I'm no stranger at all to 24hr mountain bike racing but I never thought I'd paddle on the water for 24 hours, last October I didn't even know what a paddle board was!

The race was run by the Burley Griffin Canoe Club and was open to a range of classes of floating things, from sea kayaks, to skis, to paddle boards. My crew put forward three teams, two serious teams of four that paddled through the night and one more casual team of eight. I was in the 14 foot Hobie team, a board that I so want to own now, mmmmm, 14 foot carbon goodness.

So I turned up for the 10am start and the wind started building, reaching up to around 30km/h in patches through the day but thankfully calming at night. We set up quite a HQ and readied the boards, before the action began.

Shaggy and Mr Miyagi opened for their teams, deep in the pack of sit downs, followed close behind by Pebbles.

Of course, as with all 24hr races it was time for the team to resume the waiting position, each lap taking 30-40 minutes it was a pleasant break before you next hit out. Worlds apart from mountain bike racing there was absolutely no need for warm ups and cool down, so even the 'one lap on, one lap off' regime we undertook at night was easily undertaken; unheard of in the MTB world, where it's double or nothing at night!

Then the inevitable happened, the sun started going down. No worry though, it was balmy and calm, a dream meteorological circumstance. Glow sticks mounted to the boards we fought through. I had an absolute ball paddling at night, not a pain or frustration and well lit by the surrounding street lights.

I was also lucky enough to score my favourite 24 lap, the dawn lap where you depart transition in complete darkness and arrive back in full light, a new day.

I ended up paddling 45km in the 24 hrs (4.5km a lap x 10) and both teams finished closely. We took out every cup but most importantly, that of the highest donation count, we managed to raise almost $1500 for The Cure foundation!

As more info comes to hand I'll edit this post, now it's time for sleep.