The prequel

So this started with a bottle of wine, or rather the thought of a bottle of wine – I was stone-cold sober!   I messaged my old school friend – Alison Camp.  She lives in Hillcrest and I told here I was missing her and maybe we should meet up in the Harrismith area for a weekend with our tents, some niknaks and wine and have a little catchup.  She then said she had entered for the Mini TransDrak and so the conversation went.   I did a little groveling with Doug to get a weekend pass and suddenly I was entered – with 5 weeks to the event.

Alison said it was probably going to take her and her team about 24 hours to do the event – 7,5 km per hour including stops.  Ooh that sounded waaaaaay too long to spend on my bike in one go.  I did some calculations and figured I should be finished in 14 hours on the outside unless things went pear-shaped.

I did a few rides with the longest being 93kms over Breeds Nek.  I was feeling comfortable with my fitness.  I have been training constantly at BikeFit twice a week and it was giving me a good residual base.  I took a fall on my left knee on a Magalies ride which got a deep cut and a bone bruise.  I nursed it nicely and got it less painful.  Then bizarrely I fell twice more on it last week – slipping on a tiled floor and then slipping on a grape someone had dropped at work.  This last fall was on my way out of the office on Friday.  I was an emotional wreck as I had put down my beloved Golden Retriever - Cara on Thursday night (she was just short of 16 years old and I had been prepping myself for a year for this but shit I could not believe how much it hurt).  Anyway I hobbled out of the office sobbing and wept my way to get new windscreen wipers and wailed my way onto the freeway and then around about the Marlboro offramp stopped crying.  I was running out of tissues in the car and a girl can only feel sorry for herself for so long!  So I sang my woes away all the way down the motorway.  My knee was so sore but I figured I would just start the ride and see how it all panned out.

The weather forecast was looking pretty good for the ride – just a little bit of rain in the afternoon.  NOT a deluge – just a little – gah!!

I registered and settled into my little tent at the supplied tent village.  It was quite a testosteroned little village I tell you!  I met up with Ali and bemoaned the fact that there was not a bottle of wine in sight!  A little savanna went down a treat though.  The 2 boxes were packed for the check-in points.  DHL were one of the sponsors and we could send 2 boxes to the checkpoints.  They were huge boxes and I kept feeling obliged to put something in them – ridiculous.  I had only bought one long sleeved cycling top and put it in the 1^st box that I would see at 77kms.  My bike light and battery went in that one as well.  Box 2 got my cool new race top supplied as part of the entry.  I have a superstitious belief that I cannot wear new gear until the event is finished (it comes from paddling days) but I did not have anything else and just had a feeling about needing something there. More juice mix was put in that box as well.

The tent village 

Bike home

I was awake early – yay for tented villages – zzzzzzzzzzzz go the zips, shuffle shush, zzzzzzzzzzz!  We just chilled out as the race only started at 10:30 for us.  My butterflies started in earnest at about 09:30!  I missioned around trying to work out how to follow tracks on a GPS.  Much to Doug’s despair I am very technology-challenged and I really need to practice with these things.  Thought I had it sorted and lined up at the start.  I did start waiting right at the front and then saw where I was and promptly went further back to Ali and gang.  Motto for the day - shiny side up and rubber side down.  And then we were off......