The EPIC

The time had come for arguably the hardest and most important race of the year. The half epic or Merida Pursuit stretched over 56km of some south east QLD roads, fire roads, paddocks, and best of all the Hidden Vale single track. The race started at Mt Silvia about 45min drive from home. the race its self was hard, a mixture of everything if you couldn't climb you lose time, if you couldn't descend you would be over taken and if you could put your foot down on the flats you were dropped of the back or quickly brought back in by a chaser. For some reason everyone else started before the open men and elite men took of so it was a matter of battling through the ground for the first 10km. The gun went off for out start a straight away the pace was high, since the first section was up hill I was able to pull away from the pack. I said to my self as I looked up at the hundreds of people struggling on the hill that started in front of me, ' if anymore people get in front of me than there already is, this hill is going to take hours'. With the rest of the opens and elite men group behind me I powered up the hill trying to lose my competition in the crowd. As I went over the top of the hill no one was on the other side with a free following decent in front of me. I hit the road at the bottom of the hill and was quickly brought in by a group of 20 riders. The there was a small group of 6 elite riders who powered off on the front. after a little more time the were riders dropping of the back finally leaving a group of 6 heading up Laidley Gap. I decide to attack again trying to leave the group on the climb. As I quickly pulled away from my group if pulled in 2 riders that had been drooped from the leaders. I made in over the top of the with the 2 other riders. As went through the half way checkpoint, Mum met me with 2 new bottles and some more food. We powered off again down the road till we went though a gate leading into a paddock, again another hill confronted us, and as before I attack on the climb. One of the other riders came with me and we continued to push hard on the flats trying to pull way from our chasers. 2hrs into the race and my legs felt fine but suddenly the cramps started. I feel back off the wheel of the other rider struggling to keep the pedals turning. Close to the finish and I was met with a group of 3 riders, one of who was Ryan the other guy in the U19 Category. As we got closer to the finish the pace was lifted by Ryan at the front and I had no other choice but to go with him. I was right were I need to be on his wheel till another cramp st oped my leg from moving. Ryan pulled away, just in sight of the finishing banner only 25sec in front, second in the U19 category. I had lost the race because I ran out of fluid and food, with this being my second half marathon it was a lack of experience that that caused this mistake but something to remember for the next race.