Mike, Nando, Sue and Adri.
Wet, muddy and exciting! The event was well organized, though by the time we got through to the dam at Buffelspoort and added ourselves to the registration queue, there was only 10 minutes to go to the start of the race! Needless to say, the start of the lite race was delayed: add to this the huge downpour which they had endured the previous night, which meant several MTB bridges over the river had been washed away. 40 minutes late, we were off on a 400M swim in water advertised as being the 'freshest in SA'. It looked muddy and felt warm to me! 400M is a comfortable distance, though I was quite happy to not be doing the 1.5km!
The transition to the bike leg was quick, but I then joined some 30 ladies who found riding over rocks uphill in the wet impossible, so we all walked/biked the single-track for the first 2km. Thereafter, I managed to join some queue-jumpers using an off-road route (grass and pot-luck next to the track), which lead to a dirt road where we could finally get on and pass the unfit. The mud was challenging, but the diagnosis bandied around after the race was "....but we have done Bonamanzi" meaning - not much could be worse than that! Sometimes the twin chocolate donuts maskerading as my tyres looked just as bad, but we took every opportunity of using the river crossings to wash some of it off. Being determined to pass some more walkers in a particularly muddy patch, I found myself joining Nando in the Superman Club, by doing an 'endo' but still managed to retain my dignity by landing on my feet at 15km/h!
The hastily remade bridges held in the floodwaters and soon it was time to change wet, muddy socks for dry ones for the 6km run. Somehow this passed much too soon and I found myself entering the Dam gates sooner than I thought. The rain was still a light drizzle and very welcome throughout!
The organisers made sure that each finalist felt like a winner, by funneling us onto the stage for a photo by the race photographer, (which I have yet to find on the promised site - Facebook) but I managed to get this one of a tired Nando as witnessed by the upside down number!
Sue - reporting on the 'lite'.
Stef 2.08 - 96th out of 237 men (lite)
Sue 2.35 - 25th out of 57 women (lite)
Nando 3.32 - 70th (wow!) out of 186 men (full)
Adri 4.21 - 17 out of 23 ladies listed? (Found you in the men's list)
Mike 4.45 - 166 out of 186 men (full)
Con - M.I.A ?
It occurred to me that Stef, Con and I could have entered as a team for the Full, but I guess - next time?
No comments:
Post a Comment