Day #2 - 39km

Hey everyone!
Today was yet another tough day on the race course. Thankfully, things got underway at first light, 6am. What a difference that makes. We left Rafikki and immediately began a grueling climb, taking us nearly 1.5 hrs to cover the 10km distance. From there it was a decent and then into climb #2 - this one, CRAZY MUDDY. We were in the heart of the jungle with mud up to our knees, falling everywhere as we climbed. I lost my shoe once in it too. It was like a suction cup. Chris, Monica and I were together to just before CP2. I should mention as well, the first 22km of today took us approx 3.5hrs to do. It was tough going and unforgiving. You had to keep your head in it, focus and just keep going. Monica (from Spain) is a very strong athlete and we race very much the same kind of race. She put 2mins on me going into CP2 on a cow path - really technical and a total ankle breaker. I played the safe card on this and then lost a bit more time when I had to fill my water in a river. It was so hot that I wasn't keen to take chances. Chris dropped back as the days pace had really caught up. I arrived into CP3 after a taxing road section, Monica put 10mins on me there. Then it was through the mangroves (oooooh, I hate those trees) and finally onto the beach! HELLLLLLO Beautiful Costa Rican beach!!! Amazing breaks, no-one on them, it was surreal. 9km down the beach we went to the finish line. It was pretty much runn-able and hard packed so that was good. I lacked leg turnover and by the time I crossed the finish, Monica had 18mins on me. Regardless, I'm pleased with my performance today. We still have 4 days to go and tomorrow starts with a river run for at least an hour. Tonights camp is in a remote surf town called Dominica. Really cool. The plan for the rest of today is to cheers on the rest of TEAM CANADA #1 and #2 and then watch the surfers with my feet up. Ready for a good sleep as last night was super muggy.

At the time of writing this blog, here is the update. Dan had a great race and came in second for our team today. He is all smiles, body is in good shape. Chris suffered to the finish line despite totally falling apart but he made it and we will sort him out tonight. Cindy was solid as a rock and just had another great day. She is a force out here and I have no doubts that she is going to continue to get stronger each day. Not to mention, she brought a new run outfit for each day so she looks good all the time :) Jude crossed again with a huge smile but we will need to address some foot swelling tonight as well. I'm headed back to camp and will get another blog up tonight!

Thanks everyone for all the goodlucks to the team!!!!