100 Miles of Nowhere - Race Report - Part 1

Note - there is more than a tad of "jest" in this post. So please, dont think I'm being being an ass...... please

Preamble

In truth I wasn't too worried about doing a "ton" on a turbo. I'd set myself a target of completing the course in 5 hours which of course gave me a manageable ave speed of 20 mph. I've been close to a hundred before although I'd always held myself back and never gone all the way. This was different. This was for a very very good cause.

On the eve of the race I felt good and slipped into a sweet sleep knowing I'd be difficult to beat. After all, these 100 miles were to be raced over my (literally) home turf. No one could possibly beat me. Could they?

I'd given myself every change of winning my category (the dodgy knees holding a Guernsey Passport division) and came into the race reasonably rested, carbo loaded and ready to go. I'd also trained quite hard and whats more, I had a special bike too.

A Cervelo S1 areo frame (borrowed for a week from my LBS) with deep section Mavic wheels. An absolute must for any turbo based endurance event. Try it. You will never look back.

A Shaky Start

Amazingly, and rather embarrassingly due to late decision on behalf of my bowels who with only a few mins to go before the off decided to demand a movement, I missed my start time at the gate by 6 mins.


Above - pre race supplies

Mortified and with jeers and cat calls from the crowd (Mrs T) ringing in my ears I finally set off at 11.06 am. Given my lack of common time keeping I decided upon a simple strategy.

To keep pedalling for the next 5 hours.

Simple and yet immensely effective. Turn those circles so to speak & never, ever, turn in squares......


Above - A view from the saddle. Nice.

The Race Proper

So thats how it went. Minute by minute and hour by hour the drill remained simple.

Pedal. Drink every 10 mins and eat every half hour.

For 5 hours.

Simple.

Actually thats not quite the full extent of the truth. It wasn't that simple at all. These 5 hours were rather long. In fact, they were very, very long...... Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman helped. But even thier cheeky banter and round the World antics can only brighten the spirt for so long......

The End

And so it came to pass. With 160kms on the clock and nearly "home" I noticed my pace was slightly off the target. It dawned on me I'd probably fail. That I wouldn't break the 5 hour mark.

As you can imagine with 160kms in the legs it took some effort to summon the strength needed for a sprint but sprint I did.

But to no avail. I finished in 5 hours and 5 secs.

I had failed. I had lost and in my mind I'd lost big.......

Next year.... I'll do it next year......


Above - the mess afterwards. Note the used sweat towels and the deep section areo wheels. Both very important for doing a ton on a turbo.

To follow - HR, speed, cadence stats and a few other things too......