Racing on Father’s Day. Sort of a weird experience for me. In some ways a gift to myself as I really like this race and get to spend time doing something I enjoy. From the other side of things I had to get very early and didn’t see anyone all day.

It is a bit of a drive to the race start so I was up very early and on the road after a quick breakfast. Arrival at the start brought drizzle and sub 10C temperatures. I was in a bit of a pickle as I didn’t bring along clothes for every possible weather condition. I put on everything I brought and was still chilled. No matter, once the race starts there will be lots of heat generated.

After a short neutralized start we turned into the woods and started climbing. My limited warm up was on full display as I was close to max effort on the short opening climb. I really need to sort out how to rev the engine leading into a race like this - hitting max effort 3 minutes into a 4 hour effort is just such a bad idea.

About two hours into the event my front tire flatted. I really put on a clinic replacing the inner-tube. I displayed all sorts of things not to do! It took me forever to get the tire away from the rim. I haven’t had to do any sort of work on the front wheel and really need to have some baby powder in there. It was here that I watched the race go away from me. I was stopped for almost 10 minutes replacing a single inner-tube. So lame.

Later in the race while coming down a tricky section it felt like I had flatted again on the front wheel. When I stopped the tire seemed to be holding air so I simply topped it up. Not more than a couple of minutes later things were totally flat. Yet another stop. Thankfully, this one wasn’t the marathon of the first. I was pretty worried though as I wasn’t carrying any more spares so another puncture would mean I would be walking out of the woods!

Thankfully, I didn’t have any further issues. I was happy to see the finish line. I found this one to be a sufferfest right from the start.