Julie Greengrass

One of my main worries was food.  I'd ridden on many long rides trying out new things, but on my last long (60 mile) ride before the race I'd been hungry and suffering the effects of low blood sugar (for me short tempered and tearful) only 3 hours into the 9 1/2 hour ride.  My previous plan of eat every 45 minutes wasn't working anymore.  Rather than dwell on it, I called the guys at Torq http://www.torqfitness.co.uk.  I spoke to Ant, and his advice was invaluable and answered a lot of questions that I had about why my eating wasn't working and what  I  should eat for a 24 hour ride.  The main things that I was getting wrong were too much fat  and fibre (effect: makes you feel full and not want to eat anymore) and not enough carbohydrates regularly enough (effect: nothing left in your legs), or sometimes too much carb in one go (effect : nausea from too rich solution in your tummy).  The plan for the race was to aim for low fat, low fibre foods and consume approximately 60g of carbohydrate every hour.  Once I'd calculated it all out I could get away with having most of my energy in liquid form: 750ml of Torq energy = 45g carb, then make up the difference with 1/2 Torq bar or a gel, a banana, new potatoes with salt on, or some jelly sweets.  Every 6 hours I'd also have 1/2 a bottle of Torq Recovery (Strawberries and Cream the new flavour even tastes quite nice).  During the race I found this calmed my stomach and with no windy after effects.

So food sorted, bike sorted, and as many water bottles as I could cobble together and I was ready. I travelled down on the Thursday before to avoid driving in school break up traffic on the Friday (plus my rule of thumb is no M6 on a Friday) and so that I could get a good spot.  Before the race I felt calmer than I ever had before a race, safe in the knowledge that I'd done everything that I could and it was just up to me physically to do the rest.  The people at the race also helped with the calmness.  I'd selected my trackside spot in the solo camping area with a little bit of help from regular soloist Pitch (John Pitchers http://www.thebikelivery.com) and his partner Chrissy.  We ended up with a little community of us all helping each other out, chatting and giving a bit of moral support. It was like a holiday.

The course was excellent.  I'd raced 12 hours solo here in 2009 and loved the course, this year it was better.  For the first 6 hours it was dry and fast, with only a few muddy sections that hadn't dried out from the rain from the previous night.  I'd say out of SITS, Mayhem and Twentyfour/12 this was my favourite course as it had enough technical sections to add a fun element, the climbs were in there but nothing as energy sapping as the climbs at Mayhem and when the rain came  the course was still rideable.  And rain it did, and stayed to see most of the race.  But once you're out in it, you don't really notice it so much.  The rain was fairly fine and in the dark, at the highest points it was like mist in front of my lights.  The ground went sticky, and then sloppy.  I would have preferred it to keep raining than the stop start rain that we had, as the ground went continually from sloppy to sticky (give me sloppy any day as you're riding through the bottom of puddles, and less sticks to the bike).  

24 hour solo is a different feeling to 6 hours, 12 hours or team racing.  I was going at a different pace, I saw the track morph again and again and again, and everyone was friendly (although there were a few shouts at guys that think it's ok to cut other riders up, or just shout 'rider' at you and expect you to be able to guess which side they're aiming at - I'm a rider too!)  The mud was good in a way, I was really muddy so stood out from the team racers (who smelt so clean riding past me in fresh kit) and the KMP kit still stood out through the mud.  The KMP had a team racing too: Phil, Frazer, Oli, Lea and extra member Nick.  The boys did some good heckling both on and off the lap, it was reassuring every time one of them went past me; I felt like part of the team and they kept me going.  I made a 'solo friend' too, Gary Lake http://www.cyclistno1.co.uk/blog/amateur-mtb-marathon-gary-rode-24.htm, we kept on meeting on the course, and it was nice to know after the finish that he'd been asking the guys in the community if I was still going and ok.  All of the cheering and words of encouragement really put a massive smile on my face and gave me a little warm feeling inside.  My friend Claire and her dog Rapha kept on popping up randomly around the course shouting words of encouragement too, which was brilliant.  There was even one guy on the last bit through the campsite towards the end of the lap that said 'come on 75' almost every lap, and then stood there handing out Jelly Babies on Sunday morning, which was just so lovely.   I got called 'bonkers' and 'mental' by fellow riders, but that just made me smile more. 

At around 3am I'd been dealing with continual chain suck for as long as I could bare,  I'd also been suffering with a really sore back for around 9 hours. Many would have seen me bent double at the side of the course trying to stretch it out (thank you to those that asked if I was ok).  I'd tried everything, pain killers, standing up on climbs, stretching, I'd even borrowed a USE shock post http://www.use1.com/product/000056/carbon-sumo-xcr/ from fellow soloist, Rich Rothwell's PB and all round star with his constant enthusiasm, Ian Leitch but I was still in wincing pain. No pit crew meant nobody to change tyres to mud tyres and re fit the saddle on the other bike so I had to crack on with the tyres I had and laps were taking nearly 2 hours because of the stopping to stretch the pain out or clear out my mech.  I was feeling pretty down at this point, but I didn't want to give up.  Chrissy kindly said that she'd check on me in an hour.  I set to work giving myself a (mental) kick up the ass and also laid on the cold wet floor of the tent (not too comfy at all so I couldn't fall asleep) and tried to stretch my back out. 

The whole time on or off the course I had three little words in my head that kept me sticking at it that had been texted to me before the start of the race, plus a promise that I'd made to myself that if I was going to try something I'd go all the way and see it out to the end.  A rustle in the pit made me sit up and I found Rory from USE writing on my white board "solid 4th", some positive words and a check of my lights and I was rearing to go again.  Fresh, non abrasive/non skin grating, non grit-filled shorts, a dollop of chamois cream,  a dry jersey, a Torq gel and I was ready.  I made the executive decision that I would only ride in middle ring from then onwards as it only sucked in granny helped by the amount of mud, twigs and stones that had tarred and feathered my bike. Standing up more would help my back too....and it was so.

At the end of that lap, as dawn was properly kicking in and I came through a rather sleepy, empty arena Ian was there with the words " Oi Miss Greengrass and 3rd on the Podium, you're doing really well, now get a move on".  I was 3rd.  I couldn't believe it. I'd never gone out for a podium, just to do it.  The news that I was in 3rd brought with it some fresh determination, and in the quiet of the singletrack, a few tears.  I dug in, and kept on going.  A cheery Matt Carr caught up and overtook me a few times (not sure how we kept on ending up at the same spot on a lap, but it kept me smiling), and he came up with a cunning plan to clean bikes off in the flowing river at the side of the course.  Genius, and also helped a lot to prevent the ever present threat of chain suck.  The mud was just laughable, and that's all you could do, well apart from get really good at skidding :-)

I then found out how I'd gained a place, as I neared the end of my lap, there was Lorraine (Slaley), at the wrong side of trackside, clean and in normal clothes. "bet you didn't expect to see me here", and she was right.  I expected to have been lapped by Lorraine as she's far more experienced than me.  Poor Lorraine had struggled to keep food down, and eventually had to stop.  I was gutted for her and as I pedalled away, there were more tears in the singletrack. (tired and emotional!)

I'd made it through the night-ish, it was morning, it was still raining, but as the morning wore on the rain stopped.  On lap 15 I'd hoped that I'd not have to go out and do another lap, but it was only 10.30am when I came into the pit.  By this time, those in our little camping community that had stopped by choice or not were on hand to clean my bike off and update me on my position.  It was a happy sight, having four guys gathered around cleaning my bike off, whilst I stuck some food in my face.  Big Rob Dean, was one of the four. Bad luck had struck him down again, this is not his 24hr solo year.  Lucky for me Rob had been to check on my position in the race: 2nd place was 2 laps ahead and 4th was 2 laps behind.  So, I could stop now......or I could do as Rob suggested. "the sun's out, you're not going to lose your placing, go and ride your last lap in the sunshine and enjoy it, then arrive in the arena  just after midday and shake Keith Bontrager's hand".  Or I could look at it this way and damn well do what I'd planned to do which is ride for 24 hours and go all the way till the finish.  That had been my aim, to stop now would be like finishing early.... and the sun had come out.  Last lap here we go.

I don't know about you, but I have last lap syndrome, it's a terrible affliction but it's great fun (and a wee bit painful).  A little switch flicks in my head, I drop a gear and put my foot down.  Even after 221/2 hours, that switch still flicked, and I loved every minute of my last lap; for one the feeling of a little bit of speed was great, then the warmth of the sun on my skin felt amazing, as did coming into the arena after achieving what I'd set out to do.  I'd finished. Hooray!

I was ecstatic, there were hugs and laughs all round and the beams from the sun couldn't beat the beaming smile on my face. 16 laps and around 130miles, with much of that through the mud. Pitch came in not long after me and we sat and ate burgers and sausages - 'real' food, they tasted so good. It was such a fantastic experience, one I think I might like to go through again, but I think I'll always remember those three little words, that kept me plugging away, that made me get back out there despite my back and the chain suck even when everyone else around me had stopped and gone to bed.....

Ride To Finish.