Day Total: 107 Km
Total Time: 8:05
Avg. HR: 119bpm
Song of the Day: Mozart – Something Classic
A gift from the heavens, the antibiotic seemed to kick in and provide overnight relief. I only made on bush walk, I awoke covered in sweat in the middle of the night, a fever I didn’t even know I had subsiding. I felt like a new man, or at least one deeply confused at not wanting to puke and acutely aware of a pain in my ribs.
Today was a “Mando” day (mandatory race day) featuring 2500+ meters of climbing (that’s about 7700 feet). No idea how I would survive this one, I was at least encouraged by the absence of morning nausea. I even ate – just a little – for breakfast. Like the morning before I made an early start.
The ride opened with 12km of steep rolling terrain. Then the “epic” climb of the day – a 20km, 1300 meter monster. I started slow and continued slowly, the steadiness of the climb making it easy to focus. I paused 2 hours in to eat something. I reached the summit at 33km without too much difficulty and made it into lunch quite tired. I had eaten only about 30% of what I normally do during the previous 3 days and was paying dearly as the tanks were now empty. I ate all I could at lunch, took an hour doing so, and set out with others to find a way to go another 47km with another 1200 meters of climbing.
The company helped and the distance ticked away. Too many kids to count, but no rocks thrown, sticks swung, or grabbing at bikes and equipment. Many others were not so fortunate. Maybe I was lucky, maybe it was my preemptive smile-and-wave tactic and constant dialogue as I approached them? We suffered on together and into a town at 87km. We stopped for 2 cokes and 2 fresh mango juices each to bolster the spirits. 10km later Bastiaan, Liam and myself negotiated with the truck wash people to wash our bikes. We would arrive in Gondor looking good!
The terrain flattened as we hit the outskirts of Gondor. Once in the town, the two of them stopped to negotiate a hotel room for the 3 nights. I gave a kid some money to fetch me a coke, concerns for race time well gone, relief over having survived this day taking its place. Pepsi chugged, I powered up the final 2km to the hotel with a smile –
somehow I had managed to make it. These 8 days nearly did me in via physical pain (that’s what you get when you crash) and stomach illness. It was small victory for me. Now it’s time to recover…
Round and round we go 
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