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This was my first adventure race and what an experience! Being fresh off triathlon training I was looking forward to changing up the clean circuits you get on the road riding and cement running for an agility, strength and endurance test of a rougher and more natural variety. I was not disappointed with what I was served.
The opening run was a good warm up to the stages ahead, the crowd sorted itself out before the first checkpoint with those of the greyhound build leading the front and those of us with borderline power to weight ratio issues watching the leaders cruise away up the hills. The later stages of the first foot slog introduced the first trail running and while i am used to being able to switch off during a ride or run and just putting energy on the ground i found that having obstacles to avoid and tight corners to negotiate for more effective at cloaking the muscle burn than any null state of mind could offer. There was just so much going on, and it was fun!
The first bike leg set the standard for the amazing camaraderie experienced for us in the middle tiers. With riders making sure we didn’t race past a tricky checkpoint or take a wrong turn on course It gave me an opportunity to champion for other people who amazingly enough were having more orienteering vertigo than I, only increasing the enjoyment for the day.
Towards the end of the first bike leg I was amazed to see some race leaders running along the track to the second run transition, I felt we couldn’t be doing too badly having them in sight but i was sorely misaligned with reality on this one. I looked to the map and noticed we would be travelling across the contour lines and it was really starting to heat up, they really were a long way ahead and they had just finished the slowest part of the course.
We switched the team backpack to Tanya as she is clearly the better runner but we still struggled for momentum up the hills. I forced down some pride and walked up some of the 20 percent grade. We were greeted with some great sights both wildlife and flora coming through the rougher sections and what an amazing feeling being back on gentle graded ground as we came back into second bike transition.
A rolling start to a second bike leg was just what our legs needed, a good kilometre without and real pedalling and then back into the grind up a hill with some punters forced to walk with their bikes. Back on single trail we felt back at home, when you can only see 10 metres ahead it seems much easier. You bite off little bits at a time. Unfortunately a bi-product of seeing little bits at a time is that you may shoot past a checkpoint if there is a lot going on up the trail. When we reached a fire break and no checkpoint as expected it was clear we had shot past 200 metres on the single track, luckily we weren’t the only ones to make this blunder and so i didn’t feel too embarrassed. Some boggy sections saw some close calls for riders travelling sideways without knobby tyres and it seemed like a good time to take it easy coming back into the last leg for us playing short of the bonus course.
Out on the kayak after some serious rehydration and it was home stretch time. Having an extremely fit partner made this a dream, I could have been coasting along with a 5 horse outboard. We had promised each other to finish with nothing left in the tank so it was emergency stops, wet feet and burning limbs all the way. Once back on dry land we made the final dash back to final checkpoint while frantically re-applying bibs, carrying unattached gear and racing the team of identical twins who we saw several times out on course, good run girls, i call that one a draw!
And this sums it up. If you want enjoyable, difficult, close knit, friendly and altogether entertaining in the context of oxygen deprivation this truly is the perfect day out! See you next time adventure racers, you have two new fanatics in the ranks.
Les Toth
