13 is not a lucky number - but luck is never enough in these races anyway!
2016 marked the 13th time on the beach for me, but the shore was angry and the start was moved to a protected inlet for the 15th running of the Mountain Designs Geoquest adventure race. The six or so kilometre ocean paddle that we were meant to do was the same as the one we knocked out in 2005, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I remembered the channel entry and trying to negotiate a mirage 730 across the bar. It would have been better on the ski this time around, maybe....but low tide and dumping waves usually don’t go well with fibreglass vessels.
This was ‘geo’ number three for our current team, and we had all enjoyed pretty healthy lead ups. Scott had not been hit by a car, Su did not have a torn hamstring, and Nath had just run Ultra Trail fast enough to earn a silver buckle. True to form though, Nath and Su were late to rego and slid into the competencies 30 minutes after they had closed. Scott the early bird ticked off our nav and first aid competencies and narrowly avoided the pre-race walk of shame, with some more notable teams fairing less lucky.
With the annual pilgrimage taking us to Port Macquarie, we were hoping to improve on our 10th place in 2014 and 9th place in 2015, we figured more running was required with faster transitions. We achieved both.....but struggled with the real game changer...navigation. The telling factor was Mr sleep monster at the crucial moment, brought on by a series of sleepless nights in the lead up.
The start was a bit chaotic and knowing exactly how to split up for stage one seemed to mark a trend that would haunt me later on. We sent Su and Scott off in their ski to fetch the checkpoints to the North, racking up some 13km of paddling. Nath and I paddled into the river and then split for the land based CPs. Arriving at the CP2 transition in 45mins, I quickly realised that I had not done enough, and the others would have to do too much. Nath ran in 15 minutes later, and then we began to wait as the leaders charged off for stage 2.... after a further 20 mins, watching the big guns race through, our guys beached their ski and we began the chase.
Stage two’s run was solid and our times showed similar to everyone in front. I love a good coasteer (thanks to a low centre of gravity), and the highlight was popping out at the back of our accommodation at the top of the only climb, after some flowing single track under the shade of beach bush. Sweating bullets, but in good spirits, we thanked our support crew, guzzled some sports drink and set off on stage three.
The road quickly turned to dirt and at the base of the first hill, Calamity Jane kissed us fair on the lips! First up my shoe broke. WTF! Stealing a Velcro strap off my frame bag, we cinched it as tight as possible and pressed on. Then, on the descent, Su yelped and swallowed a mouthful of liquid sealant as Scott’s rear tire sliced open on a rock. It took four stops and lots of vigorous pumping to get it to finally seal. Somewhere in the confusion of flat tires and busted boots, Nath’s trip computer gave up and we were left with just one, on my bike, to call distances and cross check the maps. With teams still all about I found it incredibly hard to concentrate and took a few silly turns before finding a rhythm. Then Scott dropped off the back. Just as I was about to get angry, he re-appeared, sans his map board! A friendly little branch had ripped it off for him and destroyed the mount! There goes the pace notes and a second set of eyes on the maps! 2016 Advantage lost.
The key to these races is momentum. Momentum and minimising mistakes. So far we had fluffed two of the first three stages. Not monumentally, but significantly enough to really hamper our momentum, and in that time the great teams and the good teams were gaining ground and disappearing until next year.
Clearing away from the teams around us just before CP13 and the Heron Creek map, the rest of the ride was pretty straight forward, possibly even fun. We’d learned how to be a better team after XPD Townsville and the quiz ride through Heron Creek flashed by in no time.
Quickly transitioning into joggers and gaiters (thanks Bike Bag Dude for your crack saving seat bags) saw us skedaddle back down a track with photographer in tow to the first of maybe 6 checkpoints on a rogaine leg. I think we did this pretty well, but seeing Peak collect their last CP (our first) gave us some idea of the time we had lost so far. It was pretty gnarly in some of the creeks and there was
just enough lawyer vine to rip us open and call in the leaches. The team worked really well together
th th
-10 were
Scooting downhill is so much fun on the MTB, even with wet mtb shoes, and stage five was short and sweet. It ended with a weirdly marked and random entry into the winery, but the tin spaghetti in TA made everyone feel better. A quick mandatory gear check and an even quicker change into poly tops and running shoes and we are away.
Running was the plan, but 400m of elevation was the reality for stage six. It was the reverse of a bike stage at last years Wildside adventure race, so Scott held the map and my brain had a rest. We jogged as often as possible and the boys were kind enough to tow Su until we reached the abseil while I ate and drank and tried not to fart in front of anyone. Par for course at Geoquest abseils is for yours truly to tangle up with a tree on the way down, which I managed yet again. (One year I descended about two thirds of the way only to realise that the rope beside me was actually the tail of my rope, stuck in a bush above me. It was a 15 minute wait in no man’s land while the climbing guy abseiled to the jagged rope end to free it. The poor bugger had to prussic his way back up, so I didn’t whinge too much).
Hearing “rock rock rock” is never fun, but I figured it signalled Scott was on the line and soon we would be off again, which is better than shivering in a huddle. 30 seconds later he appeared on the ground and off we went, still chewing in as manay calories as the pace would permit. More running,
and it was such a bonus to get out of the bush before dark, knowing that teams placed 5
all fairly close together. Transitioning just on night fall, we were buoyed with the knowledge of cracking into the top ten.
a little looking in a creek, then more running. We were joined by Liam’s team and it was pretty straight forward all the way to TA.
We usually hit the night paddle after midnight, so setting off before 11pm was such a bonus. Forgetting the portage wheels however, was not. Stage seven gave the chance for some creativity, but we muffed the exit from the TA and added about 750m to the portage, before following Adventure Junkies foot prints into a poor farmers land and eventually a muddy mangrove swamp. We had marked following the road to the main river, but a very helpful TA marshal advised us another team had crossed a paddock and shaved even more kilometres off the stage. Our amended grand plan had spared our butts from 40 minutes or so of paddling, but gained no obvious time advantage. Liam’s team paddled past the junction just as we arrived, proving the plan was good but the execution was terrible. The last portage into TA sucked, but would have sucked more at low tide. It seemed we were alternating between well executed and poorly executed stages, meaning the teams in front were getting further away, and the teams behind were being given opportunities to catch up and pass us.
Shiver me timbers! Long road rides in the wee small hours, what a recipe for sleepiness. One sure fire way to stay awake is to watch your compass kamikaze dive off the map board and explode into hundreds of pieces on the asphalt. Lucky there was limited nav. Shame about the relentless climbing and my under prepared hiney though! The end of this race would tally more bike kilometres than the sum of my whole year! Thank Christ for chamois lube. I think someone towed me part way through stage eight, but can’t really remember. Scott calls it my witching hour and it happens on night one of every race! There was a hell of a lot of zig zagging going on and I’m surprised no-one fell asleep at the wheel. The best part was when my trusty old speedo stopped reading and we fumbled our way from there on.
Technology is going to be an issue for race organisers pretty soon me thinks. As more and more companies turn to utilising GPS technology to meet consumer demands in their distance measuring offerings, fewer will build quality ‘old school’ speedo’s and the cheap crap available won’t stand the rigours of adventure racing. What then I wonder? The reason only two of us had speedos in the first place is because we have all been using our watches or phones to record our awesomeness and post it on strava for at least three years now. As the motto goes, ‘if it’s not on strava, it didn’t happen’.
Shebang! There goes your race Type 2 Fun. Two maps makes no difference at all if your only navigator is sleep walking. The boys did a brilliant job deciphering the out dated maps and positioning us pretty close to the first CP on stage nine, but we took an awful long time to get there with Su holding me upright and out of harms way. By the time I had refreshed there was daylight filtering in and based on where we were, holding on to eighth place would be a tall order indeed. The hills were relentless and the creeks fairly slow going, with a few logged areas proving themselves the wrong place to be. Like most forestry managed areas, the tracks on the map were not always there and several new ones appeared without warning. This stage was always going to be for the
real navigators to use their smarts with route selection and checkpoint locating. Unfortunately I’m not one of those. Knowing that your choices are dumb as soon as you execute them always makes the next choice more difficult and seeing three of the teams that were behind us charging past on their way back to TA broke our spirits just enough for Su to admit that she probably should have lubed her feet seven hours earlier....they were blistered to blazes. We sat down and ate while she applied as much lube as possible, but our running was definitely done from that point on. Scott towed her back up the hill and she stoically pushed through without so much as a whimper.
Stage ten was a ripper of a ride downhill and we threw all caution to the wind in the hope of catching teams eight and nine on the final paddle. Then it got boring on the road and with Su on the front, Nathan finally cracked. He’d been carrying more than his fair share all race and his goose was truly cooked. We topped him up with gels as I changed the maps one last time and then headed into TA about 4 hours after we had planned to be there.
Paddling out for stage eleven we noticed plenty of debris floating in, signalling an incoming tide and a slow journey south. This was the same final paddle as 2005, with an obvious portage about ten kilometres in. It was marginal time wise given we had forgotten the portage wheels, but at least we could get off our butts for a while and reduce the risk of falling asleep and capsizing. Once more we managed to make a crucial point before sunset and heaved our skis up onto our shoulders just in time for some light rain. Putting back in was drama free and with a checkpoint and eleven kilometres remaining, we took off in search of pizza. Rating along at about 12km/h Nath and I surprised our
normally stronger paddling team mates for a couple of k’s before grinding to a halt on an unseen sand bar. I knew they were there somewhere, but in the dark it was really just a guessing game. It was a magic feeling to portage the weir near settlement village and turn over the last five minute stretch. Standing in the rain were our ever smiling support crew, tired wet and hungrier than us!
Showering, eating and sleeping a full night makes cleaning up the next day so much easier. Thanks again for inviting me Type 2 Fun. Imagine how fast you could go with a proper navigator! XPD is coming very soon and that’s where the next story will probably come from.
Thanks support crew, Flo, Kym and Terry, you know these things only run well with a support crew.
Thanks Sarah and Eli for letting me keep doing these races and helping me squeeze in some training along the way.
Thanks Craig and Lou for another Queens Birthday Long Weekend.
