That was fun. All trails I had done before, but strung together in a new way and with quite a crowd to ride in at the beginning, and no stopping to chat every 10 minutes. Liam and I started at the back because we were newbs, and the last I saw of him was at the bottom of the first big climb. He told me later his strategy was to sprint up every hill then rest at the top. Friggin' soccer player/sprinters...
Of course my strategy was different, and I tried to keep it under control in the (ultimately, vain) hope of delaying that big 'ding' at 1h:15m that signals when I should stop for coffee. (Whaddya mean it means one more lap?!?!?)
I very nearly bonked by the end (1:48 was my time.), so apparently I didn't go slow enough at the start. Wolfed down everything in sight at the finish, and kept eating until about 6. (Yes I had breakfast; I think I just haven't actually gone hard and steady for 1:48 in a while. Note to self: might need to train.
I did notice that I was having an easier time than almost everyone around me in the technical stuff, so either riding with the kids has smoothed me out, or my bike (heavyish longer travel trail bike vs true xc bike was the trick for hartland rocks. Or we all just suck back there, and I just sucked a little less.
Big thank you to Roland for his race bike from last year. Liam sounded like he quite liked it, said he got into the zone after a while, and did a very creditable 11th, 1:38. His friend Thomas Doyle rode expert, which was a lap longer, but he did similar lap times, and he was within three minutes of Logan Simonson,, so he's in the ball park. Liam is now talking a new-to-him bike, so he might just be catching the bug. Thanks for that Roland!
results
http://www.islandcupseries.com/
PS Alex wasn't quite ready to race, and her dad really wanted to try his new bike, and could only ride in the afternoon. So they went up later. I think Alex would have liked it.
