2017 Percival Property Race Report

Following a successful outing in 2016, Team Percival Property - Port Macquarie was again keen to test their skills in Australia’s premier Adventure Race. Chris and Dan made the difficult decision to drop 7-time Solo 24hr MTB World Champ, Jason English, and the experienced Gavin Cole, to bring in the two strongest athletes they know..... Their wives!!!

Pre-Race

Getting organised for Geoquest always feels like a fairly monumental task, arriving at the start line; fit, rested, gear organised, with a keen support crew and someone to look after the children..... It’s no small feat, especially when you’re a team of two couples! Dan, who is currently a ‘stay at home trophy husband’, put in many hours coordinating logistics and his final ‘Race Trailer’ set up was fantastic. Thanks to Gowie from Big Red Cleaning and Pest for the trailer!

Gear Trailer - done right.

On Friday night, we sought refuge from the wind and rain in the garage of our Sawtell accommodation. The forecast rain and pending flood warnings resulted in some significant changes to the course, three things were obvious; the pace would be fast, we had purchased too much food (predicted 3am finish) and done way too much paddle training! Dan and Chris got stuck into the maps, the girls organised gear and food into boxes and bags. In hindsight, it’s amazing that the race even went ahead, given the amount of rain and the regions tendency to flood. Interestingly, Hugh from Thunderbolt AR had instructed his team to ‘get out in front and stay there’ as the race could be cancelled any time.

Leg 1 - Paddle, Jetty Beach (3 Laps - sort of)

With torrential rain, strong winds and a rising swell forecast, the planned ocean paddle from Sawtell to Coffs was always unlikely. However, the (somewhat) protected waters of Jetty Beach, provided Craig with an opportunity to include some paddling and as he mentioned post race, teams had travelled a long way with boats, so why not use them? Standing on the beach with the other competitors, watching a tricky dumping shore break and bracing ourselves against a severe squall, conditions looked challenging to say the least, but given our team’s ocean experience, we were feeling confident and hopeful that a paddle would give us a small advantage into Leg 2.

Things didn’t exactly go to plan - Chris and Michelle were one of the first boats off the beach, just cresting the largest wave of a set and clearing the shore break. Dan and Ali, just a few meters back, weren’t so lucky. Video footage shows a solid wave crashing on Dan’s head, resulting in what can only be described as a ‘washing machine of whitewater, fibreglass and people!’ (See photo below).

Eventually Dan and Ali were back on board and motoring through the field on lap one, although at one point Ali mentioned the bailer on the Stellar didn’t seem to be working. Turns out the bailer works just fine but the large hole in the hull, from a collision at the start with Peak Adventure, was taking in water faster than the Titanic! They were forced to jump overboard and began swimming the boat 400m back to shore. To avoid penalty, Dan and Ali declined assistance from the Sawtell Surf Club members and made steady progress towards the beach. Once on the beach, Craig advised that due to the approaching lightning storm, all competitors were being called from the water, so we were free to head onto Leg 2 without penalty. Controversial.... we know!

Dan, Ali and Team Peak in the ‘washing machine!’

Leg 2 - Run, Coffs to Moonee Beach (13km)

Full of adrenaline after a frantic paddle and freezing cold from an extended swim, we had a quick transition and were keen to get moving and warm up. We could see several teams on the beach ahead of us and did our best to reel them in over the next few kilometres. Dan and Ali have previously raced in this area and the nav was straightforward, so we moved fairly quickly. We came into transition with Peak Adventure and noticed that Thunderbolt was yet to leave TA, other teams soon followed, close racing!

Leg 3 - Ride, Moonee Beach to Bucca (19km)

We had a couple of small issues in TA, a slow leaking MTB tyre and a broken tow rope that must have happened in transit. Our support crew got us going as quick as possible, onto the first solid bike climb. With Chris and Mish out front and Dan and Ali suffering a little just to stay on the wheel, we were still able to appreciate the fantastic views offered by the Coffs hinterland. The race certainly offered many spectacular vistas, often obscured by the rain! Again no difficulties on the Nav, a few passing dirt bikes out for a muddy trail ride, we decided to climb up to Store Rd (rather than right into Cemetery Rd) which proved a good choice, as we hammered down the main trail into TA. We definitely didn’t hit top gear on this leg, with Team #22 (Tiger Adventure) hammering past us, showing the pace needed to stay at the front of the field.

Leg 4 - Rogaine, Lower Bucca Forest (8km)

Again navigation seemed quite predictable with little route choice and very few off trail CPs. With the top teams all moving quickly, any mistakes would be costly. We chose an anticlockwise loop, as did most teams, dropping CPC and CPD. We picked up CPH behind the Gravestone and headed south straight onto Cemetery Road. CPG perfect. In an effort to make something happen for us we chose to go directly from CPG to CPF along the creek and then after CPE cut over to Plonk Road from just past the creek on Store Road the shortest routes possible. In the end these choices resulted in no discernible time lost or gained. We moved well, jogging forestry trails, our only holdup was a seriously thick section of lantana on Hoosens Rd on route to CPA. Kudos to Tiger who had one of the quickest times through this leg in bike shoes!

Despite being sick with the flu, Michelle still raced strong.

Leg 5 - Ride, Bucca to Boambee (40km)

Back onto the bikes, we rolled out of TA with the BMX Bandits in equal 3rd place, Thunderbolt and Tiger just up the road, Peak, Rogue and CBRAR close behind. We made a mistake on McNamara Rd, heading past the turn into Schooner Rd, meaning we would have to climb back up to CP8. Likewise Bandits overshot the turn, allowing Peak to leap frog both of us into 3rd spot. The Bandits got away from us briefly as the clay based mud on Apseys Road locked up Michelle’s front wheel, perhaps a common problem as this video on FB shows. We rejoined Bandits and worked together, swapping turns, pulling Peak back. Our three teams rode together through Fridays Creek and up the tough Tower pinch. Chris and Mish both came unstuck on the muddy descent down to Wedds Road, thankfully the rain meant soft landings! Our support crew provided some delicious pizza in TA and we changed into warm, dry gear in preparation for the night ahead, which meant we stayed longer than needed in TA. Bandits and Peak were well up the road as we left.

Leg 6 - Night Rogaine, Boambee to Crossmaglen (19km)

A 19km night rogaine, so close to the finish, meant this leg was always going to be pivotal. Joggin along Wedds road, turning right up the long muddy hill, we struggled to stay on our feet on the super muddy climb. With trails often at odds with the maps, we lost a little time on this stage. Team Rogue caught us on the Saddle Trail and we travelled together, on and off, for the next few hours. The descent down the southern side of Peak Trail was crazy, super wet and muddy, with gradients nudging -30%. We moved clear of Rogue as we rejoined the tar at the western end of Crossmaglen road. The team was absolutely powering at this point, except for Chris, who was happy for a more leisurely pace. We lined up for archery at the TA, spraying arrows all over the place.... (except the target!) Despite the ‘novelty’ factor of these types of challenges, it’s does add a different dimension to the race and it’s nice to see event organisers mixing things up a little.

Leg 7 - Ride, Crossmaglen to Mylestom (22km)

Pretty determined to maintain our 5th position, we got onto the bikes and rode hard, in what can only be described as the wettest riding conditions anyone could possibly experience. The rain was torrential and visibility poor, but in a weird sort of ‘it cannot possible get any worse’ way, it was actually pretty fun. No issues with nav, bikes running smoothly thanks to a mid race service from Norm.... That is, until we hit the sandy Rutile Trail behind Mylestom beach. At which point every pedal stroke was met with the sound of grinding sand in the chain. Bikes soon to be listed on eBay!

Leg 8 - Beach Run, Mylestom to Sawtell (14km)

There were several good things about this final run; first - it was the final run, second - the tide was low and the sand firm, and third - with a small lead over Team Rogue, we didn’t have to fight to maintain our position (the battle between Tiger and Bandits sounded painful). That said, the girls in particular were still super motivated to get through the leg in a reasonable time, have a hot shower and climb into bed. We moved quickly up the beach, passing a few half teams, in what was a fairly uneventful stage until the Bonville Creek crossing. As we approached the Bonville Headland, we could see a dozen or more head lights in the distance, all paused at the crossing. We overheard one competitor talking to Craig on his mobile, suggesting the crossing was too dangerous to safely pass (apparently someone had attempted to cross and got swept off their feet). We hesitated for a few minutes and then chose what we considered to be the safest route, convinced our wives that ‘nothing could possibly go wrong’, linked arms and went for it. In the end it wasn’t too bad, Chris later commented that it ‘was barely waist deep’ - and if you check out our team photo you’ll see he was probably right! His wife however was well and truly swimming!

While it was disappointing to have 3 legs cut from the race (including two of the paddles and an interesting bike rogaine - possibly our team strengths), it’s completely understandable given that ‘participant safety’ will always be a race directors number one consideration. The 2017 Geoquest still provided some close, exciting, fast paced racing, with the top teams challenging one another for final positions. Added to this, travelling alongside some of the half course teams in the later part of the race (which rarely happens), made for a more social and enjoyable atmosphere.

Final Thanks

As usual, many people helped make our participation in Geo possible. First and foremost, our support crew were amazing, suffering through horrendous conditions and still smiling each time we saw them. Hauling boats, cleaning and repairing bikes, serving food and juggling gear! Thank you so much, Norm, Bob and Keiran. Plus of course, the grandparents for babysitting!

Thanks to Craig, GeoCentric and their team of volunteers (including Nuts and his merry scouts) who also braved the elements.

A final thanks to Michael, from Percival Property in Port Macquarie for his generous, ongoing support. Michael is an experienced endurance athlete, having participated in Geo previously, and his business supports many local events and athletes. Check them out at www.percival.com.au

Percival Property - Michelle and Chris Delaney, Dan and Alison McLachlan.

GeoQuest 2017 – This Rambling Rover

Alex: “oh god, it says there’ll be 50-100mm of rain tomorrow” Heather: “What does that mean?”
Pete: “It means there’ll be a lot of water”

After leaving rainy Sydney for a rainy 7hr drive up the coast Team Rover Scouts arrived in rainy Sawtell, just South of Coffs Harbour, which I’m sure was also very wet. See the trend?

We spent the day sorting through our race tubs, making sure we had what we needed, and showing our support team what each item was for. We were far more organised this year having all this and meal prep (thankyou support team) finished before the race briefing, meaning we could properly focus on marking up maps once we got them. Organisers revealed the paddle legs for the half course were cancelled due to flood warnings. The full course still had an ocean paddle start but all following paddle legs were also cancelled. This was disappointing but completely necessary from a safety perspective. If I’ve learnt anything from writing risk assessments over the years, it’s that sometimes you just need to call it.

In hindsight, I’m grateful we didn’t paddle; check out these epic images from the Full Course start on an ocean kayak leg.

This year was so different. We felt confident and excited as a team, rather than nervous and anxious. We all agreed on wanting a f**ked-up-hardcore- blistered-aching adventure race, and were ready to be uncomfortable to smash it out in less than 24hrs; and that’s exactly what we did.

8am Saturday morning we made our way from the shelter to the rainy start line. Race organiser Craig counted down from 10 and we were off the line with 32 other half course teams. We jogged along the beach, pacing ourselves for the 13km of sand running ahead. Shortly we reached the much anticipated “swim” which turned out to be a chest deep wade through surprisingly warm water. Holding packs above our heads we made the crossing and continued running, not much wetter than before since it was raining so heavily. Our only rule for this race was “don’t stop moving” so while burning from a long jog on sloped sand we alternated between two minutes of running and 30 seconds of walking which worked well in holding our place in the race.

At 10:30am we reached the first Transition Area (TA), greeted by our support team who had our bikes ready to go. We took a few minutes to rinse the sand from our shoes and were off on our 38km bike leg, preparing ourselves for the 1000m elevation we were about to climb.

As usual it took me a while to find the strength in my riding legs, but once we got momentum this improved. We were playing leap frog with other teams who were stronger hill climbers. To make up for this we became fast downhill riders to catch up. Ross’s navigation was a clear advantage for us, opting to take different slightly longer roads to avoid hills, and often catching up or getting ahead of our passing teams.

While competitive, adventure racing is still such a friendly sport. Every racer who breezed past as I struggled up a hill or even pushed my bike shouted encouragement as they passed “almost there”, “keep pushing”, “you got this”.

You are all champions, thank you!

With so much water around we were riding through calf deep river crossings, boggy puddles and slippery clay slopes. We were covered head to toe in mud and couldn’t be happier as we yelped and yippeed our way through the course.

The climb up the mountain to the telephone tower quietened us a little as we pushed our bikes, and then walked them back down the other side. Steep slopes on technical tracks became unrideable as the clay turned to mud.

Holding onto our bikes to stay upright we slid down the path and into our next transition area.

Having not seen any teams in a while that alone feeling of “are we last?” had started to creep in, but seeing our excited support team we were encouraged to hear we’d made good time and we were leading the back pack with multiple teams still to come through. Quickly dropping muddy bikes, picking up lights and food we marked out our Rogaine and set off again on foot with an hour of daylight left.

At 4pm we jogged it out, (2mins on, 30sec off) to put some distance between us and tailing teams. It was an epic start to the 16km Rogaine trek leg. Crossing cattle grids, we jogged past a cow, who then started to follow. Nervously we picked up the pace (how fast can cows even run?) and so did the cow who then crossed the road behind us and up the bank to her calf. Thank god.

While climbing another 1000m elevation towards the phone tower we clued onto some unmarked single tracks that zig zagged up the steep slippery slope which saved us a fair bit of mud and effort. A gamble that paid off. The three check points were spread out, and Ross continued to wow us as he predicted every river or hill around every bend.

As we got further into the leg the slopes got even slipperier and steeper. At times, it was easier to sit and slide through the clay, and it was of course hilarious as we all fell over. A group of 3 teams caught up and we all supported each other and chatted as we slipped out of control down the mountain. We again gambled on zig zagged single trails which put us ahead, and we ran it back across the flat to the next transition making the most of sealed road.

At the TA we gave archery a very sad attempt in the dark, taking 25 rounds to hit five arrows in the target. We had quick hot soups, admired our clean bikes (thankyou support team) and enjoyed the comforts of machine washed and dried bike shorts.

At 10:30pm we started the 20km bike leg, spoilt with sealed roads most of the way as we detoured from the originally planned kayak. The rain pelted even harder making it challenging to see past bike lights while leaning sideways to keep out of my own tire slick. Twice I found myself with one eye forced shut full of mud, but at least being so wet I only needed to look upwards in the rain to wash it out. Brakes on all our bikes are now squeaky and only half working, making this leg a fast one as we avoided our dodgy brakes. The rest of this leg was a blur, visibility was poor but we were running off adrenaline as we rode through the sand and into the transition to start our final leg.

beach for the final 13km to the finish line. Acknowledging how tired we were, and how much our knees and calves were hurting we decided to set a strong pace and walk out this section. Up the beach the wind was howling and the rain just kept on falling. Pacing into the dark we all went into silence for a few hours, and then realised how much we needed to talk just to stay awake.

Eventually we came to the final swim, the fast-moving river crossing that swept out to sea. Doing this in the dark had me scared. We went upstream, linked arms and entered the water. Soon enough we were chest deep, drifting down and then scrambling out on the other side. It all happened so fast, but we were now 600m from the finish.

For our final push Tristan was freezing, we were all stiff and it took some serious convincing to get the team to run it out. Only managing one minute running to one minute walking we made it up the ramp to the surf Lifesaving Club, held hands and crossed the finish line at 3:24am, 19.5hrs after starting.

We were STOKED. Our goal had always been to finish in 24hrs, and then once the course was shortened we wanted to do it in less.

Compared to last years’ experience finishing in 36hrs due to injury, it’s been an unbelievable turn around and so, so rewarding to be competitive. The team this year stayed so focused, communicating everything we needed and felt, knowing exactly what our next navigational moves were, preparing for transitions and pushing through to keep moving nonstop. I could not be happier, thank you guys for a f**cked-up-hardcore-blistered-aching time.

This race couldn’t go ahead without a handful of friends coming along to watch our tracker move, and wait in the rain for us to reach transitions. Support Crew do so much more than just cheering us on (though that was nice). You guys were our rock, you had everything ready for our next legs, food, bikes, gear, hot drinks etc. Plus preparing all our food while we marked up maps. I cannot thank you enough for your time, and unlimited support in the lead up and during the race. You guys are amazing xx

Geoquest 2017 Sawtell – Thunderbolt Adventure Racing

The lead up to Geo 2017 was a little unusual. It had been raining pretty solidly and the forecast for the weekend was ominous with flood warnings up and down the NSW North Coast. This put the organisers in a difficult position as they knew from experience that rivers flood very quickly and this can compromise safety and rescue plans. They made an early call on Friday to remove the river paddling at the end of the race by removing three legs (two paddles and one bike leg) plus some single track MTB sections. Whilst this was disappointing for many of us, there really were no other options. What it did mean is that the pressure was taken off the Friday evening rush as we only had 8 legs to plan. This made for a more relaxing time but we still managed to fiddle around enough to keep us busy until hitting the sack to the sound of heavy rain at about 9.30. We also got to sleep in as the ocean paddle was shortened due to heavy seas. When re arrived at the start we were also advised it would consist of a few laps of the harbour – which we all thought would be very straight forward.

Leg 1 – Coffs Harbour Kayak

The race got underway in torrential rain with a the shortened paddle and we were a little surprised as the size of the shore break and waves even inside the harbour. Despite this we all had lots of fun in the waves, well except Josh who was extremely relieved to be back on ‘dry’ land and might have mentioned this once or a thousand times over the next few hours. We had managed to punch straight through the breakers from the start with a relatively uneventful although bumpy paddle leading the pack from the start and back onto the beach. We were a bit surprised at the carnage out there on the paddle, we saw a few capsized or sinking boats and later heard about some damaged boats and saw some spectacular photos.

Leg 2 – 13km Coastal Trek, Solitary Islands Walk

We quickly transitioned and headed out along the coast, for the most part running along the beach, crossing a few rivers and a couple of sections on a walking track. A few chasing teams caught us with a few kms to go as we overshot a turn losing a bit of ground. We surprised our support crew as we came into transition as our tracker updates were lagging behind but managed a speedy transition and headed out first on the bike.

Leg 3 – 19km Bike Bucca Forests

Little bit up little bit down mostly on 4wd tracks. Peak Adventure came past us after the first little climb as Hugh landed a flat and needed a tube in the back tyre. We later came back past them as they dealt with a broken chain.

Leg 4 – 8km Orienteering loop Bucca Forest

The rogaine loop where we needed to collect 6 of 8 CPs. We seemed to be the only team going anti-clockwise so we ran past many of the chasing teams as they headed in the other directions. We skipped the 2 checkpoints in the creek opting to get those closer to roads and judging from other teams experiences and photos this was a smart move.

Leg 5 – 40km Bike Orara Forests/ Upper Orara

Heading out on the longest bike leg of the race we saw the chase teams heading into transition knowing they would be chasing hard. Certainly a bit of climbing on this bike leg and a good way to test our teams recovery post Expedition Africa 3 weeks prior. We lost some time at the first CP as the tracks on the ground did not fully line up with what the map said. The rain had stopped briefly making one particular section of dirt road that was messed up by logging traffic super sticky, caking our tyres in thick mud. It was almost impossible to keep the wheels turning especially as we climbed. It was like riding a fat tyre bike made from lead. We were then searching for puddles to ride through to get some of the dirt off the bikes and at least when it started raining again it helped to clean our bikes.

After Leo got distracted by big Tonka toys, it was a welcome relief hitting some bitumen for a section nearing the end of the ride. Before hitting dirt again for a final climb. The final decent into the transition was steep and slippery, slipping and sliding on or off the bike. Team Tiger Adventure had caught us towards the end of this bike leg and made a few minutes on this descent as we dealt with a broken hanger on Hugh’s bike.

Leg 6 – 19km Trek Orara West/ Tuckers Nob

This leg proved to be the crux leg of the race. We set off just as darkness fell chasing hard to try to regain our lead. Our first challenge was to clamber back up the steep muddy descent we has just slipped down on the bike. We made reasonable time but Josh unfortunately rolled his ankle badly running down the next hilly section. We fed him neurofen and panadol and he tightened his laces. He didn’t enjoy clambering on the bigger rocks or uneven surfaces after that but he soldiered on. We caught up to Tiger Adventure as they were searching for CP 16 and proceeded to lead them up the wrong creek searching for it ourselves. We were then both caught by Peak Adventure and BMX Bandits descending down from the CP once we had located the correct creek. We were then able to swap some stories as the four teams formed a pace line running along a track toward CP 17. Unfortunately I think we all distracted ourselves and combined with tracks that weren’t marked well on maps, realized we were heading the wrong way. We all turned back and whilst Peak Adventure and ourselves stopped at the last track junction, BMX Bandits and Tiger Adventure continued all the way back down to the creek. Peak Adventure turned off the track to the left and after some discussion and studying the map we did too. We were very happy when we saw the checkpoint not far along this track. To transition from here was another Bycroft special. A seemingly endless steep slippery ascent followed by an even longer, steeper slide technical descent down. The question was whether you tried to stick to the sides where there might have been some leaf matter to step on or branches to grab but more sloped if you slipped or go for the flatter ruts in the middle with less to fall but also less grip. It was always a case that it seemed better whenever you weren’t. We ran pretty well down this again passing many half teams and catching Peak Adventure at the bottom as it turned into bitumen and then the transition.

Leg 7 – 22km Bike Pine Creek – Archery

Before leaving the TA we had to complete the archery challenge. Luckily Josh had done this before and shot 3 from 3, Leo managed to fluke the other 2 whilst Bern and Hugh at least learnt to shoot an arrow vaguely at the target. We left in front, ahead of Peak Adventure who looked like they might have a bit of trouble collecting their arrows. It was mostly a bitumen ride made challenging with limited visibility due to the teeming rain. A creek crossing and short ride on a beach path into the final TA we had made good time.

Leg 8 – 14km Coastal Trek

As we retraced our route out of the TA and headed towards the beach we saw team Peak Adventure in second place riding in. We estimated about 10-15min gap and knew they would be chasing hard. We were not going to be able to stroll on this last beach run. We keep checking for headlights behind us but this was difficult as we were passing Geohalf teams and we were convinced they would be chasing with headlights off behind us. There were no checkpoints on this leg just the lights of Sawtell in the distance that never seemed to be getting any closer. Through the torrential rain we eventually made the final creek crossing. The tide was flowing quickly out and Josh was nearly swept out to sea as we swum across, landing on the not so soft oyster beds on the other side. One more km to the finish and we were finally able to celebrate a victory and defence of our title in a time of 15hours 41 minutes, in the end 35minutes ahead of second place Peak Adventure.

It was then lovely being able to enjoy (read collapse) the finish whilst cheering in Team Peak Adventure, Tiger Adventure and BMX Bandits and swap some stories with them before heading home for showers, more food and sleep, finally getting dry for the first time all day.

The course may have been shortened and altered due to some atrocious weather conditions but it was fun, fast, very wet and hurt. Everything we had expected and more. We tend not to be the fastest team, so we were pleased we had the legs to come out on top in what ended up being a fast race with few tactical options and limited opportunity to make big mistakes.

Thanks to our fabulous support crew the amazing Kim and Mike. We couldn’t have done it without you and although the pace of the race meant you had very little down time you certainly enabled some very speedy transitions for us.

We’ll see everyone next year!

Mountain Designs Wild Women conquer Geoquest AR Sawtell 2017

For this blog rather than provide a description of Geoquest from start to finish, I thought why not write about some of the challenges we faced along the way, as well as of the highs for an all-women’s team completing an adventure race in less than ideal conditions. As this blog is also our way of trying to inspire and encourage more women to get into this amazing sport, I will also provide a bit of an insight as to what worked and what did not during the event.

# Challenge - East Coast Low approaches Sawtell what impact will this have on the event?

Teams were faced with the reality that the event could be cancelled at any minute. At the event briefing the full course was modified, which meant that two river paddles were cancelled along with the connecting MTB leg due to potential flood risk. The event was going ahead, we were confident we had the right gear and equipment and were very mindful of the fact that team work will play a key role in this event!

# Challenge - Despite a massive swell building the full ocean paddle was still on the cards.

We had spent months and months preparing for an ocean paddle and had purchased the perfect ski for this event – an EPIC V8 Double from Kayak Noosa, however we were certainly not confident that we would handle the ‘alternate Leg 1 course’ which was a paddle out through Coffs Harbour around Kortis Islet and back. Looking out at the swell was petrifying, so we were honestly relieved that the course was shortened to three laps around the harbour, and confident we could handle the dumping beach break as long as we were patient and alert.

We are not sure that we are ready to paddle out of the harbour....it looks so scary out there!

# High – Girls survive the paddle!

Just as we were about to start the paddle we lost vision of the yacht we were to paddle around, we thought the event was about to be canned, but seconds later the rain eased, and we heard the countdown 10, 9, 8.......3,2, 1 and then the horn! Alina and I made it out straight away, Gina and Cass were right behind us, but had to wait out a big set off high rollers, once out we stuck together as a team and paddled the swells cautiously yet confidently. Soon we were in a thunderstorm, we did not see lightning but heard the thunder, but we made our three laps and were heading in. All our training in Noosa of ‘not catching waves’ on big easterly swells had paid off......we cruised into the beach, without mishap to the delight of our nervous support crew Erica and Tom who had been witnessing carnage in front of their eyes! For the record we finished 3 laps of the paddle and are super stoked that we did, we also realise that some teams who finished ahead of us did not complete 3 laps, however understand and respect reasons for the decision to allow teams to continue on the course without penalty.

# Challenge – Water Crossings & No crew at TA 2

This coastal trek – Leg 2 had a few inlets to cross so we linked arms and worked as a team during these crossings. However our biggest challenge here was trying to get around the rocks at Korora Beach....we saw the waves coming but made a run for it....Gina was leading....suddenly I was swept off my feet and was being sucked out by the wave.....I had to dig my hands into the sand to prevent being sucked out....phew....that was lucky!

Unfortunately we overestimated our time for this leg and as a result it meant our crew had not arrived....no drama.....we just took shelter behind the toilet block out of the wind and waited for the crew to arrive....

# High – Nailing the Foot O Leg 4

We arrived at the TA pretty wet and soggy looking forward to a run to warm up a bit. Our support crew had some really amazing hot soup for us here and it was so so yummy. We had to mark up our maps so pretty glad we had kept them dry to this point. Our plan to drop CP C & D worked well opting for a longer run and less creek travel. Although some of the marked trails did not exist and other unmarked trails did, team work and good navigation choices helped.

# Challenge – locating CP8 on Bike Leg 5

We had made some use of the tow rope to keep the team together on the previous bike leg, so the system worked

well on this leg too. We had a steep climb up past Bucca lookout on our way to CP8. We certain we had taken the correct route down Schooner Road to find the track to CP8, but were a bit confused when the track marked on the map did not seem to exist. We rode to the next junction looking for an alternate track route, but it did not exist, so headed to where we though the track should be and started a bush bash. But wait.....this was stupid the description was track creek junction, so there must be a track. So we were prepared to head back up past the highpoint and take another route to the CP. Then we looked down a trail that we had previously discounted as it was too high and thought we may as well give it a go! We did and found the CP – this was definitely a low point as if we had just not been navigators and not been looking at times / distances etc we may have just turned anyway.....oh well time to move on now! It was getting dark so on go the AY UP lights!

# High – Great Support Crew

We arrived at Boambee (CP12 TA) to the sounds of Mummy....Mummy.....is that you Mummy! It was pouring with rain, we were covered in mud after a slip and slide down off Little Boambee but Alina was so excited to see her two little boys (Archie & Jackson) out there on the course to share the experience. We were treated to shelter, hot food, washed off shoes, and dry socks....sometimes it’s the little things that count! Erica and Tom had an awesome set up and we were so thankful for their support.

# Challenge – Finding CP 17

Although this trek did not have the some of the Geoquest classic legs features of bush bashing along steep ridgelines or clambering along wet slippery creek beds, it did have the classic ‘tracks marked’ may not be as they appear! We had moved extremely well to CP 13, 14, 15 and also located CP 16 after a bit of persistence paid off hiking up a creek line for what seemed much longer than what showed on the map, great stuff Alina! On the way to 17 the marked track was quite indistinct and soon we were climbing....not right! So we headed straight back and found our trail. It was bucketing down with rain so we were running to keep warm. We all managed to cross the skill tester plank bridge without falling – yay – and then ended up on a big trail. It seemed strange but correct bearing so we continued. We were headed for CP17 Bridge – all seemed good until we crossed the creek before the ‘marked bridge’ and started climbing! This was not meant to happen....we were somewhat bamboozled and tried to make sense of it. For some reason because we had been running we thought we must be somewhere else – and thought oh, maybe it was back at the skill tester bridge, so we ran back (about 1.5k) and had a look....nothing.....gave another team some help re CP 16 and confirmed we were where we thought! So once again we headed along the trail to 17 as before but much more slowly checking every twist / turn / contour and ended up at the same creek, and the same trail that went up a hill not to a bridge.....so we had a scout around in the creek, Alina found a waterfall but no bridge. We had to keep moving at this point and finding this CP was our trail home, so we just had to think laterally and go well this track might just be wrong but take us where we want.....and it did! We soon found the bridge and the CP.....why did we not think that earlier???? The descent off this range was challenging too and Cass helped Gina with her footing while I relaxed my thinking on following the trail as it was not as it appeared but was generally headed in the right direction so pretty stoked when we hit the bitumen heading to CP18/TA.

# Challenge - Archery on a cold dark wet morning!

A bit of fun trying to hold a bow straight when you are shivering....but we all had a go and after missing the board many times we eventually got the hang of it! Don’t pull back too far, and aim for the ground – bullseye!

# Challenge – Crossing the raging Bonnyville Creek to reach the Finish.

We opted to run the Bundegaree Coastal walk track all the way to Bundagen Headland and then hit the beach, Gina was amazing walking at a rate that we had to run to keep up, so we ran walked all the way to the crossing! Wow the map was right...there seemed to be dangerous currents and the water was rushing out.....this crossing looked pretty scary! But when you get there in a race and you know others ahead must have done it, I suppose it does give you some confidence. We could see people on the other side, so headed to the sandbar, linged arms and waded in. Soon we lost footing and wer all swimming, trying to stick together....we stood up a bit and then we were swimming again.....liked drowned rats we emerged onto the bank pretty excited to see Tom and the kids!

# High – Getting to the Line of Geoquest AR

The finish was now a reality for team Mountain Designs Wild Women.....so joined by Alina’s family for the final jog up to the Sawtell Surf Club we were greeted by our other amazing support crew Erica and our Tri Adventure friends - the Cowgirls and Cowboys and their crew!

We Mountain Designs Wild Women Kim Beckinsale, Cass Kimlin, Gina Dunsdon and Alina Mc Master are grateful for all the support we have received from our major sponsor Mountain Designs, not only for their support of an all-women’s team, but also for their passion and foresight in sponsoring Geoquest since its inception in 2002 and providing some of the best gear for taking us to places we’d rather be.

If you are reading this please check out the latest Mountain Designs blog and where possible try to support Mountain Designs when considering equipment and gear for your next adventure.

is amazing and the fact that we can keep going all through the night in the pouring rain whether it be riding, hiking or paddling is something that the average person would not believe even possible! Ay Up lighting systems have supported me since 2007 when I was lucky to be a part of the winning Geoquest Team, and always look after my team mates as well as well as the Tri Adventure group! If you are looking for a good set of lights for your next adventure – you should definitely check these out. https://ayup-lights.com/

So for all the girls out there, who might be considering Geoquest here are a few tips:-

1. Start with the GEO HALF and try to develop your skills across all disciplines.

2. Get some skills instruction in the disciplines you are least experienced, if possible in an all-women’s environment. Tri Adventure have some upcoming ‘Wild Women Skills Clinics’ – 16th July, 12th August, 2nd September. Contact us at Tri Adventure for more information about these upcoming clinics.

3. Enter some smaller events first, such as the Wild Women Adventure Race where you get to test out your skills in an all-women’s environment over a course created by women for women. Alternatively there are smaller upcoming events such as the Northern Rivers Raid and the MOJO Raid, so check out the Qld Rogaine Association for more details. Then there is also the iconic Hells Bells and Fairy Bells Adventure Race located in the Sunshine Coast Area.

4. Why not also have a go at some single discipline events in your local area, such as foot rogaines, orienteering, trail running, mountain biking and paddling as these provide you with some great training and preparation for adventure racing as well.

5. Remember that for most of us Adventure Racing is a lifestyle sport where we test ourselves physically and mentally against what nature and ‘man’ aka race director throws at us. So always expect the unexpected – maps that are not perfect, conditions that are not perfect, and situations that are not perfect and just deal with it.....trust me, this will help you cope in other situations in your life that you are faced with and is better than what any doctor or therapist can prescribe! It is not a sport about doing what the masses do, it is about doing something that you think makes you a healthy, fit, strong and happy!

6. Most of all, if you want to get into Adventure Racing and Geoquest in particular you want to be out there doing these adventures with like-minded people that you know, trust and like to be around, and everything will just seem easy.........maybe not at the time .......but after you finish you will reap the rewards of adventure racing!

Written by Kim Beckinsale June 2017

TriAdventure Noosa: Cowgirls Ride out Geoquest 2017

A bit of Cowgirl history to start.....

The Cowgirls all female team have been making an appearance at Geoquest since 2005, and that being our first year we raced the Half course and were vaguely confident we could achieve the distance. Things were a bit different back in 2005 – we had an ocean paddle (just like the Full course), we had to copy the CPs onto our maps via co-ordinates (eastings/northings) and we had to contact the maps as well. This took a lot of time in map preparation. Things are so much easier now! Getting back to that original team in 2005 – it consisted of some great females in adventure racing. Kim Beckinsale, Thorlene Egerton, Susie Blissner and yours truly to make up the 4. We had no goals in that event other than to complete it as a happy team.

As it turned out we won the race outright – we were in shock to say the least..... The all-male team that we came in ahead of had chided us for drinking red wine the night before the event – they soon learnt this was a good strategy.....and we learnt that too....so have continued on the tradition for many years since!

Moving on the 2006 – where do you go when you win the GeoHalf? No other choice but step up to the Full course. We put together another great team – Janie Cooksley, Wendy Read, Kim Beckinsale and yours truly. This race had the infamous hike-a-bike up Mt Yarrahapinni – the toughest one ever – and we Cowgirls had a 20-minute sleep half way up as we were struggling big time. This race was one of the longest ever as well – the winning team took 37 hours and we Cowgirls finished the whole course when half the field retired or were short-coursed. There was a 1.5km portage option on the paddle down the Nambucca River – but we couldn’t lift our titanic sea kayaks – so ended up paddling and extra 10kms around. We kept ourselves awake (as

we were now into the 3rd day..) by singing very loudly. We found every CP but it took us nearly 53 hours – so we had missed the presentations when we arrived in on Monday morning! This was truly an epic adventure with some truly amazing women....

Kim Beckinsale and Jan Leverton have been involved in Adventure Racing and Multisport since 2003 following numerous years of participation in other endurance- style events. The freedom & excitement of adventure sport has ignited a passion for, not only experiencing it themselves, but exposing others to the pristine places and experiences that only adventure sports can take you...not to mention the lifestyle benefits of being active in the great outdoors. We'll see you out there!

2007 – we were in Sawtell! I rounded up some more legends to join the Cowgirls. Kathryn Preston was keen for her first Geoquest, Linda Davis joined in as did Tamsin Barnes. It was another great team. We made it out through the surf on the ocean paddle and went on the complete the event again. I think we finished in 48 hours that year – with a swim across the same creek as 2017! Kathryn Preston went ahead in leaps and bounds after her initiation with the Cowgirls – it was great to have the opportunity to show her the ropes...

2008 – I had Thor, Tamsin and Alison Curtin in the Cowgirls that year. We survived the ocean paddle once again. It was another great experience and we finished in about 42 hours with champagne on the finish line at 2.00am – yee- ha!

2009 – This year Geo was in Forster. We had another gun team – Kim, Narelle Ash, Wendy Read and me (actually, I wasn’t a gun at all, I was 49 and getting rather slow...). This was the year we had to construct a raft – it was probably one of worst legs in AR that I have ever done – Cowgirls are not known for their engineering prowess! I think we were on that raft for 5 hours drifting around the Myall Lakes – not something I wanted to repeat again in a hurry. Unfortunately, we had to retire that year as one of our team-mates developed hypothermia and we couldn’t revive her. We still raced for 40 hours.....so got plenty of time on the course.

In the years since then the Cowgirls have been firmly ensconced in the Geo Half. I have had some amazing girls come through my team and demonstrated to them what girls can do on their own. Lee Burgess, Julie Drysdale, Diane Croft, Mandy Caldwell, Susie Blissner, Gina Dunsdon, Michele Krome, Wendy Flanagan, Kelsey Harvey, Linda Thompson, Cass Kimlin, Shan McGrath, Abbey Anderson and Kelly-Anne Speight – you are all extraordinary women and I hope you are proud to have been part of the Cowgirls Tri Adventure......as I have been so pleased to have you on board! Not one cross word or one complaint has been made from these girls over the course of 13 years.....and no tears either.....pretty incredible I think!

So.....it’s 2017. We are back in Sawtell. I am now 57 (!) – luckily the rest of my team is much younger J Kim is racing with the Mountain Designs Wild Women – we have a house full of women ready for adventure! We are happy to see there are 2 other all-female teams entered in the Half course and one other in the Full course. Girls are finally breaking away from the role as the ‘token’ female...

The east coast low had brought the rain to the mid-north coast (as it did in 2011 when the event was eventually called off..) and we were faced with another critical situation where the race director had to make hard decisions for the safety of the competitors. A few sections of the course were cancelled, including our only paddle! This meant we had about 43kms of trekking and 60kms or riding. There was no question our legs were going to suffer!

On the run towards Moonee Beach

We started at Coffs Harbour with a 13km beach trek and one CP to collect all the way. To my surprise we ran the whole way on this foot leg – that would the last time we ran until the last 500m! There was one rather challeng section on this beach where we had to make a quick sprint around a rocky sect or be sucked out to sea with the crashing waves. We all made it – but some w a bit shaken by the experience! It was bucketing down rain (repeat this phr for 18 hours...) when we hit the TA and our crew fawned over us - a thous ‘thank-yous’ Steve & Michele! Our first bike leg was 38km. It took in so roads and many slippery trails. We handled it like Cowgirls – slow and stead looking after each other all the way – especially on the slippery downhills!

At the next TA our crew had ham and cheese toasties – thanks again Michele Steve – this was awesome! We trekked off in the late afternoon and were hop to bag the first of 3 CPs in the daylight – we didn’t quite make it but it was easy walk into the creek junction to punch. The next 2 CPs were on tracks – we walked right onto them.....and then we had to tackle a massive uphill to P Trail (thanks for the tow Kelly-Anne!) and then the long slippery downhill to road. Kelly-Anne was brilliant at this and she went ahead and helped us pick easiest way down. We slipped and slid.....mostly on our feet, a few times on backsides....but made it to the bottom eventually – with a sigh of relief! crew had Mandy’s split pea soup on offer here – Yum – I didn’t think I co make it as well as Mandy, however it was delicious......but we had to do archery first and this was a bit of a challenge! Shan proved to be the be getting 3 shots in, the others were good too – they got one each – I w absolutely hopeless – missing every one – not sure how I come from family w a champion bow hunter father.....sorry Dad!!

We were on the bikes for the ride down to Mylestom – and the knowledge t we would be finishing early spurred us on. At this point we were passed by some of the Full course teams – had a little chat and they left us in their d (actually that would have been mud...). We did have a small bush-bash with bikes to find the inland track and then sped into the TA, had a super-quick cha of shoes, donned our Gore-tex pants and off we went.

Did I mention it was raining? Um....well, yes it was. It absolutely bucke down again on this trek. We walked quickly, however the lights of Sawtell in distance didn’t seem to get any closer! After what seemed forever, we reac the outlet of Bonville Creek which we had to cross to get to the finish line. It w a raging torrent of flood water. There were about 6 other teams milling arou wondering what to do as it looked terrifying and completely unsafe and no- was game enough to attempt the crossing. I was keen to get across, and watched a Full course team arrive (with a very tall man), link arms and head i the water. They seemed to drift a little and then got their feet onto land again they were over. Ok, Cowgirls, we have to do this....so off we went with one the other teams. We stuck together until we started to float, Kelly-Anne w strong trying to keep us from floating away and, just when it seemed like it w all going pear-shaped, we got our feet onto hard surface and dragged each ot up to the shallows. We were all a bit shaken – especially Shan – but we made it and only had 500m to go to the finish line! That’s when I decided to my body to run – and it agreed – thanks old body! I did hold onto Shan’s pack keep us together and we ran up the beach reflecting on our race.

It had been very tough – it always is – and it gets harder every year for me – b am a stubborn old thing! We had been the perfect team – everyone worked w together and we laughed and chatted a lot but then were comfortable in silences as well. We had looked after each other too - this is what it’s all abou and come home happy and proud of our efforts as 4 females in a very challenging event – and 1st female teamJ....

The Cowgirls have been doing this since 2005 – getting women out there together, driving our own event, carrying the gear, making the decisions and finishing up with a bond that you can’t really describe to anyone who hasn’t done this. Thanks to all the Cowgirls over the years – you have been awesome – and hopefully we’ll ride again for a few more years to come. Yee- haa!!

Wild Precision Mountain Design GeoQuest 2017 Race Report

We were like saturated wet cats, bunched together under a small picnic shelter as the driving rain lashed down all around us. It had been raining for days in Coffs Harbour, and the forecast was for that to continue for the duration of our race: 95% chance of 95-120mm in 24hrs. Lube was going to be an important aspect of our race management plan. Due to the forecast of up to 100mm of rain on both Saturday and Sunday, a reduced course was put in place. An alternate kayaking leg 1 in Coffs Harbour and the removal of 2 more kayak legs and a cyclogaine.

It was still unclear 5 mins post the official start time, whether the first leg of the 2017 Mountain Designs GeoQuest was going to be cancelled completely. It had been reduced to 3 laps inside the harbour wall, safe from the 3 meter breakwater pounding the local beaches, but not the swells. A sudden ocean squall turned the rain to sleet as the wind picked up and visibility reduced. Suddenly, and unbelievably, we got the go ahead as the first turn point, a boat less than 100m away with a light beaming through the mist, came back in to view. Wild Precision was off on their inaugural multiday adventure race.

It should be noted that we are a team of occasional-time endurance wannabes, who felt they had the mental fortitude, but not necessarily the physical prowess to deal with 48 hours of continuous forward motion, under
any circumstances. It was an offhand conversation, between 2 spectators at Two Bays Trail run in Jan of 2017, where one popped the question to the other, and the other promptly said yes. We just needed two others and we had the bodies to make a team. Wild Precision was born. Three members were making their AR debut (Shaun, Andy and me) and one putting his hand up to go around a Geo adventure a 4th time (Scott). All accustomed to ultra distance events and challenges in some form; ironman, ultra distance trail running and epic kayaking adventures. We had the best intentions of regular training sessions together. In reality, life is busy for everyone and we only managed one session where the 4 of us got together for a sprint event 4 weeks out.

Leg 1: Kayak I was partnered with Andy. Our launch technique was working perfectly, gentle paddle, watching for the break to make a dash through the curling waves. Suddenly Andy shouts “GO!” We dig in, and I realise that my split paddle cam wasn’t locked. I had no control of my stroke, paddle angle nor ability to drive the power stroke required in this moment. To beat the break takes power and I had none. Little did I know Andy was having the same issue. “Go, Go, GO!” shouted Andy, “We’ll fix it out side the break, One, Two, Three waves through, I think we have made it. Just one last one to go.” The final wave was the big brother of the set, breaking as we ascended the face and crashing white churn over me as it smashed us from above. We were out of the kayak. Bugger! We were already wet from the hammering rain, the surf made no difference to our discomfort, just our start position.

After a quick retreat to the shore to empty the kayak we were back for take two, paddles locked this time, and a perfect surf exit. Our teammates were nowhere to be found. 100 meter rule broken in the first 10 mins. Whack! Andy’s paddle smacked me occasionally from behind as he shouted “Remember your core, keep the stroke rate up”. We paddled on and found Shaun andScott bobbing around on the second lap. We passed a few capsized kayaks and then a sinking ski. Rounding the far buoy on our final lap the rescue zodiac came zipping past, directing us to finish due to a fast approaching electrical storm. I giggled remembering Andy’s confession last night to his phobia of lightning.

We finished the remainder of Leg 1 with ease and 40 min in total. Shaun and Scott also made it in safely. Many did not. Many had pant-pooping experiences that our skill spared us. Weather: raining very hard.

Transition was quick and easy as we wore all our run gear during the kayak leg. We headed off on the first run leg like wet puppies splashing through dirty puddles without a care in the world. It was still coming down hard and fast. I felt sorry for our crew, one of which didn’t bring any wet weather gear with him.

Leg 2 was a coastal trek, which took us along the beach and soon to our first river crossing. It was a raging dark torrent. Our team ran straight in, without hesitation, till we were up to our armpits. The flooding torrent was moving hard and fast sweeping me off my feet. Scott grabbed my arm, keeping me from being swept out to sea.

We were moving well as a team, crossing a few more flooding creeks. Shaun and Scott were hitting zone with navigation. With a picturesque and uneventful leg 2, 13km running at 4:20k/min pace (;-)) had us hit transition a good hour and twenty ahead of estimate. Our support crew had been tracking us and anticipated our early arrival but not without some pressure on their own plans.

Transition 2 was straight forward and we were off on our bikes in no time. Weather: raining hard, still.

Then it started, the one thing my Mentors (Dornom Twins) never mentioned to me in the lead in to the race, The Farty McFart Pants Symphony Orchestra. Conducted by Andy with much frequency and volume, and much later joined by our Cpt, Shaun. Scott thought he was in about half way through the event, but one blast didn’t cut the minimum standard required. It was persistent, frequent, steadily increasing in aromatic potency as we raced. At one point I thought he was projecting the farts to behind the team as they sounded like they were chasing us.

Leg 3: 19 km MTB to Bucca. Turning the legs over on the bike provided some respite from the run until 1km where we were greeted by a massive hill ascent north out of Coffs Harbour. Soon we were on dirt trails and the essence of adventure spirit stirring as we climbed into the low level clouds. I was quickly reminded of adventure racing 101, when my team called me to stop. I had been caught in the thrill of down-hilling at speed when Scott spotted the first Checkpoint (CP) for the MTB, which I had overshot. I climbed back up sheepishly, only to go back down, again, whohooo!

We hit transition 3 all feeling good and greeted by an excited support crew who advised we were now a strong hour forty up on our estimates. Weather: very Irish.

Leg 4: 8 km Rogaine Bucca Forest. This was a fun little distraction during the race. 6 out of 8 checkpoints were to be collected. One of which was near a headstone. We met the leading team, high fiving Bern and Josh as they ran past finishing leg 4, as we were heading out. After “bang on target” navigation from Shaun, we were moving along nicely, nailing each CP up and down the creeks, rivers and tracks. It was great to get a bit of respite from the rain for a couple of hours, giving us a chance to warm up momentarily, whilst smashing our time predictions. It was now just before 4pm, and 7 hours into the race. We arrived back at transition at 3:45pm with plenty of daylight left providing a massive boost to our growing confidence. Weather: still raining.

Transition 4 was planned as a major food fest due to heading out on the big 40 km MTB. Our nominated meals were cooked and ready for us. We changed into some dry gear and found our bikes cleaned, by hand and finger nails, by our ever-amazing crew. Lyle videoed our departure for our families and friends who really felt part of the action thanks to the social media diligence of our crew.

Heading out on Leg 5 MTB for 40km Bucca to Boambee, we peddled uphill as darkness fell amongst the tall timbers of the forest. Turning on our lights intensified the adrenaline rush of adventure racing as we MTB down hill at 50km/hr (;-)). The terrain was feral. Rocky, mud slicked, 30% (at least) rutted trails in the pitch dark. Whatever MTB skills we all had, had to come to bear now as the rain converted dry challenging descents in to hairy slip ‘n’ slide obstacles that were keen to eat our bikes and send us to the nearest A&E. I’d only received my first ever MTB off Santa for Christmas 6 months earlier, what the fuck was I doing here now! That thought I kept to myself as I juggled back and front brakes to stay upright. Our Cpt took a spank on a downhill, banging his head off the ground as he fell. Later, all I could see in the darkness was Andy’s reflective material doing a 180, accompanied with a few groans as he took a spill too.

With 3CPs to get and a decent mountain smack in the middle of the first half of the ride, route choice was going to be critical. There were 3 ways to go, over the top, with a big push straight up the mountain, head east to go around but a little bit over, or head west and skirt the mountain, but also go off the provided map. After some research on Friday night while marking the maps, Shaun and Scott made a call to go out west and off the map for a few k's. Our planned route saw us take a detour that gained us 5 places. We re-joined the more 'popular' route in Karangi and ahead of some of the more experienced teams. When we arrived in to transition, Lyle and Lana were bursting to tell us about the stroke of genius of our two navigators.

The descent into the transition area was a shocker. It was totally unrideable, a toboggan would have been a more useful piece of kit. We slithered, slipped and slopped (whilst carrying our bikes) down the longest, most rutted, quagmire, rock spiked terrain I’d ever come across in daylight, let alone in the wet and dark. MTB doesn’t allow you to switch off at the best of times, which is why I love it. This descent required us to be very switched on. We realised we had to get back up this on foot as we met other teams commencing Leg 6 coming towards us. As I watched them ascend, I thought “Jesus, I think we’ll be crawling this using our fingernails when we return.” I also kept that thought to myself. Weather: Still extremely Irish.

Transition 5: We were absolutely filthy when we met Lyle and Lana in transition. Bikes, clothing, shoes, everything was heavily stained with the red earth of the region. Some chicken noodles and another change of clothes later we were back on what we had planned as a 6-hour orienteer. Little did we know what lay ahead.

Leg 6: The Epic leg, 19 km Orienteer – Orara West/ Tuckers Nob. So the ascent up the MTB descent began. We got up quite quickly. It dumped a few times as we were ascending too. I slipped and dug in with my finger nails to stop a full slide back to base. The first checkpoint was a long walk in, about 90 mins, a good 6- 7 km. The other checkpoints were challenging but we were diligent about ensuring we were cross-checking map to terrain and backing our navigators. At this point the rain had settled in for the night.

We moved forward through the forest trails gathering CP14 and 15 with solid nav from Shaun and Scott. We were 'tooing and froing' with a couple of teams as we trekked on to CP16. Having located a nearby bridge it was in and out of the river heading upstream, a long way, to pick up CP16. CP16 was a super long way up the creek so much so that Peak Adventure II did not find it initially. They had left it, but came back, and just caught us as we were heading away. We confirmed that the checkpoint was up there, just much further than they had searched. The relief, frustration and disappointment for that team was palatable. They had spent over an hour looking for it originally. We were elated with our rookie performance. We noticed now that there were higher calibre teams that were around us. We now felt the impact of our performance in the last leg. It was tasty!

There was only one CP left now before making our way to the next TA. We were now 4.5 hours into the trek and time was about 2:30am Sunday, heading south and ascending along a road and seemingly towards CP 17. CP 17 turned in to our nemesis.

We headed off up a hill, with obvious footprints. Later, we found out that many teams had headed the same way but only us idiots descended, into the abyss and onto a track that was not on the map (although we could see it later when we traced our route using the GeoQuest live tracker). We had stopped paying attention to the little tells the other teams left, as well as frequently cross checking our terrain with the map as we went. Our navigators were no longer walking in a pair, validating their thoughts and choices. All our previous errors were caught with ease and very early. This one BIG error cost us about 2 hours of time in the end. Maybe it was the witching hour, maybe we were a bit tired, maybe we were just mellowing out in the drizzle and enjoying the rhythm of a steady walk. I think we were in our own worlds! We just stopped concentrating.

Eventually, we paused near the bottom of the abyss, the three boys conferenced over the map. I stood in the group, becoming more conscious of the sleep monsters that were chasing me. I had a thought that I should take a No Doze sometime soon (probably 30 mins earlier would have been perfect). Next thing my head hit Andy’s shoulder, I stood upright with the shock. All the boys were looking at me with very large white eyes wondering what the fuck just happened. I simply said “I just fell asleep”. Andy cracked a joke about me hitting on him. I tried to remember where I’d packed the No Doze, but it was a new backpack I had only worn once and wasn’t familiar with where I had placed what. I found them eventually, and the hit was instant!

So we had a decision to make, continue on, on a track that wasn’t marked on the map, and not know where we were going to end up. Or, head back to our last known point. That meant ascending another mud slicked, rain rutted track, that we had spent 60 mins gingerly descending. The decision was fast, and unanimous, we go back up. None of us wanted to pull out the phone. Later, when we retraced our route, we discovered that we were within a couple of hundred meters of joining the track we were actually seeking. Our online dot watchers were wondering what they hell we were doing as they could see the junction. It was not on our map though.

At some point in this leg, Andy was keen to have a tantrum. He flagged this with us, quite openly. We had heard about people having meltdowns and Andy was keen to demonstrate, but he just didn’t have the energy and admitted this. So we trudged on. I did think that all he had to do was simply sit down. That would have got to us all.

We beasted our way back up the hill in super fast time and reset our location. Approaching CP16 we came across a number of teams having a similar issue. A quick re-focus and working out where we were saw us locate the trail we should have been on shortly after leaving 16, 2 hours earlier. On a mission we soldiered on, on the hunt for 17 with a number of other teams taking a lot of time to locate it also. Finally we found it and we were heading for home, well the TA. The leg took us over 10 hrs! That’s a 100 km run for some of us. Weather: Although we had some dry bits, it was still raining quite a lot.

Transition 6: At this point I had a little demon in my head telling me that I might just appreciate it now if the Race Director decided to can the event. It was another one of those little thoughts I kept to myself. We had done all the hard stuff, the long stuff, and were past noticing the rain unless it was lashing into our face. We learned to embrace the wetness and lube at every opportunity to protect all the critical parts of our bodies.

Lyle and Lana had been waiting for us for 5 hours. Our pattern so far saw us beat our projected times with ease. Not so in the last leg. We had a choice of food (bacon and egg rolls to be exact) first or get the archery out of the way. We chose archery. With daylight creeping over the horizon I stepped up first and hit bullseye. The boys were in shock for the second time that night. That put a bit of pressure on them. That was tasty too! We all changed our clothes so we could be warm and dry, for 10 mins, and off we were, bound for Mylestom. Weather: Saturated.

Leg 7 Pine Creek Single Track: Bike – no stories here. We aced the navigation. We just grinded out the kms with one memorable river crossing where we carried the bikes across. We managed some rolling turns on the open roads too. As we came in to Transition 7, our crew were forefront of our minds. Taking advantage of the volumes of water running through the drains, we rode the bikes through them as much as possible to clean off the mud. Scotty at one point was going to ride in to the river, either to clean his bike, or give himself a wake up. Weather: still bloody raining!

Transition 7 was quick, and a bit emotional for the crew. It was almost over. We were all hurting but we knew what we had to get through now. Weather: Yes, it was still raining.

Leg 8 / 11, As we departed the transition another team was hot on our heels. They now knew we were in catching distance and we were not going to give up our place so easily. We kicked it hard along the beach, our competitive edge, so blatantly buried for the entire event, reared its head. They never came close. As we closed the gap on the distant headland, we could see 2 teams struggling through the sea mist. Two of our own team members dug deep pulling out extraordinary efforts. Andy and Scott were dealing with pains in places they were trying to forget as we run-walked the final beach leg. None of us started this event in perfect race fitness, 3 of us carrying injuries that were slowly deteriorating as we progressed.

Andy clearly likes his gear, for 24 hours he rabbited on about the merits of alkaline water, bioceramic fabrics and coffee-charcoal thermals. We were all surprised when he turned his endless trial of cutting edge performance enhancing technologies to natural timber walking poles! After years of snobbing hikers on the trails who use walking sticks, Andy now swears by hand broken teatree: any odd length will do.

Our last major obstacle, marked by our crew member Lana in her red raincoat. Well, the obstacle was mine more than the guys. The 100 meter swim across the mouth of the Bonville Creek. I’m not a strong swimmer, but happy in the water. However, of all the things I had just experienced, I was frustrated with the race organiser planning what I thought was a ludicrous 15 meter swim, across a strong outgoing current after 25 hours of flogging yourself around NSW. The guys were well aware of my annoyance of having to swim. That thought I did not keep to myself.

And so it ends. At 25hrs and 53mins on the race clock Wild Precision made its way through the finish arch for their first adventure race finish. Picking up 17th place overall and finishing in the top half of the field. A fantastic result from a debut team in what was fair to say, challenging conditions, but that's adventure racing, you never know what you are going to get. Magically, the farts stopped as well. Just as magically as they begun.

Our friends and mentors cheered us to the finish line. I had a silent and I thought unnoticed emotional cry on Bern’s shoulder. It was by far the toughest event I have ever completed. I have so much more kudos and awe at those who perform at this level repeatedly. I was so lucky with my teammates, and I count the crew in there. They were gracious, humble, funny, caring (except for the swim leg as they left me to it), organised and committed with the mental fortitude to overcome whatever we encountered.

A huge thank you goes to our amazing crew Lana and Lyle who gave up a long weekend in what was nothing short of miserable conditions, getting soaked through multiple times while they set up, packed up, washed bikes, cooked meals, cleaned gear and gave us the hurry along when needed, all with a smile and a heap of encouragement. As well as keeping everyone following us at home updated with pics, vids and commentary. You were ace!

Thanks for all the comments and words of encouragement that was posted on the FB page, they all help when you are out there suffering and need that boost to get going from leg to leg.

And yes, to the only question that lingers now. Will we be back next year? So far the conversations would indicate so. With a shortened race, there is still an element of GeoQuest unfinished business.

Weather, it was still raining when we finished. It continued raining that night when we packed the car for our early start home on Sunday morning. It also rained a bit on the way home to Melbourne. It basically rained all the time! I may as well have been living in Ireland for the weekend!

GeoQuest Report by – Eye of the Tiger Adventure

Saturday 6am and I am awoken to the sounds of very heavy rain outside the bedroom window of the accommodation my team and i are staying at in Sawtell. I lay there half-awake knowing that I’d soon have to get up and that I’d be facing a weekend racing in that rain. I wanted so very much to believe that I was dreaming and soon id wake up for real to a newly released forecast showing that the predictions for extreme weather were all wrong and we would in fact be racing in near perfect conditions. After several minuets I realized that there was very little I could do other than accept the fact that it was about to be a very long, very wet weekend.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the team to be up and about checking B.O.M on phones, reading updates from Craig on the Geocentric Facebook page and watching severe weather warnings on the morning news. With the fact that 3 legs of the course had already been dropped and the ocean paddle start was now changed to an alternative we weren’t even sure if the race would get called off all together, and to be honest at that point in time I might not have been too bothered if it was.

Skipping forward a few hours and all the bikes, kit boxes and kayaks were loaded onto the support crew car and we were on our way to the new start in Coffs Harbour. With the weather and dangerous surf conditions the initial beach launch for the open ocean paddle up the coast had been cancelled and we were now looking at a 3 lap circuit inside the still very rough Coffs Harbour. The launch was mayhem, boats and racers everywhere, epic flips, plenty of rolls and it became very apparent as to why we wear helmets for ocean paddles. I was nervous when we started and I was very very cold, my nerves didn’t settle but the elevated heart rate certainly did a lot for warming me up. First lap in and my foot rest in the front of the kayak that I was pressing against hard to brace as we rolled over the large swells snapped and was forced to find an alternative way to sit that would allow me to brace and prevent us from rolling over each time we went over a wave. Sitting essentially in a butterfly leg position so I could jam my knees against the internal walls of the kayak was a less than ideally comfortable position to be in but it did work. 1/3rd of a lap to go and we were flagged by the life savers telling us to head straight into shore as the rest of the paddle had been cancelled. We paddled all the way back in watching the life savers rescue 2 other teams and awkwardly tow their boats back to the beach. We had done OK, we had survived the massive swells and paddled almost the entire 3 laps, feeling good about that was shortly interrupted by getting smashed by shore breakers and completely flipped over as we came in to land. Ouch! That was painful.

Finding our other team mates and our support crew we managed to get off the beach and up to TA quickly, not bothering to change we made good time getting out onto the second leg a 13km coastal run from Coffs Harbour to Moonee Beach.

This leg was fun, we managed to run most of it, seeing some amazing coast, even in the pouring rain, several strong flowing creek crossings, a few headland walks and some rock hopping and we were at the next TA in just under 2.5hrs.

We were feeling great, had a feed, changed a few items of clothing, got on our bikes and were happy to be on the road. 19km ride from Moonee Beach to Bucca where we would have a foot rogaine leg. The ride started out easy, out of town and over the highway, then a long slow climb on a road that curved up and around a hill overlooking shade clothed plantations. The rest of the ride was varying combination of bitumen, graveled forestry roads and of course fire trails that were reduced to sloppy mud (one of my least favorite surfaces to ride on/through).

I had taken us about 1.5hrs to reach the next TA and it was now around 2pm. Checked in and got our wrist bands for the 8km rogaine section needing to collect 6 out of the 8 cp’s on course in any order. We headed out the way we had come in looking for what should have been an easy grab off Cemetery road but we couldn’t locate the gravestone, being that this was the first CP we gave it up knowing we would have to collect another one later in the course and didn’t we pick a doozy to collect. We decided to drop down off a road to find cp C and had to climb over thick, messy lantana and over and under fallen trees. After struggling for quite some time we happened to stumble right onto it, then took the much easier creek walk route out to find cp D. At the end of the race we would learn that we were one of only 3 teams who managed to collect that CP!

3.5hrs later and we were done, back at TA, the temperature was beginning to drop and knowing we had a bike leg next and the fact that the rain had stopped we decided to swap out some wet gear for some fresh dry stuff.

40km bike leg from Bucca to Boambee East which was marked as containing a large amount of elevation change and turned out to be mostly on extremely muddy churned up forest trails. Pretty sure I already mentioned that mud is one of my least favorite surfaces to ride on, I can honestly say that this race has made me a much more confident and happier rider on/through mud!

This leg was definitely epic and for most of us mere mortals rather un-ride-able at the end forcing us to walk/slide/skid our bikes down a seriously rutted, muddy and crazily steep descent into the TA, all the while watching other teams who were ahead of us coming back up the very same hill on foot. This could only mean we would also be soon suffering the same fate! Oh and the rain had once again started with renewed ferocity, thanks to our wonderful support crew who set up shelter and made us hot soups to warm us up before we headed back out into the cold.

The 19km trek leg that came next would be the longest leg of the race, starting at just before midnight and not coming into the next TA until almost 9am. This leg saw us cover over 1000mtrs elevation and decent on foot, overnight, in torrential rain, on clay/muddy paths and through creeks, over old rotten wooden bridges (I’m so glad it was dark and I didn’t look down until I was over!! – it was really, really high) and finishing with a climb that got dubbed ‘the stairway to heaven’ (only not heaven to walk up) and a down that I secretly named ‘the descent into hell’.

I was so excited to reach the next TA knowing we were only 2 legs away from finishing and finally being able to get warm and dry! But before we could continue we would have to, as a team, shoot 5 arrows in total into the target in the Archery Challenge. This didn’t take us long and I very much enjoyed it as a welcome change for the mind as much as a change of muscle usage.

Again a fairly quite transition and we were off for our final ride, we knew this would only be a quick one, 22km, mainly on road and a few open fire trails, we completed this leg in 2hrs and beat our support crew to the TA. Thankfully they were only a few minutes off and pulled up just as we were taking off our bike shoes.

A single 14km beach trek to the finish with a few creek crossings and a large swim at the end and we would be home. It was just after 1130 and the rain had stopped, in fact it was getting quite warm so we decided that we would dump all excess gear other than mandatory for the final walk thinking that we would be finished before we would get cold again. The weather decided to screw with us one more time and the rain kicked in again making us wish we had some more warm stuff to chuck on. The monotony of the beach walk also didn’t help making us all quite sleepy and slowed us down considerably, 2 teams overtook us as we struggled to stumble to towards the finish line.

The super strong current in the final creek forced us to wake up quick smart and the minor panic at the thought of being washed out to see with the current certainly kicked up the heart rate and left us all much warmer despite being wetter than we were prior to the swim (if that was even possible!)

14:22 on Sunday afternoon and Team 13 – Eye of the Tiger Adventure stumbled and swayed our way under the finishers arch to applause from friends and locals. We cheered to our efforts with a well earnt beer/cider thanks to our amazing support crew!

Wow...what a race.. Probably the toughest race I’ve done so far, not because of any one thing specifically but the combination of course, temperature and weather conditions.

I say that every race is a chance to learn, develop skills and grow as both an athlete and a person. This race certainly provided me that chance and I’m thankful once again for the opportunity to be a part of it.

Thank you Derek, Shane and Steve! You guys were amazing and I am so glad that I got to share this journey with you.

But the biggest thanks have to go to my wonderful Husband Trevor and my beautiful daughters, Jaimie and Tianna. I couldn’t do any of this without your support, belief and encouragement.

4 Shades of Green – Wen, Lou, Kerrie and Lisa

We were keen... but very, very green. None of us could ride a mountain bike, none of us could navigate and only 2 of us had ever paddled before. But Geoquest Half looked like it would be fun so....we each bought a mountain bike, a compass, a book on how to read a compass and registered our team for the Geoquest Half 2017!

To counterbalance our complete inexperience, we were fortunate enough to have an incredible friend, Liz Woodgate, who taught us the basics of paddling, mountain biking and navigation. She had an almost sink-or-swim approach by taking us out into the middle of the Blue Mountains in the night, armed with a compass, and telling us to find our way back to the car which, fortunately, we did.

By the time race day arrived, the only thing that we hadn’t done in training was....train in the wet...

What a shame that we woke up on race morning to the weather forecasted to downpour for the entire 50 hours of the race...or was it? Even before reaching the starting line (hair all in matching braids and green ribbons), we had come up with a list of reasons why it was better to race in the rain, such as:

1. The cloud cover would make it warmer;

2. Ifitwasraining,thesandwouldbefirmerandthereforeeasiertowalkon;

3. Wedidn’thavetowearsunscreenwhichwewouldinevitablyeatduringtherace;

4. The rain would wash all the mud of us and our bikes;

5. Itmeantmoremud,adventureandmorestoriestotell...ifonlyweknew!!!

Decked out in our matching pink t-shirts (which were hidden under raincoats and bibs), and smiles on each of our faces, we hugged our support crew goodbye, headed off down the beach and waited for the start. And that was when the laughter started.

Despite all of our promises to Liz that we wouldn’t run during the race, it took us about 13 seconds before we relented. We took off on a slow jog down the beach which lasted until we reached our first river crossing...about 1km from the starting line. Taking off our rainjackets, tucking our shirts into our bra straps and holding our backpacks above our heads, we crossed the flowing river with squeals of delight.

About 12kms of laughter later, we were met by our support crew (Adrian, Mark, Samantha(9) and Charlotte(8)). They set a seriously high standard for the first checkpoint. Our tarp which was more aptly named the Taj Matent, came complete with a changeroom made out of another tarp, a ground sheet, all of our gear set out neatly into piles and towels to dry off momentarily. This was to be our refuge from the rain whilst we changed into our bike clothes, replenished our food and...watched whilst our support crew changed the flat tyre on Kerrie’s bike!

The first bike leg was the first leg where our navigation skills were tested. As well as our ability to deal with mud, clay and pools of water. But this is where the fun really began! We encountered our first downhill clay ride which was more like a slip than a ride. Four squealing girls slipping uncontrollably down a mountainside on top of bikes was quite a sight to behold. There was a lot of laughter at the bottom of that hill. It was shortly followed by another steep, slippery, clay-sodden downhill which Kerrie decided to ride down. About half way down the hill, all Lou and Lisa could hear was Wendy and Kerrie laughing and laughing and laughing. Kerrie had gone kamikaze and ended up following her bike down the hill on her backside.

It was shortly after getting back on our bikes that we came across our first pool of water on the bike course...and it was at this point that Kerrie became even more brazen. Kerrie rode straight through it, followed tentatively by Wen. Lou and Lisa watched laughing but not tempted to ride through.

A few puddles on, Kerrie was aiming for the deepest part of the puddle, Wen didn’t give it a second thought as she rode on through and Lou and Lisa were riding through the pools without hesitation. When Kerrie wasn’t sure whether a pool was too deep she sent Wen in first to be the team’s crash test dummy.

Just as we were beginning to think that we were getting better on our bikes, after a brief stop to take off some layers, Wen wasn’t too subtle when she tried to quietly point out to the others that Lisa had put her helmet on backwards!!

When back on sealed roads, as we meandered through the quiet, undulating back streets of Sawtell, the lead team flew past on their bikes and they were absolutely covered in mud from head to toe. We were dirty but they looked as though they had rolled around in the mud. When we exclaimed at how muddy they were, the girl sat up on her bike with a straight face and said “What? Do I have a bit of dirt on my face??”. And we laughed. And we laughed. And we laughed.

A few checkpoints and a couple of good saves on the navigation front later, we reached the most fun and hilarious part of the course. As we were climbing up a big hill pushing our bikes, a team said to us “You girls are going to love the downhill on the other side. Or not”. That gave us a bit of a clue as to what lay ahead but we couldn’t have prepared ourselves for the laughter that was to follow. It was like a game of slip and slide, down a seriously steep hill,

whilst holding a bike, in the rain, in the dark. At one point, the hill was so steep and slippery that Lisa decided the only way to get down was to push the bike down that part of the hill and slide down after it! It seemed to work and before we knew it, we were at the bottom of the hill, covered in clay, wet and laughing hysterically. Fortunately no broken bones or broken bikes.

We rode into transition to the chanting from our fabulous support crew. Our expectations for our support crew had been raised at the last transition but we were certainly not disappointed at this one! Adrian had washed all of our clothes from the first transition and had them all ready for us, not only dry, but still warm! He had even washed and dried our shoes!!

I think we were all pretty glad to get off our bikes and onto the trek. We were going back the way we came on the bike leg for about 5kms so we knew that we were in for a huge ascent on the clay and in the dark...and did I mention the rain??? Surprisingly, the walk up the hill took us much less time than our earlier slide down the hill with our bikes. Before we knew it, we were onto unfamiliar trails and left to rely, once again, on our newly-found navigation skills.

Up to this time, all of the surrounding teams were incredibly supportive of our team. At every opportunity they would wish us luck, warn us to be careful on the slippery downhills and ask if we were having fun. But once on the trek, this support ramped up even more. Every team that we saw did not hesitate to have a chat with us, offer advice and give us yet another reason to have a giggle. One girl in a mixed team heard us laughing from a distance and said to her male teammate: “And that’s why you have females in the team”!

Our teamwork was unbelievable. When anyone asked us who our navigator was, our reply was: “All of us!”. We had consensus on all major navigation choices, we all looked for control points, we checked that each other was warm, had eaten, was drinking, and kept each other in good spirits. We all agreed that we had never laughed so much in a race before.

When we arrived at the next transition, we decided to give the archery a crack before we changed into warm clothes. Using all of the experience that we had gained from Kerrie watching a couple of youtube videos, we managed to get all 5 required targets, with some arrows in between landing in the yard next door and another one hitting the bullseye!

After changing into warm clothes and having a 90 minute sleep, we were ready for the next ride.

The first part of the bike was on sealed roads and it didn’t take us long before we pulled over to take off our rainhoods and rainpants....only to discover that Kerrie still had her PJ pants on!!

We then turned onto the trail where we would remain for most of the remainder of the leg. This was fun trail. There was everything. Uphill, downhill, flat, clay, puddles and sand. It was all rideable and lots of fun. But the clay hadn’t quite finished with us yet! About 2kms from the end of the trail, Lisa skidded, couldn’t recover quick enough and got a faceful of clay...but it was met with just more laughter!

By the end of the last ride, we were all commending ourselves on how far we had come over the last 24 hours in terms of our bike skills. As we rode into transition, we toyed with the idea of doing a synchronized skid as we arrived at our support crew....until we all admitted that we couldn’t remember which was our back brake and which was our front brake! More hysterical laughter!

Our last transition was all about the anzac biscuits. We only had a nice walk along the beach to go and then we were done!

As we walked along the beach for the next 12kms or so we were all lamenting that our adventure was almost over. We all agreed that we could keep going and were all still in really high spirits as we shared chicken crimpys and lolly snakes. We took the opportunity to take some action videos with Kerrie’s go pro and have some compulsory tears and smiles as we thought back about what we had just done and how much we had enjoyed doing it together.

One more small river crossing to go and we would be around the corner from the finish line. But the river crossing wasn’t as small as what we had thought. We looked at the instructions provided on the map and set out to cross exactly where indicated. We all headed into the water only to be up to our armpits in no time and quickly getting swept out to sea. Just as quickly, we aborted the idea to cross at that point and headed back onto the shore.

As we looked out at the waves crashing onto the rocks at the mouth of the river, we took about 20 minutes of deliberation about where we should cross and whether we were prepared to die in doing so. After listening to several bystanders on the other side of the river advising us on where to cross, and watching another team with 3 strong men swim across exactly where we aborted, we considered our options.

And then Adrian arrived on the other side of the river. He whistled. We all stood to attention and followed his every instruction. The relief of having someone there who we trusted, telling us the safest way to cross was priceless. We linked arms with the tallest on the outside as per Wen’s suggestion, and walked across to the sandbar. The water was so deep that at one point Lisa and Wen in the middle couldn’t reach the bottom and Kerry and Lou had to hold them up. Wen, Lou and Lisa had unclipped their backpacks for quick release in case we got into trouble and we were all prepared to swim for our life if the water got any deeper.

Wen counted to 20 as we crossed to give us something to focus on and before we knew it we were hugging each other, laughing and thanking the stars that the water was getting shallower and we were out of the most dangerous part and were still alive!

Thank goodness we got to the river crossing when we did...we hit it at low tide!

Once on the other side of the river, we were somewhat disappointed to find that the “raging river” had washed off all of our story-telling mud and the rain had cleared. The finish line would be a little more sanitized than what we had imagined so we celebrated our newfound love for mud by finding a patch of mud and decorating our faces.

As we approached the finish line from the beach, we could hear the cheers from a distance away. We were met by all the members of our support crew and 2 bottles of champagne which we duly sprayed over each other. I’m not sure what the other teams were thinking as we crossed the line as we were carrying on as though we had won the whole event. But to us it was monumental to have finished, ranked, when only 3 months before we couldn’t even read a compass or ride a mountain bike. To have finished a race like that and literally laugh the entire way, we were proud of ourselves and each other.

With the right friends beside you, there is nothing that you can’t achieve. We’ll be back next year under a new name: “Four Shades of Clay”.

Geoquest 2017: Good Friends and an Epic Adventure!

This year I convinced some good friends to join Emily and myself as the Resultz Racing team to do the Geoquest Half – a 24-hour supported adventure race. The location was Sawtell on the northern NSW coast, and as it was the start of Canberra’s winter it wasn’t hard to find more friends to be our support crew for the race, especially when we sold it as an all-expenses-paid holiday with just a few jobs to do...!

The team consisted ofGordon, Kieran, Emily andmyself. Emily had done a24-hour adventure racewith me a couple of yearsago (Wildside), but Gordonand Kieran hadn’t doneanything more thanmountain bike races, andthe support crew (James,Laura and Erin) weresimilarly unfamiliar with thechallenges of Geoquest, sowe did a lot of planning andtraining in the lead-up to the race. The team went on a number of long rides and hikes, regularly got wet and cold in the lake on one of the yellow AROC “toy boy” sit-on-top kayaks (thanks Tom and Alina!) and generally tested our limits with new challenges. We even spent an hour learning the technicalities of using a bow and arrow (thanks Neil!) after learning the mystery discipline this year would be archery. Of course it wasn’t all hard work – for instance, most hikes or rides near Mount Ainslie finished with a schnitty and pint at Edgar’sJ

As we got closer to the race weekend it became apparent that the lovely warm weather we had been hoping for was going to be clobbered by major rain from the south, with the forecast rainfall for Saturday increasing at each update – first 15-25mm, then 35-60mm, then 50-90mm with localised falls reaching as much as 200mm! On the morning of the race it seemed the blob on the weather radar was doing its best to cover the entire course... but let’s get back to the fun of preparing for an adventure race.

The team jumped into two cars early on Thursday morning to start the road trip to Sawtell, loaded up with all the gear required to undertake Geoquest – hiking and paddling gear, bikes, lights, and lots of clothing. Being a weekday the roads weren’t too bad, so just after dark we unpacked into our awesome accommodation, which had a double garage, two lounges, and lots of rooms and beds – perfect for seven people to conduct an adventure race. Unfortunately for Erin the weather wasn’t very conducive to lazing on the beach, with the rain starting on Friday morning and not really stopping until Tuesday the next week...

Race registration was at the Sawtell Surf Lifesaving Club from midday, followed by race briefing and map handout at 3pm (indoors due to the weather). The race briefing this year included a reroute of the course due to the risk of flash flooding

of the Bellingen River – the Geo Half would have no paddling at all, and the Geo Full might have a short ocean paddle to start, unless the weather worsened.

So the race for us had been reduced to a 13km beach trek, a 38km bike leg with 1000m of climbing, a 16km trek with the same amount of climbing, a shortened 22km bike leg to bypass the dropped kayak leg, and a final 14km beach trek to the finish. The fact it was raining wouldn’t greatly affect how wet we were going to get, as there was a short estuary swim at both the beginning and the end of the race anyway. I was just glad that the temperature was so much warmer than Canberra!

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent preparing bikes, backpacks, maps and gearboxes, with a number of dry bags applied to important gear, and the next morning it was still drizzling steadily when we woke up and packed the cars. Race start was just down the road on the beach inside Coffs Harbour itself, so we joined the other damp racers hiding under the picnic shelters to get our mandatory phone sealed up and receive our tracker. After a short welcome from Craig the race director we all shuffled down to the beach and stood behind the line scraped in the sand (it was a fairly subdued race start compared to previous years for obvious reasons), and then it was time to race!

At 8am we headed north with the rest of the Geo Half field, tracking along the beach, through the estuary and flooded creeks, and over headlands. At one stage we saw lightning in the distance and were pelted with heavy rain – little did we know that the Full course had started in the harbour an hour after us, and they were struggling to stay in theirkayaks in the strong surf.They were supposed to dothree loops inside the harbourbut the lightning andconditions resulted in thisbeing cancelled shortly afterstarting. The spectators andphotographers who bravedthe weather were treated tosome amazing sights, such aspaddlers being dumped from their boats and incoming kayaks being speared into the sand – apparently one kayak even folded in half!

Oblivious to this carnage, we continued our trek north in the soft sand. We avoided running in order to ensure Gordon’s recurring ITB issue didn’t flare up, and a number of teams around us had the same idea. I chatted to a few other teams and most were like us – first time Geo racers just aiming to get through the distance.

Eventually we reached the firsttransition area (TA) and met oursupport crew. Laura looked afterour gear and bladders, Jamesprepared the bikes, and Erin fedus hot fish and chips (yum!)while we changed into dry ridinggear – we were being optimisticabout the weather. I changedmaps and it was back onto thecourse, heading into the hills west of Moonee Beach.

We made pretty good time up the sealed section, overtaking a few teams who had struggling riders or were changing flat tires (bugger!) before reaching the next checkpoint at the top. After this we followed a fairly flat fireroad then turned onto a steady downhill trail with water bars, which Kieran proceeded to attack with gusto.

At this point I should recount the cause of two teams having to retire within the first 24 hours of XPD last year – riders not taking care on downhill fireroads and ending up in hospital. I watched in awe as Kieran got huge air off the first water bar in front of me, which turned to shock while he rode his front wheel down the hill, then his rear wheel followed through and dumped him headfirst onto the middle of the muddy track with a solid “thump”. At first we just got a groan out of him, then we spotted blood coming from a wound on his nose, and his left shin wasn’t much better. Fortunately Emily had just completed a wilderness first aid course with the ACT rogaining association, so she was able to assess and patch up Kieran fairly quickly. Despite the severity of the crash he was able to continue on ten minutes later, albeit at a more sedate pace, and somehow his bike survived unscathed.

The next section introduced us to mud and flooded creeks, which became a common sight during the off-road segments of the rest of the race. We followed

a straight fence line towards the checkpoint, but these are just like power lines – the trail went up and down continually. I tried to match the creek crossings and trail junctions with the map, but it quickly became evident that recent logging had resulted in a trail network that only vaguely resembled the map. We found “elephant tracks” from previous teams hunting in different creek

lines before eventually stumbling on the cunningly hidden checkpoint. Sadly we also saw a number of teams splitting up, with most team members waiting at the track junction while someone went back with the control card.From here it was a longclimb then a fast descentto get through somebeautiful rain forest andonto the bitumen, wherewe met the ever cheerfulLinda and Suwati at thebus stop checkpoint.They checked overEmily’s repairs of Kieranand took some photos ofus, and then we were off.This proved to be ourstrength – with Emily onthe tow-line we madegreat time and overtook a number of teams struggling up the many climbs.

The last few kilometres of this leg required us to climb out of one valley and drop into the next. The climb wasn’t so bad, but the track got narrower and steeper

on the descent until we were more sliding than riding down. Then the track dropped away even more, so we joined the other teams walking their bikes. During the descent Emily had fallen behind and I suspected she had chosen the safe option of walking, but instead she was right behind Gordon! She admitted later that she was focused on the upcoming TA and didn’t really think about the dangerJ

After more slipping and sliding (and passing fellow Canberrans the GeoVikings who had apparently done a bit more climbing than necessary!) we finally reached the road at the bottom and rolled into the TA during the only patch of almost-sunshine in the race, and found our super amazing support crew had procured pizza and roast chicken for us!
Sadly the beer pictured was withheld until the end of the race...

Prior to the race we had decided to name our TAs based on the food our support crew would be supplying, so this was PizzaTAJ

We spent a bit of time here eating and getting changed into trek gear, as well as checking again on Kieran’s wounds and removing leaches, before hitting the road again and returning to the muddy hills. I tried to find a track that the map indicated would avoid the main peak, but as I had feared it wasn’t there anymore (Geoquest maps are

notoriously accurate and current), which was a lesson that many teams learned that day based on their GPS tracks. So we backtracked a kilometre and climbed the hill we had just come down on the bikes – a gentle 250m of climbing up mud then rock!

At the top it was time for lights,then we headed off into the hillsof the Orara West State Forest. Isuspect it would have beenpretty during the day, but atnight we just trudged alongtrails in a small patch of light,counting off the kilometres inour quest for three wholecheckpoints. A few routechoices, more checkpoints, orfewer kilometres would havebeen nice... This is probably where Gordon’s book of Dad Jokes would have come in handy, but he didn’t find a waterproof one in time.

I had a few issues getting back in contact with the map during this section – the change to night had thrown my bearings, and the change in pace didn’t help, but I also didn’t trust how the trails were marked on the map. We kept moving forward and eventually found the first checkpoint in a creek, shortly after being overtaken by the first two Full course teams (we had seen them bombing down the hill as we hiked up from the previous TA). Just then the heavens opened again, so we put our raincoats on and got back on the trail, now looking a bit like

Gandalf and his hobbits with our hiking sticks. We copped a few derogatory remarks from the Full course teams when they saw us, but I reckon stability in the mud is much more important than fashion in an adventure race!

The renewed rain made the trail even more treacherous, so when we embarked on the 200m descent of Saddle Trail to the next checkpoint our speed dropped

considerably. The grip on our shoes had filled with mud and we didn’t feel like sliding down the goop on our bums like passing teams did, plus there was the risk of Gordon’s ITBs flaring up. To
overcome this he developed a sideways

crab walk that was actually quite fast!

Eventually we reached the bottom andled a couple of teams to the nextcheckpoint at a creek crossing. Westopped here and ate the yummy roastchicken sandwiches prepared by oursupport crew. I considered taking us upa side track to see if it would join upwith our destination trail, cutting offabout 1.5kms of extra trekking, but after the previous missing track debacle we decided against it – it turns out a couple of teams took the plunge and found an open fireroad that took them all the way to the top!

The final four dirt kilometres of this leg were brutal – a 300m climb to a peak almost as high as Canberra, then a 450m descent! We had hoped to find a more gradual descent but sadly the map didn’t match the tracks.

When we arrived at CP18 (aka ManStewTA) it was only raining a bit, and James had gone pro-

support-crew by buying a (mostly) waterproof gazebo. Laura had also glammed him up with some glowsticks in his headlamp – classic! We fronted up to Linda’s archery challenge – hit the target just five times with a kiddies bow – simple after our training. Then it was back to our support crew for some of Gordon’s home

made man stew (I had my doubts but it was pretty delicious), into some fresh bike gear and onto the bikes for a short and flat 22km to Mylestom on the coast.

Shortly after departing the TA at midnight the forecast severe storm warning eventuated – we were riding through torrential rain, completely soaked through and barely able to see 20m ahead. If I was in a car I would have pulled over and waited for it to clear, but this was Geoquest so we forged on!
I had to wipe both my glasses and the mapboard to make sure we were going the right way, and focused the

rest of my attention on just staying on the road. I kept glancing back expecting to see the team pulling over but they stuck to my wheel like bedraggled glue, even calling out “go for it” when we caught a Full course team on a climb and I suggested overtaking them – I guess we all just wanted it to finishJ

A few wet and boggy kilometres later (it took us 1.5 hours but everyone agrees it felt like just 15 minutes as it was so surreal) we reached the little town of Mylestom. I mistakenly turned left at an intersection which cost us a minute or two, but that gave our support crew enough time to reach the ChickenToastieTA ahead of us with 30 seconds to spare.

Instead of pausing to get completely changed we just put running shoes on and grabbed some hot chicken toasties (thanks Erin!) before heading back to the beach and pushing for the finish line, a short 14km away.

The map showed a small trailrunning parallel to the beach forabout three kilometres – it waslined by spooky white trees butkept us protected from the winduntil we reached the BundagenHeadland. Then it was out ontothe beach for the final sevenkilometres to Sawtell. Unlike theprevious bike leg that went by ina flash, this beach hike seemed togo forever, with the distant lightsnever getting closer. We turnedour headlamps off and used the dim moonlight to see by, then Gordon tried walking with his eyes closed but couldn’t maintain a straight line.

The final challenge of the race was in the last kilometre – we had to cross the flooded Bonville Creek. Later teams arrived when the tide was higher and the outgoing flow was reduced, but for us it appeared impossible to not get washed out to sea or onto the rocks. We linked arms and waded out into the current, with Kieran taking the brunt of it and Gordon supporting him. Somehow we found a gravel section that gave good grip, and then the velocity subsided and we

reached the other side. At the time it seemed like just part of the adventure, but looking back afterwards it was actually quite dangerous – tired racers crossing floodwaters in the dark with minimal safety (just a couple of event marshals in a 4WD on the other side of the crossing). Fortunately we made it and reached the finish line just after, with our awesome support crew again arriving just in time to see us cross the line and present us with beers!

The finishing time was 4:58am – just short of 21 hours after we started! We came 26th out of 33 overall, and 15th in the Premier Mixed category, in a race that I think has set a new standard for “wet”.

At the end of it all, I reckon this was the most fun I’ve had at a Geoquest, even with the terrible weather and tail-end finish. Being able to introduce new people to the joys of adventure racing is pretty rewarding in its own right. Thanks to the rest of the team for joining me on such an epic adventure and being so strong, and special thanks to our amazing support crew who looked after us so well!

Wild & Co - A different kind of Adventure - Geoquest 2017

Author: Lucy Coldwell

It's been quite a while since I've put pen to paper, well two years infact! Life has changed somewhat, and these days the legs are not as fast as they used to be, but I still love to ride. Amongst other things now I've added some other sports in the mix too!

Two weeks out of geoquest team Wild and Co found themselves two men down from injury, so with a quick decision and organisation found two new recruits, one of those being me! eek!

Adventure racing is a non stop race involving navigation between multiple checkpoints composed of trail running, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, swimming, and any other mystery discipline the organiser decides to add!

Hearing about these crazy races with some of the training groups I run and ride with recently had given me a thirst for this type of racing, no time like the present! Feeling rather out of my depth with preparation, and kit supplies, I begged and borrowed from many awesome friends, visited the Aldi ski sale to grab some thermals, and suddenly found myself well equipped for hopefully every eventuality and discipline ahead of us!

We arrived at race headquarters in Sawtell to the well promised rainy conditions after leaving clear blue sunny skies in Mooloolaba. Of course, we were back in scottish weather, 100mm of rain per day, woo hoo things were going to get soggy, or dreich as they say in the highlands!!

With flooding of the rivers and most of the region expected there were quite a few changes to the race course. A lot of the kayaking, and single track riding had been cancelled due to flooding in river banks. The course was altered so we were left with a short ocean paddle in the morning, leading into a beach run, mountain bike, 8km rogaine, 40 km mountain bike, 20km trek, 20km mountain bike and finally a 15km beach run. Of course we were to encounter navigation, crazy terrain, darkness, rain, mud, sweat and tears... but somehow it all looked pretty straight forward on paper! We actually convinced ourselves that all of the hard riding was out of the way and as a road biker I was going to be in my element, clearly all of the bike legs were going to be bitumen and downhill...our standing joke for the race! lets pump our tyres up and lock out our forks says Lucy with a big smile and complete naivety about what was coming our way!

The first night was spent packing boxes for transition with bags of food, clothes and all of the equipment we would need at each stage, I think I spent about two hours moving things around, asking questions and generally faffing, but finally a box was full, maps were marked and it was time to hit the hay and have one final night of warm and dry before we braved the elements!

On the morning of the race the rain was tipping down, and the waves were crashing in, surely we weren't going to have to paddle in that, oh yes were! This is an adventure race, which means anything is possible!! shivering like a banshee with butterflies of total fear were took our kayaks to shore and waited for the whistle to go.

Having never paddled out through the waves I was ready to follow any instructions my team mate Matt was going to yell at me from the front, except I didn't hear when I was supposed to jump in the boat, too late! I tried to jump in, a wave crashed over, which filled the enitre boat with water, bilge pump going crazy and we had to go to shore to tip the boat up, empty out the water and try again.

Take two out we go Matt shouts jump in earlier this time, done. Wait.....for the wave then paddle paddle paddle, and woo hoo we made it through the wave, massive high five and such an elation! Hard bit done!

Lukas and Chris hadn't been quite so lucky yet, we waited a few minutes and chugging along with the bilge bump working overtime to drain the water out of their boat they had made it through too, go team! We paddled our three laps round the harbour, which was so much fun in the waves, and then the last challenge was to get back through the surf again. Matt had his timing spot on and yelled when to paddle once again, and we made it safely to shore, phew! We made it out alive and completed task 1!

Some other teams were not so lucky, and the rest of the paddle for those who hadn't yet completed the distance was called off in the end, it was just too dangerous in the conditions. The scene was insane, boats vertical in the air, with the backmarker a face of terror, sinking boats full of water, and others crashing into one another from the power of the waves!

Once we'd dragged our kayaks back to shore, it was runners on and off we trotted on our beach run, one checkpoint to transtion and then onto the bike, easy peasy! We set off feeling fresh and in high spirits. Running along the beautiful coastline watching the waves crashing on the shore, the sun was beginning to poke through the clouds, life was pretty good...until we realised we had made it to transition, having missed the first check point, damnit!

From here we had two options- 1) keep going and likely get a penalty of at least four, or maybe up to 6 hours on our time, or 2) run back to the checkpoint, about 10km of running on the beach and add about 2hrs to our time. There was no real question, we had to complete the course, so back we trotted, of course we had actually been right past the checkpoint on our way through and just missed it entirely! Onwards and upwards from here, that was our big mistake for the race, from here we were going to nail it!

We took off on the bikes and I set off with a big smile, bitumen, woo! Straight off uphill into some beautiful hilly terrain, we soon turned onto some fire road and weaved up and down and tore through some muddy

trails. We were making good pace and near the end of our ride as darkness was setting in we had caught of with around 5 other teams, after being last out of the first transition, happy days!

Back at transition our amazing support team were on their way back from dominoes with warm pizza ready to wave us in, they had been watching our satellite beacon, and knew we were nearly there. Until we turned down a steep muddy vertical slope... "we can't ride down that" we all said, well we just have ridden down some epic mud slides, so they must want us to have to do some hike a bike here..OK well now we had set off down this slope there was no going back up it, and therefore convinced ourselves we must be going the right way. I'm sure we could even smell that pizza from where we were.....

Anyway we kept going down hill and at the bottom there must be a road ( you can convince yourself of anything when its dark and cold and you want it to be true!!) uh oh! A big stick jumped out and wiped out Matts rear derailler, small problem! We had a spare, wrong size, so managed to make his bike into a single speed, and off we went once again. Still not going back up that hill we kept going, and finally realised there was no getting out of this road, the only was was back... I really didn't think it was possible to get back up a vertical mudslide so tried to convince my team to hike across a field of cows to the nearest road. Mmmm maybe not such a good idea either.

Vertical mudslide it was, jelly arms trying to push my bike up the hill, and thank goodness rescued by the others, we made it back to the top found the right road, and finally made it back for thrice heated dominoes pizza, which I can tell you still tasted like heaven! It was warm!! Coffee, dry clothes, all was good again.

Off we set at midnight onto our 20km trek, knowing we had to hike back up some of the trails we had just slid down, filled us with joy! Such joy, and of course it just kept going up. The rain rattled down constantly, and we were soaked to the skin, getting damper and colder, there was just no way to keep warm, and each time you gained some body heat there was another icy cold river to wade through to find a check point, brrrrrr!

This is when you rely on your team mates to tell silly stories to keep the morale going, 20km doesn't sound like too far, but in the dark in that terrain finding hidden checkpoints in the dark..., it took us 8 hours to cover that distance. It was gruelling, but also so beautiful, we passed an owl sitting on a post, and watched the moon blast out of the sky in front of us, and as the light appeared through the trees at dawn steam rising off the leaves in the trees, there certainly was a feeling of peace and contentment, not too far to go now!

The end of the hike was a leg busting descent, we picked some sort of downhill mountain bike track, that was super steep and slippy, and for some parts a bum slide was the only option!

Second last transition, back on the bike, more warm food and dry clothes. This was my low point, everything was just wet, and sore, and sitting on the bike seat was like sitting on glass. Ok 20km on the bike, its bitumen and downhill, lets just get it done! Wait stop! Matts bike has given up, the super single speed, just wouldn't let him pedal, nooooooo!

In the pissing rain we stopped again and realised that it was unreserectable, poor Matt, he had to run up all the hills, and Chris dragged him along the flats, while Lukas pushed him from behind. I navigated our limp back to the final transition, that was all the strength I could muster by that point!

The end was finally in sight, a 13km beach run we started to put one foot in front of the other and managed to break out into a ploddy run every muscle yelling and screaming at us, but somehow it was less painful and quicker at this pace than if we walked. We all said that alone we would have walked, but somehow that energy and motivation of being a team pulled us all together and we made it running all the way, we past two teams in front! We sure were the "hares" in tortoise and the hare of this adventure race! Next time we may be a little smarter....but getting lost, and the sleep monsters are all part of the adventure!

We did it, super happy and having had an absolute blast, pushing limits of fear going down crazy slippy mountain bike tracks, exertion just pushing on for hours and having belly laughs at some funny situations, I felt exhausted but very much alive and ready for more.....of course after a warm shower and some hot food!!