We arrived on the Saturday in plenty of time and threw the tents up, the idea being to have a quick recce lap and to have a look around at the stalls then a nap before the kick off at 8pm, unfortunately the weather had other ideas and as we finished putting the tents the rain started to fall, this alone did little to dampen our spirits so as we erected the tents a torrent of camping/tent related innuendos were unleashed much to our own amusement.
With the race start rapidly approaching we sat down in the tent to discuss race tactics and who would go out first, okay it was scissor paper stone. First out would be Simon then me and lastly my brother and rotate through that order all through the night and into the morning, so at 19:30 we all headed over and Simon lined up on the start line with the others.
The rain had now become a pretty steady drizzle and it was pretty grim out there and even not riding I was having problems seeing out of my glasses, this was going to be fun. The start featured a short mini lap to spread the field out before the riders headed out onto the course properly which was great as it prevented the usual bottle necks as soon as you reach the first bit of single track.
And they are off!
An hour later Simon came back in and handed over to me and I headed out into the night, the fun had begun.
Everything started off pretty well as I followed the long fire road towards the first single track section, it was pretty bumpy but I just spun my legs as I like to do these days but as I neared the first bit of single track a problem I hoped I could avoid started, rain on my glasses, and it was going to be a problem.
Normally in daylight I don't mind a little rain when riding but in the dark it presents a whole heap of problems and since I cannot use the force well I have to rely on what I can see and that was not much, bu I soldiered on through my lap having to stop right before any single track sections and quite often part way through just so that I could see the course.
The rain was not the only problems I was having, while I was enjoying the wet course helped by some new tires the course was beating the hell out of my already damaged shoulder and while trying to take some of the load from it I was straining my lower back, in fact by the time I reached the hand over to my brother I could hardly put any power down at all.
Thankfully I now had 90mins before I needed to get ready and ride again but the weather was getting worse and my back was not recovering so I decided to take some extra time off the bike before attempting to ride once more, well suffice to say I did not, not even my brother ventured out again this night, Simon was the rock of the team and managed 2 laps and after that we all headed into our sleeping bags, I woke about 4am as I planed to try and do another lap but by now the rain was pretty heavy and there was standing water in the campsite not to mention my back was not feeling too good at all.
To sum up the race I am pretty disappointed with how things went but the weather was out of my control and being honest I could have ridden through the back and shoulder problem although I was risking doing some more damage to both, even now as I type this my should is still painful and I am due to see my GP in the week to get it checked, for me the issue was the rain on my glasses, sadly I cannot see with out them, but everything is a learning process and I am doing to see about getting some contact lenses if I am able to either this month or probably in my week off in December.
Out of all this there is an upside believe it or not, last time I raced here was in the dry back in 2007 and I was lapping then around the 1:45-1:50 and I was injury free, this time around in the wet and heavier I was lapping in 1:35 and that is stopping often to clean my glasses, I honestly think without stopping I could have shaved another 10-15mins off that time if not more so I have made some marked improvements this last 12 months, oh and we were not last!
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