British Marathon Champs

My main focus for this year was the Marathon Champs. I’d never ridden a marathon before so in preparation I entered the Stilettoes on Wheels event in Sheffield the month before in the 4 hour solo category. This is a great event for getting women involved in the sport and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to give mountain biking a bash without the pressure of seeing too many lycra clad bodies around! I completed 9 laps and won by 11 minutes so I was happy to get the hours in the legs at race pace.

The days leading up to the marathon were all about prepping the bike (with an emergency brake swap with my husband's bike), nutrition and hydration. As this distance was all so new to me, it was mainly about trial and error. I was quite nervous, hoping that I would have done enough. The weather forecast was also set to be the hottest weekend of the year so it was so important to ensure I had the correct amount of fluids.

We travelled up to Scotland the morning of the race in the glorious sunshine as the start wasn’t until 12pm. Once the tent was up, I just tried to relax and stay out of the sun as much as possible. The race began in the beautiful town of Selkirk with a neutralised start. On that start list were big names – Sally Bigham, Jane Nusselli and Catherine Williamson. I recognised some friendly faces of Kerry MacPhee and Mel Alexander from the XC scene.

Once we had completed the 6k neutralised start, the pace quickened up the first fire road climb. I was keen to get a good start and positioning so I sat in 6^th up the first climb keeping Mel and Kerry close in sight. After feed zone 1, Mel unfortunately got a puncture; therefore I moved up to 5^th. By feed zone 2, I was still only 15 seconds behind Kerry in 4^th place. It was somewhere between feed zone 2 and 3, that the energy levels and legs began to go! The hills were never ending! The climb out of Innerleithen was ridiculously steep and long and I was starting to regret running the single chain ring. It was also somewhere within this climb that I took a wrong turning and ended up descending on the downhill run. I had a little banter with a fellow local racer who said ‘this is the last big climb; they are only little ones after this!’ From this point forward my aim was then to maintain my placing and that it was I did. Sally Bigham not only took the jersey but finished 7 minutes behind of the men’s winner Neal Crampton.

 

The course was a brilliant mix of natural single track, forest roads, hand-made single track, trail centre routes and the odd mud route here and there. The climbs were certainly lung and thigh busting with some technical descents which you had to be really careful not to puncture on! The views from the tops were amazing. It reminded me of riding in South Africa with just no civilisation around for miles. Scotland has to be the most beautiful place in the UK.

Overall I was really pleased with my first marathon experience and coming 5^th.  It was a massive learning curve and there are so many areas in preparation and during the race that I would do differently next time. A big thank you to my husband who not only managed to feed me at each station and shout support but also looked after our daughter at the same time - who said men can’t multi task?

 

A very late blog from my travels to South Africa

My name is Amber Southern and this is my first year in elite and my first blog for WXC (a little overdue this one I’m afraid!) It is my second full year of racing and I try to fit it all in being a full time teacher and mum to my 3 year old daughter.

The weekend before we flew out to SA at the end of March, I was racing in minus temperatures and centimetres of snow at the NPS at Sherwood. I’d had a nightmare race with a punctured tyre and a conversation with a tree which required stitches afterwards. Least to say, I couldn’t wait to get on that plane and fly to warmer temperatures to train and race in the SA National round 2, as well as see family. My coach had loaded up my training programme and I couldn’t wait to hit the trails that I’d spent hours You Tubing (I’m the queen of procrastinating when it comes to marking!) and I think you’d all agree that after the weather we’d had recently, the opportunity to ride dusty dry trails would get anyone slightly giddy!

It was safe to say, I wasn’t disappointed! I rode most days on a game reserve called Umgeni Valley where I regularly came across zebra, wildebeest an d giraffe.

 

The mountain bike community in SA is amazing – everybody was so friendly and willing to take me out on guided rides. One of those rides was the most epic I’ve ever been on. It began at 5am in the dark (crazy I know!) with the head lights on, but what a way to see the SA sunrise. We rode the 15k too

and from Karkloof, then rode the 30k route there which was amazing. It’s a natural trail which demanded so much more of the rider – natural rock gardens, tight corners and trails with different textured grounding. From start to finish it was all single track and fire road.  If SA didn’t have its problems, that would have converted me to move!! We spent a few days in the Drakensburg Mountains at a resort we usually stay at which have just recently added in mountain bike trails – heaven. The resort is 2,500m above sea level, so it was tough on the lungs and burning on the legs as there was some epic climbing involved.

We also checked out the World Cup course at Cascades on a number of days.

I gave the Tree House Rock Garden a good bash but it ended up winning and I went over the handle bars and tangled with my chain ring! Seven stitches later (can you see a pattern emerging?), antibiotics and painkillers – I only had four days till race day!

I decided to rest my leg until the Friday when I got in some teeth gritting practice laps on the course with my leg strapped up to the max. I’d come all this way – I was not going to give up! The course was fantastic. The first 1K was being used for the World Champs XCE and it was made up of a super fast fire road start, splitting single track, a rock garden then a real technical section made of rocks, jumps and logs. The rest of the course was climbing, climbing and more climbing. There was little recovery, but the descending single track flowed so well and was so much fun to ride. The course included the Tree House but after the accident a few days earlier, I’d decided to stick to the B line. There was a decent field for elite and U23. I found myself on the start line with Marisske Strauss who told me she had never ridden in snow or felt those kinds of temperatures when she took the win at Sherwood a couple of weeks previous – wow! Anyway, the start was super fast. I went into the first bit of single track 9^th. The technical section caused a rider in front of me to crash, and then the rider behind her crashed on top of her – it’s certainly going to be a crowd pleaser! I managed to stay out of trouble and move to 7^th. I maintained this position throughout the incredibly fast race, overtaking for 6^th place on the final lap.  I’d got so used to racing in mud, wet, sluggy conditions, that this blew my heart rate sky high! I had loads of support from family and friends and this does really help!

 

I came in 4^th elite and 6^th overall and grabbed my first UCI points. I was happy with that. It was a great way to end a fantastic holiday!

 

 

Bristol Bike Fest 2013

There’s a first time for everything and for me it was Bristol Bikefest. I entered the 3 hour solo. During the week the weather had been amazing and was the same for the whole weekend!

Rocking up Saturday early evening with my mum and sister, we set the tent up and watched the final hour of the 12hour event. The atmosphere was great, music pumping and everyone seemed so chilled. The music played on until early hours but I still managed to get my beauty sleep!

Sunday morning was a little cloudy but the sun did decide to make an appearance for the rest of the day. A mass start at 10am was not your usual mountain bike start; it was about a 200m sprint to your bike, grab it jump on and pedal off. It was hectic to say the least and I must say a lot of people nearly got tangled up in bikes but no one seemed that bothered!

The course was good fun; a lot of fast flowing single track with a couple of climbs. The first lap involved a bit of queuing behind riders as there were few places to overtake but you could make a few sneaky passes every now and again. Once everyone spread out it made it easier; I picked each rider off one by one for the whole race which really kept me going hard.

I came in just over 15mins before the 3hour cut off time; if I went out again the lap wouldn’t have counted so I finished there. I managed to complete 5 laps and was 1 lap ahead of 2^nd place so I was pretty happy with that.

The event was well organised and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks to everyone involved it was a great weekend.