Well, it's a bit late, and it's my first shot at a race report, so here goes. I haven't been at a D&D ride for about 2 years now; time for a few again? This was my first proper MTB race. I tried my hand at some adventure sprints, but never a proper MTB race. Well, I'm lying. About 3 years ago I tried the race around the Voortrekker monument. DNF. Broken chain. Dash helped, but the chain broke again.
It was hard. Today is Thursday and I tried running in the gym this morning, but my knees are not happy yet. My heart rate stays about 20 bpm lower that normal. Tomorrow morning: some spinning, yes! (Trying to get my butt out of bed already). On that topic, it was the first thing that I battled with: my backside. On the hard tail bike. Not enough time in the saddle. Will do more, I promise. The other thing was lower back. ' always knew that would be a problem. My parents live on a small farm close to Klein Kariba (towards Nylstroom from Warmbaths) (of nou op die Modimolle pad vanaf Bela-bela. Okay, worn out topic.) We left on Friday afternoon and arrived on the farm when the sun set. They had to move the entrance road through a neighboring farm because the road we usually take is badly eroded from all the rain. This should have served as a warning: some mud to come. We left the farm too late and ended up rushing. Lesson one: be on time. I was officially the last person over the starting line. When the 80 k race kicked off, I found myself in the bunch of 35 k racers. I got out of the bundle, crawled underneath the "danger tape" barriers and went down the tar road all by myself. The first encouraging cheers before I did 1 km! I caught the first riders around the first corner of dirt track. The big plus was that I had to start the race slowly. I lost some time, but I couldn't rush; too much bundling and already some people off their bikes. If this was how 80 km started, then there would be some DNF's, for sure. During the race, I constantly passed people with flat tires. From the first kilometres to the last. Wow, the terrain was hard on bikes. The only animal I saw was at about 3 km, a Nyala bull. Beautiful. It took about 20 minutes before I could constantly ride without obstruction. And then slowly pushing harder. On 20 km, I was just over 1 hour. OK, so around 20km/h x 4 = 80. Easy peasy. Let's push for 4 hours. Or maybe with a little hill here and there, 4:15. Ha, ha. At the 35 k mark, I was around 1:50, not too bad. I met up with a friend, Bastiaan Boot and met Marius later (rode with them once from Mervin's shop. Great company, will do again.) Initially I thought the second water table was a saving grace. But the 3'rd sponsored by the primary school, with some music in the bush, was awesome. And that after going uphill for a heck of a long time. With some wind (die wind van voor). Or was it my imagination? It probably was just me flying up the mountain, la, la :-) Just after this water table, I tried chewing on a protein bar that I bought the previous day at P&P. Awful. I couldn't do it. Even the tiniest bits were choking me. And this while negotiating mud pools. Some poor fellow got stuck in front of me and toppled over gracefully into a soggy mud pit. Aw. The next bit was hard. Because my speedo did not indicate distance for some reason, I did not know how far we still had to go. When I got to the last water table, I was nearly done. That table was at the entrance of Droogekloof (the gate to the left of the table, if you remember). I was there about 2 years ago for my brother in law's bachelors party. I nearly ditched the race here - this was way too close to some beers. The guy at the water table was so sympathetic and encouraging, but the bugger lied to me saying the end is just around the corner, one little hill and you're home. Good man. I ended up walking quite a bit up the next hill with a guy that did the Hekpoort race 2 weeks before. Sounded like a tough one. He offered me some lube because my chain got stuck when I tried riding the hill; that solved the problem. MTB'er without lube? Idiot. The roller coaster rides that followed must have been awesome for a person with a spare ass and back. I felt some strain in my arms on these rocky downhills; wow, this was a challenge. The last bit felt like it would never end. I was buggered. Klaar. Time was 5:03. The guy that finished 1 minute before me is 63 years old! Absolutely amazing. I've got an idea what the race is about now. I'll be back for some more next time. The race was well organised, water tables were great, friendly people; what an experience. Cheers Otto -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DarkAndDirty" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/darkanddirty?hl=en.
