The day before saw my FINAL exam for semester at uni (it had been a long and stressful exam block—several weeks with Mt Perry stuck in the middle!), and so all my uni buddies and I shimmied over to the Normanby for a few celebratory beers...which lasted into the eve. It was awesome fun and I had a great time perfecting gymnastics maneuvers in the pub.
When I woke up in the morning, however, still feeling seedy with crampy legs, I realised that the eighties dancing and gymnastics maneuvers may have been a bit on the vigorous side considering I was going to race that day.
Oh well, it's supposed to hurt, and I guess it ups my pain tolerance by being stupid and wearing myself out and making it more painful than necessary, but that's racing I guess—and you can't have fresh legs all the time!
The Karingal Scouts race site is always a toughie—while it doesn't feature the typical climbing profile of an XC race, the racetrack being run in reverse to the usual route meant that the climbs were short, sharp and leg sapping:
Personally, I feel better with a 5-10m climb in a race rather than four or five 1-2m steep ones! But it's a fun course, with many challenging loose corners that proved it difficult to find your flow...especially if tight, loose, off-camber corners aren't your forte!
I started off strong, but my legs were burning from the get-go. I rode with the U19s most of the race, which seemed like forever even though it was a short race-time.
On my final lap I had a chronic bout of nasty chain suck that I had to try and delicately remove while trying not to damage my frame. It proved tricky, and I lost a whack of time. I was just waiting for the other girls to come up and pass me!
As it was, I had enough of a lead to safely extricate my chain, run up the rest of the pinch and ride on to the end.
It was nice to have a win, even tough it didn't really feel like it!
I'll tell you what, though, I was in the box the whole day after the race—serves me right for having a late one the night before and forgetting to eat after the race—poor form AB!
But to top off what ended up as a good result, Aiden "sweepee" Leffo took the win in the males, from Glenni "white-pants" Stewart, and Aido and I somehow both managed fastest lap times! Wow!