Kawerau 6 hour

I've cried three times in adventure racing.

My accidental photo bomb……

1.  Broken Hills 24 hour when I couldn't even wheel my bike through that motocross track knee deep in sticky mud without the wheel getting so clogged up it wouldn't spin.  Tears of frustration.

2.  Whangamata when I was getting more and more nervous about the heights involved trying to work our way off the headland down to the beach, and then Rochelle climbed around that exposed point that looked totally unstable and I thought she might plummet to her death. Tears of fear.

3.  This year's Kawerau 6 hour...…. when my feet slipped forward in front of me on a steep bank, and I flew up in the air and then came down with all my weight on my left butt cheek.  On a tree root.  Tears of pain...…..


As I lay on the ground and tried not to vomit, with a buzzing sound in my ear, I realised that Rochelle was really worried I'd badly injured myself.  While the pain was immense, it was all impact, no twist or tear or joints involved.  I think I managed to gasp out that I was ok, I just landed hard on my ass.

"Would it help if I rubbed it?"

That's a true friend and teammate.

The night before

This was the hardest ever race planning I've done.  We talked up and down and around in circles.  The key issue being, the latter stages of the race had the most points, we certainly didn't want to run out of time to collect all of them, but missing cps and run the risk of finishing early, while slower teams who banked points on early stages clock past you in points.

Eventually we decided to cut the first MTB short.  I'm not sure how I let Rochelle, the talented runner, talk me out of biking every race!  But, there were a couple of in and out cps with some climbing, and we know we like to be out the front, so we skipped these and went for it.  Unfortunately we went for it right past a cp in the first 15 mins...……… where I wasn't strong on my map, and Rochelle had mistook a twink mapping mistake for a clearing...………..    Not our strongest start but I was too stubborn and embarrassed to ride back down the hill.

Spot us in the middle?

Our first trek leg we had also decided to skip most of the advanced loop, but did have some fun running into the back end, in an unexpected direction to pick up some quick points.

The trek legs were untracked, but taped to ensure everyone found their way.  Advantages were in being able to move confidently, and fast, to the cp site, and we did pretty well with this.  We were in some awesome wilderness, with some stunning rock features and streams.  You can always count on Kawerau to take us somewhere we've never been before.  Somewhere where you think not many people have ever been before.

 'Duh' moment of the day was cycling into Start/Transition, where they had moved some of the tape, vehicles, tents etc, and getting my head completely upside down and not being able to find our gear drop!  I did manage to transfer my hockey skills to the Lacrosse mystery challenge, after lining it up like a hockey shot and freaking out the marshall, I did manage a proper overarm throw straight on to the target.  I did also manage to push in front of other teams who were waiting in my excitement.  Sorry!

Lacrosse targets

Heading out from there, I called out to Neil "We'll be staying out till 6 hours 30 - I reckon the penalty points will be worth it!"

We pushed hard on the final trek - having decided we couldn't afford to waste time and get disorientated by off-track CPs, we started monstering to the summit.  I changed that plan nearly immediately, when I could see the ridgeline that an offtrack CP was on as we approached it, just 75m or so off our track.  Rochelle waited while I popped down to collect it, I hadn't realised that she was having difficulty and she later said she was extremely unwell with some body anomaly that's never happened before.  I was oblivious...…..  sorry!

Emoji Challenge

A quick bike ride to our final mystery challenge - identifying emojis.  That was never going to be my strong point, but I managed to work out Stars in your Eyes and, ROFL, while Rochelle was a bit better with hers.  One last surge on the bike to finish both feeling pretty strong, 6:15, and so rapt that one of the organisers had moved our car to the finish line for us so we didn't have to take a bus trip back through the forest.  VIP in Kawerau!

Pretty rapt with first place for us - but even better, we enjoyed a strong race and a great adventure.  Nice short legs with lots of change kept things interesting, various options to miss checkpoints kept lots of variety in the teams around us, and it was impossible to have any idea how we were doing compared to others.

Xterra Duathlon

Chugging up the steps at the back of Blue Lake, I decide that at the top I'll have to stop to rest.  Because, really, why suffer so much?

Thighs burning, chest heaving, face sweating, I stagger out of the forest at the top of the steps and pretty much fall on the Aid Table.

"Great stuff, you're the first female though!"

"Wait, what???"

"You're the first female duathlete, you need to keep going!"

Oh shit.  &&%$##$.  Arrrrgghhhhhh.  Not a position I've been in much, certainly not at an Xterra event, but I guess I've found the small pond in the new Duathlon event.  Because, why suffer through that swim really?  Why suffer running around this lake now?  Well, I guess because first sounds pretty good doesn't it - and we all know my running speed is really not going to be doing me any favours right now...…….

So I head off, sort of run/waddling down the road, with 1.5 laps of Blue Lake to go.

A couple of hours earlier, I sat on my bike at the Start Line, looking around at the other Duathletes and pure MTB event competitors milling around.  I was pretty pleased that a season of Summer Series has me pretty confident that I can rock it with the big kids on the start line.  And I've learned the hard way, that every 20 seconds you give up at the start by being behind another rider, stretches out to 4-5 mins at the end of the first single track, and that's bloody hard to make up.  So, I'm right near the front, avoid the start line crash, and hit Tangaroamihi single track in a good group.   I get the whole way through this trail, only needing to pass 3-4 people, and being passed by about 2-3 behind.  

Out on the width of Tikitapu Road, the shit is sorted from the shovel, and solid trickle of 15-20 riders overtakes me.  Although being passed sucks, mostly I'm just pleased knowing that most have them have been caught behind slower riders through the single track, and have had to work harder than me just to catch up.  

I really enjoy the Xterra ride - I could do with more single track, and maybe more downhill, but generally I know I do pretty well.  I spend a great half an hour trying to stay on the tail of a lady, a little older than me, who is pretty much shredding.  As we start hauling in and overtaking riders ahead, some look back and see us but seem certain they'll be able to go faster, despite the fact we have obviously caught them.  A couple of times I call out "She's nailing it, make room!" and we fly past with a smile.  

Up the road into Pondy, I have a disaster when the rider in front of me, without clips, slips a pedal and goes down - with me following shortly after.  Bloody knee and sore elbow and hip, but mostly a bit embarrassed!

I ride through the back trails along Tarawera Road, slowly catching another female I can see in front.  We transition together, and I decide to stay on her tail for as long as I can.  We've only gone a few hundred metres when she slows down so much, it would be awkward to stay behind, so I overtake.  If you're going to overtake, you better do it well and not give them anything to hang on to, so as we duck back onto the lake trail, I push fairly hard, enjoying the technical footwork.  

Then the stairs, the decision to pull back a bit, and finding that the other women who finished the MTB in front of me mustn't have been duathletes!

So, what follows is 1.5 laps of Blue Lake toil, wishing I'd done more run training, getting lapped by Tom (hate that!!) but somehow, managing to stay in front of the chasing runners.   2nd Place came in only a couple of minutes after me, after running 10 minutes faster than me.  Good thing I had some legs on the bike!

Pretty stoked with an Xterra placing medal!