EC NZ '09 - Day 8 - Finale

EC NZ ’09 – Day 8 – fun and games, Tri Race

For those of you Epic Vets who still vaguely remember what its like to do the camp here are a few figures from Steven to sharpen your memory of what’s needed to put yourself in the picture for the Yellow – here are his 7-day totals from the first week:
Swim – 26km
Bike – 822 miles (1325km)
Run – 70 miles (113km)
Hours – 62.9

It was good to see Steven in his new Epic kit today as the race shorts are smaller and tighter and actually look kinda snug around his quads. The other cycling shorts he’s been wearing look like Chris has worn them for a couple of months and then given them back with the elastic shot to bits. He doesn’t even need the pockets of a cycling jersey most of the time now as there’s enough room to stuff a couple of lunch boxes into his cycling shorts where it looks like his quads should be!
Looks like he’ll soon be giving Douglas a run for his money in competition for the skinniest camper.

Our day started with the swim races at Nayland pool at 8am. Great to have a little sleep-in today. I sure as hell needed it. We had decided that the cut-off for bonus points would end by the time we left the pool so there was still a chance to do a 3km swim or bands only for points so I did both. I’ve really got to learn to get my hips and legs up some how as my toes were scraping the bottom of the pool on the bands only.
As expected Heath easily took the over-all swim points with the only upset coming from Ken with his trade-mark fast 50 coming in at 28 flat.
We did a 400IM which is always a laugh and also did a 200 kick with a board. Mike seems to have some serious upside to come with his swimming if he ever learns how to kick! I think he is now the proud owner of the record for the slowest ever 200 kick on Epic coming in at around 9 minutes!
Bevan took down coach John in the 50 which probably surprised John quite a bit to say the least. Could this be one of the first signs of aging John???????
Marilyn hasn’t been swiming at all for many months but decided to join us for the swim races and at the end of her 400IM she looked like she was just finishing a crossing of the English Channel as Piet rocketed by her in the last few meters.

Back to the hotel for breakfast and then a leisurely roll down to Rabbit Island for the Tri.
Steven got a little extra credit riding for chasing down some people we thought were campers who were quite a ways up the road and headed the wrong way. Turns out they weren’t part of our group and he busted a gut for nothing!

Since Newsom set out the swim course it was bound to be an honest effort. He said he certified the distance by driving the van along the road sorta parallel to the beach. If you spent a week+ with John and still don’t quite get his sense of humor then surely today you must be able to see what he thinks is hilarious.
It was choppy as hell out there but it was warm. In fact the ride and run looked to be a cooker as it was headed for 30 Degrees C today and probably close to that by the time we set off.
The rough water made it tough to draft so I got killed. Steven was up there with John but went the wrong way to get a little more extra credit (the guy just keeps finding ways to do more………..) and set off on the bike with Daniel, Chris and I.
Heath’s tire was flat when he came out of the water so he decided to skip the ride and get in the van to join us for the run.
Lou bridged up to me pretty quick and I though he was going to bury me but I rallied somewhat to pass Steven and drop Lou. The hilly part of the ride suited me but once we got into that last 15km on the flat I quickly lost all of my advantage and rolled into transition with Lou, Steven and Piet who had a hell of a ride to catch us.
Chris was way off the front and then decided to do the whole run with Heath which was a little surprising as he has been letting his running injury heal. He said afterwards that his legs felt good with no pain at all so he’s looking forward to getting back into a more balanced training program soon.
John’s knee seemed to be fine so he ran away with the race with Chris 2nd, then Steven, me, Piet, Lou (is that right???) and then I lost track as there was no more brain activity going on in my head. I did manage to drink about 2 liters of water, electrolyte and Coke in about 30 minutes following the race but still felt quite parched.
A massive lunch, a quick shower and back over to the Honest Lawyer……….

The rest of the day consisted of packing up and then dinner there at our hotel and they laid out a nice spread for us and some nice wines. Beautiful pavlova as one of the deserts. I love that stuff! A few of us went right to sleep (was I the only one??) and many went back over to the Honest Lawyer for a few more rounds till they closed the place down. The unanimous opinion from the campers was that super support crew Sarah was in fine form!
More in the Epilogue tomorrow regarding future Epics, thoughts on group training, other camps and Thank You’s.