To follow on from Ant's report, the older constabulary of Jet Racing also had a fantastic time, great success, and the building on some new friendships that make these events something a little different then a marathon or individual event.
Our team was formed from a group of us that have over the last 12 mths come together through racing each other competitively over the marathon season. This was something different, this time all of us would be working together for a common result.
This was my first Capital Punishment. It looks like I picked the perfect year for weather and track conditions as both were brilliant. Its a bit of a weird race with such a big untimed section. I used this to get water and have a bit of a rest. Due to the single track at the start a really suffered in the last 40km as I didn't eat enough in the beginning.
Apart from a massive OTB on the Luge I quite enjoyed this one. A shame that the results are delayed but I have my unofficial time of around 04:37:00 taking out the untimed section.
Last time I raced this event was back in 2010. This inaugral event was a complete disaster - a mudfest in cold / freezing conditions.
I was glad to finish that event, let alone be competitive and had no thoughts of doing it again after that first experience.
This race was not really in my plans, but given my recent results and managing to avoid any sickness so far this year, I thought I would give this a go. You never know when you will get another chance right ?
My plans were to get down to Canberra and do a pre-ride of the course the Sunday before, but with all the rain this never happened. So I found myself not really knowing what to expect course wise, but from reports of other riders, and previous knowledge of riding Stromlo - I knew 80km + out here was going to be a hard day out.
The Capital Punishment is not one of my favourite races. Maybe it was the first years mud fest, or a combination of timed / untimed sections, or the logistical challenges involved with the event.
I had found myself entering this race again this year as it is important race as the first race in the XCM series. But with the XCM series being cancelled / put on hold this year I was lacking motivation for the event. Though after a good result last week at the Willo, I wanted to backup again and get some more race practice before the Marathon Champs next month.
This was my first race where I got to the start and had bike issues. The bike was fine Friday morning but the morning of the race I had no back brake. I tried pumping it but nothing, decided to throw a new set of pads to see if it would help just a little and nothing. Kept pumping the lever and bang, it improved. There must be a bubble somewhere but for the rest of the race it was fine
With quite a selection of events on the calendar it was May when the emails started about putting some teams together for the Scott 25hr. It didn’t take long to pencil in some names and the first thing unanimously decided was to go the full luxury marquee. Having a marquee with, power, lights, gas heating, table and chairs meant it was basically a turn and race.
SXC Racing has had a bit of success lately but the Scott25 was going to be the first race with the team in SXC kit. Thankfully it arrived 2 days before we were heading down to Canberra so we were all set.
Well what can I say - great event, well organised and great course !
For those that love singletrack then this is the race for you. It was hard to imagine a course that can push you to your limits and put a smile on your face at the same time.
I didn't have this race on my calendar at first, but when a spare ticket came up, and we had a crew from SXC Racing already going I thought what the hell, how can I miss this. I am glad I didn't miss this one.
My last full marathon was The Convict 100 in May and after a bit of a break I decided I needed a bit more of a structured training program. I approached Anthony and Kyle from Pepper Coaching and come July, Kyle was set to coach me and the Pepper program had started. Without going into the detail the commitment means now the alarm is set for 4:30am most weekday mornings.
A few training phases later the Kowalski Classic was set to be my first full marathon where my training wasn’t hindered by sickness etc.
