How To: Survive A 'Hard Enduro'

When you think about the physical demands put on a rider by the ‘Hard Enduro’ events that seem to be increasingly prevalent each year, you tend to think about burly big blokes or riders whose trials background helps them navigate these events’ impossibly technical terrain. But not so fast. Because the only Australian to race both Red Bull’s Romaniacs and Sea to Sky events in 2016 was actually a 28 year-old Queenslander called Melissa Bruce. Yes, a woman! We were so fascinated by Melissa’s story and achievements, we asked her to give us an insight into her racing exploits. Here’s what the plucky Huqvarana rider came back with:

Five strategies to keep your helmet above water in the extreme head-game of Hard Enduro racing…

It’s 10PM at night, bucketing down rain on the quiet streets of Sibiu, Romania. I’ve just left the presentation for the 2016 edition of the Red Bull Romaniacs, intent on walking the five kay back to my hotel room in the rain. It’s dark, and probably the least safe place for me to be right now, but I don’t care. After five days of the craziest racing I have ever seen, the last thing I’m interested in is drinking and partying. I’ve got this bronze medal tucked in the back pocket of my jeans, and when I finally make it back to the hotel, it will be weeks before I come to terms with what’s happened over the past five days.

Fast forward little over eight weeks. It’s a beautiful sunny afternoon in Kemer, Turkey. I’m riding down the road access to Mount Tahtali. I’m absolutely covered in dust, my bike is running hot after blowing most of the coolant out over the past seven hours, and I can’t stop crying. I don’t even know why, but I do know that I am absolutely exhausted. A few hours later, I’m standing on a stage at a fancy hotel as a Silver finisher for the 2016 Red Bull Sea to Sky. Once again, I do not know what to think. But slowly over the next few days, I warm to the fact that I have just achieved something that, mere months ago, I only dreamed to be possible.

Whether you’re planning your first state enduro, or hopping on a plane to chase a bigger adventure, sometimes keeping your head above water is literal (don’t forget the spare spark plug!), but more often than not it’s simply keeping your mental strength from failing and ruining your dreams. Here are my top five pieces of advice to achieve just that:

1. Learn to Love Your Own Space

Riding alone is not everyone’s cup of tea. I certainly never thought I would, but I also credit a lot of this years accomplishments to putting in a lot of hours alone out on my tracks. In my neck of the woods, the harder the tracks, the less riding mates you will have. And the more choosy you become about who you take out. Taking an offsider toting a weapon of an RMX450 with a plastic bashplate up your favourite rock-infested creekbed can certainly have a positive outcome in learning extreme patience, but probably won’t be the most productive hard enduro training session.

Riding mates aside, you will find your racing experience for the most part to be quite solitary. You will likely be racing through all kinds of terrain completely alone. If you do not train alone, at the very least you will need to work on your bike preservation, maintenance, and line selection skills with no assistance. Many times through Romaniacs, I’d come to a situation that was completely above my head; a rock ledge with a nasty cliff drop-off to the left and one narrow slippery-looking line to the right. If I had only trained with mates to spot me or help me pick the correct line, I might not have had the confidence needed to get through each situation and on to the next checkpoint.

2. Control Your Associations

I don’t know what it’s like to be a guy, and I don’t ever want to. But as a girl, when you casually drop the fact you’ll be racing extreme enduro overseas around the boys, it’s not long before you start to notice a lot of talk behind your back, combined with more unqualified advice than you can poke a large Romaniacs-style balancing beam at.

Some people can laugh off the critics and get on with it. Personally, I insulate myself from anyone who is not positive and supportive, especially around race time. Hearing how much so-and-so doesn’t think I can finish a race, or how old mate I rode with once last year thinks I’m not training right; well, when I’m stuck in some ridiculous contorted position, trapped half under my bike against a tree after seven hours on the bike for the third day in a row, those criticisms come back screaming thick and fast in both my ears.

3. Don’t add Beating Yourself Up to Your Injuries

If you don’t find a hard enduro tough enough as it is, you’re in the wrong class. I never have looked so black and blue as after Romaniacs finished. What you do not need on top of that, is to beat yourself up every time you make a mistake or lose a place.

I have never felt so many different emotions surrounding a life event as I did for these ones, but reminding myself to celebrate the good bits and not waste energy getting down on myself because I made the umpteenth mistake for the day, really keeps the wheels turning. A lot of this is about changing the dialogue in your head to focus your energy on your technique right now; not stressing about what happened before, or what will happen tomorrow. I have come to expect at some point in the toughest races, I will have a meltdown. At Romaniacs, it actually happened on the day before the race at a test ride for the new bike. At Sea to Sky, it happened in that first canyon. I was absolutely petrified. I felt like there was no way I should be racing this race. How could I possibly have the skills to get through this? I let a lot of people pass me in those first few kays and I was constantly trying to stop the tears. But experience has taught me that this will pass. I couldn’t imagine it at the time, but I knew if I just kept going, eventually I’d settle down and things would start to look up. Sure enough, I passed under the Bronze finish Red Bull arches, and the moment I hit the Silver tracks, my whole spirits picked back up. And the rest is history.

4. Never Look for the Flag

This one has taken a few years, but I have learned the hard way that wasting time and energy on how long it is to the finish is futile. The watch is on your bars to pace yourself correctly, but other than that, your energy is best used to keep your technique smooth and efficient. Where are your feet? What gear are you in? How are those elbows looking? Expect to be miserable, but take it one step at a time and before you know it you’ve conquered your own personal mountain.

5. Never Give Up

Sounds simple, but sometimes the most challenging part is to just keep moving. Everything hurts, you’re miserable, tired, and probably over it. But no matter what, as long as the clock still ticks and you and your bike aren’t seriously broken, don’t stop. As proud as you will be when you’ve given something your all, it’s pretty hard to live down a quitter’s DNF. Sure everything hurts, but pain is just another sensation in life. Get comfortable with the idea and keep trucking!