Since racing Challenge Wanaka in late Feb which took a fair bit of sting out of the body, I backed that up with the Motatapu Xterra Tri 2 weeks later. This was a fantastic day out but it really was quite tough doing this just 2 weeks after a full iron distance race, but as I always say to people who question the crazy things I push my body through – “You never know until you try and your body is capable of a lot more than what your mind will often try to tell you!).

The Xterra race went well, a good solid swim coming out of the water mid pack and onto the MTB for the blast through the Mot gorge to Arrowtown, The Trek Fuel rolled through there in both comfort and style and had me onto the run feeling as good as I could – the run was where my body was rapidly reminding me of how tired it was from the Challenge 2 weeks prior!!) Anyway a great day out, the positives were no mechanicals on my part, good people out and about around me and some good #seeyououtthere spreading the word of T7. In the Xterra the last part of our run joins in with the main track and we end up passing through with the MTB event riders. As I exited one of the river crossings I encountered a girl who was sitting down in despair as her chain was sucked up and wrapped around her chain rings and not going far for her. A few others had just bowled on past and as always, I am not a contender to win this event outright so stopping to help someone else out may lose me a few minutes but it makes someone else’s long day out a bit better through helping. SO I stepped in and managed to untangle her wound up chain and get her going again – she was stoked and it wasn’t until I was talking to a friend who was also a friend of the biker who was broken at the end who said “hey was it you who saved a girls day and fixed her bike, she said a T7 athlete was helpful as she had no idea how to fix her bike?”… This is what a lot of these events come down to and helping others out is a key part of spreading the #seeyououtthere

Between the Xterra and the Contact Epic 125km MTB race around Lake Hawea most recently I have been enjoying a few good missions out and about ‘for fun and adventure” and letting the body rest up a bit. By the time I lined up for the Contact Epic I was actually feeling refreshed and had a great day out – still a long ride and it hurt at the time though! A beautiful day dawned and we headed off from the Lake Hawea dam to the neck of the lake in bunches at a pace that would have you think we were in a sprint distance tri!! Once onto the gravel the pace settled in and the ride around the lake gave the legs a good solid caning with 1800m of climbing throughout the day. I stuck to my food plan and kept all fuelled up and rode at a good pace. I was making similar time to previous years when with about 30km to go I came across a lady who had a nice looking little Anthem stopped on the the trail. If I hadn’t stopped myself it may have ended up under rocks in the lake – she was onto her 4th puncture for the day, out of tubes and ready to throw it all in – she was not happy, so once again I sacrificed a few minutes of my time to help out. I’m not sure what had gone wrong for her but I got her tyre all cleaned out, a new tube installed and got her on her way again – fingers crossed for her and that was the last good deed she needed to finish the event!

Anyway, as always lots on and lots of adventure squeezed into busy days as always. I have been having some good fun taking Oscar (6) and Charlie (4) on some wee bike missions, Charlie has just mastered the 2 wheeler and is onto a 16inch wheel and took on a lap of the new BMX track in Cromwell the other day (Cherie couldn’t watch as he carved a couple of laps on that) and Oscar is busy making jumps from wooden planks on the path and street and nailing them – some keen little bikers which is pretty cool to see! A couple of good hunting missions into the hills of lately also and got a big 12pt stag last week which is another dimension of adventures!