A month late (thanks again e-mail gremlins!), but better late than never and a chance for us to relive the what must have been both the wettest weekend of and most aptly named event of the year: Mens Fitness Dirty Weekend.
Over to Ryan Evans. Course designer, Tredz sponsored rider and one of the fastest men we know on a mountain bike (especially in galoshes and walking boots...).
Thankfully the rain held off until early afternoon by which time nearly all the bike course was complete within the forest. Then it was back to the park to mark the run courses and transition. By this time we were starting to get the forecasted storm and the final 3 hours of marking was pretty painful with everyone soaked through. Trying to zip tie markers to trees in the dark should be an Olympic sport in 2012! Finally it was done and I had to get myself home and sorted as best I could for the following day’s race….
It was really good to see that a few top guys had made the effort for this first time event and looking around the start line to see Lee Rankin (eventual winner), James Hockin (top local triathlete) and Simon Osbourne (hard core off road athlete) there, let me know that it was going to be a hard fought race. The horn went and the speedsters shot off from the start.
The run course had everything thrown at it, with a stiff climb close to the start, a short length of the black stuff, gravel tracks, then into some calf deep soft mud through the wood. I was pretty close to the front at this point but loosing both my shoes in the mud set me back to just outside the top ten coming into transition after the final section of the run which took you through the deer park and farm before coming back to the castle. Like I said, it had everything!
I managed to make up a couple of places in transition and then on to the bike course which I knew pretty well by now. The first 5k was very tough with some serious climbs on singletrack and technical rocks and the rain had made the cross country sections tough to ride. Fortunately by this time I had managed to make my way up to 3rd place just before the first real descent. I was managing to hold my place whilst chasing down James who was just in front of me but after the descent to the Lake he pulled up with a flat and I now found myself in 2nd. It was head down and flat out descending back into the park before the final climb up to the view point and the cracking descent back to transition.
I headed out on to the run with Lee quite a way out in front and with a good lead over the 3rd place man. It was a bit of a struggle to get going after putting so much in on the bike but after a steady start and some cautious steps through the mud this time I finished strongly with a good feeling, running the long straight back to the line and seeing the castle bathed in the lovely winter’s sun.
After a quick clean up and some warm clothes it was back to cheer the mud spattered smiling athletes across the line and to receive my very welcomed 2nd place prize of an OMM running pack, which has already had a good test!
In all a really fantastic day which could not have gone much better. It was such a pleasure to see everyone enjoying the duathlon and also the 5k cross country run which took place whilst we were out on the bike course.
Time to go home to sleep as there was still another day to go!
I was dressed for a days marshaling in waterproofs and walking boots not for a 25k hard mountain bike ride and after getting a roll of marking tape from Gus in the Tredz van, a hammer and knife from the car and a borrowed Commencal hardtail from Mike Tate (thanks Mike, although I struggled with walking boots and Crank Bros candy pedals!) I was off.
A delayed start ensured I had time to fix what had broken or blown down and I made it back to the park just in time to see the start of the 10k race, completely soaked but very happy and confident that the course was completely rideable for the Enduro race.
The weather really didn’t ease up at all for the duration of the 10k run but finally the rain and wind stopped as the small group of hard core riders that completed both laps of the enduro re-entered the park and on to the finish line, all amazingly with huge smiles considering how hard the course had run that day.
All we had to do then was dismantle the finish, transition and timing and whilst Scott and Steve headed off in the 4wd to take down all the forest signs I made my way around the run courses on foot with some black bags and then donning my headtorch it was off across the stream and up into the forest singletrack to take the remainder of the bike signs down. 7pm and it was time to go home.
I would like to say a huge thank you to all the Marshals who gave up their time to make this event go ahead, you all know who you are and I am very grateful. Thanks to Stuart for marking and Steve for bringing his 4wd, we couldn’t have done it without you, although you did manage to drive over my can of red floor spray which then exploded over my cycling jacket!
Thanks to everyone that helped on anything at all over the weekend and to Moti and OMM for their support of the races and to Gus and Tredz for turning up on both days.
Hopefully we will be back next year...
