World-Multisport-Championchip Kathmandu Coast to Coast

Coast to Coast 2021 race report :

First of all I want to say a huge thank you to everyone for all the lovely messages for my birthday the day before the Coast to Coast and for all the lovely messages after the race 💕🤩🥳.

I couldnt be more happier right now with my result over the weekend – it meant soooo much for me, for a whole lot of reasons.

It wasn’t just about winning the coast to coast 2021 again.  It was about overcoming / conquered my fears from last year’s DNF and slaying them, and showing to every athlete out there it is not the end of the world when things don’t go to plan / don’t work out the way they should have.  The key learning from that was: What am i’m going to do about it to make it better next time?  And I made it better this time.

I did it and I did it bloody well!  I couldn’t have executed my race plan any better than I did, I played my B card which was my safe/smart plan(!) – given that I don’t really write any plans before the race 🤦‍♀️.  I do them as I go but was thinking about different scenarios before the race.

Because of last years horrible experience I just wanted to be safe and comfortable with myself, of course while racing neck and neck with Elina I wouldn’t say it was that comfortable (haha…) I knew as long as I was eating and not redlining I should be OK.

My plan was to keep chasing who ever is in front of me of the ladies, I guess we all had our eyes on Ali Willson like the year before.  

She was first out on the run and amongst the fast guys on the bike, as expected.  Things slightly changed when our bunch caught up with the leading men, with Ali in with them.  Thats where I got just a little excited , still a very long way to go and my main focus remained play safe, stay safe!

Off the bike of course Ali went first out the chute, with me second and Elina right on my heels.  I tried to just focus on myself, keep my breathing under control and ease into it on the first 3km flat running.  As we came down to the first river crossing Elina grabbed me, I was a little irritated (what the F…. is going here) but I thought “well if you grab me I will grab you” because we both had Ali in front.  We figured it was best to work together on the crossings to make it easier to reel her in.

We did end up taking different tracks straight after that but joined up very quickly, with me in front. I was happy that I remembered that shortcut and it made me giggle!  Anyway Elina would not let me get away at all and I certainly wasn’t going to let her go, either.   As we caught up to Ali we were all running together for quite a while.  We also had two guys with us which I was kind of happy they knew the best, smooth lines to take up to the Goat Pass Hut, so I made sure we stayed with them. 

Another slight new/nice experience I had with Elina – at one point I pushed her up a rock as I was right behind her and we needed to get moving – I did say “I’m sorry, I don’t really want to touch your bum but we just need to get going”.  I thought it is nice when you can help someone, especially while you racing each other flat out.  Later on, I took a tumble and Elina gave me a hand to get up (or not completely face plant, I can’t quite remember), but I thought that was very unique!

On the last climb up to Goat Pass Hut we did make a move and passed the guys, by then I couldn’t see Ali anymore but was still aware she couldn’t be far behind us. I thought she was just saving herself and would follow our path… and at the top she would unleash and smash us all the way down.  Little did I know, Elina and I never saw her again, we just kept on moving the best we could, taking turns until just before Dudley’s Knob, where Elina took the lead and that was just perfect for me.  I wasn’t feeling the greatest on that run, I knew I could do better but that day I decided to play it safe as the memories from last year were still stuck in my head and I didn’t want that feeling I had last year again.

Coming into Klondyke Corner just a few seconds down on Elina I was pretty happy with myself and knew I could catch her and pass her on the middle bike.  I lost a few more second in the transition, as we couldn’t find my bike hahah…. just to add a bit more excitement.  On the bike it didn’t take long before I passed Elina, we had a great tail wind.  I also made sure I stayed focused over the one way bridge just after Klondyke with the hard lefthand turn coming up, because I also had some trauma memories from crashing there two years ago, haha…  This time around I took it very nicely and off I went, making sure I kept eating and drinking as much as I could to refuel, with different food from the run where I could only manage gels and clif blocks.

Coming into the bike TA at the top of the Mt White Bridge was a good feeling as I felt way better than last year – hurray, happy me!  But where was my support crew?  Oh there she is, somehow I kind of stopped thinking that I could just get going myself down to the kayak TA but I was kind of waiting for Rachel, while she was running towards me with waving hands as I started to run down to her.

I did see I had a little lead over Elina, and took that opportunity to jump quickly into the bushes for a poo💩 which was much needed at that stage.  I’m quite ‘efficient’, and as I spotted her I was out and about carrying on running down to the kayak transition.  Over the bridge I spotted Marcel in his bright orange headgear – so good to see him there 🙌.  My transition was OK, but Elina’s was slick and quick 👌, for me still room for improvement 😉.

Into the kayaks and off we went.  I took the right channel and she went straight, we joined only a few km after that together and basically paddled within 50m of each other for the remaining 65km.  Holy moly!  Yes it was great, great for me – I was very happy to have someone to follow, as we all know Elina is a exceptional paddler  I thought if I can just stick with her for as long as possible that would be amazing and really good for me. So I did but it wasn’t easy, she made me work hard and I loved it.  I wasn’t sure how my legs would be coming out of the kayak and getting onto the bike, but as it turned out they where fine.

I was faffing a bit in the last TA with a change of clothing, while Elina just slipped through the transition again  Very impressive, but never mind. 

Onto the bike – man it was blowing hard, hard into my face. Did I say to my friends I would like some strong winds on that last final bike?  Yup, I did. 🤦‍♀️🤪😆  I didn’t feel that great, but i don’t know what it is, you put me on a bike and something just clicks and I go.  It took me a little time to get into a routine and after a bit of good food (kumara mash and coffee on the go) woop woop, away I went.  It took about 30min to catch up to Elina and man, was I happy to see her, but also aware there was still 1:30hrs left to go and anything could happen.

As I passed her, I never looked back if she would stay with me. I kept my head down in my TT bars and pushed hard into the northeasterly headwind.  Despite looking at my powermeter that kept telling me i’m only pushing 130/150W, I didn’t get too caught up about the numbers as I knew I was riding well – looking at my old school gearing at the front (sometimes old school / not having the latest greatest technology can be a good thing 🤪) +hint – I’d love a new bike  The first time I turned around to see if anybody was behind me was turning from Tram Road onto the Main North Road, and lucky me!  No-one in sight.  Phew!  But again still quite a few km to go so I just put my head back down and kept on riding. 

Somehow I had this feeling I just have to keep pushing all the way to the finish line, even getting off the bike and running into the finishing chute, hobbling and trying to run, all I had in my head was “get to that finish line first don’t let anybody pass you.” hahah…  So I did and man what a feeling …. 

I would like to say a massive thank you first to my partner in crime Marcel Hagener the man that has been by my side and supporting me for the last few years. In great times and the most down times, like last year.  He wouldn’t give up believing and supporting me to have a good comeback this year.  I’m so happy we achieved this together 💕 

There are more amazing people/ sponsors to thank for.  Despite last year’s DNF they stuck with me, believed in me and helped me overcome the black hole, disappointment and trauma from last years race.  They all backed me up 100% for this years race, and a massive thank you to:  

 @ radixnutrtion @ topsportkayaks @aroundthebasin @em’spowercookie @HQKayaks @racersedgewanaka @sweetchicknz @rabnz @ rasdex @peak_endurance_wanaka

and not to forget all my friends and Families a few special once to mention Graham Clark , Giselle McLachlan, 💕

Weng’an race report (written by Dougal Allan )

Let me introduce you to my A – Team 😆

 

As winners of the 2018 Weng’an Mountain Outdoor Race we returned this year with the goal to repeat our success. The only change to our team was the departure of Adventure Racing legend Marcel Hagener which left an opening for Sam Manson to join Sam Clark, Simone Maier and me in the team. We knew Manson had the complete skillset, experience of racing in China and fitness to contribute, but his performance was even more impressive than anticipated and we are thrilled to consider him a huge asset for our future races.
Weng’an is a three day stage-race involving the usual mix of running, mountain biking and kayaking, along with navigation, abseiling and caving with winning stage times ranging from approximately 5-8 hours. The weather was mostly wet and treacherous but finished on the final day with 30+ degrees and a hot sun! It certainly made decision making important and our team’s eventual success seemed to come via equal parts conservative, cautious approaches alongside aggressive, race-winning moves
where opportunities arose. That said, we all had a spill on the bike and took a few tumbles running too, so it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. But we managed to keep ourselves safe and eventually we got the job done by winning all three days and the overall race by over 20 minutes after nearly 17 hours of racing.
Other than the sensible decision making and united commitment to pushing ourselves really hard, the other key to our success would likely be our considered approach to nutrition and recovery.
China isn’t the best place to eat and recover like an elite endurance athlete, so sometimes some improvisation can be the difference. We were fortunate to have support from Radix Nutrition which are high quality NZ-made dehydrated meals designed for performance, well-being and recovery. We’d start and finish each day with these meals and flush them down with Lifestream Spirulina Performance and Vital Organic Greens to keep our bodies functioning at the highest level despite being surrounded by unfamiliar local foods. We even travelled to China with Oofos sandals which are
designed specifically for physical recovery and rapidly force your feet to forgive the punishment you inflict on them across many hours of fast-paced racing. Sometimes it is the ‘one-percenters’ that can make all the difference.

Day one was mostly biking and mostly on the sub-tropical equivalent to black ice: wet, green moss-covered roads. It was super slippery. At one stage we spotted a small gap on our main rivals Team Raw Adventure and within the blink of an eye we were in TT mode and riding away into the lead.
We knew we had the horsepower on the bike, but we had to make a move when it was safe and achievable to do so. Tucking down onto our Ride Farr AERO MTB bars helped us slipstream away and once again affirmed our smart team decisions around equipment-choice before the race. We are lucky to have support from such clever and effective brands.
The caving, abseiling, kayaking and running stages that followed were a case of controlling our ownrace from the front and balancing the urge to extend our advantage with the awareness of the extra risks presented by the wet and slippery surfaces. Eventually we made it to the finish with about an 8 minute lead over Raw Adventure and a nice little confidence boost with two days to go.
We have many years of collective experience in China now and one thing we were acutely aware of was the fact that things can change very quickly in these races. With day two expected to take the winners around 8 hours, we had plenty of variables to negotiate and we weren’t going to take anything (not even an 8 minute lead) for granted. The meat of the stage was a 5 hour kayak which we knew we’d be strong at. But we also knew how hard it can be to shake other teams in these kayaks given the massive advantage you get from ‘wash-riding’ behind another team’s boat. We had to get a gap on the first 45min run and 2km kayak carry to the water. We managed to sneak down to the start of the kayak with a couple of minutes on Raw Adventure which could have been the biggest influence on our overall race success in hindsight. It meant we could paddle our own rhythm and push the advantage, which turned out to be around 14 minutes
by the end of the paddle. We were able to take it back a notch on the final 17km trail run to the finish to ensure we still had some energy reserves for the final day, eventually finishing about 10 minutes ahead of 2 nd and taking our advantage to about 18 minutes. It was also Manson’s birthday, so we were thrilled to celebrate his 28 th lap of the sun with another stage win. Once again, we were quickly tucking into a mix of Radix Nutrition for replenishment and adding Skybright Sports Endurance electrolyte drops (another cool kiwi brand) to our water bottles to fast-track hydration levels.

The final day involved a very tough mountain bike which included a couple of extended bike-carry sections over some mountainous trails followed by a ‘traditional’ orienteering (i.e. map and compass, no use of GPS or other device) stage to finish. Once again, the day started wet and slippery. From my point of view this was the last chance to have our race aspirations ruined as the risks of cycling at speed on wet roads in a massive bunch of nervous cyclists of varying abilities and skill levels is a little frightening and unpredictable. Our plan had to be to ride hard to stay on the
front and protect our safety from rogue cyclists making dumb decisions.
We achieved what we intended to by pushing the pace from the start and keeping out of trouble. By the time we hit the first bike carry we were still at the front of the race and only a couple of teams were still within touch. That is, until Simone went to the front and forced the pace up a level. Clark, Manson and I simply focused on keeping up with Simone as we literally pulled away on this section from every team in the race. Honestly, if Adventure Racing was more of a mainstream sport, the world wouldn’t believe the physical and mental toughness they’d see in this lady. It is a pleasure to witness her at work first-hand. She essentially carried her bike over the steep mountain path faster than any other team could handle (lucky us lads held on, just).
All that was left to do was navigate our way through 15km of city streets, parks and tourist areas by foot and find 7x checkpoints before finishing. Manson took the map and compass and was flawless in finding the way. I struggled on this stage. I am not sure if it was the heat or a little complacency, but it certainly offered me a chance to step outside my race brain and observe the team at work a little more objectively. It was poetry in motion. Manson working his magic, Clark towing like the workhorse he is while assisting with route finding, Simone just driving her body further than anyone can, as she always does. It was a chance to feel proud of how we’d come together and performed so well as a team. Us lads are obviously chasing similar individual goals like the Kathmandu Coast to Coast and other events which presents a risk of internal competitiveness affecting our ability to perform as a team. It just doesn’t happen. The four of us looked after each other, raced our hearts out and even managed to have fun while taking our bodies and minds a long way away from comfort.

It is hard to describe these races to friends and supporters. They are truly the hardest style races I have done. But they are also some of the most enjoyable and rewarding. There are just so many variables to manage to achieve team success. Gear and nutrition are important of course, but in the end, I think it is a case of having teammates that are willing to go to the well for each other. Looking
ahead to the next few events we will do in August and September, I am certain we are ready to do exactly this all over again.
On behalf of the team thank you to everyone who took interest in our race. We love seeing the support flow our way during the race. We also want to thank the companies that supported the four of us on this trip: Radix Nutrition, Vital Greens, Lifestream, Ride Farr and Oofos. What a privilege to handpick products we truly believe will be performance enhancing and receive support from them.
Please look to support these brands if you like to see NZ teams taking on the world. We couldn’t do
it without them.
Dougal

 

World-Multisport-Championchip Kathmandu Coast to Coast 2019

My coast to coast race report from three weeks ago  🙂 

Rightoo haha… well as you can see, I haven’t used my Blog for a very long time. It’s not because I haven’t raced since 2016 , nope I have done a lot of racing from then till today. I just found it hard to sit down and write!

As you all know I’m German and English is my second language and my English Grammar skills are nearly non-existant. So writing a Blog takes a very looooooong time for me. And as time is so precious I rather not write and go outside instead and do other more exiting stuff hahahhaah…..

But I have been thinking and I do want to make some changes! 

And this means writing my race report I really need to sit down and do it right now. 

So here it is :

I had a nice smooth week leading into the race which was already a huge improvement from last year. I felt like a winner heeeheeee…. 

I was organised with my gear and my support crew. Thumbs up …nice work guys!

The sleep the night before a big event like the Coast to coast is not the best one. In the past I hardly got any sleep because I’m so exited. This year it was different again I could hardly wait to start the race…a kind of strange feeling but I liked it.

Race morning I got up at a crazy 3am for my breakfast, Coffee and toilet stops. Race start is always at 6am sharp and I need to eat early to digest my food a bit before my body starts racing.

Everything seemed to be good apart from having not as many toilet stops as I wanted but never mind, it just means that I might need to go during the race which I am always well prepared for.

The Weather was a concern for me as it was drizzling and I don’t like being cold right from the start.

But the outside temperature was warmish and I left the house just in my normal race clothing with my arm warmers on and of course a rain jacket to keep me dry till race start.

I went to rack my bike with my support crew. Marcel stayed with me for a little longer and we started walking down toward the beach. We met Alex Hunt who is one of the top men for the Longest Day and Marcel said that I am now in good company and left. Alex and me know each other from many races overseas and we had a lot to chat about.

When we arrived at the beach chatting stopped and it all became business as usual. I did a little jog, went down to the beach and dipped my fingers shortly in the water. I had less then five minutes to go, so quickly took off my rain jacket and dropped my bag with the jacket at the bag-drop and positioned myself on the start line amongst all the other athletes.

At 6am Robbin Judkins, the creator of the Coast to Coast did the countdown to race start.

We run for 2.2km’s on partly gravel and normal road to the firstst transition area where our bikes are ragged for the first bike ride.

As the horn went off so did we hahah full speed and I positioned myself behind Isla Smith and Fiona Dowling. I had the feeling that I heard Elina breathing down my neck the whole entire time.

Just before the roundabout I took the lead into the final 100m into TA 1, Elina was right with me. We went in and grabbed our bikes and off we went.

We rode with about 20 guys in a bunch  for the next 55km’s to Aitkens Corner where we had the 2nd TA  from bike to run.

The ride in that bunch was very frustrating for me and a couple of others as it turned out. Most riders in the bunch weren’t willing to do their turn at the front to break the wind. They just drafted of me and 3 or 4 other guys who did all the work. I kind of understand this if you are a woman hahah…. 

It was a lot of diddling around, very few surges were made and it just felt unsettling and confusing. We could have worked so much more efficient if we would all have done some short turns for like 10seconds max and nicely rotated around.

I rode with the guys at the front and went also way to the back but felt that it was more dangerous at the back so moved back up and was working at the front again. All good and I didn’t mind but when we came close to the TA of course the guys who were drafting of us were passing to get ready to transition. It felt unfair.

I had a quick transition off the bike into the run. Marcel gave me my run pack and after the race told me that I was swearing when I passed him…oups! The big mountain run starts with 3 km’s in the flats to the first river crossing just before this I saw marcel and he told me to take it a bit more easy meaning slower my pace as I got 30km’s ahead of me.

If you have never done or heard about the Coast to Coast run…well it is a very different run to any other trail or off-road run’s.

Picture this : you basically run in and along a riverbed for most of it and there are some big boulder hopping sections included before you get higher up to Goat pass. It is a very pretty run, you cross a lot of side streams which means your feet are wet not only right from the start but till to the end hahah…

Running on a riverbed and over the rocks can be quite challenging and if you ever feel like doing this race then I highly recommend training on something similar a lot. It is easy to roll your ankles in this kind of terrain and training rock running is a must to prevent injuries.

You need to find grippy shoes which drain quick and support you too. My most favourite running shoe and what I used on race day were the Hokaoneone Evo Jawz. It is a very light shoe, minimal but extremely grippy on this terrain. I love them and am super happy with them.

I had an okay run, was in my own space and was lucky to have some good guys running with me for a short while and exchanging some banter along the way. Sorry I forgotten their names but it was great having them around especially running out towards Klondyke Corner.

At TA 2 I got told that I had a 7min lead on Elina and that was the first time that I got given a time split which was great.

It was also the TA where I got a 2 minute time penalty but I had no idea about it as I didn’t read the rules properly ekkkkkk ( lesson learnt for the future ) 

One of my support crew carried my bike onto the road but wasn’t allowed to do so which we figured out afterwards.

I jumped onto my bike  and rode the 15km’s to Mount White bridge.

I had a great tailwind pushing me right at the start of my ride. I loved it and I felt like flying. Traffic management stopped the traffic for us riders so we could blast over the one way bridge after Klondike.

I was flying pass like there was no tomorrow, felt so happy and excited that I had a 7 min lead and so on but that excitement stopped very sudden when I lifted up my head approaching very fast that 90 degree bend to the left and realised I am way too fast to make that corner.

I tried to make the best using my breaks to slow me down as much as I could to get around and I kind of managed well but there wasn’t enough space an  A stationary white Ford Transit van stopped me and I crashed sidewise into it AUTSCHHHHH !!!!!!!!! I thought my race was over 😦 O dear what had I done ?!?!?!?

But I was very very lucky, the man in the car didn’t make a big scene out of it. I got up and jumped back on my bike.

So amazing and yes very lucky to get away with almost nothing (more luck than brain I know). Only my front brake was jammed up a bit. The cranks were  hardly turning over. I kept going as I knew I needed to get somehow to the next TA and there was no other way than moving forward.

It got harder and harder till a strange noise came and I thought f….. that’s me again ah well I will just have to run with my bike to the next TA.

But somehow the brake unlocked itself and God knows how I don’t care hahahah and yahooooo I was off again riding my bike normally. Well kind of I was a bit worried that something else might have happened so I took it easy to the next TA.

The first thing I said to Marcel who waiting for me at the TA and had no idea of what had happened is that I crashed and he really needed to check the bike really well because of the locked brake etc.

When you transition from the middle bike ride to the river paddle there is a 1km run section to the river on a gravel road.

Your support crew is allowed to feed you as you are running down to the boat.

Marcel ran down with me and made sure I’m all good and when we arrived I had Emily at the kayak with all my kayaking gear ready to be changed over.

Everything went smooth and off I went for my 70km paddle down the Waimakariri river.

The water flow was very low and it was the lowest I have ever seen and paddled it which was a little bit of concern but not really as it was the same for every paddler. If you have never done that paddle it is kind of hard to imagine what it looks like but here is a photo of the paddle start:

This is just a Photo from the internet, on race day there was hardly any water hahaha…

You paddle 20km’s till you reach the gorge. In all my training paddles I did really well with finding the right braids or channels to go down but on race day I was with two other guys and it was really hard to look ahead or around them hahaha …

Anyway eventually we ran out of water which meant you have to get out of the boat and carry it to another channel/ braid with hopefully more water and takes you into the main river flow.

“Beaching” can be a pain in the “ass” because when it happens I need to drag my poor kayak over the rocks as fast as I can and the risk of damaging my boat and rudder is high. I “beached” and I was lucky that nothing broke as I was of course a little careful and jumped back in and made my way down the river. And I told myself : do not follow anybody  anymore.

I finished the paddle 1or 2 minutes ahead of Elina and wasn’t surprised as I know she’s a very good paddler and I am still learning. Heaps more to learn! 

After I exited the boat I got informed that I got a 2 minute time penalty but they did not say what for. I heard a few different stories while jogging up to the last TA to mount my bike and they really fired me up for the last 70km final bike ride.

I started riding and had a bit of a side wind for 8.8km on the main road till I turned onto South Eyre road for 41.2km (including 26km without a turn)

There I had an amazing tailwind which I wish it would have lasted forever hahahaha but it didn’t. It turned into a strong headwind all the way to the finish line eeeeeek…..

I started off well with a lot of enthusiasm as I knew I had a penalty and needed to ride at least 2 minutes faster than Elina to win the race.

I had good confidence in my riding even tough I had very sore feet and every paddle stroke was very painful and not even half way I saw my energy was going down and I struggled to hold the power output I had planned. I  had a bit of a mind fight going on at that stage and thought ah well if anyone is passing me now, they are obviously the better athlete and deserves to win the Multisport Worldchampionships!

It was a lonely last bike ride and there was hardly anybody but when I saw people they were very cheerful and happy for me!

Also what exited me as I was riding I kept on passing some guys which made me happy and I thought : ah well my riding can’t be that bad then! 

About 200 meters before the finish line you have to get off your bike and run over sand to the finish in New Brighton.

When I tried to get my feet out of my shoes I started to cramp-up and wasn’t sure how on earth would I be able to get off my bike without falling over. But funny enough I managed and slowly shuffled over the line.

 

That finish line, yahooooo!! Well I think all finish lines are just soooo good. Especially when you are at the front there are so many spectators cheering you on and celebrating with and for you. It was amazing but when I arrived I was still in race mood knowing I had to make it asap to the line because of my penalty. When I crossed the line everyone went crazy and celebrated my win (which I still can’t believe it happened). I needed to make sure I waited for two minutes then yup I will celebrate but the announcer promised me that I had a way bigger lead than 2 minutes so it was okay.

It was a crazy experience because I didn’t know what to say, I felt so strange and overwhelmed. It was a bit unreal.I got a bottle with champagne and I couldn’t open it hahahahaha. My fingers were so crazy weak. I managed but what a day and what a race!!!

It took me several days to realise that I had finally achieved one of my biggest victories. 

 

Another dream of mine and I did made it happen with a lot of support from sponsors and friends. 

I became the first German athlete in the sports history of the Kathmandu Coast to Coast  to win this event( I think that’s pretty cool eh :-).

Although I regard myself more as a Kiwi than a German…does that make sense?!

It also turned out that I had the second fastest final ride out of everyone, male and female athletes.

And I had the fastest running time of the women over the run course on the day, yuppee!

 

My next big challenge is one of the biggest Adventure Races on the globe:  “Godzone”. We will race as an equal gender team : two men and two women and this is very exiting. We are going to be racing as Team Perpetual Guardian…as in powered by Perpetual Guardian. 

 

 

3D Multisport Champs

3D race report!

Holla it’s been a week since I raced in Rotorua at the Blue Lakes and in the Red Woods.

I really like the 3D Multisport event and I was looking forward to give it another good crack since my victory in 2013,

The weather Gods turned on a nice sunny, not too cold and not too hot day.

The few weeks before the race and the week leading into the race were a little stressful as I worked more than I had in the whole year.

Teaching at the pool,doing once a week social work and the change of the season/temperature made me worry if I got enough quality training hr’s in.

I also had to pack up all my belongings from my flat as I am leaving for overseas for racing and training for the coming six months. It felt weird but I am exited about the change of all.

Looking back at my result I did ok….I managed it all well.

The last week before leaving Wanaka and the 3D race I had more time to

be creative and do some awesome backing which I really enjoy. I made some yummy very healthy cakes….all unbacked.

As You can see here ha ha…. I love the fact that even as an athlete, we can enjoy sweet, delicious desserts and I don’t feel guilty for eating them

because it’s all natural and organic ingredients and low sugar and low fat + I feel great about it too.

This is how my race went :

I was very happy with my kayak leg. I’m not the best or fastest paddler but I felt great. And I like to dedicate this section to Steve Norton from Queenstown. He helped me just a few weeks before 3D with technique sessions. I still have a long way to go but we made a start and I could

feel the differencde already which is awesome and exciting for me and the future.

Just a shame now that I’m heading overseas for a while. I can’t wait to get back and get more coaching Steve 😉

My biking during the race was okish, not awesome or brilliant but ok. I wanted to be better but what I realised after the race is: when you ride by yourself you can get lost a wee bit in your brain/mind and you don’t push as hard as if when are with another rider. Do you know what I mean?

3/4 through the ride I caught up to Malte Hagener and that just made my day. It was the highlight off my race and it really was!!!

I was pretty happy at that point, not that I caught him but that we kept pushing each other very hard and had fun along the way. He made me laugh so much that it didn’t feel like I was racing at times.

When I came into TA2 I was still in second place  about 45s down on Elina.

In the MTB section I had a very very sore back and it was hard to imagine to run well off the bike.

When I started the run I didn’t even think about my back pain. I felt it at the run-start for a few meters but then it went awayyyyyy….!

My run was great. The first lap I ran what you would call conservative as it has a nasty little climb in it and you don’t want to blow up because you do the hill twice. On the second lap I just ran and it felt awesome, it felt better than I thought and imagined it.

My running training back home in Wanaka didn’t feel that great and I was concerned about this and that’s why it is so important for me to have an amazing  coach like Nicky Samuels !!!

It does help me heaps to stay in the present. And to believe that I have done the hard training and to run well even if it doesn’t feel that way at times 🙂

During my race I made a little space in my head for a finish line interview just in case I would win : I wanted to dedicate that win to my coach Nicky Samuels. She has been coaching me for the last 3 years.

She believes in me and supports me no matter what and how many doubts I have about myself. She is an amazing athlete herself and soon off to race the TRI Olympics in Rio 2016.

When I felt bad especially while training in the last few weeks she was the one that kept me going day by day. That win was for youuuu Nicky!

I know it wasn’t a big win but it was something special and I raced as you told me to : Go out there, do the best you can and make sure you have fun!

And that is what I did :-)….

 

A huge thank you to all my sponsors : Racers Edge,Torpedo7, Wanaka Organics, Sweetcheecks, Raisey Original … BodyWorkshop, Wanaka Physio, and friends. Their support is essential to me and I would not be able to do what I love without them# living the dream …..

Here some photos before, during and after the race, + my time away from Wanaka :-):

 

 

 

Less then 24hrs till the race start

It’s Sunday the 17th late avo, team O2Bhealthy ( Marcel, Sam,Hamish and me) are all checked in, singed off , have boxed up our gear and we are ready to rock & roll !!!

ha ha sort off 🙈🙊🤓🙃👍☀️💨🍀😱

The boys are pretty exited to race and so am I, specially after my interresing NZ summer experience with my 4 broken ribs at challenge Wanaka. I have to say my recovery has been amazing and I feel as strong and fast as I was if not better which is incredible really, but this week has changed a few things around for me !!!

Back home in wanka I got a clod, I didn’t pay to much attention at it and thought it will become better as I don’t train to much/hard this week and we will travel quit for a while make it to the race in China. 

Wrong thinking and wrong aprouch ha ha …… We travelled for over 48hrs, not ideal for recovering + my cold got worse and turned into a very nasty cough Autschhhhh ae ( bronchitis) 🙈🙄😬 shit happens right !!! 

I have never done a race, where I was sort off sick or not feeling that well than now, 

but I believe I will do the best I can too not to let my teammates down as they worked/ trained so hard for this race + with there help and awesomeness I’m sure we will do great 👍🍀☀️🐳😃💨

Be and think positive right !?!?

Race starts Monday 18th @ 9:40am

Here a team photo 😃, I tryed to upload more but somehow everything is gone very weird here ekkkkkkk 🤓 China ha ha ……  

    
    
 

China here we come…

Well ….we all made it over to China in the last minute 🙈🙊😝,  Hamish and Sam where the unlucky once last night.

They tried to check in and the airline told them there ticked is voided 😱….

Somehow with help from our travel agent Andrea it all got sorted, kind off ha ha they managed to fly out but got told their luggate will travel all the way to Nanning airport, but those two would have to get new tickets in Shanghai. Anyway it all sounded like more trouble and surely it was. Mine, Marcels and Sam Clarks luggate turned up but Sam and Hamishs didn’t ekkkkkkkkk…… Oh well I guess it was a good call to come here a few days earlier just because off those things that can happen quit frequently boom …..

We left the boys in Nanning and we are on a 6hr bus drive to Baise right now 🙄. Hopefully we meet our two teammates with there luggate tomorrow 👍🍀😃…..  

In the meantime here some photos from our trip so fare 

  
  Me getting serious ha ha …..😃  

Hanging out with the airline crew and getting lollies 😂
  

Finally we are on the plain woop woop👍

 

Ha ha Marcel taking a shower outside Nannings airport (he’s loving it) 😂

PS: we will keep you posted

September china, October malaysia and australia ….

September 6/7th

first race up Torpedo7 ( Marcel Hagener, Hamish Fleming,Sam Manson and myself ) came third in the 24hr race in Suqian China 🙂

Best food after racing for 17hr’s yummy……Made in NZ teheeeee

 

thats just the beginning, way more photos to come, but different races 😉

Second Race:

Wulong Mountain Quest 2015 from the 19th-22nd september

This is where it’s all happening, it is where all the best multisport athletes from the glob meet and race there heart out 🙂 sort off and share what they passion about it (the pain)…..

it was a four day event, starts with ae prologue which means you do sort of everything very short it last only for 1:14hr sort off at your max HR ekkkkkkkk…….

here are some photos: ”

Then on the first day racing, we finished second woop woop….

  

Second race day, we finally won that stage yehaaaaaa 🙂 🙂 🙂 what a day

  

third and last day,

we finished second and had enough time up the sleeve too win over all

Next stop Zunyi

Race 26/27th September

thanks god the first day was only a running day max of 2hr’s

uhmmm haven’t got many race photos from the first day only the podium….

Second and last day woop woop

Than off to Malaysia ekkkkkk…..

for a little recovery time and another race

called the royal belum iron bound!

We finished second yeaaaaaa yeaaaaa yeaaaaaa 🙂 🙂 🙂

And then I went to Australia by myself for one more race in WA,

it’s called the Augusta Adventure Fest! I will be racing sunday the 8th november 🙂 woop woop

So fare it’s been nice, lovely warm, yummy food and heaps more …

keep you posted and happy thoughts…

China, we are coming

Yeaaaa it’s all happening, off to china now 😃👍🍀we just chilling at the airport waiting to depart at 10pm! even got updated to premium economy for free !!! Shit yeaaarrrrrrrr … 😝 See you in a few months 😃🏃🚴🎉✨🍀

Podium in Baise (China)

Podium in Baise (China)

Whoop whoop!!…here we are again back in China 2015 !!!

Not a bad start so far, we’ve had our challenges all the way during this race…but we are stoked to come home with 2nd place after four days of racing yeaaaaaaa!!!!

Our little adventure started right from when we left home because our flight from queenstown got delayed – so we weren’t even sure if we would catch our international flight,  but luckily we did.

Tuesday 21st April:

We flew out of New Zealand, arrived in China 22nd then onto another domestic flight plus a 6hr bus drive to reach Leye, China.

Finally got there Wednesday evening at 8-9pm had quick dinner and off to bed – wow….

Thursday 23rd April:

We spent all day sorting out equipment for race day Friday the 24th, we also had to pack camping stuff + clothing for after the race, race gear for second day  + pack up everything else to be on a different bus to another hotel for when we finished our 2nd day of racing.

It was quite a lot to think about and it was a bit unfortunate that the organiser completely underestimated times on our race timetable ekkkkkkkk…. anyway it was the same for everybody, so all good!

What alway amazes me, watching other athletes, while we were are busy packing and organising stuff for race etc…. other teams arrived and all they were worried about was how and where to get Internet from…funny eh? teheeeeeeee 😉

I think our Torpedo7 team did very well and we had everything sorted by 8pm yipppeeeee ready for bed and sleep ka-pow!! .

Friday the 24th April:

Race start was at 10am, after the  opening ceremony. We started with a 1km sprint into town to get some orienteering maps with check points on it, we all had to get one of them, our team spit up to get the checkpoints and we finally met up again at the start TA1, straight after that we carried on with a 25km trail run which had a caving section in the middle of the trail run 🙂  Unfortunately,maybe just 2hrs into the race, one of my team mates suffered from horrendous cramping in his legs, he could hardly move at some point and honestly I thought “that’s it!“, the end of us racing in China ekkkkk, but we managed to keep moving slowly with less cramping all the way to TA2.  We then had to do a 43km Mountain Bike ride, I was pretty excited because we are all pretty good cyclists but, again, poor Bob suffered from cramping on the bike. 

But there is nothing like having super duper strong team mates, right?  Teehee… we all kept holding together, helping each other when we needed it and finally made up a few more places again. I think when we hit the 30km Kayak section we were in 5th or 6th place.  It got very exciting when we realised all the other teams are actually not to far ahead and it is possible to catch them.

With Bob and Hamish’s awesome Navigation skills we pulled in a few places on our way out to the turn around, and on the way back we passed second place. Unfortunately first place team Thule were too far away to catch by then … never mind :-).

We were pretty happy about our achievement that day, especially with the cramping situation.  Bob and Hamish went to bed pretty early, while marcel kept on trucking along cleaning up and sorting out stuff for the next day.

We camped over night and had a pretty early start next day.

Saturday 25th April:

The race started @ 5am with a 120km MTB ride  (elevation from 350m to 1750m)

We started on the bike, knowing it was a long way, 120km on a MTB, but nobody seemed to really want to make a move at the front, everybody just sitting there chatting away at a really slow pace and, as you could guess,  it did my head in!! Holy moly.. that day, that morning on the bike…I just thought about Dougal Allan and Braden Currie – they would have been 20 mins up the road!!!!!! What is going on?!?!?

The girl from Thule and I were at the front riding and chatting – ha ha pretty funny – but I just wanted to GO, but I can’t go without my team right?  After about 1hr of riding I realised two of my mates weren’t feeling well and were struggling to keep up with the pace at the front, so we let the other teams go and focused on doing our own thing – going as fast as we could with the circumstances we had :-).  I was surprised, a little later on the bike, when we caught up with some teams that had passed us earlier and we overtook them again ;-).

After we finished the bike surprise surprise we actually caught up to the leader Thule at TA1… yeehaaaa really exciting.  Straight into our 25km trail run, which didn’t seem too bad at the time, a nice undulating trail next to a river that took us through some nice villages and quite hot and humid.  But Hamish hit the wall straight after we started running, we didn’t waste much time in attaching him to Marcel, while Bob and I carried his running pack to keep him going with no weight. (poor bugger!… Hamo)  That 25km run felt more like a 42km marathon, it just kept on going and going forever…but surprisingly we caught up with two teams, at that stage we where all walking and shuffling along slowly.  We managed to pass the two teams in front of us even with poor Hamish suffering sooooo soooooo much!

I take my hat off to my team mate Hamish, what a legend – pushing through his darkest place, fully committed to do what ever it took to get him to that finish line! Yeaaaaaaah!   And what an outstanding performance from all of us working so incredibly well together.

After we had passed the two teams we were still 2-3km away from the next TA2 and it felt like forever again.

We finally made it to TA2, got refuelled and jumped into our raft.  At this stage the boys carried Hamish down to the raft, put him in the middle and off we went rafting down a river with almost no flow for the last final 10km.  It was very beautiful around us, the nature in China is just soooo unique and mind-blowing, very special I reckon.  We also managed to gain more time on the other teams in the raft and finished second that day again.

Straight after we finished we had a little prize ceremony and then left for a 2hr bus ride to our next hotel in Baise.  On arrival we went straight to dinner, apart from Hamish – ekkkkkk sick as a dog – the organisers took him and a few other athletes to hospital.  We ate then sorted out everything for the next day of racing and overnight camp again !!!  Poor Hamish came back at 4am Sunday morning, but we had sorted his gear as at 7am we were off on a 1 hour bus trip to the start of that days racing.

Sunday 26th April:

First we did 5km of orienteering with check points, then met up at TA1 and went straight into a 27km trail run – again Hamish was attached to ‘Papa’ Marcel ;-).  For whatever reason I found it quite hard that day and it took me a lot of effort feeding and looking after Hamish.  When you see somebody fighting so hard, hanging in there so badly, looking as death as Hamish – it does make you feel better and realise you have nothing to feel bad about really- it was just my mind having a tantrum ha ha!  Soooo Hamish you were my big big motivation in those three days 🙂 – thank you.

After our 27km run/walk, we jumped onto our MTBs for another 43 km ride.  It was hard work, very hilly as always but we made up some places even with sick poor Hamish attached to Marcel.  What an amazing effort from Marcel and Bob (+ me) – we just had to make sure we could feed and cool Hamish down etc…

Made it to TA2 and straight into a run again, apparently 7km to a rope skill section then another 3km run to the Kayak.  We tried to do a fast walk/shuffle/run, followed by a quick abseil and then the last 3km to TA3.

We got onto the water in 6th place I think, 10km to go apparently.  1.5hr was the estimated time for the last leg and i think it was about right.  We managed to claw back another two places wooohoooo!!!, what an achievement it was sooo sooo good!!!  Hamish started to look way better than in the morning or the day before – yessss!

We camped out in the middle of nowhere that night, surrounded by those very cool looking mountains :-)…what a great spot for a camping….

Monday 27th April:

Race start at 7am with a Kayak, the same course we did the night before, this time we took over the lead pretty quick he he and came into TA1 first 🙂

Then into a 7km run where a few other teams caught up with us but luckily not too many only two and that was quit nice,

We walked toward this huge massive massive wall it was absolutely enormous and we had to go underneath it and popped out on the other side in a different valley it was very impressive !!!

TA2 whoop whoop!!! only 43km of MTBing to do, seemed way too easy  finishing off a race like that ….and Hell yes, in china its never easy!!!

You always have to imagine the worst, just to give you an idea, we where riding for 1.5hr Bob asked me how many more km we have to do or what have we done so far?!?!? I looked at my watch and honestly i didn’t want to tell him that we just did 10km so far – we still had 33km to go jesussss yep…?!?!? Now you can imagine the profile, it goes up and down, up and down we hit a drink station that’s good, we all were out of water and still had like 15 odd km to go! Thanks god for that water, because right after that we had to climb up again and that climb was just so so so steep and I guess I got more and more tired because I could hardly ride away from Hamish ha ha ….( or Hamo got fitter maybe ;-)).

We had one team in front of us coming to the final downhill into town, maybe about  2km away from the finish line and we managed to  pass that Chinese team and finished second again behind Thule. This gave us second place overall for the race – awesome!!!!!

What a race and what an amazing effort from my team! I’m very proud of all of us for such an incredible achievement.

Everybody can race well, in great conditions, I mean when everything just runs very smooth with no issues, no sick teammates, no bike dramas etc…., We still raced very well with all the dramas and still came second i think this is a huge accomplishment for us yeaaaaa!!!!!

Overall, it was a very hard race, I think that was the hardest race I have ever done in China but it was very satisfying, it was well organised, with amazing scenery and the places we have seen and been through were very challenging as a team but we are very happy with the outcome!!!!

I also like to say a huge thank you to my sponsors:-  Racers Edge, Bolle, O2bhealthy, N.O.M. Nutrition, Wanaka Physio for my body maintenance 😉, Skeggs foundation, Wanaka Organics, Wanaka Pool, Kevin (Bodyworkshop), my coach Nicky Samuels, and to all my friends and Family

and everybody else that has helped us on this journey. I certainly could not achieve these great results without all your support – thank you so much!   

            

2nd place in Wuhan (China) 8th-10th November + 2nd place in 24hr race Southern Lake Multisport event in Clyde (NZ) 15th November!!!

China awesomeness part two with team SOSRehydrate Adventure team:

It has already been over a week since my team and I raced in China.  We left on Wednesday 5th November and returned home the following Wednesday… whohowwww what a crazy fast trip!  I raced with new team mates Hamish Fleming based in Wanaka, Will Sams based in Wanaka and Marcel Hagener from Ohakune…and I had one of the best ever racing experiences with them, wow….  🙂

China is always an adventure in itself, just to get to the race can be a long mission ha ha!  We all thought it would be so much easier this time because we flew right into the city of Wuhan where we thought we were racing…but of course nothing is ever that simple teheeeee.  We arrived at the airport at 10pm and were told we had to wait for a few more teams… probably another 1.5 to 2 hrs! We then drove for about 1.5 hrs to the race hotel which was in at a little resort out of Wuhan city. Great, well finally we got there at 2.30am Friday the 7th, race starts Saturday the 8th. Yeah man that’s china !!!  At least we had all our racing equipment and no other issues.

First day racing was a pretty exciting day because we got to race head to head with NZ Adventure, until the last stage (Kayak) where we realised that we had forgotten our tracking device in the TA and had to turn around to get it …otherwise we might have been disqualified from the race.  We still managed to finish third just behind the Thule team that day.  Sure it was a bit frustrating but in the end it was a very dumb mistake where we all learned a valuable lesson…won’t be doing that again! This didn’t happen again over the next two days, yeaaaaa.

We were racing together for the first time and I was very happy with my three boys, every day, all day long – it was just great and fun to race with the boys and I really really enjoyed myself 🙂 I hope they did too with me ;).

Second race day, another “glamorous“ day for us with great team work, pushing hard from the start till we crossed that finish line!  This time we finished second 🙂 happy Simone and happy boys !!!

Third and final day, we were actually leading all day long and crossed that finish line first, but here it comes…. we missed a checkpoint in the first orienteering section and received a 10 min time penalty which put NZ Adventure in first place. We had quite a bit of time up our sleeves so we still came second that day and kept our second place overall…cool shhhhhh!

What an achievement for the newby SOSRehydrate Adventure team 🙂 🙂 🙂

I was very happy with our team, especially as it was our first time racing with each other, i think we did pretty well and I’m looking forward to some more racing in the future if they are still keen ;).  We will see what happens …..

And then…..

I arrived back in Wanaka late afternoon Wednesday 12th and had one day to get ready and organised for the 24hr Southern Lake Multisport race in Clyde (South Island NZ).

I felt a bit like I was in shock and wasn’t really feeling up to a 24 hour race, but found it very hard to let down three people because I wasn’t feeling well but not sick enough to call it off !?!??!!?  That’s always a hard call for me to make, when is it the right time to call off a race???  Have you ever had that ?!?!?  I know now what I need to do in the future…again, it’s one of those things you learn by doing it! Honestly, I have to do some things over and over to actually really learn from them!!!

I raced the 24hr race with my Godzone Team, Greig Hamilton, Milan Brodina and Rob Creasy.  We started Friday 14th @midnight 12pm…just as it started raining… awesome, after riding my bike for about 45min I was freezing cold and bloody wet!  Just what I needed!

The first ride took us about 1.5 to 2hrs, I couldn’t drink or eat at all in that time as it was too cold to feel my fingers or grab/ hold of anything apart my handlebars holy moly…..

After that we did a long hike in the dark, it was still raining and cold, I was so happy that I took soooooo much warm clothing in a huge bin!  I almost felt a bit embarrassed about it… but you know what, it was totally the perfect thing to do!  On that hike I had my Mamot ski jacket on to stay warm, after every section I completely changed into dry clothing. Thank god we only had 5 transitions :-).

We were leading the race until the first big hike and then we got “bluffed out“ and another team, from Queenstown, took the lead and we never got to catch them again.  I think they definitely had faster transitions than us… I might be the reason for that up’ssseeeee but only in TA’s was I a bit slack!  It just shows you, you can make up heaps of time in transition – you don’t even have to go faster just be more organised and have a nice smooth TA …it is gold !!!

I was pretty happy with how well my body felt during the race, especially as I had just returned from China, but my headspace wasn’t there at all.  That was the hardest challenge for me over the weekend and I didn’t like it, but sometimes we have to do things in life even when we don’t want to. I might be wrong I might not be …. anyway I was sooooooo happy when we kayaked back home to Clyde late Saturday afternoon, finishing in about 16.5hrs!!!

I had a good experience with my team and hope to get to know them a bit more before we race Godzone next year.

Now I want to say a huge thank you to my special bike mechanic Zeph http://cognitivecycleworks.co.nz who again did such an amazing job on my bike after racing Red Bull Defiance. I only had 1.5 weeks to get sorted for China and he just made my bike look and feel like a brand new one ;).   Also pretty stoked with GoodRotations  bike shop in Wanaka,  where I’ve twice got the most amazing bike lube for my chain..thanks guys for stocking such good healthy products for our bikes :).

A massive big thank you goes to my local sport shop in town Racers Edge -Torpedo7 for always being there as my main sponsors + supplying  me with one of the best mountain bikes a TREK superfly FS 9.8 SL 29er …that is pretty awesome ehhhh 🙂

Then a huge thanks goes to Grant Guise for lending me one of the Ultimate Direction Backpacks to try out for the 24hrs. They are really nice running packs, lots off little pockets which are very handy to have and store all sorts of things. A big thumbs up for that pack and I also got to try some yummy yummy pocketfuel energy shots, they are 100% Natural energy soooo delicious… almost like having pudding 🙂

And then best of the best is local farmer John at Wanaka Organics, huge thanks for helping me out at the last minute with the most nutritious eggs to bake up a storm for my race food for the 24hr race, thank you so much it totally kept me going and going and going ….

Plus every one else I haven’t mentioned here, thank you, I couldn’t do what I’m doing without all your help/support!!!

I will keep you all posted about what’s happening from now till the next races.

EXCITING …

me

ohhh here more photos from the china race: