Vegas: The report

• Its nine hours down from Truckee!  With Emma’s favourite on repeat as a non-option: The Eels Band, this while driving through the most monotonous landscape thinking, “The Karoo has nothing on this”:

• Approaching Vegas by night is like watching a sunrise on the horizon. There’d be more lights in Vegas than needed I’d say… But a sight worthy of travel – it has a glitz to it that sparks excitement for a farm boy from Africa.

• You’d get to pre-ride on a course that looks like the moon, or like mars, but I’m not that acquainted with either, so it could be more a Jupiter feel for that matter.

• While walking to the race registration, you’d be brushing past fancy dressed high society preparing for a charity auction in hats larger than the race directors full sleeve tattoo’s.

• The swim would be done in an artificial man-made lake – filled with treated sewerage water… But with a 5star Hotel Resort backdrop.

• You could ride with all your might, and be passed by Josiah Middaugh as if you’re looking for a shady spot where non was to be found. Josiah rocked the bike no end and started the run 1min15 up from Stoltz, and long long way up the dirt by the time of my dismount into Puma’s.
• Someone unknown to you will shout “be strong” in a sincere encouragement. I’ve not heard that since kindergarten – so it worked like a dog bark while out training for me…

Race Nitty Gritty:

Swam real well after a better warm-up routine than in Grabouw, hanging in the front pack while cresting size-able swell from the pumping wind trying to squint into the morning sun (8am start). I was relieved to feel that comfortable in the water again, perhaps just all relative after multiple near drownings sucking on thin air in Truckee. My system allowed me to ride aggressively on a course that did not favour rhythm; Radical gradients, sharp turns, hard accelerations out of bad traction – all making a better bike course than expected in pre-riding. One of the benefits from racing across stripped hillside is being aware of whats happening in the field. I could see Josiah and Conrad for most the way, and could tell space had grown behind me. I feed well off information, and took to this with excitement. The run is where I’ve been lagging most but managed to get up and down the two laps in fine form, almost holding my own. This probably the most encouraging affair from the day. The relief and joy from a result made me aware of how heavy the burden of insecurity had become. One down – 7 to go here in the USA.

• Having had Ben and Jerry’s the night before (seemed to work a charm) I was persuaded with difficulty to try Coldstone – a franchise mixing flavours with ingredients to your request on a refrigerated rock slab. Good, but not quite equal to Vermont’s Finest.

• So much grit and small rocks made its way into my shoes in the gravel transition. And once a bit of skin gets aggrevated, there’s no reversing the process. Was so painful on the second run lap descent that I was grabbing at any diversion – sugar, spice and all things nice that I dare not jot on paper.

• I woke feeling like a train wreck after two hours of napping but determined to experience the bright lights of Vegas. You can not imagine the size of the casino’s, the extravegance of the lights, or the amount of people hussling about.

• Soon we had made it into LAX at the Luxor, and started feeling the best mix from any DJ I’ve heard. A DJ that looked like a homeless teenager that is. So there I was, working it up, 2XU compressions tights under the jeans and all… Good, but just too many people and too much fatigue. But I need to live, and have some balance to function as an athlete, and it hit that nail right on.

• Started Sunday with a ginger run followed by some Jamba Juice goodness. Finding some run’ble gravel in Vegas is like asking for parking without car guards back home. But all the exits and curb-sides are manicured immaculately. They just havent got into gravel yet it seems.

• We started the long drive home soon after. Past a few well known roadside stops: Ladies Angel’s, The Shady Lady, and Playtime Ranch… A drive snacked on Wholefoods (whole pay check!) lunch and snacks. The buffet at Wholefoods made me miss Greengate and its goodness…

• Big thanks to Ryan and Molly for the apartment, and Molly’s brother for getting us on the list at LAX.
• Its great to see the other side. The flip side of my life. Makes one realise you’re either on the right path or need to make a change. Vegas has me edged on down my path of small town wholistic nature vibe…