day 8 truly was an EPIC end to the camp, starting as is an EPiC tradition, with swim races. Tara and I split the teams as evenly as possible, based on what we have seen this week and the swim times from our aquathlon race. 50m of each stroke by each team member for the medley relay followed by a 5x 100m freestyle. Lot’s of cheering and laughs and everyone gave top effort even though some had never tried to swim some of the strokes before! Nice work 
)
The main feature of the day…and possibly the whole camp for some…was to ride the Ironman lanzarote bike course. We’d switched our original week’s schedule in which we’d originally planned to to this EPIC ride on thursday based on forecasts of lighter winds today. However, listening to the winds during breakfast, it was quite apparent that this was not the case – but we were committed to it and everyone set off with full pockets and good spirits, ready for the adventure. Tara, Karen, Maya and I followed about half an hour later with the plan of the group coming together more or less for lunch at Teguise, around 80km in. The first section of the ride was a dream, pushed south by the winds; we knew that we’d be paying for it later though! I was feeling pretty weary at this point in the ride and dropped back bit as we looped El Golfo, knowing that I’d come good later on in this long day. We allowed Tara to take the strain right into the headwind on the way North towards and up Fire mountain…Tara holds the course record on this Ironman – how cool is it to be on a camp on this Island, riding the Ironman route on the wheel of the fastest woman to ever have done so? pretty cool ) I punctured on the descent, and whilst Karen and Maya waited for me to fix it, Tara had taken off. I didn’t figure that we’d see her again – when we arrived at lunch, she’d just left and that gap was only ever gonna grow! maya hooked up to ride with her mom after lunch, leaving Karen and I together for the remaining half of the ride. We rode solidly together for the rest of the day (with a “sort of” QoM up M.del Rio – which K took) but were really just trying to get through the day and home as soon as possible! Epic, but tired )
As we rode the very final nasty climb to the villa, it dawned on me that my hold on the Primera Mujer’s jersey was only a few points…some of which wold be absorbed by the Qom competition…and that she’d have been home a good half hour before us – time for a swim set, or a run!! our ride distance was 20km short of the 180km needed for a bonus – so when we returned to the villa and I saw that T was indeed in the pool, sans wetsuit, I had no choice but to turn my bike around and get those additional 20km done.
it didn’t take long, and i was going to be back well in time for my 6pm massage – then i saw tara heading out for a run WHAT!!! oh no. we had a quick chat and neither of us really knew what the “score” would be….i reckoned that if i ran I might stay in the lead…but, the appeal of that massage couch was too great. Tara put in an EpiC day, pushed me to do a bigger ride than planned and demonstrated that she really is one helluva athlete and sets an example for all of us ) if she took a jersey home to prove it, then it’s well deserved.
Everyone arrived form their rides though the late afternoon, pleased and proud of having completed a tough day on a tough camp. I’m proud of everyone for “taking it to the next level” – whatever that means for themselves. We’ve had a great time doing it, meeting these women and look forward to having the opportunity to do so again next year!
The support of Deb and Daz at TriSports has been fantastic, we’ve been real lucky to have such a great group of athletes here…and Lanzarote did not fail to deliver the EPIC training conditions in the ocean, on the bike and even the rugged trail running.
we SMASHED it.