OCEANS

With Easter and therefore Oceans part of history there are a couple of things we can do:

1) forget it happened and move on. ..

2) live in the past 

3) hate the past and set about making it your life's work to break it down.

4) know what happened in the past and use it to build a better future. 

I might know what happened,  but I don't know why it happened... So let's tell you my Good Friday Story! 

We were up early and even with the cold winter weather settling it was far from cold. The cold front would only brush the Mother City on Saturday. 

All too soon I found myself on the start line listening to the race briefing. The start was different this year as we set off in the opposite direction!  It was a nice start and I soon found myself setting the pace! 

Maybe I set out a little hard but as they say: Fortune favours the brave...

Look if the big names were not going to take it out I wasn't going to hold back. Up past Rhodes Men and onto the gravel road I lead. I wasn't racing Thabang or Eric (they would fight in out to the finish with Thabang winning by less than a meter!) I was racing Nicholas for the 40+ prise and while the going was good I had to go for it. There were 4 guys just off my pace and we had a gap on the rest of the field. 

Surging for the front at the start of the single track

I had been working hard so I slowed the pace on the next single track but the guys would have none of it and they took control of the race after that.

I wasn't out of it I was still in the pack at on the long climb up to Tafelberg Road it wasn't it the single track that I let them go. As we crossed the road I was all of 10sec back,  and had planned to make my move after the next bend...

So much for my plan, the legs had stopped working and fighting the wind wasn't fun anymore.  I passed 2 caps and a pair of glasses on the path they had been lost to the wind.  I now had sweat and dust in my eyes and in wiping them I lost a contact lens! Not good for trail running. 

Fighting the wind

I took a split to the leaders, they had 30sec on the next 2 and I was 50sec back. Time to up my game and go for 3rd... 

Having rounded Devils Peak it was time to climb to the saddle and close the gap... I didn't! Knowing the rest of the field was chasing I pushed on dropping of the saddle and taking the upper contour back round the mountain. It wasn't easy going for me I wasn't seeing 100% and the legs seemed tired! Then it happened I was caught... no not Nic maybe I still had it I was aiming at the block house then maybe I could get into race mode and keep him at bay. Christian was next catching me in the same place as last year,  and the just before the downhill Nicholas pull up behind me... maybe I should have taken the vertical decent first and put a bit of pressure on him but the race was out of me... 

Yes it's that vertical and Nic is getting away

We were now above Rhodes Men again and while I was running hard someone else caught me... I wasn't letting him past so I pushed on down the single track but once on the gravel road I couldn't hold him back anymore.  

He didn't fly away. .. so on the next climb I took him again through most of Newlands forest this would happen,  it was good to be racing again and not just out for a casual trail run. 

He got away in the last km leave me in 9th (2nd 40+).

Garmin called the race:

23.4km

2h07:36

With 1500m climb