The two weeks after Gold Rush
have been fairly harsh on me. I either had some gastric ulcer or I caught a bug
in California but man I had some
serious stomach cramping and couldn't eat or do much. The third week I started feeling
a little better and decided it was time to get back to training. So I did over
the week end and went for a couple of good training on foot and on the bike.
There was this race that Alex had
told me about, the north country endurance challenge that was the week end
later and I didn't think I would be "healthy" or in good enough shape
to do it...until 2 days before!!!
Not that I was particularly super
energetic and all but the race seemed too good to miss and I like to race solo
so I decided to go.
It started quite early in the
morning but the weather was nice. The first leg was a paddle leg. Run to the
kayak and go. As soon as I heard the gun I sprinted down to my boat and was the
first one out there. At the first buoy I realised I didn't know where to
go..and didn't take the map (bah who needs a map anyway :/) but by chance Jason
was right behind and pass me showing me the way. I haven't been paddling since
the first day of gold rush which was a month earlier and I could feel and
regret it. I couldn't quite keep up with Jason but had him maybe 50m in front.
Towards the end of the leg I see him going right, left, right, left...he wasn't
too sure. I knew we had to exit at the dam and the dam was kind of obvious. I
could have screamed to him it's on the left but decided that I would tell him
when and if I catch up with him. During that time I would just chuckle :)
(Sorry Jason).
I exited the water in 2nd place
and started running. In no time Alex passed me followed by Chad.The run was
kind of short and in less than 30min I was in the water again for the 3rd leg
which was a paddle leg.
I could see Chad
not far ahead and knew I would catch up with him easily as he had a crappy boat
but knew I couldn't catch up with Alex or Jason. I could see them but they were
too far ahead for me to catch up. After a few minutes I caught up with Chad
who started chatting along (I think he was just trying to make me stay with him
:) ) but I left him behind pretty quickly thanks to my prs.
The fourth leg was a bike leg
which went pretty well and fast.
The legs were short enough so I
didn't need a big backpack and could only go with a water bottle and a few
lollies on the bike.
My support crew, Bronson, was a
newbie but he did an excellent job and i got a new jam sandwich at each
transition...yum yum yum
The fifth leg was a run a bit
longer (~9km) and it took us in the wood a little more. Half way through the
run I freeze as I saw a bear in the bush near where the trail was bending. No
way I am confronting the bear so I hid behind a tree and tried to make some
noises. I whistled and even clapped a few times in my hand. Nothing to do. The
damned Bear didn't want to move. After a couple of minutes of waiting for
another competitor to come along I decided I couldn't waste much more time and
started moving forward as loudly as I could until I saw that the
"Bear" was actually a bloody dead tree that had fallen and was
covered by black dirt...what an idiot!!!
After that little
"moment" I started running again but I know and the numbers show it
that I lost a lot of time there :/.
Once at transition I tell my
little story to my support crew as I am getting changed for my next bike leg. I
ask him if the second girl solo is far and he isn't too sure but he thinks she
is miles away. I guess I slacked a bit then as I was getting a little tired due
to an obvious lack of training in the past weeks. I slacked until an ATV with
two volunteers from the race decided to tag along and filmed me for the last
20min of that leg. i couldn't look bad for the film so I pushed a bit then :)
The 7th leg was a trek/run up and
down a ski hill. Once again I ask my support crew who says that the 2nd girl is
still far behind so I started climbing with no much stress and Joel from
Breathe Magazine tried to interview me as I am climbing with a jam sandwich in
my mouth and half breathing...not a success I apologies... As I climbed I could
see someone starting climbing too and didn't really want to be caught...not
even by a relay team....I am going down trotting along and in not much time the
transition is there. My support crew says that the other girl has been catching
up a lot and that he actually thinks she might be only 5min behind. Big stress.
The two last legs are bike legs and I am fairly tired.
The end of the race was very hard
for me as I was super tired and thirsty and most of all I didn't want to slow
down and get passed then. So I sucked it up and pushed to the finish line.
I finish in about 8h30, which is
about 1h15 behind the 2 first ones and about 56min behind Alex who came third solo.
The second girl got lost a bit from what I heard and she came an hour and half
after me...
I hurted a lot but Loved the race
and I will be back for sure.
Thank you to my support crew, the
race director for putting such a nice race up and to Unleash for keeping me in
one piece :)
N.L.
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