What a weekend we had, me and Cathy, in Duban/Pietermaritzburg for the Amashova! Lots of fun, hard work and exciting stuffJ It is quite a mission this race if you don’t have back up and someone to help you with transport since the start is in Pietermaritzburg and the finish is in Durban 100km away. Since the start is so early it is always the question: should you stay close to the start or the finish, you also have to think about your luggage. I am super thankful to the staff at my sponsor Alpha Pharm, they got very much involved in our weekend!! Thanks, we could not have done it without you!!!

So our weekend worked in steps, since we did not really know what was happening next… We landed in Durban and Sagren, from Alpha Pharm Durban, came to pick us up, it all started with my bike falling of a golf car that took us to the parking lot… We went to registration at the new stadium in Durban, at the same time as there was a rugby match on, maybe not the best planning… Then Sagren took us up to Pietermaritzburg to Christas house (works at Alpha Pharm Pietermaritzburg), she was not at home but was kind to give us her flat for the night. She had involved her neighbours to help us, so Denise (neighbour nr 1) let us in and had done some shopping for us so we did not even need to go to the shop for food! It was pouring down with rain so we sat in the flat without TV the whole day, a lot of girl talk going on then;)

Next morning at 5am Tony (neighbour nr 2) came to pick us up and take us to the start. First we had to find Ed’s parents cause they were transporting our bags to the finish, then find the other teams to give wheels for back up. Than all we had to do was race:-)

After the race we met Arno (a friend of Cathy) so we could have our things in his car while we were waiting for prize giving and so on. Then we took all the things to a restaurant and waited there until Sagren came to fetch us and take us back to the airport. We then waited for 5 hours at the airport before we could fly back home to Cape Town.

A long weekend with lots of time to kill, so if I did not know Cathy before… I do now:-) Thanks everyone that helped us and thanks Cathy for an awesome weekend!!!

Oh, and the race;) It felt good during the race, a few attacks but nothing serious so it all came down to the sprint. Very unfortunate but the organisers had put up a banner at the 1km mark but not marked it as 1 km so it looked like the finish. It was even people standing there so very easy to think it was the finish. I knew it was not and was perfectly positioned a bit before, I thought the girls sprinted a bit hard with that far to go until we had passed that line and everyone stopped, that made me confused as well, -had we finished??? Casandra attacked and I went after her, I could not catch her and when we had 150m to go the others kicked and I had nothing left to give, so very disappointed to not even be top 10 at the race that I won last year… I should have just kept going when the others stopped but it is very easy to say after….

Today I booked my eye laser operation, will do it next week so only one more week with glasses and contacts, it is so exciting, I will be able to see when I wake up in the future! I am looking forward to that!!