Wainui 6hr Worlds

We had a pretty awesome team for this (if I may say so myself) with Lisa Morgan and Nic Johnson I was in with some pretty talented riders. I was really looking forward to this race as I’d heard about it and seen all the fun times others had had at it. I’d just gotten my new (well second-hand from Kim- but new for me) Carbon full suspension Trek Superfly, so it was going to be my first race and second ride on it. The masochistic part of me was pretty excited because they were making me do double laps.

Mum took me to Wainui super early so that Ricky and I could do some pre riding of B-line Extension and Snail Trail. Ricky had just started to give me descending coaching so my skills were better so I was feeling a bit more confident about the descents – I was pretty shocked when I actually caught and passed people gong down!

Of course with all good things there are some drawbacks, unfortunately for me I had to try to study for my maths internal that was coming up. That didn’t stop me from having good yarns with Nic, Lisa and Amy Champion.

In the end we won with us doing 11 laps.  Although it was a long and tough day and I was exhausted by the end I had an awesome time hanging with awesome people and riding an awesome bike. I wouldn’t have been able to race if it wasn’t for Lisa asking me to be in her team (and coaching me!!), Kim selling me her Superfly cheap, Ricky and the guys at Mud for putting my bike together and giving me XT componentry on loan. And of course Ricky for giving me the descending coaching.

Crazyman

When dad first brought it up I was like yeah, Nah. After some actual thought I agreed that if I could find a team mate (someone I knew) that I would do it. I managed to con my old primary school friend and amazing runner Anna Gibbs to do the run for me. Around a month before the race we got a kayaker (Brooklyn Saunders) - my friends little sister. So we had a multisport team in the schools category and in true Wellington Girls College fashion we were called The Teal Seals.

Brooklyn did an awesome Kayak; she was about mid pack. This meant that I wasn’t too far down when I started the bike.

After about 1 ½ hours I reached Hill Road. I was pretty pleased that I managed to ride most of the Hill Road climb, given I could only see 20-50m in front of me because of the low cloud. The best moment of the race was a few hundred metres from the transition when I hear “GO MARTI!” in a British accent. A few seconds later I see Kim running down to the track cheering me on, and start to run beside me.

I managed to get 2:50 for a time; I was pretty pleased with that given the conditions, but the medal winner for our team was Anna. She ran an amazing run taking only 1 ½ hours, which was high up in the running times. Our team managed to make the Schools multisport teams record, which was pretty special given that we originally hadn’t planned on being serious.

The real thing that made The Crazyman an awesome event was the atmosphere. Like most mountain biking events, Crazyman was all about having a good time and doing your best. This meant that you could have good laughs about who got the muddiest- I think I won that for my team.  Of course I wouldn’t have been able to ride what I did if it wasn’t for the amazing support I get from everyone. First off are my family, mum and dad were the best support crew I could have asked for. The next is the Gibbs and Saunders families, for agreeing to do it, getting up early in the morning and supporting all three of us. Of course you can’t race on a poorly maintained bike, so cheers to Ricky, Don and Dave at MUD Cycles for making sure my bike was running smoothly. Last but not least is the amazing coaching Lisa has given me and the finish line support from Kim.