It was a tough race and the biggest battle against me that I ever had to go through during a race.It didn't look like I was going to finish this race after falling back to 4th place during the first quarter of the race and feeling very, very weak - almost hunger flatted. The cold and cough from the last weeks took its toll and I had no strength to push.But thanks to my absolute fantastic support team Justine, Evan and Andy(Andy even jogged behind me to encourage me not to pull out, telling me that I will get better), I started feeling better at night, rode constant lap time and fought back and was able to hold 2nd place until the finish.I can tell you it was a huge mental struggle, my body showed signs of fatigue after only 3 hrs into the race, I crashed and there were tears (yes, I do regret those now). Because all those signs are very unusual for me, I knew I wouldn’t be able to perform at my best and therefore I was begging my support team to please let me pull out of the race. I just couldn’t imagine to race for another 19, 18,17,16,15…hours. Some time after about 10 hours into the race Andy gave me the information that surprised me ‘first is only 4 minutes ahead’….and I started chasing and chasing and chasing.
I realized that Andy must have given me a wrong information when Kathrin past me and was just about to lap me for the first time. I was a bit confused and thought she might have had a longer break and just tries to catch me again, but she looked far too strong to be on the same number of laps as I.
During several short stops to grab food or a bottle I insured my support team and everybody around who had to listen to my whinging that this would be my last 24hr solo race!!!
Nothing ran after schedule during this race. I had my short, warm fuzzy break and a change of clothes after only 6 hours(usual after 10 hours). The never ending night time forced me to ride with an I-pod during the entire dark period (usual I take it only for about 3 hours). I had to take 3 ‘no doze’ tablets not to fall asleep on the bike and 2 painkillers for the lower back pain….usual I avoid to take any medicine. At least it wasn’t as cold as usual during a 24hr race in Canberra and I didn’t have to stop to put on layer after layer. The longed after sunrise was most beautiful but reminded me that there were still 6 hours to go and that the almost 100% singletrack had it’s impact on my lower back so that I had to stop twice for a quick ‘deep heat’ back rub, which mad the pain go away for a short time.
My support team was in a good mood, everybody out there was cheering us on and the atmosphere was fantastic. I was very, very happy that I didn’t quit, which would have made all the work that my support team had put in, worthless. On my last and 35th lap I could see a happily smiling Andy waiting for me to run the rest of the track to the finish. I refused to go out for another lap and just waited for the 24hr mark to pass to that I could roll through the finish line with all the other 24hr solo nutters, that couldn’t think of doing their last lap anymore either.Special mentions goes to Melinda Behrens, who rides one sighted and has to turn her head constantly so that her good eye faces the track. I feel embarrassed about my winching when I try to imagine what she must go through during those gruelling 24 hours, where she finished 4th with 29 laps. What a great achievement!! Thanks again to Justine, Evan and Andy, the best support team ever. After all it is a big surprise to me that I still came second with my bad form of that day. I wish I would have been able to show everybody my current good form, when not being run down by some stupid virus.A well deserved win for Kathrin, she is -without doubt- the strongest 24hr MTB Endurance rider in this country!
1. Katrin Van Der Spiegel
2. Alexandra Kiendl
3. Claire Graydon
male
1. Jason English
2. John Claxton
3. Daniel Mackay
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