The Longest Day - April 7

Woke up in my nice hotel bed! We got up late but had already decided to have the hotel breakfast not the TDA one. Bu the time I went to drop off my bag there were already people leaving. Sp we were going to be late again – but never mind! James, Bastiaan, Liam and myself ordered breakfast. By this time the trucks are leaving and I couldn’t find my button to check out – I had left it in my bag – but it didn’t really matter – I was past caring! We let the sweep know we were staying to have breakfast before setting off. It was the first morning I had woken feeling fairly decent – I was quite excited – things were looking up. After breakfast we set off with Gabe the sweep! We had to return up the dirt road from camp which was directly into a headwind – however we soon turned and then were helped along by a tailwind – flying along the road. James and Bastiaan were both feeling strong and were pulling me along – my babysitters – looking after me. I kept saying ‘thank you’ but told them they could leave me – but they stayed! 177 km – the longest day so far! At 45 km I needed to stop a while – but the boys were keen to keep going as soon as possible – so we did – all the way to lunch. We had lost Liam a little earlier as he was suffering from saddle sores. I was really hurting by now. After lunch I had run out of energy – just couldn’t go at any speed. After about 20 km we had a coke stop and I shared my Pringles and then I told them goodbye – so they eventually left me. I rode along with Len for a while – just plodding along. I kind of felt OK but completely lacking in energy – completely exhausted. It was going to be a long day and I just couldn’t get my head round that thought. I have been able to all the other times – when I found it easy to go that distance – but feeling sick makes it seem so much further! There was a rest stop at 140 km but I stopped before that at a little village at about 110 km and got some water. At the rest stop I was totally exhausted. I just lay down by the truck for about an hour waiting for people to come in. I finally realized there were only a few people behind me and as I didn’t want to be the very last I left. While I was lying on the ground I worked out that I could ride at 20kmph for 2 hours and be at camp or 30 kmph for an hour and 20 minutes and be at camp! So I got on my bike and decided to go for it. I was still monitoring my heart rate – trying not to let it get too high – it was in the 140’s and I averaged about 30kmph – great! The road was slightly better and the wind not too bad so that all helped. I finally made it in to camp in well over 9 hours (including all the rests) – my slowest day so far!!

Tomorrow is another long day - about 144 km. I lay in the grass for quite a while – and put my tent up managing to break a pole in the process which then I had to repair. Dinner was quite good – fried fish – and I ate two of them!! Had a hose end shower and went to bed. It had been a long hard day!