Highland Fling 100 Miler

Well it's done and dusted, another race to scratch off the To-Do list for the year...and everything went really well.

Pre-Race
Because I wasn't staying local for the race start I had an early wake-up, like 3AM early. A bit of toast, some coffee, and hit the road with my Mother who was over for the week from New Zealand. The drive was going smoothly till we got just past Goulburn and into some ow lying fog...then I almost ran into a couple of my friends...again.



The first one I came across was just standing in the middle of the road and really, really didn't want to move. So I got to test the ABS out, 120kph to 10kph in about 100 metres before it got the hint and jumped off the road.

The second one took a flier out of the bush on the side of the road straight in front of the car, again the ABS got a hammer pulling up in time. I'm sure by this stage the B-Double truck that I had passed earlier was wondering what the hell I was doing!

Arriving in Bundanoon at about 5.45am we found our way to the oval and parked up. I started throwing food down my throat, two cans of chocolate creamed rice washed down with a Gatorade. Big Jase had done my registration the day before so I didn't have to stress about that, other then trying to located him in the car park. A quick trip to the toilet, turned into a 15 minute ordeal after lining up, and I threw in another lap of the car park trying to spot Jase. Still no sign of him and the heart rates starting to creep up. Check the mobile...no coverage, great can't ring him!

So I start getting ready, into shorts and top, go to jamb my foot into my shoe and get a painful reminder of where I left my CO2 cartridge! I run through the feeding procedure with my Mother explaining when I will need bottles and a fresh hydrapac.
I jamb my bag of shot blocs into the back pocket, and gel flask as backup in the centre, CO2 inflator left hand side.

Helmet, glasses and we're set to rock! But I still don't have my transponder, and race number. So I just have to chill and watch the cars come in. Eventually Jase arrives with about 10 minutes to the race briefing, so I roll over give a quick thanks and got back to the car to fit everything up (I even remembered cable cutters this time).

The Start


Google Earth Perspective of Course

Over to the start and climb the fence and squeeze into about the fourth row back. The 100 milers are supposed to get the front two rows but arriving a bit late with the start area already packed fourth row it is.

Sitting through the briefing and more and more people are jumping the fence and trying to squeeze into the front, and I'm standing there thinking "Great someone is going to screw this up and we're just all going to go down in a big heap" We get the count and down and surprisingly enough everyone makes it off the line without incident.

It strings out almost immediately and legs are giving me the big two fingers at the effort off the line. Thankfully my brain starts to kick in at this point and I slow things up a bit before over doing it. Riders start slowly streaming past as I'm regulating my effort.
The first loop is direct to previous years with some farm paddock riding thrown in to break things up well this turns to custard when after 20 minutes everyone is standing on to of small hill because the front riders missed some arrows and no one has any idea which way to go.

After about 90 seconds someone works it out and we're back rolling, except now the entire field is bunched up again so when we reach the start of the technical single track it's walking pace/ hike a bike.

A couple of guys on cyclo-cross bikes go running past on the outside of the track, but everyone seems resigned to waiting their turn till the track opens up again. Out through on the other side the trail starts opening up and it's time to start making to ground up again.
Smoothish fire trail, and I latch onto a 100k rider and get towed along for a while.

Through "Early Bath" and I stop and introduce myself to Spoonie out the other side before continuing to make my way forward. I catch a group of 10 riders before resting up and continuing to keep riding forward. The Rhino is at the front of the bunch driving it and he latches on as I ride past. We start up a conversation going into the transition at Wingello.

Forest Loop 1

In transition, I jump off the bike and run some lube on the chain before setting off solo. I latch onto a group of 100k riders heading up the fire road and we set about a pace line for a while till we make it into the forest proper.

Single track, more fire road, then we're at Did You? a wall of a climb with a bit of loose stuff just to add to the challenge. Point to the seat time to get the balance right, then grind it up the climb to the top. More fire road, more single track, then it's onto the fire lot of descending with water bars.

From this point on I start to exercise a bit of caution (which was probably well founded, more on that later) so as not to launch too hard off any of the slopes.

Through Tangles and I'm caught by the first of the elite 100k riders so its a short pull over to let first a group 2, then another 2, then a group of 10 through. This is pretty much all I see of the lead 100k riders, another 2-3 trickle through on the fire roads but over all there wasn't alot of interaction.

Half way Hill, The Kick, then it's the long drag out of the forest area back to transition. This drag turns out to be worse then any of the other hills during the race including "Did You?"

On the gravel road I have a couple of rabbits to chase back to transition at Wingello. I check the Garmin at this point and its about the 4:20hr mark. This is slower then I had hoped but, it was what it was.

Forest Loop 2

Into transition, I change bottles, hydrapac, lube the chain again. I head across the timing mat and just on the other side realise I haven't grabbed the second bag of Shot Blocs. So I turn around call my Mother over explain what I didn't grab, get it and get going again.

Heading back into the Forest, I spot two 100 milers chasing. One is PDog, the other is Jase. At this point I decide not to get into a drag race with them and ride my own pace through the initial single track until "Did You". Jase gets past me at this point, but bobbles the climb and has to start legging it. PDog is just behind and is riding the climb too. He passes me halfway up, and I keep it steady.

Across the top Jase jumps ahead again, muttering something about cramps. I figure that we're only at the 90k point, so no need to do anything stupid. Unfortunately this is the last of I'll see till the transition at the end of the stage.

About halfway through the loop and I see a SES vehicle with it's lights on at one of the fire road intersections. Looks as though someones, overcooked it. Heading down the next descent and just before the corner I hear a horn and here is one of the SES vehicles heading up the road. The driver shouts out that there is an accident at the bottom of the descent and be careful as there are people on the track.

Down the bottom curled up under s space blanket is the injured rider being tended to, turns out they over cooked the waterbar causing a 6 rider pile up. The rider also broke both wrists. Further on I hear a chopper overhead, as it's coming into land to evac the injured rider out.

Further on and I start catch the slow 100k riders, some are still on their bikes but the majority are either pushing or sitting on the side of the trail in the shade. I always try to give a bit of encouragement to these riders especially the ones that really look like they are struggling.

Up halfway hill and into the feed area, I stop the other side as I need a p!ss just as I start to get the flow going I hear a 100 mile rider shouting out to the officials if they have a spare bottle as they lost one of theirs. Well that gets the adrenaline flowing again, as I know that the trail ahead suits my strengths... climbing. So is off and racing again, The Kick and the final drag out of the forest.

I don't see or hear the other rider again.

Final Stage

I had been trying to work out in my head whether this stage was 17 or 27k....when I pull into the transition I ask and yup it's 25k. Jases's wife Kylie and a mate are there and help get me ready for the final stage. I skull a bottle of V, pull off the hydrapak, change bottles as it's off.

The first 5k fly by, I'm thinking it's going to be great if it's all like this... But no the terrain changes again and we're back into the fire road climbs. Still picking off 100k riders so it's giving me visual targets to aim for. A final stream crossing which feels like heaven on the legs and I'm at "You choose". Now I didn't have much info on this climb other then the short steep option is to the left, so I opt for that and the climb turns out to be a series of steps and is actually pretty easy to ride. I was imagining something like the Sledgehammer at the Otway earlier in the year. At the top it's a 3k downhill run to cross the finish line in an official time of 8:14hrs.




Post-Race

Well with not having a powertap I only have info from the Garmin (I'll give a full review in a couple of days of this) for the race,



Dist 166.0km
Time 8.20hr
Speed 19.9kph
Avg Hr: 147bpm
Avg Cad: 91rpm
Cals: 6500cals
Metres climbed: 4600m

Fluids: 4ltrs of Clif Electrolyte
2 bottles of Nuun Electrolytes
1 bottle of V

Food: 6 bags of Clif Blocs

Well today's Tuesday, and I'm quite surprised how the body has pulled up after the race. I'm actually feeling better then what I did after the Angry Doctor, and I have to say I enjoyed the course a bit more.

On a side note my Powertap arrived back from the US yesterday, not sure what the problem was but I have a complete new rear hub so I'm figuring something pretty catastrophic must have gone wrong with the hub. I won't have the wheel for this weeks Dirt Crit, but should have it for the Rocky Trail 4hr on Saturday.