EC NZ '10 Day 7 Wanganui - Masterton

EC NZ ’10 Day 7 Wanganui – Masterton

Today was always going to be one of the longest days of the camp and after 6 solid days already it turned out to be quite a mission, but one that everyone handled really well. We’ve never done a camp with so many long hard days in a row before an easy day which comes on day 9 of this camp when we transfer to the South Island.

The day started for some with a very early roll-out for the ride. They left right after breakfast.
Most of the rest of us jogged to the pool and back (8km in total) and swim our 3km which included various sets.
Petro decided to sit on Lord and Gordo (in an _illegal_ skinsuit) through a set of 10 x 200 on the 2:45 and I didn’t’ think he’s last through #2 so I bet him a double bacon cheeseburger from Burger King and I promptly lost that bet. The dude is getting in shape. Even drafting that’s moving right along, and considering the previous 6 days it was damn impressive.
As I was changing I heard some raucous cheering coming from the pool deck so I knew Jo Carritt must be doing her 200 fly. She’s not a natural butterfly swimmer!


The last group was down to 8 this morning and Daniel McDonald was in there I think more due to poor organization than a desire to drill himself.
But he ended up burning it up today.
First John pulled the first 65km to the first drink stop. That’s right – the whole damn way! Very impressive and it kept us together.
Soon after that he took over again and then Daniel took over nad that included pacing us up a solid 5km climb. At the top he proceeded to bomb down the other side and then blast the crap out of us for another 20km. He was on fire!
He didn’t know Petro stopped at the top of the climb for a photo and lost the pack.

I’ve known Daniel for a very long time as his younger brother Chris (Big Sexy) McDonald was one of my training partners in his early days. Daniel’s older Brother David who’s now 40 and lives in Port Macquarie has done 2 x 9:07 IM’s. The McDonald bro’s know how to ride.
But often Daniel takes long breaks from training so isn’t always in top form to say the least. Hopefully this year he’ll use this camp as a springboard to do some great racing. He’s got IM NZ on the plan at the moment.
So our pack lost a few enroute to lunch and there was one particularly grumpy camper in Petro who looked like he had some sand kicked in his face by the bullies. I promised him a Subway foot-long in addition to the double bacon cheeseburger and that settled him down somewhat.
But then the fireworks started soon after lunch and he went straight O.T.B again! Ouch.
Lord and Clas were gone.
Johnny and Daniel towed Gordo and I right along to the end. I think we averaged 34kph for that 200km ride. If you’ve ridden Kiwi roads then you know that’s movin’.

Other than Old man’s back I held up OK today.
As we were rolling into town we saw David Craig about 5km out from the motel running. The guy is racking up the km’s.
I did stop into Subway to get Petro’s foot-long but there are no Burger King’s in town so he just had to make due with that light post-ride snack.
After a few cold ones Petro and I chose to get a rub from the masseuse who showed up to help Russell out with massage today. So we had Pizza Hut deliver us a couple of scrumptious pizzas and it was bliss.
I haven’t had a chance to catch up with the early group yet and am off to bed now so will get the scoop tomorrow.

Tomorrow we’re riding first thing to hopefully avoid the gale force winds that are forecast to blow on the way to Wellington.