Kathmandu Adventure Sprint - Hinze Dam, Gold Coast
Sunday 9th July 2006..

As seasoned veterans of these races (this was our third) we turned up with our card table, chairs and accessories.

is it team intuition that both greg and i have worn black shorts and red race tops?

the race map is received an hour prior to the race and its head down bum up to plot the easiest course to collect all the marked checkpoints.

half the field started bikes and half by foot doing the same course but in reverse order to each other.

the start - a 500metre ride down a funnel of a road to the paddle. greg and i grabbed pole position and were the 2nd team to the kayaks.

the kayak leg was a 3 klm paddle WITH bikes. this meant bikes had to be stacked across the centre of the kayak. there is always something different and exciting thrown in these races. the thought of overturning crossed my mind and as there was no way i was letting go of my bike if we did go over, i could become a permanent anchor buoy on the hinze dam rowing course!

it was difficult to find rhythm as the bikes shifted - "who put the bike with the map holder on the bottom?" this acted as severe extra drag.

we were first out of the water.

Gary the race organiser was there to say "good paddle team". i remember the last time i had spoken to Gary, it was after our very fist race which was a KMAX event where we finished about 5 hours in a 3 hour race, missed a couple of checkpoints and it took me a week to recover!

a gentle track ride to get blood back into the legs, 2 checkpoints and then into some serious rocky single track riding - these tracks are shared with a local horse stable for horse rides and the trails are certainly worn and dusty.

we lost a bit of time around the spillway of the dam locating a marker and back to race hq for a run.

we were both surprised to see only 1 teams' bikes in the transition and although neither of us said a word to each other we were both thinking we're doing ok here!

we had a good solid pace on the run finding markers behind national park signs, under a bridge and in creek crossings.

a few hills to climb and i was remembering the hill sprints greg had dragged me to do in training last week was probably paying off now.

back in transition, race officials handed out instructions for the mystery leg.

write down the track names along the next leg - 10 in total.

this entailed a single track mountain bike leg and the start was a "sit right back behind the seat and hold on to the handle bars and brakes" as the drop off down the start slope would have required a rope to get back up!

an awesome single track ride amongst rainforest with ferns, through creeks and some steep switch backs - this was definitely my favourite aspect to this race. we emerged at transition again, officials checked our paper like school homework and we had the all clear to continue.

the last leg was the downhill bike sprint back to the original kayak start(the other half of the field had now paddled the boats back) and a 2 k return paddle to a check point on the other side of the dam. we had a team right on our flank and neither of us were letting up. as we reached the other side, greg and i were talking through the turnaround - i was sitting at the front with the control card and as we hit the reeds i leapt out into the waters edge at the same time as the other boat arrived. i had that terrible feeling that i had jumped out to early as the water line swept up my legs, i looked over at the other boat and knew he had the same feeling as he was up to the waist - sucker! i beat him to the control stamp, greg had the boat turned around, paddle ready for me to grab and we were off like a start in an iron man ski race. where did this competitive streak emerge from?

we kept turning around on the paddle home and these guys were sitting right behind us, it was difficult to see them. i had my eyes fixed on my bike in the shed ahead. we nudged the shore exactly together and before getting on the bikes for the 500metre sprint to the finish there is necessary housekeeping - kayaks stacked in a row with paddles on top, XL lifejackets in this pile please and L jackets there - can't these officials understand there is blood being shed here! race bibs back on please - you got to be kidding aw come-on. we then locate the bike and try and find our legs for the hill climb away from the boat ramp.

team sunshine coasters had the legs to finish 50 metres ahead of us.

the officials announce our placing's as 2nd and 3rd in the men's division.

(yeh, yeh Gary, i don't care how many all female teams beat us, this is fantastic!)

how good is this feeling Greg! what a finish! this is what training has been for (although i didn't care for it at 9pm last tuesday when we rode over Mt Cootha followed by the run in the dark at JC Slaughter falls)

an awesome setting and a great day.

a big thank-you to all volunteers and race officials - there were so many of you to keep the race running smoothly.

FIT BLISTERS