Friday, October 22, 2010

A wise man once said...

that if you never DNF then you have never explored your limits.

GOW 100+mile (191km) 16.10.10 DNF at 117km (22.06hrs)

long story short is i was just too slow.
it wasnt the weather.
it wasnt the knee: that was great btw!
it wasnt anything else.
it was just me.

was 2mins behind my splits at blankey bay then 5mins, then 8mins, then 10mins, then 20mins (left 12 apostles at 17.17) then finally 45mins...
with my race ending at moonlight head on the way back.
and these werent the stroll into apollo bay smiling splits these were the gritting the teeth and holding on for a 37.59 splits.
kept pushing and pushing and its not the most pleasant experience getting further and further behind despite this.

a lot of talk on CR about the weather.
have to admit the 45km/hr winds forecast for the day didnt excite me and when i woke saturday morning and saw weatherzone had 70km/hr+ wind gusts at cape otway i thought 'here we go'.
it was hard to get into a rhythm early: can't remember the last time i had to put my overpants on so early in a race - rain, wind and even a little bit of hail early on.
and the wind coming over the headland at princetown nearing halfway played with my head a bit.
but it didnt slow me down that much - i would have missed the 38hrs by some hours regardless.

still a beautiful course - the mental pictures i have of aire river inlet and johanna beach are fantastic.
remembered the crossing at johanna river (went in knee deep) but forgot the 'washout' just as you exit the beach (its a 3m high bank).
mistimed and a rogue wave got me up over my waist and even wet the bottom of my pack.
apparently someone else got swept off their feet here.

had lots of trouble with ankle/achilles and i think in part due to the hypafix i put in that area.
it was just so wet it came off and had to do some repairs on the right side early and had a 'hole' on the left side when i finished.

somewhat surprised to see hermie walking back along old coach road towards me at 3am.
i knew one of us was going the wrong way ;)
had spent some hours realising i was going to dnf but figuring out how it wouldnt look so bad!
figured i would make it to at least johanna but by the time i got to moonlight hermie and i were 1.5hrs behind the fast moving susannah.
although i was looking forward to the challenge of the next section (it was majorly slippery in the morning) it seemed pointless going on only to dnf later.
i was just moving so slowly and losing more and more time.
we sat and waited for jan, bunny and chris to come in and join us in whippets dnf bus :)
the fact i could hardly move after 10mins reitertaed the fact i hadnt held back.

still had a nice weekened.my nicest DNF weekend ever!
its a fantastic course with fantastic people associated with it.
only down side was my inability to just sit at the pub at on the sunday and chat for hours.
the ischial bursa is still inflammed and i cant exactly bring the 'arse pillow' into the pub can i!
so just stood there and chatted for a bit then left...

8/19 starters finished.
will be back next year in the egg and spoon.
nice to meet all the whippets and see chilli, EE&DG, pasty, mal, kevC, brett and many others again.

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