Maungatautari Mission, Multi-sport Race

On Saturday I did the Maungatautari Mission with a couple of workmates. It's a multi-sport event consisting of a 32km undulating road bike, 15km mountain run, 15km undulating road bike, 10km flat water kayak. I was doing the cycling. Marie Couper did the run, which was definitely the hardest of the legs.   Jane Sherrard did the Kayaking.

I managed to stay with the front bunch during the first cycle leg but spent most of the time drafting.  The second half of the ride features quite a few short hills which made things difficult and reduced the size of the bunch to about 30 people by the end of the first leg.

Next up it was Marie's turn, she got the hardest job of running over the mountain which includes several hard hills. There were some people in serious pain as they finishedthe run, some had leg cramps and couldn't even change into their cycling shoes by their self. Despite seeing all of these people in discomfort I still found myself wanting to do the whole event next year, we'll see what happens. Marie did really well on the run, there weren't many females that came in before her.

Then it was onto the next cycle leg. There were a few steepish uphills in there but overall it was downhill so it was quite a fast ride, very enjoyable.  Unfortunately I missed the last turn off and wasted about a minute, but that was no big deal.

A very eager Jane was then off in the kayak with a huge head start on her brother that she was very keen to beat.  Mission accomplished! The results haven't been put on the internet yet so I'm not sure what our time was.   But I think we did pretty well for a mixed team.