Totalsports Challenge - Terra Firma 2013

Saturday 12 January, Totalsports Challenge Terra Firma was my first race of 2013. The Terra Firma consist of a 50km Road Bike ride from Gordan's Bay to Kleinmond, a 13km Road Run from Kleinmond to Arrabella Spa and Golf resort, a 25km Mountain Bike ride and a 9km Beach Run to finish in Kleinmond.

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.

The 13km road run was hard. I spend more time on the bike lately so my running was not in top form. The first 5km was through Kleinmond, the next 6km was the long stretch from Kleinmond to Arrabella which was hot, into the wind and just plain hard. The last 2km was on sandy single track and dirt roads which was so much better than the long notorius black tar road. 

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!

I was super exicited at the finish, only then realizing I won the race in a time of 5h27min27sec.

Thanks to Mobii, XTERRAWetsuits, 32GI, Linebreak Compression, Virgin Active and Cape Auto Centre!   

Totalsports Challenge 2013 Highlight:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1-71HpVzVM&feature=share