Scott 24 Hour Australian Mountain Bike Championships

Feeding time at the zoo - about 6 hours in, just going into night

My brother Gavin and Evan looking after me

Starting out with a smile and my new sponsor's logo !!!

I QUALIFIED !!!! Yes, I have qualified (again) for the World Solo 24 Hour Championships. These will be held at Mt Stromlo, Canberra in October 2010, and I will be there.

This information leads me to the story of the Scott 24 Hour on 10th & 11th October 2009. Why was I doing another 24 hour event in 2009? To qualify - that's it folks. I now have 12 months to prepare for the Worlds without having to do any other 24's between now and then - a great relief considering it takes sooo long to recover from 24's.

I was feeling fresh in the legs the days before the event - a good sign. I'd had a shocking 6 months prior to the event with very little training/motivation/desire - all I wanted was bed. So 2 weeks prior to the event I made my decision to race, with the following two goals:

1. To qualify for the Worlds
2. To work on my weaknesses

To ensure that I kept to the plan, my good friend Megs offered an idea to tape a note to my handlebars saying "Keep it light and fun". Great idea, but I could do better than that - I had Sesame Street Bandaids !!! So Oscar the Grouch and Elmo were stuck to my handlebars, the reminder to keep it fun.

The first 6 hours were good - consistent lap times and enjoying the ride. Around 7 hours in I came back from a lap and was flat - the lack of eating/drinking spots on the course meant I was only consuming Endura and not solid food. My support crew decided that they would stop me for a minute or two each lap and feed me at the tent - this proved to work well and I picked up significantly and was happy to keep lapping.

Night came, as did midnight. From midnight on my mind went blank......pedal, drink, eat, pedal, pedal, drink eat..... I have no idea what was happening or where I was placed - all I had to do was what my support crew told me. I had a short 15 min break sometime in the dark - it was nice to stop but COLD getting going again. Typical Canberra weather - definitely a 2 dog night!!

During the darkness when I was starting to struggle with darkness and fatigue, I shone my helmet light onto Elmo....."hello Elmo.....he-lloooo Elmo.....tickle me Elmo" - yes I was going balmy but it made me happy!! My mind was kept busy with a fact that few people will ever experience - I couldn't stand on my own without being supported; I couldn't walk on my own without being supported; but throw my leg over my bike and off I went for another 7 hours of riding......WOW!!!!

The birds began cheeping and daylight began. I still had 6 hours to finish. Each lap was approx. 1hr 30min. I tried to work out how many more laps I had before the end - it took me the entire lap to work this out, and still didn't come up with an answer. At 7am the crew were doing the figure for me, and asked me to go and do a lap that was a bit quicker.....WHAT??!!!! OK. At the end of this lap I was told that I could afford to do one slow lap and then finish after 11am to qualify. My support crew had made the decision to give up 4th position and finish 5th (still qualifying), but finishing happy, with a quicker recovery time. I was very happy with only one more lap. I stopped and chatted; checked out the view from the top of Mt Stromlo; smelled the Lavendar growing; and walked the horrid, rocky switchback climb.

I finished 5th, qualified for the Worlds, and rode a 24 hour event pretty much on psychological strength rather than physical strength. To others, my result may have been disappointing going on past finishes. To me, it was an amazing achievement, knowing that up until 2 months ago I struggled to get out of bed each day, let alone leave the house to ride my bike.

Thankyou to my sponsor, Coffs Harbour Health Club - your support and guidance is greatly appreciated. And a HUGE thankyou to my bestest brother Gav, his special care-giving partner Mel, and my forgiving partner Evan - thanks guys for getting me there....I couldn't do it without you.