HypoActive

Neil Bennett is an avid mountain biker and 2009 member of the HypoActive Murray to Moyne team.  For the past two years he has raced the Otway Odyssey, a gruelling 100km marathon trek through the Otway Ranges in south west Victoria.  2009 was not a great year for Neil, who found his performance suffered from continued low blood glucose.  He vowed to turn this around for 2010, and has kindly shared his experience of the 2010 event with us:

Photo: Rapid Ascent

It’s 7:15am on a warm, but “less than perfect” summer morning. The gun goes off and 1000 riders (me included) begin pushing their way through the vicious headwind.
A few minutes later, we turn off the Great Ocean Road, change gears and sink our teeth into the first leg of this 100km mountain bike ‘odyssey’; a 67km endeavour from Apollo Bay up to Forrest.
Up the first climb, I’m pretty surprised to find myself in fourth position, but soon the stronger Elite boys kick past me and I settle into my own rhythm. But the wind just keeps getting worse, and “Wild Dog Rd” leads to carnage – Elite female rider Jo Wall loses four front teeth in the mayhem further up the road. We’re gaining somewhere around 2000m of height in this first 67km, but the unrelenting uphill, downhill, uphill again, is turning my quads into jelly.

Photo credit thanks to Rebecca Jennings and Tekin Suspension
On the brighter side, things are at least going better than in 2009. At that stage, I had only recently returned to racing and hadn’t predicted the impact of pre-race nerves on my blood sugar level. I’d ridden the first 67km hovering somewhere around 3.0 mmol, still managed to finish the race, but had hoped to do better than 112th out of the 800 in my category. I’d spent the next 12 months determined not to let myself down again in 2010.
2010 had seen me better prepared. I altered my breakfast and insulin doses to pre-empt the ‘nervous hypo’, and before the start gun, all that was needed was a few last minute jelly beans, just to make sure. I felt pretty confident that my sugar levels weren’t going to go nuts, and didn’t test my sugar again until the first pit-stop in Forrest.
The first pit-stop is a well known ‘relationship tester’. Loved ones and support crews anxiously wait in the feed zones, searching through the constant stream of riders... Then their rider appears, covered in dirt and sweat, wearing an angry frown, chucking down their bike and grunting inexplicably. Translations eventually reveal that they’re in need of water, a banana and a fresh lube of a filthy, dry bike chain. It’s not quite the ‘thank-you’ the loved ones have been waiting for I am sure.
But, coming through the pit-stop, I was feeling relatively cheery; happy to be feeling strong, sitting somewhere in the top 60 and only needing a Gu (energy gel) and some homemade glucose solution to help kick me on through the 2nd leg – a 22km loop on single-track in the Yaughter State Forest. I knew I would be firing on all cylinders once in the single-track, and hopefully achieve my goal of a top 40 result. Achieving this in spite of the red emergency bracelet on my wrist, was about to make it even sweeter.
2km out from the end of the 2nd leg, I came through a loose section of rocky trail, around a corner and across another rider who had hit the deck. He didn’t look like he’d stopped to enjoy the surrounds. My conscience wasn’t going to let me ride past him, and judging from the way he held his leg, he needed an Ambulance more than I needed to finish.
Overall my 2010 Otway Odyssey experience was extremely fulfilling. It felt like the time an effort put into training, as well and managing my sugar and learning how to manage it for race day, had actually begun to pay off.
I now know that all of the learning experiences, as well as some more training, can come together even more successfully for my next event; the Nemesis Marathon Challenge - a 90km race based around Avoca, just north of Ballarat.
Neil Bennett, Type 1 since 1996