Nick - Day 14

The highs and the lows

The thing I have noticed about epic camp, and been told by others, is that some days you are on fire and others you feel like your cycling with one leg. Today was one of the low points. I slept poorly last night and my legs ached. When woke this am (at 0500 - and hr before I needed to, I was already dreading the day).

It was a cool, chilly morning in Wainakarua when we made it out to breakkie, but like they have all camp, the crew had laid out a magnificent feast including Daves specialty eggs inside bread. I started the day with two cycling jerseys on and by morning tea, I had only just warmed up enough to take the summer one off. My quads were sore, tight and never felt great. The first 50 km saw us cruising down SH1 in pretty much a solid line before we turned off and rolled through Karitane. It was really just Johns way of softening us up for what was to come. Once back on the main rd we turned off and climbed up over the hill to Port Chalmers, which was a KOM. I had nothing!! It was all I could manage to get over the damn thing.

Then it was up to me to navigate through Dunedin. I must confess I haven't actually lived here for 10 years, and I only had a rough idea where I was going. I had no trouble getting to Sth Dunedin, but then had to get up the St Clair hill. I missed the turn, but remembered there was a beauty of a climb from St Clair up to Corstephine via my old rd Earls rd. I thought about stopping everyone in front of my house for scenic purposes, but looking at the huffing and puffing going on there was a very real chance I would get lynched.

The cruise down to Blackhead beach and onto Brighton was enjoyable, but I had a nagging feeling my detour in Sth Dunedin might have caused the lunch stop to be missed. I was bloody relieved to find we hadn't.

After lunch the standard hammerfest started, and I realised pretty quick I had nothing to give. We had another steep climb from Taieri mouth over to Waihola and it was one of those climbs that just keeps going and going. On more than one occasion I swore at the hills. Today was the first day i had resorted to Coke in my drink bottles and it wasn't giving me the boost I had hoped for. The only solace was passing Eric, Petro and Rip who were finding the hills even harder than me. Having claimed the KOM earlier in the day, Johnnie either had nothing left, or didn't acre, cos he was going even slower than me.

The last 40km into Balclutha was deceptively rolling. I am so close to the end, but equally my body is so close to breaking. I have never done anything remotely resembling this before and I am now in a state of constant fatigue. All I can think about is getting back to The Sunshine Coast and lying around playing with Zac and Ingrid. I think it will be a long time before I leave them for two weeks again.