Kathmandu Sprint – Yarra Bend 10/2/07

Sunshine and a light breeze greeted me as I pulled into the car park, I must say, having only had to drive for 15 minutes, the day was shaping up to be a kind one.

Team 135 (Tim and Peter) considered our predicament whilst reviewing the map…just how do we get Gary’s Labrador to stop climbing all over us and our map!! The solution…well Tim took it upon himself to wrestle him to the ground, to tire him out. I not so sure it worked though, because the dog seemed to get even more hyper as he then ran circles round teams planning!

On a serious not though, we both saw the course as being very fast, and knew this was not our forte. Give us a longer, more technical navigational course any day! Fast transitions and good communication were hopefully going to see us through to a respectable result.

Leg 1, RUN, and the three sausages I ate for breakfast suddenly reminded me digestion does indeed take longer than 2 hours. And wow, we sure had some speed demons in this race! I slowed our team down, with Tim jogging in front of me, my mind telling me to not blow my petrol tickets too soon.

So run, ride, run, ride, and we hit the kayak leg! I was already stoked though, I’d announced in the preceding ride leg that did believe, I had in fact, warmed up.

Ahhh, those orange kayaks… nightmares of adventure races past came back as my body steadfastly resisted all attempts to go as fast as I could. Subconsciously driven from fear, I think I’d learnt to always keep a secret store of energy reserves for later..

We chose to skip the fist checkpoint and pick it up later, although, in hindsight, this would prove of little consequence.

The last mountain bike leg proved fast (and fun), and we zoomed into transition ready for one last paddle!

Arrggghhh!!, theses boats!! I wish to put forward the hypothesis that the harder we paddled, the less the boat moved. We guided the boat to the back, and I jumped out to clip the final control. A competitor (who I referred to-in a nice way-as a pirate) at the same time fell into the river trying to get back in his craft. Now is a time for caution one might suggest. I promptly jumped into our boat (zorro style onto his horse), somehow, it worked!!

We paddled as fast as we could back up the river, only to see the pirate and his friend still make ground. But alas! Up ahead, some rocks on the riverbank. Sensing an opportunity, Team 135 clambered over the rocks to bypass the last bend in the river. A master stroke!! We finished not only 7th, but with wry grins for pulling off a risky manoeuvre.

Great race Gary, very well run.

Peter – team 135 “The Tim Bates Experience