EC NZ '10 Day 11 Kaikoura - Christchurch

EC NZ ’10 Day 11 Kaikoura – Christchurch

We woke to clear morning and could see fresh snow on the mountains. Very nice sunrise. For most of us the first thing on the agenda was a 2km jog to the pool and back and a 3km swim in the 33m pool in our wetsuits. Last time we swam in this pool it was about 17 degrees C I think so we were prepared for the cold. It turned out to be around 22 C so not bad at all.

Last night at dinner I learned that Steve had run 40km all together and put the points our of reach for any one else if he gets his camp completion points at the end. All he has to do now is conserve, not get real sick or blow to bits and he’ll have his 3rd Yellow Jersey in a row.
David Craig has been running a ton too so the battle for the old farts jersey is getting closer between he and Petro. Both Steven and David have been doing way more than their fare share of pulling us along every day too. Very inspiring to watch.

The last bunch rolled out from Kaikoura around 9:00 I think. Not sure as my watch has bit the bullet so I’ll pick up another one from home tomorrow.
We thought we might get some southerlies again today but it turned out to be very favorable wind or none at all most of the way.
The KOM turned out to start at the 25km point of the ride so nice w/up.
Newsom made the first jump and it was a good one. After about 1km it was down to the usual suspects plus Blanco making a re-appearance. When the pace slackened a little Steven went to the front to keep the hurt on, but Clas and Newsom’s accelerations were decisive enough o gap us. G-Man went OTB quite early so I was relying on Steven to .bridge us back up to Newsom and Clas on the descent in the middle of the climb. On that descent Steven lost 2 bottles due to the bumpy road and one of them almost took me out on a bend at about 45kph!
I did manage to get back up there and lose Steven and just get Newsom with Clas only a few seconds ahead at the top which none of us knew the location of.
Good battle.
After that it was a very steady 140km to go! Lots of rollers and then the last 50km was flat. Not much to report except for Daniel McDonald leaving us to race home as he has to hurry down to Challenge Wanaka for the expo as he’s working there.
We had a drink stop at Cheviot at the 65km mark and somewhere after that Clas’s GPS watch popped off his wrist and he didn’t notice it until we were 15km down the road. So he pulled over and had the support crew drive him back to Cheviot where he proceeded to ride slowly looking for his watch on the side of the road!!! As ridiculous as it sounds he actually found it about 500m from the drink stop. That put him about 30km behind us so he had 70km to ride on his own to lunch in Amberley. Gordo kindly waited for him there to ride with him back to town and it was a chilly, long wait. I won’t be surprised if he calls in a favor or two because of it during the rest of the camp! J

Petro headed right out for run when we got to the motel and I think Steven did too. I had a shower, 2 beers and a massage! My dear wife came to fetch me so I could spend a night at home as the run tomorrow morning is starting and finishing at my place.
It’s a hilly beast of a 20km trail run around Godley Head and I hope like hell I can manage it because it will be a damn long hike home if I can’t.

Glad everyone had a good day today. I haven’t heard any tails of woe yet. 180km is a long way when you’re fresh. After what we’ve done so far it seems a hell of a lot of ground to cover but everyone seemed to handled it just fine.