The final round of Mud Sweat and Gears was upon me and the training I had done in build up to the superb Langdon Hills course seemed a bit wasted after spending a week in Yorkshire drinking and eating rubbish plus only doing 12 miles in total on the bike! I wasn't sure how I'd fare. I usually take it easy the week leading up to the race but even then I would manage 40ish miles. I had also sustained a few injuries on holiday which included straining my piriformis, spraining my wrist, hurting my shoulder, having my fingers shut in a door, oh and my little toe is black and looks like it might drop off. Yes I got that excuse straight from David Haye! Needless to say my enthusiasm for the race had waned before it had even begun. Whilst on holiday the opportunity for the Wednesday evening course preview was missed, so on Sunday I rocked up a little early to squeeze in a practice lap which you can see in the video. The course struck me instantly as a lot of fun. As the name suggests Langdon Hills located in Basildon, Essex is rather...well... hilly. The first half of the 4.5 miles is climbing broken up with some fun little singletrack section, after all that effort you're rewarded as is usually the case with some gravity assisted downs, there were three good tight tech sections and some wider swooping sections, all in all leaving me with a large grin on my face and some enthusiasm returning. This was short lived. As the the race started we all sprinted along the wide open swoopy climb, topping out I was ruined, everything I told myself to do went out the window, I was standing up and mashing the pedals rather than keeping a steady powerful cadence in the saddle and worse still I felt sick and my lungs were tight as a a ducks chuff. My mind was telling me to stop......Already!!! As all the riders slipped into positions I decided to settle and just stay comfortable, but I couldn't. There was a constant chain of riders on my rear wheel, my mean competitive streak wouldn't allow them to pass. By the second lap I was felling terrible but at least now I was alone. With no one visible in front to chase and no chain clatter or buzzing freewheels behind me I eased up all the way round, on the final descent I heard the dreaded sound of a freewheel behind me and I knew. I had taken it too easy for too long, I'd been caught up and still didn't feel much better, there was only one thing for it. I whipped out an energy gel I'd stashed in my side pocket and gulped it down, it tasted rank and sat on my chest and no amount of water seemed to shift it, I think this is the first time I have ever felt like I needed one. Boy did I feel I needed one, the lap times seemed to agree. On the third lap my lungs decided to open and I felt good. The lap time showed this to be the case. But for most of the lap I had a few equally determined riders on my tail, getting overtaken a couple of times on the final lap was horrible but I manged to pull the guys back and return to my position, then on the final downhill a young lad on a Focus overtook me and I couldn't get him back, I crossed the line gladly and wasn't sure what to expect, I watched the times roll in... I was joint sixth, my worst result of all the races I'd competed in but I didn't care. I'd enjoyed the race and it was good to see some of the guys I'd got to know from the previous events, most importantly though I feel I have learn't a lot of lessons to take with me into the Thetford winter series.
How will I fare in a two hour race?
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9So_kYVC3w
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