System shutdown and a bad day

Saturday, 20 February 2010 saw the hottest day over the Western Cape region for the current 2009/2010 summer. It also happened to be the day of the Xterra South African Champs in Grabouw, which is part of the Global Xterra Tour.

I have never been one that takes to the heat well! And this was yet another confirmation. I was really looking forward to this race, although I was still doing it for fun as I haven't been preparing for it due to my lack of swimming and running. I figured I had a decent chance of a top five and if all goes to plan even a podium finish. I was basing this estimation on my recent performance at the Western Province Triathlon Champs where I proved that I could still swim by exiting the water in the top five about a minute or two behind the leader and then go on to run a 37min 10km. What I believed favoured me even more for this race was that I would be able to make up better time on the mountain bike leg!

Last year at this event I took part in a team where I did the mountain bike leg, as I was still recovering from my operation and was then starting to do more mountain biking. On that occasion I started the bike about 4min behind the leader and ended up riding through the field to finish the bike a few seconds behind the leader. Ok, the bike was the only part that I was doing and I didn't have to still go out and complete the 10km trail run. However, I was going to apply a similar tactick this year in the full event, such that I would go as hard as I could go on the bike because that is where I would make up the most time.

Well, races don't always go according to plan!

It started off according to plan, as I had a very decent swim coming out of the water and heading out onto the bike with my wonderful girlfriend shouting a gap of about 2min behind Kent and Dan. However, that was pretty much the end of my race as my body rebelled against the extreme heat and simply shutdown! The minute I started out on the bike I felt dead, but this often happens in triathlon races and I thought it will come right and I'll get into my rhythm shortly. This never happened and it only got worse! I had ridden the route during the week before and then been through it on my computer as well as in my mind a number of times leading up to Saturday. I knew it very well. However, on Saturday during the race I felt like I had never done the route before! I struggled to find the right gears and couldn't focus properly. I began to wonder how I was going to be able to get through the run! I ended up taking each small section at a time in order to simply get through it and just finish the race, as I am not one to pull out of a race no matter who passes me or where I am coming!

I ended the bike leg 9 minutes slower than what I did it in during an easy training ride the week before! Then came the run, and that was all about just making my way to each of the water points that became water stops! Before the first water stop I tripped three times! The highlight of the entire event for me came at about 4km into the run. I knew there was a river crossing, but in the previous years the river was never as deep as it was this time. It was awesome! I spent a bit of time there having a complete dip in the refreshing water to cool off. After that I had to walk the up hills as I felt like I weighed 100 kilograms (respect to those that take part in endurance sports and weigh that amount!), walk the down hills as they were very steep and with my lack of focus would have probably fallen somehow. The rest of the time I just had to plod my way to the finish.

I ended up finishing the 10km trail run in a time of 1hr12min and a total time of 3hr07min. My performance made me think a lot about when I'm watching the Tour de France and see some of those guys suffer and go through bad patches. Once finished the race, my muscles weren't sore or stiff and I didn't feel like I had done much! This is purely because I simply couldn't push myself hard like I normally do as my body just wouldn't function. Temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius at times during the event and I'm grateful to have finished ok, as there were three fellow competitors that had to be hospitalised! The event medics were really made to work hard! There was even a mention the next day in the Sunday Argus, as well as the radio news report on Monday!

The big question?

I would really like to know the reason why the organisers decided to move this race from April two months earlier in the year to February? I know that it was a temperature anomaly that is completely out of the organisers control. However, February is the hottest month of the year in the Western Cape and without the temperature anomaly it most likely would have been well over 30 degrees Celsius especially in the Elgin Valley region. Another thing is that the race started at 11am. This meant the I would have been out on the course from 11am to 2pm, the hottest time of day, while some of the other competitors would have been out in the extreme heat until 3 to 4pm! That is a very long time to have been out in those conditions and very well done to all those who stuck it out and completed the entire race! And well done to Dan for an amazing performance under those conditions to take the top honours!