Xterra Warrior

Me: “How did you go Colin?”

Colin: “Dude, I wiped out in the trees and did some damage to my thigh, that was me over for the event, no run for me.”

Me: “Ag bad luck bru. Here, have this, you need it more than me.” ( with a wry smile, I take ice out of my rehydrate cup and hand to Colin to rub on his thigh)

—–

Me “Mike, what was your time, remember we have a case of Corona on the result?”

Mike: “Dude, I cramped so badly in the ride, I never made it to the run. Decided to pull out. I owe you those beers.”

Me: “Ole’!”

—–

Xterra South Africa in Grabouw, it’s a toughy I can assure you.

‘Not for sissies’ as the Afrikaans okes like to describe it. I took part on Sat morning in decent conditions, but with a huge helping of heat as the hours ticked by. The ride leg of the off-road triathlon is notoriously difficult and the run is spoken of in hushed tones as something you just have to survive; so it’s not like the athletes get any respite after the hard ride.

In fact, I have my suspicions (perhaps vindicated by the above two exchanges of conversation between me and two buddies) that the run was just too daunting for some to even attempt. I wrote a short intro last week about the run, it pretty much panned out as I expected, only one vital aspect did not go according to plan.

My choice of weapons for the run went magnificently awry. I was looking for shoes that are light and seamless; something that would dry really quickly after running right through a stream that totally submerges both feet; something that is built more for off road than road running. I chose the Nike+ Waffle 7 which was my error not the poor shoes.

It turned out the roads were way too rocky and hard. When it came to the long downhill section I was not enjoying the heal that was giving no protection from gnarly stones and hard packed dust road surface. Running sockless (as I am want to do in a Triathlon scenario) and having the downhill disaster leave me with blisters on the tops of my toes was not ideal either. Having said that, once we got to the sea sand section which made up the last kilometre of the run, the Waffle’s were actually brilliant as they were suited perfectly to not getting stuck and just lightly coming out of the slick porridge like sand where I managed to pass 6 people in just that short distance to finish 34^th out of about 300 on a hard day out in Grabouw (no MTB training as I have been running for you my loves).

A better choice of show would have been the Salomon XT Wings SLAB 2 that have treated me well. I am the gear guy though; and will keep doing the experimentation for you. So it’s actually your fault I now have to treat some little blisters as I get back into training for the Two Oceans trail race and Two Oceans Half – which I will be running in dress up and be challenging you to beat me. Best you get training!