First adventure race of the 2012
season and here I am waiting for the start of an 8 hours adventure race in
solo.
I am a little nervous as I
haven't been navigating since XPD (or bearly with a 1h30 orienteering race the
week end before) and I am racing solo. From last year race I did know that if I
get lost I am lost alone and that's worse than being lost with someone...by
far...So my goals are: a) follow as long as I can the lead teams, b) don't get
lost and c) kick some ass!!!
plan a) worked for most of the
first bike but unfortunately not until the first TA for the first trek. I had
burnt myself trying to follow the lead teams and once in transition i tried to
follow some people without looking at my map....wrrrroooonnngggg, first trek
took me a little longer than it should have but then back on the bike I was
well decided to do my own orientation from there and stop following people.
That part worked very well and so
did the paddling and little trek section that followed.
The last sections of the race
were a bike section with an advanced section in it, an advanced trek and a last
bike section. The second last bike section to the trek went pretty badly for me
for two reasons: first one was it was hell muddy and couldn't ride as much as I
wish I could have leading to a long "hike your bike"; secondly my
bike computer (brand new) stopped working making me screw up at a CP that I had
no clue where it was anymore. Luckily for me and unfortunately for the
Salomon/running free team, Leanne's team had some mechanical problems so even
if they were a lot faster than me I was catching up every time they had to stop
for repairs and eventually by following them I ended up to the famous
CP...Thanks guys :)
Once at the TA for the Trek I am
exhausted already but the guy at the TA said I have time to do the trekking
section so there I go running for the two "simple" CPs of the trek.
On my way down to the first one I met Alex Provost (finished first overall) who
was running back. He had completed the trek and was on his way to the last bike
to the finish. He yell at me "the next CP you can't miss it....really
straight forward". I belived him...for 2-3 min. I made the wrong turn and
end up in the wood not even close to the CP. Very quickly I backed out of the
wood and found my way very easily.
The next CP made me struggle a
lot more and thanks god I met other teams down there or I wouldn't have find
it.
Back at the TA i just want to
jump on my bike and cruise to the finish but Mike who is there said if I want
to finish on tim I have to storm down on my bike....I am about to explode. I
have been pushing kind of hard the whole day, didn't take time to eat much and
I am running very low on water but I did it. Jumped on the bike and stormed to
the finish.
my time was 7h52min placing me
1st female solo, 7th solo overall (out of 19 i think) and 13th overall (out of
60ish teams and solo) :)
now time for some more training
because next week is another race :)
N.L.
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