tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22002869887186962822024-03-13T11:03:41.767+13:00MTB MartinAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14138044041018036395noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2200286988718696282.post-76519330406023579572015-03-31T22:15:00.002+13:002015-04-01T17:47:14.254+13:00Climbing Mt Everest in my own backyard<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 22.0799999237061px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Near the top of my Everest. Photo: Alden Williams, Nelson Mail</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 20.7000007629395px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Everesting Challenge</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have always had a fascination for physical challenges, particularly ones climbing mountains, but when I first heard about cycling's ultimate climbing challenge, ‘Everesting’, the statistics horrified me: the highest mountain in the world is 8848 metres from sea level, a jet airliners cruising height starts at 9000 metres, accumulating this type of altitude in one ride was daunting to say the least! At my calculated pace it would require approx 22 hours riding, and due to the rules this would be done by lapping up and down the same hill with no variation, on my local climbs this would equate to over 100 laps, a mental test as well as physical.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I parked the idea at the time as being the domain of hard core cyclists or those with a screw loose! But I avidly followed reports of successes and failures, and when a friend of mine, Craig Tregurtha in Christchurch, started training for an attempt my interest really picked up. Craig not only succeeded on his first attempt, but went on to smash the world record subsequently, which was a huge buzz for the local cycling community. I could feel myself getting sucked in to the idea, knowing it would probably be a case of when and not if I was going to put my hat into the ring.</span></div>
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A climb immediately sprung to mind, and through later analysis I kept coming back to the same one, Bayview road, which was close to where I live (great for support), had a smooth seal surface, good gradient, corners not too sharp for descending, and even a portaloo at the top!<br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.0799999237061px; white-space: pre-wrap;">My Everest: Bayview Road, Atawhai, Nelson, New Zealand</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Street view looking down from near the top</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Setting a Date</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">My wife, Jody, came home from a Girl Guides meeting one night, talking about a large fundraising campaign required for the 2016 Jamboree, which would benefit from some high profile events. With the Everesting challenge lurking in the background we both looked at each other made the same mental link and a date was set for late summer, 19th March.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My daughters Sophie and Lily, two of the eight Atawhai Brownies / Guides going to the Jamboree</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The new year came around too quickly and it was time to get some physio to sort out an old knee injury, and come up with a training program, which would be </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7000007629395px; white-space: pre-wrap;">minimal - </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">both to reduce impact on family and alleviate the tedium of long training rides. In the end I did only</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> two specific training rides on top of my base fitness: a 4 hour hill ride (2600 metres), and a 9 hour (4200 metre) dress rehearsal on the Bayview itself.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had to solve some technical issues like how to get low enough gear on my road bike that I would be able to spin for hours on end, I solved this on the cheap by stealing the rear gears of Jody’s MTB. However this didn't work properly and I had to limit the movement the rear dérailleur with a cable tie to stop the oversize gears clashing, and pray this would hold on the big day!</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also had to try and find a barometric GPS for recording the event and uploading to the Strava website to verify it. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I managed to borrow one but was not able to try it out before the big day, and also had to make a special charging cable that could charge it without stopping the recording (the designers hadn't anticipated rides longer than the 16 hour battery life!) which turned out a bit fragile. This unfortunately </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">broke race rule number #1: don’t use anything new on race day, of which I was to become a victim of later...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Start</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The start time had been one of my biggest strategic decisions to make, when you’re going to ride all the hours of the clock it’s not immediately obvious when to start. I finally decided on 5pm, which would get the night riding over with when relatively fresh, but be worse for sleep deprivation, a calculated risk. Despite the anxiety and adrenaline of the big day I managed to get 1.5 hours sleep in the afternoon, and on waking I was itching to get going. But I had final prep and a media interview to do first, I was a bit uncomfortable with all the publicity but it was good for the fundraising, my biggest fear was having to pull the pin early after all the publicity.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jody and I set up the support car at the top, while my daughter (and Girl guide) Sophie did a leaflet drop to the street residents to give them a heads up on why this crazy guy was going to be riding up and down their street all evening, night, and next day. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At this point I felt under-trained, under-prepared, and that 7000 metres was an acceptable stretch goal (3000m more than my personal record), I couldn't face the enormity of the full thing, but would keep that a secret around my </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7000007629395px; white-space: pre-wrap;">enthusiastic supporters!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a big relief to finally get rolling at 4:45pm after a ceremonial photo at the bottom, and I started knocking out sets of 5 laps in the end of day sun, with a feed stop after each set. This strategy was to try and keep on top of the vast energy requirements, and extend my endurance. Each set equated to 30 mins and 350 metres elevation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">The challenge is as much mental as physical, and there was a mental pattern to the five laps: one the warm-up (after stiffening up when stopped), two the strong one, three the hump, then a two-one countdown as I decided what I was going to eat at my next stop!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just repeat this for 24 hours and you've done an Everest, easy as! But the body and mind throw in a few challenges along the way…</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset. I kept a photographic log of my progress in case of catastrophic GPS failure</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My first <span style="line-height: 20.7000007629395px;">challenge</span>, after nightfall, was rain, we were receiving the tail end of cyclone Pam in this part of New Zealand, which had caused much devastation further north, it didn't come to much here in the end but I hadn't really planned for it and it was the first test of my mental resolve when it looked like it could have been a wet night.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcqwwk3nbMyrl65VWtaKl0v1JFfQh_cN9J_S-Olrjyh-yfBuwqHDLOFG1IACkvG6gU6FBzBcVM6mRj34kD3Ml77u_T_V1sSsATuLUAp_W-zdIy92_syX8IYJhm5Rau-e7LVHRJVgkNVUM/s1600/support+bmx+crew.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcqwwk3nbMyrl65VWtaKl0v1JFfQh_cN9J_S-Olrjyh-yfBuwqHDLOFG1IACkvG6gU6FBzBcVM6mRj34kD3Ml77u_T_V1sSsATuLUAp_W-zdIy92_syX8IYJhm5Rau-e7LVHRJVgkNVUM/s1600/support+bmx+crew.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 20.7000007629395px; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">About 10pm, just after the rain, I had a surprise and welcome visit from a BMX crew who rode a few laps with me (including some impromptu downhill races!)</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Long Night</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Through the night I continued with my 5 lap then rest pattern but by the 10 hour mark my legs had lost their zing, and I had started getting both Achilles and knee pain on the left side. I figured it was not unreasonable for my body to complain after 10 hours of climbing, but I was barely half way. It led to my first thoughts of failure - what was ahead of me started to seem insurmountable, but I started doing most of the climbing out of the seat which took most of the pain away, and focused on 5 laps at a time.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Standing up uses different muscle groups but also uses more energy and puts more pressure on feet and hands, so I was unsure how sustainable it would be, but at that point I was inspired by Craig Tregurtha and his advice, he did much of his world record Everesting ride standing so I couldn't use this as an excuse to stop!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7NW_ua7mraAPlh0wlsVAw7q8rM3Q1ZAVZcZ5VzLa4ltqFv3p2R5mSAKGXNV1ATTosp1JYxsHT4CLoRiD_A9s1GyW_DRFQm8OR5mdUPKS55qngzrZCtWytFACm78rYsXo2I1WA0gquXRY/s1600/IMG_20150319_203831216.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7NW_ua7mraAPlh0wlsVAw7q8rM3Q1ZAVZcZ5VzLa4ltqFv3p2R5mSAKGXNV1ATTosp1JYxsHT4CLoRiD_A9s1GyW_DRFQm8OR5mdUPKS55qngzrZCtWytFACm78rYsXo2I1WA0gquXRY/s1600/IMG_20150319_203831216.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My night cave, my vision was about as blurry as the photo at the time!</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jody had graciously offered stay on the hill on standby, and sleep in the car at the top. It was nice to know she was there, but the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">middle of the night stops were not fun, with no one to lift my spirits. My body was constantly nagging me to stop and rest, but when I did stop I would get an instant chill and I had to rug up immediately. I would have a feed but drowsiness would soon start to kick in and I would take this as a cue to get going again. Disrobing and going straight into a descent had me shivering violently with cold by the bottom, before I could start climbing and warm up again.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also had a technical drama towards the end of the night when my primary GPS stopped recording, due to not plugging it into the fragile charger properly during a rest stop. I was able to start recording again, but not sure if I had lost data and </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">cursed myself for the mistake. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cheerleaders</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The wonderful Vicky Carnegie had stayed on with my lovely wife as a ‘cheer leader’ until past midnight, on leaving she promised to return at 4am, this was a great motivation through the wee hours, if she was sacrificing her sleep the least I could do was crank out a decent lap count by the time she returned!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With no social stops during the night, by the time 4am came around I had made good progress, and with my two loyal cheerleaders back my spirits were lifted again. I now fixated on getting to lap 83, ⅔ distance, by the time I had my first visitors on their way to work.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was riding without a music player etc, mainly for safety reasons, but that left a lot of time for the mind to start wondering. Two opposing voices fought </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">in my head, one telling me that this was the big one and I could pull it off, the other rationalising that given the physical and mental fatigue, and knee pain, the remainder (still 44 laps or 8 hours+ at this point) was beyond me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One unexpected visitor at first light was the arrival of a Police car, the three of us at the top immediately feared a neighbour had complained, but thankfully it was just a social call as he had seen an article in the paper.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First Light, bad breakfast and nausea</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First light was an amazing thing, I could see the road properly again, and within a couple of laps I ditched the lights and it genuinely felt the bike was lighter and climbed faster.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, my body still felt like it should be asleep, and after what should have been a celebratory breakfast to welcome the new day I suddenly came over nauseous. This was my lowest point and I found out later I was looking pretty bad and my support crew were genuinely concerned about my safety. However, they made a decision to let my carry on but under close supervision.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jody had been home in the meantime and returned with some Voltaren to try and control the knee pain, I don’t know why I hadn't thought of this before, but I suspect this helped me for the remainder of the ride.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resurgence</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It took about an hours riding and careful choice of food to shake off the nausea. I then started ramping up the 'rocket fuel' to get me through to the end, with energy gels, and Red bull and V drinks etc. Vicky later returned with a McDonald's breakfast, which was a welcome bit of variety to my intake!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had now passed the 83 lap, 2/3 distance milestone, and felt a resurgence with life returning to my body, but the doubting voice in my head was never far away and there was a long stretch to the 110 lap mark, which I had arbitrarily decided was the next milestone, and the point at which I would be able to finish this thing no matter what state my body was in.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had calculated 127 laps to be the 'virtual' finish line, but planned to do 132, adding 5 ‘safety’ laps just to make sure in case of any GPS discrepancies.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpjKxJTnCB9fNxA0Zd4ynWzJDLS-Stouuf3AW_ye7mcD_N0WFdBAN5zKkEluf3kYf6FhB3qfWp7QV4HM14Xah2Ds3Ow3hk6ZmY1UiimsDpOUm8NK5WUa4Q3qmAZVVHCkVAq4SSF7HZt8g/s1600/support+brownies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpjKxJTnCB9fNxA0Zd4ynWzJDLS-Stouuf3AW_ye7mcD_N0WFdBAN5zKkEluf3kYf6FhB3qfWp7QV4HM14Xah2Ds3Ow3hk6ZmY1UiimsDpOUm8NK5WUa4Q3qmAZVVHCkVAq4SSF7HZt8g/s1600/support+brownies.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three of the Brownies / Guides. Most of those going to the Jamboree came up at some point to cheer me on.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Media circuits</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Nelson Mail had asked to come up to do an interview on location at 12:30pm. I had mixed feelings about their timing, at 20 hours in and a night without sleep I knew I would be in a bit of a state by then, but figured at least it would give me an opportunity to take a long break before the final push.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Following a short interview the photographer requested a sequence of ‘throwaway’ laps near the top for the camera (the official challenge only accepts complete laps). I didn't know whether to laugh or cry each time the photographer said ‘just one more’! However, it was good publicity for the fundraising and little did I know I would make it onto the front page of the Nelson Mail! The short video they produced is also a great little memento of the event.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/67475133/Cyclist-takes-on-grueling-Everest-challenge" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.38;" target="_blank">Link: Nelson Mail - Cyclist takes on gruelling Everest challenge</a></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0tlyWHqV29NiIQIDhS7wuc_bnFuUmv3JVE3YM1e8MW7qLdImkg3tYpKecfMvcuANnu6Hk5LeeRnkxRTJskz_5PI-vVeZGsWi3NDztaVDz3rFNUxGq9NWpEaFBsDFOvcafXaNMg15bkQA/s1600/support+family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0tlyWHqV29NiIQIDhS7wuc_bnFuUmv3JVE3YM1e8MW7qLdImkg3tYpKecfMvcuANnu6Hk5LeeRnkxRTJskz_5PI-vVeZGsWi3NDztaVDz3rFNUxGq9NWpEaFBsDFOvcafXaNMg15bkQA/s1600/support+family.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The family, minus Jody who is behind the camera</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sprint Finish</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As well as the press I had had plenty of visitors through the morning, and consequently some additional social stops, but at about 22 hours and lap 118 lap Jody shook me to my senses by telling me I was in danger of running over 24 hours. While completion was my main objective I had also set a goal to come in under 24 hours, so I put the hammer down to knock out the last 14 laps, only stopping briefly for energy gels and drinks.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The laps still dragged on with my increasingly weary body, but I could feel the finish line pulling me closer, the assembled crowd at the top really started to lift me now, including family, neighbours, friends, everybody from my work, and local cyclists. Emotion started rolling over me, and on my last lap it all caught up with me and my whole body turned to jelly. But nothing was going to stop me now though and at the top I even managed a small sprint to the finish line!</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwO1Tr4gefn2CS7g-uyN7lOu855a0cD3H9AtVyuqNktVVQK8dzakfLPxtRIjimt2JzW1S8leqeFi7lfGB7x1w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had done it, I had made 132 laps, and GPS data would later show comfortably cleared the required climbing total, at 9258 metres, in 23 hours 48 minutes. I was very tired, very happy, and buzzing from all the local support. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would now upload my GPS data to Strava, which would be then be officially verified by the Hells 500 team, and my name would be entered in the hall of fame.</span><b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
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After finishing I had bouts of acid reflux and nausea for the next 24 hours, no doubt due to the 'rocket fuel' diet. But I didn't let this detract from the accomplishment, s<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;">uccess took a while to really sink in, but it was a life defining moment and I will be buzzing for a long time to come!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fundraising also went better than expected and the tally at the time of writing is $1200.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will never do this type of challenge again, but should anyone be interested in having a go, I would say go for it, you will find out a lot about yourself! And if you drop me a line and I will be more than happy to offer advice :)</span><br />
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<b style="line-height: 1.38;">Links</b></div>
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<b><a href="https://www.strava.com/activities/271426891" target="_blank">Here is the Strava GPS data in all it's gory detail, the final tally 9258 metres (my backup iPhone recorded 9506 metres) in 23 hours 48 minutes</a></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.everesting.cc/hall-of-fame/" target="_blank"><b>The Hells 500 Hall of Fame</b></a></div>
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<a href="http://givealittle.co.nz/cause/atawhaibrownies" style="line-height: 1.38;" target="_blank"><b>Givealittle for Atawhai Brownies / Girl Guides Jamboree 2016</b></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wonderful Supporters, Lap-a-longers, and Neighbours</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Big thank you's to:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My fantastic wife, Jody, and her family, who did an awesome job on the day, including Jody’s mums super powered soup that kept going through the night.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All those that came up to support me, especially those that rode a few laps with me, the Bayview neighbours, some of whom came out to their balconies at regular intervals to check my lap count and cheer me on. This was one of the positive side effects to counter the grinding monotony of riding up and down the same hill!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everyone at my company, Flightcell, and to the Wyllies for bringing me coffee and other sustenance on the big night.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Hells 500 group for setting the challenge, and administering it on their website.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Craig Tregurtha for leading me down the slippery slope that was to end in me attempting the crazy challenge.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And last but not least all those who donated through Givealittle, it’s been a fantastic boost to fundraising for what’s going to be an awesome event for the Atawhai Brownies and Guides.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14138044041018036395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2200286988718696282.post-20436201037621128952015-02-02T22:17:00.000+13:002015-02-02T22:17:02.386+13:00Lily's Christmas Holidays 2014/5<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn98LkG3JwL9KhyphenhyphenzxAOzFltV4BoFBBpIQ_Qh8KVR6A-yzYU2sLjo9-ENmY-9Dc4IzW-CWHk4XqEuKiiThdTsu4_bBoE4qB4AFS3hw_HcSI30jJ9M5I90OfvGc4IzxIpBpCF8QieKX7_LM/s1600/IMG_0183.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn98LkG3JwL9KhyphenhyphenzxAOzFltV4BoFBBpIQ_Qh8KVR6A-yzYU2sLjo9-ENmY-9Dc4IzW-CWHk4XqEuKiiThdTsu4_bBoE4qB4AFS3hw_HcSI30jJ9M5I90OfvGc4IzxIpBpCF8QieKX7_LM/s1600/IMG_0183.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pollard Park, Blenheim</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNb7t8EDF8y-kBQpdwQQHlpGF1HkreMzQxQEPxEwL7nBTvfR4MQACEU4Vi6h5hNM6k3ZYtwdDO1o_aOf3Sm9qcId5xaYtXJCtvReiEpkntsdXQ_nwaeqvWKWXfIdj_H3g7wpI27vyywpg/s1600/IMG_0195.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNb7t8EDF8y-kBQpdwQQHlpGF1HkreMzQxQEPxEwL7nBTvfR4MQACEU4Vi6h5hNM6k3ZYtwdDO1o_aOf3Sm9qcId5xaYtXJCtvReiEpkntsdXQ_nwaeqvWKWXfIdj_H3g7wpI27vyywpg/s1600/IMG_0195.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coopers 6th Birthday</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsG9zbWTbAa6EpkEIwDAuF1ggwywkWNB6TjQpUkD4h_wGcccEbNT1DfhT7up0OGvUx72YFLlTSI8Ggfxq6qvT3B8KBV2XeTek_4HmxgjPcKX6q8JCpXg94hKZGL1mPgXlBqYyTCXanZI/s1600/IMG_0201.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsG9zbWTbAa6EpkEIwDAuF1ggwywkWNB6TjQpUkD4h_wGcccEbNT1DfhT7up0OGvUx72YFLlTSI8Ggfxq6qvT3B8KBV2XeTek_4HmxgjPcKX6q8JCpXg94hKZGL1mPgXlBqYyTCXanZI/s1600/IMG_0201.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flora hut overnight tramp, complete with mouse</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sleepover with old friend Lydia, in Richmond</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tukurua beach campfire, with old friends from Christchurch</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two up on see-saw with Grace</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ngarua caves, Takaka hill</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Day walk to Appletree bay</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bethany's campsite, Kaiteriteri</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUs9wf6V3eyK3-S-Kver-GnrDB6SoEYksM1uNrJPAl9QcOZEgr8wRBAjRsupg3BRaj8tCZC8QHjPKmfeR-ZLCehNVPYykVQKo5piKrdDw51KcVdysRyOTGTZIn6-PH1K4N-8GkGs2zLIs/s1600/SAM_0703.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUs9wf6V3eyK3-S-Kver-GnrDB6SoEYksM1uNrJPAl9QcOZEgr8wRBAjRsupg3BRaj8tCZC8QHjPKmfeR-ZLCehNVPYykVQKo5piKrdDw51KcVdysRyOTGTZIn6-PH1K4N-8GkGs2zLIs/s1600/SAM_0703.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Labyrinth rocks, Pohara</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tukurua beach</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A&P show, Takaka</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZV2iHIA_dhkg_ziQGgsafwmCH2e2eTTgAES4Go906Vlf_mVbh23hmGC_YLEE8Ct8Q3B7h41k5hAuvjIvS_2Q-QQP9jFGVe3DxrYrlkPRB2p-o4CBXhgkf5MfK9VxQVlJ9nT8UrYS2W8/s1600/SAM_0731.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZV2iHIA_dhkg_ziQGgsafwmCH2e2eTTgAES4Go906Vlf_mVbh23hmGC_YLEE8Ct8Q3B7h41k5hAuvjIvS_2Q-QQP9jFGVe3DxrYrlkPRB2p-o4CBXhgkf5MfK9VxQVlJ9nT8UrYS2W8/s1600/SAM_0731.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ooxlgrxmrugDfESBwgVQojxLkC_5Ljy5D5kjm4c87A6rhRvdqzRFd0rcaG3IvlszNlSDShy2tUMYOqxS3VOz5w62gwBoFgUGHZp0iIio_NLZk7LaajhisSDIrYGAyeGnzx0vqM1FhMA/s1600/SAM_0767.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ooxlgrxmrugDfESBwgVQojxLkC_5Ljy5D5kjm4c87A6rhRvdqzRFd0rcaG3IvlszNlSDShy2tUMYOqxS3VOz5w62gwBoFgUGHZp0iIio_NLZk7LaajhisSDIrYGAyeGnzx0vqM1FhMA/s1600/SAM_0767.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kayaking with dad, Kaiteriteri</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bethany's waterslide</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14138044041018036395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2200286988718696282.post-71817146738114569462015-02-02T18:08:00.000+13:002015-02-02T21:22:18.348+13:00Coopers Christmas Holidays 2014/5<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGMDBzII398F-vN77HK3Q7Erbbiua32z-OJXKhEjCe7xX8EC59mGdgovp8AAnutmw-18HGq1LqWCI7j70mdrg3oJyOBbxGyNnuBd82dsl34H3hK1sYqIoVon4T2NPTG4jNGeKF0GGRPs/s1600/IMG_0164.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGMDBzII398F-vN77HK3Q7Erbbiua32z-OJXKhEjCe7xX8EC59mGdgovp8AAnutmw-18HGq1LqWCI7j70mdrg3oJyOBbxGyNnuBd82dsl34H3hK1sYqIoVon4T2NPTG4jNGeKF0GGRPs/s1600/IMG_0164.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New scooter, Picton</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbgZQScxxSYWSeTtH-QvD-9t3oxO7FdwBtq73NLUA97DLB_kC9cKy-uMG38jsKulAXTY19okf9D6TiQZiRyeM4_ulZhuUDpV3DIXs9Xg1QL46pyLeeEBj2fnmxCDIj-VzeIMozKWd5oyA/s1600/IMG_0178.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbgZQScxxSYWSeTtH-QvD-9t3oxO7FdwBtq73NLUA97DLB_kC9cKy-uMG38jsKulAXTY19okf9D6TiQZiRyeM4_ulZhuUDpV3DIXs9Xg1QL46pyLeeEBj2fnmxCDIj-VzeIMozKWd5oyA/s1600/IMG_0178.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Freshwater crayfish, Pollard park, Blenheim</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Hz6pW340pvu2RcPLtw-qizESprkjf7C84N65eo7mZaNDNzRb5xhopA9KZyH8gI5YgPST42VB5okC1nZeznE2qOMBcEhO12tLHMgkrWF5_J0VPIoG3aDU5xN4PqGzMqfKd4wPhc5OKbk/s1600/IMG_0183.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Hz6pW340pvu2RcPLtw-qizESprkjf7C84N65eo7mZaNDNzRb5xhopA9KZyH8gI5YgPST42VB5okC1nZeznE2qOMBcEhO12tLHMgkrWF5_J0VPIoG3aDU5xN4PqGzMqfKd4wPhc5OKbk/s1600/IMG_0183.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pollard park</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijOBDYPA2HggOsXAiK0MSEF8wQg3JlWHMLrxsqF7y4UFYyFVfX-54gJP7aM_IzDG32smBjrARnU8SPMpvxNOp2Wp1rqgbYZoU3WsYc0uT367OmDoEbDGF7GC4nnsUO2xlNTGKeeWMp4Ao/s1600/IMG_0195.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijOBDYPA2HggOsXAiK0MSEF8wQg3JlWHMLrxsqF7y4UFYyFVfX-54gJP7aM_IzDG32smBjrARnU8SPMpvxNOp2Wp1rqgbYZoU3WsYc0uT367OmDoEbDGF7GC4nnsUO2xlNTGKeeWMp4Ao/s1600/IMG_0195.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">31st December - Birthday cake (6 candles)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUzgG1kMfkf7bgPTBth9EWjQvqvpIRB3Y8K81HpuEqjDS_t1Fm23rLvroTyCQXrlkwMp6ZRQRhiKFGuJ6lyYXcVlNxhiQGYx6LQ_5tkWZrhxM5oQUy0sxT6oNXvOrAgrNiXBn2q0sDc10/s1600/IMG_0197.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUzgG1kMfkf7bgPTBth9EWjQvqvpIRB3Y8K81HpuEqjDS_t1Fm23rLvroTyCQXrlkwMp6ZRQRhiKFGuJ6lyYXcVlNxhiQGYx6LQ_5tkWZrhxM5oQUy0sxT6oNXvOrAgrNiXBn2q0sDc10/s1600/IMG_0197.JPG" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Overnight tramp...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwhI00FMcm1fv2HVe6IZkuuw5uKSQZk3Xh5xW0l4brzrflX1aZXp269sDAwJfZYTYksz6fXgpNbXb9DXg7XqJ1-Y1VWpxi-r4FvRls98uBhyF1URiT6MJ3RviKalVCslmXRmTqAIIFjNc/s1600/IMG_0219.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwhI00FMcm1fv2HVe6IZkuuw5uKSQZk3Xh5xW0l4brzrflX1aZXp269sDAwJfZYTYksz6fXgpNbXb9DXg7XqJ1-Y1VWpxi-r4FvRls98uBhyF1URiT6MJ3RviKalVCslmXRmTqAIIFjNc/s1600/IMG_0219.JPG" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">... to Flora hut, complete with mouse</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiraLN7ODLLjugZuFBOQoPup2-HnFEAVnqKct9J1C3HxtykDvlbtKg4Jeh-KxxadR_Xm7QAjcgVav-eAKfRXwZubc6PvCb50hHYBFc4bXxfPpXGV4OyQmvKgWKo3fCffZeRBgr07igoAQ/s1600/IMG_0237.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiraLN7ODLLjugZuFBOQoPup2-HnFEAVnqKct9J1C3HxtykDvlbtKg4Jeh-KxxadR_Xm7QAjcgVav-eAKfRXwZubc6PvCb50hHYBFc4bXxfPpXGV4OyQmvKgWKo3fCffZeRBgr07igoAQ/s1600/IMG_0237.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sleepover with friends in Richmond</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULq9axs7EUCK6rDIylpn-V6wzl4kCsVO1sc1Q-_h6AbEHKM5SnlhsjJFq5jVwAwL46OAAoJ669ht0zmQvBUMljMKJw3vXA43v7g0xN1EdlxC0OH9Cr66bxrB9wXD_0MM13-KxAQNhvTo/s1600/IMG_0252.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULq9axs7EUCK6rDIylpn-V6wzl4kCsVO1sc1Q-_h6AbEHKM5SnlhsjJFq5jVwAwL46OAAoJ669ht0zmQvBUMljMKJw3vXA43v7g0xN1EdlxC0OH9Cr66bxrB9wXD_0MM13-KxAQNhvTo/s1600/IMG_0252.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tukurua camp fire</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1J9OGTY8Zt9ApqZtRYGd5WoxMsKRHSerQU2Un8N_GLrsDeIHOEDds8jNULQO-IML1-4q8Z4h4XAjj_sG974r4gp4VDAgzJBbNzfjWM9qBPCkbS9SKH57iwvodHlHzxOmEIlmw2WYPhFs/s1600/IMG_0280.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1J9OGTY8Zt9ApqZtRYGd5WoxMsKRHSerQU2Un8N_GLrsDeIHOEDds8jNULQO-IML1-4q8Z4h4XAjj_sG974r4gp4VDAgzJBbNzfjWM9qBPCkbS9SKH57iwvodHlHzxOmEIlmw2WYPhFs/s1600/IMG_0280.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ngarua caves</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic5Wjw5AD_YZu4EhZQBEgjOMGCIF4TA25RhvbWJTZAnVO9xqair02RvH62UZs7CGUovNmvOHjQ65YkrFz06ArdSfYYiPpf0aw47ql301hKpFhy1YhPqvwWxrIBUdBKZNY5LS_WvHvjtpE/s1600/IMG_0288.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic5Wjw5AD_YZu4EhZQBEgjOMGCIF4TA25RhvbWJTZAnVO9xqair02RvH62UZs7CGUovNmvOHjQ65YkrFz06ArdSfYYiPpf0aw47ql301hKpFhy1YhPqvwWxrIBUdBKZNY5LS_WvHvjtpE/s1600/IMG_0288.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHKrHa-DF5Ice3_aNpEhObvOKHurpALL8yX673uaD72xSQ9FJjsB2tETQeznr0TH2K_2VWU8MYxxhTloGTZhN0uDXZXLabtu4ml2ZVo5kZK6Ur0yC4FkdoevX2SPLHYiLogxfCyxIwi5s/s1600/IMG_0295.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHKrHa-DF5Ice3_aNpEhObvOKHurpALL8yX673uaD72xSQ9FJjsB2tETQeznr0TH2K_2VWU8MYxxhTloGTZhN0uDXZXLabtu4ml2ZVo5kZK6Ur0yC4FkdoevX2SPLHYiLogxfCyxIwi5s/s1600/IMG_0295.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kaiteriteri MTB park</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJfMi5Iy_eXpM0FuHDriqwopr_4b0x7SsgXAEsIlKBP3p8X58AwGOoEeUGIMyMPl8E_GNwBLLgZ0GA1Qwlaz9JpFrujZeBirLZ2tD45gmnW8c0FlHZEWmnUmunVDmwJC1sQlmZPRq3_BU/s1600/IMG_0298.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJfMi5Iy_eXpM0FuHDriqwopr_4b0x7SsgXAEsIlKBP3p8X58AwGOoEeUGIMyMPl8E_GNwBLLgZ0GA1Qwlaz9JpFrujZeBirLZ2tD45gmnW8c0FlHZEWmnUmunVDmwJC1sQlmZPRq3_BU/s1600/IMG_0298.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Day trip walk to Appletree bay</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxS8USd0EY1rLE_rIlwzIlp396eZfKZqm2L28IgTzQNLpfWCW4rgc624DorIFt9yaA8N0Fh4FbOr7yNeYz1DwfapuGibJdu5A0hqzzMsbQ7gICAW5098PK3SjEBlcjfiEo4oW5iH9m8FU/s1600/IMG_0309.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxS8USd0EY1rLE_rIlwzIlp396eZfKZqm2L28IgTzQNLpfWCW4rgc624DorIFt9yaA8N0Fh4FbOr7yNeYz1DwfapuGibJdu5A0hqzzMsbQ7gICAW5098PK3SjEBlcjfiEo4oW5iH9m8FU/s1600/IMG_0309.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFl32oue998CtNmoT_4DUxJ080Qp7bNmmc9qQHEoVvaWhCIMrZWC2F4HoN-2Y89H-kDbKYSpFGuNukouc8JZVlN1aX0Jv7mwO9XKpkEhIvmLbGR2bF6NEaJa2NJe2JaMVOadzm5N8C3g/s1600/IMG_0312.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFl32oue998CtNmoT_4DUxJ080Qp7bNmmc9qQHEoVvaWhCIMrZWC2F4HoN-2Y89H-kDbKYSpFGuNukouc8JZVlN1aX0Jv7mwO9XKpkEhIvmLbGR2bF6NEaJa2NJe2JaMVOadzm5N8C3g/s1600/IMG_0312.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bethany's campsite, Kaiteriteri, complete with huge water slide</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tukurua, Golden Bay</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A&P show, Takaka</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14138044041018036395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2200286988718696282.post-71078179391179087382014-03-18T22:48:00.004+13:002014-03-19T07:37:27.212+13:00Lily and Martins Excellent Adventure - Christchurch roadtrip<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Christchurch roadtrip to visit her friend Lydia, the Champion Centre, and her old dance class at Jolt.</span></h3>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Friday 14th March</span></h3>
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7:30am, Tahuna beach, 7km in to 420km:<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lily: "Are we nearly there yet"?</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">First stop, Murchison</span></h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Never too early for ice cream...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Approaching Murchison, about 120km in to 420km.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lily: "Are we nearly there yet?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dad: "No"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lily: "Are we lost?"</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picnic in the back of the car, that's a bit of cake Dad, hope you're going to share it...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We made up lots of games in the car to pass the time, including virtual volleyball, table tennis, and an 'eye spy' variant.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Champion Centre</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where Lily went for first 5 years of life, reunion and celebration of fundraising after the big ride </span><a href="http://mtbmartin.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/kiwi-brevet-2014.html">http://mtbmartin.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/kiwi-brevet-2014.html</a><br />
It was great to see all her old therapists again. She felt right at home, showed off her skills to the physios in the playground and even sneaked in a private music session with Julie.<br />
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<h3>
Saturday</h3>
Breakfast at Lydia's house, with Eli and Ruby<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Jolt</h3>
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Surprise appearance at her old dance class after over 2 years away, they got a big surprise! And she remembered all the moves!</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">South Brighton</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Next it was a cruise around our old neighbourhood, our old house, and a look down our old beach. We also made a surprise visit to our good friends Shaun and Karen, and their girls Grace, Niamh and Celia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then it was a drive out to </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sumner, and Dad couldn't resist a drive up his old biking haunts - Evans pass, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Summit road and Mount Pleasant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then back to Lydia's house for fun in the garden, and quality time bonding with her old friend again.</span><br />
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Finally, it was time to say goodbye, and start the long drive home. Dad foolishly promised a chocolate treat when 'it got dark'. This was followed by 300km of 'is it dark yet?' at 1km intervals.<br />
Lily did redeem her chocolate, and promptly dropped off to sleep at 9pm, with a little help from her pillow pet.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14138044041018036395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2200286988718696282.post-55749542722524384432014-02-14T17:15:00.000+13:002014-02-26T08:14:31.636+13:00Kiwi Brevet 2014<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFaYsKWf2nts9lAlnFxfRSv36VpucFDQPo7aOwXXS5lolIbFsS8UmCuJGCAOuPVls5QF8YNmdZA_VCL0fdMxHI7AXVcts8hjS-FT-3sh7sZw73ssj7YLQevTnGRHXnav4hCmr1gGP_LLE/s1600/DSC_0123+crop.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFaYsKWf2nts9lAlnFxfRSv36VpucFDQPo7aOwXXS5lolIbFsS8UmCuJGCAOuPVls5QF8YNmdZA_VCL0fdMxHI7AXVcts8hjS-FT-3sh7sZw73ssj7YLQevTnGRHXnav4hCmr1gGP_LLE/s1600/DSC_0123+crop.JPG" height="215" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Grand depart, (Nathan Fa'avae bottom left)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">Grand Départ - Top Town Cinema and Seymour Square</span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">On the big day my family</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"> dropped me off at 10am for the briefing at the Cinema, then went to visit friends. On returning to Seymour Square 2 hours later for the grand depart, seeing all the bikes lying around my 5 year old boy piped up "Daddy did you win?!"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">I laughed out loud and it helped de-stress the occasion nicely, 'er, no son it hasn't actually started yet!'.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">A bewildering array of machinery and riders filled the square, I managed a brief catch up with a few familiar faces and was impressed to see a strong female contingent.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">I was riding in a team of two a mate Muzz from Christchurch, a 4 time coast to coaster and faster than me, thankfully he never complained once about my pace (my roles were organiser / equipment consultant / mechanic he kindly reminded me), so I had the perfect 'super domestic' / lead out man and we quickly adopted pseudonyms of George (Hincapie) and Lance, I didn't feel very Lance like but at least I had aero bars for the TT look!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">We were also using the opportunity to do some fundraising for the Champion Centre, an early intervention centre both of our daughters had attended in Christchurch. We had both had features in The Press and </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Nelson Leader</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"> respectively, and had levered off the magnitude of the event to raise $6000 by the start.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Event details </span><a href="http://kiwibrevet.blogspot.co.nz/">http://kiwibrevet.blogspot.co.nz/</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Briefing</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Seymour Square, carbo loading</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqvEmP6bxWf6EvI9uTO_79Z2T4jlPwvSV_PdjY-jzz_TB8WGl4myRHLiGkXswkp8-JC26VnALksUFyCR0iImKChvoATi3H5iN07AkMSfbnKSzB4xENbc7FpvEmLArWaP9UiI1iI6pXft0/s1600/brevet_map_avatar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqvEmP6bxWf6EvI9uTO_79Z2T4jlPwvSV_PdjY-jzz_TB8WGl4myRHLiGkXswkp8-JC26VnALksUFyCR0iImKChvoATi3H5iN07AkMSfbnKSzB4xENbc7FpvEmLArWaP9UiI1iI6pXft0/s1600/brevet_map_avatar.png" height="320" width="314" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The route, Blenheim to Blenheim anti clockwise</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Day 1 - Blenheim to Pelorus, 12pm to 9pm (9 hours)</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">The grand depart was a special and proud moment, following years of planning to get to this point. After rolling through the city centre pathways the ride b</span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">izarrely started to feel like a mini road race, with many wanting the advantage of the peleton for both wind shelter and stress free navigation as the route darted it's way through paths and farming tracks out of Blenheim, I ended up doing 'bridging TT's' after the pack was split up after various bottle necks, felt a bit silly on such a long event!</span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJEoet8ZTeEW-GbVskZ5pJFFsUocEFMAZptIYlVMSuC4TAomhVcIt9eKR3MN-QlOuVrUIDsr0zfRsWUyNuAXKhnr9uASKRxli2gzcBuG2kORTjQ2TiiWOmlaHPHXOl71b7AL3dv6Uiyzs/s1600/DSC_0004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJEoet8ZTeEW-GbVskZ5pJFFsUocEFMAZptIYlVMSuC4TAomhVcIt9eKR3MN-QlOuVrUIDsr0zfRsWUyNuAXKhnr9uASKRxli2gzcBuG2kORTjQ2TiiWOmlaHPHXOl71b7AL3dv6Uiyzs/s1600/DSC_0004.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
Once we hit Rarangi and Whites Bay <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">we settled in at my (back of pack) pace for a few hours of climbing to Picton. On arrival t</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">he second thing to make me laugh out loud that day was the sight of all the rubbish bins overflowing with Powerade bottles, the Brevet was already making it's mark!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next stop was for dinner in Havelock, where Muzz tried on his celebrity status by showing her page 14 of The Press, however she needed a careful look from the side profile before she was convinced that it was indeed the same man!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">A short road section followed to Pelorus, our target area before darkness and bivvying down, we joined two Auckland guys for this leg and rolled out a 4 man TT effort, one of these guys had an amazing personal story: a metamorphosis from a 170kg guy to 85kg Brevet rider in just 2 years.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">They were colourful characters and we ended up taking them to our pre-selected field for the first bivvy night. I was sleeping light with just a ground sheet, thermarest and sleeping bag, initial envy of their tent and thick sleeping mattresses soon disappeared as their farting and snoring commenced and I was pleased to be by myself under the stars.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">I went to sleep on a high with the buzz of the event, and the fortune that a back injury that had plagued me on all my recent training rides had miraculously disappeared for the big event.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Day 2 - Pelorus to St Arnaud, 6:30am to 6:30pm (12 hours)</b></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Manguatapu saddle</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">The day started with a bit of cat and mouse as the early risers caught the sleeper in'ers that had made it part way up the Manguatapu the night before. It's not a race, we remind ourselves, but places were again traded on the descent as the more downhill oriented riders had a blast down the steep loose descent.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Pinch flat on Manguatapu descent</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVEFWYYWfQ89tkm_Ck6WL0GAyLNyZ7PbRIak1w_2ZAWpXkTOARgcp02bfPXL5whcKjq945KKFKFcYKXfb8Yqn-VhQs6rjvL3kkesdOT4cN75Rg_7zO2ORxsAeXH4OkNJwZkSn6g2eUBws/s1600/DSC_0011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVEFWYYWfQ89tkm_Ck6WL0GAyLNyZ7PbRIak1w_2ZAWpXkTOARgcp02bfPXL5whcKjq945KKFKFcYKXfb8Yqn-VhQs6rjvL3kkesdOT4cN75Rg_7zO2ORxsAeXH4OkNJwZkSn6g2eUBws/s1600/DSC_0011.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Maitai reservoir</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNomx76n9kXkVRroBzvCfOym6wUGtRVi2-OHKvUo0Gcxbqbnc29jm_syfh46fCZq3oq0xCHmVMh-qTDHrD5zbqvQpKwYzmAauc7S26-7KE6x4-_xFoDp6DT9NxkkTOtYHz_lY5x6tFMug/s1600/DSC_0012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNomx76n9kXkVRroBzvCfOym6wUGtRVi2-OHKvUo0Gcxbqbnc29jm_syfh46fCZq3oq0xCHmVMh-qTDHrD5zbqvQpKwYzmAauc7S26-7KE6x4-_xFoDp6DT9NxkkTOtYHz_lY5x6tFMug/s1600/DSC_0012.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Whanau</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><br />The days highlight for me was rendezvousing with my family in Nelson who had cycled in to meet me for a super-sized brunch.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">It was difficult to say goodbye to them and my home town but then it was time to head off through a section of the Great taste trail, which was actually flooded due to the Spring tide, to Richmond, and a quick hello to Muzz's sister and family (some of our most ardent supporters). Then an afternoon turned </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">into a sweat shop on the rolling course to St Arnaud. After hours of climbing we finally flew down the last decent into St Arnaud, but euphoria was quickly wiped away with pain as I got a </span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">bee sting through my shorts, which was to still bother me days later on a 'rub' line.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">We caught up with a bunch of riders enjoying the wares from the fish and chip shop and dairy, but sandflies and sleep requirements soon broke up the party</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Day 3 - St Arnaud to Springs Junction, 8am to 8:45pm (12.75 hours)</b></span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpNFGFCdbfXE7dnyAiZO4pDaev8G2ELhAHZrGLy8-UKnPLNvZDQARGxtIuyMtTUTDLb_kkXxjGue-nmkEPo0rUDX7kBVY3Bn2nZFjnUgYowN93N0uvMAdZdpyxfYVv01i4FCU2VREKXDc/s1600/DSC_0019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpNFGFCdbfXE7dnyAiZO4pDaev8G2ELhAHZrGLy8-UKnPLNvZDQARGxtIuyMtTUTDLb_kkXxjGue-nmkEPo0rUDX7kBVY3Bn2nZFjnUgYowN93N0uvMAdZdpyxfYVv01i4FCU2VREKXDc/s1600/DSC_0019.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Things are different out West</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">By now we were both breaking our own personal endurance records, getting on the bike was a little daunting, legs were more tired than ever before, this was only day 3 of 8 and we started wondering how were we going to make the distance. But a pattern emerged that characterised my Brevet: you can't face the big the day ahead of you but commit to a short term goal and somehow manage grind it out, then set another goal, and repeat, hour after hour, day after day.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">We engaged in all sorts of conversation 'threads' to help pass the time, such as our life history, travelling yarns, what sports should be banned from the Olympics etc.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">This day started through through the Porika and Braeburn tracks.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZR-Ie_vqYK37efn8VHMNWE09DfiPwcjCPpZ1mnyBYMJ78gelEYL4kvy73-8dSqqQoY78CrnUGpTe4VrrM8ZOeWhVgT1HHoHZqZseEdvdkO6Ylxew5mtFmZEf5UDPFRquUeLNY9Unttgc/s1600/DSC_0021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZR-Ie_vqYK37efn8VHMNWE09DfiPwcjCPpZ1mnyBYMJ78gelEYL4kvy73-8dSqqQoY78CrnUGpTe4VrrM8ZOeWhVgT1HHoHZqZseEdvdkO6Ylxew5mtFmZEf5UDPFRquUeLNY9Unttgc/s1600/DSC_0021.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Braeburn</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was turning into a stinking hot day and Murchison couldn't come soon enough for shade and lunch. It was here I got to use my 'celebrity status' as a family of Chinese tourists were determined to have me in their family photos, I was surprised they could tolerate my odour after 3 sweaty days in the saddle!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We dragged ourselves away from the shade and made the long ride to </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Maruia, where a special thankyou has to go out to Karen, spot tracking fan, who not only opened the shop for us after hours, but refused to take any money for the end of the day food leftovers.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">The final leg took us to j</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">ust passed Springs Junction </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">we found a unique bivvy location, an abandoned conveyor belt </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">in an old scrap yard, which </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">formed a perfect hammock! Dinner was not a highlight though, just a 200ml tube of condensed milk, since I</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">had reached OSM saturation.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"> </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">The sandflies were ferocious but they disappeared in the night, and we went to sleep under a beautiful starry night. Not even my partners gentle snoring reverberating through the rubber conveyor belt could keep me awake for long.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJ0I-hfg0PCsUVTgD3D98_JdKdVSWYxAkuDhHTBX63mfgN6yc_28Pol4ounv6qcUDOzCAmqofTFNHwCcey2E1tFZh-kTttckm2RsugC6AGQ3KgWQ1cLmLopSj2Sr2GkXur6kR_1djXrA/s1600/DSC_0028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJ0I-hfg0PCsUVTgD3D98_JdKdVSWYxAkuDhHTBX63mfgN6yc_28Pol4ounv6qcUDOzCAmqofTFNHwCcey2E1tFZh-kTttckm2RsugC6AGQ3KgWQ1cLmLopSj2Sr2GkXur6kR_1djXrA/s1600/DSC_0028.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxnIQ9MkjqyDRR3NC_twB6HzpLSOacq2jGZLiZdoaXLLENc1mnT247hbgw_jAGiYx8iWVKXTlZMZc0sJ7UrHtYvWl77Ij7azt97-OhdB4yhTbxhcvwq-vMzPjAb4NRSpHt-qVy8HpKbM/s1600/DSC_0024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxnIQ9MkjqyDRR3NC_twB6HzpLSOacq2jGZLiZdoaXLLENc1mnT247hbgw_jAGiYx8iWVKXTlZMZc0sJ7UrHtYvWl77Ij7azt97-OhdB4yhTbxhcvwq-vMzPjAb4NRSpHt-qVy8HpKbM/s1600/DSC_0024.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Day 4 - Springs Junction to Blackball, 6:45am to 8pm (13.25 hours)</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">Day 4 started with a 12 pack of ginger kisses for </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">breakfast, then a quick escape from the sandflies into a wet ride over to Reefton. There we had one of our trademark 'long stops', a brevet 'best' of 2.5 hours this time. This did include sorting some urgent medical issues including Muzzas sore wrist after a crash, and a solution to sore nipples for myself.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">For the benefit of non-cyclists, we use 'chamois cream' around the groin area to prevent rub and soreness, it can be also used on other sensitive areas like sore nipples caused by hours of shirt rubbing. It must have looked quite a site to any onlookers as Muzz and I stopped at the edge of town and simultaneously applied cream to groin and nipples respectively!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">The skies cleared after our long stop and we commenced one of the longest and toughest days of the event, including the Big River and Waiutu tracks. These started off benignly enough, with some long rideable climbing sections. At the start of the Waiutu track we bumped into a very friendly DOC worker who informed us there was about 4km of unrideable track then 6km of rideable downhill. Our spirits lifted when we were able to ride most of the 'unrideable' section, the smiles soon faded when the 'rideable' sections had much of the track washed out and it ended up being hours of hike-a-bike and rock climbing. This was exhausting with fully laden bikes.</span></span></span><br />
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</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU7fW8tJVGkji1lZPf0N7NwxN9KJJo9Tv63viiP8fVJRyFleioZ08iZimOTL40uRXwPhzSPXqLBpXuRahC_h7Q56bchONtGyQt76VLEFJUPGRdeMDnNNdBrb8eh9kD9ZDjdsbZSRmZWK8/s1600/DSC_0032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU7fW8tJVGkji1lZPf0N7NwxN9KJJo9Tv63viiP8fVJRyFleioZ08iZimOTL40uRXwPhzSPXqLBpXuRahC_h7Q56bchONtGyQt76VLEFJUPGRdeMDnNNdBrb8eh9kD9ZDjdsbZSRmZWK8/s1600/DSC_0032.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">Being out of Waitutu was big relief, and the end of the day took us through Ikamatua, the Pike River mine, then finally to Blackball and the Blackball Hilton, where the hotel owner was a blue spot junkie (avidly following riders on the tracking website). He provided a welcoming committee knowing our exact needs in advance (shower, big food, beer, and a bed, in that order). The waitress looked surprised as we ordered two large meals each and promptly wiped the plates clean.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">By now the field was spreading out, but two riders we kept bumping into were solo riders, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Dean Cameron </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">and Andy Gilbert, the latter quickly earned a nickname of 'grumpy' after some terse communication on day two. However, it turned out Andy was a really nice guy, and a Brevet vet </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">having previously done it on a tandem, this time riding a</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"> Surly fat tyred bike, he was one of the few riders doing some optional 'long cuts' to the main course, and so he had much Brevet kudos.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Day 5 - Blackball to Flock Hill, 7am to 7pm (12 hours)</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">The day started with another gravel road tour past lake Brunner, then the joy of some sealed roads, heading for some big climbing over to Arthurs Pass. The first stop was in</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"> the run down little town of Otira, for some nutrition. This is where we helped witness some great brevet camaraderie when a lost jandel was finally reunited with it's owner after being carried for 2 days by Dean.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ZpnVMjEY1ZqtbS0qsO0pMCetjaLUTwI5uv7wjXQSi9boD3NcUzS8WB279BdHklLgiPJstwK7wi-Sf9vZjrLSINtwEyQjWPy5G-DnzdCS_sDrTFh-YVW0LhHwpK5pbYWNdMSCZssNgjA/s1600/DSC_0035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ZpnVMjEY1ZqtbS0qsO0pMCetjaLUTwI5uv7wjXQSi9boD3NcUzS8WB279BdHklLgiPJstwK7wi-Sf9vZjrLSINtwEyQjWPy5G-DnzdCS_sDrTFh-YVW0LhHwpK5pbYWNdMSCZssNgjA/s1600/DSC_0035.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Dean (on left) returning jandal</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Then it was the iconic 16% gradient climb (full granny gear), going through tunnels and over the viaduct. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">A quick stop at the tourist lookout allowed us to admire the view, gobble down some jet planes, and laugh at the persistent Kias attacking the tourist cars, even while they were driving off.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span></span>We pushed on to<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Arthurs pass town, and increased the pie count tally. Strategic resupplying included freeze dried meals which fortuitously would become emergency rations a day and a half later.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">It was during heavy climbing on this day that I had my first exhaustion induced hallucinations, in my trance like state my riding mate Muzza 'turned' into an old friend from the UK! Thankfully he reverted back to his true self once the climbing relented and oxygen levels returned to normal.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">There was a psychological boost to be had heading back over the other side of the Alps, and it felt like we were entering the home straight, albeit a very long home straight which was to take us 4 more days.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">Things turned wet after Arthurs pass and with heavy legs i</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">nitial plans of making over the Alps were had to be changed when we ran out of daylight hours, thankfully the Flockhill lodge was open and came before nightfall, and we had anther reunion with Dean and Andy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;">I was literally on my last legs as I rolled in and as we entered the reception collapsed to the floor. Some tourists took interest in our story (and condition) and shouted us some free beers for our efforts!</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Day 6 - Flock Hill to Lees Valley, 7am to 8:30pm (13.5 hours)</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This day started with some gentle but slow climbing, anticipating a big climb over Porters pass, however, we arrived at the top sooner than expected, and were soon treated to a jubilant descent down the long steep Porters Pass, one of the highlights of the Brevet.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the bottom the pedals seemed to spin easily and the km’s clicked over nicely until we got to Springfield, where we both ordered a full breakfast but I got one up on Muzz with an extra pie on the side.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had been lead navigator through my home territory at the start of the event, now it was Muzz's turn on his home turf. As a coast to coast racer he had been pointing out various key sections of the course such as transition points as we had crossed over from the West Coast, this continued on the east side of the Alps, but it was just after we crossed the Waimakariri river we made a silly navigational mistake due (both our faults, I had the cue sheets!), missing a turn off.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our 'spot tracking' fan club must have been yelling at their computers as they watched us sail past the turnoff! We had done about 8km before we realised, it was a psychological blow to have to back track but Brevet rules don't allow us to 'triangulate' back to the course, we had to return back the way we had came to rejoin the course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This had one unexpected benefit though, Muzz's entourage had planned another secret visit, at the start of the Wharfdale and had we not lost the time they would have missed us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was with much anticipation that we started the Wharfdale track, surprisingly neither of us had ridden it, while having spent many years in Christchurch. It was also known for being one of only two technically demanding sections of the Brevet course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For me personally some of the rideable sections were highlights of the Brevet, but tree fall and track washouts started to dominate the ride and hours of bike carrying took the gloss of the experience. Our average speeds were taking a major tumble, I also got a puncture, and while I was running tubeless with a tyre sealant, couldn't get it to seal, so had to revert to sticking a tube in, costing more time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To add to the challenge I had started to get pain in my right knee, and both achilles</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, forcing me to start walking some of the sections I would normally ride.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We finally emerged at a river crossing, and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">thought we were nearly done, but</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> were thrown a curved ball navigation wise, with an unintuitive double river crossing. After much head scratching and exploring we figured it out, but the rest of the ride out was also pretty vague, with no real track just following the river bed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we finally exited into the Lees valley darkness wasn't far away, and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">again we had to shorten our expected destination for the day. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A shearing shed that had looked like a good place to fill up with water, soon started to look appealing as a bivvy spot. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.15;">We knocked on all the farm buildings for permission, but they were all deserted. Exhaustion got the better of us and we bedded down in the</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Shearing shed, a bit smelly and dirty, but </span><span style="line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">luxury</span><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> compared to bivvying out on the grass with the sandflies.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We got even luckier when we found we could boil water there, cook up our freeze dried meals we had been carrying as emergency rations, and even have a cup of tea. It was the best beef stroganoff I had ever tasted!</span>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Day 7 - Lees Valley to Hanmer, 6:45am to 8pm (13.25 hours)</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Falling short on distance the previous day lead to our first proper rationing of our trip, so it was a couple of museli bars for breakfast, an OSM being surprisingly palatable when there was no other choice! </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had been riding ‘clean’ until now, but mealtimes now included a side order of pain killers, I’m sure Lance would have approved!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We managed to get off at a reasonable time, and hit gravel roads to Lees Pass, here we needed to sharpen our navigation skills as we were looking for an easy to miss turnoff (we missed it) for one of two private land sections of the course. Thankfully a bit of paranoia had us stopping to check the cue sheets and map before too long, and we decided to backtrack, sure enough we then found the turnoff, a lucky escape.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We later found that Dean was slightly ahead of us until that point, but overshot the turn and ended up riding for hours trying to find his way out. After a while a rescue team was organised (by brevet and ex-brevet riders) and he was recovered. A great result to have him out safely but an unfortunate end for a nice guy (who always made time to stop and help others), until then it looked like he had all but got the event in the bag. It highlighted the benefit of carrying tracking devices, it sounds like there were many glued to their screens during the rescue, with the rescuers also having tracking devices.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The terrain was now remote cattle country, it felt very isolated and miles from anywhere. After some more nervous navigation decisions the route linked into the Macdonald downs, the navigation got easier, and we were finally on the road to Culverdon. We were both now amped up with the prospects of Culverdon, civilisation, and refuelling. Muzz put the hammer down and it was all I could do to hang onto his wheel.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We rolled into town, grabbed a pie at the Tearoom Cafe, then headed straight across the road to the Red Post Cafe, ordered and consumed for more food, Muzz sat back in a comfy chair and 0.8 seconds later was asleep!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The waitresses took interest in our story (and </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">our wretched looking condition?)</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and kindly made a $20 donation to our cause. We had been receiving fundraising updates by text, which had been buoying us along, and we now looked like hitting our $10,000 target.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The feel good feeling soon stopped for me however as I tried to re-mount my bike, after the stop my bad knee was just too painful to swing over the bike, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">one bystander found it particularly amusing </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">after a dozen failed attempts</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">, before my tired brain finally twigged that I could mount my bike from the other side without bending the bad leg.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was now engaging in a psychological battle, I could feel my injuries getting worse under the strain, but at least this section was a straightforward sealed road to Hanmer, so I convinced my reluctant body to get going one more time. We now shared turns out the front, rotating every 1km, another tactic to pass the time, and give Muzz some respite after his solo effort to Culverden.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The weather then turned wet, but that gave us an opportunity for a new game, since neither of us had mudguards the challenge was for the leader to find the biggest puddle, trick the 'follower' to ride over it and give them a nice big splash of water in the face, it amused us anyway in our apathetical state!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While our bodies were weary, a sense of achievement was building as we neared Hanmer, surely we had this one in the bag now? </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">We found a backpackers but by now I </span><span style="line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">couldn't</span><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> walk properly, so thankfully Muzz went out and got some takeaways for us. My heart sank when we were told our room was up a flight of stairs, the (otherwise very nice) owner taking great amusement in my attempt to hobble up the stairs.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Day 8 - Hanmer to St Arnaud, 8:45am to 8pm (11.25 hours)</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">An early start seemed like a good idea, the 5:30am alarm wouldn’t have impressed our dormitory mate, and due to circumstances beyond our control we couldn’t leave until 3 hours later anyway.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">On waking the body again said no, with little improvement in the knee and achilles overnight. We were dragging ourselves though the morning routine when we remembered we had completely run out of sun screen, desperation to get started lead us to begging people off the street to buy some, and we even tried our luck with the guy at the bakery, but his Indian skin it was unlikely to have needed any and he wasn't sure if we were making a joke of him! At that point we decided to give up and wait for the supermarket to open.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Turning the pedals over after inactivity now resulted in extreme pain in my troubled knee (including tennis style groans poor Muzz had to endure), after turning over a few times however it loosened up and was merely ‘painful’. As soon as I had to put any real pressure on the pedals however (e.g. going up hill) both achilles felt like they were on fire, and I had to resort to dismounting and hobbling along beside my bike.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">The days route was essentially the Rainbow Rage race course in reverse. It started with a big climb up Jacks pass, hobbling, but fast hobbling is not much slower than slow pedalling anyway, and at least it gives the bum a rest.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Rainbow valley had a variety of landscapes, through Clarence valley, Tophouse, Fowlers hut, and Island saddle. We had a profile map of the route, allowing us to tick of our progress, which was good for the mind. Along the way we stumbled across a tramper who was marching through the valley in the midday heat, he said he was heading for Arnaud, Muzz informed him that it would be a 100km day and he got a bit of a shock. Luckily we saw him later hitching a ride, which may have saved a trip by the rescue helicopter!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was an undulating route, with the now routine mixture of walking up hills then riding, however, despite an increasing amount of rest stops things reached a new low for me when it got too painful on the achilles to clip in to my pedals after remounting, and I had to resort to riding with my feet loose on the pedals.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At least the later stages of the route provided some big descents, and pleasant scenery near the river which lifted our spirits. Eventually we reached sealed roads, which was normally a good thing, but it started undulating again, the pain got too much, and I got dropped off the back and had a few quiet tears by myself.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was getting late now, and we reached the state highway intersection, and an option: right for Blenheim and the finish line (approx 5 hours), or left and detour to St Arnaud for civilisation. We had no real choice, and on the final run in to St Arnaud amazingly caught and overtook some other cyclists, 3 young French guys on Mountain bikes. One had a broken chain and was being towed by his friend, explaining their slow pace! They had bought new bikes in Wellington and were only just starting their a tour of the South Island before their unfortunate bad luck.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our blessings were answered on arrival at the St Arnaud dairy and they were still open at 8am (half an hour past their closing time).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We refuelled as usual, and prepared for the next day, in my condition I truly felt I could not carry on another day, even though tantalisingly close to the finishing line. However, experience taught me to make those sort of decisions the next day.</span><br />
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What did lift my spirits was phoning home and hearing that my 3 kids (9, 7, 5 yrs) <span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"> were all bivvying out on the deck in support of me, o</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ne of the highlights of my Brevet training had been doing some test bivvies with them. However I didn't have the heart to tell them I was actually under a solid roof that night!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Day 9 - St Arnaud to Blenheim, 6am to 10:25am (4.5 hours)</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had got word that the second private land section, the North bank, which bypassed the main highway to Blenheim, had caused hardship for riders that had already gone through it, and so the event organisers had demoted it to be an optional side trip. We didn’t have to think twice in our condition to take the easier option.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the night I had awoken with an idea - if I could single leg pedal that would allow me to limp on and get a bit closer to Blenheim, without using the bad knee, so I planned to remove the pedal in the morning to make pedalling easier. Practically that may have meant killing was was left of my left achilles pretty quickly, and progress would have been excruciatingly slow (from experience having done single leg drills in the past). But the remaining 120km was now on sealed road and pretty much flat, so it offered at least a spark of hope.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The alarm went off early, an early start required given the anticipated low average speed, and requirment to get to Blenheim before the noon cutoff. Getting out of my sleeping bag and off the ground was a task in itself, but I then entered a zombie like state, didn’t bother with the pedal removal, and hit the road at 6am before I had time to wake up properly. For the first time I split from Muzz and took a ½ hour head start.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I coasted for a while before summoning up the courage to get my bad knee over it’s first pedal stroke, but howled in agony when I did it (sorry neighbours). It took longer than usual to get the knee to loosen up, and I again broke down in tears. But then at about 10km I got a bee sting on my eye, which snapped me out of my misery. It hurt, but in my apathetical state didn’t bother me too much, and I welcomed the distraction from my other hurting parts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I must have been making ok progress as Muzz didn’t catch me for a while, and then started getting paranoid in case he had some sort of mechanical issue, we had to finish this together after all we had been through together! I slowed down and at the 30km mark Muzz caught up, much to my relief. We started our 1km paceline and compared to the challenging parts of the course the km’s just went flying by.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the first time in many days we started to feel we had this one in the bag, and I was prepared to ride myself to destruction to finish the job. I was driven as much by fear of leaving unfinished business as anything!</span><b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were now back in my home territory and two car fulls of my family came out to rendezvous with us, giving us an emotional lift.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bodies fulled by adreneline, euphoria, voltaren and ibuprofen had the bikes singing along nicely at 35kph, we soon hit the outskirts of Blenheim and then some final route navigations to follow.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had planned to roll in at 11:59am - if we weren’t going to be first to finish we wanted to ensure we were the last! But it was 10:25am when we rolled into Semour square, with unbelievable relief and satisfaction, a month after we had started (well if felt like that!). We reunited with our families and sat down to start the recovery process.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlEzWKkUQ_WAb6Stj4Rf_MZvqWLRB3XEIoylCuRO3wzd76SgTlT6cgh8Yiypexk_PNbWV697BnjP1htCnst5STfviyQ-FCjnE17vMEVvOjjnmrV7ohph89PHKpNmolHmjbRaCRQV7SfWU/s1600/DSC_0004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlEzWKkUQ_WAb6Stj4Rf_MZvqWLRB3XEIoylCuRO3wzd76SgTlT6cgh8Yiypexk_PNbWV697BnjP1htCnst5STfviyQ-FCjnE17vMEVvOjjnmrV7ohph89PHKpNmolHmjbRaCRQV7SfWU/s1600/DSC_0004.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The finish</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRKwDLvJyZkadZy7hIruBm6_ZCYFFibWdXUY-pdYnznO3odqJ_1ufchb6ZW-RtzKMH4Z9Qc2ZswuyYEZE-mg26Fc52ylP5wJ5nwGv5tI_dilFEhyphenhyphenAEQwwNxFGVCxV9eyope4YEvo2qEIY/s1600/DSC_0001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRKwDLvJyZkadZy7hIruBm6_ZCYFFibWdXUY-pdYnznO3odqJ_1ufchb6ZW-RtzKMH4Z9Qc2ZswuyYEZE-mg26Fc52ylP5wJ5nwGv5tI_dilFEhyphenhyphenAEQwwNxFGVCxV9eyope4YEvo2qEIY/s1600/DSC_0001.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Epilogue</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It takes a while to come back down to earth after the highs and lows of an event like this. Once we had washed off 9 days worth of dirt and sweat our family welcomed us back with open arms. However, Muzz’s daughter, Lydia, explicitly told him he was not allowed to go riding with Martin again, and has been reminding him on a daily basis!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We showed up as finishing 29th out of 63 on the tracking site, suggesting 34 did not finish or switched to the shorter Brevette, so while we were last to finish we are pleased with that!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mental damage: Muzz has been suffering’ recurring dreams about riding on gravel roads. Hopefully this will pass with time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Physical damage:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Muzz: Major rub issues with the seam line on shorts. Sore wrist for a few days after a fall. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Quadriceps soreness. A</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">chilles soreness. Ten</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> days after the finish crashed down with a cold, fatigue, with time off work.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Martin: Ended up in a knee brace and crutches for a week, with </span><span style="line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">quadriceps</span><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> tendonitis in the knee and achilles tendonitis on both sides, Dr said due to 'excessive overuse'. Two weeks on, and I’m improving, but still hurts to walk more than 2 or 3 mins or bike more than 5 min, so a long way to recover but at least it’s on the mend, and good enough to start catching up on a backlog of household tasks!</span></span><b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the event I also experienced tingling / loss of feeling of fingers for periods of time, seemed to go away in later days, going down onto the aero bars where possible helped here. Saddle soreness, goes without saying, likewise, going down on aero bars helped move the pressure points.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I managed to actually put on about 1kg during the event, against all the odds. Eating until I felt nauseous at every opportunity probably helped here!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We counted ourselves lucky with the weather, while we did get rained on 3 times it never got too bad and we never had a wet bivvy which was very lucky.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lessons learnt</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you pull out when injuries start to affect you? A hard call to make when you are in pain on day 6, with 3 days still to go, do you push on risking serious injury, or pull out risking huge disappointment. I’m happy with my decision, even though I might be out of action for the rest of the season.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were </span><span style="line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">under trained</span><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> going into the event, and the first half of the event challenged with tiredness and exhaustion. Then body seemed to adapt, and final days were about pain management, not surprisingly it got less enjoyable as it went on.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gear highlights:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not carrying a backpack was a GOOD decision, made possible by my Psych top tube bag, shame they don’t make them any more.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Likewise aerobars were invaluable on the road (on an upright trail bike), and to attach things to.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the bike, barring a minor mechanical, performed well, wouldn’t do it without a rear suspension lockout (a modification I made), and was great to be able to turn the suspension on for the challenging stuff.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gear lowlites: I had wet bivvy anxiety, and would have preferred to have been better prepared for that eventuality. Also, would have liked more capacity for ‘soft food’ e.g. carrying bakery goodies.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Would I do it again? Short answer = no.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the Petite Brevet 3 years ago I said I would never do anything like that again, but added a couple of exceptions and found myself rocking up at the start line of the Kiwi Brevet.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I say never again, but with a couple of possible exceptions! These being a course that had a good proportion of rideable singletrack i.e. fun mountain biking, and one which allowed ramping up the daily distances during the event itself, e.g. 6, 8, 10, 12 hours, thereby reducing training commitment and injury risk.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-2d27d953-6267-7e00-655e-7efa428ab270"><br /><span style="color: #333333; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="color: #333333; vertical-align: baseline;">Hopefully no one will come up with an event satisfying the above and so I can quietly leave my revelate bags gathering dust in the garage :)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #333333; vertical-align: baseline;">Would I recommend it to anyone else? YES! And make sure you take a tracker so I can watch you :)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Highlights</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Amazing sense of achievement</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Having a team mate to share the the highs and lows with</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Brevet riders' colourful diversity and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">camaraderie</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">Exploring New Zealand's </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">spectacular</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"> back country</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Rideable sections of Waiutu and Wharfdale tracks</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Epic descents: numerous</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Bivvies in unusual places: on a conveyor belt and in a shearing shed</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Fundraising for a cause close to our hearts</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">The support of family, friends, and followers</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Lowlites</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">Knee and achilles injuries</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Unrideable sections of Waiutu and Wharfdale tracks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">Bee strings twice in St Arnaud</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">Navigational issues / getting lost</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OSM bar saturation</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Catching sight of myself in a mirror looking 10 years older due to exhaustion</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Our Typical Brevet Day</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">5:30am Up, eat, get dressed into damp riding clothes, clean and lube bike chain, fill up with water, buy food (if in town), personal hygiene, check cue sheet and map, pack.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">7:00am Ride!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">8:00pm Finish ride, </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">buy food (if in town), </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">eat, eat some more, wash riding clothes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">10:00pm Sleep</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><b>Statistics</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">1166km</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">17,000 metres vertical ascent</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">7 days and 22.5 hours elapsed time (1.5 hours inside cutoff time).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Finishing place: 29 out of 63 (34 did not finish)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">99 hours riding (12.5 per day average. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">If the average rider rides 4 hours per week, we accumulated 6 months of riding in 8 days)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">1 flat each (one on tubeless)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">2 bee/wasp stings</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">4 crashes between us</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Laden bike weight: 27kg (14kg bike, 7kg gear, 6kg food and drink for 1.5 days)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Number of wet feet after water crossings: lost count</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">Gained 1kg weight (took eating very seriously!)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">3 nights bivvying: in a field, on a disused conveyor belt, and in a shearing shed</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.1875px;">$11500 raised for charity</span><br />
$500 food bill (each).<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thankyou</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-2d27d953-6267-001e-f1f2-fe3bde9436d4" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A big thanks to my long suffering wife and family, although they enjoyed the excitement during the event, it was a big family sacrifice both physically while training, and during many months of planning.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The donations rolled in while we were away riding, and continued afterwards, at the time of writing we are nudging $11,500. We are overwhelmed by the support, thankyou to all who contributed!</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A final thankyou to Simon Kennet and the organisers, I love / hate you, can’t quite decide which!</span><br />
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