After last week race and a good week of training here I am again ready to race. This time it's a little different since I am racing in duo with Adrian Makurat (who always kicked my ass in the past)...
We got to the site a little late that morning and hence rushed through mapping and getting ready. Result being that Adrian and I were walking towards the water with our paddles since not in one piece when we heard the "go" and saw all the canoes and kayaks starting...OMG big rush, put the paddle together, pull the canoe into the water and paddle hard...
I don't think I have paddle that fast in a canoe before. The 3 CPs on the water were words written on signs at different locations. Having started a little late the navigation was pretty easy "just follow the mass". We ended up finishing the paddle with the first co-ed team which was a great effort.
A short trek was following. Our transition went pretty smoothly and there we were jogging along to the first CP on foot. We got the first one easily. We were running along with the first two co-ed teams and a bunch of other people but soon after the first CP a group of guys realised they went too far (they didn't get the 1st CP)...The second CP made us lose some time on the first co-ed team that I was well and truly decided to regain. I started running a little harder but Adrian wasn't feeling right and soon we were walking. I asked him if he wanted me to tow him as I was feeling great but he was ok. As we were going through the trekking section he didn't get any better and finally took the tow towards the end of it. I was happy he did cause he is stronger than me on the bike so I thought it was better for him to get his energy back so he could tow me on the bike later :)
TA2 was to jump on the bikes for a fairly long section. Even if Adrian wasn't feeling great we did pretty well on that section (no tow for me boohoo). We hit the CPs almost all ok except maybe for one that was next to a march after a hilly section but even there we didn't lose too much time.
Getting to TA3 went well but I was getting worried for Adrian cause he wasn't getting any better and we still had a trekking section of 3-4km to go and a last 15ish km to bike to the finish.
At the start of that trek I got Adrian on the tow but we couldn't run too much. His cramping was getting worse and even walking being pulled was hard on him. I must say that even if he felt like crap the whole day his navigation was great. So great that even with him on the tow we caught up with the first co-ed team (aka his brother and wife). Unfortunately for us the last bit of the trek was fairly easy (if you are in shape) and runable but not for us...
We made it through the last TA, jumped on our bikes and tried to hammer it to the finish.
I can't believe the stamina of Adrian. I don't know if I would have gone through feeling like he was.
We ended up 2nd co-ed team, 2min behind the first, 5th overall with 3 of the 4 team in front of us finishing within 2 minutes in front so a pretty good result after all :)
Can't wait for Adrian to get back in shape so we can race together again :)
Next week is gonna be my third race of the month. I will be racing with my boss (his first race) and I am pumped. I haven't been feeling that strong in a while and it's a wonderful feeling.
N.L.
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