IT Consultancy and Adventure Racing

4TC's last race of 2008 would see Grant, Danielle and I return to the Australian race where we met a year ago, along with Dave Hicks from Wellington.

The race organisation prior to departure was good, though we hadn't factored in Air New Zealand cancelling the flight from Wellington that Dave and I were on. Thankfully through the wonders of modern telecoms, and the luck of having another team of Wellingtonians heading in the same direction, we all arrived at Danielle's eventually.

One of the benefits of flying to races is that you have to do a lot of pre organisation, so we spent a pretty leisurely 24 hours or so sorting out food and bike boxes before dropping the crates with their shuttle service (thankyou Wayne) and loading up D's Lantra for the short (by aussie standards) drive down to the ski resort of Thredbo.

Danielle had done a great job on accommodation, and we soon had the apartment suitably rearrange and filled with gear, before locating the other New Zealanders, HQ and the town amenities.

Monday was spent catching up with people and completing the formalities of paperwork and tests, speculating on the course and generally just sifting around waiting for the Tuesday morning course handout.

This year's course came on a sheaf of nearly 30 maps, where Craig had been good enough to pre-mark the checkpoints, and to provide maps covering each stage in it's entirety - handily removing the need to cut maps through transitions - very cool, thankyou.

The course looked like an epic on paper - over 800 kilometres in a linear course starting at Mt Buffalo in Victoria and making our way back to Thredbo (in NSW) via 3 paddles, some serious trekking including the highest points in Victoria and NSW, plus a heap of riding including a 210 km bike stage.

Organising the logistics around the various transitions and boxes is becoming easier with every race, and we soon had everything packed away and dropped off to the organisers, the maps laminated and a last meal cooked.

Then it was just time to kick back and have one last team session over dinner and the DVD 'Hot Fuzz' before alarms set for 0530, and a last comfortable night's sleep was embarked on.

The morning started with loading ourselves and our last 2 boxes onto a bus for the 5 hour drive to the start line at Mt Buffalo.

A couple of stops for supplies allowed the ever present Australian flies a chance to start annoying us, and then a stop at the base of Mt Buffalo was the location of the first TA, so here we put our bikes together, before the final ascent to the start.

Some final posing for photos and to give the weather a chance to pack in that little bit more, and then we were off, a couple of hundred people, xxx cps and about xxx km of trail between them.

Effectively the route choice boiled down to clockwise or anti-clockwise, and after running to the decision point with blackheart.com.au, who were expected to win, we took the 'anti' turn while they carried straight on.

First up to our first CP, we were over taken by Bull of Africa on the way back down, but kept them in sight as we ran along.

Another decision point was reached, and they turned off our track, which ended up being a better decision, as though their track climbed more, it was more major and didn't appear to be as difficult to follow as ours - especially since ours went through bush that had recently been burnt out ;-( Oh well, them's the breaks when you don't know the tracks intimately, and it didn't cost us that much time as we discovered seeing them at the next CP, along with the friendly face of Jo, who had come over with securify.co.nz, and was here marshalling as she had had to pull out of the team with a busted up shoulder.

This Rogaine section had obviously been set with good weather in mind, as it took us to most of the highest points in this park, obviously with the expectation that we would get to experience the awesome views from these vantage points. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas, and the 100 metre or so visibility really didn't give us the payback that our efforts deserved, but at least it meant we weren't distracted from getting round the course, and we were soon back at the start point, with just a 1000 metre descent to go.

Dropping down the 'big walk' track down to the bike transition was actually quite nice, taken at a controlled pace to avoid doing anything silly, we dropped into the TA towards the back of the top 10.

Out of TA and we were off up the road before turning off road and starting the first of many ascents - though this one was perhaps unique in this race as it was rideable!

We soon passed securify, who appeared to have already cooked one of their members, but as they all looked fine next time we saw them, it was thankfully a short lived issue.

Over the first ridge and into a perpendicular valley, we rode up the dirt track and into a side valley, following the stream up until we were faced with the first of what would be many cliffs on this course that were placed in the way of the bike routes.

Starting to ride up the gentler parts of this monstrosity, some unseen assailant started to stab me in my right knee, which was rather annoying but thankfully relieved by walking with the bike, which just happened to mean I made better progress as well.

This stabbing would return whenever I tried to ride my bike, but as there wasn't much of that going on, I just tried to manage the issue with a lot of stretching and a voltaren.

Finally reaching the top of this 1000 metre ascent, and blackheart salomon were getting changed along with Nga Rakau, so we said our hellos and headed off along the ridge.

Blackheart are a strong cycling team, and soon passed us along the top, but it took a puncture to Dave's bike, the sealant not working, and a lack of tyre levers to allow Nga Rakau past - though not before lending Dave some levers, thanks guys!

Puncture free once more, we finished off the ride into TA2, where we arrived and started dismantling our bikes around the same time as the rain!

Nga Rakau, and securify, who arrived shortly after us, decided to join Tangerine in a sleep, while we donned waterproofs and headed out, straight into a trudge up another 1000 metre climb, but at least this time we were unencumbered by bikes!

Approaching the top, we decided to grab a short sleep at the hut, an idea that copied Bull's plan (though theres was forced as they couldn't find the track in the poor visibility), so it was nice to arrive just as the fire got started.

Our sleep was interrupted by Tangerine arriving and stopping for a feed, so we packed up and headed out after them, into the still horrific weather.

The CP was a couple of Ks on, on mt Feathertop, which was out on the end of a neverending spur. Seeing Tangerine coming back was a nice sign, and then when we found the CP there was a ridiculously committed marshal standing in the howling mist awaiting us - and we thought we were crazy racing these things!

Unfortunately when we dropped back down from the summit, my invisible knee assailant returned.

Along the ridge I was fine, but we had to stop and apply tape prior to the big descent into the next valley, and neither that nor the application of more drugs really helped.

Onto a road on the valley floor and we set a reasonable pace in search of Blair's hut, a fantastic ramshackle old place which we duly found and started a fire in.

We had decided to try and do some work on my knee, with us diagnosing an ITB problem, and Grant having experienced this before playing Rugby League.

During the time we were holed up here, massaging and taping my knee, we were visited by Stu Lynch who was covering the event for sportzhub.com, and who appeared from a very wet walk looking for teams. Later securify poked their heads in, and we left the place in the hands of xxx. I'm not sure how many teams visited the place in total, but apparently the smell and sight of smoke was very inviting on this wet, miserable walk.

Returning to our wet, but thankfully warm clothes, we headed out to catch securify. Setting a reasonable pace up the hill, we stopped to chat to a team who were coming back down, thinking they had been going the wrong way. Trusting Danielle, and hoping they were wrong, we pushed on up the hill, passing a burnt out hut site that consisted of a fireplace and 6 charred upright pieces of wood and then we were out onto the tops, and had a poled route to follow across the heath.

NZ routes are generally poled with small metal stakes, but they obviously get real snow up here as we had a line of almost telegraph poles to follow. At least this made the route finding easy, though that didn't really compansate me for the fact that even flat walking was now painful when rough underfoot.

Cutting across country, joined a dirt road just behind securify, and as the rain abated we all pulled off our hoods and had a chat as we meandered along. Passing up the opportunity of a hut with a fire, we started to walk into surroundings familiar to Danielle and I as we had covered this ground in Keen earlier in the year.

We turned off the main drag and took a back track into Falls Creek, which appeared to confuse securify briefly, but to no avail as we arrived at the supermarket with them, though they decided to stop for pies while we carried on.

A bit of confusion about the location of the CP was settled when the fog lifted briefly and we could see a few hundred more metres, and then we went in to see Jo again and started redistributing the compulsory gear as I decided my knee was deteriorating and I had to pull out.

I was more sorry for Danielle than myself, as this was now going to be her 3rd XPD, and her 3rd without finishing as part of a ranked team ;-(

Waving the other 3 goodbye was a strange feeling that I wouldn't like to become accustomed to, though the opportunity to sit down and rest my knee was definitely welcomed.

The following morning was an early start to get to the river kayak leg, where I helped the guys paddle a couple of lilos down a supposedly grade 2 river. Unfortunately the river had come up with some rain, so the first section of paddling was cancelled - replaced with a 10K road walk, not so bad for me as it was flat and I could get away with not bending my knee, but not so nice for the other 3 who had just finished a 70K tramp and were looking forward to sitting down!

The paddle was great fun, and once again surprised me as to what Australians are happy for you to paddle down - we ended up in willows on a number of occasions, and about half way down we ripped a huge hole in one of the boats as Dave spotted a piece of railway iron in a rapid just too late to avoid it.

With one side of the raft let down, we tried a couple of configurations, eventually ending up with all the gear in our boat, with Danielle hunched between Grant and I, while Dave straddled the single pontoon in the other boat. I think Dave actually ended up with the easier job as our heavy boat would track it’s own line until deciding to hook up on something, at which point it would spin the back round. We soon got used to this feeling, and would just let it spin 360, and try and catch it and accelerate off as we faced the right direction.

By the time we got to the end Danielle was starting to feel the cold as she hadn’t been paddling, and had got rather wet when knocked out of the boat a couple of times, but thankfully the sun was still out, and stripping out of wet gear soon had us steaming away while the other 3 organised themselves for the 200K MTB that lay ahead, and I moped around trying not to get grumpy that I wasn’t going to do it.

The next few days were spent running around with the NZ media contingent at the race, surprising other racers by standing around welcoming them to transitions which they expected me to be racing through, and raiding the transition bins for food and clean clothes.

Many thanks to Stu, Anne and Kim for looking after me during this time of financial and equipment paucity .. Though it's nice to know you can pretty much live out of a race pack indefinitely!

Catching up with the teams at various locations, we were at the start (and end) point of the Rogaine when 4TC came in, a little off the pace due to a couple of mishaps, but firing on all cylinders, with Dave especially claiming he was feeling strong as an ox.

Waking up a few hours later then, it was a surprise to see them trudging back in looking disconsolate, and hear stories of 'little lie downs', and Danielle pushing Dave up hills-he had been hit by some kind of bug, and hit real hard!

We headed off with the team sparked out in the recovery tent, and expected to hear down the line of the benefits of this kip, but unfortunately the next word was about 24 hours later, when we returned to race HQ to find Dave asleep on the floor, having been dropped off by the medical team ;-(

Danielle and Grant walked in a few hours later, having had a spectacular walk over Mt Koscziusko - Australia's highest mountain around 8 Km from Thredbo.

So that's that, the end of another year's racing, and the start of rehabilitation on an annoying injury that's likely to keep me off my feet and bike for a while ;-(

Once again thanks to my team mates, to our sponsors - AyUp lights, inov-8 shoes, Burkes Cycles, Go Fast energy drink, and Fergs kayaks - and here's hoping for a speedy recovery and a competitive 2009!