Magalies Monster - Race Report

So we woke up nice and early. With just over an hour to get ready... We had a peaceful bath, enjoyed a hearty breakfast and were ready to leave – a little late but it was not that bad... well so we thought until we climbed into the car and the GPS told me I was 45minutes late for registration. So I drove fast...

Anyway I was only 24 minutes late for registration – which left me 35mins to register, fix my bike as the brakes were not working, lube all four bikes, check tires for everyone. Ohhh and Yolande left my cycling shoes at home so I had to do the whole race in takkies while I had mentally prepared to use my cleets...

So I got to the start with about 5 minutes to spare, right at the back – about where I felt I should be. Off we went into the orange orchards, and I looked back to see nobody behind me. Yes I was stone last not really as planned. So I pedalled a little faster and flew down the hill, overtaking a person or two on the way. But I was struggling, tired, sort, really didn’t feel like doing 75km on my bike for the day. So I struggled up the next hill, chatted to the girl next to me, and carried on. I looked at my cycling computer and saw that I was averaging about 10km per hour.

There was one really fun downhill at about the 20km mark – very rocky but fast. I was doing about 30km per hour down the path, overtaking a few of the 45km riders who had earlier come past me.

At the 75/45 km split I went peddling up the long flat grassy path to get to the start of the monster. At about this time I was peddling in granny’s big brother (Granny, her big sister then her big brother are the three lowest gears...) I stopped and rested in the road, I told everyone it was to stop them hitting a rock in the middle of the road. And then pushed up the hill – I do push a bike quite well and overtook about 10 people on the way up.

At the top of the hill there was a girl in bright yellow MTN colours, with navy tights, who interestingly enough had a bright yellow butterfly on her bum – which I told her instead of saying good morning.

I missed the half way cut off by 5mins...

So I rushed off down the other side of Breedt’s nek – which had really terrible erosion. At some spots I nearly had to push. One guy just in front of me came off and seriously winded himself. I helped him up and carried on while his friend tried to revive him.

After Breedt’s Nek the route was a little uninteresting but I was picking up a little speed, and started feeling better, or so I thought until Butterfly Bum girl came flying past me as if I was standing still (ok I was but I was having 4^th breakfast). I quickly packed up and tried to catch up but she was actually going faster than me, until her derailer broke and I helped convert the bike to a single speed – which by the way I could not get right until someone who had better tools than me arrived 5 minutes later. So with butterfly bum lady sorted out I went sailing into the sunset again.

It is amazing how much stronger I get toward the end of a race. Toward the end of the race I was starting to ride the uphills again, riding in a proper gear.

I finished in 7:40 – 40mins after final cutoff, so I was an unofficial finisher but I did actually finish. I never saw butterfly bum lady finish, but I hope she did.

Yolande, Loreley and Kaylen all rode the 20km race. Loreley was officially the last finished of the 20km race, but she did win her age group section and got lots of prizes.

Balele Tracks - Scouting

Brief photo report from Sue – possible race clues removed.

For those of you who were not there.

Home away from home!

 

The Lickety Split squatter camp. (Hot water, kettle, fridge, unlimited wood, etc)

The nights got VERY cold!

Luckily Con kept the fire going.........  Chopping wood.

But the days were cool and dry.

Pancakes at the Birthday Party for Lolly.

Site of Con’s new checkpoint. Fantastic view over the escarpment into Natal. (Through the mist!)

 Port a bike........ Hike a bike!

William somewhere up  there in the tall grass.......

Looking for another of Con’s checkpoints? How to get through all that thick bush & trees....

Found it! But will anybody else ever find it?

The climb up .........   William says the GPS reports it’s a 1 in 3 climb

Lost in Da Bush

'Twas adventure racing time again, this time with one of my favourite teams, Lickety Split.

The weekend started with a fuel tanker that blocked the highway out of jozi, and Con swearing to never ever EVER go away on a weekend again.

But that was soon forgotten when we hit the open road and Adri took out pizza, cinnabon-ised muffins and cookies.

We arrived just in time for race briefing - then set up camp in Mankele's camp site.

Race started early on Saturday morning with a quick run to a mini-waterfall - would have been quicker if the mankele singletrack was plotted on the maps, though ...



We than transitioned on a cycle-leg that took us on some of mankele's sweetest singletrack, hike-a-biking up koppies and bundu-bashing through Lantanas. Here's the team (sans the photographer) discussing route options before we left the tar ...



We found controls 3 & 4 quickly. Here's Adri and Will dragging a bike up to control 4.


Control 5 was easy to spot - the paths leading there, less so. Here's Con & Adri running up to the control.


It was a bit of hike-a-biking up to control 6.



We couldn't find control 6 anywhere (we later found out it was about a kilometer off where it was supposed to be) so we took a picture to proof that we were there:


On to control 7, but that one was also misplaced. We heard afterwards that some teams phone the organiser, who directed them to the correct control. Here's some bikes of other teams also searching for the control:



K, so by this time we lost a little enthusiasm and decided that while we're unofficial anyway, we might as well just go for the 'cool' controls. We purified some river water, then headed off to 7. Found it quickly (and where it was supposed to be) and then on to 8 via a sweet singletrack-detour.

Here's will taking a nap at the top of the mountain, just before we clipped control 8.


And then it was a serious downhill that left the bikes with scorching hot disks at the bottom.



The we searched a parking lot for a control that ended up being in a tree about 50 m from the parking lot :(

Here's Adri at the river crossing (where we heard that the last cycle leg was cancelled)



A quick cycle to the transition, and on to the next hiking leg. We decided to go for a finish and a braai, rather than collecting all the points - so only collected one next to a river, and one at the top of the downhill course. Here's the view from the top of the world:


... and here's the whole team at teh finish - just before the sprint to the swimming pool.

Posted by William on behalf of Carine who raced as part of Team Lickety Split. (Carine was part of Lickety Split on our first ever races - it was great having her back for this race)

Easter Sunday Ride

So we had a couple of RSVP’s for the proposed Sunday ride at Groenkloof at 2h30. Allowing ample time for a good ride before sunset and eat/drink at Moyo afterwards. Carine confirms she’s in Afrikaansstad and already did a ride at Groenkloof in the morning with some others. Oh ofcourse… Joburg2C training. Leaving Randburg already late and hot, I pack ice water, sunscreen and a baking tray with hot cinnabuns (which made me late). The sky towards Afrikaa… Pretoria looks rather grey and the closer I get to Centurion Carine confirms its rather wet. We can deal with wet…already had 2 wet& muddy rides. But looking in the direction of Groenkloof, it’s a dense grey and not long before I enter a heavy rainfall accompanied by cinnamon flavoured steaming windows. Remember the storm-chasers in the movie “Tornado”?

Towards Eufees offramp the water is now really pouring down and traffic slows down to cross the river making its way trough the half-built bridges and construction, all the way to Fountains. We agree to go to Café 41 for coffee until the rain’s passed. (Will I really drive 60kms for a coffee?) Deekay’s also at the Groenkloof entrance, but no-one can go in or out because of the little stream now twenty times its size and taking everything not anchored to mother earth with it. A drenched duck… mountainbiker confirms looootsa water inside the park. Carine’s already inside, and now trying other exists out of the reserve. Everyone out, Carine, Deekay and myself make our way to Café 41 to wait for the torrential rain to go north, hoping to still sqeeeeze in a ride. In the parking area I share the cinnabun-joy with the others. We order hot drinks and already the skies are in our favour. Brilliant, coz for 60kms here the mega-cappucino could at least have had decent foam on it. No worries, as we are going to play now.

Get to the Fountains entrance we are asked if we’re sure we wanna go cycle now.. there’s lotsa water. YES, thankyou. Driving around to Groenkloof… there it is: water and water and more water. The parking area not accessible from either sides as its non-existing. It’s a river with some pine trees not even interrupting its mighty flow! Wow. And wow again. Water is surely not to be underestimated or challenged. Touché. We park on the side of the road, about a 100 metres from the usual parking spot, take a couple of photographs and gear-up for an interesting ride A park-officer and also mountainbiker parks next to us and confirms we can circle the Northeastern part of the reserve without trouble, but crossing to the other side in the valley is a no-go as the Limpopo is surely getting its fire from this side today. Sure, and we head off. It stopped raining… except for under the trees, of course. Deekay, who often sweeps for the DnD rides leads us onto the first track and admits he’s forgotten what a single track looks like. Within seconds our chests open and faces light up. Yea… this is the joy. The joy that makes 60kms and a cappucino-with-no-foam worth it. Single track decorated with mud, slippery bends, rocky ups & downs, tall & wet grass, spider webs aiming for a smaller catch and a 100 different after-the-rain smells. The wooden bridge next to the fence was kind today and the 3-in-a-row climbs next to the road reminding us to be kinder to our bodies.

At the top we enter the snaking playground of short bends now slipperytoo and we are short for words to duly describe the joy of riding on the footprints of only rain. Our single track soon became the obvious path for little streams making their way down to the mighty one. I caught myself laughing like I haven’t done since allowed to write with a ballpoint pen. A long downhill dirt road leads us to the banks of a once shy little river, now scarily impressive. Against the advice received earlier: we’re crossing it. Hike-a-bike-style aware of every little step through knee-deep water. Deekay in, Adri in, Carine taking pics. Deekay out and then coming back for my bike. I was feeling unsteady with my bike and now even shakier without the extra weight (note-made-to-self). Out the other side we slot our now-2kg-cleats into the pedals and make our way up the other side spotting a couple giraffes graciously making their way down the dirt road.

“Good day sir” as we meet up with another courteous giraffe standing tall about 15 meters in front of us. He must be nr 4 and far too relaxed to be the sweeper. We know there are 8 giraffes in the park, so looking back we examine the surrounds for the entourage. And yes, there she comes, straight towards us. Nr 5. Has anyone ever been trampled by a giraffe? Coz this one is walking-with-a-purpose! Heehee! And then it passes slightly left we are in awe of these impressive animals. What a privilege. Right on our doorstep. On just another Sunday afternoon. My white-skinned sacred Sunday afternoon nap is forever outweighed.

The last of the clouds now make sunset seem a little closer and we agree to head round to the fast & endless single track. Blessed again as we meet nr 6, 7 and 8. One sir and two teenagers. Wow again. Mik-en-druk a couple of times and we head off. Left into the anticipated single tra…river! Whahooooo!!!! Left, right, left, right, left, left…. More and more… if this is what eternal life is like, I can go now. Tell my family I love them, and this was great. Oke, not now then… right, left, water, right, left, swoosh, and some more wet bends and sadly the end nears. We take a breather, recollect and decide the route for the ride home: next to the stream with the river crossings. And again we are amazed to see the course the water had taken a couple of hours before. Flattening most of the bushes. The trees next to the fairytale stream garnished with 40c-plastic-bags, a bright orange roadworks beacon, a BIC lighter, lunchboxes and the rest nhhof our streets. About another kilometer and sadly… it is over. But wow, the best ride in a long time. Heading back to the cars the established parking area is still under water, but the tar road next to it negotiable and soon proving to be an excellent bike wash too. Thank you Deekay & Carine for taking up an uncertain challenge with a certain reward! Carine, please follow up with some of your inspiring photographs!

Taking stock in the car on the way home was done with tenderness as the Easter Message has now taken full circle. Scarlet skies greet the day and grace like rain fall down on me. You have set my feet upon a rock that is not moving. Life and life in abundance because He is risen and now lives inside of me. Through Your love we are endless.

May we chase the storms again.

TshwaneARclub : Yster Vark en Lekker Race

After Nando had run 1km to fetch our punch cards, we set off up the hill on our mountain bikes, all shiny new and matching in our clean and bright nifty new shirts with special reflective branding, determined to win the race. After about 200 meters Williams’s chain snapped, dropping us to last place. Only 15 minutes of dextrous ingenuity by Con with a bread knife and sticky tape saw us roar off again into the night, determined to catch up with the less experienced. Lessons learnt: Carry spares for 8 and 9 speed chains. About 4km downhill to a muddy stream under a road culvert, Nando bravely stepped up to his middle in s(t)inking mud, and had to be hauled out by brute force. Lessons learnt: Read Dr Foster from Gloucester. 23:30 and now second last because another team had got lost, we roared off back up the hill past the starting camp ground, burning our excess calories with enthusiasm. Con was setting a nifty pace, determined to edge past any laggards or lazy. Suddenly Nando stopped, checked the 103 pockets of his race gear 3 times, emptied the contents of his backpack on the road, said words I claim never to have heard before, and announced he must have dropped the punch card when we left transition 1, 4km back. At this point Con mumbled that he hated AR and we cycled back down the hill to retrieve the lost card.....thanks Gerrard and Nicky for waiting patiently for us! Lessons learnt: Don’t litter. As we set off up the hill again William called us back with a flat tyre. William changed the flat by using an old punctured tyre from his previous race. Lessons learnt: Do the bleeding obvious …William. Another tyre change, two gas cartridges and 25 minutes and we were on our way… again. It was about this time that Con became grumpy. Up past the camp ground and onto endless undulating farm roads. Downhill… and uphill. The race instructions warn “Danger in the dark” what would that be, Crocodiles… no, just a very rocky dirt road that you shouldn’t ride at speed. No problem, its two in the morning, I’m just experimenting with sleeping and cycling at the same time. Close eyes just enough to see Con’s taillight. He’s keeping ahead of the pack, navigating with no rest stops, up a farm track to transition. Change into hiking shoes, eat salami and ham buns, and then off along the river, collecting checkpoints. Next check point is up the hill, above the treeline, but the trees are everywhere. Bush babies look at us, there big baby eyes reflecting from our high beams. Eventually it seems if all the teams are combing the rocky mountain ridge for that obscure checkpoint, fanned out in search mode, not even a rock rabbit could hide. Eventually, after what could be two hours of searching the checkpoint is sighted and we rush to get it, thinking we’re back in the race.


Then it’s downhill to the camp where a rock pool awaits us, a 4:30 AM jump from 6 meter cliffs into the water. It’s madness in the dark, stripping down to only a lifejacket, helmet, and cycling shorts...thanks Mandy and Nico for the long wait and inspiring us to go for it!....though it was really scary!. Then, before the shivering starts its back on with the kit, and soon the hiking warms us up. A checkpoint in the caravan park, a fruitless search through the dense undergrowth for a path back, a Jack Russel companion with endless energy keeping us company. We called him Boetie2. We can’t find a way through so we backtrack, over the top of the rocky mountain as dawn breaks, and light spreads its familiarity. Cons grumpiness eases with realization it was fun anyway, even if we are not going to win. Back to the bikes, a cycle to the MTB track, a swim in the dam to dive down a rope tied to a barrel to see what its anchor is, a bicycle rim, very appropriate.
Nando and Con need to be back by midday, we can’t do the 4 hour hike to the big dam and the swim. We decide to short course and do some cycling back to the start caravan park. As soon as we stop tiredness overtakes us. It was good. Driving home a real challenge to then catch up on a well deserved sleep!
Thanks Hardy and the team for putting on such a memorable event. With Mandy’s photos as evidence...thanks!.. we will never forget this awesome AR experience!
CHEERS!...from Mike (the reporter), Nando (the CP runner and report editor), Con (the grumpy navigator), William (captain and 2nd navigator)

Race Report written by Mike, mailed by Nando.

Sighting of Lance Armstrong at Lourensford Estate

Look out for our new Lickety Split apparel - Like everything else, its an adventure!

Yster vARk en Lekker - AR

BREAKING NEWS!!!

On Friday 12th March Team Lickety Split will be racing in their new, custom designed and printed racing gear. The Adventure Racing motif was custom designed by the team for the team.

Overall we have to say, Team Lickety split is going to look fantastic on Friday night. Photos to follow....

We like it fresh

We either insist on the newspaper being delivered to our homes before
we leave for work or we buy it on the way to work and scan through the
headlines whilst in traffic. There is something about news, the latest
news, smell of printer's ink, a have-to-have, an ASAP. It’s the same
with fresh bread or donuts, we insist on it. No one likes old bread,
no one buys old bread, no one pays for yesterday’s paper either. And
the coffee has to be fresh too, and the 2 go together. Paper and
coffee… and donut if you’re lucky. We want the latest stuff and we
want it first thing in the morning… so we know what others are talking
about or be the first to talk about it and send everyone else to
scurrying to their computers for a News24 update.

In the same way I trust last night’s race report is met by your fresh
coffee. Both fresh, ready for you, first thing Friday morning.

It didn’t rain in Joburg all week. Things were pretty dry and dusty
everywhere. Come Wednesday morning, early clouds confused a few
people’s dress code as the familiar scorching sun was with us by
lunchtime again. Thursday morning the clouds were no longer
threatening and the first drizzle started around 6am. The drizzle
developed into a decent downpour by 10am and a steady drizzle
contributed to a steady appetite for most of the day. Its good its
raining now I thought, coz then the DarknDirty ride tonight will be
fresh, dry, dust-free, dark and dirty. How we like it. A quick email
to Donald on the other side of the boerewors-gordyn to confirm the
weather and his reply: “blue skies” set an expectation for a good
evening.

Arriving early at the Moo-Mall, I paid a regular visit to Mugg & Bean,
this time a chai latte to set the stomach for a good dose of Synap
Forte to silence the 2-week old coccyx injury. I bought the new March
issue of RIDE magazine and read the articles on pain killers &
exercise and the one Milk. Read it, and you’ll understand that my
milky-painkiller cocktail is a nice summary of what I fed my mind
earlier in the day.

Saw Donald and he was sipping on a drinking yoghurt… mmmilky again.
Soon more bikes arrived and totaling 10 riders. Nico as trailmeister,
Donald sweeper, myself, Oupa Gert, Mike, Chris, Brendan, Hennie & his
2 first-time-DnD-rider colleagues. Hardy paid a quick visit and also
told us about the week’s scouting they did for the upcoming Tswane-AR
race.

We set off with the usual start through the veld, fresh bossies
clearing the airways for most people. Left turn onto tar road and down
the side of Cornwall Hill. Rain has sculpted some more interesting
ruts and keeping left at the bottom we turn up to the tar road again.
Here Donald hands out a banana to some guys stranded with their car on
the side of the road, we remount Oupa Gert’s spotlight with cable ties
and then head up to the shebeen for the first speed zone. At the top
we turn right over the highway and further down left into some single
track. The single track was mostly “half track” (a term I picked up
from MTB glossary) meaning rather overgrown and therefore not really
single track anymore.

Braving a ghost ride on a familiar section I loose my shoe due to some
grass stuck to the Velcro strap, and the very long grass made it
almost impossible to make any calculated decisions.  I remember only
the shebeen-queen declared a speed zone, but if your trailmeister is
often the queen himself, most parts of the evening was at an
above-average pace. We soon covered a good distance and even got to
name a section as “The Road Less Traveled” as 3 people were down, in a
row because of respectable rocks hidden in the tall grass of the
unfamiliar track. Not sure where this was, but remember Mike showing
me Eric-se-klip just before that. Loose & find shoe again, a few more
turns later and we’re at the bottom of the MineShaft going up….oe eina
I was thinking. But to my surprise the mineshaft was no longer my
enemy; we have befriended each other second time round. At the top we
turn left to do the-ride-to-the-light in reverse which provided for a
refreshing whiz to the bottom. In the last hundred meters our
surroundings got ‘milky’ as mist have now moved into the valley. Left
again into thicker mist that added another impressive dimension to the
usual DnD ride. Sharp left again up past the chicken farm the thrill
of the mist continues until we pop over the top down to the
shebeen-queen again.

Fly down, sho’t left onto the tar and up the side just after the
stream, Oupa Gert’s bike is trying to beat something soon identified
as about 2 meters of wire. Undoing the metal knot we head back up
home. A quick confrontation with taller-than-the-trailmeister (TTTT)
grass and we meet the last turn-off home.

Thankyou’s to the Weather Man for perfect evening, Nico and Donald,
the regulars, the newbies, Spur, fresh burgers, the mmmmilky magic
sauce and Synap Forte
(And a Thankyou billboard from SARS as I crossed the boerwors-gordyn
to arrive home just before 12 with both shoes.)

Small race box for sprint race?

Nando's fall at XTerra

So, just when I thought the cameraman lost the photo of my fall in the river/stream, here is the evidence. Oh! and Mike your “buddy” that caused the fall, better luck next time as I was on my feet in no time..hehe!

Xterra Buffelspoort “Full event” 30th January 2010

Yep…I did say I was not going to write a report…right!

If I had to summarize this year’s Xterra event, I would say it was wet, wild and tough man!

The build up….

So after experiencing my first Xterra “lite” in 2009, which was short, exciting and adventurous, I decided that I needed to up my game a bit to experience the tougher “full” event. In December 2009 our AR Team Lickety Split exchanged emails on numerous occasions highlighting some of the events we were planning to do in 2010. Yep! Xterra was one that came up. 5 of us jumped ahead of ourselves and entered, not realizing that we had the December holidays and Christmas meals in between to contend with. Well with 4 of us (Adri, Mike and Con) entered for the “full” event and one (Sue) for the “lite”. It was always going to be interesting to see how much training would be done during December. With 2 of my teammates as “veteran” swimmers and the rest of us “social…stay afloat” swimmers, we needed a lot of swimming lengths at the gym pool to be able to overcome the 1.5k swim. The 28k MTB and 12k run would still be challenging but mostly it was the swim that bothered me the most. Prior to Xterra I had had only done a 400m open water swim. So with December training (runs and a little bit of cycling) and the pool training in January behind me and a tiring 1.5k swim at Homestead Lake in Benoni with Mike and Adri, the weekend before the race, I came into the race with a bit more confidence. My only concern was swimming with a bunch of other crazy, kicking, punching competitors on race day.

Wet…..

With no sign of the heavens clearing and watching the weather man daily before the race, I just knew this race was going to be an adventurous and challenging one. In fact it rained so much the night before that parts of JHB was flooded! Mike was staying overnight at the Mountain Sanctuary, only a few k’s away from the event, that I was tempted to phone him to see how conditions were there, but decided to rather pray instead for sunshine….and unfortunately my prayers were not answered…until the afternoon. The morning of the race was overcast and at times drizzling which was great accept that the weeks rain had already done its thing making the MTB route a mudbath of note. I have done many muddy MTB races (Sabie, Bonamanzi, Pecanwwod to name some) but honestly speaking, mud and me are not great buddies.

Wild and tough…..

The “lite” race started almost an hour later than planned and the “full” shortly thereafter…due to some technical issues at registration and the organizers checking out the safety of the MTB course. No problem as the weather was great and the water temp. was around 24 °C.. I think…as I normally complain if it’s too cold although I saw a lot of swimmers in wetsuits…unfair man! Saw lots of familiar AR faces (Nicky, Elsie, Heidi, Alex, Phillip, Wiehann, Tommy and many more). With our swim underway, we had to swim to 3 buoys before we headed back to dry land. I made sure at the start to avoid the “rush” so stuck to the left and off I went. For those who have not had the experience swimming in open water, when you in the water the distance looks greater then on land. Alternating between free- style and breast-stroke I managed to get into a nice rhythm (or pace). Around me were swimmers that were trying just about every swimming style they could find to get them going. One guy was swimming without his cap and another backstroke but not checking his direction. Just before the last buoy and on the home straight I experienced my first cramp on my right foot. What now…I thought… and remembered my experienced teammates telling me to lie flat on the water and stretch out the cramp. Right! easier said than done. I was also warned not to ask the life saver for his board as I could get disqualified. Well, even with the cramp I managed to swim it out. It was at this point that a lady with a orange cap swam past me. She was going at a nice easy pace and gliding well through the water. I decided then that I needed some motivation to finish this last section so decided to use some of my reserves and followed her. This worked well and was surprised to see when we got out of the water that it was Elsie. I remember speaking to Elsie at the start of the race who was equally worried and concerned as I was about swim. Once out of the water (feeling like my upper body muscles were blown up out of proportion) and our way to the transition area I nudged Elsie, taking her by surprise, and congratulated her completing this hurdle together.

As quickly as I could, I got onto my MTB to do the next leg. Saw Mike still putting on his MTB shoes and quickly wished him luck for this leg. For those who have done MTB races in this area you will know how technical this section in the Dam area is and worse when muddy. It was also here that I bumped into Heidi who was also struggling with the mud. Mostly this section had to be walked or you would quickly change colour to resemble the path you rode on. We also had to dodge traffic which also came from the front as the “lite” competitors were on their way back. Once we were out of there we headed for the Mountain Sanctuary road. This was where the work started. Besides the ascend we had to contend with, we had a rocky section which we could only be portaged. Once over that it was a descend that was rocky and tricky at times. Just before we got out of the Sanctuary park there was a water stream we had to cross. On approaching I shouted to a guy washing his bike that I was going to ride this one through. Well, he either didn’t hear me or conveniently stuck his ass out to bump me. Next moment I was lying in the water with one shoe stuck in the pedal and doing my best to avoid shouting at him. Well he apologized and then helped me up. On the other side of the stream was a photographer and had to ask him if he got the evidence which sadly he said only got me lying in the water. Still haven’t been able to check if photo is on the website. From there we came across some more muddy sections which was worse than the first lot we experienced. It was also at this point that the fine rain started and added fuel to the mud. We headed cautiously towards to the transition where we found less spectators than earlier, possibly due to the rain.

After transitioning into my trail shoes and upon leaving the water point I had forgotten my race number so I had to quickly run back before getting going again. The first 2 or so k’s was relatively easy until we got to the dam wall. At the dam wall we were welcomed by an amazing waterfall that was so overwhelming that you stood there with absolute amazement grasping the moment as much as you could before deciding to move on. After crossing the river we had to jump rocks, concrete blocks and a climb up a steel ladder. Once at the top it was a fast downhill until we had to cross the river and then walk up a steep tar road to the next water point. It was at these water crossings that we decided to clean off our dirty bodies and shoes. We crossed the main road to encounter yet another hill. The first section had to be walked and from there gradually got moving until we started descending. Once we crossed the main road it was downhill to the finish area to finish lap one of two. I was fortunate to see Mike and Adri on my 2nd lap and urged them on to finish their last leg of the race. The highlight of this leg and the race was definitely the waterfall which gave me a boost of energy for my last lap.

So, after finishing just over 3.5hrs later being welcomed by Max (organizer) calling us Xterra warriors and making us walk onto the stage to receive our medals and seeing Sue on the other side of the stage, I was excited and pleased that I had finished this awesome race.

Thanks goes to the organizers and their sponsors of this event for making this experience such a memorable one for me. For those of you who weren’t able to experience this, book this one in your diary for next year and believe me you will not be disappointed.

Xterra warrior,

Nando