The ITU African Continental Cup Event Series visited Troutbeck, in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe on the 19th of November. This was going to be a tough race for me as I had fallen sick since the Colombian World Cup and made the decision to see the doctor on the Tuesday afternoon, prior to leaving on Thursday for the race. The doc put me on a short 3 day course of antibiotics, which I reduced to 2 days, so that I could finish and hopefully recover in time for the race.

The trip up to Zimbabwe commenced with the flight to Harare and then a 5hour bus ride to Troutbeck, due east. By the time we arrived it was about 8pm so a quick snack was had, stretch and then hit the ‘sack’. Friday was spent trying to get the body interested in exercise, my first ride since the Colombian World Cup and second run and swims. Needless to say at 2000m altitude I was fighting every negative thought running through my mind. On waking Saturday morning, race day, I was not feeling so great but quickly focused on what was to come.

The race started at midday and the heat, combined with a UV Index of 9, made for ‘cooking’ conditions. The swim start was relatively slow and after 200m I decided to put the hammer down and take the lead. This was more to get rid of the extra runners in the group of 9 Internationals taking part. By 750m I was still leading and then decided to take the foot off the pedal and let the 3 others in the group take the lead. By this time we had the gap over the ‘non-swimmer-runners’. At T1 it was Valery from MRU, Erhard and Rudolf from RSA, and myself. The bike course included 6 gruelling laps of literally 3.3km’s up and then back down. By the second lap, it was myself, Rudolf and Erhard, however, I simply couldn’t maintain pace and dropped off. I know from previous experiences that antibiotics remove my 4th and 5th quadricep gears! I then rode the remainder of the race alone, watching one of the USA athletes slowly make up some ground on me. This I was worried about as he was one of those ‘runners’! Into T2 I was still lying 3rd and really had no ‘gas’ to catch up to 2nd and didn’t want to take too much out the body knowing the Pretoria African Cup is coming up this weekend. The undulating run was more about ‘damage control’ and making sure I maintained my position! I received phenomenal support from the home Zimbabwe crowd and coming down the finish straight still gave me gooseflesh getting the cheers from the crowd. Thank you ZTA for your assistance with this event and putting on yet another superbly organised trip!

The remainder of the time in Zim was spent with Nikki, one of my old mates Rory Mackie and his partner Karie. I went down memory lane and visited my old school, home and other awesome places such as Domboshava!