We arrived in Gordan's Bay and the wind was pumping...it was going to be a hard ride to Kleinmond. I knew I had to save some energy for the mountain bike and beach run as it was the hardest sections of the race. I did the road bike ride a bit more conservatively and sat in a bunch as much as I could.
I was looking forward to the mountain bike leg, but I took a bit of a dip at this stage of the race. The mountain bike route starts off with a long but steady climb, the sun cooking your skin to a crisp with no wind to cool you off. At about 7km I was hitting a real low but I knew I had 3 more k's to go until I reach the top of the climb...so it was head down and pedal, pedal, pedal. At the half way mark I started feeling better and was feeling positive again. The downhill was rocky and dangerous, but my Specialized 29er was just flying over these rough sections. The last part of the mountain bike was mind over each pedalstroke and I was glad to see the transistion area in Kleinmond.The last leg was the 9km beach run, could not find my running shoes as transition as it was full of spectators, decided to hit the beach barefeet. At this stage of the race it was hard to run...not even to mention a run on the beach, but to my surpise it was a relieve. It was much cooler than on the mountain and running in the cold water was so good for the legs. I ran a consistent pace and finished the race feeling tired but also very excited and good!
