XTerra Waitawa 2024

 

XTerra Waitawa 2024

23 June 2024

21.4km, 732m, 1:56:00

https://www.strava.com/activities/11715561882
https://my.raceresult.com/292586/results

Race Day

I drove myself, Will and Ed out to Waitawa. 

It had rained very heavily overnight, and the ground was sodden, although luckily by 8:00am the rain mostly stopped.

The course these days runs anti-clockwise (for 2 laps for the Super Long), and starts on a moderate hill climb to get the blood running. It pays to go quickish on the first 800m before the pinch point of a cattle stop slows you down. 

Will and I started steadily and I mostly followed him around for the first lap, including gaining a bit of time on the (muddy!) rope uphill section. I was super stable in my Saloman SpeedCross 6 shoes (which we talked about quite a bit afterwards), and was also gaining on some of the slipperier downhills. 

After one lap, I knew that I was going at an unsustainable pace, but could only hope that Will might crack, so continued to speed down the trails at pace and pushed very hard on the next uphill (rope) section. Admittedly I did gain 15 seconds or so on Will, but at the expense of ruining myself in a big way. Oh well, the speed was fun while it lasted!

By about 16km I was knackered, and my pace perforce dropped hugely and I watched Will speed rapidly off into the distance. I trudged on and finished about 3 minutes behind him.

I just didn't quite catch Ed (by 20 seconds) doing the Long.

Will was first 50+ (13th overall) and me second.

Great fun on the mud!

In retro, my time was pretty fast. About 6 minutes faster than last year - so even though the course was subtly different in one spot, that is still great. Will of course, killed his last year's time by heaps!