Sprint the Bay day 2 was all about consolidation. Two races on previously used maps, both traditional New Zealand sprint maps with areas of school campus, scattered buildings and gardens. Both races were unlikely to reveal a clear winner for the overall, they could however prove to be the undoing of some. I approached the day with this in mind and aimed for two accurate runs.
The morning was in Hastings – The West Side. The key challenge on this map was interpreting the impassable fences and finding routes on the run. The first loop in the council buildings on the edge of town. I made sure I planned ahead through this section and was smooth in and out of controls. I spent a large part of the first long leg considering how to get to a particular control, seemingly fenced in by impassable fencelines. I took the longer safe option and punched no trouble, others lost time here with dog legs around the control.
I chose the faster route on the long leg and sped off into the final loops. Duncan had set a butterfly loop and it ramped up the pressure to see other runners, placed close on gc, running around the same area. Here I dropped a few seconds with poor control flow, but avoided any big blow outs. I vaulted a final fence before sprinting hard to a another 3rd place finish.
Too fast to focus.
In between the races all weekend I really focussed on nutrition and recovery. I would grab a bottle of Vitasport and a banana as soon as I finished and take them on my warm down, taking advantage of the glucose receptors screaming out for sugars in my muscles. After a good warm down I would grab some Aunt Betties creamed rice and some more water or Vitasport. To help things along on the recovery front on day 2 we headed to one of the most odd supermarkets I have been to. Hastings New World has an amazing cafe out front, with a huge deli and fresh food section inside, seems very out of place. After a solid lunch we were set for stage 4.
Racing for the finish at West Side, trying to read the impassable fences.
Frimley was the afternoon map. Set at Lindisfarne College in Hastings and in Frimley Gardens, this race had some very well tended out of bounds areas. The start and finish for this event were either side of a building, with the grandstand side looking out across sports fields and a couple of spectator controls. This map also included a number of impassable fences which added to the route choice. I got these pretty well, and only had about 15 seconds on one mistake. Once out on Frimley Gardens, the after burners were needed to fly across the fast, flat grass. I had left my afterburners somewhere on Napier Central and could feel myself losing seconds.
I kept the pace on and pushed hard into the final controls. I avoided anymore mistakes and came into the finish to punch. Here I made a stupid mistake. I punched quickly first, too quickly I thought. I waited about 10 seconds before I though, “i’ll punch again, just to be safe”. Turns out this second punch erased my first and added 12 seconds to my time. Enough to cost me places, a huge pain especially since the race was a Superseries event! Lesson learned.
Trying to copy Carsten's punching style.
Heading into Day 3 I was in 4th place and ready to pounce.
Its wise to go back, at Arataki, one of the SI’s didn’t record, fought I didn’t hear anything, but went on. Much prefer 12 secs to my time than the DNF I ended up with. Lesson learned