Tough start today. Police escort but still sprint over short sharp hills through Sechelt with heart rate through the roof in the first 5 mins, then into a granny gear steep climb up through a construction zone. Single track started, although freshly made single track, equals very bumping and lots of effort to ride it! We were all over the place and felt like beginner riders ... haha.
So still climbing we came to our first fun descent. Karen was in front but I was confident I would catch her at the end of the day with the 10km downhill to the finish at the ferry, but to pass her half way through the course on the side of the trail with a snapped frame. She is out of the race.
We went into our last climb of the day, but this was a monster of a hill, luckly it was a trail climb and not fire and fully shaded as it was a smoken hot day out there. After the never ending hill, I was feeling wiped. I am not eating enough out there. My legs feel good, but my energy levels are super low. We came into the last food aid station to be told we were 3km's from the peak and it was all downhill after that. I was around a new crowd today (and yesterday) as my usual group are stronger climbers so were ahead of me. We hit the final descent for the day, a well talked about trail called 'hwy 102'. Wow this thing went forever. I was on a mission to catch the first ferry so I could get home earlier in Nth Van, I was loving the trail and caught a bunch of people. Parts where kind of sketchy with the condition we are in. eg not much co-ordination or balance left by day 5, so judgement and concentration had to be at 100% across the log bridges and tight turns.
I rolled into the finish and straight on the ferry. At home now, getting bike dialed at John Henry Bikes and sleeping in own bed before another early rise to head up to squamish for day 6. Another tough start for tomorrows course, straight into a pavement climb, so I will get stuck behind everyone when we bottle neck into single track, but will push as hard as I can to not drop back too far :)
Megan
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Day # 4 - BC Bike Race
As I expected today was my least favourite day !
Not enough single track and way too much climbing ( and mostly on fire roads – or hike a bike single track), and very very minimal flowy fun downhill.
Everyone hurt today. Hot, long day, (5hrs), not enough food eaten and couldn’t wait for it to be over.
Shitty start into a pavement climb where everyone just blew by me …. Ha ha.
I was waiting all day for the girl Karen to pass me on the climbs but never saw her, so towards the end I had figured she snuck by me at somestage with out me knowing. And yep, she was at the finish line when I got there, came in 10mins earlier. So my lead is now down to only 13mins. Its going to be a tough last 3 days.
I have the advantage of knowing day 6 and 7’s course but there is still a bunch of climbing that she can make up the time. Tomorrows course has been cut down a little due to permit issues, and means one big climb has been taken out and more single track has been added, so this is good new !!
Tomorrow night I get to go home, sleep in my own bed and pick up my car before the Squamish day, and have a place to stay in Whistler the next night, so can get plenty of rest.
Excited for the well talked about last 7km of tomorrows course, some amazing single track down to the ferry terminal – I am sure that will bring a smile to my face ☺
Megan
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Day # 3 - BC Bike Race
WOW and OMG is all I can say about today!!
I placed myself right up front today as knew it was my style course and for sure didn't want to get stuck behind people on this day, I heard the trails were epic and wanted to experience them at speed :)
It was a complete hammer off the start with a few kms of road and straight into single track. I was in great position and the flow and speed was there from the beginning compared to the last few days. We had about 30km's of pure xc trails, then a big 10km / 45-60min climb right in the middle of the course up a fire road, and was in with a great bunch of guys (all from Nth Van). Broke my chain and had someone help fix it pretty quick, while I see the other solo girl now pass me, I jump back on the bike to chase. We arrived at the peak and then had a 20min+ downhill section, I caught her pretty quick and was stoked to have a chance to pass straight away. I had a complete clean run down some amazing trails and was loving it. Back out to some fire roads for a bit where I had a couple of guys to work with and they were looking after me and making me work to stick in!! then another 20km of more unbelievable trails. After 4hrs I still had a smile on my face. Got an extra 6mins lead today to make it a total of 23mins. With still 4 days to go, this really isn't much (couple flats or mechanicals, or some open road climbs where she catches me pretty quick - so still lots of hard work to go).
Sorry no pics but am sure there are some on the website www.bcbikerace.com
Megan
Day # 2 - BC Bike Race
Today was tough. I had the leaders jersey on but decided not to place myself right up the front as the profile of the course looked to be a straight 5km climb off the start, so would have just had people pass me. What a big mistake. After getting the police escort through Nanaimo we hit the single track and I was too far back to keep the flow - people walking ridable sections, bottleneck, and just pure slowness on some sweet track that you could fly through. By days end it probably cost me at least 20mins. After about an hour it opened up and we were in and out of single track with some great climbs and flow. Although we were for sure ready for the half way 35km point as that was the peak for the day. Moslty down from there. The down was fireroad with some crazy head wind and I was on my own with no one to work with and draft off. I hammered for about 10km before finally the Norco boys caught me with the other solo female rider. I jumped in and we worked together as a group of 4 and was giving it everything to stick in. We hit some single at the end to finish what was a long grueling day !
I was neck and neck with the other girl all day and came in only a few seconds ahead of her. 17mins lead still from day 1.
It was a little bit of a frustrating day in terms of position, bunch of people would pass me on the uphill and then I would get stuck behind them on the downhill and have to try and pass them!!
Megan
I was neck and neck with the other girl all day and came in only a few seconds ahead of her. 17mins lead still from day 1.
It was a little bit of a frustrating day in terms of position, bunch of people would pass me on the uphill and then I would get stuck behind them on the downhill and have to try and pass them!!
Megan
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Day # 1 - BC Bike Race
What I was hoping to be a home town advantage today didn't turn out quite that way!
Or should I start with saying I won first solo female for day 1 !!!
Straight off the start was a 2km road climb and straight into single track - Equals 400 people trying to funnel into 1 line after 5-10mins from the start. Now my strength is not climbing so I couldn't quite get myself into a good position off the start. So after the funnel and some standing still and walking, we still had approx 30min climb ahead but more chances to pass. I slowly started to warm up and make some moves on people to the top of the first descent called 'severed dick'! Let's just say, if you are not from around this area - then this descent was going to be tough with a lot of scared riders walking their bikes down. But this was my strength, I know this trail well and ride it well, but to find myself stuck behind lines of people walking. I was patient for about 5 mins, then I teamed up with a few Norco Guys and we made our move - calling 'riders up' and 'track' (eg get off the trail if you are walking cause we are coming through !!)
So we managed to stay on our bikes for the entire descent but was much slower then I normally ride it. At the bottom of the first descent and an hour into it, it opened up and the riders started to spread out. Some xc trails and out through the burbs to hit our next climb of Mountain Hwy. This climb is a nice one, open and not so steep.
Time for the second descent and to the finish. I was now in my element - no one in front of me and free awesome fun technical descent to make up for some lost time. After some hoots and cheers down the north shore trail 'Pipeline' I crossed the finish line in 2hrs 12mins and first solo female and received my yellow leaders jersey to wear tomorrow :)
Although I could have been 15mins faster if I had a better start, I was still stoked with day 1 - knowing there is still 6 more days ahead.
I have never ridden any of the trails for day 2-5 so am excited to experience some new stuff of what BC has to offer. I get to stay at home tonight, but am camping it for the next 3 nights, so not sure what updates I can get done, but will keep my facebook status updated. Tomorrow is more then double the distance of today and the biggest for the week at 70km. Expecting about a 4hr 15min time. Lets see what the terrains like though.
Megan
Saturday, June 27, 2009
BC Bike Race
Wow ok, it's been like 10 months since my last major race and the last time I posted on here.
Tomorrow I start my big race for 2009. BC Bike Race - a 7 day mountain bike stage race. I have had a bunch of lead up events and now its time to test the body again.
Race Overview:
Day # 1 - North Vancouver 30km
Day # 2 - Nanaimo - Vancouver Island 70km
Day # 3 - Cumberland - Vancouver Island 65km
Day # 4 - Sunshine Coast 65km
Day # 5 - Sunshine Coast 65km
Day # 6 - Squamish 67km
Day # 7 - Whistler 30km
This race hosts the most single track riding any other race in the world has. Day 1 is on my local trails here on the mountain out my back door with the finish line 100m from my house, so I am super excited to have some home town advantage of knowing what to expect. The more technical a trail is in this race, the more chance I have in placing top 3 - lol - I am not the strongest climbing, so have to make up my time on the downhill!!
Race updates can be found daily on www.bcbikerace.com
Stay Tuned
Megan Rose
Tomorrow I start my big race for 2009. BC Bike Race - a 7 day mountain bike stage race. I have had a bunch of lead up events and now its time to test the body again.
Race Overview:
Day # 1 - North Vancouver 30km
Day # 2 - Nanaimo - Vancouver Island 70km
Day # 3 - Cumberland - Vancouver Island 65km
Day # 4 - Sunshine Coast 65km
Day # 5 - Sunshine Coast 65km
Day # 6 - Squamish 67km
Day # 7 - Whistler 30km
This race hosts the most single track riding any other race in the world has. Day 1 is on my local trails here on the mountain out my back door with the finish line 100m from my house, so I am super excited to have some home town advantage of knowing what to expect. The more technical a trail is in this race, the more chance I have in placing top 3 - lol - I am not the strongest climbing, so have to make up my time on the downhill!!
Race updates can be found daily on www.bcbikerace.com
Stay Tuned
Megan Rose
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
BULL OF AFRICA
Team Comor / John Henry
Megan Rose
Graham Tutti
Adam Smith
Adrian Rothwell
Race Pics http://picasaweb.google.ca/smitty0476/BullOfAfrica#
Race Video http://www.youtube.com/smitty0476
I know there are a few of you wondering what happen to us in the race - so here it is - the breakdown ..... ok sorry this is going to be long ..... pick and choose what you wish to read !!
I guess most of you know that I have been suffering from ITB Syndrome since February, and leading up to the race a month out I was finally back into running and doing long treks with no pain. We had the team discussion of whether we all were fit/healthy (injury free) enough to compete in Africa, and at that stage me injury was finally looking promising.
2 weeks prior to leaving we did a 24hr training session, and my knee become evident of pain again, but a little too late for replacement of myself on the team. My thoughts "lots of pain killers and anti-inflammatory's during the race and I should be fine !!
We arrive in South Africa after hour and hours of travel (think I was 62hrs from the time of leaving Vancouver to the time of arriving in Eastern Cape!!).
One of my team mates boxes never arrived with all his racing gear. So we spent 2 days driving around eagerly trying to put together enough stuff for us to race! Amongst our race registration, gear checks, and skills test .... and after discovering how everything runs on 'south african' time, then it made it even harder !! (ie if they say 8am.... they really mean say 10am ... or could even be 11am !!)
RACE OVERVIEW
10km Trail / Bush run (2.5hrs)
15-20km Mountain Bike (3hrs - we did it twice :-(
Paddle with a Trek (3.5hrs)
25-30km Mountain Bike (2.5hrs)
50-60km Trek (28hrs)
Transition 1 - After 40hrs of racing we finally get our first food and gear bin !
50km Mountain Bike (5hrs)
10km Paddle (4hrs)
55km Mountain Bike and cliff scramble with bike! (10.5hrs)
Transition 2 - Get second gear and food bin
50km Trek with Rappel/Abseil and 160m Ascend
95km Mountain Bike to the Coast
30km Coasteering Trek along coast
Transition 3
Then get the next instructions from there.
DAY 1
Trek / Run 10km 2.5hrs
After a busy crazy 4 days leading into the race, we have to be up at 2am the morning of the start, to load an old freezing cold bus at 3am for what was meant to be a 3hr drive up into the mountains. After our bus drivers getting lost we arrived in 5hrs!! It was so so cold, frost on the ground cold. We got ourselves ready and we started at 9am. We had a 10km run/trek to begin the race and split the field up. We did great (my knee from the beginning was not good though). We come in at the end of this short leg within 20mins of the leaders.
Bike 20km
We were on our bikes for what was an easy nav 17km mountain bike to our boats. We were setting a good pace. To find that we had nearly made it to the boats and our navigator realised we missed a check point right back at the beginning, we had rode straight past it. We had to back track and watch 15 or more teams filter past us. Not a good start.
Paddle with Treks
We re caught a few teams and head out on the kayaks for a bunch of treks off the boat.
Night 1
30km Bike (7pm)
We get back on bikes for a 25-30km section with one big arse climb - but I was loving it - no pain on the bike and I like long steady climbs!! The temperature starts dropping like crazy. We get to the top of the climb, put on every piece of clothing we had, lifa shirt, fleece, wind breaker, and waterproof jackets !! and start our descend into the transition. No kidding it was that cold!
50-60km Trek (10pm)
We spend a few minutes warming up by the fire before we set out for what we know is going to be one long long trek, through networks of trails and bushland. Knowing already we will have to ration our food as we had to take 40hrs worth of food in our packs from the start line!
Day 2
Still Trekking
We are still trekking we make up a few places throughout the night near a waterfall checkpoint. But come about 3am, we lost our way for a few hours. On sunrise we start climbing the ridge we had been looking for - the wind is bitter and again we have every piece of clothing on we had, with our toques on and hoodies up! What an amazing view and amazing sunrise. We take a few seconds to take some pics and then heads down to get off the ridge and out of the wind! We then make our way over a few more big climbs and down into a hut for our next checkpoint. We managed to recover to 17th place after our mistake at the beginning and our slow moving through the night. Still only early days and we know there is only 2hrs between 10th and us! We push on through, more steep ups and more steeps downs, and the craziest bushwakes South Africa has to offer - thorns thorns and more thorn trees to push through. We make to to the next mountain by mid afternoon - after now have been trekking for 17hrs and to see what we still had left before we would see more food and water - Adrian begins to tell us 'see that next mountain - well not that mountain, but not the one behind that, but that ridge on the mountain behind that - well that is our next checkpoint - and then from there we still have 15km to the transition !! we sit and take this in for a little bit - build up the strength and get on our way to make the most of the sunlight.
Night 2
Still Trekking
We did a nice steep climb and scramble up to the peak for our next checkpoint just after dark. Our feet were done and my knee was done - more pain killers, a little nibble on what food we had left, and a long long descent following a fence into our first major transition and food box. We would have been happy if we would never have to see another barb wire fence again after that night !! So now about 27hrs into the trek and just under 40hrs into the race we are descending our last little bit - we can see the lights of transition ahead - maybe 1km away - oh how excited we were! To then get the biggest shock ever - I look down to see a massive lake between us and that transition, that would have to be 10km to get around. I inform the others they don't believe me as its not on the map, and I tell them 'turn off your lights and look ahead' Its 1am in the morning and we all stand still looking at this massive lake under the moon light feeling devastated for one that its not on the map and for two what turned out to be a 1km to the food is now 10km - hours longer. We are shocked. We send down Adrian to check it out, what looks to us that he is now walking on this 'water/lake'. He shouts back 'its grass'. The night was so cold it sent a mist right through the valley, and to our tired eyes it was 100% a big lake !! ha ha.
I have never been so cold, we make it to the lodge, order up a big meal, the water bottles on our bikes that had been waiting there for us at transition have an inch of frozen layer on the top - there was no way we were getting on those bikes and riding in this temperature. It was the middle of the second night and with no sleep we decided to stop and get about 3hrs in.
What turned into very little sleep or rather maybe no sleep by all of us in the noisy (but warm) hut didn't help!
Day 3
50km Bike (8am)
Ok so we head off about 8am, pealing off the layers as we start to climb and the sun warms us up. We had a great bike to our next paddle. After laughing at Adrian for him biking for the first hour with only 1 lens in his sunglasses and him not even realising !
10km Paddle and trek (2pm)
We got a few checkpoints and then had to land our kayaks at the other end, while 2 of us stayed with the boat and two had to go 6km for a checkpoint, we only had our bike shoes, so Graham and Adam did amazing by running the 6km in their bike shoes and making up some great time.
Night 3
55km Bike (7pm)
We had another strong bike with some good climbs. We knew of a swim we had to do with our bikes to cross a creek on this leg that we were dreading in the middle of night because of the temp. We arrive at this creek to find that the lack of rain in the last 3 months, made it nearly dried up - what a relief! We then had to find an opening in the cliffs on the other side and scramble up with our bikes bush waking at the same time! My knee was done, the only way I could walk up or down hill was with my treking poles as support. So I now had my bike with no poles, and had to step up this steep climb with the weight of my 11kg bike on my back - mmm not fun :-(
After we made it up we got to a game reserve at about 2am. Best hospitality and got served some amazing burgers! We pushed on to a long walk with our bikes down to the creek and a half hike a bike half steep climb out to our next major transition and food box 2.
Day 4
Sleep 1.5hrs
Trek 50km - Rappel and Ascend
We grabbed a few beds at the lodge transition which was in the middle of no where - got an hour of so of sleep, and a quick shower with our now swollen eyes feet and hands !! Got some route knowledge from a local (which didn't help) and we where on our way with our packs loaded with all our climbing gear, a ton food and water and warm clothes!
Note- roads on maps are no longer there, one dotted line on map could mean a trail, a full on road, a jeep track, or nothing at all. After evidence of no trail we had to balls up and bush wake through the thickest sharpest craziest thorn bushes of all time down to the creek that we were going to follow to next CP. A few hours later and a bunch of blood and scratches later we made it through the heat of the day - yes down to below 0 degrees at night and up to 25-30 during the day!.
Night 4
Still trekking
The creek was not walkable - we find a road and take the long route around. What we thought would take us a few hours has now taken us all day. We pass through a hunting reserve at about 9pm with a lodge, the lodge is closed down, we sleep on grass for 45mins, then continue on, down a long descent back to the river for the checkpoint. After 4 days of knee/ITB pain, I can't travel/walk down hill anymore, even with my weight on my trekking poles. I am done - the pain beat me. There we so many points where I wanted to say that I could no longer carry on, but it is not just me I had to consider. This effected 3 others, that had but their time, effort, and money into coming to South Africa to race. 3 very good close friends. This was not an easy decision and an even harder one to let the words come out of my mouth. I was finished. It brings a tear to my eye just having to write this now a week later. I waited there on the trail with Graham, while Adrian and Adam went down to get the CP from the Creek. A few hours later we made our way back up to the hunting lodge and the farmers house. It was now 2am, we woke them up. The nicest people ever, they took me and adrian to the lodge to spend the rest of the night while Adam and Graham decided to carry on. Adrian too was also suffering knee and back pain so decided he would not go on. We slept till morning, then the maids made us the best breakfast ever while we waited to be picked up.
Day 5
Adam and Graham made it through the rest of the next day, after another long trek in the heat of the day on little to no water and a long ascent Adam started seeing the signs of dehydration and vision problems. They were in a serious situation if they didn't get to water soon. They made it down to the next little town where they refueled and went to a B&B to recover. They made the call to not go on as signs were not improving and we got the message to pick them up.
SUMMERY
Well I owe a massive thanks to the boys for helping me get as far as I did. To Adam and Graham for carrying my pack on the last few downhills to try and save my knee and keep me in the race - thanks for your efforts and strength. Thanks for understanding the position I was in and being supportive of one of the hardest decision I had to make.
I did have a great race with great memories up until the point I made it. I learnt how diverse the terrain can be in South Africa and learnt that we had to forget looking for the trails, and just armor up with long pants and long shirt and push your way through the thorns as that was the only way to go !! Hano for sure puts on a hard race, with a lot of hours on the feet, with very minimal chances to see our food boxes and water stops ! Had we been prepared a little more with some local knowledge on the terrain and maps, and un-injured then we for sure would have had a good fighting chance. We are prepared to come back in 2 years with a regence and complete this race ! Bigger and tougher ! ha ha
This new team is amazing, I have grown closer to these boys, and we know that we have a very very bright future ahead - also knowing that we have a bit of work to do and learnt a lot from this race.
I am now taking the rest of the year off running, doing everything I can to fix this ITB ready for a strong season next year. Thanks to all those that followed and I can understand the frustration for you with our satellite tracker not working properly and you wondering what happened to us !!
It was a little comforting to know that only 12 teams out of 43 finished the full course - as thats is an indicater of how tough it was ! ha ha - and would have been great to know how we would have ended up had I not been injured.
Many Pictures to come when I arrive back in Canada in a week or two. We are now enjoying driving down the coast line back to Cape Town.
M. x
Megan Rose
Graham Tutti
Adam Smith
Adrian Rothwell
Race Pics http://picasaweb.google.ca/smitty0476/BullOfAfrica#
Race Video http://www.youtube.com/smitty0476
I know there are a few of you wondering what happen to us in the race - so here it is - the breakdown ..... ok sorry this is going to be long ..... pick and choose what you wish to read !!
I guess most of you know that I have been suffering from ITB Syndrome since February, and leading up to the race a month out I was finally back into running and doing long treks with no pain. We had the team discussion of whether we all were fit/healthy (injury free) enough to compete in Africa, and at that stage me injury was finally looking promising.
2 weeks prior to leaving we did a 24hr training session, and my knee become evident of pain again, but a little too late for replacement of myself on the team. My thoughts "lots of pain killers and anti-inflammatory's during the race and I should be fine !!
We arrive in South Africa after hour and hours of travel (think I was 62hrs from the time of leaving Vancouver to the time of arriving in Eastern Cape!!).
One of my team mates boxes never arrived with all his racing gear. So we spent 2 days driving around eagerly trying to put together enough stuff for us to race! Amongst our race registration, gear checks, and skills test .... and after discovering how everything runs on 'south african' time, then it made it even harder !! (ie if they say 8am.... they really mean say 10am ... or could even be 11am !!)
RACE OVERVIEW
10km Trail / Bush run (2.5hrs)
15-20km Mountain Bike (3hrs - we did it twice :-(
Paddle with a Trek (3.5hrs)
25-30km Mountain Bike (2.5hrs)
50-60km Trek (28hrs)
Transition 1 - After 40hrs of racing we finally get our first food and gear bin !
50km Mountain Bike (5hrs)
10km Paddle (4hrs)
55km Mountain Bike and cliff scramble with bike! (10.5hrs)
Transition 2 - Get second gear and food bin
50km Trek with Rappel/Abseil and 160m Ascend
95km Mountain Bike to the Coast
30km Coasteering Trek along coast
Transition 3
Then get the next instructions from there.
DAY 1
Trek / Run 10km 2.5hrs
After a busy crazy 4 days leading into the race, we have to be up at 2am the morning of the start, to load an old freezing cold bus at 3am for what was meant to be a 3hr drive up into the mountains. After our bus drivers getting lost we arrived in 5hrs!! It was so so cold, frost on the ground cold. We got ourselves ready and we started at 9am. We had a 10km run/trek to begin the race and split the field up. We did great (my knee from the beginning was not good though). We come in at the end of this short leg within 20mins of the leaders.
Bike 20km
We were on our bikes for what was an easy nav 17km mountain bike to our boats. We were setting a good pace. To find that we had nearly made it to the boats and our navigator realised we missed a check point right back at the beginning, we had rode straight past it. We had to back track and watch 15 or more teams filter past us. Not a good start.
Paddle with Treks
We re caught a few teams and head out on the kayaks for a bunch of treks off the boat.
Night 1
30km Bike (7pm)
We get back on bikes for a 25-30km section with one big arse climb - but I was loving it - no pain on the bike and I like long steady climbs!! The temperature starts dropping like crazy. We get to the top of the climb, put on every piece of clothing we had, lifa shirt, fleece, wind breaker, and waterproof jackets !! and start our descend into the transition. No kidding it was that cold!
50-60km Trek (10pm)
We spend a few minutes warming up by the fire before we set out for what we know is going to be one long long trek, through networks of trails and bushland. Knowing already we will have to ration our food as we had to take 40hrs worth of food in our packs from the start line!
Day 2
Still Trekking
We are still trekking we make up a few places throughout the night near a waterfall checkpoint. But come about 3am, we lost our way for a few hours. On sunrise we start climbing the ridge we had been looking for - the wind is bitter and again we have every piece of clothing on we had, with our toques on and hoodies up! What an amazing view and amazing sunrise. We take a few seconds to take some pics and then heads down to get off the ridge and out of the wind! We then make our way over a few more big climbs and down into a hut for our next checkpoint. We managed to recover to 17th place after our mistake at the beginning and our slow moving through the night. Still only early days and we know there is only 2hrs between 10th and us! We push on through, more steep ups and more steeps downs, and the craziest bushwakes South Africa has to offer - thorns thorns and more thorn trees to push through. We make to to the next mountain by mid afternoon - after now have been trekking for 17hrs and to see what we still had left before we would see more food and water - Adrian begins to tell us 'see that next mountain - well not that mountain, but not the one behind that, but that ridge on the mountain behind that - well that is our next checkpoint - and then from there we still have 15km to the transition !! we sit and take this in for a little bit - build up the strength and get on our way to make the most of the sunlight.
Night 2
Still Trekking
We did a nice steep climb and scramble up to the peak for our next checkpoint just after dark. Our feet were done and my knee was done - more pain killers, a little nibble on what food we had left, and a long long descent following a fence into our first major transition and food box. We would have been happy if we would never have to see another barb wire fence again after that night !! So now about 27hrs into the trek and just under 40hrs into the race we are descending our last little bit - we can see the lights of transition ahead - maybe 1km away - oh how excited we were! To then get the biggest shock ever - I look down to see a massive lake between us and that transition, that would have to be 10km to get around. I inform the others they don't believe me as its not on the map, and I tell them 'turn off your lights and look ahead' Its 1am in the morning and we all stand still looking at this massive lake under the moon light feeling devastated for one that its not on the map and for two what turned out to be a 1km to the food is now 10km - hours longer. We are shocked. We send down Adrian to check it out, what looks to us that he is now walking on this 'water/lake'. He shouts back 'its grass'. The night was so cold it sent a mist right through the valley, and to our tired eyes it was 100% a big lake !! ha ha.
I have never been so cold, we make it to the lodge, order up a big meal, the water bottles on our bikes that had been waiting there for us at transition have an inch of frozen layer on the top - there was no way we were getting on those bikes and riding in this temperature. It was the middle of the second night and with no sleep we decided to stop and get about 3hrs in.
What turned into very little sleep or rather maybe no sleep by all of us in the noisy (but warm) hut didn't help!
Day 3
50km Bike (8am)
Ok so we head off about 8am, pealing off the layers as we start to climb and the sun warms us up. We had a great bike to our next paddle. After laughing at Adrian for him biking for the first hour with only 1 lens in his sunglasses and him not even realising !
10km Paddle and trek (2pm)
We got a few checkpoints and then had to land our kayaks at the other end, while 2 of us stayed with the boat and two had to go 6km for a checkpoint, we only had our bike shoes, so Graham and Adam did amazing by running the 6km in their bike shoes and making up some great time.
Night 3
55km Bike (7pm)
We had another strong bike with some good climbs. We knew of a swim we had to do with our bikes to cross a creek on this leg that we were dreading in the middle of night because of the temp. We arrive at this creek to find that the lack of rain in the last 3 months, made it nearly dried up - what a relief! We then had to find an opening in the cliffs on the other side and scramble up with our bikes bush waking at the same time! My knee was done, the only way I could walk up or down hill was with my treking poles as support. So I now had my bike with no poles, and had to step up this steep climb with the weight of my 11kg bike on my back - mmm not fun :-(
After we made it up we got to a game reserve at about 2am. Best hospitality and got served some amazing burgers! We pushed on to a long walk with our bikes down to the creek and a half hike a bike half steep climb out to our next major transition and food box 2.
Day 4
Sleep 1.5hrs
Trek 50km - Rappel and Ascend
We grabbed a few beds at the lodge transition which was in the middle of no where - got an hour of so of sleep, and a quick shower with our now swollen eyes feet and hands !! Got some route knowledge from a local (which didn't help) and we where on our way with our packs loaded with all our climbing gear, a ton food and water and warm clothes!
Note- roads on maps are no longer there, one dotted line on map could mean a trail, a full on road, a jeep track, or nothing at all. After evidence of no trail we had to balls up and bush wake through the thickest sharpest craziest thorn bushes of all time down to the creek that we were going to follow to next CP. A few hours later and a bunch of blood and scratches later we made it through the heat of the day - yes down to below 0 degrees at night and up to 25-30 during the day!.
Night 4
Still trekking
The creek was not walkable - we find a road and take the long route around. What we thought would take us a few hours has now taken us all day. We pass through a hunting reserve at about 9pm with a lodge, the lodge is closed down, we sleep on grass for 45mins, then continue on, down a long descent back to the river for the checkpoint. After 4 days of knee/ITB pain, I can't travel/walk down hill anymore, even with my weight on my trekking poles. I am done - the pain beat me. There we so many points where I wanted to say that I could no longer carry on, but it is not just me I had to consider. This effected 3 others, that had but their time, effort, and money into coming to South Africa to race. 3 very good close friends. This was not an easy decision and an even harder one to let the words come out of my mouth. I was finished. It brings a tear to my eye just having to write this now a week later. I waited there on the trail with Graham, while Adrian and Adam went down to get the CP from the Creek. A few hours later we made our way back up to the hunting lodge and the farmers house. It was now 2am, we woke them up. The nicest people ever, they took me and adrian to the lodge to spend the rest of the night while Adam and Graham decided to carry on. Adrian too was also suffering knee and back pain so decided he would not go on. We slept till morning, then the maids made us the best breakfast ever while we waited to be picked up.
Day 5
Adam and Graham made it through the rest of the next day, after another long trek in the heat of the day on little to no water and a long ascent Adam started seeing the signs of dehydration and vision problems. They were in a serious situation if they didn't get to water soon. They made it down to the next little town where they refueled and went to a B&B to recover. They made the call to not go on as signs were not improving and we got the message to pick them up.
SUMMERY
Well I owe a massive thanks to the boys for helping me get as far as I did. To Adam and Graham for carrying my pack on the last few downhills to try and save my knee and keep me in the race - thanks for your efforts and strength. Thanks for understanding the position I was in and being supportive of one of the hardest decision I had to make.
I did have a great race with great memories up until the point I made it. I learnt how diverse the terrain can be in South Africa and learnt that we had to forget looking for the trails, and just armor up with long pants and long shirt and push your way through the thorns as that was the only way to go !! Hano for sure puts on a hard race, with a lot of hours on the feet, with very minimal chances to see our food boxes and water stops ! Had we been prepared a little more with some local knowledge on the terrain and maps, and un-injured then we for sure would have had a good fighting chance. We are prepared to come back in 2 years with a regence and complete this race ! Bigger and tougher ! ha ha
This new team is amazing, I have grown closer to these boys, and we know that we have a very very bright future ahead - also knowing that we have a bit of work to do and learnt a lot from this race.
I am now taking the rest of the year off running, doing everything I can to fix this ITB ready for a strong season next year. Thanks to all those that followed and I can understand the frustration for you with our satellite tracker not working properly and you wondering what happened to us !!
It was a little comforting to know that only 12 teams out of 43 finished the full course - as thats is an indicater of how tough it was ! ha ha - and would have been great to know how we would have ended up had I not been injured.
Many Pictures to come when I arrive back in Canada in a week or two. We are now enjoying driving down the coast line back to Cape Town.
M. x
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