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Saturday Aug 21, 2021 #
12 PM
Rogaining (Rogaine - 'Rok Ness') 21:56:16 [3] 75.24 km (17:30 / km) +1978m 15:28 / km
shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3d M+
TLDR:
We came 6th – I felt like competitively had a terrible race but had a great time. Am absolutely suffering now.
Race Report
So I hadn’t planned to do this race and a few days out from entries closing Dave reminded me it was on I asked Luke and the crazy man said yes he wanted to go the full 24 and aim for 100km. Sure thing first timer. I am currently weighing in the heaviest I have ever been and have practically done near no exercise in I don’t want to think how long so the chips where stacked against me but hey ho here we go!
Got down just shy of 9am because we felt 3hrs would be enough. 4 really would’ve been helpful because we did rush a bit of the planning phase and didn’t manage to get to start line in time. We bagged our GPS’s as the race started… I pressed the horn down just for good measure and started at back of pack…
Re planning we set the entire course straight line of 77km ish so I figured that would escalate to about 100km We had also set time budget of 4 km then 3km for each hour respectively which got us in with 2 hrs to spare… lets be honest we all knew this wouldn’t work.
Map for reference: https://wa.rogaine.asn.au/images/WinnersRoutes/202...
Strava for GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/5837991584 (ultratrac mode so gps looks whack – but the 1s recording died at 9hr mark despite watch having a battery plugged in… anyway different between ultra trac and 1s at the 9hr mark was 2km so I think tis largely correct despite looking horrible!)
HH > 42 – Started off vaguely on right bearing but got sucked into following the masses and ended up north of 42 having been dragged that way by the people going direct to 65… anyway recovered but it meant we where about 10-15 mins down on first point. Doh bad start.
42 > 48 – so sliding down the banks to the crossing at the base of damn managed to neatly slice my hand and had a nice trickle of blood which I managed to get stopped reasonably quickly but was uber painful for the rest of race as every time I put my hand down it would sting like hell. Anyway climb to 48 wasn’t pleasant and really set the tone as ‘its going to be a long 24’.
48 > 72 – another brutal climb and we were only just getting started. The burn was real.
72 > 102 – This was a pretty clean leg nothing really to report here
102 > 74 – Ok we complete stuffed this and hit the out of bounds area and started to head towards 44 before I had the sense to ask the team right next to us. Having looked at Dave’s trace they did the same thing, so I wonder if there was something which threw us off as another team out there said they had done same too. Anyway, once we had backed up to 74 we where now a good 35-40 behind budget with second mistake in bag and also had got feet drenched crossing first river. Feet never really got dry from this point onwards. Also sound had stopped working on this control so we where not sure we had scanned.
74 > 44 – Pulled in a stack of teams I suspect didn’t do 48 and started on time. Was nice puling in teams even when just at walking pace. Had a yarn with a few of them. This was a simple follow the fence line leg.
44 > 90 – went to fence corner then punched through bush to track – followed the track down a way then went in and followed terrain onto the control. Could’ve and should’ve stayed on track longer as turns out the setter where quite forgiving with some of their setting and this one was clearly visible from path.
90 > 63 – back along track to corner just past junction then in on an angle – again another clean leg.
63 > 33 – another clean leg straight down to 33 not much really to report on this one.
33 > 71 – This was a horrible climb took ages and we had to fight some bush for some of the way – was really draining managed to twist both ankles on this leg or the next however I knew we had a tonne of track work coming up so stayed positive and pushed through one of the legs which would have gone done as my least favourite in rogaining I think.
71 > 104 – We hit this one perfectly and was a great feeling after the prior leg.
104 > 52 – along the path at a decent walk saw a handful of teams and was reasonable sociable leg to our first water drop. We where holding at 40 to 45 mins down and we where comfortable with that given, we had some easy stuff ahead.
52 > 73 – used the tracks to make it easier even though slightly longer
73 > 64 – Punched out to main road and managed to pick up a novice team at the top of the crest they where coming our way so they tagged along having a chat with us for the next few controls.
64 > 101 > 40 > 30 – pretty much 100% road work and chatting to novice team – the only non road bit was going from corner of property across river east of 101 – we put on night kit just after 101.
30 > 66 – long road march with brief bit of track – got self-sorted on food etc. at this point was nearing 50 mins to an hour behind. Might have lost a bit of time with fatigue but also my ankles where sore from twisting them earlier and my lack of being on them in years particularly for this long. Luke also had the reality check here that we where 6 -7 hours in so there was still 3/4rds of the race to go, not sure he appreciated that thought.
66 > 82 – was just another road grind but made good time as was down hill also to our delight an unmarked waterdrop. We had been strategizing because we had miss planned water and would’ve run dry and this was a god send. I think this might have been where we opted for warmer tops as the temp dropped a bit and it had started to rain a little.
82 > 95 – Wasn’t looking forward to this leg because of the earlier climb and this one wasn’t as bad accept for the god damn black berries – thankfully not the worse I’ve experienced and we got through them within a minute or two but certainly got cut up a bit. The ring road threw us a little as we followed it around (great suggesting from Luke) but map and reality didn’t quite match but we worked it out and got there quickly.
95 > 41- Nothing really special about this leg accept my watch stopped for no reason in back pack so back to the drawing board on getting a watch to run a whole race not on ultratrac… By this point we had agreed to drop 80 and go direct to 60. We knew this meant not clearing but wanted tog et back on time budget as we had slipped a tiny bit further and whilst we both knew we ha d”2 hrs” up our sleeve we also knew we wanted to stick to time.
41 > 60 – ok I lost the plot a bit here on the little paths and almost took us the wrong way a few times and Luke actually corrected me and made me re check my bearings a few times I am not sure we lost time but it just wasn’t great for confidence.
>Inserted< (Holy crap in writing this I just checked the GPS we overshot the track and walked in a full circle and the track I said turn right where Luke corrected me was just lucky because had we seen the track originally we should’ve turned right. God we got lucky, we did get spun around and we did lose time and I didn’t know until now!)
I knew Lukes nav was pretty much non-existent and I had to carry the night and faltering this early wasn’t great, so I got my first caffeine on board.
60 > 100 – Caffeine had not kicked in and I was mentally shutting down so let Luke lead us out for a few mins before I stopped him and realised he was out by somewhere between 90-180 degrees – ultratrac doesn’t show the story though. Got us back to the path not exactly sure where and changed the plan from punched west to following the track which was the safe option.
100 > 61 – Realised we where still behind on time and needed to pull in an hour opted to drop 81 and 103 and get back on budget by 50. 61 we missed the turn off but recovered reasonable nicely.
61 > 35 – this should have been an easy leg – we followed the correct track north east for ages. We thought we have missed the turn right to go east track so we decided just to go east. Ultra trac has us all of like 100m short of turn off… damn it. We followed the track we found east up to the junction. We had a break there as I wanted main killers food more caffeine and to try sharpen up. I was convinced we where too far and whilst everything was screaming check literally right in front of where we stopped for a break we walked down the road. We saw Dave’s team come down from 103 behind us not by far and jump straight in where we had been breaking but no no I didn’t want to go back so we left the 30 pointer and confirmed that with another team who past us going up to it. That decision cost use 5th place and 3rd mens.
So really 61 > 50 this leg then took us an hour or more. What a waste and we where now 45mins behind time budget again… damn it. We got our packs filled up and had a chat to Dave’s team who were confident they were in 2nd place chasing a team down 30 mins in front of them (reality is they where chasing them, but they were in 1st place). Anyway, we decided to drop the easy 31 cause why not at this point we wanted to get back on time and 30 points wasn’t a big drop
50 > 92 – This was an enjoyable leg and the one I needed to get my confidence back. As we left the road north of the tv and fire tower and headed into the bush the team which Dave said was in first place came up on our right. We knew at this point they must have lost a lot of time getting 31 because they had 35 mins on us and that wasn’t a hard leg. They past us on the right and as we got close to control site they went down to the right. I stopped and looked at the spur – they went down the wrong spur and I turned Luke to the left and we went other way. We went a bit too far left and had to work a bit back across and down the spur before we got the point and as we did – Dave’s team appeared again. I let them know the good news to their delight on the other teams mis fortune and as we left to got to our next point we said cya later and good luck to them for the last time in the race. The other team it appears imploded on point 92 – they never found it and then looks like they returned home from there. Having only one navigator sucks and I feel for them… because I was in that boat too.
92 > 83 – This was the leg of the race I had been dreading since planning and it was in the dead of the dark zone – you know that wonderful place where you hate life and question every decision… well yeah that was on this leg. The plan was – go back to tv tower, follow the track along the high ground, go up to the knoll, drop down and slightly more south to the spur and go down the spur straight into 83. Looking at the tracking now the execution of that was pretty much bang on. Now read the next few bits and you’ll realise it was an amazing feat. From the TV tower to the track took somewhere between 1.5-2hrs to do ~1.5km. This was by far the worst regaining leg of my life hands down no questions. The vegetation was so thick we couldn’t be more than 1 m separated or we would lose sight of each other. We had to fight and climb over everything – we thought we had been turned around for a number of times. I stuck as hard on bearings as I could, but it was relentless the hill just kept descending and the bush just was nonstop thick well above our heads. At one stage I slipped over, and 100% face planted on a tree stump missing my right eye by 2cm. It left bruising on my cheek bone in a way I would have no doubt it would’ve taken my eye out!. I also managed to severely bruise my left knee tripping on something else on this leg. My ankles where also now completely…ked. Luke sadly lost his map on this leg, so it was all on me now – not that I didn’t feel like that already but it really rang home we only had one map and 1 navigator. The only thing that got Luke and I through that leg was each other. I have not laughed so much in a Rogaine and sung in the face of such adversity and I know Luke was hurting too so massive props for getting to the path. This is we got out the other side – I had 0 confidence on where we were on the path. Had I known we had hit the mark I might have said let’s get 80 but I wasn’t sure if we had drifted nearly down to 93. I really had no idea because we had been in there for so long with no landmarks to rely on, I wasn’t about to charge off into the next section I needed certainty. Also, it was upon hitting the path we both realised how much effort had been spent on that leg and, we were drenched to the core. We had made the decision and I still stand by this one to abort 83 on the path even if it could’ve been right there (which it was) because we didn’t know, and we needed to get on with race. The other thing was Luke and I where both probably getting close to hypothermia. Both of us where shaking uncontrollably and I figured a consistent march on the path was the best option – though at this point for the first time every I was considering the space blanket to try restore warmth.
83 > 93 – So there was nothing flash about this it was the march post the horror above. It was an easy leg it was designed that way. We knew now we would’ve been better doing the road march all the way around to 83 but we couldn’t think about that now because well… we couldn’t think. Both of us shut down on this leg. Luke was doing faster walk legs away and back to me and I was well trying to keep moving. I had spent a huge amount of mental effort getting us through the prior leg and I had nothing left to give and my body was really struggling with my ankles and knee.
93 > 53 – I took the river controls out at this point – we considered grabbing them and going home and perhaps that might have been an ok idea not sure, but we just went to water and chatted about the north. I had completely shut down and I wasn’t sure how to get back out of it…
53 > 46 – I gave Luke the map and told him I needed to focus on getting myself back because I had completely lost the plot. I hoped he would hit 46 because he was mentally sharp at this point even though he was hurting. We walked up the road and I saw the path south of 46 and stopped Luke and said that path is the direction of the path south of 46. We debated it for a bit, but he assured me we hadn’t been moving fast enough to make it there yet. I didn’t have the mental faculty back yet to really challenge the logic so let it go, moments later we saw the road and debated it again but Luke convinced me it was something else - I really should’ve known better but I was really wrecked. As we pushed on it became clear that we had missed 46. I was also contemplating the patrol car home at this point. Again, a first for me – but one I would not take as I’m too god damn stubborn – but the pain was intense.
46 > 37 – I regained sense around 70/37 and took the map back and got us into 37. Then got us back on plan. I handed the map back to Luke because I was really giving last efforts now.
37 > 36 > 84 > 43 > 47 > 65 > HH – we planned to get a few points on way in but to pretty much get back and call it a race. Pretty sure Luke had more to give but I had nothing – he ended up assisting me up hills and taking a lot of the road nav though I had to jump in a few times however my decision making was getting poor now.
We made it home with 2 hours to spare (as planned clearly) but didn’t execute nearly as well or as much as we could. Felt really disappointed in my performance despite giving all I knew there was more we could’ve done and perhaps some better planning would’ve helped. Race was awesome because it was fun out there with Luke and the setters had set a good course – just wish we could’ve done more. We should’ve probably come 2nd had I been in shape / on form. Could’ve given a bit more on the day and come 3rd or 4th certainly. But we got 6th which TBH I was surprised at because I thought we would’ve been out of top 10.
I am sure there is plenty more I could be saying (as always) but I won’t – injury report is its Tuesday and I can barely walk still, my two big toes are messed up and swollen and I am waiting to see on the toenails. Knees are recovering slowly, and bruises and cuts are healing nicely. Eh rambling need to go to bed now.
Oh and I didnt scare Luke off his still good for another muhahah. Also retrospectively we did the 77km (pretty much and got in with 2 hrs to spare... just saying)
We came 6th – I felt like competitively had a terrible race but had a great time. Am absolutely suffering now.
Race Report
So I hadn’t planned to do this race and a few days out from entries closing Dave reminded me it was on I asked Luke and the crazy man said yes he wanted to go the full 24 and aim for 100km. Sure thing first timer. I am currently weighing in the heaviest I have ever been and have practically done near no exercise in I don’t want to think how long so the chips where stacked against me but hey ho here we go!
Got down just shy of 9am because we felt 3hrs would be enough. 4 really would’ve been helpful because we did rush a bit of the planning phase and didn’t manage to get to start line in time. We bagged our GPS’s as the race started… I pressed the horn down just for good measure and started at back of pack…
Re planning we set the entire course straight line of 77km ish so I figured that would escalate to about 100km We had also set time budget of 4 km then 3km for each hour respectively which got us in with 2 hrs to spare… lets be honest we all knew this wouldn’t work.
Map for reference: https://wa.rogaine.asn.au/images/WinnersRoutes/202...
Strava for GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/5837991584 (ultratrac mode so gps looks whack – but the 1s recording died at 9hr mark despite watch having a battery plugged in… anyway different between ultra trac and 1s at the 9hr mark was 2km so I think tis largely correct despite looking horrible!)
HH > 42 – Started off vaguely on right bearing but got sucked into following the masses and ended up north of 42 having been dragged that way by the people going direct to 65… anyway recovered but it meant we where about 10-15 mins down on first point. Doh bad start.
42 > 48 – so sliding down the banks to the crossing at the base of damn managed to neatly slice my hand and had a nice trickle of blood which I managed to get stopped reasonably quickly but was uber painful for the rest of race as every time I put my hand down it would sting like hell. Anyway climb to 48 wasn’t pleasant and really set the tone as ‘its going to be a long 24’.
48 > 72 – another brutal climb and we were only just getting started. The burn was real.
72 > 102 – This was a pretty clean leg nothing really to report here
102 > 74 – Ok we complete stuffed this and hit the out of bounds area and started to head towards 44 before I had the sense to ask the team right next to us. Having looked at Dave’s trace they did the same thing, so I wonder if there was something which threw us off as another team out there said they had done same too. Anyway, once we had backed up to 74 we where now a good 35-40 behind budget with second mistake in bag and also had got feet drenched crossing first river. Feet never really got dry from this point onwards. Also sound had stopped working on this control so we where not sure we had scanned.
74 > 44 – Pulled in a stack of teams I suspect didn’t do 48 and started on time. Was nice puling in teams even when just at walking pace. Had a yarn with a few of them. This was a simple follow the fence line leg.
44 > 90 – went to fence corner then punched through bush to track – followed the track down a way then went in and followed terrain onto the control. Could’ve and should’ve stayed on track longer as turns out the setter where quite forgiving with some of their setting and this one was clearly visible from path.
90 > 63 – back along track to corner just past junction then in on an angle – again another clean leg.
63 > 33 – another clean leg straight down to 33 not much really to report on this one.
33 > 71 – This was a horrible climb took ages and we had to fight some bush for some of the way – was really draining managed to twist both ankles on this leg or the next however I knew we had a tonne of track work coming up so stayed positive and pushed through one of the legs which would have gone done as my least favourite in rogaining I think.
71 > 104 – We hit this one perfectly and was a great feeling after the prior leg.
104 > 52 – along the path at a decent walk saw a handful of teams and was reasonable sociable leg to our first water drop. We where holding at 40 to 45 mins down and we where comfortable with that given, we had some easy stuff ahead.
52 > 73 – used the tracks to make it easier even though slightly longer
73 > 64 – Punched out to main road and managed to pick up a novice team at the top of the crest they where coming our way so they tagged along having a chat with us for the next few controls.
64 > 101 > 40 > 30 – pretty much 100% road work and chatting to novice team – the only non road bit was going from corner of property across river east of 101 – we put on night kit just after 101.
30 > 66 – long road march with brief bit of track – got self-sorted on food etc. at this point was nearing 50 mins to an hour behind. Might have lost a bit of time with fatigue but also my ankles where sore from twisting them earlier and my lack of being on them in years particularly for this long. Luke also had the reality check here that we where 6 -7 hours in so there was still 3/4rds of the race to go, not sure he appreciated that thought.
66 > 82 – was just another road grind but made good time as was down hill also to our delight an unmarked waterdrop. We had been strategizing because we had miss planned water and would’ve run dry and this was a god send. I think this might have been where we opted for warmer tops as the temp dropped a bit and it had started to rain a little.
82 > 95 – Wasn’t looking forward to this leg because of the earlier climb and this one wasn’t as bad accept for the god damn black berries – thankfully not the worse I’ve experienced and we got through them within a minute or two but certainly got cut up a bit. The ring road threw us a little as we followed it around (great suggesting from Luke) but map and reality didn’t quite match but we worked it out and got there quickly.
95 > 41- Nothing really special about this leg accept my watch stopped for no reason in back pack so back to the drawing board on getting a watch to run a whole race not on ultratrac… By this point we had agreed to drop 80 and go direct to 60. We knew this meant not clearing but wanted tog et back on time budget as we had slipped a tiny bit further and whilst we both knew we ha d”2 hrs” up our sleeve we also knew we wanted to stick to time.
41 > 60 – ok I lost the plot a bit here on the little paths and almost took us the wrong way a few times and Luke actually corrected me and made me re check my bearings a few times I am not sure we lost time but it just wasn’t great for confidence.
>Inserted< (Holy crap in writing this I just checked the GPS we overshot the track and walked in a full circle and the track I said turn right where Luke corrected me was just lucky because had we seen the track originally we should’ve turned right. God we got lucky, we did get spun around and we did lose time and I didn’t know until now!)
I knew Lukes nav was pretty much non-existent and I had to carry the night and faltering this early wasn’t great, so I got my first caffeine on board.
60 > 100 – Caffeine had not kicked in and I was mentally shutting down so let Luke lead us out for a few mins before I stopped him and realised he was out by somewhere between 90-180 degrees – ultratrac doesn’t show the story though. Got us back to the path not exactly sure where and changed the plan from punched west to following the track which was the safe option.
100 > 61 – Realised we where still behind on time and needed to pull in an hour opted to drop 81 and 103 and get back on budget by 50. 61 we missed the turn off but recovered reasonable nicely.
61 > 35 – this should have been an easy leg – we followed the correct track north east for ages. We thought we have missed the turn right to go east track so we decided just to go east. Ultra trac has us all of like 100m short of turn off… damn it. We followed the track we found east up to the junction. We had a break there as I wanted main killers food more caffeine and to try sharpen up. I was convinced we where too far and whilst everything was screaming check literally right in front of where we stopped for a break we walked down the road. We saw Dave’s team come down from 103 behind us not by far and jump straight in where we had been breaking but no no I didn’t want to go back so we left the 30 pointer and confirmed that with another team who past us going up to it. That decision cost use 5th place and 3rd mens.
So really 61 > 50 this leg then took us an hour or more. What a waste and we where now 45mins behind time budget again… damn it. We got our packs filled up and had a chat to Dave’s team who were confident they were in 2nd place chasing a team down 30 mins in front of them (reality is they where chasing them, but they were in 1st place). Anyway, we decided to drop the easy 31 cause why not at this point we wanted to get back on time and 30 points wasn’t a big drop
50 > 92 – This was an enjoyable leg and the one I needed to get my confidence back. As we left the road north of the tv and fire tower and headed into the bush the team which Dave said was in first place came up on our right. We knew at this point they must have lost a lot of time getting 31 because they had 35 mins on us and that wasn’t a hard leg. They past us on the right and as we got close to control site they went down to the right. I stopped and looked at the spur – they went down the wrong spur and I turned Luke to the left and we went other way. We went a bit too far left and had to work a bit back across and down the spur before we got the point and as we did – Dave’s team appeared again. I let them know the good news to their delight on the other teams mis fortune and as we left to got to our next point we said cya later and good luck to them for the last time in the race. The other team it appears imploded on point 92 – they never found it and then looks like they returned home from there. Having only one navigator sucks and I feel for them… because I was in that boat too.
92 > 83 – This was the leg of the race I had been dreading since planning and it was in the dead of the dark zone – you know that wonderful place where you hate life and question every decision… well yeah that was on this leg. The plan was – go back to tv tower, follow the track along the high ground, go up to the knoll, drop down and slightly more south to the spur and go down the spur straight into 83. Looking at the tracking now the execution of that was pretty much bang on. Now read the next few bits and you’ll realise it was an amazing feat. From the TV tower to the track took somewhere between 1.5-2hrs to do ~1.5km. This was by far the worst regaining leg of my life hands down no questions. The vegetation was so thick we couldn’t be more than 1 m separated or we would lose sight of each other. We had to fight and climb over everything – we thought we had been turned around for a number of times. I stuck as hard on bearings as I could, but it was relentless the hill just kept descending and the bush just was nonstop thick well above our heads. At one stage I slipped over, and 100% face planted on a tree stump missing my right eye by 2cm. It left bruising on my cheek bone in a way I would have no doubt it would’ve taken my eye out!. I also managed to severely bruise my left knee tripping on something else on this leg. My ankles where also now completely…ked. Luke sadly lost his map on this leg, so it was all on me now – not that I didn’t feel like that already but it really rang home we only had one map and 1 navigator. The only thing that got Luke and I through that leg was each other. I have not laughed so much in a Rogaine and sung in the face of such adversity and I know Luke was hurting too so massive props for getting to the path. This is we got out the other side – I had 0 confidence on where we were on the path. Had I known we had hit the mark I might have said let’s get 80 but I wasn’t sure if we had drifted nearly down to 93. I really had no idea because we had been in there for so long with no landmarks to rely on, I wasn’t about to charge off into the next section I needed certainty. Also, it was upon hitting the path we both realised how much effort had been spent on that leg and, we were drenched to the core. We had made the decision and I still stand by this one to abort 83 on the path even if it could’ve been right there (which it was) because we didn’t know, and we needed to get on with race. The other thing was Luke and I where both probably getting close to hypothermia. Both of us where shaking uncontrollably and I figured a consistent march on the path was the best option – though at this point for the first time every I was considering the space blanket to try restore warmth.
83 > 93 – So there was nothing flash about this it was the march post the horror above. It was an easy leg it was designed that way. We knew now we would’ve been better doing the road march all the way around to 83 but we couldn’t think about that now because well… we couldn’t think. Both of us shut down on this leg. Luke was doing faster walk legs away and back to me and I was well trying to keep moving. I had spent a huge amount of mental effort getting us through the prior leg and I had nothing left to give and my body was really struggling with my ankles and knee.
93 > 53 – I took the river controls out at this point – we considered grabbing them and going home and perhaps that might have been an ok idea not sure, but we just went to water and chatted about the north. I had completely shut down and I wasn’t sure how to get back out of it…
53 > 46 – I gave Luke the map and told him I needed to focus on getting myself back because I had completely lost the plot. I hoped he would hit 46 because he was mentally sharp at this point even though he was hurting. We walked up the road and I saw the path south of 46 and stopped Luke and said that path is the direction of the path south of 46. We debated it for a bit, but he assured me we hadn’t been moving fast enough to make it there yet. I didn’t have the mental faculty back yet to really challenge the logic so let it go, moments later we saw the road and debated it again but Luke convinced me it was something else - I really should’ve known better but I was really wrecked. As we pushed on it became clear that we had missed 46. I was also contemplating the patrol car home at this point. Again, a first for me – but one I would not take as I’m too god damn stubborn – but the pain was intense.
46 > 37 – I regained sense around 70/37 and took the map back and got us into 37. Then got us back on plan. I handed the map back to Luke because I was really giving last efforts now.
37 > 36 > 84 > 43 > 47 > 65 > HH – we planned to get a few points on way in but to pretty much get back and call it a race. Pretty sure Luke had more to give but I had nothing – he ended up assisting me up hills and taking a lot of the road nav though I had to jump in a few times however my decision making was getting poor now.
We made it home with 2 hours to spare (as planned clearly) but didn’t execute nearly as well or as much as we could. Felt really disappointed in my performance despite giving all I knew there was more we could’ve done and perhaps some better planning would’ve helped. Race was awesome because it was fun out there with Luke and the setters had set a good course – just wish we could’ve done more. We should’ve probably come 2nd had I been in shape / on form. Could’ve given a bit more on the day and come 3rd or 4th certainly. But we got 6th which TBH I was surprised at because I thought we would’ve been out of top 10.
I am sure there is plenty more I could be saying (as always) but I won’t – injury report is its Tuesday and I can barely walk still, my two big toes are messed up and swollen and I am waiting to see on the toenails. Knees are recovering slowly, and bruises and cuts are healing nicely. Eh rambling need to go to bed now.
Oh and I didnt scare Luke off his still good for another muhahah. Also retrospectively we did the 77km (pretty much and got in with 2 hrs to spare... just saying)