50 Miler, two good days

With a healthy water release from Henley dam and perfect, cool conditions the scene was set for a great weekend of racing. Day 1 started at Mission rapid on the Dusi River and ended about 28km downstream just below Marianey Foley Causeway.

 I had a good start and lead into Mission rapid and came through cleanly at the bottom of it. A small gap had opened up between me and the rest of the field so I decided to make the guys work a little bit if they wanted to catch. After about 4km the chasing group of 3 boats had formed and settled in about 50m behind me. The group was made up of Shaun Rubenstein, Len Jenkins and Mike Arthur. About 45 minutes into the day Len and Mike had dropped off the pace slightly and it was just Shaun hunting me down. With half an hour to go and Shaun still 50m behind we arrived at my favorite section of the whole river, the confluence. I managed o open up another minute over Shaun through this tricky section and by the finish was 1min 50sec clear of him. If you think about it it is actually amazing that Shaun is doing so well after being out of the river and solely focusing on flat water these past few years. Coming in 3^rd was another sprinter, Mike Arthur, followed closely by Michael Mbanjwa and the young Andrew Birkette.

 

Day 2 started with elapsed time format for the top paddlers. I went off 1^st with Shaun the 1min 50 sec later. 15 min into day 2 we had run over the grueling Ngumeni portage. Ngumeni is a very steep hill that takes about 7min to the top through the bush and on a muddy little path and then about another 12min down to the river on the other side. By the put in Shaun had closed nearly a minute on me and was chasing hard. Next up were the 3 major rapids for the day, Gumtree, Thombi and Hippo. All went smoothly although I must say Hippo was slightly hectic to say the least.

I approached the head waters of the dam with a healthy lead and found a good rhythm for the final 45min of flat water paddling to the finish. Another victory for me in the season that is going to be difficult to match in the years to come.

Shaun came in 2^nd about 7min behind. Mbanjwa after passing Mike Arthur on Ngumeni hung on to 3^rd while Arthur who had now dropped a position from the previous day had to settle for 4^th place ahead of Andrew Birkette.

In the woman’s race overnight leader Robyn Kime was overtaken by Abbey Mediema on day 2 with Abbie Adie taking 3^rd.

Almost there…

These past 3 and a half weeks of intense training have gone really well. Although we are all feeling shattered the benefits have been very noticeable. The training group has worked well together and there is always someone there to push the next person that little bit harder. Despite the fact that we all feel more and more tired as the days go by we have all somehow managed to improve our time trial times every single week in both paddling and running.

With official training ending on Friday it is time to head back onto the river for this weekend’s race. The 2 day 50 Miler Canoe Marathon will start at Mission rapid in the Dusi valley and will cover almost 2/3 of  Januarys Dusi Canoe Marathon course. Most of the big names will be participating and it will be interesting to see Shaun Rubenstein back in the mix. Michael Mbanjwa is also showing good form and at this stage appears to be the man to beat come the big three days in January. For me personally I am not expecting too much but will give it my best shot anyway to see how much pain this little body of mine is capable of withstanding.