Skip to main content

Brass Monkey Race 3&4 2013

As many people now know, I have been experiencing issues with my heart over the past few months. Due to this I decided not to race in the Brass Monkey Series this weekend but rather help out by guiding novices and beginners down the river. For me it was a hard decision to step back and take it easy after several years of competing at a high intensity and relatively high level in Cross Country Mountain Biking and now Multisport. This forced break will be good for me as I will be able to sort out my priorities and focus on uni while I undergo tests to see whats happening with my body.

The "race" itself was pretty fun for me still. A good river level with a couple of fun little features to ensure I was paying attention to what I was doing (unlike my near swim at the start infront of an eager crowd). In the end I think I finished around the 57:30 mark, but the time is irrelevant to me as I was helping out a beginner.

I have to admit it was quite weird today having people pass me that I would normally never really see during a race or if I did happen to see them, I would be passing them. I think they quite enjoyed it! It was nice though to be surrounded by so many familar faces and to be able to support them and recognise how much effort these people put into their racing while still having fun. It was also a good opportunity to be able to see the top guys coming through and see how much faster they are relative to me. I personally feel I gained more from today than I ever do from racing and I got to help out a first time Brass Monkey competitor in the process.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Motivation from setback

 The last time I wrote on here I was just about to go into a hand operation to sort out my dexterity issue after breaking it earlier in the year. At the time I stated I felt like I was capable of more but unfortunately may not get a chance to prove it for awhile. I never expected what the next 12 months would bring, and to be honest, despite the further injuries and setbacks, I'm not sure I would change a thing.  So what have the last 12 months involved?  A few months recovery and physio from hand surgery That classic thing called covid and its impacts And a little slip on ice resulting in fractures to my T6/7 and a seizure... It's definitely not all bad though. I'm now working as the Christchurch station manager for St John Ambulance. I've joined the committee of Arawa Canoe Club as the race coordinator. I've organised 28 kayak events with all proceeds going towards supporting juniors (and another 7 events planned between now and Christmas). I've also received ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Topsport Prologue Series #1

 With my K2 partner heading to South Africa to see family and do some racing (lucky bastard), I finally lined up at a major race as a solo competitor. With hand surgery in a couple of weeks potentially wiping out the next few months of races, I wasn't sure whether I'd even bother to enter this race but the racing bug bit hard!  While it was a warm morning, the wind was blowing hard! It was enough to make me slightly concerned about parts of the course, so I felt pretty bad for the novices, they were certainly in for a wake up call on what the Waimak can be like on race day! In the wind storm that was the 2011 Coast to Coast, I had managed to get to Woodstock dry, before swimming many many times in this final 15km due to the wind. There's really only two strategies for wind, paddle at the speed of it (or faster) so it doesn't impact you, or be at the heavier end of the scale so it doesn't affect you as badly. Unfortunately most of the time both of these strategies ar...
1 comment
Read more

Twizel Sprints

While my long term goal in the boat is definitely at the endurance end of the scale, a wise Brazilian by the name of Flavio once told me the only way to be fast in a marathon, is to be fast in a 10km, and the only way to be fast in a 10km, is to be fast in a 1km.  And so here I found myself, at the tail end of a big block of paddling, definitely noticing some fatigue after 3 hours of paddling the day before, and lining up against the future of sprint paddling in Canterbury and Otago. My expectations were pretty low, I was very much just there for the experience so I was pleasantly surprised to come away with 4th A final in the K1 200m. With my training being focused towards endurance, I had expected this to be my worst event of the day since it is aimed at explosive power and high speed. Surprisingly (or perhaps not with my level of fatigue), the shortest race of the day was also my best. In all of the following events I would reach the 250m mark and reach my limit in pace, watchin...
Post a Comment
Read more