And it is done

Target: 743km with 16650m of ascend in 8 days.
Achieved: You bet
Time: Just over 55 hours of riding

The journey begins,

Marie, Ame and I departed for Cape Town on 18 March 29, 2009. The plan was to drive to CTN over 2 days. On day 1 we would sleep over in Richmond with 700km on the clock. We would then complete the journey the following day.

We arrived in Richmond only to find out that this was a small town. It is so small that the GPS would not recalculate if you made a wrong turn. We decided to go find food elsewhere and on this trip the trusty old steed decided that the clutch would engage no more.

A frantic search started for some kind of service station but this was Richmond after all and it was after 17:00. I called in the services of “crisis on call” who started a rescue mission for us.

The next morning we got towed 200km to Graaff Reinet but in the wrong direction. This was the closest town with a General Motors dealership. When we arrived Gerrie from the GM dealership, with a very calm voice informed me that they had no spare parts for this particular make of vehicle.

I asked when it would be available and he answered very self assured that the parts would arrive the next morning. I also found out that we were still 8 hours drive from Cape Town. Gerrie assured me that his entire team would work on the car non stop. He calculated that the car would be ready by 11:00 the next morning

If you added the 8 hours of driving time to this time it would put me in CTN at 19:00 on Friday the 20th. This meant that I would only have 1 hour to get to and complete my registration. This by the way was the best case scenario. I phoned the organizers of the Cape Epic and Samantha gave me the assurance that Rick could register for both of us.

This was a great relieve as I only had to make sure that I got to the prologue at 11:21 on the Saturday.

We finally made it to CTN on the 20th at 18:00 thanks to a whole lot of strangers that somehow understood my plight. I still recon we live in one of the best countries in the world. SA and its people rock.

I will not go through every day of the Epic but will rather summarize what we learned, felt and experienced along the way.

The Epic is a mind game and takes a lot out of you as person on a daily basis. My training prepared me very well for this race and I did not feel at any stage as if my conditioning would let me down.

I know these are bold statements but this is truly how I felt. I finished the last day with an average heart rate of 100 beats per minute.

Rick pushed through some serious cramping on day one and I still take my hat off to him for this fete. I still do not know how he did this as it must have hurt like hell. Well done partner for a lesser man would have faulted. Rick dehydrated and over heated on day five to the extend that he could hardly walk straight or pick up his feet.

This was the only time in the entire race that I thought we might not make it. We found some water and he cooled down and then we hit a long down. This meant that he recovered well and we finished a very emotional and tough day. It apparently got to 43 degrees Celsius that day.

We finished the last day and before we knew it we were standing on a podium receiving medals. We got our finishers t-shirts and just like that it was all done.

Back up crew:
Without the back up crew this Epic would not have been a success. Marie, Ame you both were awesome. I do not know how to thank you but tell the world that this was made possible by you. You got up every morning in training and packed my food. You even organized all our socials on the weekends as I was always on the road. You made sure that we had amble food to start our recovery every day in the race. You arranged all the accommodation and made sure our every need was catered for. You rock and I am glad to call you wife and child. You and Ame inspired me daily when the hills got tough to hang in there and never but never quit. We make an awesome family and a stunning team. With us anything is possible.

Partner:
Thanks buddy for trusting me with your Epic. I soon discovered that this really meant so much to you and that is why I trained as hard as I could. I believe we made an awesome team and we were only once more than 2 minutes apart in a race that lasted over 55hours. This says a lot about the partnership. With another partner I most probably would have blown by day three or four. I salute your courage to keep on pushing even if it was hurting and hot.

Nutrition:
We had a very well planned strategy and we stuck to our plan of Game and simple carbs. I did not have one cramp and always felt like I had a lot of energy in the bank. I believe it helped a lot training with this food as well as I always knew how to use it the correct way.

Technical:
We just had no technical issues and our steeds were serviced daily by Grant Cycles. We did not even have one puncture and had no other failures. I do not believe this was only luck as we had a very sure technical strategy as well. We decided to use the correct equipment and made use of a technical backup service. We carried our own lube and we used it well. We had the best tires with the correct slime and that is why all the punctures sealed. We took no technical risks that would jeopardize our bikes.

Saddle Sores:
Both Rick and I used the First Ascend Bibs with the orange pad. We made sure to apply the “milk salve” liberally in the morning. We also took a small tub with us on the day and applied at every water station. Sure we got some discomfort like every other person but this did not stop us from completing the race. We applied Aloe Vera cream every night to help for the next day. This was a huge success in my mind. Once again this was the same strategy I used every Saturday and Sunday and we executed according to the plan.

Physical conditioning and training:
For the people who followed the Blog you would have seen that I put in the base hours in the week and had a 6hour ride on the Saturday followed by a 3hour ride on the Sunday with lots of hill work. I started a lot of this training late on the day deliberately exposing myself to the heat of the day. I knew we would compete through the hottest part of every day and knew that I would be vulnerable to the heat and sun if I did all my training in the cooler times of day. I would not change one thing If I had to do it all again. The stats speak for it self and with an average heart rate on most days under 110 this surely is a winning strategy.

Conclusion:
Train well get your mind sorted and make sure you eat enough. DO NOT push yourself into zone 3, 4 and 5 on the first couple of days. You WILL pay the price later. Do this race and make sure you choose your partner well. Set your goals up front and stick to them. This will be one of my most prized medals as it took a great partner and a very dedicated and understanding family to make it through this event. It is not just about the physical conditioning.

What is next?
I am off to the IronMan on the 5th of April. I am in the process of recovery and look forward to this event. I have 7 days to recover and believe that I should be able to complete the race. It was always the double for me and I believe I can achieve it. I will update the Blog one more time to tell you all about the IMSA experience and let’s hope it is positive. After that I just do not know. I am thinking about doing some serious running next and perhaps I might just do the comrades marathon. Time will tell and I will be sure to update the Blog with my plans.

Till next week.