The Tour de Manawatu
Yesterday was the Tour de Manawatu. It's an annual event put on by the Fitzherbert Lions Club and is categorised as a "fun" ride. As the man who seemed to be in charge said at the start - "This is a tour, not a race." I didn't feel like mentioning that the Tour de France was a race, and that at that very moment in Southland there was a national tour going on that was very much a race.Fortunately I was in no position to correct him as I was surrounded by the 452 other cyclists in the 50km section. I wasn't about to complain either, as it was my first time racing and to be honest, I was rather petrified. This wasn't helped by the fact that I hadn't trained properly in over 2 weeks.
It was comforting though, to see heaps of cyclists who looked as if they were out there for the first time in a pack as well. A woman next to me at the start who would have easily been over twice my age asked me amiably if there were any hills out there. I made a non-commital noise in the back of my throat and tried not to think about the two (in my opinion, not Dan's!) relatively big climbs (PEAKS!) about 15km in.
I won't bore you all with details of the race, but it was a really awesome ride and I would encourage anyone to get out there and try it. There are three different sections, 120km, 50km and 20km. So no excuses, anyone can do it. There were kids as young as six doing it and men and women as old as 78 or so doing it as well.
SO YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!!!!
Seriously.
Coming back into town along Napier Road I will admit was a bit tiring as there was a very strong head wind and by then my legs were a tad tired, but once you actually got into town it was great as there were heaps of people to cheer you on and the roads had been closed off so you could really go for it.
And here's me finishing!
YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
(I'm on the right by the way!!)
I can't wait for the next race! Don't know when that will be but I will definitely post on it. In the meantime, I'm off to New Plymouth on thursday to support Dan with the NZ Tri Series. BRING IT ON!!! YAY!
posted by Susie at
9:34 pm
2 Comments:
Haha, good thing I didn't post the dirty smooch photo!
Thanks Tim :-) I'm sure that spin did help, preparing me for those peaks! I am surprised I didn't see Ron there though. Perhaps he was... There were over 1500 entries!
By
Susie, at 8:58 am, November 07, 2006
Hey - I solidly maintain that if some of the people out there could finish it, then ANYONE could. There was a bloke with ONE ARM who did it. Apparently he does ironman races (or triathlons - Dan did tell me but I think i was still delerious that I'd finished so it might have gone in one ear and out the other) so that proves it!
Here's my official result -
Out of 502 cyclists.......
Overall Place = 156th
Gender Place = 48th
Category Place (17-26years) = 11th
And the dodgy pic was taken when me and Dan were COMPLETELY unaware of ANYTHING! My dodgy father trying to get photos to whip out at my 21st that I will NOT be having!
Once again - I really encourage people to have a go at it! Speaking of having a go at sporting events - how about the TriWoman series? (Sorry John and Tim, you guys can't enter!) That's a great way to get motivated into training! Hmmmmm I may do a post on that... :-)
By
Susie, at 12:42 pm, November 07, 2006
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