This weekend was Provincials. It was a big race with 60 plus men on the start line. The race was on Saturday July 12, the race started at 12:30. I did my normal warm up that my coach Len Gushe has set out for me.
I went into this race with alot of nerves and butterfly's, when the gun went off I got down to business I jumped on fast feet and stayed on them as long as I could. I told my self before the race if I come out of the water with a time of 10:00mins for 750m I would be having a good race. As i did my last dolphin dive and stared running out of the water I looked at my watch and it read 9:50 it was about 10:00 by the time I got into the transition area.
I grab ed my bike and headed out on the 4 loop 20km bike course. I got into a pack on the first lap. Everything was good until there was a wheel touch Alexander Hinton went down and 4 or 5 guys went down with him. I hit the breaks and tried to dodge the body's in front. I tipped over. I rushed to get back on the bike and and hammer back up to pack. I pushed myself into the red zone and then paided for it. I stared getting really hot on the bike and there was some good wind to cool me down but it wasn't I knew something wasn't right.
I dismounted of my bike and started running i just knew something wasn't right. I was seeing stars but I was not going to dnf I just kept running threw it, everything was a blur around me. I remember coming to the transition and then the rest was lights out. I woke up to the race doctor and other volunteers dumping water and ice on me. Evey thing was still a blur I couldn't understand what people where asking me. They ended up moving me to some shad and I layed there for another 15mins. I then was helped up to my feet, and in about an hour i was almost back to myself.
On paper I did DNF but in my mind I didn't, I kept pushing until I couldn't anymore.
Karsten Madsen
