Robertson Xtri

After last year's event (one of my favourite's of the season, and in some of the worst weather I have ever raced in) our family was definately not going to miss out on this year's Xtri event held in the beautiful Robertson area.

I wrote Afrikaans paper 3 (my stock of Afrikaans words fast dwindling toward the end of the exam) on friday afternoon, and we only arrived in Robertson at around 18:00. We settled into our cottage at Goudmyn - beautifully situated, our front lawn running gently down into the Breede River and only 200m down the road from the race venue - and then dawdled up the road to Excelsior wines for registration and the pasta party. Some lekker lasagna and soccer and then home to our jacuzzi - the best thing ever - and bed.

Saturday morning and we could see it was going to be a beautiful day. The Big Bay lifesavers - staying two cottages downriver from us and whom we had met the previous evening, allowed us to try out their SUP's.

The long race started first, with the lite event (750m, 12km, 5km) just after.

I had a good swim, finishing with a lead of around 40m.

The bike course was proper, with a river crossing within the first km. Near the top of the course, coming down a fun rocky descent at speed, I saw movement to my left. With images of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2oymHHyV1M) in my head I quickly slowed down as two springbok jumped the road just 20m in front of me - pretty cool!

Back across the river and onto the run. Felt strong and saw lots of little animals everywhere. A great event - well organized, well marked and an awesome route.

Big thanks to Rainer and the xtri team. (http://xtri.co.za/)