Graeme Arnott is a member of the MarathonMTB.com Race Team, and has had a successful domestic season thus far. In October, he will be joining team mates Mike Blewitt and Justin Morris at the Crocodile Trophy, racing for Subaru/MarathonMTB.com
Mike and I decided that we needed to get some good riding in before heading off to the Croc Trophy next month, so we fronted up for Singletrack Mind Race 5 at Mount Annan to race pairs. There are many variations to the P-word phrase relating preparation to performance and all permutations were applicable to the outcome of our day – poor led to pitiful.
Bike wise, last minute preparations saw me phoning Mike at 8pm the night before to borrow a functioning rear wheel and Mike repossessing his 29er from a mate who explained that it no longer stayed in gear too well. So come race day, Mike’s bike sadly only made one lap. Mine held together and I got in some good laps, but the mental preparation for a solo 8 hours was lacking. The venue was a botanic garden. I had visions of lush foliage, cool lawns, babbling brooks and frolicking fauna. However, I fatefully omitted the “Australian” from my thinking. The Australian factor transformed my imagined Garden of Eden into a, by comparison, backyard from the Underworld: gnarled, hard wooded scrub, with thorns and spikes in place of leaves and parched, dusty, rocky ground. Although hardly this bad, this mental chasm meant that I made it half way to about the 4.5hr mark then had to stop and go home beaten. It is never good ending a race early.
I did find the track hard, but at the same time it was really quite enjoyable in the early stages – after the first warm-up and eye-in lap and before the fatigue and back pain laps. It was very tight and twisty but with plenty of berms and interesting rock obstacle sections. Definitely a track where skills and smoothness win out over power and heavy handedness.
So lessons learnt in the lead up to the Croc: get prepared and get back to Julia’s yoga classes.