Well the Peak to Peak multisport race is one of my favourites and this year was my 6th time competing in it. It was my first race since major surgery only 5 months/21 weeks ago – I am probably my own worst critic and hardest judge maker on my performance, I felt a little disappointed initially at my result and performance in this years event. I have been building up and slowly regaining lost strength and muscle tone over the last 2 months or so as the body and the healing process has allowed, surgical battle scars are pretty tender and need some ease taking when getting back into things I have found!
However my initial disappointment has been changed with a sense of achievement and a solid benchmark as to what I need to do to regain and build up to where I was before having surgery to fix my tummy troubles. To be able to complete this race only 21 weeks after the operation was a good achievement in itself.
In competing in the peak to peak last year I set a Personal Best time of 2hr45min, and this year I thought I might lose 15minutes on that with where I was at, however parts of the race were more of a challenge than I expected.
So it went a little bit like this….. A beautiful clear day in Queenstown not a cloud in the sky and no wind at all. Barrett was kind enough to sort me a ride up to the top of the Remarkables with my MTB and Skis while Cherie waited at the start of the Kayak to assist with all the transitions from there.
The Ski My skiing skills are pretty basic but sufficient enough to get me down the slopes ok, but usually after a run or two just to get my legs and turns sorted, IN the last few years we have skied pretty easy runs on the mountain. However this year was to be a little different as there was a good amount of snow we skied “Homeward Bound” which is a steep and more advanced run, I had skied this running my first ever Peak to Peak and got a bit bashed up by it. Anyway I skied off down th start of the trail ands then made my way out onto the main face of the slope to be challenged with trying to execute confident and quick turns to get me down the mountain, (the last time I was on skis was the Peak to Peak in 2008!) Needless to say I took a while to get down the slope and didn’t have too many people behind me at the end of this ski.
The MTB This is always a good blast down the hill, I got onto the bike and pedalled my way as quick as I could to Frankton passing a couple of people on the way. Great fun coming down the hill
The Kayak I believe the Kayak is one of my strongest disciplines and I something I really enjoy. I got into the boat and wound It up across a glass like lake and set my eyes on all the other Kayaks I wanted to reel in and pass. Over the course of the Kayak I managed to pass 28 paddlers and felt pretty good about this.
The Run Onto the run and I was starting to feel a little fade in my energy, but settled into a comfortable enough pace knowing that the last cycle up Coronet was going to deal to me! I got through the run and felt a little flat and heavy in the legs by the end of it, not looking forward to the next stage much at all, but the end was getting closer!
The Last Cycle The cycle up Coronet Peak is a tough grind and one I wasn’t looking forward to much with my leg strength currently being a little limited and the effects of the previous stages of the race. I got onto the bike and started to grind my way up the hill, Once on my way I was in the low gear on my road bike wishing I had the gearing of my MTB as the roadie isn’t the lowest of gearing for hills. Anyway, not far into it I had to give myself a mental toughness talk and tried to overcome the pain of some cramp that were starting to eat into my thighs. With about 3km to go from the top of the hill my legs were locking up and I was having to get off and push my leg out of it’s locked straight position and deal with the pains of the cramping – so it was walk a bit to relieve locking and cramping and then try to get back on and bike until the cramp locked me up over and over again – not pretty and all and quite tough on you mentally as you get passed by others looking 10x better than yourself – anyway enough whining on about how tough the last cycle was – I finished and could enjoy an ice cold beer!
The Outcome I finished in 3hrs and 35min which was down on last years time by 50min, however now looking at this result in a positive and reflective manner I feel it was great to get back out there and get started back into some races and will continue to work hard on getting my strength and speed back to where it was as quick as. It was great to be able to push the body and it all held together!
