Training Log Archive: nmulder

Still struggling. Loop of Lonehill from the dam.

Mapetla Parkrun in Soweto. Course was about 300m short, 2.5 laps. Felt awful for the first 400m, both Michele and Elaine running away from me.

75/57

Quick disassembly of our bikes, not wanting to be caught by Red Fox and needing to sprint race the final leg.

Final leg of the race, a short descent into a river valley, then a short packraft and a beach hike to the finish line. Nothing too spectacular.

Finished in 12th position, well away from the Top 10 we were hoping for. North Face were 11th about 45 mins ahead and Columbia Vidaraid another 2h ahead of that. Red Fox were 45 mins behind.

For me the big dissapointment was blowing on Day 1, but more impotantly, not recovering. I never felt truly back to normal after that, suffering at Piton de Neiges, and then again during the heat of Day 3 along the coasteering. My MTBing suffered a lot as a result and I made too many mistakes in the Urban-O coming into St Pierre. As a result, we felt were were always about 2h behind schedule, and this was notable at each darkzone restart, where we needed to be there 2h earlier to get some good sleep and restart with the pack. We were as a result, always racing on our own off the back, a tough place to be.

I didn't enjoy the route as well and this played heavily on my mental stength. There was very little navigation and the course planning was masochistic and brutal, with the intention just to create as much climb as possible. Felt very dispondent on the finish line and for a few days afterwards. Body-wise, I haven't had such a tough race since my very first expedition, and the body is going to take a long, long, long time to recover.

Quick disassembly of the bike in an awful transition.

Abseil into a kloof. Both were a big disappointment, dirty and incomprehensible in the greater scheme of things.

Got into transition at 04:03 in 12th place. With darkzone ocean paddling lifting at 5am, we weren't going to make the race restart with teams 6th - 11th and opted to rather recover and take 3h off the sleep card, leaving 1.5h for the last night (needed 12h in total). Managed to sleep for just under 2h.

Left T7 at about 08h30 in the morning in 13th place. Team Red Fox had come into transition whilst we slept (they had made up the 12h packraft darkzone on us) and left almost immediately, so we had to chase them down.

I paddled with Lance and managed to get about another 2h of sleep on the boat out in the open ocean. Luckily we had mostly a tailwind paddling NW along the coast.

Scorching transition in the boat club house at the beach. Red Fox had arrived about 15 mins ahead of us but were flat on their backs, probably taking some sleep card time as well. We didn't take any time, intending to use our final 1h30 at one of 2 CPs on the mountain on the final night. They still weren't moving when we left.

Final long leg of the race, which we knew would also be a bastard. We left in 12th place. Assumed Team North Face were the next ones ahead of us about 2h or so. Leg started with a hike a bike up stairs and didn't get much better. Lots and lots of hairpin bend climbs on the lower levels of the mountain, with more push-biking on the upper levels towards the ridgeline. I had to dig very deep on this uphill, just keeping my legs spinning for hours at a time.

We used our final 90 mins on sleepcard (about 75 min sleep) at CP18, leaving just as Red Fox arrived (and they also then slept for at least 30 mins).

The last section to CP19 was the worst hike-a-bike. Only to be beaten by the descent down the extreme downhill track. We pushed most of it, only riding the last sections about 5km later. Team even got seperated for a while with the various splits in the track. After that more downhill into urban areas and a horrible tour of the suburbs before cycling into St Gilles-les-Bains. Traffic was awful and the route course found some final hike-a-bike sections for us.

Change onto bike with trekking shoes for some portaging. No other teams in transition. Took 30 mins on our sleep card to make it 7h30 in total so far. 11th place in transition.

Downhill on tar off the mountain top to start with, then we dropped into a massive valley. This was compulsory portage, but at least we had trekking shoes which helped a lot. Got passed by Team Welands here again who had major trouble with the coastal kite CP, pushing us back into 12th. Got to a caving section where we had a 1h deadzone to do the caves. Then more pushing down the gorge. Finally could start riding after CP15, just as darkness fell. We dropped our tyre pressures to handle the loose gravel of the valley bottom and speed improved, but not helped by our 3rd and worst downpour of the race. Eventually put on waterproofs in a quarry.

From there did a whole lot of urban riding (all up and down, no flat) across the south coast to St Pierre. Struggled to find T6 down a dark alleyway.

Got into TA3 at about 8.30am. Used 3h of our sleep card here, but only got just over an hour sleep.

Left transition about 20 mins behind Team North Face HGK, but they opted to go around the mountain whilst we exited out of Transition by coasteering below the cliffs. Got caught and passed by them about 30 mins later. Spent most of the leg following fisherman paths along the top of the cliffs, crossing over a few old lava flows along the way. Got into CP11 to change onto bikes for a final downhill into T4.

Downhill to the transition, with a short stop at a cafe to resupply.

About 4 teams in transition, we were last out onto the next big trek.

Left TA4 with about 1h of daylight left, knowing there was a difficult kite control just along the coastal forest (and right on the edge of the map as well). Got dark as we started checking the first ravine for it, encountering Team FMR also searching. Gave up and realised were where too short. Went further along the coast and found Team North Face, where comparing notes showed they were too long, so we backtracked together, encountering some spectators who were trying to find FMR to help them. Resorted to a line search together with North Face. We found it and called them in. Then out onto the nearest road to refresh with water (more FMR spectators waiting to resupply them, but found out later they bailed searching for the kite).

From here we started the main climb up the Piton de la Fournaise, the active volcano. It was a massive climb on a slow overgrown track. We slept about midnight for 90 mins at about 900m climb (7km in), no teams passing us, then pushed on, with daybreak at about 1400m (10km in). Terrain got a bit easier after that and speed increased. Despite the alititude, still got a bit hot, especially given the parched landscape. Got into TA5 just after midday.

Got into Transition in 19th place. 3 hours off the sleep card on this 2nd night, of which I probably was asleep for 2. Got up to find all the top teams gone (darkzone lifted at 05h15, but at the river put-in now instead of the abseil, which I didn't get to know about). Exited just behind Jabberwock in 16th, so we weren't the only ones who didn't get the update.

Got to the abseil at about 05h15, just behind Jabberwock, then descended to the next confluence on a track before blowing up the rafts and setting off ahead of Jabberwock. Didn't see them again and later heard they were out with Janneke breaking an arm on the up-kloof.

Got onto the water at 06h15, so 1h behind the restart of the top teams. Managed however to still catch up to 10th place by the ocean, including catching Swedish Armed Forces, etc, so a great effort. Then a short coastal walk before wading up the next river. After a few kms, we could pack up the rafts and start trekking to the next put-in. At CP9 at the top heard about Painted Wolf and Jabberwock pulling out. Descending into the next valley from here was steep and bloody dangerous. A few hand ropes, but after about 1h of descending I started to struggle and eventually fell off one cliff just before the final abseil, with Lance catching me. Put into the rafting at the bottom with about 1.5h left before darkzone started at 7pm. Pushed hard, passing Teams Red Fox (puncture) and Swedish Armed Forces (broken ribs). Got to the marshal at the cut-off with 3 mins to go and in about 16th, but knew we had a major gap on teams behind. Spectacular section of river, with lots of grade 3-4 rapids. Probably did 5km in that 1.5h before darkzone.

Due to the darkzone, we were allowed to progress downriver on a side track before finishing the river paddle below CP10 (8.15pm), getting to TA2 at 9.15pm.

Quick transition onto MTB. Left Team Weylands sleeping in transition.

Left at about 10pm on Day 3, but struggled to get out of town without breaking any no-go rules. These rules proved difficult to interpret and perhaps we tried to follow them too strictly.

Lots of up and down through sugarcane. Slept for about 10 mins at one stage, where Weylands caught us. They pulled away on a cobble beach portage. Got caught in one or two sudden downpours. Then things got better until we got a section of windturbines where we struggled to interpret race instruction and lost too much time faffing, maybe about 30 mins. Final section was a horror bike portage along a coastal footpath.

ARWC in Reunion (Raid in France)
Team Cyanosis with Marika Wagner, Lance Kime and Mac.

First leg was a monster 106km trek with 2 ropes sections and 3 massive climbs over 2000m asl. The highest was Piton de Neigres, highest point on the island, where we went over 3000m. Went through the 3 major caldera basins on the old volcano.

We started 21.5 mins after the leaders after yesterday's tyre-roll disaster (with 30s starts, that meant 43rd place in a field of 64). Picked up the maps immediately after the start in Helle Bourge and already made a few places. 200m of climb over a small ridge saw us gain another 6 places and then dropped into a kloof for the first ropes section after about an hour of exercise. We'd probably made about 10-12 places by this time, including catching Painted Wolf and ACE Estonia. Had to queue for about 10 mins at first abseil and then another 10 mins on a 2nd about 20 mins further down the kloof. In between ran like hell to pass a few slower teams. Probably got out of the canyon in about 15th or so, but we thought it was 25th at the time.

From there we climbed out of the first Cirque de Salazie crater and into the Cirque de Mafate. Set a good pace on the up, but a few teams still came past us. All path running with good signposting for this first leg of the race, so not much Nav. Finally got to CP1 after 6h30 of racing, the ridge between the two cirques. CP2 was at the bottom in a remote village, before we started climbing out again in very hot conditions in the late afternoon. There were two route choices and we seemed to have taken the slower one by 15-30 mins. I thought I'd managed to control my core body temperature fairly well during the day, but I got ill at about 4pm, throwing up. Team worked well to get me through it but I didn't seem to recover as well as I hoped through the night.

Crested the ridge and entered the Cirque de Cliaos just after midnight, heading down to the 2nd ropes section at CP3, a massive 100m abseil through a window and into a slot canyon. CP4 was in Cilaos town, and we took 30 mins off our sleep card to restock and eat properly here.

CP4-5 was a massive uphill (on the reverse of the Diagonal of Fools trail) to a Gite close to the Piton des Neiges, 3071m. Lots of teams here upon arrival at 10h15 on the 2nd day, we stopped quickly before heading out and back to the peak. Saw Painted Wolf and Jabberwock en route (Jabberwock must have passed us on the route choice between CP2 and 3). On return to the Gite CP6, we took another 30 mins off our sleep card.

CP6 to TA1 turned out to be a massive sting in the tail. Rocky downhill trail to start (Painted Wolf pulled out here) before crossing a plantation forest and a short dirt climb before descending into the Plaine de Lianes, a very overgrown forest that made the leg significantly longer than anticipated. The lead teams chasing the Leg 2 darkzone on Day 2 got caught out here.

Entered TA1 at about 00h54 on Day 3 and went down for 3h00 on the sleep card. Probably slept about 2 of these hours.

Prologue for the AR World Champs in the mountain village of Hell Bourge, in the centre of the island. Tyre Rolling, with the 5th team member, a local kid doing the last leg and being included in your time to determine start order the next morning in 30s intervals. (a bit micky-mouse for an World Champs?).

Anyway, we had a great 4 legs and were leading our heat which included Painted Wolf, and then our kid took over. He couldn't manage to roll the tyre and we lost about 2.5 mins and about 30+ places in the last 300m.

Ran from our accommodation in St Gilles-les-Bains to the beach, along it and back.

Flew to Reunion for AR World Champs

Ran with Mac and Marika from Mac’s B&B up the Spruit past Riverclub to Sandton field and study, loop of the park and then back down.

Wits Parkrun. Hilly course on West Campus and Sturrock Park, spent most of it running 10m behind Paul W, until he floored it in the last km.

74/56

Craigavon loop.

Out to Molnjir hill and back.

Av 25.3
Mx 63.9