Epic 8 Hour MTB Race – Mansfield

This can be seen as the manual of how not to do a race. I hope some other people can learn as much from reading this as I did from experiencing it!

I arrived on Saturday morning in Mansfield Outdoor Centre with a fair bit of enthusiasm for the race that day; the Epic 8 hour solo. This was my first attempt at a full 8 hour by myself, and my second time hitting the trails in about 5 years. There was a lot of things going on, and the set-up at the race was quite impressive. The Chico team did a good job of organizing.

With fairly high expectations of what I could perform that day, I lined up fairly close to the front. They announced ‘start’ and the two hundred or so solo and team racers were off up the first large hill of the race. I got caught up in the excitement, and fueled with adrenaline, and a gel that I consumed a few mins earlier, I hammered up the first steady climb with the other riders. It wasn’t long into the race when I started to feel somewhat ill. I was really regretting taking a gel 15 mins before the start. In any case, I continued on and finished the first lap off with a bit of an injury due to a pile of or riders in a technical area of single-track. Not too bad considering how close the riders were. On to the end of lap one with a final huge hill, and back to hill number one at the start of the lap (number 2!!). This combination was quite challenging, and the first hill was enough to sap the energy off many of the team riders just starting into their first lap after the relay exchange. I recall passing a number of riders a couple kilometers into the lap that I saw blazing up the first hill only minutes before. I felt relatively smooth going through the lap but it ended quite badly for me on lap 2. I had some riders trying to pass and calling from behind just at a moment on a decent with some very loose dirt. My front wheel dug in and the rest of me kept going. I’m not really sure what really happened, but the next thing I recall was eating a whole lot of dirt. Only seconds away from the solo gear set-up zone, I had to grab a towel to brush some dirt and dust from my face before continuing onto lap number 3. At this point I was really wishing that I took just a bit more time on the first two laps in order to feel a bit more comfortable, and that I started further back. I was now paying the price with a swollen knee, and a sore wrist.

Lap 3 started off consistently with a number of team riders going up the first hill full tilt, and then slowly fading into the lap. My pace was slowing a bit however, and I didn’t pass quite as many this lap. I was starting to get into a comfortable pace, and this held until the end of lap 4. At this point my left wrist was starting to get so painful that I was unable to hold onto the bar. I could foresee an accident happening and planned to take a rest at the end of this lap. I didn’t quite make it. My left hand rolled over the bar on a slight single track decent, and I ended up tumbling once again. This time left me with some bruising to both knees, and some extreme pain in my right shoulder and neck. I managed to get back to the solo area where a first aider was waiting to check me out. I knew it was time to call it a day, as I wasn’t able to hold onto the handle bars any longer. He told me it would not be smart to continue. I thought this was a wise idea. So I ended just short of 4 laps.

Maybe I will have some better luck next time on an 8 hour attempt (and with some better preparation). I don’t think I will start so close to the front, which will allow me to get nearly the same first lap time, but not having to worry for at least a few laps about riders wanting to rip through, and then later in the race everyone will be more spread out.