Bikes - Wednesday, November 15, 2006 3:41 - 0 Comments

Vaude Highland Fling 2006

The fling has been flung, and I’ve never been so happy to be average. The midweek mayhem crew rode Dirtworks in May in around 8 hours, and we finished this one in just over 7 hours. Given the training I’ve done, and the fact that cancer sticks still rule me, I must think 6.5 hours is attainable. Hey what about 6hours? Maybe that ship has sailed.

My Race
I thought I started the vaude stage too fast, completing the first 30k in 1:43. Sharn was on hand with some fresh supplies at the transition and then it was into the meat of the race - the 50k Forests stage, which included challenges like ‘the wall’, halfway hell’ - a 300m steep pinch, and ‘the kick’. I transitioned after 3:20 in the forest, where my second was missing. A quick stop at the water van, and the fact that my frazzled brain forgot to drink water for part of the last stage meant it didn’t make much of a difference. The 30k Specialized stage definitely involved some suffering, with my legs reminding me that next year I need to put some longer training rides in. I found myself walking up anything over 5 degrees. I finished the stage in 1:55. Final time 7:02:35 (275th)

The results
There were 564 finishers and 81 DNF in the full fling.
The winning time was 4:19 (Shaun Lewis) which is still incomprehensible to me. I mean I know I’m getting old but that’s ridiculous!! Shaun won by 5mins and just to show how fast that is - an hour later only 32 people had completed (including the first woman in 5:18). 2 hours back and 140 had finished, 424 to come!

Then there was the mayhem crew, with an average time of 7hr5m and position of 282 - squarely in the middle of the pack. The mayhem clan came 11th out of 21. So we were average - but very, very proud of it.

Full results & Wrap-up