Brighton Big Dog!

Hello readers, a bit of a special blog entry today and I am afraid it is going to be a fairly long one, but bear with me as a lot has happened but I hope you will find it a good one and well worth the wait as last weekend was my first race the Brighton Bigdog.

The start of this month went really well, the first week and a half saw me pounding in some pretty serious miles for me, enough to make me contemplate increasing my #gothedist goal from 150 up to 200 miles, sadly things went a little off course just after my mid week ride on the second week and I ended up with a damaged rear wheel that needed straitening and a good service of my Chris King hub as the ring drive was not hooking up right.

Thankfully my bike shop was able to come good and get the wheel sorted that was not an issue although I did end up riding on my old heavy training wheel in the end, my real problem was the cold I picked up that weekend after working over time. So in the last week and a half before the race I was not able to get any riding done at all, my original plan was to ride hard until the sunday and then fuel up my body the in the week before trowing in loads of extra stretching and light rides in prep for the big day.

The Big Day.

Saturday came and my brother and I woke early.....well my nephews woke us early and after loading the stuff into the car we drove over to a very warm but slightly overcast Stamner Park in Brighton to get signed in and meet up with the others in the Sussex Muddy@rse club and the third member of our trio, Guy. Our plan was simple and decided by a devious method of selection......rock-paper-scissor.....Guy was to be our lead out man, the me and lastly my brother to take it in turns to lap the great course.

Stood at the change over area waiting for Guy I was not feeling too bad, a lot less nervous than I thought I would be, hell I have done many races over the years so I guess it is just second nature, from there things were about to get tough, the first 50 meters of the course are nice flat and grassy, that is were the easy bit ends and I knew my legs were in trouble and suffering with the steep climbs so much so that I walked up almost all the climbs on the first lap and had to stop often to rest as my heart rate was stupidly high and would not come down.

The first half of the course as you might have guessed was almost all up hill, the good thing about that is the seriously fun trails that weaved their way back down the hill, it ranged from tight and twisty trails to just blat out fast sections through the woods that had you feeling like you were on a speeder from Return of the Jedi carving through the trees.

Taken with my brothers Iphone on lap 2

Some how I made it back to the end of the lap intact and headed for the car to fuel up and pour even more water into my seriously dehydrated body while my brother went out on his lap on a seriously sexy bike that he arranged (blagged) a test ride on, a Yeti 575.

He tried to swap the kids with the shop owner for that bike after

Lap Two.

Ding Ding round two and off out I went again, I was still not even close to my pre illness strength and fitness but I found myself riding a lot more of the course this time, I still walked a couple of the climbs but I was riding further up them than before, and along the flat sections and downhills I was starting to spin more and my regular cadence, things are looking better......but from about half way around the lap things went bad again, not with me but with the bike.

I had taken the choice of using my very heavy spare wheel to race on as it saved me having to swap back after the race, unfortunately the free hub failed with 3.5 miles left of the lap, it would spin freely then seize for a moment and thus try and thrown my chain off, this meant that free wheeling on the down hills and corners was not possible and I had to try and turn a much larger gear than normal on the downs to stop it throwing the chain and tearing the rear mech off.

But I managed to limp the bike home, I was suffering and so was the bike but we made it home together albeit slowly but very proud.

Once the dust had settled?

Despite suffering this weekend and not being well I was really well motivated, not once even on the first lap did the thought of quitting even cross my mind....I am not a quitter anymore, I just got up the hills in my own way and did the course at my own pace, I had help though from the others on the course, almost all the people who passed me did so saying encouraging things and even cheering me on.

My lap times were not great both my brother and Guy were doing 50 min laps, my first lap was 90 mins and despite feeling and riding better the second lap the mechanical saw me doing another  90 min lap, I know I am faster than this and the steep climbs were not ideal for me but I soldiered on, we managed 5 laps between us in the 6 hours placing second from last which surprised me greatly as I thought were would be last.

Yeah I am proud of what we did, what I did and everything I have achieved over this past 12-14 months, I am now 39lbs lost and still dropping and each ride I feel fitter and I am still improving  at a good rate.

Our "batton" yes that is a dog chew on there

Been there done that, got the T-shirt..... literally

Right now I am still suffering from the post ride cold, it took me ages to re hydrate after the race but I am getting there, hoping to put some more miles in this weekend and in the last few days of this month to meet my #gothedist goal of 150 miles and start getting ready for my next race Dusk til Dawn a 12 hour off road night race.

So until next time, hope you love your ride.