I arrived at Oak Valley shortly after 10:00 and found us a nice spot under some trees at the far end of the camping ground. Boet and Son arrived at about 10:30. We collected our number and readied ourselves fir the 12:00 start.
Race briefing was at 11:45 and Maurant Botha asked for a minute silence in memory of my son Adre, who died the previous week in a cycling accident. I decided to go ahead and do the 24 hour as it would give me some time alone for some reflection.
We started at 12:00 with the customary Le Mans style sprint across the rugby field. My first lap took me just over 40 minutes. Lap two was my fastest lap at 39:04. I decided to do six laps before I would take my first break. At 40 minutes per lap that would be 4 hours riding time. The last 2 laps took 44 minutes each.
I had a quick stop at 16:10 and set again on some more laps while I felt fresh and the sun was still shining. I did a further 3 laps before I decided to take another rest. The next lap took me 59 minutes, including my resting time. I therefore did 9 laps during the first 8 hours 50 minutes. From here I took a rest at every second lap. My normal lap time was down to 50 minutes a lap and about 1:10 when I took a rest. It was mow getting dark and this called for increased concentration. My lap time moved out to 55 minutes.
At 00:15 I saw that the battery of my Garmin was getting low, so it was time to recharge with the help of my Power Monkey. This worked well and soon I was just about at full power again. On the next lap in, I discarded the Power Monkey and was back on battery power only. Three quarters of the way through the lap, the Garmin suddenly went dead. I tried switching it on, but to no avail. At the end of the lap I connected the Power Monkey again. It came back on and I set off on another lap. On passing the transition point, I notice that although the Garmin was on, it was frozen. At the end if the lap I came in again and tried to revive it, but to no avail. After a couple of efforts matters got worse and it froze in startup mode. It eas 02:15 and I decided that this was the right opportunity to take a rest. I leveled the driver's seat in my car and took a nap. It was pretty cool and I had two jackets and a tracksuit top on. After a while I dosed off and when I woke up it was 05:12. Up to this point I did 16 laps in 14:41.
I got going immediately, but at a very leisurely pace. The next lap took 56 minutes, but there after I stopped at each lap and was taking about 1:15 to complete a lap. I started my last lap at 11:04 and had to make sure I only crossed the finish line after 12:00 or else I had to do another lap. Something I really did mot feel up to after 24 hours in the saddle. My timing was pretty good Nd I crossed the finish line at 12:02.
