Kathmandu Sprint, Lysterfield Lake

Sunday 7th of November saw the final event in Kathmandu Race series in Lysterfield Lake Park, 30 min South East of Melbourne. 28 teams took part in the rescheduled event due to the Melbourne Cup long weekend. What greeted them was rain and a flooded course after four days of rain. Ironically it was a beautiful sunny day the previous weekend.

Beginners and those people wanting to brush on their navigation skills were treated to a training day on the Saturday before the event. John Jacoby Australian's premier endurance athlete took the competitors through their paces on the Mountain Bike and kayaks. Entrants were grateful for the practice in a supportive environment before the pressure of the competition the following day.

The race kicked off with a run to the kayaks (which had been previously inflated). At this point the teams of two split up. One paddled along the lake, while there team mate coasteered around the edge before swimming 100m to a bouy and the first checkpoint. In the excitement most people didn't notice where their partner in the kayak was and so ended up having to tread water for 5minutes while waiting for them to catch up.

After climbing on board the kayaks the teams paddled to their second checkpoint. Once again teams split up with one team member collecting checkpoint three on foot before meeting the kayak at checkpoint four. Both team members then paddled back to Transition Area (TA) 1 via another checkpoint to complete kayak. Adrian Dancy & Andrew McKenzie completed the 3km kayak in only 37min 45sec with Tim Bowman & Jarad Kohlar only 15 seconds behind.

At TA1 teams moved onto their bikes for a four kilometre ride around the lake and up a hill to TA2. The bikes were then left with the marshals before starting the run. Adrian and Andrew lengthened their lead to 6min over Tim & Jarad on the bikes.

By the end of the four kilometre run Adrian and Andrew had added another minute to their lead. The teams then transitioned back onto the bikes for a gruelling 10km bike ride on muddy tracks. Many a rider came a cropper on the slippery trails down the steep decent near checkpoint 12. Tim & Jarad caught up four minutes on this leg to close the lead to just three minutes. However Adrian and Andrew could not find checkpoint 15. Assuming it stolen they carried on anyway.

Back at the TA teams then dropped one bike to do the final ride & tie leg around the lake. Steven Smith & Damon Warren, Brett Sparks & Nathan Jeffery and Team Wombat (Lisa Jacobs and Andrew Mock) all came into the final transition ten seconds apart.

Team Wombat soon overtook the two male teams to beat them by seven and three minutes respectively.

Adrian & Andrew crossed the line first in 2hr 46min followed 14 min later by Team Wombat who made up over eight minutes on Tim & Jarad on the ride & tie, narrowly beating them to the finish by five seconds!

On inspecting the control cards it was found that Tim & Jarad had failed to clip two controls. This meant that the first two teams across the line incurred penalties, resulting in Team Wombat coming first overall followed by Brett & Nathan in second and Ross and Murray Munro in third.

The last team Denise Hoare & Lavinia Hyde cross the line in six hours 35 min. Interestingly they also came 1st in their Category!

The competitors received over $2,500 worth of prizes supplied by Kathmandu.

Some feedback from the race:

"I had a really good time, even taking into account the bad weather. As it
was the first time I had done such an event I was not sure what too expect.
I particularly found the training day on Saturday useful, informative and
made me feel more comfortable trying something I had little skills in." Paul

"Thanks Gary for organizing such a great race. It was our first adventure race & we really enjoyed it! Looking forward to next seasons races!" Jodie

"I just wanted to say that we had an absolute ball at the race on the weekend. It was so much fun despite the weather which actually added to the enjoyment and challenge. We cant wait for the next event." Joel