A week after the race in New Hampshire (NHRace.com) I was ready to race again. I had taken the week off sport just to recover and on the saturday morning I was on the start line of the raid in St Donat with Emmanuelle, one of my work colleague.
This was her second race only and it was going to be the longest...and the toughest!!!.
Start in the water, pretty rough water...That didn't go very well as our "super light canoe" was maybe too light for the conditions and we were not moving. How frustrating to see almost all the teams pass us on the water since it is supposed to be our strongest leg :/...
We finally get to the CP and turned around. The wind was in our back and we were canoe riding the waves...oh yeahh. A little hope came back for us a swe caught the 4th and even the 3rd and 2nd female team. Manue did very well in transition and in no time we were out of there on our bikes towards the CP3, in 1st female position. As we got to the CP I realized we had left our mandatory first aid kit in the canoe and we had to ride back there to get it. We were last again :(.
It isn't a nice feeling for anyone to be last and I guess that contributed to add some stress onto Manue's shoulders. She was on the tow from almost the start of the bike and I know she was pushing hard already. We left the road and started climbing on the dirt road but her gears were not shifting properly and her chain kept falling off. She started pushing the bike then jumped back on and I pushed her to get to the top of the massive climb. Once up there we had the first super quick trek to get one CP and then back on the bikes. By the end of the bike leg we had already passed a few teams who got lost. Came after a nice trekking/running section with a few CP to take in any orders. We started running on the road but in no time I realized the "track" we were supposed to find didn't exist and there we went bushbashing up the mountain. With a bit of a mix in between my navigational skills and a lot of luck we ended up almost spot on on the CP we were looking for. After that it was just a matter of following the right track.
A couple of CPs later was a swap swim to get two CPs. That was a great time as I was a little warm and Manue needed a break.
I put on the fins that I had carried for it and went in the water. The water was freezing...I turned around and Manue yelled at me "come on you can do it"..I jumped. I swam shivering to the 1st CP and caught up with a guy in wetsuit there.
The dude to say "you don't have a wetsuit, huh?" big smile on his face, me to reply "you don't have Fins huh?" as I passed him :) I was pretty proud of being a smartass :)
The swim over we ran again for an another CP and realized that we had passed 3 girls teams by then. We were in 2nd position. We were back in the race...
The competitiveness jumped back in and I had to push Manue and myself to at least remain in 2nd position. We jumped back on our bikes, Manue on the tow and off we went direction the ski hill for a trek and rope section.
Once at the ski hill after a pretty hard climbed pushing the bikes up hill Manue was exhausted. I pushed her a little too hard and that hill on foot was going to hurt big time.
She was on the tow, I even pulled her by her hand but she had bunked and wasn't feeling great. I pushed her a little more and when she said she didn't want to eat or drink anymore I pushed her to do it anyway. I think I even mentioned something like "as long as you are not puking I want to see you eat and drink..." A little harsh I admit but I couldn't have her bunked for real...We were not far from the finish and I was starting to hurt a fair bit too. It was the first time I towed someone on the bike, and the first time that I towed someone for so long in one shot.
After a couple of CPs in the mountain we got to the ropes. I went whilst Manue got back some energy. By then we knew we would miss the cut off time for the extreme course by not much and we also knew the first girl team was too far ahead to be touched...we just didn't know how far behind was the third team. So we pushed to the end and ended up after 6h30 of racing in 2nd female position.
A massive Bravo to Manue for holding on during that race and pushing so hard. I think she did fantastic and I hope to see her racing again :)
Thank you to Camp De Base, our work for supporting us during this event, to Alex for being our own photograph, and Unleash who once again hold us up together during and after the event.
N.L.
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