So today’s plan was a mountain run over the Ben Lomond saddle and back to Queenstown. We expected this to take 2.5-3hrs however it turned into an epic adventure. The climb up and over the saddle was incredibly steep and long but the views were spectacular. I think it took around 1hr20 to get to the top - that was a mix of running and hiking. By the time we reached the top I had a splitting headache from the sweet cooling on my head (Queenstown is an alpine resort town and pretty chilly first thing). Little did we know the up was going to be a lot more straight forward than the down. After probably about 30-45mins of descending all of a sudden about 6-8 of us came together at the end of what had been what we thought was the right trail (it was very poorly marked). How wrong we were. For the next 45mins we bush whacked out way through thorns, gorse and head high ferns. We had no idea where we were going but eventually we got back on trail and Gordo and I rolled back to the accom with 3hrs50 on the clock, that’s a big run!! An easy 3km swim later and it was time for a “scenic” trip up to Coronet Peak ski field. The hammer went down after about 5mins whilst I was about 50m off the back trying to get my legs rolling over. So when we hit the climb I was already a good minute or two down. I don’t think anyone seemed to take it seriously that I had said this was a serious climb, everyone seemed to be hammering and I wasn’t making much of an inroad. I though “just stick with your tempo and they will come back”. Sure enough they did and I clawed it back place by place to finish 3rd behind super Bevan and very nearly catching Gordo. John Drury climbed like an animal today, he’s really come on strong the last few days after insisting to John Ellis the other day that something was wrong with his bike “it just feels a few km’s/hr slower than back home” – that’s kiwi roads and conditions for you. The ride ended up being 2.5hrs today so there was a bit of time to kick back and tell stories that are already getting longer.
So tonight Albert is clearly in yellow and unless he completes detonates tomorrow should take it home (I need to finish 6 places in front of him in the tri tomorrow). However Molina is only 1.5 points behind me so I can’t muck around too much. I’m pretty sure those two are going to try and smash the living crap out of me in the swim tomorrow. I’m going to be on the coke and caffeinated gels first thing and it will be game on. Gordo is going to be fired up too.
It’s been a great camp so far so fingers crossed we can finish in style.
Sorry no pics today or yesterday.
Days totals
Run 3hrs50
Swim 3km
Bike 2.5hrs (incl 8km climb 10-14%)
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