Genesis Lake to Lighthouse Challenge
Lake to Lighthouse 2011
Richard Ussher / 29.11.2011
I’ve also been super busy launching a new company called Flow kayaks, which I formed with Andrew Martin. Andrew has made my race boats for years and has also been one of the major contributors to improving my paddling since moving to Nelson nearly 7 years ago. In the past few weeks we finally saw the plans go from the computer to the water but it definitely took a major toll on the training leading into this particular race.
We literally finished the first boat, which Elina would be paddling, on the Thursday morning about an hour before we had to leave for the ferry. Elina got 5 minutes in it to make sure it floated before we had to scarper to make the ferry. We were in Picton not more than 5 minutes before we drove onto the ferry – good timing!
<b>Day 1 – Waikaremoana</b>
If there was a single day of racing on our calendar this year which I was dreading it was this one. It isn’t that it is a bad course, far from it, but after racing and training for events no longer than 4 hours to be faced with a 5+ hour run as just one section of the day I knew there was the potential for disaster.
The day started with a grind on the MTB’s up the gravel road from Tuai to the main lake, before we followed the undulating track around to transition 1 at Home Bay.
I had company this year with Trevor Voyce and team cyclist John Gray and we all raced into the TA together.
Onto the paddle and I quickly tried to get the jump on Trev, I figured any extra time I had at the start of the run would be a good thing and as I chased down Sam Clark from the first team I managed a small gap. Sam and I battled it out throughout the kayak leg and arrived with a couple of minutes over Trevor. It sounds as though we got through before the wind started coming up but further back in the field there was apparently plenty of action including a few swimming lessons.
Onto the run and I was freezing cold for the first 30 or 40 minutes, the southerly was certainly keeping the temperature down. I was feeling pretty comfortable, I could see Sam Clark close behind for the first hour or so before he gradually slipped back. It wasn’t long though before I caught sight of Trev not far behind. It was almost exactly 2 hours in and although I had hoped I’d make it to the hill before he caught up we weren’t too far from the transition.
SleepMonsters
