Stanford race report

The Stanford 57km race is one of the hardest one day races I've ever done.

My dad and I burned through early morning in my bakkie. It was his first race in three years and we were both pretty psyched.

The race started fast. At about 4 km I took a reality check and dropped off the back of the bunch. At 5km while taking a sip of water a rock grew in front of my front wheel and I promptly fell my ass of. Great way to start the day.

We started climbing for what felt like forever. We reached the radio mast on top of the mountain and reached the first waterpoint. By this time I already finished a bottle so I refilled my bottle. The first aid lady wanted to clean my knee wound but i reckoned the blood and dust coagulated lekker so I pushed on. We raced down the mountain down a long rocky road. We lost almost all the elevation we gained going up to the mast, but now we were on the wrong side of the mountain. Not good. We raced down wind for a long stretch dreading turning back into the wind. This eventually happened and we realised the wind was howling. Not good either. After the second waterpoint we started climbing again. This climb killed me. The section between WP2 and WP3 was hard. It was one long drag of a climb that had me in the worst cramps I've experienced in my life. On this part of the route I met two other Philips, 2 ladies in Oak Valley Wines gear and Werner Hattingh. The camaraderie here was great. Everybody kakked off so we chatted and motivated each other. At Wp3 i felt elated. Especially after the kind ladies told me it 's 8km downhill all the way (they lied.) They informed me that I was rider number 15 and 12th man. The first aid lady wanted to clean my knee again but only warned me to be carefull on the downhill when I pushed on.

The downhill was bliss. It was long, fast, flowing, rocky at places, and quite sketchy, but most of all it was fun. I managed to pass the two Oak Valley ladies on the way down.

At the bottom there was a couple of short climbs. On the first climb I cramped in my calves, hammies and quads. I got of the bike to stretch the cramps out. Big mistake. If you stretch one muscle group the other two spasmed. I ended up sitting in a neutral position praying for the pain to go away. When the pain faded I got up again and headed home. I havent been so glad to see a race venue since day 7 of epic 2006.

At the finish my dad, Marike, Sheila, Nadia and Hilke were waiting for us, and I must have drinked a truck load of coke.

I really enjoyed this ride in a masochistic way. I will be back next year, and I WILL be stronger. The hills won't beat me again.

Afterwards the race experience unravelled a bit. The lady at the line told me I was 25th, meaning 12 people took the easier detour at Wp2 but still got placed ahead of me. Nadia fell and got hurt quite badly. My father, Harry, Sheila and Marike got lost due to bad route markings and Marike's 8k trail run turned into a 30min run and she barely broke a sweat as it was like 4kms. There were no first aid personnel at the finish and the first aid kit they had there didn't have any anti septic. Marike helped me and Nadia using the first aid kit I always have in my bakkie.

At the end of the day a great race with an awesome route was spoiled abit by the organisers dropping the ball. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and will return next year, but I hope they improve.

PS: My knee looks like it got attacked by a cheesegrater. Will post pics later. I'm taking the week off from the bike to give my wounds time to heal.

Happy trails everyone
Phlip