Enduro 6

Arrived at Catton park saturday afternoon and set up in a cloudless sunny but very windy conditions, got the bbq on and ate as much meat as i could (not the best pre race food but it cant be beaten in the sun) followed by a couple of beers as we watched the night time trail start with the sun setting.

night time trial

looking over the arena

We finished the evening with a hot chocolate in the food tent and headed to bed at a reasonable 10.30pm. I had a good sleep and woke up at 8 am feeling nice and fresh. Cooked myself some porridge and got all my stuff together in my pit. The start of the race came quick and i was dreading the 800 meter run. i never run and cant stand running, I can cope with a 50 meter dash but 800 meters is just to much. Im pretty sure i came into my pits right at the back even though i started on the front line. The first lap was spent getting stuck behind people and sprinting as hard as i could on the open parts of the course (which there wasnt much of). I'd chosen to ride with bottles as i didnt want to haul a heavy camelbak round, i think this might of been a bad idea as there was much time on the course to drink out of a bottle and also you lost a minute each time you came into the pits to swap bottles. In the 6 hours i raced i only managed to have 4 bottles and i was really dehydrated at the end. The course was a bit short for my liking at just over 5 miles i would hate to do a 24 hour race round it.
I had caught Shaun up in the race and over took him but i didnt have a clue what place i was in, I thought i was in the top 5, it wasnt till the end after the finish i was told i had won. i never expected to and was well suprised and happy. Not only that but Shaun had came in a few mins behind me in 2nd. 2 Cookson boys on the podium at the same time.

podium