Even though I've taken part in 3 events, accompanying my GF, after my IM (5k, 12.5k and a city adventure race), this was my chance to do some real racing on my own and test my fitness/skills.

I started out at the back of the pack and almost got caught up in a couple of pileups. Couldn't find a suitable wheel to draft off, so I ended up doing a lot of solo riding on the first 25km on pavement. Once we got to the dirt I felt good as I finally started passing people. Lots of ruts and short, fast downhills. Felt good on the climbs; even though they weren't excessively long, they were constant and came up one right after another.

I was surprised to see that my handling skills are still solid after so many months of mainly road riding. I'm glad to say that I was not passed on any of the downhill sections. However, I was beaten up on some of the climbs!

At the 50km mark, there was a huge steep climb aptly called "the Patrol"...I decided to walk since my back was hurting a bit. It seemed to be a good call since a lot of the riders who were still on their bikes were going at the same pace as I was.

Once we reached the 70km mark, I decided to see how long I could hold a hard pace. I went as fast as I could until the finish line! Left it all there.

A lot of people were cramping from so much heat and humidity. Having suffered from major cramps in my IM and, to a smaller degree, in last week's adventure race, I was very happy with my hydration/nutrition strategy. I drank a liter of water with 3 diluted Endurolytes, as well as a bottle of Powerade with another salt tablet; ate a small honey pack at every :30 of the hour and a gel every hour. I also took water and gatorade at most aid stations. If I had been told a year ago that I would be eating and drinking so much, I would have laughed. But I'm finally trying to understand and satisfy my own specific nutrition/hydration requirements in races.

I was happy, and pretty surprised also, to do so well in this race. I definitely need to do more MTB-specific training as I felt I had some difficulties changing pace and "exploding" on some climbs.

I stretched a bit, got some food, got a cake and waited for Maydelene. She arrived an hour later and we sang happy b-day as she crossed the finish line. She beat her projected time by over 30 minutes and had no serious falls; only some minor scrapes around her knee. She was also very happy with her result.


More MTB training...more intervals and changes of pace on the bike, and eventually on the run.


The Amazon jungle as a setting, raced better than expected, celebrated my GF's b-day...priceless!