So that bad-ass chick I wrote about last time, Katie, well, she really is a bad ass. I found some of her race results online (after figuring out her last name) and man, she is one hell of an athlete. She seems to have either won or finished in the top 10 of her age division for just about every race she entered, whether it be a marathon or a pretty tough-sounding triathlon, for instance. Just to give you an idea of how fast she is: She has run a 3:15 marathon. The funny thing is, she told me I am what Canadians call a "sandbagger," but she's the sandbagger. I'm not the one who underestimates his ability, she is...
Yeah, so I ended up riding the same route Katie took, rather than the shorter route I could have taken, because the longer route was supposed to be much more scenic. Indeed it was. It was also a lot more demanding than I expected, but the ride was just about perfect. The sun was shining, there was very little wind, there were some fast flats mixed in with grinding hills, and the views of the coast were fantastic.
As expected, Katie took off early. She said she was going to leave at around 7:30 and when I looked for her bike at 7:33 it was gone. I initially left at 8:23, but, after cycling nearly 4 kms, I realized that I had left my two water bottles back at the backpackers (that's what the Kiwis call a youth hostel), so I had to ride back to get them. That little detour cost me 30 minutes, but I was happy that I noticed my bottles were missing before I was too far down the road. (It was actually a bit chilly out, for the second morning in a row, but, for the second day in a row, I knew the clouds would burn off eventually and the weather would turn spectacular.)
Two hours and 50 kms later (I made good time because the road primarily went ever so slightly downhill), at a place, or rather intersection, called Inangahua, I pulled off the road to make a pit stop at what looked like the only market in "town." As soon as I walked in, I asked about Katie and, sure enough, the guy working there told me that she had stopped in at around 9:30, bought a bag of lollies, and headed right back out. According to him, she was "on a mission."
I had a great little chat with the guy about the 140 km "race" to Punakaiki (her destination, not mine) that she and I were having that really wasn't a race... But it was. Or was it?
From that point on, there were only 90 kms to go, so, after doing the math, I figured the chances of me seeing Katie on the road were slim to none.
I rode on fast, nonetheless, because the road was wide open and favorable to fast riding, but after about an hour, I felt my left knee aching, so I decided to slow down. After all, I wasn't racing. Or was I?
Anyway, two hours later, I had covered a total of 100 km, so I knew I was getting close to the imaginary goal line. I also knew that there was no way I'd beat Katie there, considering her roughly 90-minute head start. Sure, she was carrying quite a bit of weight, but, based on the fact that she supposedly covered the first 50 kms in the same amount of time I did, I figured she'd still ride the rest of the way at about 20-22 km/h (whereas I was hoping to average more like 24 km/h), which meant she'd certainly finish before me.
Anyway, the last 40 kms turned out to be much more difficult that the first 100, because there were lots and lots (and lots!) of short, twisty climbs. As the climbs kept coming, I kept downgrading Katie's arrival time from 1:00 to 1:30 to 2:00 to even 2:30, but I was still expecting to arrive a few minutes before 3:00, so I just didn't imagine seeing her on the road. I kind of felt sorry for her, carrying all that weight on those climbs, but she knew what she was getting herself into. She can only blame herself for carrying a jar of honey with her, for instance...
I had no idea at which of the two hostels in Punakaiki Katie was staying, and it turns out I passed hers by 2 km, but I eventually found her and used the opportunity to buy some food, rest, and talk about the "race."
Apparently, to my surprise, I nearly caught her!
I'm guessing that by the time I called her hostel from the wrong one to ask if she was there, a good 15-20 minutes had passed, and, when I asked the lady on the other end of the line how long Katie had been there, instead of saying, "About an hour," she said, "She just got here a few minutes ago. She's really fast!"
Wow.
Sure enough, when I finally met Katie, about 10 minutes after I called, she said she had been there for about 40 minutes... Ugh...
But we weren't racing, so who really cares?
Unfortunately for me, however, my day wasn't over.
There was not going to be any food around until I reached Greymouth, some 45 kms down the road, so I made sure to get something to eat before I hit the road. For instance, I bought two $2 muffins and "stole" a slice of bread from the loaf that was just sitting there in the common room at the "wrong" hostel (which was right on the beach!), and I bought an ice cream at the visitor's center just down the road from there (after pedaling super slowly alongside Katie, who walked part of the way there with me from her hostel).
I figured that would be enough to hold me over, so off I went, at 14:15.
Two hours later, I arrived in Greymouth, and the first place I went was, you guessed it, Macca's.
I ordered a medium fries to get back some of the salt I had lost while riding (sweating) and made good use of the free Internet, especially to notify the family I was planning to stay with that I was nearly there. Of course, they didn't get the message, but that didn't matter. They welcomed me in, anyway.
So that's where I am now, about 8 kms south of Greymouth and then another 7 kms west.
I'm just chilling, not doing much, but at least I have a chance to catch up with this blog a bit, among other things.
I'm also trying to figure out my next move, since one friend of mine, a Dutch guy, is cycling toward me from the south, while two other friends, former students of mine from Japan, are arriving in Christchurch in exactly one week.
The tentative plan is to wait for Teun ("Toon") to arrive and then cycle with him over Arthur's Pass to Christchurch (a.k.a. CHCH). The problem with that idea is that we'd arrive in CHCH on 3/1, but my two buddies are leaving for Lake Tekapo that same day.
Yeah, so if we can arrive in CHCH on 2/28, I could then ditch my bike somewhere and travel with the two Japanese guys by bus for about 10 days, which would be pretty fun...
There are plenty of other options, as well...
Anyway, more soon.
I also hope to finally start adding pictures to the blog, perhaps tomorrow!
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