To Hell & Back

To Hell and Back, 144km, a mix of paved road, gravel road, farm track and single track, 8C and raining, this year it definitely lived up to its name!!

21 athletes started off on Sunday morning in 2 groups, one at 7am, the other at 7:45am. At 7am it was pouring rain, only just getting light and everyone was ready to go! This ride is hard any year, but with a soaking wet day, it was extra hard this year. This ride tests you in a lot of ways, the time (144km, but it takes between 5-7+hours to finish for athletes that are all generally 5:30 and faster IM bike riders), the technical aspects of the off road, the weather conditions and the “why am I out here in the cold and wet in Dec” questions that inevitably go through your head!

This year we really got a bit of everything (well except sun!), with it being so wet it meant that all the gravel roads where slow and soft, the off roads where extra challenging and some of them had a layer of ice underneath the water you definitley needed to be paying attention. There is over 25km of off road on this ride and this is very draining, just the work involved in trying to stay on your bike and the power you put out trying to keep moving forward in the soft wet mud is incredibly draining. The gravel roads are tough as well, you are sinking in the mud and spraying yourself and everyone around you, so that in order to draft you need to pay the price with a face full of mud (maybe not a bad idea to cut back on drafting in Ironman!). Then when you go out on the road it was windy and the big soft cross tires that are so important on the off road, just slow you down on the road.

This is really a back to basics type of ride and week, its about getting out there and challenging yourself, there are no splits, results, medals etc, its about enjoying being outside and doing something that 99% of people would never even consider doing.

You can see the pictures from the week here

 It was still pretty dark at 7am but at least that meant you couldn’t see the rain

 

 

it was a little lighter by 7:45am

 

Thanks to Paul and Power Bar for our aid station:

 

Chris and Lorne

 

Grunda’s Racing Stripe

 

Finishers get donuts

 

Bob needing his bike to hold him up

 

The course