XTerra Riverhead 2024
13 August 2024
20.05km, 552m, 1:48:45
https://www.strava.com/activities/12115152373/overview
Race Day
I drove myself, Will and Ed out to Riverhead.
Nice sunny day, although chilly. There hadn't been any rain for a week or so, and the trails were dry by Riverhead standards, which means very wet and muddy by any other standards.
I was feeling strong and raring to go!
We started out and although I was ahead of Will for the first few minutes, he soon went ahead and put the pressure on. We tracked along like this for 5 or 6km, going pretty fast and breathing hard.
At about the 6km? point, more hills prompted me to increase the effort further and I moved ahead of Will and put a little bit of time on him. (like, maybe 40 seconds?). Of course, uphills lead to downhills, repeat, etc.
The running terrain had lots of great, fast, single track on pine needles with boggy muddy sections. These were especially fun on the extensive downhills. So there was a lot of leaping and scary running. At one point, I snubbed my toe and executed a head over heels maneuver with a degree of difficulty of 8.5. No damage done, and in general my grippy shoes were fab.
There were some long sections of gravel road, which was a bonus for Will's long legs and as the run continued, I could often see him behind me, slowly gaining as I started somewhat slowing due to cumulative fatigue. At about the 17km point, Will finally caught me, and breezed on past strongly.
I was slowing (and had some incipient cramp in my calves), but still making ok progress.
The last 3km were tough, and by the end I reckon I had given it 100%.
Will was first in 50+, beating me home by 73 seconds.
Great run, Great fun.
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