RESULT: 4th Overall : 3rd in Category
Finally the first race of the season has come and gone. It's been a roller coaster build up to say the least. Huge respect must go out to Conrad and Dan. Its really not easy to end off the season with World Champs at the end of October, have a good rest and be on form for the early season XTERRA's.
I have been looking forward to Buffelspoort XTERRA for a while now. I love the course and have had some bad luck in the past so was hoping for a good clean race.
I arrived at the line feeling way more relaxed than years before. Although once the siren echoed out across the dam the familiar chaos of white water, stray arms and wild feet ensued. It took the entire distance to the first bouey for things to calm down. I decided to sit comfortable in the swim and rather get out feeling fresh, especially due to the race being at altitude. I exited the water in a big pack including Carla, Justin, Mitch, Adam & Dan Carleton.
I had a quick transition and got onto the bike with clear track ahead allowing me to push the early single track and open a gap on the chasers. Inside I was hoping to come off the bike in 3rd but this was going to be a massive ask after getting out the water just inside the top 20 and it being a fully stacked field. I slowly worked my way through a few of the roadies and once into the beautiful mountain sanctuary I could see Stuart Marais ahead. I was making progress which gave me more motivation to push harder. By the time we exited the sanctuary we had caught Carl Pasio for 3rd. Unfortunately Stuart then had a fairly big crash and lost the group so I rode with Carl through to transition and exited the bike in 3rd.
I paid for this effort on the bike, in transition while donning my Saucony Kinvara's both legs cramped. I was in for a serious amount of suffering over the next 12km's of grueling trail running. I set off just behind Carl after a bit of stretching and found my stride about a km in and moved back into 3rd. This was short lived however and as we started climbing the huge steps at the dam wall the cramp dug its claws back in and I was forced to stretch for quite a while. This allowed both Carl and Stuart to get back passed. I was now down in 5th and very aggravated. Again I got going and had to maintain a much slower pace. I kept Carl in my sights the rest of the run and managed to get passed him with about 2kms to go and maintained it to the finish, claiming 4th Overall on a very tough day at Buffelspoort.
I feel like I have learnt a lot from 2011's racing and as my form improves hopefully the results will follow. Thanks to my Dad and Coach Russell White for all his help and even managing to comfortably beat everyone in the lite's race to take the win overall, he's an absolute machine. Also thanks to my girlfriend Jo-Anne for helping me feel at home up in Pretoria for 2 weeks and for being an amazing supporter on the day. Finally a big thanks to everyone whose making this all possible. Thule South Africa, Clive Damant from Ballito Crushers, Warren Richards (all-round awesome guy), Karen Keyter from ChiroKare, Saucony, Powasol, PeptoSport and BeeWise. Very privileged to have you all backing me in what I love.
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