Nick - Day 12

The day of the echelon

Today dawned crisp and clear, but oh how things changed by the afternoon. This mornings main event was a run from Molinas house. Coffee club was followed by a van ride through the burbs out to Sumner beach. I hadn't been in these parts for around 5 years, so it was a good chance to sit up front and have John talk me through Chch. Its a city I have never lived in, but spent a fair amount of time over the years, especially whilst in the army.

The run started from Molinas house and we were joined by his wife Erin. Its a pretty special day when you get led into the hills for a run by two Ironman World Champions. We wound our way up Evans pass, and then out around Godleys head. I was feeling okay, not flash, but surprisingly not completely drilled 12 days into this crazy adventure. I think my body has found that zone where I am able to knock these sort of runs out by starting at a very managaeable pace, and just putting one foot in front of the other. It was a breathtaking run, and the weather was crisp and perfectly clear. A truly spectacular way to start the day. It wasn't until we got back to the motel and Charlsey reminded me that a 2 hr, 18k hill run would normally be followed by a leisurely breakfast and feeling pretty good about yourself for the rest of the day. This however, is no normal week, and we had a 150km ride to Geraldine.

The course map said "Dead Flat Day" - easy even, but the weather had other ideas. A cold, southerly front was on its way up the country and we could see it coming. John had told us we would be riding "friendly" to Rakaia. By the time we had finished riding the back roads and found our way onto the main highway at Burnham the wind had kicked up. DC and Big E swapped some pretty big turns on the front until Gordo decided to dial the pace back. At 40km we had a drink stop and everybody hit their gear bags and put on pretty much every piece of clothing they had as the rain started to fall. I decided to swap my summer shorts for my winter 3/4 tights and spent about 3 mins pretty much starkers on the side of the road - bib shorts are warm, but not necessarily the easiest thing to get on and off.

Shortly after the stop we had only our second incident of the trip. With the paceline intermittently bunching and stretching the brakes suddenly went on and I was forced to put mine on. Unfortunately Pete O'Brien had nowhere to go and went into the back of my bike. Nurse Dave was called int action to administer some first aid to Petes knee and we were rolling again.

After riding in a line over the Rakaia bridge with Dave Dwan blocking the road from the rear to protect us, we turned off at Thompsons Track. I must admit to feeling a little desperate at this point. I was cold, my feet were numb and we still had 80km to go into a bitterly cold southerly. Gordo worked some magic though. Dave Craig and John had TT'd off the front, so Gordo encouraged everyone to get into a rolling paceline. It may not have been the fastest thing ever happening with 20 odd people in it, but it meant that we all got a turn out of the wind and kept us moving. Lunch appeared at 100km and the support guys deserve a medal. Normally we have to assemble our own rolls, but with numb hands and numb brains that would have been a task too much. Pre-assembled rolls were devoured in minutes.

It was a pretty quick lunch before we headed off. I got a 30second head start with Pete, and my quads were ice cold. I could barely turn them over. Tara headed off in the distance and I just couldn't catch her. But then a blur appeared and Clas was hammering with Molina, Gordo and Petro. Pete yelled at me to catch on and catch on I did. Thats the difference this week. Last week I wouldn't have managed it, but today I hung on for dear life and sure enough about 10km down the road Clas was obviously warmed up and slowed enough to allow a group of 8 of us to echelon at 35-38km/hr into the finish in Geraldine. A very satisfying day.