IT Consultancy and Adventure Racing

This has been a few years in the build-up… I’d been interested in trying out a longer adventure race for some time, and Liam’s a fan of the Keen AR – stage racing so it’s not quite as tough as an expedition race, pairs rather than 4 people and John Jacoby puts on a well designed and challenging race. Last year Liam was looking for someone fast to race with, this year he decided I might be up to the task ;-).

Training was going well up until Feb – I was really enjoying the nature of long missions rather than the structured nature of training that I usually had at this time of year. Then it all fell apart a bit. I got a splinter in the side of my heel which festered in there for 5 weeks before we realized there really was something in there and I needed to do something about it.. Turns out that was an hours operation under General resulting in a 5cm gash in the side of my foot! The offender was a 11mm piece of wood! Kind of explains why I had been feeling distinctly off colour and unenthusiastic about training for most of that time… Another couple of weeks off as I couldn’t put any pressure through my heel, a couple of weeks training broken by a week in the USA at a work conference and we were heading off across the ditch. Needless to say I wasn’t feeling well prepared.

The weekend in Melbourne was fun, if a little cold and wet. Caught up with friends and tried to relax.. I was only slightly nervous at this point! We headed down to Wye River where the race was due to start on Monday morning and settled into the cabin with Mum, Dave and Danielle who were also racing and Adele, Danielle’s mother.

That afternoon we went over to register and pick up and take out for a trial our hired double surf skis. Cue nerves to get worse. It was cold, drizzling and the sea was big! There were several teams practicing and struggling to get out at all.. We had to paddle out in that?? Wellington harbour was never like that… Nevertheless we rugged up and gave it a go.. Out no problem, though I was shaking like a leaf, wobbled a bit out past the surf break (these skis feel really different to what I had been paddling!) and back in sweet – hit the beach all intact. We can do this! Liam suggested another go.. right.. maybe we aren’t as good as we thought.. Did 2 more runs out and back in through the surf, fell in going out both times and coming in both times – much to the amusement of all our spectators! Though we did chose the biggest waves apparently. Actually in hindsight I’m really glad we did come off as it gave us a chance to practice wet entries – which we managed in the surf zone – getting back on and paddling through the waves… and showed us the danger in coming off the ski on the trip in – once you’re off the boat its really hard to surf in carrying a paddle and wearing a lifejacket…

A bit more organizing, some drying of gear and dinner rounded out my final restful day before hitting the big one… Butterflys were having a field day by now, and I might have been known to ask ‘Can we go home now?’ more than once..

Day 1, Tuesday: Prologue

It was cold and slightly damp in the morning as we headed down to collect maps and instructions. This hadn’t changed significantly by 1pm when after a few hours sorting through maps and instructions and packing gear into boxes for todays race and tomorrows second stage we headed back down to the beach for the race start.

The stage comprised an orienteering section (collecting all bar one checkpoint), a paddle, a Mt Bike and a surf with time credits awarded if you stood for greater than 4 secs. We’d elected to do some of the running, then paddle, complete the running then head out on the bikes but when we got down it was obvious that the top teams were all heading out on the paddle first so as to eliminate one transition from the race. I panicked and we changed plan, quickly changing into paddling gear to head out with the majority of teams. This proved a good plan as not only could we follow out the other paddlers (those with more experience in selecting timing of waves) but the waves got up significantly in the next hour giving those who headed out later a bigger run for their money.

I didn’t enjoy the paddle. We made it out fine but it was scary for the whole 30 min or so.. and we lost loads of ground against the top teams. Paddling in big ocean swells was a whole new thing for me, and pretty freaky. I was more than glad to land at Kennett River where we were to leave the boats for tomorrows stage. We had a pretty quick transition and headed out on the run, catching up to 2 other Kiwi teams Nga Rakau and Keen as Bro (Dave & Danielle) after the first couple of checkpoints. We traveled with them for a bit then headed in different directions – them up and over the hill, us out the stream towards another track which would take us around the base of the hill… or so we thought. Turns out said track didn’t exist (or if it did we didn’t find it and neither did the 3-4 other teams who’d taken that route. So we ended up bashing through trees, bush, down a river and through blackberry for about 45 min before we were able to drop to the main road, cross and head in along the beach. We could see teams completing the orienteering loop as we headed out to start it L

The leaders were already finished before we made our way to our bikes and headed out. We were warned to start carrying bikes ASAP. We rode up the road for a couple of Km then turned onto a 4WD track that had deteriorated significantly with the overnight rain and was a complete mud bath. Anything more than flat was unrideable and much of it was difficult to even walk up. We finally made it to the top and had a lot of fun descending. Liam kept getting a surprise when I’d say ‘here’ meaning I’m right behind you, off the brakes.. At least my Mt Biking is improving!

We staggered into transition, muddy from head to foot and made our way to the beach to try our hand at surfing. Neither of us managed to stand, though we tried, but we were reasonably efficient at getting out, around the buoy and back into shore. At least I was a bit cleaner now!

Day 1 over. I was pretty grumpy. I don’t like losing time.. we finished about 45 min down on Keen as Bro.. At least the Orion Boys (current world champs) had taken the same route and also lost time so we were in good company.

The remainder of the day was spent in sorting and planning for the next 2 (big) days and cleaning bikes, washing and drying gear. I might have been heard to ask ‘can we go home now?’ once or twice more.. However, some poor teams feared a lot worse than us and were still finishing hours later (and in the dark…)

Day 2, Wednesday: Long stage, 12-18 hours

Up at 6, down on the beach for a 7am start. Again, I tried to change things at the start, almost changing the top I was wearing for a warmer one, but the gun went while I was undressing and I threw my bib and helmet back on and only lost a few seconds as we headed out on the initial coasteering section. This was a short one, only 30 min or so round to where the boats were from the day previously. I’m still crap at running on rocks though so we lost a bit of time..

Into the boats for the longest paddle of the race. Yuk! We were paddling awfully and felt like we were going backwards. 2.5 hours made for a grumpy and sore Rach by the end of the leg. I was pretty glad to get through it. The waves and wind had made it quite interesting for the first 1.5h then it eased a bit as we got into the lee of the bay. I was glad to see the end at Apollo Bay.

Transitioned onto the bikes about halfway through the field of 38 teams and headed out. There were a couple of teams about to leave at the same time as us so I thought we’d soon have company, but after progressing slowly through some soggy grassy tracks and onto the 4WD road an hour or so later we were still alone. This section marked the first big route choice of the race. The more direct route took teams down into the valley and back out the other side, but there was another longer ridge route that allowed us not to drop. We had decided on the later route based on the conditions experienced the previous day (and I was quite happy to avoid much climbing!). Several hours later this emerged a great decision as we came into transition in 7th place, having not seen any other teams on the ride. We had hit clay about 4k from the transition – and some clay it was! My bike caught so much that the wheels wouldn’t turn and I could barely pick it up, it must have gained about 5kg! – but the other route was apparently horrendous, with so much mud that teams had to go bush with their bikes just to get up the hill. I also managed a decent fall on this section, slipping sideways in the clay and collecting a pedal in my shin. Much grizzling (and a few tears) followed, though as we approached the transition and were told how well we’d done this seemed to get a lot better!

We now had some choices to make. There was an optional checkpoint worth a 20 min time credit on the most direct but potentially harder route, or there was a longer road option. After that there was another loop which picked up 3 optional checkpoints. We were advised of some additional information at the transition – the route to the first optional was very overgrown and the way out that was marked as indistinct basically did not exist. Liam asked how I was feeling, whether I could run and when I responded positively suggested we take the road. Big call at this stage as we didn’t know how the optionals were likely to pan out. So we headed out and started feeling pretty positive when we got to where teams would rejoin the tracks we were on and there were only a couple of sets of footprints in the sand… Now big decision time, was it worth it to get the other optionals? We decided against it – Liam (correctly) thought I was more likely to enjoy it all if I was less hammered, and we had a big day coming up… So on we went losing all footprints and heading towards the final paddle.

We thought we were probably leading by the end of the run (2h15) and we found ourselves the first team into the kayak transition. Mum saw me and went nuts J even after I informed her we’d dropped a whole lot of optionals so we weren’t really leading! It was kinda cool to be out in front though and my mood (and performance) were improving…

The final paddle was lovely – down a water race, portaging through a marsh and into a lake through to the end. We’d been able to see where we would be heading on the way down the hill to the transition (one of the advantages of finishing earlier, in the daylight), so it was an easy final stage of about 30 min through to the end. We stopped the clock just shy of 10 hours and quickly changed, ate and set to cleaning all the mud off the bikes while we still had some light. This stage finished at a remote site so we were camping and there wasn’t much other than a toilet in the way of amenities.

The next team arrived about 20 min after us (though about 2h30 min up on us as they’d collected all the optionals). Teams continued to arrive through the night until about 1.30am! Dave and Danielle had had some bad luck with a route choice that cost them significant amounts of time and arrived an hour or two after us.

Day 3, Thursday – overnight stage.

Thursday dawned cold, cold enough to have frozen the lid to the chilly bin! Coldest morning in April in Victoria for 50 years cold! It was a beautiful day though and we knew we’d soon warm up. This was the big day. We started at 8, and had to get on the final paddle stage between 9 & 11 am the following day, so we knew it would be about 26 hours racing. There were a lot of optional checkpoints along the way, so some would need to be picked up to ‘fill in’ the time up to the paddle start.

We started with a run along the Great Ocean track which had a couple of optional checkpoints. I didn’t feel that great for the first half hour or so, but tried to settle into a rhythm that kept me up with the pace that Danielle was setting. There was lots of sand underfoot which didn’t help progress. I started to come right, or maybe it was just when Liam put me on tow J and we wanted to get past and up the pace a little. In doing so we missed the turnoff to the optional checkpoints, at least one of which we had been planning to get, but rather than going back decided to continue on. We were 3rd team off the run, and were passed by one mixed team that had collected the optionals. Anna is so fast!

From there we transitioned onto the paddle and headed East for the first time in the race. We dropped into Apollo Bay to pick up a checkpoint then managed to get on the back of one of the faster teams coming through and hold onto them for the second half of the paddle. Our best paddle so far!

Next up was the long Mt bike, ended up clicking just over 95k and we missed a lot of the optionals. At least the roads were (mostly) OK this time. The start was a bit depressing.. up, up and up some more. 25km, 800m and about 2 hours worth of up. Then a fun section through some (sort of) single track where I managed to miss seeing a huge branch at head height and attempt to knock myself out by riding into it. Out of that, some more road and then we were heading towards the orienteering stage in the middle of the ride. I was going well on the road so we turned into the single track in the Mt Bike park to pick up an optional point. I experienced pretty much complete meltdown at this point! I couldn’t ride any of the small climbs and got progressively grumpier – to the point of almost tears.. Unfortunately we had no idea of the distance and it seemed to take forever! I was glad to be out of there and heading down to the orienteer. This was great. Liam was a star. We were the 2nd or 3rd quickest team through, using a variety of maps including a google map view, to locate checkpoints! An hour later we were back on the bikes just as darkness descended. Here we had another option of more single track which we flagged due to the appalling way I had ridden the last section and headed for another 15k uphill road climb…

About now I really hit the wall. Liam had me on tow and I still rode off the road about 3 times, almost taking him out with me. I couldn’t keep the bike straight! I stopped and gulped some food and 20 min or so later seemed to come right. Glad I wasn’t in the single track at that point! We were however starting to worry we might have skipped too many of the optional checkpoints and run out of them on the final trek section, so we stopped at the final lot of optional checkpoints on the Mt Bike leg – a rough, unmarked rogaine loop through the bush with checkpoints at 4 waterfalls. We headed in and finally found the first one – I managed to only sit in the stream twice getting there and back. The others looked much further out so we decided they weren’t worth the time bonuses and headed back to the bikes to push our way up the muddy hill.

Finally at the top we flew down the other side, down some muddy slippery stuff and some steep 4WD roads into the trek transition. We were 3rd team to arrive at midnight, with 1 team sick and sleeping. A quick change ( I was still soaked from my little lie downs in the water) and away we went.. 9 hours to fill before we could start the paddle.

We headed along the beach and picked up the compulsories, unfortunately that only took about 2 hours. Doh! Looks like our strategy hadn’t paid off here. The checkpoints on the rogaine were all worth a lot less time credits, especially relative to the time it took to collect them. Liam went through a bit of a lull early and we started walking – once you start its really hard to convince yourself to run again! The next 7 hours are a bit of a blur. We walked lots, found lots of checkpoints, saw lots of roos, it finally got light, then it rained, we tried running (me very unsuccessfully – Liam was walking as fast) and we finally gave up about 8.30 and headed into transition where Mum was waiting and, wonderful as she is, headed to the bakery and returned loaded with goodies. A sausage roll and pizza bread later I felt so much better and ready to hit the water for the final paddle.

The paddle was nuts. About ˝ the teams were lined up at 9 and ran boats into the water, sprint racing to the finish! This is after 25 hours on the go! It took us an hour flat and the end was a welcome sight…

Back to the cabin, lots of food (mmm.. bacon and eggs) and the others headed to bed, while I – doing my usual can’t sleep after racing routine – started sorting gear that needed washing. I popped to bed for about 90 min then was wide awake again so started on the interminable bike washing…

Needless to say I was in bed at about 8 that evening after a big meal and a SR Voltaren supplement. Much to my surprise I slept well, only waking once for another paracetemol hit.

Day 5, Saturday: the finale

I woke up on Saturday morning feeling refreshed, stood up and my legs weren’t even sore.. what?? Yay! Guess I knew I could make it by now, and that we were doing OK.. maybe the nerves had finally settled?

It was cold but was going to be lovely. Did the usual breakfasting and preparation and headed down on bikes to the start. There was a 1-day race being held in conjunction with our race so there were a lot of people milling about. At 7 we were due to get maps, so were all waiting round with jackets on etc. As soon as the maps were handed out the hooter went and we were off.. throwing jackets to the side as we raced away! No one expected quite so quick a start!

The first stage was an orienteer – collect 7/10 controls. 3 of these were co-located at the local YMCA ropes course, and it was here that we headed to. It was a good move as we were one of the first teams there and got up the first challenge without a queue. We had to ascend a pole (which was a cargo net, 2 rotating poles and a climbing wall), shoot a blue/ yellow in archery and traverse a ropes section (I had to walk about 7m along a 20cm wide pole 5m above the ground, then climb up to a section of tires and do the same back again). I managed all these, impressing myself J - I’m not good with this sort of stuff and the HR was super high! I even got the archery first shot! We were the 2nd or 3rd team away and ran round collecting the other controls necessary. The final one happened to be on a buoy on the river, and Liam preferring to remain dry volunteered my services to swim out to it.. Brr..!!!

4th team off the run we jumped on bikes. This was the best section – the only one I can genuinely say I really enjoyed while doing it! Instead of a map we had pace notes – a bit of a challenge for the French speaking New Caledonian team that was there. So Liam navigated on instructions like take track for 800m, turn L into single track for 240m, R into 4WD… Here we had a few issues. About 5 min in we had to get off bikes and climb a rooty, stepped rise. At the top Liam jumped back on then started swearing, bent hanger! Fortunately last year the same thing had happened and he now carried a spare hanger. Quickly changed to find the bolt wasn’t the same and we didn’t have the right tools, but fortunately the old one was still OK. Then the derailleur wouldn’t go on. The mushroom on the end had been torn off. Liam carries zip ties and a couple were used to keep it in place. 2 teams past us. Rode on gingerly as bike was still making bad noises. About 500m up the road the chain exploded. I rode on to the control and clipped while Liam took out a link and fixed the chain. Turns out a plate on the chain had bent, and that’s probably what killed the derailleur and hanger. We were really lucky he hadn’t done it again. Another 4 teams past us. We were really lucky though, and Liam’s mechanical skills had fixed it – he was even able to still shift gears (go the zip ties!). We took off and chased down 4 of the teams that had past us. I was flying! Not even on tow ;-)

Finished the stage and transitioned into running gear for a coasteering section. There were a couple of optional controls but the route between them looked potentially dodgy so we decided against them. We passed Wayne and Brent (Orion Boys – world champs) walking along the beach.. Wayne was suffering from extreme tendonitis and finally had to pull the pin only kms from the end. We stuffed up the final control, heading into the bush early and having to bash up a watercourse to the marker. Fortunately we didn’t seem to lose too much time despite this and popped down to the beach for the final leg.

The waves were up again and teams were starting to struggle with the swell. We timed it perfectly (more luck than management) and made it out intact. We had to pull into the beach for a control which was interesting as we just managed to stay upright on a wave into the beach, being turned 180 deg in the process. However, we stayed in and made it onshore OK. We took the opportunity to walk the boat further along the beach before heading out – though the waves were still pretty large. We paddled on, and finally saw the finish flags.. at which point I started happily singing! Still, it took a good 10min or so before we actually made it to shore. We didn’t quite maintain our clean record, managing to fall in on the entry, though fortunately only in knee deep water!

Across the line and that was it! Done! I made it! Wow… well surprised….

Prizegiving

Bit of a rush in the afternoon to clean gear, pack etc as it was a reasonably early start the next morning, then we headed to prizegiving. Results were on the wall and we got our first look at how we’d done. We were 5th mixed and 10th overall. What??! Surely we’d done enough for more… checked the detail. 4hour penalty for missing a compulsory control.. .Nooo! Surely not.. went for a chat with the organizers.. and freaked myself out completely. It was a question rather than punch control and I didn’t recall the question. Cue grumpiness and a quick trip to the bar.

Fortunately Liam sorted it out. We had been there, and even had a photo to prove it. This put us into 4th mixed unfortunately still 20 min behind 3rd.. grizzle, I thought we’d done enough to get there. Ah well, gave it our best.

After some chats, drinks and nibbles, we sat down for the prizegiving itself. At which point Liam informed me not only had they missed our compulsory control but one of the optionals we’d collected as well. We were in 3rd.. but he’d only just realized and informed the organizers and wasn’t sure we’d be acknowledged.. cue more grumpiness.. especially as they started handing medals out…

But we (I) didn’t give them enough credit. All sorted and we were called up as 3rd placed mixed team $500 and medals… in the money! Way to go, lots of smiles!! Even more when we made it into 5th place overall and another $1000. Thanks Orion Boys for pulling out today!

Needless to say I didn’t sleep well. Think this time it was just excitement…

The weekend didn’t quite finish there as Qantas cancelled our flight on us but failed to inform us, so we had to fly back via a night in Chch – in at midnight, out at 6am. Yuk! I came straight home and went to bed for the day…

Reflections

I’m really glad I did it. I almost didn’t, but didn’t want to let Liam down. Though I felt like I was anyway by being underprepared. Liam is a legend. He is so strong – towed me all the way through. It’s amazing what a difference teamwork makes, we work pretty well together – he does everything, I try to stay with him J and occasionally make a good call on where a control is lurking. Its nice to know you can spend inordinate amounts of time in a pretty stressful situation with your partner and come through it intact. Actually more than intact.

I surprised myself with my strength. I need to be more positive about my performance. A bit more believing in myself? But hey, that's me!

What next? Nothing for a bit, but I think I might have to head back… and there's still an expedition race to try out. So much for retiring.. not that I thought anyone believed me anyway!