The concept is simple (roughly) 10 mile lap as many times as possible in 10 hours.
last time I did this I managed 5 laps for about 7 or 8 of the hours.
My goal this time was to complete the whole 10 hours and see where i went from there. In the end I managed this cycling for the 10 hours from 8.30am to 6.30pm with 7 laps completed at around 95km.
10 hours of mtb is a bit hard on the whole body not just the legs but I enjoyed the day.
The weather played well with the last of the summers warm weather making the course mostly dry. I am glad of this as a lot of the course was off the trail centre piste on rooty segments. I have to admit roots are my off road nemesis and had it rained I'd have been running most of the course.
As it was there were parts I got off and ran but they became fewer as the day went on.
I haven't mountain biked enough in the last few years so i found myself learning to do it again over the first lap or two and by lap 5 and 6 I was confidently taking on all the obstacles (like in my youthful mtb days.) Lap 7 though was the last hour and I found myself mentally tired more than anything else and I was starting to make mistakes.
Having my support crew there made a difference too with bike cleaned and water and food changed over slickly between laps.
This is a great race and even though I was nowhere near the young 12 lap whipper snapper who won the solo race I did enjoy my last race before I become a 40 year old "man"!
You cant beta a free t-shirt either so thanks to the Hillbillies for a great race in one of my favourite parts not just of Scotland but the world!
