Last week I found myself looking at “what did I have planned for the weekend?” only to get an email reminding me I had the Gazebo 3hr at the You Yangs on.
Mild trepidation, mild excitement mixed with the thought of knowing I was travelling to the You Yangs from Forrest (200km round trip x 2) twice this weekend.

Oh and the loop marked for the 3hr multi lap enduro was a fun one, even if the knowledge that my climbing is suboptimal at the moment.
Leaving the event centre, climbing up the friendly gradients means that you go harder and expect more, with a reward of descending Lactic and basically a fun course, just a lot of hurt for me right now.

Ok, so with that thought in my head, knowing that I have not been training just riding, I knew I needed to suffer and ride hard for 3hrs and with Bike Buller next weekend, I needed a friendly reminder of a suffer fest.

The race started in waves, A grade Men, 1 min break, then B grade men, 1 min break, then Womens category etc...
Within the first 500 mts we caught the back end of B grade men. Renata got a gap on me and was able to pass 4 or 5 riders ahead of me. I was on the limit trying to pass and could only really do it on wide corners. And so it was like this for the first 2 laps really and by lap 3 I had my own space and could pass the B grade men who were at the back of the pack. Renata had made her own break and it was good for me to use my will to go harder knowing that the race is never over until I cross the line after 3hrs.

So with every mild undulation on the climbs I would push hard, and create momentum to pull away from the girls behind me. Finally I got my flow on down Lactic and kept a steady pace each lap for sometime in the middle of the race with lap times varying by less than 10 seconds.

The womens grade had 18 riders with the mens grades all up consisting of around 150 riders resulting in a solid amount of riders on an 8km circuit.
By one hour in, the field was nicely spread out and I was glad I turned up.
Its amazing how quick a 3hr race goes!

I was by myself today, no Norm in tow, and thankfully I had Rachael and Fraser take me under their wing and I had support to hand me bottles when I needed it. Thank you Jean for doing this for me.
Everyone seemed to be having fun and the vibe of the event, the supporters, the people racing, all fantastic.

At around lap 6 I started to think I might only get one more lap in (silently excited at this) but at the same time, I always tell myself, “Ok Jess do one more and thats all you have to do,” but silently knowing that it is most likely 2 more, but I will deal with that fact right as I go through timing. If I come in before time, then its a done deal, I must go out again.

It can be funny at times watching myself go a little bit slower on a climb to see if I can NOT do another lap and then decide at that very moment that regrets last longer than sore legs so I go for the lap. Thankfully I did come in with 2 and a half minutes to spare and went out for the final lap resulting in 8 laps total.

I never did catch Renata, she was out in a league of her own. Fast, whippet, smooth skills and just totally in form for her upcoming Xterra series.
I think my determination and memory of what it is like to just suffer for 3hrs got me 2^nd position with Jackie Bernardi coming in a strong 3^rd place.

http://gmbc.com.au/sites/default/files/category%20lap%20results.pdf

I do love racing, I love the social side too, I love to win a hefty prize pack as well GMBC! Thanks for the lollies, yo yos and chocolate. I did share but yummo thanks!

Thanks for the chat afterwards girls, Tori and Carly – Liv/giant team mates.
Thank you Liv/giant for my amazing Lust 27.5 bike that makes riding so enjoyable.
Thanks GMBC for a well run event. had a ball!