Mclean's Island 6 Hour Solo

It's been a while since my last post having come back from racing in Canada and enjoying a nice break that was certainly required to get my focus back in the right place.
With new motivation and a few changes to my training the last few months have seen me clocking up a few K's mostly on the road bike.  I have competed in a couple races lately and even won the 2012 Sefton Classic Road Race (80km category) so things have been looking like they are heading in the right direction for the 2013 season just around the bend kicking off in January!
Now starting to feel much like roadie I looked at the calender and what better way to get back into the mountain bike swing of things with a 6 hour solo race out at Mcleans Island!  It would be my first proper endurance event and with learning alot recently the hard way about nutrition on the go I was sure going to be tested both physically and mentally but I was keen as a bean to see how it would unfold on the day!

The race started off with a Le Mon's start - a 300m running dash to the fence to find and aboard the race machine, get out of the chaos and into the track.  I started off pretty casually not wanting to even bring a sweat to my forehead until I was at least on my Trek Superfly ready to get the big wheels ticking some K's over.  Perhaps I went out a little too easy in the run as when I finally got out of the line up of bikes the front riders were already out along the stopbank which was a good 400m plus way and a whole string of riders inbetween.
Nevertheless I had a game plan in my head and I stuck to it superbly throughout the whole race.  However being 8 1/2 - 9 minutes down at the half way mark did make me a touch nervous but I knew if the front of my race had gone out that hard then they would start to blow and then I would be able to open up the taps later on and start the chase!
All day I had eaten well and gone through a low patch around the middle of my race but then the final couple of hours saw my laps becoming stronger than the others and the final hour was all go!   I was taking off several minutes off the others and while I couldn't quite reach the front by the end I had pulled the gap to second to around 1 minute and to first 2 minutes finishing 3rd in the Open Mens devision.
So in the end for my first endurance race I am pretty stoked to have finished how I did, maybe next time I'll try and get out off the traffic from the start but thats all part of watching a good race unfold!
November will see a few mountain bike races on the calender so i'll be updating my blog most weeks to keep everyone posted!  Cheers!