{"id":2046,"date":"2009-08-11T09:08:10","date_gmt":"2009-08-11T09:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2046"},"modified":"2009-08-11T09:08:10","modified_gmt":"2009-08-11T09:08:10","slug":"sleepless-in-the-saddle-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/08\/sleepless-in-the-saddle-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Sleepless in the Saddle 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Me<\/a>

Me at the bottom of the first descent<\/p><\/div>\n

Well, I survived! We’ve just got back from the Sleepless in the Saddle 24 hour mountain bike race in Catton Park, Derbyshire and I think all of the Ystwyth-MTB team members and supporters had a good time.<\/p>\n

Anna, Morgan and I set off on Friday morning and arrived at the campsite around midday. The sore throat that I had oinb Thrusday was now a sore throat and bunged up sinuses but I was hoping to get rid of the cold by Saturday afternoon. The Teece-Rounds and Dan were already there so we set up our tent and gazebo that was to act as team HQ and then chilled for most of the afternoon watching the field fill up with tents of all shapes and sizes. Those teams that were experienced at such things came well prepared with marquee style tents to act as bike workshops and kitchens, tape to cordon off their area of the field etc.<\/p>\n

Dan, Martyn and I then headed off for an easy ride around the course to see what it was like. Muddy would be one word to sum it up, but it wasn’t too bad really. No real hills, just a couple of little inclines, and no mad descents. There was one very slippery, rooty descent in the first mile that caught us (and many others) out and the sections through the woods were very rooty and slippery too, but the final couple of miles was actually quite enjoyable. Bernd, Gari and Ian then arrived at dusk with the final team member Dave due to arrive on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

\"Bike<\/a>

Bike Wash<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ll post a little bit about the actual race in a separate post, but Saturday dawned bright and sunny, I felt terrible but as a team we did OK and all enjoyed it. The organisation was really good, the toilets and showers were kept clean and with plenty of hot water and Muc-off provided a free bike-wash station that was constantly in use. USE Exposure Lights were on hand with a stall offering free battery charging for lights which I had to use a couple of times and everything seemed to run smoothly which made for an enjoyable weekend.<\/p>\n

There were plenty of people out on the course shouting words of encouragement and ringing cow-bells etc. To all those who were out there doing that, especially through the depths of the night, we do appreciate it.<\/p>\n

\"Crazy<\/a>

Crazy Unicyclist<\/p><\/div>\n

Some people were obviously doing the race solo which is pretty mad. Thankfully the weather was good otherwise I’d imagine a 24 hour solo mountain bike race there would have been horrendous as the course would turn into the stickiest, muddiest, slipperiest hell on earth imaginable! So hats off to those who did it solo, especially the crazy fool who did it solo on a unicycle!<\/p>\n

I think everyone on our teams enjoyed themselves, I did despite feeling terrible for the whole weekend. I also hope that the supporters who came along for the weekend enjoyed it too. I was certainly glad that Anna was there and she did a great job helping out with changeovers, cooking, charging lights etc. for me. Hopefully in between that and the normal child care responsibilities she managed to find time to enjoy herself as well.<\/p>\n

Everyone else headed hom on the Sunday afternoon, but Anna, Morgan and I stayed the night so that we could have a leisurely drive home on Sunday. Of course, it rained so we ended up packing up in the rain!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I survived! We’ve just got back from the Sleepless in the Saddle 24 hour mountain bike race in Catton Park, Derbyshire and I think all of the Ystwyth-MTB team members and supporters had a good time. Anna, Morgan and I set off on Friday morning and arrived at the campsite around midday. The sore...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1312,"featured_media":2048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[22,233,115],"class_list":["post-2046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mtb","tag-mountain-biking","tag-sits","tag-sleepless-in-the-saddle"],"yoast_head":"\nSleepless in the Saddle 2009 - A Simple Life of Luxury<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/08\/sleepless-in-the-saddle-2009\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sleepless in the Saddle 2009 - A Simple Life of Luxury\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well, I survived! 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