Back to the Hills

Finally, since last November I returned to the mountains to get a proper test to see how my winters training had paid off. The annual Maulin Winter League hill race kicked off this morning.

As usual my race prep involved getting up as late as possible, down coffee and bailing into a car.

Arriving in Crone carpark, I began to get excited. Bumped into the usual friendly faces and got people pointed out to me who will probably be up in the running. While getting changed I heard Gerry telling guys to watch out for me. This put a smile on my face. Fear is a great thing.

Warming up the first hill I didn't feel too hot. So i found a flat section and slowly increased the pace before some down hill sprints to get the legs ticking over for what would be a fast start.

Finally got onto the start line and a guy by the name of Ian was there, according to Gerry, ex world champs team. I'd watch him but I reckoned I could take him. He didn't look like he paid Maulin the respect it deserved. The route was called out and someone shouted go; we were away. Brian Furey took us off hard up the climb. I decided I didn't want someone pacing me so I took control and went to the front but dropped the pace to something I could hold. Luckily the gamble paid off and they sat in behind me. Across the flat bit I stole a quick look back and we already had a gap. It felt good to feel the burn again.

Up the second section I let Ian take the lead. Sitting in behind him I let him go. Running hard up the road I sat close to some randomer and tailed him. I then caught a glimps of a blue top and I began to question who it was. At first I assumed it was Brian, but he didn't have the blue top on him. I took a small glance over my shoulder and my heart plummeted. Peter "the beast" O'Farrell had appeared out of nowhere. He completely demolished me on the same course last year. I decided to slot the negative taught and just get on with the job at hand.

I went to one side of the track to get away from the other runner who was picking up the pace. I caught peters eye and I moved back to where I was. Running along the track we hit the grassy bank. The red guy got dropped, Ian got a gap and Brian passed me out. After suffering up the climb - painfully slowing to a walk and saving my energy, allowing Peter and Brian to get a gap on me. Once i hit the track at the top I opened the pace and caught back up with Brian. I was suffering but I knew that all the pain ended at the summit. After that it was just a matter of holding it together and decending hard. All i had to do was make it to the summit. I suffered up the last bit trying to stay in contact with Brian.

Summitting the top I saw Brian take a bad spill and dust himself off but he lost his flow. What really interested me was the race that developed in front of my eyes further down the mountain. Peter had caught and passed Ian! Ian had had a big lead at the top but it had been swollowed up in the space of 200m! Seeing this I put the foot down and caught and passed Ian. By the end of the MTB switch backs I had my eyes on Peter, Ian was out of the picture as far as I was concerned. At the base of the Maulin Ride I caught Peter. I sat in behind him and let him set the pace. He still managed to get a gap at the top, my main concern been the 2km fire road at the end. I allowed myself to recover on the climb. I no longer cared what happened behind me. This was now between Peter and myself.

Taking the decent at my ultimate limit I closed the gap again. When we hit the road he had 10m. The gap seemed to be stuck at 10m no matter how hard I tried. A voice in my head finally goes, "sure second place isn't a half bad result. After all, this is Peter who has beaten you". When that taught was processed I completely flipped out. All that mattered was closing that gap cm by cm. There was no way in hell he was going to get across that line first. I had somehow managed to pull the competitiveness out of me; kicking and screaming!

I accelerated and was on his shoulder. I surged again and got in front but as I did, the pace slowed dramatically. He kindly pointed it out that the pace dropped and that Brian was slashing the gap on us, he also may have suggested that I was dead on my feet but this could also have been me messing with my own head.... Needless to say I upped the anty and slowly began to pull away from Peter, millimetre by millimetre. I needed to know how far I had left, so when I saw the T junction I threw down what I had left going sub 2:45min/k around the final bends.

Turning the last 180* turn I glanced back and realised that I had a tiny gap. I accelerated to the line, I gave it everything. I just managed to sneak the win. I rocked across the line and ended up in the carpark, on my hands and knees completely spewing up my guts :P

Quality effort. Really happy with the win :D