Sport	Off Road Triathlon
Event	Xterra Lite Buffelspoort
Date	26 January 2014
Where	Buffelspoort, South Africa
Distance	23.4 Km
Finishing Time	01:56:07
Race Number	1627
Result	107/684
Top %	16%
Pace	4:58 m/km
Speed	12.09 km/h
Click here for details about Xterra Lite Buffelspoort
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My experience at the event:

I was quite confidente going to Buffelspoort for my second attempt at the Xterra Lite. Unlike the previous year, my swimming has slightly improved and the cloudy day seemed perfect for a nice race.

Curtis and I as usual arrived there very early, in time to organize our stations and mostly spend time discussing other stuff. Swimsuit were not allowed (the water in the Buffelspoort Dam is always quite warm), but for a 400m swim I didn't need it (even if I wanted it, the suit helps with my heavy legs by adding buoyancy).

At the start line we noted straight away that the number of competitors multiplied from the previous edition. Last year I started wide, probably swimming way more than I should have, so this year I decided to adopt a different strategy and swim close to the buoys, facing the choppy water. I understimated the craziness that is a turn by the buoy, and I ended up fighting for my life every time me and other 100 people approached it. Luckily I did not panic, and I came out of the water 4 minutes faster than last year! Curtis was maybe 20 seconds ahead of me, and we started the mountain bike leg together.

My mountain bike unfortunately is not an ideal model for the tricky rocky course, and the vibrations were killing my knees. Curtis and I passed each other multiple times, until he took off in the final 2km thanks for his better skills at downhill racing (while I was simply trying to avoid falling and killing myself in the process). My chain got stuck just 1km before the end, but I managed to stop and fix it in no time.

Curtis arrived 2 minutes ahead of me in the second transition zone, but my swap from cyclist to runner was blazing fast, and we left the last transition zone together again. Running is usually the best part of my race, and I left Curtis behind after 1km. But the incredible hard trail leg didn't help my sore knees at all, and I ended up suffering from cramps in my quads with only 3 kms to go. I pushed hard and finished the race with an excellent time of 1.56 (Curtis finished 2 minutes behind me), improving from last year in all the legs!

You can check the details of the race on the Garmin site: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/435879702 or the usual runkeeper: http://runkeeper.com/user/olafek/activity/297087631?&tripIdBase36=4wvma7 and laugh at my swimming directions... (the weird shape was supposed to be triangle...) 

Some pictures: (you can find all of them, while waiting for the official ones, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/olafmeister/sets/72157640214893993/

















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