A year had passed and the North Face 100 had come again.
Was it time to complete 100km solo? We thought to ourselves, not yet and settled for the pair’s event once again. We were excited feeling more matured as runner’s and having more experience and competing in a lot more races, we felt that we would handle the situation of a runners low a lot better.
Stuart started the first leg and took off feeling confident and comfortable about the task at hand. I clipped on with the lead group of 4 runners and soon spread out as we hit the steep stairs and hills, as each runner has his own tactics. Reaching the
1st checkpoint I was in 3rd place, 1st place in the pairs. I couldnd place in front and took it upon myself to catch him. Hend leg as he did so well the year beforest in the pairs, 20 see 2 managed to hold a gap on me of only a few minutes and I was unable to catch him. Remarkably a year later I could remember the track like the back of my hand, I knew exactly what was coming up, where the hills and stairs were, the river crossings and I handled it all a lot better. I knew what to expect and my attitude and the way I went about the race feeling a lot better than the previous year. I had reached the 50km checkpoint 20minutes quicker than my previous year’s time and I put this down to my mental mindset during the race.
Dave backed up for the 2 heading out on the 2nd leg of the race after the customary sleep in the back of the car at checkpoint 3. Like Stuart I felt confidant I had prepared better for this year than last, Stuart had put me in a good position at 50km and before I knew it 30km had passed and so had a familiar face, having not been able to catch one of the runners in last year’s race he over took me around the 35km mark, a much needed mental boost was needed, and it came at checkpoint 5 with the BlackHeart boys ready and waiting, the usual banter of "hurry up" and "what took you so long" ensued.
We were in first place again and I knew all I had to do was hold a good pace and we had it again, suffering slight cramps I raced home just after sundown to finish 15 minutes quicker than last year to an ice cold beer!
We finished 20 minutes quicker than our previous years’ time.
