A creditable turnout from the mlehs

Well it was my first ever 24 hr endurance race and an opportunity to meet up with many Mlehs I had not met.

There were a few Mleh teams racing and me foolishly soloing.

Most of us got there on the Friday night. The serious racers amongst us were into our carb loading – the rest got tore into the booze. Spinal Tap did a particularly fine job demolishing a bottle of isle of Jura and became somewhat loud and boisterous. Me - I retreated to bed early with my earplugs in.

So Saturday dawned bright and early for everyone except me,
.

Registration and other formalities completed we lined up for the start at 2pm. Worn and I had a pact not to run a step for the le mans style start – and we didn’t. 12 mins it took us to get to our bikes and we were about the last to set off. The keener amongst us had run the start and were disappearing off into the distance.

I plodded round turning in laps of around an hour – with a stop for at least a cup of tea every lap. Others were churning out laps in far more respectable times. The course was dry and fast – or at least it was for the fast boys. Me I just kept plodding on. By the middle of the night things had settled into a pattern – half the mlehs had abandoned to bed with various excuses - some to reappear later and some not! Our camping area looked like the Somme and there were some rather bleary eyed folk in our HQ tent

We had our own heckling corner and gave as much encouragement as possible ty all and sundry as they came past . I know the cheers gave me a boost and it did for others as well.

Many of the mlehs had “speshul” outfits – moaning sponger in particular had a fine selection of appalling coloured clothes

We all had our highlights and lowlights:
For me: -Highs - I was so nervous at before the start. Many people helped me to calm down. When I came in from a lap to cheers and offers of tea and cake and food and almost anything I wanted. special thanks to SOG for help above and beyond the call. Cake was on call whenever I needed it. Wee Jo giving me a back rub. The kindness of everyone mleh and not that I spoke to. I had many strange delirious conversations with random strangers as I plodded round. Watching the dawn come up as I pootled along. A couple of folk found that the fact that I was churning out laps in the small hours of the morning gave them motivation to carry on. Mades me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I was told this

I remember towards the end of the event Jojo thundering past en route to a more than respectable 45 min lap – focussed – she was a laser beam!


Low point. 3/4 of the way round my final lap which according to my body clock had taken 3 days and then my hamstring went twang. Gave me an excuse to bail but I was pissed off that I couldn't do a final lap in my tweeds to get the glory and I had enough time left and maybe even energy to break the hundred miles but I really did not want to risk doing real damage.



Bigalus had a disaster of a time – on his first lap he broke a rear qr near the beginning of the lap and had to walk virtually the entire course, getting sunburnt and dehydrated in the process. On his second lap he crashed out and had to bail injured. Naew luck big man

Some of us had really got in to the racing mode by the morning. Pogo went mad when the rest of his team crashed out – riding lap after lap on his own. Houns found a bit of extra energy and got round fast enough to get in before 2pm to allow his team to get in an extra lap. googs enthusiasm kept team admin going.

Pogosticks story Lows -
Waking up with a hangover Saturday morning despite my best intentions to lay off the booze (and especially the fags).
Blowing up at the beginning of my 3rd lap and regretting the beer. Managed to get round but feeling sick all the way round. Seeing someone laid out with heatstroke reminded me to keep the fluid in me and take it steady - Whilst Handz shot off ahead of me.
Struggling with myself at 1am as to whether to ride all night or try and sleep.
Plodding round in the early monrning in the slidiness.
Not being quite as mingling with the Mlehers as I wanted, but I had my own team members to keep company so was kind of awkward.
Falling off on the first lap
The rain at midnight.
Not squeezing out lap 13 and shaking Pats hand

Highs -
Party / festival atmosphere
Squeezing out 3 laps in a row whislt most others were curled up in bed.
The weather
Blasting round on Sunday morning on lap # 11 - one of my faster laps
No mechanical issues
Plodding round the course at 4am
escorting my mate round on our last lap(s)
Escorting TJ on a lap at 6am.
Not squeezing out lap 13 and being broken for the following wek.

Houns: Highs - Biggest one for me was being fake free with my back all weekend, had a few moments where it was getting stiff, but made sure stopped and stretched on course and Jo's massage and googs pain killers help greatly.
Another big high for me was having plenty left in my legs at the finish, i made sure i took it steady on all of my laps as i wanted to make it to the end which i did, the only lap that i did try hard was my penultimate one as i knew time was going to be tight for us to get another lap in.
Talking of which waiting for Rickos to hand over to me i was very nervous, i was watching the clock tick down, as each second passed by the butterflies were getting stronger and stronger! But he put in a great lap to enable me just enough time!
Also meeting everyone, So glad went down Thursday night and that gave me plenty of time to set up and chill and make sure i met everyone. everyone there was fantastic such nice people

Oh and finally no mechanicals or punctures were good and seeing those 24 hour race virgins with us, going through all of the emotions and pain saying that they'd never do it again - They will be back!


OK Low points -

Air bed going down Thurs night, so had no more than 3 hours sleep so was tired and grumpy all Friday so pretty much kept myself to myself.
Not putting enough SSS on and sun cream (not that bad really)
Having to make my self puke up that £5 steak sandwich I had
Big Als mechanical and feeling helpless as the reports came through of his predicament
One big one is one I kept to myself, on one of my night laps (as it started to rain) I really wanted to put a double lap in and part of me was thinking of doing a triple lap if I felt ok, but the rain kept coming and at the end of the 1st lap I had to make a decision to carry on or go in, and as it was very slippy out there I decided to go in - Just as well really as dibbs was waiting and I had no way of telling him I was carrying on if I did.

all in all a great sucess and some highly creditable totals and lap times - but an awful lot of folk caught the fakes either temporary or permanent

A special big thank you to all those who where there to support - cups of tea and cheering on really helped me.