I woke up, in my B&B this morning, at 6.00am and looked out of the window.  Fine, sun rising, looking ok…  I performed my ablutions, looked out the window, and it was hammering it down!  My heart sank, but I got myself sorted anyway, knowing that since I hadn’t brought my waterproof with me, wearing it wasn’t an option anyway!.  Breakfast, 2 weetabix, low fat yoghurt, milk and black coffee, was thankfully pretty much what I’d have had at home, so that set me up ok.

I loaded the car, and headed off in the rain to the National Botanical Garden of Wales where I parked up, signed in, and joined the gathering throng.  By now the weather had cleared, the sun was coming out, and I was down to just two layers – sleevless + windproof gilet/jacket.  After some official speechy stuff, I was near the front of the 8:00am massed start, and we headed off.

The first 70 miles were fine.  Not too hilly, mostly quite scenic.  The Black Mountain – the big climb of the day – came about 20 odd miles in.  A very long slow slog up, followed by a scary too steep, too bendy, too “oh my god that’s a cliff edge” for me…I think I actually preferred the up!  I chatted to quite a few folk along the way, even getting a donation to my charity – so that was nice.  After 68 miles or so, at the 4th feed stop, the Merlin 1 route headed for base along with the guy I was chatting to, and my Merlin 2 route heads off on its own…

And that’s where the trouble began.  I didn’t see another cyclist for an hour and half.  There was a punishing headwind, on uninteresting, built up, frequently major with traffic, roads.  I realised I’d miscalculated how much further there was to go, so that I had considerably longer left than I thought.  There were very few “repeater” signs so I was almost constantly convinced I was lost.  I didn’t eat my lunch roll – it just didn’t appeal, so I picked the ham out instead, which in retrospect was a BAD idea.  My morale just sank, and sank.  Between 5 and 5 1/2 hours was a VERY black time.  It always amazing me just how low you can get in the middle of one of these events…which is probably why I just had to pull over, check the map to see that I wasn’t actually lost, and have a brief howl.

Luckily just as I was getting myself together, I saw two cyclists coming up behind me a way back.  Reassured that I wasn’t actually lost in Llanelli, I got back on, cycled along to the next feed station, where they met up with me.  We chatted a bit, and headed off together.  Sadly I and 174 (never did get the name) dropped the other chap fairly soon, but there was no way I was doing anything other than trying to get me “home”.  I can’t tell you much about the last however long.  Me and my new mate stuck together – he helped me keep going by being someone to talk to, and I helped him keep going by being in the lead.  My eating went to pot – I didn’t want to.  I had to make myself drink.  There were a lot of grinding ups, and not enough lovely downs.  It was just a long hard unremitting slog all the way back…

And 112 miles actually turned out to be 122 – which ain’t funny.  Having to retrace a chunk of the beginning of our route didn’t help, or make much sense and again – not enough signs left us nearly ready to call it quits before we found the left turn that rejoined the Druid route.  I had to take a gel near the end as the end kept being not quite yet..and I was starting to get that wobbly faint feeling which is generally considered to be a bad thing….

If I’d known that only 22 out of 250 starters (according to the food station man) people were doing the longer route, and that those 50 miles would be so bad, I’d have stuck to the 70 mile Merlin 1 route.  I can’t blame the weather, as we only got rained on twice – and briefly at that.  There were plenty of feedstops (6 in total), staffed by very friendly helpful Macmillan folk (I believe), so my bottles were kept topped up, and I did eat bananas.  A lot of the road surfaces throughout were bad, which didn’t help.  It was just a world apart from the first section of the ride…  If you’re thinking of doing the Merlin Ride, I’d recommend you stick to one of the shorter routes!

We finally got in after yet another bottom gear uphill grind – probably last as the broom wagon was sweeping up those few remaining.  The show had packed up, everyone had gone…it was not the most wonderful way to end an event.  We did have a nice chat with the organising folk, after having pointed out (not the first to do so unsurprisingly) that 112 miles is not 122.  They asked how it’d gone and being less than tactful I believe I said that “the last 40 miles sucked”.  To excuse my tactless behaviour, I did clarify, and hey, I was tired and very ouchy!  I’m not sure I’d have made it without my mate’s help, nor him with mine, so that was very equitable – and should he happen to be reading this – many thanks 🙂

Stats for you:

Cycling time: 8:10 ish (me)/8:32:50 (officially)
Distance: 122 miles
Avs: 14.9 mph
ODO: 1084 miles

Food consumed : 2 Torq bars, 3 *750ml Torq Energy, some ham, 1 1/2 bananas, 1 High5 with caffeine gel. (Yes – not enough!).

After all that, my average speed was pretty good – faster than the Dragon Ride – but it felt SO much worse.  I was kinda chuffed to see my new bike tick over to having done 1000 miles though 🙂  And there was one particular lovely downhill early on which I was flying down only to discover that there were traffic lights and queued cyclists 2/3 of the way down and…….just as I approached, the lights changed, and I just flew past them all on the outside…  A very nice moment *grin*.

Right now lots of me hurts – lots.  I’m relieved to say that’s my last LONG distance sportive this year…and I shall now be chillin’ until the L2P which is all of just over 2 weeks away!  Sponsor me – now!

PS: why is it when ever I end up cycling with a fellow male cyclist, they’re always full of how strong I am, and powerful, and so forth?  If that’s the case, then why the bejesus aren’t I any darn faster? 😉

“Some people think I’m crazy…” went the refrain, as I got up at 5:15am on Sunday morning.  Getting up that early to catch a lift to Bridgend, to cycle all day and then come home again.  They may have a point…

Nonetheless, I was up bright and early, all packed up, bottles in bags, and my check list ticked off.  R collected me a bit after 6am and we headed off to Wales in the sunshine.  Over the bridge and along the M4 where, the nearer we got, the clearer it became that the majority of the traffic was going the same place we were, as bikes adorned roof racks, wheels were seen lurking in boots.  It became clearer still when we got to jct 35 where there was an almighty queue to get off the motorway.  We tried to cheat and nip up to the next jct and then back through town, but…no joy…we still had to queue for ages to get in.  When you’re getting 3000 riders into one location, I guess there’s no getting around a degree of chaos.

After all that, finding a car parking space was bizarrely easy.  We got sorted, in the already warm sunshine, and cycled down to the start line, via the facilities.  Not much there really, but that wasn’t important.  So, nerves bubbling (mine not R’s!) we joined the feeder pen…and around 8:45ish we were off.  R headed for the hills almost instantly, as expected, leaving me in my usual element – me, the mp3, and the road.

The first part is relatively flat – they’ve added this section with a few little hills to get you going, but I didn’t really notice them, but I did like the Llantrisant forest section.  All the big hills were marked with a yellow poster telling you which hill, how long, gradient etc. which was very handy.  About 20 miles in is the Bwlch – for the 1st time.  I really didn’t know what to expect from the hills and actually – they’re ok, mostly.  Really really really long though…  An average gradient of 6% might not sound like much…but over 3.1 miles…it adds up!  I plodded my way up, pleased to find myself actually overtaking people as I got into my rythm.   And at the top, my goodness, the views…  I mean, just stunning.  Bit like the descent! *grin*

And that was very much the way the day went.  Up very long hills, down very long descents – the sort where you’re still going down after 10 minutes.  Which, to be fair, you’ve earnt!   They use some of these hills in the Tour of Britain and the Milk Race dontcha know 😉  The morning was warm sunny intervals, with only one chilly patch as I headed into the Brecon Beacons in the early afternoon – perfect cycling weather.  Then it just kept brightening up.  Blue skies and blazing sun may make the scenery pretty, but it ain’t so good for the riding…

I don’t think I’ll ever forget getting to Bwlch for the second time, being at the bottom somewhere, and looking up.  There in the distance, winding along the side of the mountain, was a long colourful ribbon of slow moving cyclists.  And that’s were I was headed.  Gulp!  Blimey that was hard.   4.3miles of 5% in unrelenting sunshine, with no breeze to relieve the heat, cyclists wiping out all over the place…  Every time you went around a bend you discovered more to come, and it wasn’t until near the top that you were far enough out of the shelter of the valley to catch the breeze which, though lovely, was on the too little too late side!  I was due to eat/drink at my 7 hour mark so made the sensible decision to stop, take my helmet off, have a drink and brief cool down before tackling the rest of the hill.   I can’t tell you how nice the down on the other side was 🙂

I do wish I’d remembered that that wasn’t the last hill…as coming across Llangenor was definitely a mental low point…by that time all I wanted to do was get done, not go up again!  Anyway, that done, the last 10k or so were flat enough to get me back, and I even did them at some speed, as my legs sensed the end.

I crossed the line at around 8:08 by my reckoning – not including stops – which about what I’d reckoned on doing.  My average speed was 14.5mph which, if you consider how long and slow the ups were, tells you how great the downs must have been to balance it out! *grin*.  It’s also a pretty good avs I reckon – I’m pleased with that.  R was waiting at the line (I dread to think how long he’d been there), and it was nice to see a friendly face.  I checked my chip in, and that was it, off home again.  The goody bag at the end was unexpected, but the free chilled recovery drink was manna from heaven 🙂

The route is stunning.  Just awesome scenery.  So many cyclists that you never feel like you’re lost.  There was a good atmosphere too – a few folk chatted to me, there was banter in passing, concern if anyone was stopped.  The Welsh folk were very friendly, quite a few clapping spectators, which is motivational.  The motorcycle outriders were lovely, as were the ambulance guys who I had to trouble for some Anthisan when, as I stopped to change the battery on the mp3, I got bitten by a horse fly!  It would definitely have been better/easier if the sun had stayed that bit further away in the afternoon, as various bits of me are now pinkly demonstrating.  It was just TOO hot on that darned hill…  Does the Dragon deserve its fearsome reputation?  Well kinda.  Certainly for length, and slogging…but (thank goodness) the hills weren’t as bad as some other events I’ve done.  Just sit, plod, and you get there.

On the organisation front, the food stops didn’t work for me – as usual – but they did have the water, and portable loos, that I needed.   The ability to go to the loo properly and not have to find some private corner somewhere is surprisingly important!  I ate and drank every 20 minutes as per – with extra drinking as required – which seemed to do the trick on the fueling front.  I also made a point of having my lunch – my (by then) well travelled and squished ham roll – at the half way mark.  It’s all part of breaking the ride up into manageable chunks.  See – cycling really is mental 😉

One Dragon – slain.  Which, according to S, would make me St. Jennifer.  *grin*  I wonder if St. George was so achey the next day? 😀

UPDATE : Official time: 8:29:48, which means poor R (7:10, 447th) had been waiting around quite some time before I got in!  Fastest was 5:47 (by Dan Lloyd), Slowest was 10:36.  Quite a few DNF, or DQs, even though they made the split.  I was 1301/1546 at the split 2:41:59 in, and 1224/1546 at the end, which is a bit depressing but about where I expected to be.  I’m just not a speed machine 🙁

I was going to comment on where the other 1500 had gone…but the timings are provisional at the mo so I’ll reserve judgement in case they suddenly appear.  Weird though…

OK, event review coming up – it’ll be a long one, so hang in there! :

Event two of the season saw me up and out of bed at 5am yesterday.  G & S collected me a bit before 6am and we headed off towards Wales.  The weather looked initially ominous but we passed through the rain on the motorway and could see the sun shining on the hills across the River Severn which was cheering.  It took less than an hour and a half to get to Monmouth, during which we chatted, and I ate my breakfast.  When we got there, the event was well sign-posted and there was plenty of free parking right there too.

Signing on was a breeze, with the added unexpected bonus of a free water bottle with gel and bar…very nice.  A queue for the portable loos, and then there was the usual period of putting bikes together, sorting kit, deciding to second guess the weather and choose which layers to wear, and also being slightly silly (nerves you know).  It was sunny, but chilly, which to be fair, is pretty much how it stayed all day.  Back to the portable loos.  Queue again.  Pick up the bikes.  Queue at the start…get your ticket stamped and…

…we set off at about 8:15am.  About 2 minutes later G and S headed off into the hills, never to be seen again, which, before it sounds like I’m complaining, is just the way I like it – I can’t keep up with them and trying to just depresses me!

So, what to say about the ride?  There were 14 hills, counted down on the route so you knew how many you had left to do.   Which makes you wonder what the definition of a hill is.  A couple of them I barely noticed.  Then there were several times I was definitely and distinctly going up…but those weren’t “hills” at all!  14 hills in 85 miles probably doesn’t sound like a lot.  Believe me it is.  Long slow drags for miles.  3 miles in one case I believe.  Which actually, if I’m going to have to go up hill, is the kind of hill I prefer.

Due to the hilly nature of the course – you were either going up, or down.  Very little flat.  On the ups you got too hot, on the downs it was pretty chilly.  Luckily I’d judged my layering right – sleeveless jersey, long sleeve jersey, and gilet.  The long sleeve came off at the first food stop at about 30 miles and that left me set for the rest of the day – with the zips going up and down as required. The food stops were frankly useless – just bits of orange and banana – 1st time around the flapjacks had run out when I got there, and 2nd time around fruit cake held no interest for me.  I did take some water at the first, drinks only, stop, used my little Torq single measure cannister, and made up a bottle.  Having suffered from this before I’d packed my own ham roll for lunch which I duly ate at the 48 mile stop – it adds structure to the day, and made a change from the Torq bars – I’m a lady who lunches you know *grin*.  I pottered ’round the entire thing on my own, at my own pace, with my mp3 as ever.  The odd “hellos” were exchanged, and I met the “famous one” too 😉 I had a bit of a flat patch around 5 hours or so in, but that didn’t last too long.

The biggest, and also the last, hill of the day was Symonds Yat.  Having read about it beforehand, I think I’d been dreading it the entire way ’round.  I couldn’t decide whether to take a gel beforehand or not, and opted not to, as I’d been consistent with my eating and drinking all the way ’round.  And I made it to the top!  I had to talk to myself.  And zig zag.  And stand up.  And sit down again.  And stand up.  And other various mental tricks…but I made it!  With a little whoop at the top which luckily there was no-one around to hear *grin*.  I was on a real high after that, and the last stretch home was a blast, my legs could sense “home”…not to mention the fac that the last 4 miles or so were properly downhill – the best way to end any event!  I got in after around 6 and a half hours of trip time at 3:15pm ish, and met up with G & S who had of course been in for a good 90 minutes…but that’s why they’re gold folk, and I’m not.  We sat in the sun and drank coffee and, in my case, Torq recovery.  I’m trying to be good about my nutrition you see 🙂

Stats for you:

Cycling time: 6:30:26
Distance: 85.335 miles
Avs: 13.1 mph
ODO: 9715.6 miles

Food consumed : 2 Torq bars, 2 *750ml Torq Energy, 1 wholemeal Ham roll, and some Torq Recovery afterwards.

I don’t know my official time, which is irritating.  There was a backlog – probably since they insisted on writing out a certificate for everyone – which is all very well, but I just wanted to know how I’d done.  Clearly my average speed was abysmal, but that’s hardly surprising with all those “hills” 🙂

Conclusion?  Well, it was a really good event in some respects.  Lovely route – gorgeous scenery, bluebells everywhere and so on.  The locals seemed friendly – there were various families and residents clapping as I cycled by, which gave me a little lift every time.  There were enough riders – around 800 I think – so there was always someone ahead or behind, so I never felt panicked that I was lost or had missed a sign.  It was also quite a tough route I think, but clearly achievable, cos I made it 🙂  I’d even go so far as to say I enjoyed it…

Organisationally speaking, not so good.  Useless foodstops.  I never got my free coffee and flapjack – the queue was huge, and apparently it was only tea that side anyway.  I never got my time.  And I never got any sense of the people running it either – it was all a bit functional as opposed to friendly.

We came home via a lovely pint of Perroni in Tintern, and food at the New Inn in Cross.  I was feeling pretty good afterwards, but when I got tired at the end of the evening, it was a bit like being hit with a sledgehammer.  I got out of the bath, went to bed…and was asleep instantly.  Today I feel pretty good.  My legs are fine – a little achey walking up Ebbor Gorge – but nothing to complain about.  So – result!

UPDATE:
OFFICIAL TIME: 6:50
Which puts me around 508th in a field of 651…no surprise there then!   The results have some very very fast times, I wonder if there was a shorter route?   Can it really be done in 3:38?!  Not by me! *grin*

Here I am, before and after, in my shiny new bespoke team of one kit 🙂  (thanks for playing photographer S!)

Up at 5:00am, out the door by 5:40am and off up the M5 to Worcestershire, dozing in the car as hubby played taxi driver.  After a minor detour (ok, so the google maps instructions didn’t work…) we arrived in Bradley Green pretty much at the time planned. Although we’d been warned that parking might be a problem…it wasn’t, there was a space in a lay-by with our name on it (metaphorically speaking).  We unstrapped the bike, loaded it (and me) up, and walked down to HQ at the Village Hall.   I got my number – 157 – sorted myself out, announced my departure to the timing lass, and that it was it – I hit the road at about 8:00am, leaving hubby and mob to their own devices.

It was decidedly nippy to start with.  Nice and dry though with not too much wind. I pottered along by myself for the first hour, getting warmed up, admiring the hazy early morning scenery.   I didn’t think I was going that fast, but did that first hour in 16.9mph, which was weird, and is also I think a first for me.

The second hour included the big hill of the day – Saintbury Hill. I’m glad I’d read the recce report as it meant I knew just what to expect. I got into a rhythm and plodded my way up – I even over took a few folk (wow!).   It was a long long hill…with the obligatory photographer 3/4 of the way up to catch you looking your best…Not!   At the top was the feed station, c.20 miles in, but I didn’t stop as I’d brought what I needed with me, and didn’t feel the need of a break then.   Then followed a long fast down, down Fish Hill which, as it occurred to me half way down, I think I’ve done as part of the Circuit of the Cotswolds last year. It was certainly familiar…  Shortly after that the sun came out too, which always makes cycling more fun.  (The hill brought me down to a 15.7mph average though…).

The third hour saw me chat to a few folk, pass some, and pick up a partner to cycle with – a nice older chap called Edward from Chard who, as I passed him, was (at the time) struggling, and was really pleased to have a wheel to follow.  As it turns out, we were a pretty good match, and cycled the rest of the way together – probably faster than either of us would have done individually.  Having a chat made the time pass faster too!

The third and fourth hours were rolling hills, with the odd steeper bit, in the sunshine, and pretty enjoyable. Just towards the end we picked up another couple who had been in front and then behind us earlier, and we chatted our way back to HQ, where the Mad March Hare himself clapped us in.

Cycling time: 4:10:41
Distance: 66.491 miles
Avs: 15.9 mph
ODO: 8759.3 miles

So, that was the Mad March Hare. I’m really pleased with my average speed. I did feel like I was pushing it, but I also felt like I was capable of doing so, and I guess I was because I made it.  I’m also impressed that I passed some people – rather than just the other way ’round.

It was a great value sportive – and I hope they run it again next year – I’m not sure how some of the bigger events justify their entry fee if you can get something this good for so much less – congrats all ’round!  The bacon butty back at HQ was proper lovely – and I’d earnt it! 🙂