Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
State Series Round 2 Ourimbah XC
Sixth Lord!!
For the first race in my short carer I found my self on the front on the start line, and staring at the long and rather intimidating hill. To my left and right there were obvious weekend gunners, I was out of my depth, out classed and quite nervous, surely I was in the wrong category? The metaphorical flag fell and I attacked the hill with the same insane fury as the other 10 or so madmen around me. By the top I was probably about 5th. The first lap contained at a pace I knew I couldn't maintain, and sure enough I was being passed every 15 minutes or so. If I had held any cognitive processes I would have been happy with the 29 minute lap time, instead all I could think about was what a stupid idea it was to assume I could survive on a water bottle instead of a back pack for water.
By lap two the calls of track behind be had reduced and I was left feeling that I had the track to myself, hardly the best for putting in a decent time, but dam good fun. None the less, and despite my high heart rate I was feeling strong and managed to put in a 32 min lap.
That's pretty much how it went through to the end. On lap three I sensed my legs were feeling stronger than usual so I adjusted my cadence and decided to attack the hills standing, which is something I don't usually do. It seemed to help, my legs started wearing out nicely.
I'm more than happy with my race, although I didn't had hoped to have had someone to chase on the last lap I keep pushing hard to the line and it was good to feel that the recent strength training is having a positive effect.
Thanks to Kath Bicknell for the picture, and well done for a great position as usual :)