Mt Isobel Challenge

After months of inactivity I was in desperate need of a hit out before winter. With not much happening on the mountain bike front I had to widen the search to a bit of multisport. With my bike skills and a love of rainbow thermals it's a natural fit. After all Bushlovers are always keen to try new things although unlike Davo I decided to pick running over nipple clamps and lead acid batteries.

So Mt Isobel challenge it was. Put on by the good folks at Hanmer events it was sure to be good. It involved a short canter up Mt Isobel then a bike to try claw back the inevitable humiliation. The run was only 8.6km so how hard could it be? Looking at the topography bloody hard was the answer as it climbed to 1316m in under 6km. I hadn't touched my running shoes in a year and wasn't even sure they were worn in as I can count the times I've used them on one hand. The bike on the other hand looked a cakewalk with 24km of gravel road with lots of downhill but almost no climbing.

Being well and truly sick of the study I should be doing we busted up to Hanmer after work on Friday to make a weekend of it. Carbo loaded with a few curries then an early night. It can be a little nippy this time of year so I was glad the morning was pretty mild with no frost and not a sign of snow on the mountain. Dropping my bike up to the transition pre race it was pretty windy at Jacks pass but otherwise conditions were ideal.

Lining up on the start line I had no idea how fast to go. I had a few km of road to sort myself out then it was on to the climb proper. This is when the pain began...

At first the track was runnable but as it progressed (and I became more knackered) a quick walk was the best I could manage at times. Some bits were proper steep requiring a little climbing on all fours. Looking at my watch I'd been going 20min and I had never been in such pain. Maybe I'm doing it wrong but I've never been in such a state on a bike. Running is proper hard.

To counter the pain was some fabulous views over the Huranui. As I continued to climb the track changed from native bush to sub alpine tussock to barren scree.

After nearly an hour (or to be precise 56:18) the summit finally came. I was too tired to celebrate it in bushlove fashion. (and wasn't wearing incredibly gay shorts and an action man survival belt)

If I thought running up was hard running down proved to be even worse. Within 10m I'd turned my ankle and soon was suffering from some nasty stitch. In the space of 2km and a drop of nearly 500m I'd managed to fall a number of times and lose over 4 min on the leaders. Downhill runnings a skill I sorely lack.

I was well stoked to reach transition at all. In the time it takes most people to get ready in the morning I was off on my bike. I knew I would have to push hard to save some face so put it in the big ring and got to work. While 24km long the bike was all gravel road with almost no climbing so there was little chance to impress. In the end I reeled in 14 people and put in a semi respectable 5th place for the ride in 1:01:09

So 14th overall and 9th in open men in a time of 2:14:41. Would have been nice to have been able to trim a minute or so off to get up in 5th but my run and in particular the downhill was to big a deficit to recover from. It was really good to give something different a crack rather than the usual xc jeyboi action. While I don't think I'll trade the lycra for rainbow polypros anytime soon you might see me lining up for the occasional race. The St James Challange in particular looks good.