We were fortunate enough to be able to try things a little differently this time as Mr Miles was racing in a mixed four and would have even less time to keep an eye on me than he did at Mayhem. My massive lucky break this time was that Neil (our good friend and knowledgeable guru of all things sporting and outdoors) and also Jo (minus shop and heavily armed with sugar bombs and other scrummy edibles) both happened to be free from Saturday evening and despite the gruesome weather forecast they had volunteered to come and help. A very HUGE thanks to you both!

The weather on race morning was much improved although the damage to the course had already been done and the first few laps were a bit of a hard slog until the multitude of wheels had succeeded in packing the course down to something a little more fun.




I was planning to be eating a lot more from the off but as usual my plans didn’t quite turn into reality and when Neil arrived there was already a bit of catching up with the packing in of food to do. I was lapping pretty consistently at this point and felt reasonably within myself given that the course itself was personally very challenging as slippery off camber roots are not my favourite cup of tea (I’ll take a double massive snow capped mountain with extra climbs please!).

The hours ticked by and Neil kept a watchful eye on what I was up to whilst Mr Miles had the not too joyous task of trying to keep the bikes clean in between his racing duties. Jo arrived later in the evening armed with lots of new food choices including freshly boiled homegrown potatoes, which were gorgeous. Note to self - remember to remove potato skins in case they make sudden reappearance like this time!










The high point of the evening for me was the glorious sunset, which just seemed to go on and on forever. This was however followed by the not so glorious hours of darkness and the return of the rainfall to produce ever-decaying course conditions and a serious reduction in enjoyment! The 12hour riders just about escaped the return of the mud fest (top ride Jenn!) and the course had now became rather deserted (minus the desert!!).

There now followed some real comedy moments when on consecutive laps I took two rather painful flights over the handlebars when my front wheel was so packed with mud it had less grip than my turbo training tyre. The next lap produced the icing on the cake when I fell completely asleep whilst riding and smacked straight into a tree! Needless to say at my next pit stop there was a request for emergency caffeine before I knocked myself (or someone else!) out cold!









Daybreak normally gives a bit of an emotional lift but on this occasion the weather was dampening everything, including riders’ spirits. It was bizarre how much the birds were singing their heads off though, clearly oblivious to all the suffering going on below them!

I had slipped down the running order during the night and off a podium spot but I was now getting over my sick phase and being able to keep food down so I was starting to feel much better and picked up my pace. Sneaking back on to the podium was starting to look within grasp and it was time to dig deep. Digging deep this particular time was literal as well as emotional with mud packed wheels just ceasing to go round making the task in hand even harder than usual (think disc wheels by the Flintstones).

The finish of the twentfour12 (in coincidentally twenty-four hours and twelve minutes) was very emotional for me. Mayhem was gruelling and tough to finish in the weather conditions (and a completely different experience to the previous year) but when you attempt three of anything then the middle one is always going to the hardest.









I learnt a lot from this one, I was able to ride very strong at the end even though the course conditions were getting worse and as a bonus I successfully sneaked back onto the podium! Hoorah! It was certainly a very surreal experience being interviewed the moment I finished by the lovely Countryfile TV crew – I just hope that I managed to string together some sensible words!!

Thanks to all those cheery souls with huge smiles that gave me so much encouragement throughout the event (you know who you are) and an especially MASSIVE thanks again to Neil and Jo who gave up a nights sleep to make such a huge difference to this particular 24hour experience and of course always to the long suffering Mr Miles who with his team stormed to top spot in the mixed team category. Nice one babe.

Well I’m off now for some more recovery (beers) - there is a great report on the whole event and links to a kerbillion of fabulous photos from Joolze and Mr Joolze (aka Dave) on www.britishcycling.org.uk and also on www.joolzedymond.com so take a look and pencil something dirty in your diary right now!






NEXT RACE REPORT:

The final piece of my 2007 endurance challenge is my third 24hour solo effort at Kona’s Sleepless in the Saddle on 11th/12th August 2007 to be held at Catton Park. Jo has become an addict to the adrenalin of lurking as pit crew so she will be joining Mr Miles for the home stretch on Sunday as he has decided to dedicate the whole 24hours to being able to tell me exactly what to do and me being too tired to argue back!

Hopefully we will see some of you there; you never know I may be able to fit my white tassels back on my bike and we may even need to buy sun cream!!! Let’s hope so.

All photos by Mr Miles and his trusty snapper (don’t ask).