Karapoti 2007 – 3 March
I managed a pre-ride of the course about 4 weeks ago and knew the conditions would be pretty much the same – it was riding fast back then and sure as hell still riding fast on race day! About 2 weeks ago I was feeling a 3.30 was definitely achievable so, without telling anyone, I decided I was really looking for a 3.20…
A week out from the race I sent off my request to swap from Masters to Pro-Elite – that was a crazy feeling. Before this season pro-elite was never on the cards yet suddenly, in 6 short weeks it was!
As the final week progressed and the inevitable whispers of self-doubt started to creep in I had to keep reminding myself of what I’d already achieved, that I’d followed the plan to the letter, had done everything I could and just had to trust in that and give it everything on the day…
The start: ‘I feel like an imposter’ – that literally ran through my head, followed immediately by ‘I deserve to be here’. I lined up behind Robyn (sucking every last ounce of inspiration I could!) and had a bit of a chat to a couple of the girls and next thing I knew we were off!
Over the other side of the river I could hear lots of wonderful people cheering for me – Tama on the megaphone, and Anita Hiskcoc reminding me one last time how I love the pain! Once up on the road I was surprised at the pace, I thought I’d feel like my legs were being ripped off, but it was comfortable and I started passing people early on. I got in to the gorge with a lot of the younger guys ahead of me, but it quickly became obvious they’d gone out too hard and I was picking them off in droves. I had a great run up the gorge and was pleased to see 15mins on the stop watch at the top of it – my previous fastest time was 15 without doing the road first, and I hadn’t started to push it yet.
The undulating section leading up to the warm up climb went by pretty quick too. I’d passed Michelle Bellamy and was playing cat and mouse with Erin Greene. I looked up at the warm up climb and saw people pushing, including Erin – it was a great feeling to ride up past them all with so much confidence. I passed a huge amount of people going up here and Deadwoods, was forced off the bike a couple of times but nothing to worry about. Erin snuck back past me at one point when I stopped to clear some foliage from my derailleur though.
At the Cloustenville turnoff I was just under an hour (literally, 59 and something!). Going across the ridge the leading senior men picked me up – got encouraging words from Nick and Hayden who were flying! I passed another woman I’d been cat and mousing with and passed Erin again somewhere before the rockgarden, and Bob had stopped at the top of the rock garden.
I quickly found myself tailing another woman on the way down and had a really good run, swapped places with her near the bottom – a few dabs through the worst of it but no issues on the drops and nice and fast down the last section passing people again.
Things went a bit pear-shaped when I hit devils. I couldn’t get control over my legs! I didn’t have full feeling in my feet, and the ground was really slippery and I just kept missing where I wanted to step and slipping, the bike was slipping as well – just couldn’t seem to get in to a rhythm. I got passed by 4 women – the one I’d just passed, Erin (who looked like she was walking up an escalator!), Bob and Michelle. My calves were starting to cramp and it was definitely a low moment. I still felt the 3.30 was never in doubt, but it played with me mentally for a while, hurting in a way I didn’t seem to be able to control. I was very pleased to get to the top (time check, 1.57), suck back some leppin and get back to pedalling! I never really got a rhythm back before heading down Big Ring.
Heading down, I put the pace on – not only have I learnt to climb hills this year, I’ve improved on the downs as well, and was really able to nail it down here. I pulled back one of the places I lost, and passed a few others as well. More leppin and a time check coming in to Dopers… 2.18 – an hour to get home, but how much more can I take?
After the steep pinch coming out of the creek I saw Michelle just up ahead and called on my legs for another gear – they weren’t interested so I looked to up the cadence slightly to try and close the gap of about 20 metres. We were both passing other riders and I was slowly gaining giving it everything yet knowing there were some hell pinches still to come. First pinch, and she was off the bike – here’s my chance, a surge of power through the legs, over the crest and now just keep moving, stay on the bike, keep the legs turning. Something a bit easier said than done at this stage!
I counted off the false summits, just like I always have, with each pinch hurting just a bit more than the last one. Finally there was one I just didn’t have enough left for and with each step my calves were cramping and I had to try and stretch them and walk at the same time. With a few more little pinches to go I knew I had to ride them if I was going to make it up at all – fortunately the calves are about the easiest muscles to stretch on the bike.
Cresting the summit I had a look at the time – 2.48! I can get home in half an hour from here, I know that – can I really get under 3.20? Have I got the maths right??? No time to think about it – the final undulating section has a tendency to go on and on (and it did) before finally hitting the fun and fast downside of Dopers. I had a great run down the gorge, big ring all the way and the road was fast as well – I strategically changed down to the right gear on my way down to the river, got across to a few cheers and am pleased not to have entertained the crowd, back on (phew! No cramp) and in to the finishing chute. Time check: 3.17!!! (which I couldn’t believe until the results confirmed it).
So that’s it – season finished! 4000 kms (around 60 hours) of driving, ~240 litres of petrol, 7 races, 2 national titles and a series win, my first pro-elite race, incredible times, and a feeling that anything is possible. I’ve truly exceeded every expectation I had of myself and have learned a lot about my own personal limits – most importantly that I haven’t found them yet!
