An Auspicious Beginning

DAY 1

Any hour of the morning with a number less than 6 is night time. Yesterday morning we arrived at the airport during the night. This morning we also got up in the night time, except we had a bit more to do than stumble into a car! We packed up, and headed off on a short 6km trip to be at the Cape Reinga start line for a 7am start. Except the 6km was mostly uphill. Running late (which I’ll admit was my fault), in the dark, hurrying uphill, on quite a warm Northland morning meant we were rather well 'warmed up' before we even started.

We resisted the urge to start first with ‘competitive’ riders, switched on the UE Boom speaker to a mellow playlist, and headed off down the road to ride 90 Mile beach to Ahipara.

The sand had its challenges. Jeremy hoped he was in for a quick $10 .. instead we got a demonstration of some of the disadvantages of small, heavily loaded wheels on loose sand:

(For the record, the fine print specified Jeremy pedalling all the way to my bike and the judge's decision was final.)

While we’d like you to believe we toiled the whole of 90 Mile Beach in conditions like this (what heroes!), today’s typical conditions were far more like this:

Cinematography credit to Daniel, what a multitasking legend.

Also, the third participant here is Toby - hi Toby!

The front wheel kicks up a little bit of sand, apparently. Guess which direction the wind was blowing?

Bed looks real good right now!

(And for the record, today was actually awesome.)

Todays vital stats:

Max speed: 77.4 kph

Dead whales: 1

Max temp: 27 degrees

Water drunk: 10.5 L (both of us)

Energy burned: 9,000 calories (both of us)

Distance covered: 104.9 km**

Average speed: 18.2 kph

Dead fish: 13

Seagulls: 849*

*these are estimates, and the true figures may be +/- many fish and seagulls - there just seemed like a lot more than I anticipated.

** plus another 6km, late, in the dark, uphill, without breakfast (not that I'm bitter about it).

#noregerts #gonnaberaleighfun #famouslastwords