12 Hours of Bradbury MTB Race Report
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Greg Brown – Solo Class – 5th
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Twelve hours is a very long time to be doing a single activity. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I even could sleep for 12 hours… Anyway, in keeping with my mountain bike racing plan this year (namely: “bite off way more than you can chew, then chew hard”) I signed up for the second running of the Bradbury 12.
I had pre-ridden the first couple of miles the evening before (darkness fell and stopped me from getting around the whole 9 mile lap) and so had seen that the course was in great condition, had plenty of rooty/rocky sections (though nothing like Landmine!), and was not going to be a climbfest. With these comforting thoughts I slept well.
It was pretty chilly at 7:45am as we were lining up for the 8am kickoff – long finger gloves, arm/leg warmers were the order of the day. They sent the soloists off ahead of the team racers so there was an inevitable tangling of the fields as we (soloists) tried to settle into a sustainable pace while the team racers hammered for all they were worth. The first couple of laps went by quickly and I was in touch with the front few of my group (Solo Sport). Things were getting stretched out behind me and I was pleasantly surprised to be sitting pretty. The course had 4 or 5 technical sections (river crossings, muddy roots etc) that needed close attention. The roots never failed to amaze me in their ability to cause lateral instability. Even small looking ones would grab you and make you pay for lapses in concentration.
I took a break after 2 laps to get rid of my warm gear, refill the Camelbak, chat to my wife who was doing a fantastic feed zone duty for me and, well, just take a break. That was my plan for the rest of the day – just ride a good steady lap of around 1hr 10min then take a break. Looking back at the results if I had taken fewer/short breaks then I could have squeezed into the top 3 perhaps – but hey, I am happy I made it the full distance and was able to walk the next day! The Perpetuum energy drink I was using seemed to be doing the trick (no sugar rush, just constant drip feeding of good calories) – and I forced myself to stuff down a Cliffbar every lap. I went through a bad patch on laps 3 and 4 where my stomach started to complain, but thankfully that passed (literally).
It was amazing how the time really sped by after the initial few laps. Pretty soon I was calculating which lap I’d need to stop to throw the lights on the bike & helmet. I can’t say I was looking forward to the laps in the dark – the roots seem to be growing and getting more slippery as dusk set in. (Actually 12 hours is a long time period, even for a tree – perhaps the roots did grow!!?!?)
In the end the night lap was pretty good fun. The lights I had really blazed an awesome trail so the root and closely spaced tree sections were not so bad.
I was glad to finish my final lap safely 5th out of 22 solo sport riders with some time to spare, but no time to start another. From now on it was time to replace some of the roughly 9000 Calories my Polar HRM said I’d burned.
I’d definitely recommend the Bradbury 12 as a solo or team event. It was very well run and the trails are really, really good.