old times at the Bigfoot

After a bit of fast talking I managed to get my brother keen on the idea of a road trip to Parkes to compete in his first 50 km event with his new trek 29er.Another of my Brothers heard we were doing the big foot and wanted in on the fun so he and his wife also entered .
So Jim and I headed off on friday arvo and arrived at the campsite at 10 pm set up camp in the dark and got some ZZZZZ's.through the night I could hear the wind howling through the trees and started thinking of tree branches landing on my tent ,In the morning we were greeted by a perfect sunny day and I saw that we had set up camp next to Dicko and his family which was the original plan but turned out to be a coincidence as we had no clue who we camped next to last night! Soon brother Gary and wife Leonie arrived and we started planning a 1/2 course rec ride,
then Steve (cromerboy) arrived with his family and joined us for a cruisey look at the track we checked out the back half of the course before returning for some lunch meanwhile Dicko returned from Parkes (with a new front tyre ) and was keen to check out the track so I joined him for a rather Quick spin around the front loop which was at a much faster pace than the earlier ride !I got the impression Wayne was not going to be hanging around in the race.
A nice big Pasta dinner and a few beers around the camp fire I was feeling pretty good but tired especially as I had allready done 50 km of riding so bed was the only option.
The morning again was fine and sunny and was looking good for a fast race.I was feeling nervous and keen to get a good start ,I lined up toward the front with Steve and Wayne, away we went down the fast fire trail and into the single track the three of us were well placed in the group ,as we hit the next fireroad I got a bit wide into some loose stuff and lost the front and had to unclip to save it and Wayne and two others went past, pressed on and before long Wayne was breaking away after the largeish bunch up ahead whome he soon joined .Steve and I rode together for a while and we caught a few who had dropped back from the bunch I eventually moved away from Steve and started chasing a down a few more who I passed in the single track but they worked together on the fire trails and came back past again this happened a few times and I new I had to try and grab on to them as they came pastbut I just didn't have the pace on the fire road and they eventually put a gap on me I rode the rest of the race pretty much on my own and with about 10 km to go I started to see these two blokes up ahead of me again so I put in a big effort an realed them back in and as we went over the line I was only 1second behind them .
I was very happy with my time and how the race panned out ,well done to Dicko who was 2 mins in front of me and Steve was 4 mins behind
It was a fantastic day and I will be back next year. All my familly members finished Gary did the 100 k In 5:01 which is awesome for a 57 year old
Jim finished the 50 in 3:11 and leonie the 50 in 3:05:39 .well done to all NoBMober's that competed ,can't wait till next year, mmm maybe a carbon 29er for then