The Mast Challenge - Race Report by Emily Clarke

On the 10^th of May I did the mast challenge here in CT. It's a runner against cyclist race: 11km up with 900m of l ascent. You can do the run or the ride or the kings challenge which is both :) I did the Kings challenge. I felt good on the run and ended 4th in the ladies overall. For the ride I was feeling less great (after having run 22km's- up and down) but still managed 5th overall in the ladies race. In the Kings challenge I came 2nd :)

The challenge was heaps of fun and insanely beautiful albeit a tad cold!!! I haven't run in a race for years and it was nice to see that my feet can still carry me at a reasonable pace (largely due to my awesome training program!). 

The race was part of my final preps for Expedition Africa which begins this Sunday the 25th May on the wild coast. This crazy adventure race will include a whole lot more of what the mast challenge was... well a couple of days’ worth of it non-stop. Plus 80ish km’s of paddling. Eek! A massive thanks to coach Bosseau Bosshoff for getting me race ready and Naeem and the V-team for the unending support. I wouldn't make the start line without them! 

See you all on the other side of +-300km of MTB'ing, +- 120km of trekking/running, +-80km of ocean paddling and a whole lot of sleep deprivation... Granted we don't get horribly lost. You can track team Flirtatious Flamingoes (Guy, Darol, Christiaan and myself) at http://www.kineticgear.org/gps-tracking/ or monitor us on the www.kineticgear.org website. There will be all sorts of cool leader board type stuff happening. You can also follow @kineticgear on  twitter and facebook for live updates. 

Pray for Guy and Darol's navigational skills. And for those of you who are familiar with my geographical knowledge... stress not, I won't be touching the maps. AT ALL!