So it went: 50k road bike, 13k road/dirt run, 25k mountain bike, 9k beach run. The race is point-to-point with three separate transitions, so at Christmas after a suitable amount of wine I successfully roped Dan’s uncle Michael into sherpa-ing me at the race! Except in South Africa they call this “seconding”.

The road bike was the most worrisome for me. It was a mass start, and by mass start I mean girls, boys, relays, Conrad Stoltz, everyone. Drafting was allowed, any type of bike was allowed, even headphones were allowed! So I lined up at the front and stayed out of trouble. Soon after the start, I noticed another individual girl (numbers indicated if people were on relays or not) who looked strong and marked her for the rest of the ride. I think she may have been annoyed with me but hey, in a draft-legal stage where I’m on a borrowed too-big 9-speed Santa Cruz from 2001, I’m more than happy to let you drag me and 30 guys around because you want to be in your aero bars. That is called “smart racing”.

So this girl and I went into the first transition together in the lead. I ran past her within the first kilometer of the 13k run. I felt great!

However, at the next transition as I got on my mountain bike, I suddenly realized I was going to have serious cramping problems. It was frustrating, here I was winning the race and I had to get off my bike and walk up the steepest hills! At least it was a good exercise in positive self-talk and perseverance, and I bombed those downhills with more guts than I’ve ever had on a mountain bike. As is always the case in a race, you never know what is going on in front of you or behind you. I’m happy to say that I came into the final transition still in the lead.

The beach run was an out-and-back. After the turnaround I saw that I had four or five minutes on second place, with 3rd out of contention unless I died, so I nursed my cramping legs on the way back to the finish. By “nurse” I mean I fell over, but I didn’t want to get victory photos with me looking all sandy, so I got in the water to rinse off and then resumed my victory trot.

My lead shrunk to just one minute at the line, but a win is a win! I am proud of how I raced.

Also, this race was a huge confirmation for me of how important my race routine is. Early in the road bike, I was so uncomfortable on my bike that I knew it would haunt me later. I so wished I had my Kestrel! But I packed my mountain bike because the trails in South Africa are phenomenal, and I knew that 5 weeks of riding them would really boost my off-road skills. Besides the bike, I also had to change my nutrition routine. The only familiar nutrition I had was PreRace! I ran out of First Endurance EFS early in the trip, so I raced with a local product that had much fewer electrolytes. I used salt tabs as well, but they didn’t seem to do much. Finally, my legs were definitely feeling the wear and tear of my trip because I chose not to bring my Recovery Pump boots. Luggage space was precious and I figured 5 weeks without them would be a great chance to see whether my niggles and pains crept back. Next time I go on a long trip, I don’t care if it means I only have 2 outfits to wear, I’m packing the boots…

So, I’m not worried about the cramping in the long run, I have never had that happen before and when I am back on my regular bike and regular routine I’m confident that I’ll stay cramp-free.

It was really great to end my trip with a race. I saw a new part of the country, and got a taste for how athletic and welcoming the sports community is.

I didn’t take an abundance of photos during my last week. I did race on the Saturday though so I may have photos to post from that a little bit later. These are some photos of training, of some of the signs and sights I enjoyed, and also of my last day. We went to a Johnny Clegg concert. I love his music, and actually had played some of it on the radio back in my DJ days, but it was a whole new experience to see him live among his countrymen and with my good friends, new and old.

Also you can see all my photos from the trip on my photos page.

At Guguletu I wore flip flops. There is a lot of glass and dirt and trash, so I walked carefully and wished I’d brought proper shoes. After Guguletu I went into Cape Town and met a friend at the beach, where I walked carefully around iridescent purple mussel shells so beautiful I did not want to break them. For me it was quite an encapsulation of the extreme contrasts here.

The polo match defies description in many ways but in keeping with my website’s tagline, I’ll give it a quick go. The place dripped money, and it wasn’t even a Pretty Woman-type tournament. I did wear a sun dress just in case. The spectators consisted of about 10 cars parked on a steep rise overlooking the field. It was evidently a very exclusive New Year’s Eve invite. We sat on the grass and watched what seemed to be mostly 19-20 year old guys gallop around and around. Some had been flown in from Europe and Argentina to play. I heard one chatting up a girl, she asked if the poor horses were OK. I enjoyed the eavesdrop (but not as much as the game.)

Everyone was also very active so there was lots of training over the weekend, enough to finish off the last of the First Endurance EFS Liquid Shot and drink I brought. I had enthusiastic company for my 3 hour tempo ride on Christmas day (which made up for my distinct lack of enthusiasm… I mean, what if I had gotten presents and was therefore busy?!?). We did a couple of runs on the beach, some paddling (I’m getting better at not capsizing), and a couple of open water swims, including my venture to the other side of the lagoon and back which was something like 4kms, otherwise known as “forever”.

Not once was I solo for a workout! Even the long swim. I had two companions in boats who combined their rowing/paddling with making sure I didn’t get run over or swept out to sea. The currents are really strong and there are way fewer laws here (perhaps no laws actually?) about how fast you can speed in your motorboat and how close to shore you can do it. And Dan’s father (himself a phenomenal athlete) pedaled along with me on one of my second runs so I didn’t get lost. There is not danger of being eaten here. Contrary to some northern-hemisphere assumptions I have heard South Africa is not riddled with lions.

Anyhow, Christmas was amazing. And quite different from holidays with my family, who I love but usually my brother is the only one I can ever drag along with me for training!

I’m about halfway through what is turning out to be my best vacation ever.

This week’s been great. Mostly I have stayed local, which has still felt super adventurous because I’m good at getting lost and at not asking for directions, which I think is a foreign-travel phenomenon because I don’t have a problem asking for help at home. And I went out to Dan’s family’s farm. His dad took me on a mountain bike ride, and an hour-ish long paddle down the river, which was far too intense to photograph (but we saw a fish eagle!!)! Then I had to take a 3 hour nap when I got home to recover.

I’ve been saving up stories and observations about life here and what lessons I can take home with me. There have been lots of photos of people that I have wanted to take but held back in case I offended anyone – for example yesterday on my ride out to Jonkershoek I rode past some kids playing soccer and the light and hills were perfect, but I’d passed a woman walking on the road just prior to that and I was afraid of offending her if I stopped to take a photo. Now I am kicking myself! So I’ll just have to ride out there on many more afternoons in hopes of re-discovering that moment.

In the meantime, here are my latest photos:

It’s amazing, I am so happy I came! Honestly the only disappointment thus far was that on the plane from Amsterdam to Cape Town we had a real-time map of where we were and I slept through Libya. How boring of me to miss it!

Here’s a rough description of the week:

I am in Stellenbosch, in the Western Cape province, where Dan Hugo lives when he’s not in Boulder. On Friday I went with Dan and 5 other guys over to a town called George, also in this province but a good day’s drive away. We did a 100k mountain bike race on Saturday. It was a little insane for me, but the second most awesome part was I got so tired that I started to ride my bike up and down and over all the scariness because I was too tired to walk! I am suddenly WAY more skillz-laden!

The guys are now en route from George to Cape Town by bike. I was charged with driving (btw, to the large handful of you who think I am the worst driver, the “problem” is that my true talents lie on the left side of the road) the car back. I tourist-ed a bit in Knysna (pronounced like knife) and Plette Beach en route back to Stellenbosch.

Here’s a smattering of images:

Roommate Matt and I also did a couple race laps together but they aren’t recorded. However: Matt, word is going to get out either way that I won, so just send me the proof.

Please enjoy the inspirational music (who recognizes it?) and know that cycling doesn’t need summertime in order to be fun!

I’m going to South Africa. For five weeks. I can’t cannot not wait!!

Here’s hoping I find my camera before December 12 so I can take some of my own photos like this one:

But I will tell you that Crystal Castles’ Vietnam, off their second eponymous release, was playing in my head for virtually all 4 hours 42 minutes that I was racing. It was a good choice – “I’m alive”, indeed (side note yes I know that’s not the exact lyric in the song sampled, Walk in the Park, but that sure is the lyric here). Nothing makes me feel more alive than hurtling forward through ups and downs and Fall.

Separate side-note: how about that Meredith Kessler, riding ~20 miles with no saddle?! Amazing!

The Race:

Surprise, my swim was not the greatest. It was non-wetsuit again, but seriously the only place I expect wetsuits any more is in the San Francisco Bay. At Rev3 Portland, I swam with a “pack” and thought that phew, finally I’ve figured out how to negotiate a swim leg. Then I hit a few training bobbles and then I started focusing on Duathlon Worlds and lo and behold, I was almost instantly off the back of our 16-woman field at Anderson! But thankfully not by tooo much, as it turns out.

This race had separate transitions. As soon as we were finished with the swim, Rev3 picked up our entire transition area, racks and posters and all, and moved it to T2! They had to be prompt about it, so when I got into T1 everything but my section of bike rack was disassembled. I apologized to Krista and Eric from Rev3 for holding them up, although by now they are used to me coming out of the water last. Eric said “oh don’t worry, take your time!”

Which. Eric. That is the PROBLEM!! I took my own sweet time in that lake! No more taking my time!

The bike went well. It was a flowing, rolling course on nice roads that were well-staffed (including Rev3 President Charlie Patten, Jr. at one corner – impressive to see how hands-on he is about making the series successful).

On the bike (and in the Slowtwitch gallery!)

What made the bike really challenging was that it was windy. Weather.com said 10-20 mph, so let’s just call it 19 mph. I passed Erin and Stephanie in the first hour, Kristin and Marisa in the second hour, saw Nina Kraft pull out around mile 45 or 50, and figured I was in 11th place, 1 spot out of the money. For the first 30 miles I felt amazing, but gradually my back started hurting really badly. This tends to happen to me in half IM’s, about an hour and a half into the bike my lower back gets tighter and tighter and I have to stretch and I start losing my rhythm. Yesterday it was the most debilitating I can remember – my average power dropped the most dramatically it ever has, from 190w in the first hour, to 181w in the second, to 171w in the last 35 minutes. There were times when I couldn’t even pedal. I think this was a function of two things: letting my core work slide in the past 6 weeks (not intentionally, but it’s one of the things that’s easy to let go when I’m busy), and second it’s the end of the season and this body is a little tired and taped-together (thanks Tri-Massage!).

So. I headed out on the run with 10th place about 60 seconds ahead of me. My back relaxed as soon as I was able to change activities, so after taking a full 3 miles to get my legs under me, I got my hustle back (not coincidentally, this was also when I downed my diluted flask of First Endurance EFS Liquid Shot). I passed Tamara, and then ran down Rachel and Marilyn by mile 6. At this point there was a long out and back, which eventually revealed that I was in an impenetrable island of…

7th place!

(As it turns out, Jasmine Oeinck pulled out as well, so I’d started the run in 10th rather than 11th.)

The Wrap-Up:

I’m really excited about this result and the year as a whole. It’s been my strongest and most consistent season yet, and I owe a big thanks to my support network, especially Team Trakkers/Rev3. The Rev3 organization really brings out the best in everyone involved in the events, which is why I and so many other athletes will be back again next year. My equipment is also the best I’ve had – the  Rolf Prima TdF58-Kestrel 4000 combo is truly a joy to ride! Tyr, Lazer, Splish and Recovery Pump have been a huge factor in both my day-to-day and competition success. Also, more on this one in a separate post, but my nutrition-switch to First Endurance proved a really good one this year, without such high quality nutrition I would not have been able to sustain the training and work load that I did. That I had my best year as a triathlete during my first full calendar year as a graduate student is pretty neat!

A big thanks also to my coach, Felicia Gomez of Pinnacle Training Systems. We’ve been working together since July of 2010, and during that time I’ve improved across the board. I can’t believe the difference in my training, my performance and my confidence. Thanks Felicia!