My Merida weekend started with a panic on Saturday when I was rebuilding my bike after having my forks tweaked and discovered my bottom bracket had seized. I went for a 2 hour run as planned having checked my road BB had the same bearings. When I got back and stripped the MTB BB the crank bolt disintergrated as well. No problem, its almost the same as the road bike, unfortunately I couldn't get the self extractor cover off, nor could The Edge bike shop or the nice mechanic at the Merida stand on Sunday morning. So then its 08:30 (race start 09:30) and I was busy with a hacksaw, big hammer and chisel, this eventually did the trick and at 09:25 I was filling up my camel pack from the tap near the front of the start line which meant I cruised through as the whistle went. These aren't races as they are on bridleways, but getting a good start is key to having a fun ride, as traffic jams often form with around 800 riders heading for narrow trails. I rode with Helen Jackson (adventure racing friend) up Loadpot Hill which kept my heartrate about 180 (oops), the swooping descent was great fun and Helen surprisingly turned off on the 50km. She caught me up again on Place Fell after realising her mistake and we'd been hike a biking for about 1km up 250m of ascent before a walker pointed out we were on a footpath and should have turned right at the bottom. I got down the hill the direct route and had the pleasure of hanging on the tails of all the strong riders who'd been further up hill as they came back through me. When Helen caught me up again she'd been joined by Ant (another AR friend) and my heart rate was now 183 just keeping up with them on the flat, on the next hill I predicatably blew up and had to walk (along with all the other mere mortals). I finished the 78km in 5:17 in around 40th place. It's the hardest I've worked on my bike all year and was an eye opener into just how fast the lead guys are going. More details of the Merida series on http://www.mtb-marathon.co.uk/ .
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