Also lost fellow race carpooler with cold feet, in spite of this, managed to make the start of the race with plenty of time to spare.
The 35+ 4 race filled in forty eight hours so I signed up for the elite 4 race. Conditions were about fifteen degrees cooler than last year and also nobody had done Cat's Hill the prior day as we did last year so the race would probably be harder.
In this regard the race did not disappoint. For the first forty minutes, even though I was just sitting in, it was about ten percent harder than last year. A combination of younger and fresher legs probably contributed to this. After the turn from the flats, it was strung out for the next six miles and we passed the P12 women pack. Tried to rest a few times but at no point could I really coast and hang with the pack due to the terrain and pack speed.
What was really irritating is that the exact same spot as last year, about forty minutes in, at the middle of the first longer hill, I lost contact with the pack. By itself this hill is not that hard, the rollers in the leadup to the hill compound the difficulty.
Well I've paid so still need to race so for the next forty miles. Chase and am chased by a few fellow refugees from the cat 4 pack. Played the game of trying to see how long I could hold off the P12 women's pack since we had passed them. This only turned out to be one lap. Just for fun followed at a discreet distance up the last hill and the P12 women were going at about 4.3 w/kg for the four plus minutes, but they seemed to all be pretty comfortable as no one was dropped.
Actually felt stronger than last year and did not cramp (and fall over) and ended up finishing in about the same time this year, even though was solo for most of this year and with the groupetto last year. Also didn't want to disappoint all the kind folks yelling in support, so had to go hard.
CTL: 134
TSB: 6
Pavg: 181
Pnorm: 217
S: 29.5
C: 90
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