Small Steps to Perspective

Over the past weekend, I had the pleasure of travelling to The Coromandel Peninsula, one of the most beautiful parts of the North Island.

Our purpose: compete in the K2 (200km) and K1 (96km) road cycling races along with a couple thousand others.

The result: perspective.

I arrived to my hostel to find this view...

That would be the start/finish line for the K2 and the finish line for my race, the K1. I had no idea when I booked this place. This is by far the most surreal finish line I've ever been a part of. It tops even the Free Press Marathon finish line on Ford Field. We spent one quiet night, then awoke for our bus to the start of the K1. One member of our group entered the K2, finishing in 6:32.00. The only other person in my bunk was a German fella, probably in his 70s, travelling by himself. His name started with a G (Gerhard, perhaps) and he spoke English well enough for us to communicate. He would be where the perspective eventually came from.

The next day I woke, caught my bus, forgot my water bottles, borrowed water bottles and began the race at noon. The race included two major climbs, a category 1 (5.5km) and a category 3 (4km). I managed to do better than I expected, finishing in 2:54.19 and placing 75th overall. It was a small step back into road cycling confidence. Here's a glimpse of what the scenery looked like along the route...

Although I wasn't exactly looking around at that point in the race. Good thing they took this photo or I would have had no idea. Suffering on the climbs and hanging on for dear life on the way down. My bike computer later told me that my top speed was 81.7km/h. Yes, that was scary.

I woke at 6:30 to catch the sunrise...

Then had a chat with Gerhard. He travelled to New Zealand with only his bike. He landed in AUckland and pedalled north. Then he pedalled back south. The he went east. The ride he did the day before we met took him well over 5 hours and involved a few of the hills we tackled in the K1...except he was decked out like this...

His plan was to keep on pedalling south, eventually end up in the South Island and explore there for 5 weeks.
"Where will you go," I asked him.
"I don't know, I have no plan. I will ask people, and they will tell me where I should go."
Legendary.
The owner of the hostel said she asked him if he would compete in the K2. His answer was that we go too fast.
"That's OK," I said, "he goes too far for us."
Then she asked me if maybe I'll one day do what Gerhard's doing.
"I can only hope."
I asked to take a photo with him and his bike and he said no problem. I wished him luck and a safe journey. And then he pedalled off into the morning.