24 hour dawn 2 dusk marathon!

last weekend i joined patsy, zippy and rob, the desert rose racing team, at walters arena back in the brecons. the last time i had been there i was in july last year, training with bmw, in fact it was where i had bumped into jago. i was very apprehensive about the race, as i had never ridden off-road at night and certainly not ever ridden off-road for 24 hours! all i can say is that this was the most gruelling race i have ever taken part in and certainly the longest the dawn 2 dusk.....

the smartest pits!

we set off in front a large crowd at 720pm on saturday night, each group of riders running to their bikes in succession, experts and vets first, clubman and sportsman. pats and zippy rode off together and rob and i road off together in clubman. the sun was setting, so after an hour or so darkness fell and on went the xenons. there were riders out there with so many lights  it was like being chased by ufos from close encounters!

clean, fresh and ready to race!

most of the riders were part of 2,3 and 4 person teams and only a few were taking on the full 24 hours on their own??? each lap took about 25 mins, so pacing myself was interesting. i rode into the pit areas after the first lap just to see where i would be going later on, and then i did not come back for about 2 hours. to put into context, an average hare and hounds event lasts 2.5-3 hours and i would be riding equivalent to 8 in one day! in reality, i had to stop for fuel, food, tea and rest. so found myself coming into the pits every 2.5 hours and resting for 15 mins before heading back out into the night.

zippy and pats running to their bikes!

the night was lonely at times, with company only provided by the team riders passing and the lights from the marshals. so it was always great to pull into the pits. clive and martin took it in turns to provide the mechanical and moral support. as the night wore on the temperature dropped and the wind picked up, but i was riding hard enough not to need to wear a jacket, but clive and martin would be wearing thick coats and hats to stay warm in the pits.

first lap and heading off into the unknown

it was a relief to see the dawn and then to stretch the legs as the six mile course extended into the 14 mile course at around 6am. there were some fantastic climbs requiring serious attention, momentum and paddling! but it was a long day, each lap taking around an hour, followed by a 15 min break until lunch when i stopped for a full hour, boy did i need it!

in addition to the electrolyte and carbo mix drink in my camelback, i bought a load of boil in the bag meals, muffins, bananas, nuts as fuel through the night, but it was clive's tea that brought me home, oh and i musn't forget his bolognese, that was champion!!

oddly, the final three laps were probably the smoothest i rode, perhaps it was my desire to conserve energy? but when i came in at 720pm on sunday night i was absolutely shot. i could only manage a hobble, i couldn't even open a bottle of water without great effort.

thumbs up (sort of, can barely move it!)

having completed 23 laps during the night i only managed 9 long laps during the day, but as a result i managed 4th place in clubman behind rob who came in second in with 33 laps. pats came in second place in vets and zippy came in 3rd place in expert with 46 laps!!! so desert rose came in with a few trophies!

zippy squeezed in one last lap before finally seeing the chequered flag in the hands of nick plumb (he organised this crazy event!)

desert rose dawn 2 dusk team: rob, patsy, clive, zippy, me, vince

although it had been wet and windy for most of the day making the challenging course even more tricky, the sun broke through in the late afteroon and a beautiful sunset ended what had been an emotional 24 hours. putting on dry clothes, a thick shirt, hoody, a woolly hat and faces still muddy, we headed to the big tent for burgers, beer and the trophies.

by 1030pm i was back in the bike trailer to finally rest after 40 hours.

.....this event is radio rental!