Mountain Bike Hell

Last weekend I foolishly decided to compete in my first MTB race for seven years. God knows what made me do it. I’ve been riding my bike a bit, but I’m nowhere near as fit as I should be. I’ve done this before and the shock of how unfit I am usually shocks me into doing something.

The event was at Hua Hin. A coastal resort about 200km from our house. We found a hotel, one I will speak about in a later blog. The course was only about 10km away in the mountains at a army base. I went the afternoon before to sign on and get my number.

The following morning I lined up on the start line. Probaly twice the weight of the whippet like bloke next to me. I hadn’t pre ridden the course, it was only 35km so should’nt be too hard.

The gun went off and away I went. I was quite pleased with myself, I kept up with the lead group for about 400m before they vanished into the distance. I settled down with a group of six riders, the course was technical, but flat.

Then we reached the mountains, the path was vertical, maybe at my fittest ten years ago I might have been able to ride them, but now I was struggling to walk up them. I was KNACKERED! The downhills were no better. I was in trouble, but at least I had done about 7km, so I carried on. At the top of the next climb there was sign on a tree that said 3km. Shit! I thought I had done triple that. I had already drunk one of my two bottles. No way was I going to finish.

The terrain was a jungle, lots of creatures making loud noises, insects, humidity. The temperature at that time of day was nearing 40C. My arms were red with sunburn, I was getting delirious and I still had 25km to go. I came to a tarmaced road at the top of a mountain. I could see the race HQ in the valley below. So I’m sorry to report I packed.

Yes, I’m very unfit and yes I’m going to do something about it.

I will be back next year, hopefully fitter and more prepared.