This past weekend i had flown up to Johannesburg to visit some family and do a little bit of altitude training. Weeks prior to this i had heard about this Dusi qualifier which was being held on Rietvlei Dam in Pretoria but never took much note of it as there was alot of running involved which isn't my strong point. Only once i had arrived in Jhb did i realize it was on while i was in the area so i did some last minute calls to organise boats, paddles and a life jacket. Once entered did i only decide then to find out what the race entailed. It started with a 10km paddle around the dam with a 6km run through the nature reserve back into the water for another 6.6km paddle into a 3.5km run and ending with a 3.3km paddle. This made me nervous as i only recently had got comfortable with my running but to run with a boat on my shoulder changes everything.
With a 7am start i was up early enough to get to the race to get my boat set up and all the necessary preparations done. Only on arrival did i find out that it was actually a K2 race and i was entered in for K1 which meant even harder racing was coming my way. When signing in i was fortune enough to hear that Joberg local Mike Stuart was looking for a partner as his partners wife had gone into labour and was unable to make the race. In a rush we set up the K2 with him in front and me in a unfamiliar place in the back. With no warm up we were on the start line with seconds to spare.
We sat on the front bunch comfortably and made sure we were in the right place at the right time for the portage. Within the first few kilometers of the run everyone was spread out and the runners started to pull through and over take the stronger paddlers. As we progressed the altitude and the heat started to get the better of me and my legs began to cramp. Thankfully Mike is a strong runner and at some stages carried the boat on his own while i tried to recover. We eventually made it to the finish line in 14th place overall. It was a respectable performance as almost all the top Dusi paddlers were there form around the country.
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