The Husky 100ker...

The rest of Team Five Ten have been powering on after Geo however lately my motivation for training has taken a downward spiral, no particular reason really but I seemed to be struggling with a Canberra Winter, a new job and house renovations that were dragging on and with no central heating through all of this.  So I needed something to freshen up my training, what about a 100K MTB enduro?


Well lady luck was definitely smiling on me when I came across the cancelled Husky 100ker from June, by all accounts it seemed the perfect race for a first timer and with some sweet sounding single track thrown in.  The organisers had pushed the rescheduled date out to the 7th August so I was in luck, I could squeeze in a few laps of Bruce Ridge (my local single track area) with a couple of outings to Sparrow/East Kowen in hope of whipping my MTB legs into shape in what time I had left.

Clearly the organisers of the Husky have respect.  When I registered I found I qualified for the 'Super Masters' category i.e. those over 50!  I liked the sound of the title... it seemed pretty cool, there were a total of 29 in my category out of a field of 294 starters, but don't let that fool you (mistake number one).


The Husky is based out of Callala beach, just south of Nowra on the NSW south coast.  Being only 3 hours drive from Canberra I decided to leave late Saturday, stay in Nowra and then get a not so early start Sunday morning to make registration by 6am, perfect.  It rained the whole way from Canberra to the coast and mud was on my mind for the Sunday race.  The motel in Nowra turned out to be ok and I settled on greasy take-away followed by a couple of coffees to top off my Saturday evening, jeez these MTB racers sure know how to have a good time!


At least the rain had stopped Sunday morning and by 6am the sky was clear and early registration was open at Callala.  I registered, got my race number and started to change and prep my bike.  I chatted with another racer named Spencer (who'd parked next to my car) about modern carbon fibre bikes and the fact I'd splashed out the previous day on a carbon fibre bidon cage for my Trek Superfly, with thanks to the crew at Bike Culture in Canberra.  By 7am the crowds were gathering at the start area and I lined up with everyone else at the back of the pack along with a guy on a uni-cycle, the fact he was wearing 5.10 shoes was a nice touch... ;O)


So what to expect when it had been raining most of the day before and all that night, mud and lots of it.  Yes the Husky 100ker this year was muddy, the single track was muddy, fire trails were muddy just lots of mud.  For most of the 100k my chain sounded like a coffee grinder and I dare to think what state the brake pads are in, however the aid stations were staffed by very friendly and happy folks dispensing Shotz tabs, water, lollies and fruit... what a fantastic crew.  Did I say that I hadn't ridden much mud before, well this was certainly an introduction to riding mud and I have to say I really enjoyed it.


The Husky is both 100k and 50k races, it was at the 50km mark that I thought I probably would have been better entering the 50ker, that way I could have gone home at that point for a nice afternoon nap!  I pushed on through more mud but in the knowledge that most of the folks around me were probably feeling the same way, put it down to a perverse sense of humour.  It was at about the 95km mark that I met Keith, another Super Master who was powering along a fire trail.  I pulled in behind his wheel and stayed with him as he stepped on the gas.  For a while I forgot about being tired and just enjoyed some fast racing as we shot down sections of very narrow trail in the big ring.  It wasn't long before we rode together discussing all sorts of things and then into the finish line at the back of the Callala beach RSL, me in about 7h08m... not a great time but Ok for an old guy I suppose and my first 100ker on a bike!


As I write this up I'm checking the results for the Husky... first in the Super Master category was home in 5h02m - yikes!  Not bad when you think the first Elite rider and race winner was home in 4h24m... go the old guys!


This should give my XPD training a good kick start!