XTerra Waiuku 2023

 

XTerra Waiuku 2023

13 August 2023

22.14km, 516m, 1:53:11

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/11775050406
https://www.strava.com/activities/9635702293/overview

https://my.raceresult.com/252805/results

Race Day

I drove out with Lynda P, leaving at 6:45 which was ok timing.

The weather was dry and warm enough, with no wind. There had been a few days of dryish weather, although there were some largish puddles visible as we drove into the event base.

I opted to wear my Salomon SpeedCross 6 shoes for maximum grip. As it turned out, we never once got our feet muddy or even wet, so other trail shoes would also have been fine. (Although arguably the extra lugs on the Salomons did help with general traction on the sand)

Lynda was doing the Mid course (after a 5km warm up run while waiting!), so I lined up for the super long start with Glenn McCord and Chris Chambers.

The run is just lovely - mostly sand, pine needled single track, albeit with some longish sections of gravel road.

Me, Glenn and Chris kept up a fast pace and I felt ok for the first half. 

However at about the 16km mark, I really got super tired and slowed significantly, allowing Chris to disappear off into the distance ahead of me. 

With about 1km to go, I got a bit asthmatic ? and had some issues breathing. I didn't quite stop and walk but it was a close thing. That problem mostly faded after a few minutes, but the last few kilometers were certainly slow! (and I felt fairly faint post-run)

Lynda had a good run, being her first race back for ages after injury.

Chris (50+) beat me home by 2 minutes, and Glenn nearly caught me at the end (just 7 seconds behind!) 

Wrap

Great fun.

I think I needed to have more sustenance (I dropped most of my moro bar, but did have one gel during), and especially more fluid than one quick cup might have been good.

I still did a relatively fast time compared to previous years (although not a course record for me)