Wild Dog Enduro 2018
Miss V and I headed over to the Eyre Peninsula for the second running of the Wild Dog Enduro held in Whyalla on the slopes of Mount Laura. Conveniently, V's parents live near by so we could also take the time to have a family catch up.
As an event, this is shaping up to be a bit of a winner. Great organisation, great vibe and great trails. Can't ask for more than that. This year they also put on a trail running event the night before (Howling Dog) which sounds like it was very well received.
The course for this year was changed from last year, and while maybe a little harder, I think it was an improvement.
Despite being more difficult, I was aiming for 4 laps within the allocated 3 hours as I did last year. I had a bit more of an idea of the trails this time, so there would be fewer surprises, plus i think my fitness is much improved. There had been a little bit of rain about the place in recent days, but not really enough to consolidate the dusty and sandy trails.
I got a pretty reasonable start, though got held up with a number of people who possible started closer to the front than they ought to. Coming to the first few slight climbs there were people jumping off all over the place and walking. I managed to stay on and ride past however
My general race plan was to take it easier on lap 1 while the trails were potentially crowded and build up a bit of speed over the remaining laps. I was expecting lap times around the 40 minute mark which would get me to my goal with a little bit to spare.
Overall, lap 1 felt pretty good. Lap time just under 43 minutes, which was right about on target. Now.. go time!
Then.... I felt the rear wheel bottom out. FFS.
Looked like I had punctured at some point. I rode on for a while but then stopped to pump up the tyre. Figuring that i had sealant in there, I assumed that it'd seal up and things would be fine. Except it wasn't. Tyre kept slowly going down. So the rest of the race was spent babying the bike over the rocky sections, waiting for the tyre to go soft, stopping and pumping up the tyre. Race plan was pretty much shot at that point.
Lap 2 was ~48 minutes.
Lap 3 was pretty much the same. Babying the bike, stopping and pumping up the tyre. Having noted that the tyre was still going down repeatedly, i was starting to kick myself over not having just replaced the tube in the first instance. Lap 3 was ~48 minutes.
I rolled across the line at the end of lap 3 with 2hrs 20min on the race clock. Going full tilt I reckon i could get another lap in, but I knew full well that i'd need to stop during the lap to inflate my tyre, so i parked it. 3 laps total. Fairly disappointed to be honest. I had the pace, and felt pretty good. Replacing the tube after the event, it looked like there was either no sealant in the tube, or it'd dried up. Explains why the (3!) punctures weren't sealing during the race. That said, I fared better than a couple of mates I encouraged to take part. The first broke his chain 2km into the event; the second dislocated a shoulder while pushing for his 4th lap..
As an event though, highly recommended. Particularly (now) if you are crazy enough to like running as well as MTBing
https://www.strava.com/activities/1781816296
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. Ultimately, neither of these things actually cost me places and i finished about where i figured i would.. not last, but close to it 
)
though I'd rank it as a *much* better result as a result of the conditions. 
