Cape Odyssey 2008 - week prior to race!!

This last week was meant to be a taper week – one of recovery. Well it was…. But only for running. This has probably been the busiest week this whole year and one of conflict and confrontation, deadlines, overtime and early mornings. Ideally I always wish to be inside a little pre-race happy bubble where I get to relax and focus on my race and that alone… however, I do believe life mirrors race conditions and anything can happen so it is best to be used to keeping a clear head and soldiering on no matter what the conditions so perhaps this was just some mental training and preparation for what lies ahead – I joked with my staff that the race week would be more relaxing than what I had experienced this last week.

I awoke on Saturday morning and the entire right hand side of my neck and arm were stiff, knotted and tight. Saturday was a great day – My very good friend Andre had got back from the States and invited me to watch him race Clanwilliam triathlon – this is the biggest triathlon festival and is the first race of the Season – a race that is usually high on my list of priorities. A race that had me very stressed last year after I realized 2 hours into my journey there I had left my kit outside my lift at home and had me driving 6 hours before arriving back at the start 10 minutes to spare before the race and to top things off my cap tore at the start of the swim – last year I was stressed and angry at the start. This year, I had my toes in the water at the start and heard the count down feeling more relaxed than ever as I shouted words of support to my friends who were racing. I loved watching them race and was feeling great having done a little run with my race partner Viv prior to the start.

I decided to come home early and not stay for the prize giving and the party that always gets out of hand… I needed to be home and settled and relaxed. I treated myself to a roast chicken and some veg and put a heat pad on my neck and got an early night and slept really late…

Sunday I started packing and went for a run with Cape Odyssey runner 2007 John Morrison who went through all the things that we would be requiring for our race. I just recently found out that I need a sleeping bag – thanks goodness for that.

We had our Wishbone benefit party. It was great seeing friends and family and those who had bought shoes for the kids - we even managed to recruit a donor by pushing him up the hill on his bike whilst running past him – he surprised us at our party with a generous donation towards the shoes. We were privileged to be entertained by Embo – this was arranged by Bongani. We had these amazing youngsters dancing and singing and taking us through lovely stories with there actions – wow I hope we have half there energy for our race. It would be amazing to have them at our finish too.

Fast forward to the night before the race… my week is behind me I have done all the things that I needed to do I cannot believe it all behind me now all I have to do is fit all of my packing into the tiny bag that they have issued us with – they should have given us dimensions before we packed… hmmm usually when I go away I get asked at the airport how many people are traveling with me… this is all that I am stressing about at the moment.

We managed to get through to the registration and briefing with a few minutes to spare – it was very exciting seeing all the other athletes and organizers. We are currently staying at friend John Morrison and I am so relaxed I could almost just stay here until Sunday and give the race a miss… we have all indulged in a glass of red wine – a “super food” as Moira says.

It is quite sad we are all currently bent over our computers downloading tunes and emailing our buddy list and comparing how many friends have accepted – yes competitive in every sense of the word we are.

Thanks to all friends who called, emailed and smsed today you are all in our thoughts and we hope to make you proud…

I am going to sign off now… Viv has just about finished cooking and I need to download the latest Cold play – goodbye everybody we hope you join us on our exciting journey…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 7:44 am and is filed under Cape Odyssey, Nicola Lockhart, Project Wishbone, running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.