me to the start line for this event.

All packed on the Saturday and I got a lift down to Bundanoon with Mic Thaler and Craig Moroz. My original plan was to go down with either Howard Fu or Ronnie Ioia however both of them pulled out of the race citing various reasons. The trip down was uneventful and we rocked up to Bundanoon to the hall for registration. Hassle free and we stopped to have dinner before heading to the Pony Club to set up camp.

We found our spot for the night and we started to erect the tents. Craig obviously was a pro at erecting his and I struggled a bit with mine in the dark. What made matters worse was that it started to rain and this parking attendant sledged and giggled at us throughout the process. I suppose when you see 4 grown men frantically trying to work out which way the top fly should be positioned over the tent while the rain was coming down harder by the minute was a sight to be seen. Managed to get the fly in a position that will keep the inside of the tent dry and I left it at that.

After panic, everyone retreated to the confines of their tent as the rain had set for the evening. It was a muggy sort of night, too hot for a sleeping bag as I unzipped it fully and just laid it over my stomach. It was also my first time using an air mattress. Felt very odd and unusual. It didn't help much as my injured leg started to throb during the night. I took a couple of Nurofen to ease the pain and drifted off back to sleep.

Morning came and the skies were clear, thank goodness! Although, it felt like it was going to be a very warm day ahead. The prediction was correct as it was roasting out in the pine forests!

Getting ready was quite easy this time as I didn't really fuss around with food or doing last minute adjustments to the bike. However, I did manage to lose my registration pack that contain my number and transponder somehow. The last I saw it was on top of Mic's car bonnet the night before. Craig to the rescue, he retrieved it when the rain started. Crisis solved!

Feeling not too bad, I went over to the Start/Finish line for the briefing and seeded myself towards the back. Wasn't too sure what to expect for the race but the plan was to chose one gear lower than normal and spin more. I stayed pretty true to that for the whole day as I did not want to risk injuring my calf even further by putting the power down.

The race started at a cracking pace and I didn't buy into that as I trying to adjust my gears on the fly as it was skipping badly. I managed to resolve the gear skipping issue and proceeded to find a good rhythm. To my surprise it didn't take long to find a good one and I even managed to pass some poorer climbers on easy inclines on stage 1 to Wingello.

Saving as much energy as I possibly could on the first stage to put me in a good state for the longer stage 2, I did reasonably well coming into transition for stage 1. According to my Garmin, I cranked out 1hr34min. A quick refreshment break and I was off to start stage 2. The first part of stage 2 I felt reasonably good and tried to hitch onto the back of two riders in front of me. I managed to stay with them on the flats but then my world fell apart. Missing those final two weeks of training has really put a dent into the fitness and the ability to put any power down. I struggled big time on The Wall as it was the first of 3 hills that I walked up. Craig doing the Flying Threesome with Mic caught up to me at this stage (started 30min behind me). He asked how I was going and I replied "Shit house!" He retorted, "Yeah, you you don't look too good". After gathering myself together I followed Craig down the single trail and try to get a tow along. I didn't take long before he dropped me and the ever increasing heat and the amount of inclines were putting pay to my lack of fitness and injury.
Not feeling the best at the Riders Lounge (1/2 way through stage 2 and contemplating of pulling out) I refueled and went on my merry way. Got stuck into all the down hill and single stuff and slowly ground my way up hills. I had a good ding dong battle with the top 2 unicyclists all day along. I know
we are nuts doing this sort of crazy shit but there are even more nutters in in our riding community, I digress...

By now I pass or get passed by this group of riders, so I figure we're riding around the same pace albeit differ between downhill, uphill and the single stuff. I had some conversations with this Fling virgin and he even managed to see how I felt after seeing me on the side of track looking quite sorry for myself. This was the lowest point for me in the race. I never felt this bad ever before on a bike. We both asked the SES volunteer how far to go and he said if you back track you can get to Wingello within 7k or it's about 15k to go by the race route. My new acquire friend was suffering from cramps big time and decides to tough it out and plough on to Wingello. After 10 minutes or so on the ground I recovered enough to complete stage 2. I gave my new mate a head start of about a minute or so and I caught him within 2kms. He
struggled even more than I did on the climbs. Unintentionally, this is where I managed to get ahead of him. I was hoping that he could stay with me so that we could work together.

Getting back onto the flats on the way back into town, I tried to put the hammer down as best I could so I could beat the cut off time. Arriving back to Wingello completing stage 2 I manage to beat the cut off time by at least 15 minutes. By then, my body had had enough as my legs could not take me any further. I contemplated in sticking it out but I remembered the course has been altered from last year and it involved doing the roller coaster in reverse and that there was a grass hill climb towards the end. It wasn't worth the risk and pain in doing myself any more injury and decided to withdraw from the race. I went over to the timing tent to inform my withdrawal and got my transponder removed. Sadly, I made my way over to the bus stop for the Sag Wagon to transport the DNFers back to the start/finish.

Most happy about: The amount of single trails and my single trail skills for the race.

Now time to recover from the injury and the race. I think I might spend some time on the surf ski out on the harbour for a while.

Next planned event is the Mont24 in April 2011.

Official results here.


GPS Data here.

A Big thanks goes out to Mic for the lift down and Kieran for the lift back home.