When Cat & Di said "yes" back in the Autumn we were, to be perfectly honest, completely naive about what we were letting ourselves in for.
As Es quickly pointed out, "the clue is in the title".
Imagine a sheltland pony lining up on the start line of the Grand National - that is what Di & Catrin felt like...
Catrin literally did compete in her lightweight ski touring equipment, which isn't very light when you compare it to race kit.
Di made Catrin buy her a pair of race boots as she was driving around the Alps so that she wouldn't have to race in her conventional ski boots (i.e. the diva's!) and then Di managed to borrow Lou's ski's which were lighter (but still heavy) than Catrin's. This is where you are very grateful that you did learn to ski on very long, straight ski's and leather boots some 30+ years ago - there was alot of digging deep into the memory bank.
We had absolutely no idea what a transistion was (but we do now, having had the crash course from Gabby) and it is amazing what you can do with a coat hanger to improvise a race rucksack.
We came last in everything, but I suppose someone has to, but sometimes you just have to make the most of a very humbling experience.
Having dragged the bottom lip around after the first day, I have properly pulled up my man-suit and fully embraced the concept of racing ...
