2024 24hr WEMBO World Solo Championships

Wrap up and overview including the obligatory FB ‘annual’ expression of feelings. It is long but I am summarizing 24hrs and months prep, so you can endure a few paragraphs!

The rest of your life is the best of your life – live it!

  • Why? Mmm, because I thought I needed something hard to focus on that would take a lot of preparation, organisation, tenacity, resilience and craziness beyond what most people think a 55-year-old (or anyone) should do. To test my comfort zones and set new benchmarks. Plus, I had to do it again after being unhappy with last year ‘eye’ failure and not riding the full 24hrs! (only 21hrs!). I did this last year after over 12 years of not being able to ride a bike at all due to injuries and life’s challenges.

    This was step 2 of the comeback with an older more worn-out body than when I did it in my 40’s. To show myself that you can endure, come back from all challenges, change your expectations and move forward with different successes.

  • Where – Stromlo Mountain bike park – 28/29 Sep. I turned 55 on Friday and thought this would be a great way to celebrate my birthday.

  • What is this event? It is the World Endurance 24hr MTB race. Do as many laps of a demanding MTB single track course as you can in 24hrs. Racing against lunatics with their family and friends enabling this crazy behaviour by managing ‘pits’ as the ride through demanding to be fueled, cuddled and have their bum rubbed every lap.

Statistics: 

  • Riding Time – 24hr:10 min. 28 laps. Km’s – 310km.
  • Elevation > 7000m (for the non-MTB riders – that’s 30 times riding up MT Ainslie except on single track trails).
  • Some riders did Everest! 3rd Place in master’s, over 55+.
  • The overall winner did 40 laps, flew past me like I was walking and fuck me, the pro guys/gals are stupid fast.
  • Ride time included only 35 minutes of water bottle changes, light fittings, bum cream application, clothing changes, eating banana and baby food, and peeing on course.
  • MASSIVE THANK YOU: The Person I can never thank enough – Tracy Yeomans as manager Pit Crew and motivator and cruel dictator of my ride. The essential life person you must have, or you couldn’t do anything like this. I mean who stays up all night to rub your bum with cream, feed you, dress you, fix your bike, put lights on and lie to you about how good you are doing and keep making you go out again when you just want to cry. Tracy was well prepared from the normal daily living with me, feeding me, washing my clothes and looking after me every day.

  • Big Thank you to Rob McColl who stayed the full 24hrs and helped Tracy with everything and was there to support me every lap. Awake, cheerful and always ready to help. Big Thanks to Darren from Bike Superstore for looking after my bikes, all my tech needs and fixing things every time I break them with a smile and great support.

  • Best part – The support. Virtually every time I came back to the pit, someone new was there to wave at me and say something positive like; ‘you’re crazy’ and then off I would go. Sometimes I had to ride past with just a wave, but I really appreciated every bit of support just seeing friends and family make the effort to come and see a lunatic asylum riding in circles.
  • Congratulations. To every single rider who did their best and rode as much as they could. I don’t know you, but I understand a part of you. For the Elite men and women, I can not imagine how to get that fast and keep it up for so long, truly amazing and incomprehensible to a normal guy like me who was just out there meeting personal goals. To Jason English who is the 7-time world champion but still happy to give me advice and always has time to chat, even on course. People like you inspire people like me.

  • Worst part – The course. Up, up and up and then down! Great tracks, well cared for, well made but there is so much great track at Stromlo, this was a pretty lazy choice for a long single-track race – a longer course, some turns and flattish areas would have been better with so many options at Stromlo and this being a world champs it could of hard some intermediate trails twists and turns.

  • Doco coming up: Nick and Mick from Pixel Productions were there all night filming every pit stop, every lap and even had the gopro on me multiple times. They have documented the last two years of 24hr races, the training, some fight shows, some coaching, done loads of interviews and will be putting together some mocumentary about me and overcoming challenges as you age disgracefully, sometime soonish.

  • Limits: I now know this was on the edge of mine but if required could go more!. We all have them, but you don’t learn them if you limit yourself through fear of failure. I genuinely felt after going hard as I could for 4 laps, I was done. 3hrs into the race. 6hrs in I didn’t want to go out again and would have loved an excuse to stop and lived with something happening, like crashing into a kangaroo to allow me to stop. 12hrs in ‘my soul cheered’ halfway to then realise it was 12 more hours of the same and I was hurting, cramping, chaffing, had fucking sore legs and losing feeling in my right hand.

    At day light the sunrise made we wish it would end, only 6hr to go they say, 6 hrs of anything are a lot. It is a 100km MTB marathon, 2 running marathons, and I had to keep going for that long. Every pit stop was great, but you had to leave, not sit and not chat and just go again. Flats turned into inclines, rocks turned into boulders, hills into mountains and every hour took a lifetime. Sure, I thought about stopping, about resting, no one would care, I have done well to get here blah blah, but I would know, and I wanted to know I could grind on no matter what my body said and no matter what excuse my mind gave me to ruminate on. I tried to keep talking positive to myself, but I got bored with myself and just keep pushing because everything you face can be overcome, I just need it to make it until 12:00pm and gave myself no option to stop.

Fav Quote: You really inspired me – never to do anything like that!

  • Next: Recover and get back to riding but do it to explore, enjoy and constantly up the challenges. Some stage races and travel to explore new trails.

  • Lesson: Some lies are good for you. Tracy told me that I was coming third which was pretty motivating and a good reason to try a little harder. She said I was 6 minutes in front and had to keep pushing. That was true and I did pick it up. I thought, smash 3 laps, get a better lead, the whole time I could see the guy behind me on the long trails and it was stressful. If he passed me, I was doing my best so I would have cheered him on, but I wasn’t going to let it happen. At 6:00am Tracy said he was close on the same lap when I was actually over 1 lap in front of him with little chance of him catching me as long as didn’t stop! ‘Fuck’ I said and had to keep stops short and keep going. When I had 1 hour to go, (you can only go out once more after 11:00am), I could have stopped with no effect on 3rd place. Tracy said, “it is 24hr race not a 23hr race” and he might go again. So off I went on the hardest 1hr lap of the race finishing a full two laps in front of 4th and 1 lap behind second. So, her lies motivated me, gave me determination and that little extra to keep digging deeper and deeper into places I didn’t know existed inside you, that you never know until you break any preconceived limits you think you have.
  • Wake Up Call: Pride you feel deep inside is achieves through overcoming struggle. Mental strength is just ability to endure, and we can be stronger if we can face adversity by choice. Get up, train and work hard, routinely, fail, test your limits and do things that can seem impossible by building up to them and not quitting. You might not think you can do it, but you can prove yourself wrong.

  • Fun fact. I write on my handlebars during the race.
    1. Anthony v’s Anthony.
    2. Just fucking peddle
    3. Remember the Somme. (This is because I am a history buff and the suffering endured in WW1, by that entire generation, inspires me to not be a whimp).

  • Truth: I know that the ride was at the edge of my very limit in all aspects and that is why I feel proud of myself for once. I truly know I tried my best.

  • Preparation: A 24hr race is like going camping for 4 days. You have to be there early, set up and have everything ready for what is equivalent to 3 full days of being awake with no nights! Logistics is critical, planning with flexibility is a must and most of all, multiple hours training for many months leading up to an event where you test food, speed, hydration and build your mental toughness in small steps.
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