Walkerbay Xtreme Day 2

Day 2's mountain bike challenge was the event I was most nervous about. In fact, I think it was subconsciously eating me up inside because I woke up at 2am and didn't go back to sleep...not an ideal start!

The first alarms went off at 5:50am and one by one we emerged from our rooms and proceeded to get on with our own pre-race routines to get us ready for our climb up into the Hermanus mountain range.

5 of us opted for the 27km ride with one lonely team member choosing to go big with the 55km Xtreme Mountain Challenge. Crazy!

I only saw my fellow biker friends right at the start and then right at the end just as our one team member hopped up onto the podium to receive her 2nd place medal. Everything in between was a beautiful, slow, picturesque struggle. The first 12km made me question why I had never given mountain biking a try before, then the last 15km reminded me why. Mountain biking is hard. I am so used to only relying on my own body weight to get me up those tough hills. Throw a bike into the mix and it's a whole different ball game.

But oh so worth it when you can spend a few hours cycling through scenes like this:

After our cycle and hanging around for the last of the 55km cyclists to come in, we were on a mission to find an awesome breakfast spot. Lo and behold, we stumbled upon Betty Blue Bistro. If you're ever in Hermanus, I would definitely give this little gem a try!

Before we knew it, it was time for the 6 of us to get wetsuited up for the next event: The Sea and Sand Xtreme. This was probably one of the coolest things I have ever taken part in. It consisted of a 400m swim, followed by a 1.5km run, jump off a 15m cliff back into the sea, 400m swim, 1km run and one last 500m swim to end at the Old Harbour slipway. I will admit that leading up to the event I was really not looking forward to getting cold and wet, but we were advised that the water was a toasty 17 degrees which helped. A little.

Set to kick off at 1pm, the thorough race and safety briefing delayed the start by an hour. But I am so grateful for it because I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Next thing the lifeguards were demonstrating "how-to" and "how-not-to" launch yourself off of a cliff into the sea, get out of the sea onto another cliff using the swells, and how to scale down the cliff should you be too scared to jump.

During the briefing I was convinced I wouldn't do the jump, so I watched carefully at the scaling-of-the-cliff demonstration...but people don't lie when they say adrenaline can make you do crazy things you never thought you would...

Because this, right here, was probably the highlight of my weekend...

As one who is afraid of heights, afraid of being out of control and afraid of falling, actually physically launching off of a cliff 15 meters above the sea I was jumping into was mind-blowing. But we all did it and it was an awesome experience to share with one another.

While it's cool to take these events seriously and be competitive, the best part about our group was that we had a great balance between hard work and fun. Every day ended with a check in at one of the many Hermanus eateries, some good laughs back at our place and maybe one or two more drinks than we should have...but hey, no regrets!

This day in particular had the perfect ending and the pictures say it all...