Firstly Gee – get well soon and heal up well.

when looking to my left and right there were 80mm hardtails with road cassettes as far as the eye could see!

Guilty as charged! I was a member of the HMF Pedal Power team who ended up second in mixed teams.
Thankfully the bike kept working through the wee hours, except for snapping the saddle rails halfway round my third lap 🙁 standing for 5 miles while slogging through the mud sucked!
Overall it was hard, but a great treat on my birthday to be standing on the podium – you may have seen a rider with ‘Birthday Boy’ badges pinned to the back of a (mud covered) green and blue kit.

With regard to passing, I always tried to give a shout of ‘Rider up’ as I approached, followed by a ‘On your left/right please’. And of course a thanks never goes amiss 😉

I don’t suppose they’re going to get rich

They aren’t doing it for charity. Do the maths entry fee x entries paid = gross take, That isn’t all going to be swallowed up in costs. It isn’t the only event they do all year.

I’m not begrudging Paul and Frank earning a living but they aren’t doing too badly out of it.

It’s not a living though.

Doesn’t really matter what they are making out of it, at the end of the day the value is what the majority are willing to pay and how much enjoyment they get from it, thereafter it’s a case of post event feedback, publicity and word of mouth that will result in any event thriving or disappearing from the calendar.

On the basis of what I have seen and comparing Thetford events to most big running events, VFM is very high. The only running event that comes anywhere close to Pauls standards was (haven’t done it for a few years) Plymouth Half Marathon, so as a now Mtb’er I feel pretty spoilt.

Strange but true………
The MP3 player was set to ‘shuffle’ for the drive up. As we turned into the lane up to High Lodge it selected Ladyhawke’s ‘Dusk til Dawn’.

this pic sums it up for me

294452_10150851698415652_906225651_21053184_2058957993_n by mrmichaelwright, on Flickr

great event, did my double lap at 3am and no one turned up to replace me so i correctly surmised that we had abandoned. shame as i thought it was great fun, it was truly horrific though, but in a good way. I was absolutely bowled over by the amount of grip my tioga black turtles gave, i had no problems at all with sliding although some of the damper and grass free climbs were a real drag.

Think the official photographer was Sussex Sports Photography as he was the one with the auto kit about half way round.

I was the person with the auto rig, though the rig was being a bit too auto (the rain “breaks” the beam and causes a mis-fire). There aren’t as many auto pictures as in previous years, I made a major school boy error in setting up the flash pocket wizards. 😳

I wasn’t the “official” photographer, I was merely one of several photographers out on the course.

Amazingly all of my camera gear still works!

My photos are here:
D2D 2011 Photos

If I’d known I looked that miserable I would have given up earlier!

If you thought the conditions were bad at 3am, you should have ridden from 6am onwards!

The quick draining sand/soil became very claggy, and very slippery. I loved the course until this point, the drifty berms were amazing, and the short power climb was always something to look forward to.

I went through 4 sets of pads, a chainring, cassette and chain. And I dont think my Spark will ever be the same again.

Needless to say…. I’ll be back again next year for more punishment, there’s a reason why it’s an endurance race, whether you have to push your bike around the course or ride it balls-out, it’s all about how much you can endure 🙂

I must be a lightweight then, I packed up at about 3:30.

Though, to be fair, I did then drive to London and photograph the London royal parks half marathon.

I did think at about 4am that I really wouldn’t have wanted to be a photographer, the weather was awful.

Fair play to everyone, it was hard going – and I had a warm gazebo to pop back into as I was in a trio 🙂

If you thought the conditions were bad at 3am, you should have ridden from 6am onwards!

I particularly liked the two new lakes near the end of the course that I’d definitely have noticed if they’d been there earlier, seeing as they were ankle deep.

My 4am loop was my lowest point. Hard going in The Warren in particuliar and the wingeing climb about 9 miles. Early a climb but given the rest of the course…

Brilliant event tho. Back next year and, forgive me, but a little man keep hoping it rains a bit…

You would not believe how well some of the sections have recovered, it all adds to the feeling it was all a dream!

If anyone lost anything (other than ‘will to live’s’ etc) please post on the TMtb forum –

http://www.thetfordmtbracing.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&f=8&t=452

My girlfriend’s pictures of the event are here: http://s1086.photobucket.com/d2d11

If anyone would like a full size version of any of the pictures, then shout.

Some great pics but noone of me sadly.

Really like 103 needs some cropping to get the composition but man its got potential