{"id":3443,"date":"2012-10-20T23:58:29","date_gmt":"2012-10-20T23:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zo-zo.com\/?p=3443"},"modified":"2016-08-06T00:02:45","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T00:02:45","slug":"8-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/?p=3443","title":{"rendered":"8 hours."},"content":{"rendered":"

it’s been a while since i have last tried my hand (foot, back, head, pretty much a full body experience) at racing. probably because i’m not very good at it for starters, and also because i’m getting older and even less fit.<\/p>\n

that been said i still enroled to the nowra 8 hours pony express together with a similarly mad mate who also did not know what he was getting himself into. which is good otherwise i might have had to do it alll by myself.<\/p>\n

\"nowra_8h_6\"<\/p>\n

natalie helped me get the bike through scrutineering.<\/p>\n

so … pony express. one guy does one lap, then hands over (the transponder) to the other and so forth. for 8 hours. 4 hours riding should be ok, right?<\/p>\n

\"nowra_8h_4\"<\/p>\n

the team (matt & me) still smiling before the race. all suited up and with about 20 kg of protective equipment.<\/p>\n

well, not right. the course turned out to be 27 gruelling kilometers through the bush, around trees, up and down gullies and over more rocks than i’ve ever seen before – and without any part to take a little break. i had a camelback with me but there was no time for a sip.<\/p>\n

\"nowra_8h_11\"<\/p>\n

there was a ‘sighting lap’ around the moto x track. not so much to sight the track (most of the track went through the bush and was secret) but to make sure the bikes are firing on all cylinders.<\/p>\n

\"nowra_8h_2\"<\/p>\n

turns out the moto x track was the easy part, once we ducked into the bush it was hard work all the way, but the middle part through the rain forest was pure torture.<\/p>\n

\"nowra_8h_9\"<\/p>\n

first handover. matt gets the transponder and is on his way.<\/p>\n

\"nowra_8h_7\"<\/p>\n

not so fresh any more after lap one. and there were more to come. unfortunately not as many as i hoped. on his third lap matt’s chain broke. he had no chance of fixing it in the bush and had to wait for the sweeps to bail him out. so i did not get to ride my fourth lap (which would undoubtedly have been my fastest) and matt spent a cosy 2 hours in the bush on the bottom of a hill. the sweeps eventually got him going agai but we were out of the race.<\/p>\n

\"nowra_8h_1\"<\/p>\n

the girls had a good time too. they went to nowra zoo and petted just about all the animals there, including the croc, the koala and the monkey.<\/p>\n

\"nowra_8h_10\"<\/p>\n

trackside natalie spent the time with a puppy. generally pets are not allowed around the track, but this one was a ‘working dog’ – she was training to become a guide dog and this was part of her becoming accustomed to noise. and natalie.<\/p>\n

\"nowra_8h_8\"<\/p>\n

i think the ktm cheer squad was the best!<\/p>\n

shame we did not finish. maybe next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

it’s been a while since i have last tried my hand (foot, back, head, pretty much a full body experience) at racing. probably because i’m not very good at it for starters, and also because i’m getting older and even less fit. that been said i still enroled to the nowra 8 hours pony express… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bikes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/nowra_8h_2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MvER-Tx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3455,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions\/3455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zo-zo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}