I cannot believe XTERRA Grabouw has come and gone already. I am left wanting more. I knew my form wouldn't be perfect after having time off after XTERRA Worlds but I still felt like my body had more in it, I just couldn't access the power needed on the day. I have again left XTERRA Grabouw having learnt a lot about how best to attack these courses.
To say the field was stacked is the biggest understatement ever. With the likes of 4 x XTERRA World Champ Conrad Stoltz, Ironman legend Raynard Tissink, Dan Hugo, Stuart Marais, Nico Pfitzenmeier, Raoul De Jongh, Theo Blignaut and many other top names, even the likes of Ultra distance running star Ryan Sandes were out giving XTERRA a go.
A perfect morning greeted us upon arrival at Grabouw Country Club. It was set to be a scorcher of a day with minimal wind. The pro's were given a 10 meter start advantage in the swim which was great to allow me to get away from the usual chaos at the swim starts esp with there being just under 1000 entries. I am not in great swim form and had planned to get through the swim without having pushed to hard, saving energy for later. I ended up on Justin Porteous' feet and he held a good pace throughout the swim. I got out the water around 2mins down on the leaders and inside the top 25.
I had a quick transition and set about working my way up the order. The bike course was one of the toughest routes I have done, it consisted of a lot of climbing early on and some spectacular single track on the way home. I could feel on the early climbs that my legs weren't offering me what I'm used to so I found a rhythm and hoped to make up time in the single track later on. By the highest point of the route I managed to just get in front of Raynard and Raoul and was now lying in 6th. By the bottom of the rocky single track I was on the wheel of Stuart and we managed to get by Carl Pasio shortly after. Unfortunately I lost Stuarts wheel slightly and entered transition a few seconds back in 5th.
I ran knowing Raynard would be coming strong but just didn't have the leg speed I was hoping for. I was in a mental battle against my tired legs and against the brutal course. Fighting the urge to slow down up the, what seemed like vertical climbs. Unfortunately with about 2kms to go Raynard caught and passed me. I ended up around 30sec behind him in 6th overall to end a very tough day mentally and physically. Not exactly the position I was hoping for but taking a lot of positives away from the days racing.
Another brilliantly organized event by the guys at Stillwater sports and so impressed with the calibre of the course they set. Moving forward I now have 4 weeks to get myself ready for The Cape Epic, which I'm really looking forward to experiencing with Guylin Van Den Berg.
