The WEMB(L)O(G) revisted

Before diving into the 'official' race report it might be nice to reflect on original goals for this race. As boldly stated in the first blog entry, the purpose of entering and racing WEMBO was to:

1) Keep me riding through a Canberra winter

And keep me riding it did. By the time the race rolled around, I was well and truly done with -3 degree mornings on the bike. Having said that, I've also had some incredibly fun epic weekend adventures: riding to Wee J, Tumut, the coast and through the Brindies. There was also the fabulous single-track racing on trails I wouldn't otherwise have known about thanks to the 7-hour events put on by Chocolate Foot and Rocky Trail Entertainment and local clubs like CORC and MTB Wagga. WEMBO: an excellent excuse to be out on the bike with friends having hours of fun training.

2) To give me an incentive to improve my bike handling skills

I'm happy to observe that the skills appear to have improved. From racing the 6+6 at Easter Solo Nationals this year (pre-blog days): where I gingerly walked every rocky section up Blue Tongue and bumped and skidded (sorry trail fairies!) my way down Little Seymour and finished with the Worlds Most Arm Pump to merrily riding the Rocky Trail 7 hour at Stromlo with barely a foot-down.

3) To have a crack at something I had considered 'impossible'

Perhaps I'll let the race report tell the rest of the 'impossible' story.

Race Morning

With such a lengthy build-up, by the time race morning rolled around, nerves (as evidenced from the previous post) had well and truly settled. At 10.30am I found myself sitting in a camping chair, under the Ollo/Blackshaw marquee, bags and bikes unloaded, feet up and already chewing down on a Baker's delight pizza slice. I love an event atmosphere and with people milling, the sound of hubs free-wheeling, colourful marquees and banners fluttering and music over a loud-speaker broken by announcements, I was in my happy element.

At 11.40am riders were called to the start line and each rider in the elite category was called forward by name and country to be given a 10 minute head-start on the rest of the age-groupers. So #PRO! 12pm: a whistle was blown and almost 40 speedsters and myself charged up around the crit track, up a fire-road and dove into the first section of single-track. The start of 20 hours of quite a bit of fun.

12 pm to midnight

Without really knowing how to pace myself for this I thought pacing off Liz Smith would be a good idea to start with. However, I quickly learned that she climbs rather better than I do. Thankfully time was made up on the descents and we spent a fun couple of laps chatting (on the flats, for me at least) and leap-frogging each other: Liz leading up, myself leading down.

Descending through Luge
Photo: Sportograf

Transitions were super fun: I'd throw a spent bottle in the general direction of our pit, feather the brakes, grab a bottle off Kate, grab a bit of food off Marty and attempt to munch on it as I rolled through the rest of the crit track. Unfortunately and I assume this was because my heart-rate was too high (24 hour Rookie that I am), solids were not going down easily so a switch to Hammer Perpetuem to be consumed on fire-trails while I was still lapping around the hour mark seemed like a good move.

Fairly soon, as we were again heading up the main climb, Liz and I came across Jess Douglas and Erin Greene. Marty had said "don't take Jess" as I'd come through the last transition, so I had known we were close. We pulled up and sat in behind them for a lap and I was immediately grateful. The pace on the climbs had definitely been more than what I thought was sustainable given the length of the race. Jess asked if we wanted to go past. I politely declined. From then there was such a buzz following speedy wheels that were choosing good lines. Coming out of transition after that lap, Liz and I found ourselves meeting again, with no Jess or Erin in sight. "Taking Jess" seemed like a very good idea at the time. So we resumed our previous game of leap-frog and, looking back at the results, we put a good 3 minutes into both Jess and Erin in that lap.

Luging
Photo: Sportograf

Rolling into transition just before 5.30pm and it was time for a bike and helmet swap to speed the donning of lights. Despite a minor helmet mix-up, my Formule 1 pit crew had me out of transition ahead of Liz. I kept a comfortable pace up the main climb, and when she hadn't appeared by the top I decided to let off the brakes and go it alone.

Formule 1 Pit Crew: bike and light change.
Photo: Milly Brent

As solid food still wasn't sitting well with me, several laps were spent pulling up and trying to settle a little more. The race strategy became: spin on the ups, lift the tempo slightly on the flats, let go of the brakes and be smooth on the downs, drink on the fire-trails. Repeat. For the next 8 hours I was in the lead.

Midnight - 6am
Around midnight Jess had caught back up as I was heading out of transition sat in behind for the main climb then came around for the descent. Following her for the rest of the lap, a couple of attempts at talking were not enthusiastically reciprocated, so the lap was completed in relative silence.

Into transition again and it was time for a bathroom break. Another 24-hour Rookie moment: realising how difficult it is to make a quick bathroom stop when you're wearing bib-knicks, have a helmet that has a light attached to it that is attached to a battery that is stashed in your rear jersey pocket and your thumbs have lost that one key ability that separates us from the apes. 10 minutes lost to Jess in that transition and it was time to ensure that I would make it through the rest of the race. Again, my pit crew was incredible: in one session I had Marty handing me a slice of pizza, Libby throwing some nurofen and panadol into my mouth, Milly giving me some water to wash it down, Kate putting another bidon of something on the bike, Andrew changing the light battery in my rear pocket and Paul re-lubing my chain and somebody else giving me a push as I set off into the night yet again.

Throughout the night, the much dreaded sleep monsters never came. Perhaps the course was too engaging (this line here, feather the brakes there, let them off here, hey: that's so-and-so up ahead!) or the excitement of the race was too much for them. In any case, in the blink of an eye as I was rolling along the highway section out of Slant Six, looking out towards Canberra I noticed a faint orange glow lining the horizon: Sunrise! Watching the sun gradually return colour to the tracks was beautiful. A couple of laps later and the sun was fully up. A couple of laps later and a particularly potent thought was sneaking its way into my head: "Oh my. You still have 4 hours of racing ahead of you, Eliza".

And then the sun came up... 6 hours to go
Photo: Sportograf

4 Hours on the Other Side of the Fun Spectrum

A few hours after sun-up and the focus was back to consistency and surviving the rest of this thing. Heading out through Fenceline, the distinctive sound of a rapidly approaching rider was heard coming from behind: Kim Hurst. Moving over for her, I could see she was on a mission and there was no way my legs or heart were going to lift to go with her. Phenomenal riding: she put in several fast laps to begin to close the 30-odd minute gap to Jess, putting herself into 2nd place and displacing me to 3rd.

Up to the last 4 laps I hadn't cared what time it was. Now I desperately wanted, needed to know the time and exactly how much longer I needed to stay on the bike. I wasn't liking the answers I was getting. Dribbling through transition at a little after 11am on Sunday morning, my pit crew told me I had one more lap to go. Jason was also rolling through with a comfortable lead on second place and offered to potter along with me. Following him through Fenceline I had a sinking feeling that I may not make this lap and not even the opportunity to roll a final lap with Jason would pull me through. And then the horrible thought: if I wasn't able to ride, I wasn't even sure if I could walk! Thankfully Ed met us as we were heading up the climb to say that Liz wasn't heading out. I did not have to complete this lap to hold onto 3rd. I passed on my apologies to Jason and rolled back to transition via the downhill track. Emotional and a little bit pathetic.

I finished my first 24 hour race: completing 22 laps, officially covering 371.58km in 23hrs 29mins and placing 3rd in female elite category.

Nothing makes a girls day quite like a
GIANT NOVELTY CHEQUE!!!

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate everybody who raced over the weekend. I still think the concept of racing a mountain bike for 24 hours is ridiculous. Finding the other Cox-Blackshaw pandas on course: Belinda, Chris, Tony, Rod, George... Dave, we missed each other (!) was a lift. Seeing guys like Bleeksie, Cath Kelaher and Gwynn Le Maitre also doing their first 24s, Bec Parkes, Frankie Sanders and Brett Bellchambers bubbling with energy on their single-speeds and the super-speedy likes of Jason English, Andrew Lloyd and Andy Hall being particularly polite with passing was an inspiration.

Team Cox-Blackshaw:
4 podium finishes: Belinda (2nd 35-39), Tony (3rd 45-49), Dave (3rd single-speed) and myself

I would also like to thank the plethora of people that were in and out of the pits helping out. A 'solo' race is not a true 'solo' race: it is one of the most selfish sporting pursuits out there and the number of supporters was overwhelming. Also thank you to the people yelling encouragement at me out on the course and a thank you to the messages of luck and encouragement from my Melbourne and Canberra friends and family. Highlights were seeing my mum, dad and grandpa bouncing up and down, arms waving; my school-friends who know (almost) nothing about MTBing and still came out to cheer me on and being surprised to see Ben at the top of Stromlo on Sunday morning.

Some specific thank you's:

CORC and WEMBO: for pulling together such an incredible event.
Team Cox-Blackshaw: for taking me on board, getting me into WEMBO and providing the framework to carry me through it.

Hammer Nutrition: for the Heed, Perpetuem and gels to fuel me up.
Monkey Wrench: for helping to fix my bike when I ride it into the ground.
SportsCare and Physiotherapy: my workplace for their support, encouragement and pilates programming!

Marty and Kate: my main support crew. You were so amazing.

The guys that supported Marty and Kate. Equally awesome!
Brett Hayman: for the loan of your wickedly fast Cannondale Scalpel 29er for use as a back-up bike.
Steve Hanley: for the loan of your Ay-up batteries.

Ed: for the mentorship and inspiration in the lead-up to this event.

Ben: for being so understanding and supportive of me over the past 3 months. For putting up with a tired Eliza in the evenings and weekends, that's if I was at home on the weekends, rather than off camping next to an event track somewhere in NSW... You are my rock.

Full-circle?

The months leading into WEMBO and completing the race itself has without a doubt been an incredible experience. I have met the most lovely, inspiring, passionate people who have lifted me to the most amazing highs and have shifted my perspective on what is possible. Not quite full-circle, but now it may be time to take a step back and consider what the future holds...

What next??