Epic Cramp

Day 1 done. 22km 2.5hr hot and hilly run including a 10k race. Then lunch followed by a 90km bike including a 35km TT. And to finish a short trip to the pool for a 3km swim session including a 1.5km TT.

Those of you who are Tri-aware will realise that the races today just about formed a broken Olympic distance triathlon. The main event of the day was the combined times for the 'full triathlon'

Gordo ended up winning in about 1.40ish, and I was about 5th last with a 2.04 made up of:

Run - 54min (did i mention it was hilly? ;-)

Bike - ~47min

Swim - 22min 45sec (very pleased with that, prob top10 in this event)


It was a very hard start to the camp - the run really took it out of the legs and the heat combined with a lack if acclimitisation led many to cramp up during the swim. I've never been in so much pain from cramps, every push off was agony and luckily it was a 33m pool.

The locals were treated to the sight of 22 fit men and women popping up like meerkats during lengths as they tried to stretch.

Needless to say my legs are sore, 22km is the longest i have run since Austria and it shows. Perhaps had it been a flat run, things might be better, but with long steep uphills, come long steep downhills which ruin your quads, calves and tibialis.

The atmosphere is brilliant - everyone is very supportive and the banter between Molina, Gordo and John Newsom is very amusing. Speaking of which I am sharing a room with Scott Molina. For those of you who dont know, Scott was one of the 'Big 4' American triathletes who dominated the scene in the 80's and early nineties. He has won more races worldwide than I have had hot dinners and he has won the Ironman world championships in Kona. In short, a bloody legend (and a very nice guy as well)

I mention this as its a very good example of the type of thing that makes Epic camp so different and so appealing. Its not just the stupid amounts of training, or the scenery or the fact that everything is catered for - at any point you could be listening to old war stories from Gordo's Ultraman win, or Molinas Kona tales or John Newsoms ITU world championships experiences or any one of the Kona stories from the seriously quick Age groupers. You can't package this stuff in a book or DVD, or organise a series of sterile lectures. You have to be here at the coal face and watch as these legends of the sport get tired like you, have bad days like you and get up everyday to go again.

Day 2 promises to be easier and harder in the same breath. 180km of relentless hills to Whangerai (pronounced Fungeray). But no swim or run (for me - the majority will do a 10km run and 3km swim to get a Swim/Bike/Run bonus point). So I have all day to do the ride. Judging by the route, it looks like i'll need it


Admin point - i will try and blog every day and I will choose one picture from each day as POTD (its time consuming to load multiple images onto the blog)

For the rest of the pictures - roughly every other day i will load pictures onto Facebook to look at - i will try and take as many as possible but obviously by the end i'll probably take less.


POTD today - a lean, tanned Scott Molina during the run