Hi everyone,
I thought I'd take to the forum to jot down some post race feelings and general musings about life.
As some of the NSW Endurance racing crew may have noticed I fell off the face of the earth for a while. Actually, until this weekend, I hadn't done an endurance race since this one:
a little jaunt in Italy
Unfortunately, I've been a pretty sick little boy for much of the past 17 months - I had recurrent tonsillitis that left me so buggered I was puffed after walking up stairs - no amount of anitbiotics fixed it. About 5 months ago, I was told by a surgeon that I may as well go home and throw my bike in the bin, because I'd never ride again. She fefused surgical removal because there was a very good chance I'd bleed out on the operating table [but removing tonsils is a simple operation you say - unfortunately I had endocarditis leading to a mechanical aeortic valve replacement and life long warfarin therapy in 2007 {i.e. open heart surgery and blood thinners}: i.e. I don't stop bleeding, so slicing out my tonsils - one of the most bleed prone things in the body is something akin to Russian roulette]
Fortunately, I found a surgeon who took pity on me and believed me when I said whats the point in living if you can't race a bike with your mates, so we took the chance and had the operation. I wound up spending 16 days in hospital (fortunately during the tour de france). I survived (yay).
Finally, on 28 July 2013 I did my first bike ride since some time in Feb (I rode around the block a few times). Doing a 24 hour race on two and a half months of preparation (exactly 93 hours of riding prior to race day - not exactly the mega hours one needs to be competitive) was a pretty dicy proposition - I wasn't convinced I'd be able to finish. In case you were wondering how long you can hold a decent pace for in a 24 hour race on just 2 and a half months training; I can tell you, it lasts exactly 20.5 hours... then you go POP! in a big way. Much to my surprise I was able to hold 3rd place in the Mens 23-29 all through the night until about 9:30am, when i wasn't able to match the rest of the leading groups jacking up of the pace. The last two laps were pretty miserable, but I was relieved just to be back on a bike and pedaling. I was sad not to sneak my way onto a podium on home soil (so close!) - but can't complain about coming 4th in my age cat at 24hr worlds in my first ride longer than 5 hours since 20 May last year (literally).
This ride was made bearable by the fact I knew that I was sharing the track with about 241 of the kindest, most encouraging and most inspiring people on the face of the planet. Thank you to the 24hr community for inspiring to regain my health once again. Thanks to Russ, Sarah and Co for giving us somewhere to race it!
I'd love to give a quick shout out to Macquarie University that supports me in this crazy endeavor of mine. I couldn't balance law and bikes without their understanding. A shout out to the constant support of my parents. My girlfriend (who spent our 1st anniversary in the pit area - yep 12 october) and best mate Carl who also formed part of the pit crew.
I guess this is technically a sponsor plug: University admissions period is fast approaching - if any of the U23s/23-29s want to put a sport based application in (to hedge against missing UAI/ATAR cut offs) I can put a good word in at MQU for you
Finally (and on a more humorous note) I was devo that I didn't get the chance to meet my successor to the U23 title Jake Whitton. I can offer you precisely zero advice about honoring the jersey during races because I didn't do any (hopefully life risking surgery and setting a distance in 24 hours PB as part of the come back suffice to satisfy the cycling gods) But, I hope you have plenty of fun abusing your new found pick up line
Have your wingmen casually mention it at every opportunity and apply jokes about how you can 'ride all night' liberally
(P.S. Results may vary)
See you all at Solo Nats next year! (and hopefully before, I've just chalked up 3 months since my last infection so am pretty stoked about life and hope to actually make it to the odd race in between
)
-Andrew Clark #336
-that super large social networking site starting with f and ending with acebook .com/sasamat