Tragedy – unexpected breakages

When I got the Anthem one of the first things I did was replace the seat, and not just with any old seat. With a beautiful colour co-ordinated and light Specialized Ariel. I loved this seat. It looked amazing and felt great to ride. Every time I got my bike out of the garage it would greet me and make me smile, inviting me to get on and ride and ride. Then I went for a little superman over my bars onto the road and split my chin open. I thought the damage was solely to my fast healing body, I was wrong. Riding into the bike shop to pick up new, bloodless gloves I noticed a pronounced lean to the right. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, and hoped desperately that my wonderful seat was not stuffed. Alas, it was. Rails terribly bent.

The lovely mechanic at the Hub did his best to straighten them and the seat was rideable. My hopes soared and I headed up the hills for my planned 2.5 hrs. By the top of Rapaki I knew all was not well and had severe pain in places no one ever wants pain. By the time I made it home things were grim and I knew I had to get a new seat. Not good news given my destitute financial state.

There was only one thing for it. Time to sell my possessions! Used my gift for silliness I whipped up an ad for my spare couch and threw it on trademe. In no time I had hundreds of page views and loads of watchers. Unfortunately that didn’t turn into loads of bidders, but I got enough money to cover the cost of a new seat and some race entry fees. Yay.


The lovely Andrew at the Hub tracked me down a new seat (not as fabulous looking as my old seat) and had it ready for me to pick up in time for a ride on the dry tracks at the weekend. My butt (and other regions) were happy again and I spent a rather blusterous 3hrs riding up Kennedy’s (only got blown off three times), up Marleys, down Flying Nun (sketchy in the wind), up to the Traverse and across it (only blown off twice) and then for the first time up Mt Vernon. Mt Vernon was great, expect for the walkers who couldn’t hear me calling over the wind and then informed me that’d like to see me fall off cause that would be funny. I personally didn’t find this very amusing.

The wind took its toll on my and I headed down Rapaki, ruing the fact Old Bownevale wasn’t open and Rapaki was sooooo boring. Luckily I had the wind behind me and the way home and helped my tired legs over the Cashmere Downs. I was completely smashed and happy with it. I’m pretty stoked to be able to do long rides this early in the year. I’ll be sending my entry off to the McLeans 6hr this week. Yay!

And the prize for defending the world from roaming hordes of the undead is – a lovely handcrafted ninja throwing star!

Clockwise fromtop right: me, Mops, Rita, Nic, Anna

Saturday was the Giant 12hr Day Nighter at McLeans Island and our team was there to protect all from any wandering zombies. We were the Swine Flu Survivers Zombie Killing Mtb Army on SingleSpeeds (SFSZKMASS), and we were thoroughly prepared. Our team consisted of Rita “Double Agent” Langley, a specialist in zombie mob infiltration and endurance missions. Anna “Skull Crusher” Ross, lethal with a baseball bat and a danger to herself and others. Mops “Medic!!” Newall, the Florence Nightengale of the group, tough as nails and with a mouth to match, but always willing to go to the aid of a fallen comrade. Ring-in Nicole “Sniper” Symons, fast as lightening and crack shot, called in at the last minute to replace Michelle “Kill them all!” Peterson, who was taken down by zombie scum with a nasty bite to the hip. We can only pray she’s not infected. And finally me, Melanie “Field Commander” Dunlop, with the boots to kick the team in the arse and a voice to lay waste to all comers.

When doing battle with zombie, a large arsenal is vital for survival

The day started off in freezing style, hail pelted me as I packed the last vital supplies into the car. Anna arrived on time, a good omen for the rest of the day and we were off. Together we managed to secure a primo corner site with great lines of sight that would prevent us being flanked by the undead. In no time our camp was set up and coffee was brewing on the brazier, we were prepared for all eventualities. Rita bravely volunteered to lead us out and take the first two laps and soon she was lost in a sea of riders racing across the paddock to try and squash through the 2 rider wide scaffolding underpass. Rita set a blistering pace from the word go and we kept the camp clear of the undead scum and encouraged our fellow contestants on with kind words and soft voices.

As Rita and Mops rode the first 4 laps I decided that the 32:15 I had on was a wee bit tall for my feeble legs with the wet energy sapping grass and the nasty head winds up the stop banks and through the exposed section. A quick change back to 32:16 and I was feeling much happier by the time it was time for me to ride. It was still freezing so I decided to try riding one lap in my knee high Doc’s. They were ok on the flat and through the swoopy bits, but rubbish climbing the stopbanks and extremely slippery any time they got wet in the enormous puddles that were dotted around the course. Still it was fun riding in inappropriate footwear and all the boys that passed me liked them! I turned in a pretty good first lap which I think was about 32 minutes, but I’m not really sure. We checked our times and discovered there was a bit of a stuff up with our transponder (ours was missing when I went to get it, so we had number 21 instead of number 535), but that was quickly sorted, and we found ourselves placed 2nd. There was much rejoicing at camp with this news.

Only an undead freak could ride one of these!

We continued battling the zombie masses at camp, liberally peppering our competitors with potato pellets (zombie brains), encouragement and insults. Not to mention chasing any lurkers with guns blazing and baseball bat at the ready. Mops also went to the rescue of a fallen 6 hr solo competitor who was suffering from cramp and used her healing powers to get him back on the bike.

Mops administers first aid to a fallen competitor

For some reason we couldn’t get many people to oblige us and “DO A SKID!!!!”, but the few we did get were impressive and led to great raucous cheers. Rita, Mops, and Nic put in the hard yards and did double laps, being strongly motivated with threats of beatings. Anna and I took turn about to do single laps and the sun put in a very welcome appearance. There was still some wind, but it was no where near as awful as the morning. My laps felt better and better as the day progressed and I was loving the course, especially the flowing new section through the trees. The exposed new section was not as much fun, with its strange bump placements and constant headwind.

Zombie killing machine showing the spoils of the hunt

I even managed to pass quite a few people this year and the standard of passing was much better than last year with everyone being pretty considerate on my laps. The course was a good balance of hurty struggling parts and super fun bits where I was pretty much spinning out with the tailwind. It turns out all the roadie riding I’ve been doing has really paid off because my lungs were up to the task of the spinney gear. My throat was feeling worse for wear from the extreme heckling, so I rested it for short stretches when I wasn’t riding to make sure I could go the distance.

Zombies can sneak up from behind, however are easily fooled by this ruse!

We were lucky to be visited in our camp by plenty of cool people who came for a chat, to steal some of our warmth, to bring us delicious chocolate cup cakes (thanks so much Rachel, they were divine), and add to the lunacy we were trying to spread (yay! Michelle). There was also a very exciting moment when the evil zombies released a double ezi-up into the wind and it came rolling over the camp site towards us. Lucky a shiny new Range Rover stopped it from impaling us all, but it was touch and go. We never found the nest of zombies that threatened to lay us low, but we renewed our hunting with great vigour, smashing zombie brains with our bat whenever the opportunity arose.

Rita's amazing infiltration skillz almost result in a lost head

As the sun set we cranked up the fire again and sorted out the final lap order. As other teams stood round with clip boards carefully tracking each time, we cheered for the brave souls battling in the 12 hour solo. As other teams warmed up on wind trainers, we chased people with guns and bats and motivated them to try harder. And as darkness fell we got a wee bit serious and decided to go hell for leather at the end. I have to say I was feeling pretty nervous about doing the penultimate lap, however I was also relishing the chance to get a night lap in.

Zombie brain baseball, a fun family pursuit

As I set off there was next to no wind, but my legs were hurting bad. I kept pushing as hard as I could and by the time I got into the singletrack I was feeling good. I was in the hurt box in a way I’ve never been in before, but it was actually good and I was flying through the night. The whole last lap was a blur of passing, pain, grinning, grinding and joy. I truly loved this lap, it stands out in my mind as the best piece of riding I’ve ever done. I felt really fast and when I rolled into the camp I was completely and utterly spent and could only dimly comprehend how stoked my team mates were with my ride. I was grinning madly, but also struggling to stand and collapsed happy into the enormous pillow I’d brought with me for just such an occasion. I felt like I’d finally done a sub-30 minute lap, but the results say I only shaved 30 seconds off my time.

Nic put in a scorching last lap and we hoped we’d held onto second. With military precision, of course, we disposed of the zombie corpses littering the camp and packed it away and headed to the prize giving. Fully armed, we formed a protective circle with Mops standing sentry and waited for the results. Finally the women’s category was announced and our name was called. We got third and were all completely stoked (even though 2nd was a mere 10 secs faster). We went out there to have fun and ride our singlespeeds hard, not to win anything. I’m pretty sure that we had the most fun of any team that day and we certainly showed that you don’t need to take team’s events seriously to do well. We all received our ninja throwing stars and also managed to snake the best dressed prize, despite the crowd’s lack of appreciation for our zombie fighting skills. It was a great event, well run and more fun than just about anything else I can think of. Thanks to my fabulous team mates for getting us onto the podium, my first ever, and those who came along to say hi and support us for making it such a brilliant day. And huge thanks to my hubby for putting up with me this weekend!

Ninja’s rock – McLean’s Island 12hr Race

My first ever 12 hour race, and I guess my first ever “sponsored” race (and by sponsored I mean that my entry was paid for by work). I was up bright and early on Saturday morning, before 6am – horrific, packing food and making sure I had everything loaded into the van for the long day ahead. Swung by work at 7am to pick up 2 more team members and their gear and headed off to McLean’s Island, where we were meeting our final team member. With Iron Maiden and Metallica blearing from the sound system at the venue we scored a primo corner site close to the loos (very important) and in no time had a very comfortable site put together, complete with changing room, chairs, indoor hammock, comfy napping cushions, more food than you could shake a stick at, tools galore and most importantly, heaps of shade.
The team. A fantastic team it was too. Leading out (because we told him he had to) was Andy. Experienced 6 hour solo and 12 hour team racer, fresh back from completing the Whaka50 in Rotorua and IT systems genius. Bravely volunteering to go second after the cracking pace set by Andy was Liv. Elite women’s downhiller, cross country speedster and crazy, fabulous, fun chick. After a furious rock/paper/scissors battle it was deemed I would be the third rider, followed by Marty. Veteran of the CatEye Moonride in Rotorua, international jet-setter and hammock owner. Our team wasn’t out for prizes or glory, our team was there to have fun and with the help of the fantastic weather that’s exactly what we did.
The start was managed chaos and I was feeling extremely glad to be on the sidelines cheering Andy on. He blitzed the first lap and in just over 28mins Liv was out on the course. She was back only 5 secs slower than Andy and then I was off. My lungs protested as I got up to speed through the tents and took off across the field towards the stop-bank. In what was to be a theme for my day (and not really an unexpected one) people streamed past me. Sorry guys! By the time I got into the forest I’d found my legs and my lungs had settled down and I was, da-da-da-da-da loving it. All the practise had paid off as I pinned it down the stop-banks into the tight corners without braking. A big silly grin was plastered on my face as I kept pace with the fast guys who’d just passed me. Of course as soon as the swoopy sections finished they disappeared into the distance, but I was having a great time and didn’t care. Unfortunately it came unstuck when I left the forest and was on the last section of windy singletrack before the 4wd drive track slog back to the camp site. A rider called to pass and against my better judgement I moved to the left thinking he’d whip past on the little straight, but he didn’t make it past and I was forced to take the next corner wider than I’d like and my wheels disappeared from under me in the loose gravel. My left leg didn’t unclip and I had the very unpleasant sensation of the ligaments on the inside of my left leg being stretched way further than they like. It didn’t hurt at the time, but I knew things weren’t going to be good in the future. I was back on my bike straight away and pedalling furiously to keep my knee warm till I could get some Anti-flamme on it.
I trundled through the timing tent to beeps and then accelerated into the chicanes of the campsite. Our site was on corner 8 and those 7 other corners leading to it sucked. I blew into our transition area and flopped down into a chair as Marty sprinted off through the tents and out over the field. I was pretty happy with how my first lap felt, but I was under the mistaken impression that I’d done it in 45 mins (eeep!). I’d actually done it in 33.29 which was fantastic for me over the 12.5km distance. Unfortunately I hadn’t cleared my speedo after my warm up. This lead to a little confusion on the next lap I did when I arrived 10 minutes before anyone was expecting me after a fantastic feeling lap of 33.40. Marty was relaxing in a chair as I pulled in and looked pretty surprised. Ooops, my bad.
The day got warmer, the music was good and the cold chocolate milk rocked. Being on the bike felt great, but my knee was getting sorer and sorer when I was off it. Luckily my lovely hubby showed up with my knee brace and that helped a bit between laps. My third lap felt great, but I was held up a wee bit by a few people (yep, I did actually manage to pass some people!) and my time was 34.16. Still pretty damn consistent. My fourth lap was probably the windiest of the day, and didn’t feel too good and the sun was at an awful angle, but I pushed as much as I could and managed to get back in 33.53. My fifth, and what was to be my final, lap was the last lap without lights. It was pretty gloomy in the forest and I managed to past a few more people who weren’t so confident in the corners. My legs were really starting to burn in this lap and it was the first time I felt my knee hurt on the bike all day so I knew it was going to be my last. Climbing the stop bank for the last time was not fun. Especially when the guy I’d been chasing through the forest and finally caught mere minutes earlier, went past me again along to the top. I pushed for all I was worth across the paddock and back through the tents, damn it hurt, and am proud to say finished my last lap in 34.27.
So all up I did 62km, just under 3 hrs of riding and there was less than a minute’s difference between my first lap and my last lap. Yipeee. Also I managed to do a tiny huck down one of the ditches in the paddock (very important achievement). It’s the longest distance I’ve ever done competitively so I’m pretty stoked with that.
For a team that was out to have fun we did great, getting 19th out of 36 in our category, completing 23 laps and finishing in 11:45:39. It was definitely one of the most fun days I’ve had on the bike and that’s mainly due to the fantastic team I was in. Cheers guys – bring on Hanmer!
Unfortunately things weren’t boding so well for my knee. I could hardly walk by the time we’d packed everything up and getting home to discover there was no hot water didn’t aid matters at all. Luckily we had some Voltaren pills from when Pete hurt his back so I was able to get some sleep. Surprisingly the next morning my legs felt good, and my knee was much better. I’ve made a physio appointment for Wednesday to get it sorted as we’re off to Rotorua this weekend. Yeeeee-haaaaa. My legs felt tired on the ride to work this morning, but they also felt stronger. With the Molesworth now only 4 weeks away I feel like I’m in pretty good shape to finish it in under 6 hours.

On the Mend

What a difference a week makes. I took 2 days off at the start of last week and made a doctor’s appointment as I was still feeling completely smashed. While the 2 days of doing nothing were very enjoyable I didn’t feel any better, so off to my wonderful doctor I trotted (well I actually drove there because I was feeling so rubbish). It would be fair to say that I haven’t really ever liked going to the doctor and have in the past gone out of my way to avoid a visit. I feel quite different now that I’ve finally got a fantastic doctor who I can talk to, listens to what I say and doesn’t just prescribe me drugs. Just to contradict my last sentence this visit was all about the drugs. After explaining how crap I’ve been feeling and how long it’s been since I felt good we agreed that a 5 day course of steroids would probably be the best bet. I was at the point now where I was actually looking forward to taking anything, if it would help. That was Wednesday. Thursday and Friday I biked to work and was feeling a little better. Friday night Pete and I went nightriding at the sandpit and amazingly enough I made it all the way round without feeling too bad.
On Saturday I was feeling quite a lot better and decided to head out to McLean’s for a spot of practise for the 12 hour race in a couple of weeks. I wasn’t really sure how I’d go so I planned on doing a minimum of 2 laps with a max goal of 4. I also wanted to try and keep my lap times to about 30mins for the 10km loop, but I wasn’t sure if that would actually be possible. Off I went, not setting a blistering pace, just easing into it and enjoying the forest and being on my good bike after so long. It was fantastic. After about 15mins I felt nicely warmed up and my chest and legs felt really good. I did the first lap in 30 mins and didn’t really feel like I was pushing so I headed straight back into the forest for another loop. This also felt really good, although by the end of it I was a bit peckish and had run out of water. I made a brief muesli bar and water stop and headed back into the forest. I was amazed how good I still felt. About three quarters of the way round this lap the southerly front hit and it hit hard. The temperature plummeted and it started spitting. I was not prepared for this weather so it put the kye-bosh on my plans for a 4th lap. Feeling very hungry and very happy I headed into town for some lunch. This ride has really perked me up and given me back my confidence for the 12 hour race. I’m in a 4 person team with some guys from work called the NIWA Ninja’s of the Apocalypse. It should be a great laugh.
Sunday was a gorgeous sunny day and Pete and I headed to the sandpit. I was interested to see how I would go after doing 30kms the previous day and was pleasantly surprised that my lovely singlespeed didn’t hurt me at all. In fact I actually managed to do 2 laps in a row and felt I could have done three. Yes!!! Finally.
Admittedly I’m feeling a little flat today. I had a good roadie ride in over the wee hills this morning, no chest pain, but the gym has left me feeling a wee bit drained. I just had a gentle weights workout and did lots of stretching. My trainer was glad I was back and is the only person all week to ask me about my lovely bruise from the race. Hehe, people are funny.
So day light savings has started and my motivation is back. Bring on the sun, bring on the riding and in the not to distant future, bring on the hill training (aargggh, hills).