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!

GeoQuest Report by Peak Adventure

The ‘current look’ Team Peak Adventure was formed for an assault on the 2015 GeoQuest adventure race and XPD expedition race. Peak Adventure is a familiar name at the pointy end of Geo, however this was the the first attempt as this team of four and we are now preparing for XPD.

As those familiar with adventure racing know, getting four team mates to the start line in peak racing condition (pardon the pun) is a challenge in itself. Emma Weitnauer joined the team after a successful race at Falls Creek Mountain Raid with Peak Adventure. This was Emma’s first GeoQuest and she has found a passion for the bush after a career racing 12 Ironman Triathlons, including three world championships at Kona. Living in Tasmania, Emma has a great backyard for training and they certainly make people tough down there. Josh Street biked his way into the team from a history hundreds of kilometers long of mountain bike races all over the world, 24hr and cross country, including state and national champion and world championships.

Add to the list a bag full of podiums in some of the toughest expeditions races around the world meant Josh brought more than his fair share to the team. Jarad Kolhar needs little introduction. His is a name synonymous with adventure racing, having racked up an impressive and extensive list of podium finishes in adventure races worldwide. Then there’s me, Sam Stedman. This was my first time racing GeoQuest with team Peak Adventure, but not my first GeoQuest. I’ve placed second in the last two GeoQuest Adventure Races, and was hungry for a win this time round.

A winning team at GeoQuest needs a winning support crew! Joining us on this weekend of adventure was Kim Vaughan from Melbourne and our old mate

Lincoln Murdoch. Come Friday night, we were all set and prepared for the race but the best part about adventure racing is that anything can happen. At any time. To any one.

In an adventure race making mistakes are just part of it; it’s how you overcome those mistakes and move on that define your race. With 12 legs - 64kms of paddling, 130kms of mountain biking and 54kms of running through the day and night, seeking out small orienteering markers placed on top of hills and hidden in deep, thick vegetated creeks, anything could happen and mistakes were going to be made. Throw into the mix a few highly competitive and experienced teams, including Mountain Designs, Shotz Nutrition and CBD Cycles, producing a highly competitive field.

The race....
The 12km ocean paddle got shortened due to rough ocean conditions. We did paddle around the headland and over to the next bay. Paddling elite double ocean skis is great unless you don’t spend much in rough conditions. I live in Townsville, and don’t paddle much in the rough and Nor does Josh. It made for a tricky paddle for Josh and I, with Jarad and Emma getting through unscathed. We literally hit the beach running and soon found ourselves in front and running along a magical coastline. Next minute, all our friends joined in and it would have been a sight to see 16 adventure racers running through the trails and streets of the small coastal communities.

Leg 3 was an 18km bike leg with a quick stop for a swim to find some CP’s in the water. Whilst it was a great spot for snorkeling, we were not hanging around in the sun like tourists. Then it was back on foot headed for the sand dunes which was definitely a highlight of the course. We headed up the dune with team Shotz and Mountain Designs, with CBD Cycles not far behind. Once over the dune it was a long road run which was something new for a Geo course. I think they wanted to test our mental strength on long straight roads. We bridged a gap on Shotz but ran with MD’s to the rafting leg.

We decided to use two inflatable Stand-Up Paddle boards for this leg. It was about 2km across the lake. I paddled 1 with Josh lying down and JK paddled the other with Em lying down. Now, I can SUP but I am no gun and now in a race (and trying to keep up with JK) with Josh on board made for a whole new SUP experience. MD’s where in sight behind us as we crossed to the first CP and then we pushed forward to the TA. Our decision to SUP had paid off and we had a small gap on the field as we headed off on a 13km paddle up a river.

Leg 6 was a 22km trek and we set off at a good pace after more hot pizza in transition and chocolate in our pockets (support crew – this is why we love you). We quickly made our way to the first CP of that leg only to find it wasn’t there. Map check, nav check, look left, look right; still not there. But, we did manage to find team Shotz who got the message that the CP and the kayaks to help us across the river might not make it in time (I told you anything can happen in a AR) so together with Shotz, and in the absence of kayaks, we swam across the river and continued on our way. The next two CPs where off track and require some tricky navigation and moving through the thick scrub. Shotz, led by Rob Preston, who was once the coach of the national orienteering team, joined by Kathryn Preston and Peter Preston, who can also find a needle in a very large haystack in the dark, so as expected they played their cards right and moved quickly from the first CP and left us pushing on our own through the bush. Darkness fell as we hit the last CP for this leg and we headed down another long road run to the TA.

Leg 7 was a 13km paddle up a river in the dark of night. We said g’day to Shotz as we passed them on an out-and- back CP to the top of a hill, we also said hi to the couple having a romantic camping weekend (being interrupted by some crazy adventure racers) with a nice fire and wine on the edge of the river. Soon is was more hot pizza and coke in TA as we prepared for a long night ahead with a 56km bike, 10km trek and 25km bike.

The bike leg started pretty smoothly with sealed road that was quite easy going. We biked along with shotz for some time and kept the pace up. At one stage, we pulled away as they had a quick pitstop, but only to be passed by them when we made a navigation error and we began to chase again. We got into the TA as Shotz were heading out on the trek, it was 1 or 2 in the morning as we geared up for a tricky orienteering leg through the thick scrub. We had to get 4 CPs and we were moving quite well on foot with JK on the map looking sharp after a rest on the bike leg. With JK and Josh at the front it gave Em and I a chance to chat and to stay awake. Next thing - BAM - 1 CP down, feeling confident on to 2, then a crazy 100m vertical climb over 300 meters up to CP3, then a tricky traverse across a ridge line and we ran head into team CBD Cycles. With no time to trade stories we nailed CP 4 then ran our way back the TA only to find Shotz bikes still in the TA. It was 5am as we began the 3rd last leg on the bike into a very chilly morning. Collecting 1 CP

along the way it was hot chips and bacon and egg rolls that our legendary support crew had waiting for us!

25km is a long way in a ski when you have not had any sleep. This called for some good team work and a few energy gels and we picked up the pace across the longest last 5km stretch of water I have paddle in a while, you could see the end but it wasn’t getting any closer. With no time for pizza in the

last TA is was on the bikes and off to the finish line on a very straight and flat road. The sun was up and our spirits high as it seemed effortless to pedal the last 20km (well I think Josh’s legs go around on their own anyway).

27 hours and 40 minutes and we crossed a picturesque finish line overlooking the Hawks Nest coast line in first place. It was a great team effort and an amazing support crew. Well done to all the teams and CBD cycles who finished 2 and Shotz a close 3 . Geocentric put on another great event and we look forward to racing XPD Townsville.

Nudity Optional - GeoQuest 2015

by Liam St Pierre 

GeoQuest is my favourite weekend of racing every year. With the Expedition Alaska start line just around the corner, a lot of my energy has been put towards preparing the gear and travel for this race, and I didn’t have much time to focus on GeoQuest. I knew I didn’t want to miss the race but I didn’t have the time or energy to pull a Rogue team together for such a logistically intensive event. Fortunately Leo Theoharris put me in touch with the guys from Quality Nude Time Racing who were looking for a navigator to race with this year. I recognized the names from many past GeoQuests, and the team dynamics ticked a lot of boxes for me: everything was organised in terms of support crew, gear, accommodation, etc; I would get the chance to have all the navigation to myself as practice before Exp AK; the team would probably move at a steadier pace ensuring I didn’t go too far into the red before Alaska and finally Leo assured me that the team could ocean paddle – a key skill I look for in GeoQuest team mates these days. Plus who could turn up the chance to race under such a cool team name (the origins of which will remain within the team, but suffice to say I was assured that nudity was optional).

This year I was also bringing my two year old daughter to the race for the first time, and we had the rock star treatment flying in to Newcastle while Mum and Dad did the drive down with my gear to look after her while I raced. Arriving at Hawk’s Nest we got our first glimpse of the QNT GeoQuest show – accommodation was palatial and had me almost regretting we had to head out to do a race. With partners and support crew we had 13 people in total staying for the race.

Friday rolled around and the pre-race
checks were ticked off in freezing
conditions, and it wasn’t until then
that I felt like I was actually going to be
doing a race. Even though this was my
eighth GeoQuest, it was my first
chance at the real race: the kid’s
adventure race. It was a little worrying
to see that Lyla has inherited some of
her Dad’s competitiveness, although
she had to take a quick lesson in
trusting her navigator and not just following other teams blindly.

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The line up for the kids race.

Finally the course was handed out and on paper it seemed to suit us. No split navigation legs, relatively flat and a lot of paddling, all of which played in our favour. The concentration required for marking up maps always feels like sitting an exam, and it was a relief to have it done in short order with time to spare to read a few story books and get an early sleep. For those playing along, the course maps can be found here and tracking and final times can be found here.

Conditions on the start line had certainly improved on the past couple of days. A smooth swell was rolling in to the beach, but looking out to Cabbage Tree Island you could see the breakers pounding off the less protected coast line. It wasn’t surprising to learn then that paddle had been shortened so that teams just had to make it around the headland and into Port Stephens. We got a clean start off the beach and were with the lead pack. Conditions got tricky around the Yacaaba headland and we spent just as much time trying to dodge Jarad Kohler’s boat as staying upright and moving forward. I suspected that some of the less experienced teams would have issues, and this was the case with multiple rescues. In chatting to event organiser Louise after the race, it is certainly a point of stress as an race director, however having that ocean kayak start is one of the elements that make GeoQuest so special. I know Geocentric take great care in their safety procedures, and GeoQuest represents about the only chance to experience some amazing coast line on the water, and I for one hope it remains a permanent feature of the race, despite criticism from some quarters about having it in the race. For those that don’t want to ocean paddle, this element has been removed from the Geo Half.

Hitting the beach, we found ourselves
in second place after a great paddle,
but lost a couple of spots while the
boys changed their shoes. Off for the
beach run and we soon found our
rhythm, ticking of CPs along the way.
Running down the dunes into Fingal
Spit was a personal highlight of the
course. Just before, we had been
passed by team Shotz, including
Damon Goerke who made some
comment about having arrived late for
the race and missing the team meeting about who got to carry the heavy pack for the team.

Rolling into the first supported transition area after leg 2 with the top 5 teams, things became a little unstuck when we found our support crew hadn’t arrived yet. It was a sinking feeling to watch teams arrive and leave while we could do nothing without our bikes. After a 20 minute wait, they finally arrived. Everyone was a little flustered and I felt bad for the crew as they obviously didn’t want to let us down. At that point, or motto for the race is that we would have to take our bad luck with the good, and that hopefully we would be due some good luck later down the road.

The stage 3 bike involved a 3 out of 6 CP rogaine on the bikes before rolling into the snorkel location. I flipped and flopped on which controls to go for, eventually settling for C-B-D on the go, with CP D costing us about 5 minutes when we originally rode past it. Coming in to the snorkel location, I was again thrown off by the fact that the volunteer’s car was parked within the circle of the inset and not on the location on the main map where we were told it would be in the briefing updates. Even more frustratingly, after CP S1, I forgot about the disparity and ran up the wrong track to CP S5, costing us more time. The snorkeling itself was a surprising highlight,

An early split in the field as teams paddling the around headland.

with the water relatively warm and plenty to see amongst the rocks. We shared the snorkel with team 19 who had a very interesting interpretation of “visiting the controls together” with two team members still on the shoreline after their team mates had already collected two of the CPs. The whole leg had not been a smooth one for us, and it was exiting the snorkeling that I resolved to pull things back together again.

Off the bikes and back on foot and we were treated to some of the best coasteering I’ve ever done in a race. Along with the Stockton Dunes which we also covered in this leg, this was one of the other great highlights of the race. Straight off the dunes, running the 5km along the major road to our rafts was one of the major low lights, but I can appreciate that it was probably the only way logistically possible to link the course up. For the rafting section, I had a hold of two Alpacka packrafts that we will be using in Alaska.

At over $3000 for the pair, these boats are surprisingly efficient and light to paddle for inflatables. I knew that we could manage up to 6km/hr in them – much faster than we could carry them – so we just paddled a straight line between CPs 13 and 14 and across to the opposite bank.

Despite our early issues, we were already 3hrs up on our flight plan which meant we got to do the whole of the stage 5 paddle in the day light. With glassy conditions on the lake and paddling past islands and little towns dotted along the shore line, it was a very content time in the race. The only hiccup was when we bent the rudder of my ski on a rock paddling in to CP17. While Dean managed to bend it back into shape, it never performed properly for the rest of the race, much to the annoyance of the other pair who were trying to hold our line while sitting on our wash.

Heading into the Stage 6 rogaine, we were faced with a potentially long leg. Only one route strategy seemed obvious, picking up CPs H-J-K-N-O in order and leaving the remainder for the paddle leg (although I am curious to see that Team Shotz with the Prestons also picked up CP L on this leg). Starting out on this leg, our new goal was to make the swim at CP H in daylight, which we managed to do with about half an hour to spare. Finally, it felt like some good luck was coming our way, as it was a bitterly cold swim and I wouldn’t want to have been one of the teams following to do it in the dark. CP J proved to be a little tricky, but we ticked it off with no issues, the same with CP K. After experience the bush bash in to CP J, I decided to change our route to CP N from going cross country to hiking in on the trail network on the north which, although longer, should have been much quicker. Unfortunately all of the tracks leading in to CP N from the north were overgrown or non-existant, and we had travelled so far north that we were just better off picking up CP O before attacking CP N from the west. At this stage we teamed up with Dynamite Adventure Racing on the hunt for CP O and N, and I got a chance to chat to Sakkie about past GodZone races and how his mates would go with Expedition Africa which was just starting at the same time.

After a short portage it was back onto the skis for a paddle down to Karuah. Finding the pull out points to collect the remaining CPs wasn’t as hard as I feared it would be. Indeed, at the first exit we could see steam billowing out of a camp shower. By the time we made it up the bank, a little Japanese man had popped out in his undies for a quick lively chat. He didn’t seem to mind us passing directly through his campervan site, but told us just don’t wake him up on the way back through. I don’t think he fully appreciated what I meant when I said another 60 boats would be coming through that night.

Every time we got back to our boats we would see those of Dynamite Adventure and Moutnain Designs (MDs) pulled up on the shore, so I knew that the chasers couldn’t be too far behind us. Coming off the paddle we had our slowest transition yet at over 30 mins, spending time to get warm and fed knowing that we had up to 15 hours of racing ahead of us before we saw a supported TA again. Leaving on the bikes, I wasn’t sure of our placing still. The first part of the ride was cold and fast, but things eventually slowed down on route to CP23 where the hills finally started to kick up and the mud set in. Approaching CP23, the guys kept questioning if we were going the right direction as there were no tyre marks in the mud. As best as I could tell we were on the right track and going the shortest way there with the least elevation, even if the track conditions weren’t great. In the end we nailed all the CPs on this leg directly, so the lead teams must have taken a different route at times. Many of the tracks we planned to take to CP25 on Goodwins trail were missing, but we quickly compensated for that and hit the punch just as it was getting light. Paul doing a spectacular superman dive over his handle bars when he put a stick through his front wheel was the only other highlight from this leg.

Again, luck was on our side with day break bringing some very helpful sun to light the final trek rogaine. It was a little disconcerting that team Shotz had been out for 4.5 hours on a 10km trek and hadn’t returned yet, so we were expecting a long leg. MDs also rolled into transition just as we were leaving. We ticked off controls in a clockwise direction V-W-U-T. Dropping of the ridge from CP W, I couldn’t locate the marked track until we were well below it’s highest point. Instead of heading back up and around we just continued to bash out to the main road. Just as we were heading.

in to CP U, we came across MDs who had just collected it after a little difficulty and they warned us it was well out of the circle. The plan was to play it safe anyway and just head up the creek it was marked on, but I was pretty surprised to find it hung on the intersection with the main creek line about 400m east of the centre of the circle. Again, luck was in our favour. Given how far east of the CP circle we were, we trekked back out and around on Skyd Hill Road to CP T. On the final hike back to the TA we started to come across some other teams – the first we had seen other than MDs in a long time – and stopped to give the Tiger guys a heads up on the inconsistency with CP U and some of the other missing tracks.

A quick look at the map for the next bike leg and it was a relief to see the riding was either downhill or flat on good roads. Again, MDs entered the TA just as we were leaving. The whole time I just assumed they would pass us once they got their rhythm going as they are a naturally faster team. It was on this ride though that I thought we should at least give a dig at trying to hold onto our fourth place overall and if we did get passed then at least we wouldn’t have any regrets about not trying. With the team working together to draft and tow, we cranked it into the transition where we managed to get onto the boats without seeing MDs come in. Too afraid to let the foot off the gas, we hammered the 25km paddle out in 2:23, pausing only to flip the maps.

At the final TA we got a number of mixed reports on how far our lead was. It wasn’t until we clipped the final CP with just a 12km flat ride home that I felt we had it in the bag. Needless to say, crossing the line as the winning men’s team and fourth overall was a very satisfying feeling.

In reflection, I have a lot to take out of this race. A big thank you to Dean, Wayne and Paul for inviting me to race with them. An even bigger thank you to their support crew who really put on a show – definitely transition areas with style and all the modern comforts. Going in to GeoQuest as training for Expedition Alaska meant that the fitness was there, which helped with concentration on the navigation. After almost 10 years of doing GeoQuest, the team as a whole were over the moon to finish in day light on the second day for the first time ever, which helps so much with the recovery and clean up. Depending on where I’m at with racing and training, I’d love the chance to race with the Quality Nude Time guys and their awesome Geo bandwagon again in the future. Plus I still don’t feel like I’ve had a chance to see their nudity policy exploited to its full potential.

DYNAMITE ADVENTURE RACING Geo 2015

Rugged up and still shivering from the dip in the Myall River earlier in the afternoon courtesy of a competency check, Team Dynamite stood on the lawn in front of the Hawks Nest Beach eagerly awaiting the course reveal. After being given the all clear, the captains from all competing teams swiftly pounced on the individual piles of maps laid out before them. A quick overview confirmed that the course was looking like a fast paced and an exciting loop, with a bit more paddling than normal. Having concentrated on improving our paddling over the past year we thought it was perfect...lets get back and mark them up. It also suited our line up for this race which included Sakkie Meyer, who flew over for us from across the ditch.
We arrived early on the beach the next morning, relieved to see that the dreary clouds and cold wind of Friday had cleared to reveal a spectacular sunrise ahead of a forecast mostly fine day. Kayaks began to fill the beach. What looked like a game of chess ensued, with teams moving up and down the beach to position themselves in the perfect spot to get an "easy" path through the breakers. During a short pre race briefing we learnt that the paddle would be slightly shorter due to the swell. From the beach there wasn't much sign of too many lumps, but we've seen that can easily change.

Leg 1 Ocean Kayak 12km
The countdown began as we stood with skis in hand on the edge of the water. Just as we left the beach, a set began to come through. Karina and Gus copped a pounding, but kept steadfast and were soon not far behind Sakkie and I. We dared not look behind us but knew some mayhem had been caused by the poorly timed waves. We were focused and in hot pursuit of the front teams. As we neared the point, the waves became more and more unpredictable, as they bounced off the nearby rocks. We continued on through the heads, but every time the waves seemed to die down, another few waves would hit us.

Leg 2 Trek 7km
We reached the shore in Shoal Bay in about fourth position and quickly transitioned to the trek. We began at a steady pace, trying to ensure we kept to our own speed on the trails to Fingal Bay. Shotz passed us heading up into the dunes, then Mountain Designs flew by as we ran into town along the beach.

Leg 3 Mountain bike rogaine/snorkel 18km
After marking up the optional CPs on the MTB rogaine map, we took off in pursuit. There were several options with the way the town was set out, but we ended up heading bush at the end of Farm Road, taking a gamble and heading along a "minor track" which turned out to be not bad and put us at CP C in front of both MD and Shotz who had left transition before us. We turned back and took another right hand turn to go to CP E arriving just before Shotz. At CP D we both caught MD and then proceeded as a group down the now slower paced sandy trails into CP6 to drop the bikes. We had decided to swim without flippers, opting to run and swim in bike shoes as we figured it would only be a short swim and wouldn't save us much time (if any). This worked well and we entered the small bay when the Peak Adventure crew were just getting wet. After swimming to the three CPs I got over excited following the other teams up the beach and back to the bikes before realising we had missed punching CP S5 at the beach end of the trail. By the time we ran back 100m, we'd lost contact with the lead groups.

Leg 4 Trek / raft 14km
Arriving at the transition we searched the car park to find our support crew had not arrived. With nothing else we could do we ate some food and watched up the road for them to come. It must have been 15 minutes before they arrived, but it gave us an incentive to trek strongly on this one. This trek took us around some amazing rocky coastline and then across the Stockton Dunes (which would have been nice to spend more time in), before a long flat road run to our rafts. There was little time wasted finding CPs and a highlight was passing the infamous (not) Giant Peach, I am afraid it does look a little old and "weathered". Our raft worked well enough, but with two 6ft + guys at the back, we ended up taking on a little water on the two crossings.
Leg 5 Kayak 13km
A quick transition to the skis put us out on the water in beautiful sunny conditions. We had to keep an eye out for oyster beds, but otherwise an uneventful but enjoyable leg and were ahead of our estimated schedule.

Leg 6 Trek 22km
I swore until we got to the CP that Gus was just pulling our leg that there wasn't canoes. My theory was he figured telling us we'd get wet again meant we wouldn't waste time changing into dry clothes. We got CP H at dusk and wow, that water was cold! I felt for the teams behind that would cross in the dark. The next section was frustrating for all teams it seems, given the majority of tracks shown were totally missing or overgrown. We overshot Log Wharf Fire Road (or where it was meant to be) and ended up walking with the Quality Nude Time boys up to CP O, before heading back down the main road to find Foleys Road and shooting a bearing in to the creek junction from the corner in the road. A long detour but gave us minimal fuss finding it in the end. We entered transition at about the same time as QNT but were longer in there before heading out on the skis.

Leg 7 Kayak 12km
This kayak included two stops to collect a few of the trek CP's, it was the teams choice to collect these on the Trek or Kayak leg.I can't help but laugh about the guy at the first stop we took to get CP M and CP L. Two top quality camper trailers set up at a secluded Karuah River camp site must have seemed perfect! Until 100+ adventure racers began walking through the camp site ALL night. Not this guy... It seemed he was excited about it. Perhaps this changed later in the night, but based on his enthusiasm, he must have been keen to tell as many people about his trailers as he could. I'm not sure if he chewed the ears off every team as they landed while standing there in his undies or it was just special for us? The next river stop to get CP I, was also at a camp site. A short distance away sounded like a massive party. No need for a compass bearing descending the hill, just follow your ear for the yelling and singing from the campers having a really good time.

Leg 8 Mountain bike 56km
We started this leg on fast flat roads feeling good but looking forward to some upcoming hills. Sakkie had dropped to the back as we approached the first of the smaller tracks. We all heard a large crack from behind and instantly knew it was something bad. His seat post had cracked at the very top where the seat joints to the seat post leaving the seat on the ground. Lucky no potentially nasty injury inflicted, but a serious engineering problem to solve to get him going again. A short discussion followed and then some tape wrapped around the stub of the seat allowed us to slot it into the frame.... and voila! A BMX bike! The new bike didn't make uphills easy for the rest of the ride, but at least kept us moving forwards. Some rough and muddy tracks on this section involving hike a bike for what seemed like a few hours took us to some more reasonable roads. Neverest passed us as the sun rose just before the flowing downhill and we rode into the transition at 7:30 just behind them.

Leg 9 Trek rogaine 10km
Heading out, we walked past CBD and Shotz returning after an epic time. We got the first point easy enough, but our walking had slowed and then we struggled a little with CP U. Our interpretation of the alteration had us looking further west of the marked point (not east as was explained to us later). A good point to note to confirm alterations like this to make sure you have interpreted them correctly. Eventually we stumbled upon it and then proceeded up the track and then climbed the "wall" up to CP W. We felt pretty stuffed walking back into transition, but were thankful we weren't heading out on the rogaine like many teams.

Leg 10 Mountain bike 25km
Taking our time climbing the short uphill we found that Sakkie's BMX bike was great at downhills, he was loving the decents and working the legs hard out of the saddle for the small short inclines. A straight forward leg meant we were rolling into town ready to jump on the water, but figuring there would be a team hunting us down.

Leg 11 Kayak 24km
We took off on the Myall River knowing a team (Neverest) was close behind. We headed down river but I began feeling decidedly drowsy and inefficient. The remedy was in the form of some no doze and Sakkie talking crap to me for 10km. It certainly got me going and Sakkie has lots of race stories to draw upon. We managed a reasonable pace after that, aside for some short desperate wee stops.

Leg 12 Mountain bike 21km

Kelvin had raided our rental house on the way through town and found that the
kids mountain bikes stuffed around the side of the house had a seat pole the right size to fit in Sakkies frame. Fat and comfy was the style, but it worked well all the same to get us home. It was a train heading into town at full steam ahead! We were racing to get to the finish ahead of Neverest who landed on shore just before we left on the bikes. But with our speed, we knew they had no chance in catching us. Across the line in
33:41 and fifth place. An awesome result given our potentially race stopping bike issue and suspect injuries/issues going into the race.

Thanks to Kelvin and Sue for being a great support crew and keeping us going, Hydralyte, Resicon, Kwik Kopy Braeside and Huff N Puff Paddling, and of course our families for again letting us go away (and train) for our adventures. Also a shout out to Ben at Errol St Physio North Melbourne for getting me to the start line (once again)

Stromlonauts 2015 Geo-half Race Report

The Stromlonauts made it to Tea Gardens, for the 2015 GeoQuest half. Blue sky and summer time holiday feel. A nice change from -6 morning bike commutes to work. No apprehension about the race. The tricky bit of wrangling a team together, finding support crew and getting an entry in a sold out event was behind us. 

Competency test was a bit hectic, but the weather and water were pretty nice and the course reveal was cool with some sweet coasteering sections and lots of paddling. We seemed a bit rookie belonging to the handful of teams who has less than five Geos experience between us. But the team had a enough race experience and all members could navigate. Planning and packing began and we didn't come up for air until 7 hours later. How was that possible?! Still, all details were covered so early to bed.

Race start was a leisurely 8am with a splash and giggle 5k kayaking leg. The bay seemed protected, but got a bit bumpy half way across. Somehow we managed to stay upright, despite one boat having a gimpy rudder. Field splintered already.

Second into transition and first to trot off down the beach for a 7k beach trek. We were all springing along, even Brad who was comfortably slipping into his pack horse role. Oops forgot to punch the checkpoint, so turned around springing back to TA, grinning sheepishly at the stream of teams who'd been behind us. Otherwise, a scenic leg, and spot on navigation by Craig.

Into TA2, and our support crews’ first ever TA experience. Ooh, fruit platter, peeled kiwis, Vegemite sandwiches, chocolate. They had got the swing of it. On the bike now with Kieran navigating. Superb effort with a tiny pause at an intersection of some unmarked trails around CP C. Pretty funny standing there with teams flying past in every direction. Looks like the maps tripped most team up. Annoying as we did ride past the CP! Recovered quickly.

Snorkelling leg. Kicked off our shoes and trotted off to get the first checkpoint. The map wasn't matching the trails and we were very muddled. We got sore feet running back and forth from the underfoot rocks and sticks. Brad also stepped on a bindi patch. Once we were in the bay looking for the submerged checkpoints completely forgot it was a race. The water was warm and clear, and it was fun floating around. Finally back on our bikes for a short ride to TA. We think we were leading the half field but hard to know in all the confusion of teams around the snorkling.

Quick TA, Craig grabbed the map and we jogged off. Soon bumped into friends That's Cray on a coasteering section feeling navigationally challenged.Trekked through sand dunes that were complete with camels and then a 5k highway trudge. Hit all the checkpoints easily.

Rafting leg - we had two blow up boats and a missing compass mystery solved by uncovering Craig as a closet race kit thief. Craig and Clare paddled from the front and Kieran and Brad sat in the back having a rest. Was very squishy with Brad involved in some flexible spooning with Craig. Brad’s decision to store bananas in his shorts almost caused a mutiny. Kieran raided the snacks from Clare's backpack while going along for the ride. Decided to remain as innocent bystanders to Neverest’s frantic efforts to stay afloat.

Another quick TA and into a 13k kayak leg. Easy navigating for Clare with some small deviations around oyster leases. Warm, sunny and still. Three full course teams got back ahead of us with their boats superior speed, one was That's Cray.

Bike next and Kieran was back navigating. The full course teams went a different direction and we realised we were in the lead. Nice sunset, temperature plummeting, flat and easy navigating for Kieran. The 33k leg finished with a bit of muddy hike-a-bike, which made it feel like a proper AR. Was nice to be laying first tracks in the mud. Slipped into the dark and muddy TA.

Finally a trek leg for Clare to navigate - dark, steep and off track. Carefully moved across a thickly vegetated ridge line picking up the checkpoints without much trouble and taking care not to slip off. No lights spotted behind us. Found a magic trail from the last ridge CP back down to the fire trail. Much nicer than the planned bush bash. Long and hard 7k shuffle out to the highway. Pace picked up and Brad took the map, following our progress and ticking off the kilometers for motivation. 

Finally reached the highway and a depressingly slow bush bash to the mandatory highway crossing. Passed quite close to TA and could see our support crew shining their lights to us. We were still an hour away. Developed close relationships with numerous barbed wire fences. Undertook a thorough structural assessment of the underpass looking for the control which ended up about 20m away. Brad was certain we’d chosen a slow route and had a few teams sneak past, but it depended if the following teams had made the same route choice. We were surprised to still be in the lead with no difficult nav left. Maybe we can win this thing.

Last paddle leg. Was really special under a full moon, starry sky and no pressure of a chasing team. It wasn't until after the race we realised that super team BMX Bandits/Over Yonder racing had been not far behind us and had spotted our lights a few times on the hike.

Last bike ride and a fast ride to the finish line. Pressure off, no one behind to catch us. Our support crew had just clocked 300km to reach this TA and had a hectic day of it. Really incredible effort given this was their first experience and on reflection had no proper briefing from us on what to expect. 

The team had a pretty solid hit out for this race moving well through the course and quickly through transitions without any rest stops. Everyone happy to come away with the win given the quality of teams on the half course.

Next up for Stromies: Kieran and Brad turn attention to running, Craig moves overseas and Clare wonders how she’ll get to GODZone 2016.

GeoQuest Report by Bear Hunt

From 5 to 8 June, Bear Hunt participated in the GeoQuest (Half). Getting the team lined up for the event was not easy this year. Paul and Caroline were both injured and enjoying physio-sanctioned rehabilitation exercises. We eventually found two team members willing to join us: Laure Gauthiez and Ross Barker. Laure has lots of experience in Orienteering, Rogaining, Rock Climbing and Caving, but has not done any Adventure Racing before. Ross did GeoHalf last year, and has done several other AR, Rogaine and Orienteering events with team No Detour. The Support crew was composed of Rachel, Michael, Caroline and Paul. Michael and Paul have supported Bear Hunt before, and Caroline raced with us last year. Most of us left on Thursday after work and arrived at 12:30am on Friday morning, Ross joined us on Friday morning and Rachel and Michael joined us late on Friday evening. The competency check was fun, the water was cold and “refreshing”. Course reveal was good, although we noticed that there would be a fair bit of paddling and less riding. During map prep, Charlotte and Laure took on the planning of all trek legs and one of the paddling legs. Ross and Minh-Tam planned the MTB legs and another of the paddling legs.

Minh-Tam also put three layers of contact on the little snorkeling map, but water still seeped in on that swim. We wrote lists of which gear and food we all wanted at each TA, and the support crew compiled a list of what to lay out for whom. Race start on Saturday morning was exciting. The race started a little later than anticipated, but eventually all the GeoHalf teams were sent off for their paddle across the 5km patch of chop of the inlet. It was bumpy, and Charlotte and Ross were faster than Laure and Minh-Tam. The slower boat was also having a little trouble holding a straight course, but at least we didn’t capsize. We made an ok time across to the unsupported TA where we got changed and then stood in line to load the boats on to the Geocentric Outdoors trailer. We probably should have split up, two people getting changed while two people load the boats, because it felt like we were waiting a really long time until we were finally able to get going.

Once on leg 2, we jogged along the beach, and we really noticed that Ross has long legs and takes big steps. Later on during this trek leg, we all had to work to keep up with Ross, which was good as it kept the pace up. We reached the TA in 13th place and our excellent support crew was there waiting with a chair for each racer with clothes laid out, bikes ready to go. We sat down and changed shoes while they stuffed snacks in our packs and food into our mouths. A few minutes later we were off, speeding down the streets of Fingal Bay. Minh-Tam was navigating and didn’t like the look of the dirt track we had been aiming for, not convinced that it would be the right one. Instead, we made a small detour and had push the bikes up a steep rutted track. As a result, Minh-Tam misjudged the distance to the next crossing, and we spent a couple of minutes looking for the checkpoint in the wrong spot. We quickly recovered and found the CP at the next crossing.

We quickly collected the other two CPs on the bike rogaine, moving fairly well on the sandy roads. On the last CP on this MTB rogaine we met a team that seemed to be confused about the checkpoints. Turns out, they missed that they needed to collect multiple CPs on the MTB rogaine, and hadn’t marked them on their map. We let them take the locations of the CPs from our map, and then we rode off to CP6, to start the snorkel. During the walk to the first snorkel checkpoint, we were briefly unsure about where we were, but got some help from another team in a trade: we didn’t know where we were, and they had no map but knew where they were. Charlotte guided us in some clever coasteering along the coastline to the bay containing the three submerged checkpoints. On the way, we saw one team looking for checkpoints in the wrong bay. The submerged checkpoints were fun to get.

The water was fresh, but not freezing, and we found them quickly. We enjoyed diving down to pull up the punch and the midday sun warmed us once we got out of the water. We rode on to the TA in around 6th position and quickly transitioned to the trek. Laure guided us through the small tracks and small communities and along the rocky coastline to the Stockton Dune. Some amazing views along the way, including some whales off in the distance. We also saw some camels at the Dune, and it really looked like what we imagine a desert to look like. There was lots of shouting and laughing as we ran down some of the steep sections of dune. Then some boring jog/walk along Port Stephens Drive before we turned off towards the group of houses where we would find our “rafts”. On the way, Laure stopped and pointed out a pile of Koala poo: “Hey, this looks like Koala poo”. She looked up, and there was a massive Dropbear sitting in the tree above the road. Yay, more wildlife! Our $25 Kmart inflatable queen mattress, pumps, paddles and PFDs had been laid out by our support crew and the mattress was pumped up quickly by the battery powered pump. Good purchase from last year’s packrafting.

The water crossing on our bed was less than comfortable, but we made good time, and stayed ahead of Area 51 Tiger, who had started at the same time as us. The mattress sat a bit low in the water with all four of us on it, but once we figured out the best seating arrangement we almost managed a straight line, Charlotte navigating. Charlotte took great joy in slashing the airbed on the other side before we continued on to the kayak transition. We changed up the kayaking pairs for this leg so they were more closely matched. This 13km paddle was the further than Laure had paddled before! We found all the checkpoints easily in the daylight, and had a stunning sunset paddle. Our lovely support crew was waiting for us with hot chocolates at the TA in Karuah. At the stage we were in equal 5th place with Area 51 Tiger, who had frustratingly paddled just a head of us the entire leg. It was interesting to see that they clearly had very unevenly matched paddling pairs, with the slow boat being towed for what we assume was the entire time. The next leg was the longest ride of the race, 33km, and we knocked off most the distance quickly following Ross.

This was also Laure’s longest mountain bike ride, an incredible effort to do it so quickly. The last part of this ride was tough, and we took a route on overgrown, barely existing tracks that involved a lot of carrying bikes through scrub, which was not ideal in hindsight. We saw a decapitated snake here. The nav from Ross and Laure was spot on, and we eventually reached the the final CP before a quick ride down to the TA on a recently graded track. The next trek leg had a lot of off track navigation. We found the first two checkpoints easily, and started following the ridge to the next checkpoint. We skirted around the side of a knoll to avoid unnecessary climbing, but when too far around it and dropped off the ridge slightly. After looking at the tracker, this was only a 5 minute error, but at the time reduced Charlotte’s confidence in the dark and we slowed down to make sure we stayed on the ridge. We saw team mudcakes around this point, and lead them into the CP. There was some confusion after dropping off the saddle to find the track. We saw Tri adventure and Mudcakes here. We spent some time stopped looking at the map before we found it, and continued on, in the opposite direction of everybody else.

Our support crew was extremely worried, and thought we had made a 180 degree error. In reality we were just taking a more on track route, which turned out to be about the same, as we reached the underpass and checkpoint Y at the same time as Mudcakes and Tri adventure. We came into the TA before the second last leg a few seconds behind the others, battling for 3rd. With our support crew urging us on, we had a quick transition and got onto the water at the same time as Tri adventure. We were ahead of Mudcakes, who we didn’t see again because they turned south and went down the wrong arm of the river, costing them an hour. Unfortunately paddling is not our strong suit, and Tri adventure were quickly out of sight. We navigated across the lake without mishap, helped by the lights of our support crew at TA.

We saw a trail of bubbles in the water from Tri adventures boats, so we knew the couldn’t be far in front. Pulling into the TA our crew told us they had left 7 minutes ago. We transitioned as fast as we could, but we knew we probably couldn’t catch them on the final straightforward 21km ride. Apart from a small detour for the only CP, the last ride was all bitumen, and we rode in formation as fast as we could, finishing the race at 5:30am in 4th position, after 21 hours and 10 minutes of racing - 15 minutes behind Tri Adventure. We’d like to thank your amazing support crew. They really made it possible for us to go quickly and move through transitions easily. Gear was was laid out and food stuffed in bags while we were fed. It was a great race and the support crew really is very important here. Also thanks to Craig and Louise and crew for setting a great course and running an excellent event as usual!

Jodie Willett: GEOQUEST 2015 - HAWKS BAY, NSW

It takes a lot to crack me, but Geoquest 48 hour adventure race succeeded. There were a few rookie errors from the start. There is no way I intended to race for 48 hours. Looking at the distances we had calculated on a 36 hour race, just in time for a steak and beer at the pub. It didn’t pan out like that.
I certainly feel the race was undersold to me by team captain ‘Tayles’ who had done three previous editions of Geoquest. It sounded like if you could paddle a bit, run a bit and not fall off your bike you could get through the race. I’d done a few 10k hilly runs a week and a whole five kayak sessions on the serene Brisbane River. To say I was a touch underdone was an understatement.

Each Geoquest varies in the relative time spent on each discipline. On Friday we got handed the race plan and maps and there was precious little mountain biking and a lot of time on foot. Having been a runner in a previous life, I relied on muscle memory to get me through, but there is no substitute for time on your feet, even if it’s just hiking. I also made the mistake of panic-buying new shoes before the race thinking my Nike Pegasus wouldn’t handle the rugged trails. Yes, I gave thanks for my extra-grippy and water-resistant Salomons when we were scurrying over rock cliffs and through mud puddles, but for running on firetrails they were too stiff to be comfortable and after the 24k rogaine my Achilles and my right knee were on fire and my feet felt like they had been crushed.

Ticking boxes from the start, it was also my first ocean kayak experience. With blue skies to start the race it was quite exciting punching through the waves to reach the water. But despite seeing dolphins and rainbows at the beginning, things soon changed to a vicious 3m swell around the point. My co-paddler, Andy C, issued instructions with calmness so I thought the conditions were fairly normal. It wasn’t until we reached shore that he confessed there were quite a few nervous moments. Not as nervous as our members in the other kayak, Andy M and Tayles, who ended up upside-down in the huge waves. Quote of the weekend went to the volunteer at the first checkpoint:

Volunteer: “Are you having a good time so far?” Andy M: “No, not really”

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Jodie Willett: GEOQUEST 2015 - HAWKS BAY, NSW

Volunteer: “Oh well, it could be worse. You could be that guy whose bag was floating around the ocean” Andy M: “I AM THAT GUY”

How not to start a kayak leg: upside down boats are bad

Fighting the cold was a constant battle, so having all Andy M’s clothes soaked due to a dodgy boat hatch and ‘no-so-dry’ dry-bag was suboptimal. Luckily we had a long beach run ahead to warm us up. The clothing I brought was perfect for the conditions with a couple of light long sleeve thermal tops, Liv cycling vest, arm warmers, undershirts, beanie and rain jacket. A late purchase of some 2XU tri shorts was essential for forest toilet stops without the need to completely undress that comes with wearing bib-nicks.

As long as we kept moving I was pretty comfortable, however we were guilty of stopping too long in transitions when we should have grabbed and run. The winning team were fed on burgers and pizza and foods that could be consumed while moving. Spaghetti Bolognese, while delicious, was less portable. The length of the race meant we weren’t working at maximum intensity so I went with some low GI foods like peanut butter and honey sandwhiches and salty crackers with some medjool dates and Shotz gels to perk me up if the blood sugar was bottoming out. Instant coffee meant a lowering of my usual standards but it was purely about caffeine delivery for the night stages.

There were some spectacular moments on the first day. Clambering along rugged coastal cliffs while coasteering then coming upon sand dunes at Anna Bay complete with camels which could have seen us in a Saharan desert race. It would have been worth attaching a Go Pro to my backpack to capture some amazing scenery. The late addition of the snorkelling leg I thought was going to be an absolute chore, turned out to be one of the most fun. While not tropical, the conditions were sunny and looking for checkpoints underwater was a great way to see the fish and coral and make a mental note to come back to that spot for a summer holiday. As a tourist advertisement for the area, Geoquest was a massive success.

Followers

► 2012 (14) ► 2011 (19) ► 2010 (16) ► 2009 (13)► 2008 (1)

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Jodie Willett: GEOQUEST 2015 - HAWKS BAY, NSW

I'd definitely come back here...in summer

Less successful was our rafting leg. Originally a body boarding stage, the organisers switched to inflatable craft a week before the race due to safety concerns. Crews had to leave racers uninflated craft of choice in the transition zone along with a pump. Andy C had managed to secure a raft which allegedly was fit for 4 people. Perhaps the two adults and two small children pictured on the front of the box may have comfortably traveled in it, but our whole team plus packs required a version of twister just to all get in and resulted in a lot of paddling in circles with the toy oars. Trying several different combinations led to the two rowing members kneeling in a manner similar to the stress-positions they use to torture inmates at Guantanamo Bay.

Arriving cold and frustrated into transition we were greeted with the joyous news that the race-provided canoes that were to be used during the river crossing had not been delivered and competitors would be required to swim the 50 metres across. Given that we would be hitting the crossing at 10:30pm and the ambient was around 8 degrees this posed a problem. For an hour of hiking I wondered if this was the leg which would bring me unstuck. Could I voluntarily get in water that cold for the sake of a race in which we were coming last?

So that’s how the four of us ended up naked on the bank of a river in the freezing dark putting our gear in garbage bags to keep it dry. I approached it like ripping off a Bandaid – just get in quick get it done and deal with the pain later. It was compounded by the fact that we weren’t even sure where we were able to get out on the other side so just aimed for a large tree we thought we could climb out on. I started paddling briskly as I entered the icy water, one arm holding my gear on top of the water, the other engaged in a sort of side-stroke. Halfway across the frigid water started to slow everything down and I wondered when they found my nude corpse clutching a garbage bag of perfectly good clothes, whether the coroner would be able to piece together the circumstances of my demise. Finally reaching the other side, climbing through some mangroves and up onto the bank we all descended into fits of laughter. Did that just happen? Did we really just do that? I felt oddly revitalised and even warm once clothes had been donned and we were back on our way.

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Jodie Willett: GEOQUEST 2015 - HAWKS BAY, NSW

A photo of me with camels because I'm not posting one of me swimming naked

The lack of sleep and long hike took its toll on Andy M and at 19 hours we made the decision to leave him with the support crew at the transition and continue as an unranked team of 3. Placing was not a priority at that point and at least we could finish the race. Pushing the kayaks out onto the river I was looking forward to seeing the sun rise on the water. The Lakes region did not disappoint with the first rays hitting a thick layer of mist on the water’s surface. It was fairy-tale stuff. Opting for some rented double kayaks and skirts it was surprisingly warm until we were required to land on an island and run up to the top of a hill to look for a checkpoint. The two night river kayaks were some of my favourite legs of the race – so peaceful, just the stars and the soft splashing of paddles.

Having done a 24 hour MTB I knew the energy restoring effects of sunrise and felt pretty good for the next leg where we were finally on the bike. I’d had a couple of micro-sleeps while paddling but was sure the trail action would keep me awake. On paper it looked like a fairly straight forward 57km ride and after driving it for the first hour and a half and knocking of 30ks we were hopeful of getting through it quickly. The next 90 mins only chewed up 10k though as we rode up a rocky water course and negotiated long fireroad climbs that were too muddy to ride. Fatigue was setting in, we were having silly crashes and one of the bikes suffered a snapped rear derailleur cable.

I’ve suffered through some tough MTB races but there was always the reward of a great view or fun singletrack descent. There was nothing rewarding about this pointless foray through the bush and I was pretty jack of the whole thing by then. We arrived at the start of the next rogaining leg in the afternoon with the second night looming and an estimated 12 hours of hiking, paddling and riding left to reach the end. I just couldn’t face another night without sleep and it wasn’t something I had expected to do. Completely cool with being wet, nude, sore and lost and it wasn’t that the legs were empty as we were the second fastest team overall on the MTB stage. Two nights of sleep deprivation is just not something that I could get through and I couldn’t think of a good enough reason to keep going given we were out of the running to even get recognition of finishing as a complete team.

Unfortunately there is no option of continuing as a two-person team due to safety rules set by the organisers. We called our support team to pick us up and grabbed 30 minutes sleep by the fire while we waited for them. I felt terrible for Andy C and Tayles for bringing a premature end to their adventure. I’ve run through a dozen scenarios wondering if there was anything which could have got me through that patch. Maybe a short sleep? Can of Coke? Foot massage? It’s misleading to look back and think there was something left to give, when at the time you’re just out of answers. I also found it disconcerting watching

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Jodie Willett: GEOQUEST 2015 - HAWKS BAY, NSW

your team members deteriorate, hurt themselves due to extreme fatigue and struggle to string a sentence together at times. Looking at my teammates, they were in quite a state (as was I) but I knew they wouldn’t stop if I didn’t and I wasn’t sure if I was OK with that. Geoquest was a very strange experience in that way. We really must look insane to other people!

Would I do it again? Absolutely. But I would train my arse off, especially for long distance running component. If you’re cool with sleep deprivation, go ahead and amble through Geoquest and enjoy the journey. If not then go hard and get it done so you can spend Sunday night celebrating.

Massive thanks to our incredible support crew Tanya and Rob. It was such a relief to see you guys and you did an amazing job anticipating everything we could conceivably want. Support crew duties are an event in their own right. Also thanks to Liv for my Lust 27.5 which has become my ‘do everything’ bike and For The Riders for preparing it for the onslaught of conditions; Ride Mechanic for the Bike Milk and Moonshine to make sure both my bike and body were free from friction; Shotz nutrition for their gels and recovery bars to keep me going; Maxxis Tyres for the Ardent Race and Ikon combination that proves itself again. And finally to my team mates. We didn’t make it this time, but just taking the start line was a win. Until the next one!

Team Scout GeoQuest 2015

Ten reasons why Geoquest is Australia’s Premier Adventure Race

1. Geoquest is run by the two most experienced Race Directors in the country. Craig and Louise have been the leaders in this field for many years and are passionate about bringing the world of Adventure Racing to Australia.

1. Geoquest has maintained its same major sponsor – Mountain Designs since its inception in 2002. Mountain Designs’ commitment to the sport of Adventure Racing in Australia

2. The Geoquest Half provides an opportunity for new teams

3. or individuals to experience a shorter version of the full course, as well as allowing older AR athletes to continue to participate in the event. The Geo Half was introduced in 2003 and has now become an official part of the event for Mixed, Men’s and Women’s teams.

4. Geoquest continues to support the 4 person mixed team as the ‘Premier’ category and offers equal prize value and equal event length to both men and women in both the FULL Course and the HALF.

5. The location of Geoquest changes every year, not only providing variety for the adventure racers but also stimulating the economy of small coastal towns.

6. Geoquest is navigationally challenging throughout the entire course. The event directors always find a way of challenging even the most experienced teams every single year, which promotes the art of navigation and sparks an interest to become more adept at this necessary adventure racing skill.

7. A support crew is an integral part of Geoquest and are in fact a part of ‘the team’. This allows for family and friends who might never consider themselves as competitors to come along and see some pretty awesome sights and be a part of a team. They also add value by being able to provide fresh or hot food on course which in some events is not possible.

8. Geoquest has an ocean paddle where you can bring your own craft, which ensures that the paddling section of the event required the same amount of skill development and attention as the other major legs of mountain biking and trekking.

9. Geoquest always has some sort of Mystery Leg that is only revealed a few weeks before the event. This has included the use of rafts or tubes and other permitted accessories to get the team and equipment across a body of water. This certainly adds to the challenge of the event and sets the scene for some creative thinking and ingenuity.

10. Geoquest promotes the Spirit of Adventure Racing where an environmental ‘less is more’ philosophy is a major part of the experience. Only the privileged ones who sign up for the physical and mental challenge that we call Geoquest would really understand what this is all about! It’s not about money and it’s not about masses!

GeoQuest Report by BroCann

Some say that getting all members of your team to the Geoquest destination is the first major milestone in the Geo journey. Well for team BroCann (Brothers Andy, Lukas, Mick, and cousin Steve Wallis), it was certainly a relief having the original 4 team members and support crew all present at Crescent Head on the Thursday afternoon for our first Geo. It had been a nervous week beforehand looking after a wife with the flu, and my son with tonsillitis. I have never gargled so much salt water in my life!

We had a minor drama Thursday afternoon when Lukas went to unpack his car, and saw oil all up the back of his car and over his bike. For some reason, it seemed to be concentrated all over his brakes. A blown rear diff seal and 800km of highway driving from the Sunny Coast will do this. The pads were saturated in oil, and with no spare pads, we emptied the local chemist of their alcohol wipes just before closing time. A thorough clean of the brakes left it with about 80% stopping power, which would have to do.

Our main goal was to finish the race with all 4 team members, while our stretched target was to finish in the top 50%. Being our first Geo, the unknown factor really limited us setting anything more specific. Even though the line up also included some really talented teams, our team had all put in a good set of training for the last 5 months so it was now just a matter of being tough in the mind and seeing where that got us.

The Friday before the race seem to drag on forever, and we were all just keen to race. We picked up the Kayaks we had hired from Jared in the morning and took them for a

quick ocean paddle to make sure everything was adjusted ok. This was Mick’s first time in a Mirage 730, and he wanted to make sure he could do a deep water re-entry. A near drowning in his first attempt did not do his confidence much good. He had some real trouble getting his skirt off when he was upside down, however the next few attempts got easier. We paddled back in enjoying the small 1ft swell, knowing well that the weather was forecast to change dramatically before the race started. The forecast was 20-25knot winds, with a 1.6m swell. A short race into shore between our 2 crafts saw us paddle over a tiny swell, which ended up turning us on our side and tipping us over. Hmmmm, can’t wait until we get into the real weather I thought. Gotta remember not to catch a wave into shore! This ‘planned’ capsize helped us to get some extra manual bilge pump practice.

Mandatory checks and competency checks went well, and we got our maps around 3:30. We were told at this point that if the wind was over 17knots, the ocean kayak would be cancelled, and replaced with a MTB. This was disappointing as we had actually done a bit of ocean paddling training. Planning went well, and we got to bed around 9:30pm.

We met on Saturday Morning at 7:15am were we found a very tired Steve and Mick. Steve was staying at the caravan park, and some boys arrived on Friday night for a buck’s night. They partied until 4am, as did Micks new neighbors. Lukas suggested to treat the extra night sleep deprivation as XPD training. We arrived at the starting point after a brief scare thinking that the control card was in the hand out bag back at the unit, as I hadn’t checked though the bag. We decided not to get caught up in the initial start and found ourselves at the rear of the pack. After letting the chaos clear a little, we then put the

foot down and caught up to the lead group. The first ride went well, and we were glad to get onto some hardpack after a slog through the soft sand. We arrived into the first TA in first place (all placing in this blog refer to the male category) which was a pleasant surprise, and this motivated us for a quick transition. Lukas and I had the swim/run, and Mick and Steve went off on the longer run. The swim actually was quite

nice, and was much warmer than we expected. The swim length had also been reduced from 800 m to 400m, which meant that Lukas and I would have the easier of the 2 split legs.

We completed the swim without any issue, changed into our running gear and took off around Hat Head. The scenery was spectacular, and we were making good time. After getting the first CP, we decided to bush bash up the hill to get to save on an out and back. The terrain started off ok, but soon turned to thick lantana. We followed a few kangaroos through some thick scrub and got to about 10 meters from the CP at the top. We could see the CP, but that last few meters seemed to take forever. The bush bash made us up a few places, however we were pretty scratched up. We got the next CP ok, and headed back to the TA, were we had to wait for Mick and Steve to arrive. It was nice sitting on the beach, but we were getting anxious after waiting for 30 minutes. The boys arrived, so we were good to go. Another quick transition onto the bikes, and we were off.

The next leg was a slog through soft sandy tracks, which saw a couple of minor offs. There had been no issues with the navigation at this point, and we were all feeling good. The final bit of tarmac to Smokey Cape lighthouse felt amazing after the soft sand tracks, even though it was uphill.

We arrived at the TA at 12:30 to the taste of some ham sandwiches and cold coke. Wow, how can a ham sandwich taste so good! We were still leading the male category by about 5 minutes. We made our first nav error here, and headed down a track heading to the beach instead of through the headland. Steve picked up on this early, which was nice, as it limited the amount of uphill backtracking. We starting passing some of the half course races here which was encouraging, and rounded the headland to the jail before the beach run to South West Rocks. It was here that team DASH passed us taking the lead in the male category. I was feeling a little sick, so was on the tow on the beach run. I have only recently become a user of a tow rope, as I didn’t think they would make much difference. How wrong was I. Both the bike and run tow systems are now a mandatory piece of my AR kit. We saw DASH head up along the beach thinking that they had missed the turn off over the bridge, only to find that we had actually taken the longer way, as the rocks were crossable due to the tide. The orienteering leg was pretty basic, and saw us leaving this in 2nd place, 9 minutes behind DASH. We had packed a lot of gear in this leg, as the next few legs would be unsupported. We put the hammer down on the bikes to the pack rafting section.

Our rafts were up quick thanks to the electric pump, and we
were soon on the river. Although the rafts went up quick, they
were quite slow on the river. Paddling with our arms just
didn’t seem to have enough propulsion against the tide and
wind. We had 2 people on a single mattress x 2, and 4 bikes
on a double mattress. We did some mid river reorganizing
and made it to the other side ok. It’s good that we are family,
as we got pretty close on those air beds. The sun was going
down, and it was now cold. Mick had left some gear back at
the TA, so he was now in his raincoat for some extra warmth.
We found that the best way to get warm was to go fast, so this
we did. Our bike legs throughout the whole race were our
strongest. Lukas was feeling the extra weight a bit, as he had most of the rafting gear in his pack. The extra 6kg was the ‘teams’ way of bringing him back to an equal playing field with the rest of the team. We made up 35 minutes on this leg, and arrived for the first Rogaine at 5:56pm. This had us back in first place with an 18 minute buffer over second place(DASH), and 1 hour over third place (SA Ambulance).

The first Rogaine leg required us to get 6 of 7 checkpoints. We have found on many occasions that Rogaine’s are heavily influenced by confidence. If you nail the first few checkpoints, it really builds the confidence and helps you on your way. Unfortunately, we still had not found our first CP after 1 hour. We decided to skip this CP (V) and get the other 6, which unfortunately meant we had to go out and collect the far CP’s. Steve’s navigation to the rest of the CP’s went well, even after slipping in the creek and whacking his head on a rock. The food was starting to affect Lukas’s bowels, and it was not safe to trek up a hill behind him unless you were after some extra nutrition that resembled a cross between road kill and broccoli. Although we got the rest ok, it meant that a 4hr Rogaine turned into a 6 hr Rogaine. This had a compounding effect, as it also meant we ran out of water, and had to do a creek fill. I was feeling it here, and had stomach issues, so was not eating much. We saw Tiger Black on our way back to TA after collecting our 6th CP, and they also looked like they were doing it tough. We were very happy to finish this leg, however it was now midnight and we were now 1 hour behind both teams SA Ambulance and DASH. The official Geo Blog read “the wheels fell off for team Brocann, who had a shocker navigating at night, and have now dropped from 1st to 3rd, with SA Ambulance taking a narrow lead”.

It was good to get back on the bikes, even though our butts were now pretty sore. The extra weight from the raft gear definitely made a difference going up those hills, however there were a lot of people now walking up the hills, so it was nice to pass some people again. After a big uphill to start, the rest was pretty much downhill which was nice. We were flying down a dirt road, when I heard a yell, followed by the words ‘drop’. I swerved to the left and missed a massive drop, which Lukas and Steve had

gone over and nailed! Nothing like a drop at 50kmph to wake you up! We again were greeted with some smooth rolling tarmac to Scott’s head, so we put the hammer down and arrived at 1:37am. We made up 28minutes on the leading teams, and were now only trailing second place by 6 minutes.

This TA saw our first hot food which was good. My stomach was playing up, but I ate anyway as we still had a long way to go. It was after this TA that saw the other 3 guys starting to have stomach issues as well. I assured them that it wasn’t due to my precooked spag bol.

We were now on our first Kayak, and it was nice to turn the lights off and paddle under the clear skies on the Nambucca river. We were so glad that it wasn’t raining as forecast. We found the portage area fine, and did the 2km portage to the other side. The next part of the kayak was interested due to the hundreds of fish jumping in the river. We got smashed by fish hitting our kayak, paddles and bodies. It was worse when we put our lights on, so we had to paddle in the dark just waiting for those fish to hit you. Definitely a memorable experience. Steve even had a fish land in the kayak!

We arrived at the next TA at 4:20am. Man was it cold! We were all feeling a bit ill at this stage. We had lost 30 minutes to the other teams, and were now 1 hour behind them. This was our longest transition by far, partly due to us knowing that we would be unsupported for up to 12 hours. Steve was pretty cold in his short skins and was keen to start riding. I packed some extra food, just hoping that I would not need it all. I also ate some dry bread here, which turned out to be awesome, and saw the start of me not feeling ill in the stomach. I will be adding dry bread to the list of food items I take on a long race. Our route choice here was not the shortest, but had us bypassing some of the hilly areas. Steve was starting to feel worse in the stomach, as were Mick and Lukas. There were only about 3 big climbs in our route choice, but it sure did take us a long time. We only had issues with 1 CP on the bike, which saw us searching for 30 minutes. We ended up bush bashing to a creek, and then hike a biking up are steep 50m climb. We found the remaining CP, and headed to the next TA which was the Rogaine/archery. We reached the top of the final big climb to see a team in trouble. We had seen them out on the course a few times, with one of their members hurling. I stopped to give them some anti-nausea medication, only to look up and see Steve also heaving up. We drugged him up, but he was pretty bad, so he hoped on the bike tow (thanks Mick), and I took over the nav. We go to the next TA at 11am and were in 3rd place, 2 hours behind first place.

Steve was in a low, and could now only walk. Mick and Lukas had upset stomachs, however I was actually feeling good now. Thank God for dry bread! I was doing the Nav, and we took off down the road. I decided to head down the hill a little early and follow the creek down to the CP, however we did not find it. We searched for a while, and decided to go back up to the road and attach it from a different point. The second

attack also proved fruitless. Oh no, it was a case of the first rogaine all over again, however this time we had to find it, as the map to the next CP was on the first CP. I could tell the guys were happy to do all the extra hill repeats by the looks on their faces, however it wasn’t until I told them we were going back to the start that I heard the first groan. I offered the Nav to any takers, but as there were none, we headed back up to the start. The case of the first Rogaine CP strikes again. This time I paced out the distances and we found the CP no problems. It was hear that we saw Tiger Black again, and Trev gave some encouragement by saying ‘don’t give up’!

Finding the CP gave me a new leash of life, and I quickly took a bearing to the next CP. We smashed up a hill to the road, and as the others came up, I rechecked the map. Uh Oh, I just realized that when I took the bearing I had the map upside down. Guess those hill repeats in training were really paying off! My confidence took a big hit, and had to apologize to the team. They took it well externally, however I was glad I was not a mind reader! Back down the hill and up the other side we went. Things were looking good to the 3rd CP, and we were all looking forward to finishing this rogaine in daylight. We followed a spur down a hill to a creek, and went up about 200m. It seemed too far, so Lukas went up another 70 and came back empty handed. My nav confidence was at an all time low, and again offered it to anyone else but no takers! I was sure we were in the right place, and after some more looking, decided to trek back up the spur to the main road, and attack from a different angle.

It was now 3:30pm. We were running low on water and considered our battery life for the remaining legs. We had planned to have finished this leg and the next 2 by now. We checked out our battery life and made a call to HQ to see what the penalty would be to have some new batteries brought out, as we still had 2 CP to get, plus a bike leg and raft leg to go. Louise said that next Mountain bike was easy, and so we should be ok, so we pressed on. Steve was feeling a little better now, so I happily handed the Nav back to him. We came down a different approach, and hit the same area we were in before. We continued up the same creek and found the CP. We had gone 20m too short the first time! Ahhhhhh! We decided to take the longer but easier nav choice for the 3rd CP, to build some confidence back up. This took about 45 minutes, as we were still just walking due to the guys feeling sick still. We got the third CP with about 30 minutes of light left. We took a team vote to take the short but risky route option to the 4th CP instead of the long and easy. We took a bearing and through the bush we went thinking it would only take about 15 minutes. By the time it got dark, we knew we were lost. We walked around for ages, but in the end took a safety bearing to the nearest main road. This seemed to go on for every and at one stage I had to check to make sure the map was not upside down when we took the safety bearing. The

bearing was good, and we hit the main road. We got our bearings, and realized we were only 250m from the 4th CP, however we took a vote to skip it as were now out of water and had limited battery life. In hindsight we should have gone and got it, as it turned out to be a 3 hour penalty, however at the time the thought of going back into the bush did not appeal to any of us. We arrived back at the TA very, very glad to be leaving that rogaine. It had smashed us, then re-smashed us. The slow estimate for this leg was 4 hours, however it had taken us 8. We left this TA a beaten, but still keen to finish the race. We had now been without support for 15 hours.

The bike leg always seemed to pick up our confidence, and we found ourselves flying! Shortly into this leg, Steve’s mapboard snapped, so I took over the Nav again. We gave the broken mapboard a very short burial ceremony and off we went. I am not sure what was spurring us on, but we were smashing it. Either the anger from the previous leg, the promise of hot food at the next TA, or the search for water in the town of Fredrickton certainly got us motivated, as we felt like a professional bike racing team. Although we were now out of the race, we still beat the top male team by just under 1 hour on this leg, and this included some extra kms of riding due to missing the first exit to quarry road. Ahh, quarry road. This was where our team had our first niggle, which was pretty good considering we had now been racing for nearly 38 hours. We will put it down to the guys not hearing me to turn due to the noise of the wind on the bikes because we were going so fast and leave it at that!

We reached the raft crossing and stripped down to minimal cloths so we had some warm cloths to put on after. It was very cold at this point, and we had prepared for a long paddle based on our first rafting experience. It was a pleasant surprise to see the tide was with us, so it didn’t take long to cross the river. I was a little concerned at how much Steve was enjoying my ‘body heat’ on the paddle across. Kudos to the person sitting in the kayak in the middle of the river making sure people were safe, as that would have been a very cold and boring job. We packed up quickly, but were very cold.

We again went fast on the bike to warm up, but had trouble staying on our bikes when the uncontrollable shivers went through our bodies causing the handlebars to go everywhere. We passed a few teams along the road and were met at the TA with warm food and a warm fire. It was now 10pm, and it had been 18hrs since we last saw our support team, so needless to say we had no water or food. Butter chicken and rice usually tastes good, but magnify that by 10, and you will get close to how it tasted then. We rugged up for the next kayak leg and off we went. We had it drummed in by support to make sure we went the right way, unlike team Rogue who decided to do some significant extra paddling. Glad the sleep deprivation was not only affecting us. We got about 100m down the creek when Mick realized the control card was back at the TA. We were so glad this got picked up early.

It was warm in the kayaks, but cold out. Skinny Mick doesn’t have much insulation on at the best of times, and he certainly got some extra chill time looking for CP 30, especially when I had them out looking at the wrong bridge. The sleep deprivation was now kicking in, and I was making silly nav errors. What’s an extra 10 minutes over 48 hours I say!

We got to the correct bridge near the weir and continued up the creek for an eternity. Steve’s extra night of sleep deprivation due to the buck’s night was now hitting hard, and the boat was getting a little wobbly as he had some micro sleeps. I was keen not to fall in, so tried to keep him talking. A couple of times I turned around to see Steve ‘paddling’, but unfortunately his paddle was not actually touching the water. He was cold and spent. There was not much navigation happening by now, and I was just looking for a right turn followed by a bridge. The paddle seemed to take an eternity, and we had a couple of disappointing right turns but no bridge, which meant more paddling. The guys were questioning we had gone the wrong way, but it was just a matter of keep going. We arrived to hear our support crew cheering us on at 1:14am. This was the coldest it had been all night, and Steve had to spend some time in the car with the Heater on to warm up. We knew we were on the last leg, and after we had some warm clothes on we started to run to the beach. We hit the beach, knowing there was only 7km to go. This was a nice feeling, and we only had to get one more CP. The last CP proved trickier than expected, mainly due to the sleep deprivation really kicking in. We were all wandering a bit, and not really navigating. We briefly lost each other in the dunes, but eventually found the CP and made our way to the beach. We were all spent by now, and the 7km of soft sand meant some quality time in the hurt locker. Lukas and Steve were struck by the sleep monsters, and were seeing other teams. Steve almost walked straight into the ocean, so we made sure he stayed on the dune side of us for the rest of the race. We could see the lights of Crescent head, however they did not appear to get much closer for ages. We arrived at 5am, and crossed the finish line at 5:11am. We had raced for 45h, 11m, covering 250km, which put us in 17th place overall (out of 32 teams (male and mixed)), which was adjusted back to 21st place after our 3 hour penalty was applied.

The highlights for me were powering on the bike legs, and the night kayaks under the stars. Also, it was pretty special leading the mens division for a good portion of the race. I was also happy that we were able to keep going with no rest easier than I thought it would be. Our teamwork was really good, and there were really no real issues. Each team member stepped up when required and spread the load. We could speed up our transitions a little, and it would be good to sort out our nutrition so we didn’t feel sick. I will definitely be making dry bread a mandatory TA option! The final highlight was the Crescent head bakery. Those vanilla slices and custard tarts were unreal, and I am pretty sure that any weight loss through the race was regained the few days after the race.

The low parts of the race were the rogaines, especially the second one. It really broke us, and I was pretty disappointed with my navigation efforts on that one. More navigation practice, especially at night will really help to improve. I also need to take more care on the first CP, as it really sets you up for the rest of the race.

A huge thanks to Linda Wallis and my dad as they did an awesome job as our support crew. Thanks also to Reuben, Hannah, and Tom (Steve & Linda’s children) for getting dragged around for 48 hours in the car. I know that Ice cream I bought won’t fully pay for the lack of sleep, but hope it goes part of the way.

We all talked on that final beach run if we would do the race again next year, however those conversations will remain under lock and key until we all have had some time to recover and relive the many stories and memories that we gained during the race.

BroCann out.

Mountain Designs Adventure Racing Team

Geoquest Crescent Head 2014 – Was it a beautiful playground.....or was it a battlefield???

The scene was set for a great showdown between last year’s top Geoquest finishers and Seagate, arguably the best Adventure Racing Team in the world. Seagate were tired coming off an expedition adventure race in Africa; Peak Adventure - last year’s winners would be strong despite their chief navigator Rob Preston also backing up from Africa; Outer Limits – 2nd in 2013, would be both fresh and strong coming off a top performance in China, a few months ago; and we knew Cyclezone Mooloolaba would be in there for the fight as well. So with the ominous weather forecast of gale-force SW winds and 100% chance of 15-25ml rain over the weekend we know we were all in for a challenging weekend of adventure racing #GeoquestAR style.

Gary & Leo - Gear Checks

Over the past seven years Team Mountain Designs have dominated Australian Adventure Racing. In fact Team Mountain Designs was the most “winning” team from 2003 -2010. The new look Team Mountain Designs will draw on past racing experience to set new goals and be one of the highest performing teams in the sport of Adventure Racing. Our Vision is to perform at speeds normally reserved for on road terrain while maintaining world class navigation skills.......and we will do this with a smile on our face! Our community vision is to give back what ever possible to a sport that has given us the opportunity to achieve goals beyond our dreams. It is this vision along with support from our partners and sponsors that will allow us to pass on valuable knowledge to aspiring Adventure Racers. Check out our website:- http://www.triadventure.com.au/teammountaindesigns.html

This is a very social time where all teams get to meet up again for the annual Geoquest pilgrimage on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend. Gary having completed 11 and stepping up for his 12th Geoquest was spared from the competency checks along with 2 others Mat Bacon

(Team One Chick & 3 Token Blokes) and Damon Goerke (Peak Adventure Shotz). Despite the reprieve, Gary still did pretty much everything except for the swim & wet exit....even taking me out in the ocean over a few little tiny waves to check the foot holds were right in the Stellar for the choppy ocean conditions predicted. Soon it was time for the course to be revealed, and we were informed of a possible cancellation of the paddle if the winds forecast were above 15knots......what a blow.....all that ocean paddling practice too! Anyway soon we were back at the house with the crew – Lea, Blounie and the Sutherland crew pouring over the maps, and preparing our gear. The course included 14 legs, 32 CP’s, 21 maps and distance of some 227km with a MTB mass start and 5 more MTB legs with two rafting sections to get our bikes and bodies across waterways; 5 treks including an orienteering relay and another archery; and 2 paddles one with a 2km portage. Gary and Sloshy were working on the route choices while Leo and I were going through all the CP descriptions, adding notes and working with support crew on what their roles would be at each of the TA’s along with time approximations as Kylie was cooking up a storm in the kitchen feeding us hearty homemade soup and pasta!

Leg 1 – MTB – Crescent head to Hat Head National Park -20km

As the paddle leg had been cancelled it was a mass MTB start at 8.00am, so this meant that about 140 of us were all gathered at a tiny cross road just out of town. We all lined up and off we set along the bitumen for the first 5k. As a team, we sat near the front of the pack ready to make a move a bit closer up when the road turned to dirt. There was no point in using up too much energy at this stage! The dirt soon turned to sand and we found ourselves moving right up to the front of the field, just nudging ahead of Peak Adventure, and Seagate......maybe we just had a bit more experience with sand riding, with all of the team being Sunshine or Gold Coasters! We all got to CP1A at the same time and proceeded to Hat Head. We came into the TA round about the exact same time as Seagate and had about 2 mins on Peak Adventure. We had a quick transition into our ‘split trek gear’ before heading to the TA right on the beach!

Leg 2 – Trek Split – Hat Head National Park – 8km

We had agonised a long time over this split during preparations, but finally decided that Sloshy and I would cross the creek straight to F, run to I at Hungry Hill then H on Third Beach; Gary & Leo would swim and do the Hat Head Point CP’s C, D E as well as G up on Connors Hill trail. Sloshy and I were first team back and instead of meeting the boys at the TA on the beach, we opted for a quick transition first...as we all

had to get in together! We soon realised that the boys must be back and headed to the TA where they had been waiting for ages.....ouch.....minutes lost! So after a lightning fast transition by Leo & Gary we set off on the bikes in 3rd.......just as Outer Limits were arriving back in TA. We noticed that other teams must have struggled with the sand riding as there seemed to be a big gap to the rest of the field.

Leg 3 – MTB – Hat Head to Smokey Cape -22km

Again we were riding on sandy trails, and I was in my element.....thinking that this was actually a blessing in disguise, as most people hate sand.....but we obviously didn’t mind it at all. This section now had a few steep pinches so a lot more effort and energy required getting through the course. We started to pass many of the Geo Half Teams who had started at Hat Head with the Trek Split. It was also great to come across the Tri Adventure Cowgirls right up there amongst the leaders eating up the sand too! There were just 2 CP’s on this leg and they were on the track and relatively easy to find, so at the end of 3 legs, somehow we were in the lead!

Leg 4 – Trek – Smokey Cape to South West Rocks -11km

We set off on this lovely coastal trek, and instantly the boys put the hammer down I felt I had nothing, so I told Gary I’m only running on 80% and that I had come down with a sore throat ( I had tried not to tell the boys I was not 100%) .....so I might need a tow....so soon Leo hooked me up and we were off running up the Smoky Cape ridgeline collecting CP6 at the gate before the steep trek up to find CP7 at Little Smoky peak! On the way down we decided to take a little detour.....instead of going down the track (which seemed to be going the wrong direction) we continued to bush bash......right down to the road....and only then, realising that the track was the right one, and we did not take it! So we hit some houses and the road and took the long way into to CP8 at the monument now just trailing Peak Adventure. We ran together past Trial bay Gaol to CP9 at Laggers Point before stepping onto the beautiful beach on the way up to South West Rocks. This beach was absolutely stunning and we couldn’t hold ourselves back surprising cameraman James Pitman who said ‘Hey MD’s you are ahead of Seagate’......he seemed surprised......I think we were too! We ran up the rocks smiling as we head into the TA.

Leg 5 – Orienteering Relay – South West Rocks -5km

At this TA we meet the lovely Amy from Geocentric who is handing out the relay maps. This was a Google Earth map with 4 CP’s. We were all required to get just one CP, and take the tracker as the relay baton. Sloshy headed out first; meanwhile we were back at the TA getting our gear sorted for the next leg, as we had to fit paddles on our packs, add food for at least 5hrs and be ready to run our leg of the orienteering when Sloshy arrived back. I was second out on the course, and had the easy CP in the street, but went slightly too far to the right and ended up in Gregory street, so after realising my error, I turned left and ran direct to the CP, on my return Gary too the map and tracker and headed out for the CP, as I was trying to scoff down some hot chips and ham & cheese toasty and a lemon squash......no wonder I didn’t eat much of my packed race food! Gary was in and out went Leo, just as Peak Adventure were leaving the TA....they had blitzed the orienteering without a doubt!

Leg 6 – MTB & Raft – South West Rocks to The Pines Picnic Area, Yarrabinni National Park-30km

Team MD’s were second out of the TA, but Outer Limits were breathing down our necks, as we headed out on the road to the Macleay River, our paddles were catching the wind like sails and made it quite difficult riding. Upon arriving at CP 12 we were to blow up our rafts and paddle with our bikes to the other side. We saw that Peak Adventure had just got on the water and we were just starting.....their craft however did not look to stable or efficient....but they were trying very hard to get off the bank. We had two small lilo’s and one double, one battery pump and one hand pump. Leo and I paddled one single and Sloshy & Gary on their single, towed the bikes on the double. This was effective, as we motored past Peak Adventure and caught the lead Geo Half team just as they were exiting at CP13. We came across two blokes fishing on the side of the river, with a fire ready to go and a weekend camp set up.....they had no idea they were about to be inundated with about 50 or so rafts and around 200 people in the next 4-8hrs! Now off the rafts we had to somehow fit everything back into our packs and make our way to the next TA. The boys all had pack-racks fitted to their bikes which meant much less weight to carry on their backs, but the ride up to the Pines Picnic area in Yarrabinni National park was still rather testing. At some point on this windy dirt road just after we had passed the sign to the infamous Mt Yarahapinni (the location of the 2006 Geoquest hike-a-bike from hell) Sloshy noticed we did not have the map to get us out after the trek. It was not on his board.....Gary was super cool....he just said calmly I can get us to Scott’s Head, we might just have to see if the Geo Half team we had only just passed, have the same CP 16 as us. We lost momentum here for a bit as we were really worried.

Leg 7 – Trek Rogaine – Yarrabinni National Park - 8km

We had to go slow now as we needed to wait for the team GB to get in to see if we could solve our problem.....So we changed into our trekking shoes, Sloshy & Leo got the map from the TA officials, while Gary and I snuck over to GB as they arrived to see if 16 was the same......phew it was....so we drew it on the map, and just the written directions from the main road to Scott’s Head after that. Our spirits lifted again as we headed out on the trek.....we were still in the lead! This was a Rogaine leg where we were required to get 6 or the marked 7 CP’s....mostly creeks and high points and not many tracks....it was 8k....it looked slow going and it was! We headed to CP V first....the description was creek junction, so we followed the main road down into creek to the first creek junction, turned NE and headed to the next junction, and took the SW fork to the CP......as we were heading back up north from this CP we were greeted by Peak Adventure on the same route. It was getting dark now....so on with the AY UP lights! Our next target was CP U, so along High Knob Track we headed east, but unfortunately we dropped into the creek a bit soon, and hit the junction before both S & V, so we headed to CP S first and then went for U. It was on our way to CP U that we met Seagate, in some of the thickest masses of lantana that you have ever seen.....it was nasty but we made our way to the CP together...then went our separate ways! We headed for High Knob Road again and all the way to CP P, choosing to miss CP Q which would have been a nasty climb.....looking at our route choice now, it seems like we might have gone for Q if we had done U and S in the planned order. Anyway it was quick travel out on Way Way Creek Road to CP P and there being a little track down into the creek made the bend quite an easy find! So just R and T to go we headed to R first and headed up the creek....this was very slow travel, and in hindsight I think a better attack point would have been from Leonards Road......but anyway after much twisting and turning and crawling through barb wire vine, wait-a-while and lantana we eventually found the gully that led on up to CP R. We exited direct south and took Leonards Road to CP T at the high point. As we headed for the TA we saw the Cowgirls who were just about to embark on the epic trek, and then Peak Adventure on the bikes heading out.....we wondered who else had eased their way ahead! No one.....well done Sloshy....great nav!

Leg 8 - MTB Yarrabinni National Park to Scotts Head -17km

We left the TA in 2nd place, however as we were leaving Outer Limits and come into the TA as well and we were sure Seagate were not too far behind. Gary was on nav duties now and we made our way up to CP 16. It was a tough climb and there were a few Geo Half teams heading out as well. I know it felt tougher than it was because we had all our pack rafting stuff too...... It was not long before we were on our own heading out along Leonards Road again.....but unfortunately we took a bit of a wrong turn finding ourselves at a dead end track, and having to backtrack up a hill......now it was somewhere about now either just before or after CP 16 that Sloshy realised that the map that we did not have ‘Map 11’ had somehow reappeared...... ‘Oh no’ .....the support crew must have dropped it off somehow! Minutes later we were greeted by Race Directors Craig & Louise who had to stop us.....this was a breach of the rules.....we knew it.....but it was out of our control we had not played a part in getting the map at all.......it had just appeared.....the support crew had obviously panicked and tried help us out.....but yes it was against the rules......but we did not even need the map.......we had it all written on Gary’s Map 9.....but a penalty was applied. We had to ride all the way back to the TA at CP 14/15 and return the poisoned map! So up, up and up we rode once again.....we had already just been passed by Outer Limits and knew Seagate were not far back......now we would be giving away hours! Oh well sometimes things don’t go your way.....and this was just not our day.....! Map dropped off, back out Grassy Head Road, and onto Scotts Head, although we had now ridden an extra 10k of hills we were still in 4th place.....over an hour behind Peak Adventure, Outer Limits and Seagate....who were now fighting for the top 3 spots.

Leg 9 - Paddle – Scotts Head to Macksville -11km + 2k Portage

We greeted our support crew (Kylie, the girls, Blounie and Lea) here once again.....they had hot soup and warm clothes for us ready to go.....we took a bit longer in this TA than other teams 18 mins whereas Seagate, Peak and Outer Limits all just 5 minutes.....wow....impressive! Despite our misadventure, we had still come in to the TA in a time similar to our estimate......so we set off down the Nambucca River at around 9.18 pm. It was a beautiful night out on the water, with the moon brightly shining in the sky. This was the first real paddle of the race, something that we had been looking forward to....especially Leo as he has been putting so much time an effort into his paddling all year! Sloshy & Gary in the Fenn XT led the way and Leo & I in the Stella just sat on the wash! Suddenly Sloshy realised he had forgotten the tracker.......oh no....we could turn back, but the crew would have already been driving down the road with it stored in our gear! Bummer another penalty! The portage worked well, and being very familiar to Gary (as it was the same portage as they had done in 2006) we managed to get the wheels rolling down the road quite well.......just wondered what the cars travelling on the 80k highway thought though! We found the re-entry point quite easily, bashed through some mangroves got back on the water and made our way to Macksville.

Leg 10 - MTB – Macksville to Eungai State Forest – 43km

This was an important TA to refuel as we would not see the crew for more than 10 hours......so a bit more hot soup (cauliflower, this time) and some coffee & hot chocolate was enjoyed by all. Off with the wet clothes and on with the dry ones....it was going to be a long, cool night on the bikes, so we decided to start dry and warm. Off we set on the bitumen out of Macksville, heading for the hills! The boys were absolutely motoring once again.....and again I was struggling....so Leo hooked me up on the tow rope again.....and boy did I spend quite a bit of time on that two rope on this leg! We had quite a few CP’s to collect on our way out to the Archery/Trek and some would prove to be more challenging than others. Gary had his eye on the maps, Leo and I were doing distances and Sloshy was setting a strong pace......we were moving quite well....there were some really steep pinches that we had to walk in parts and some sections where it was just way too steep to tow....this was Geoquest! We located CP 19 on the track bend and were heading to CP 20 when the track we were on just ran out! Mmmm was this a Bycroft twist or were we in the wrong place???? We had checked at the top before descending that we were right, so we pushed ahead through the think forest of lantana. The track, was no longer a track and there was evidence of others being there, but had they turned back????? We pushed on down into the creek, up the other side and soon found the track on the other side and the CP.....phew.....this would certainly sort a few teams out later......as who in their right mind would send us down a track like that????? Craig & Louise would! The hours were just flying by and we certainly were on the other side of half way to the TA. We certainly had to keep our distances correct and focus on the map all the way to CP 21 as we made a few minor errors which cost a bit of time......maybe just fatigue was setting in. CP 23 / TA was at an old quarry, but we somehow just rode straight past it......locating it on the way back up the track thinking we must have taken the wrong track. 43k done!

Leg 11 – TREK – State Forest – 8km

Here we were greeted by Linda and Rob who were entertaining themselves at the archery. We got lots of instructions and went in one ear and out the other and then realised it just meant we just had the do the archery first before we went out on the trek. We had to get 4 on the board before we would be allowed to head out! With Sloshy being a former champion archer, and with Leo, who got 3 out of 3 at the Rogue, this should not be a problem. So up we step.....Leo – miss, Gary - miss, Sloshy - Hit, Kim – Miss, Sloshy - Hit, Leo – miss, Kim – Hit, Gary – Hit (in the red)....we are out of there! Leo (sorry.....but more practice next year....if you want to be a champion like Gary & Sloshy). So we get our map and off we go from the TA to W. This was in a creek junction.....surprise, surprise! Sloshy is on the maps.....it’s still dark as it is just after 4am.....not too long till dawn but for now the AY UP’s are going strong and getting a great work out. So down another creekline we go to find W, and here we have to find the directions to X! Guess what.....another creek junction......but, but this area of state forest is a bit more forgiving, the travel down the spurs is nice, so we stay out of the creek and just jump into the junction at the last minute to find CP X and the directions to Y . Yay Y is at a high point, so up we go over a few creeks and spurs to find the high point.....we get a bit stuck on the way....but Gary has a quick peek and realises we are on the wrong ridge.....so down and up we go onto right one.....Y was a little off the high point down the spur, so it took us a few goes to find it.....and then we had our final clue to Z.....and you guessed it.... ‘creek junction’. It was now light as we made our way to Z and up the spur out of there back to the TA. We are once again greeted by the very excited TA officials Rob & Linda who were now offering coconut water....so the boys and I could not resist but pose for some photos! We were are told that Peak adventure had only just left......no one else had even arrived at the TA but Seagate were now in the lead with Outer Limits not too far off the pace.

Leg 12 – MTB - State Forest to Gladstone – 29km

So it was nice to be on the bikes again and in the light, and to be on some flatter faster trails. Leo was doing a great job keeping me on tow and Gary on the maps was setting a solid pace. This ride took no time at all even though there were 4 CP’s to collect along the way. At CP 27 we were to pick up our rafting gear and cross the river. Here we found Peak Adventure having somewhat of an adventure on the rafts.......they had to split up and go over and back twice to get themselves and their gear across.......so this was going to take them a while. In the meantime while we were inflating our lilo’s we realised one of them had a big hole....we tried duct tape and strapping tape and nothing would hold. So the solution was Leo would paddle and I just sit there with my finger on the whole.....lucky this worked.....and I just got to sit there like a princess! So we nudged ahead of Peak Adventure here as we hurriedly packed our gear back onto our pack racks and backpacks and hurried to the next TA.

Leg 13 – Paddle - Gladstone to Upper Belmore via the Belmore River -15km

Our support crew were so excited to see us ahead of Peak Adventure and made us do a fast and furious transition......but this time we did not forget the tracker or any maps! In the skis and off we set down the Belmore River. It was a beautiful afternoon paddle with heaps of wildlife to keep us entertained along the way.....it was actually quite hard to stay awake now that we were sitting down.....and I could tell Gary was falling asleep and so was I! The weir came up fast and just as we were getting the ski’s up the steep bank we could see Peak Adventure rating fast......so we sped up and got back into the water on the other side of the weir and paddled strong all the way to the TA at Gladstone.

Leg 14 – Upper Belmore – Crescent Head via the Beach – 11km

The crew basically met us at the water’s edge with our packs ready to go....no food....it was all in Sloshy’s pack....and we just had to wear the shoes we had on. Now we were on the final leg of the course and it was a race to the line between us and Peak Adventure for 3rd & 4th

spots, as Seagate & Outer limits were long gone! I was suffering big time with the pace the boys were going, I was hooked onto Sloshy’s tow rope and he was working hard along the bitumen road on the way to CP 32 which we would find in a sand basin using a Google Earth map. I think we all had visions of XPD Tassie where we spend hours searching for a CP in a sand dune......but this was not the case this time. As both us and Peak Adventure spotted the CP at the exact same moment and then headed for the beach for the final 7k run to the finish line.

I was still on tow as we were running along the soft sand.....Leo and Gary were urging me on....but I had nothing.....Peak Adventure passed us and opened up a gap. I needed a short nature stop and soon I was back on tow.....feeling like I could at least keep running.....but no chance of catching up......so we ran down the beach passing a few Geo Half teams on the way and across the bridge into the tiny town of Crescent Head. So after 29hrs of racing Team Mountain Designs finish Geoquest in 4th Place just 4 minutes behind Peak Adventure in 3rd place and a couple of hours behind Seagate the winners and Outer Limits who finished 2nd . What a great race and what a great opportunity we had to race head to head with some of the best AR athletes in the world. Thanks Geocentric Outdoors for such a great #GeoquestAR and thanks to all the teams for who made that battle at the front so exciting. Most of all I think it is great that so many teams signed up for Geo this year to prove that AR is Australia is certainly alive and well and just going from strength to strength.

A very special thanks to our awesome support crew who did everything they possibly could to be there for us and help us speed up those transitions to keep us in the fight for the lead for such a big part of the race......Thanks Blounie, Lea, Kylie, Dersley, Diggy, Emily, Charlotte & Sarah!

To our major sponsors ‘Mountain Designs’, thanks for continuing to support us and the sport of Adventure Racing for such a long time, and especially your support of this race called Geoquest – Australia’s Premier Adventure Race......for without your support Adventure Racing in Australia would not be what it is today!
To AY UP lights, where would we be without your support? Well........we would still be out on leg 7 at the Pines Picnic Area that’s for sure! Thanks for the new lights and B2000 Lithium Polymer batteries....just love the 3 settings....to keep us going longer and stronger!

Thanks also to our supporters Hoka Shoes, Berghaus, Salomon Footwear, and Area 51 for making the products that help make it easier to get to the finish line or just get there faster.... and recover faster too!
Finally thanks to all our supporters out there our family and friends at home who were watching the dots....we hope we kept you on the edge of your seats and that you had lots of fun watching us all night....and day! We certainly gave it a good shot and we’ll be back for more in 2015!

GeoQuest Report by SA Ambulance

TEAM 6: SA Ambulance Adventure Racing (Owen Jones, Morgan Coull, Scott Bemmer, Beau Griffiths)

Mountain Designs Geoquest 48 hour Race Report

With support crew in tow the team embarked upon a mission driving with a load of bikes and team kit from Adelaide and beyond in SA. Arriving after 22 hours of driving the team quickly went about sorting team gear, tuning bikes and preparing fuel/food supplied for the arduous task ahead of them.

With a late team mate change due to injury, SAAS stalwart and original race member Scott Bemmer was given the call up and came out of retirement to boost the team stocks. Labelled “The Rock” and “Dozer” for good reason, he was true to form and was unbreakable for the duration of the race. Such was Scotty’s enthusiasm he held court at the front of the field during the first stage leading the “not-a-peleton” group of teams along the opening road for 5 minutes of glory.

This glory was short lived when the teams hit the sandy tracks through Hat Head National park. Settling back into about 10th position, SA Ambulance ground its way through the sand traps and headed off onto Leg 2’s split Rogaine in a good position. Touted as favourite to take out the mens category, the pressure soon got to the team with Team Captain Morgan Coull suffering early cramping on the Rogaine. Reduced to a walk, the team rapidly lost time over the field and slipped back into 16th place after leg 2 and held in check for much of the daylight hours managing cramping.

Leg 3’s sandy mtn bike tracks did nothing to alleviate the cramping stakes with its Sandy tracks, punishing hamstrings and quads alike. 1hour and 56 minutes of 22km of sand traps was a torture test for the captain going down a number of times whilst cleated in with cramp. A very supportive team offered up some salt tablets which were greatly appreciated and got the Captain back on track again.

Leg 4 and other team members were feeling the effects of pushing harder through the sand and the unseasonably warmer weather. The 11km trek whilst not hard by any means in navigation nor terrain saw the team reduced still to a steady walk. More valuable time was given up to teams ahead as they charged through this section. Now back in 17th/18th position the team was grateful for a rest during the team orienteering section with a chance to rest the legs, refuel and rehydrate.

With the bikes and packs fully loaded with rafting supplies, SA Ambulance rode on steadily out of transition and ready to launch an assault on the field during the team rafting section. A reasonable rafting set up saw the team grab a couple of places back up the leaderboard. It wasn’t without dramas though and things got interesting and bit too intimate in the small rafts as both Team Captain and our Chief nav man Owen simultaneously cramp in the very small children’s inflatable boat.

With a long climb ahead of the team leading into the Forest Rogaine, the team made a great call to stash some of the heavy rafting gear and pfd’s into a nearby bush that the team would be visiting on it’s way back down the mountain. This proved to be a game changing plan allowing fast ascent and descent of the mountain on the bikes. Gaining now a couple of places and in 16th the team was looking forward to the night Rogaine and testing out Owens Nav skills which have been renowned for making up laces in past races.

True to form, Owen’s Nav didn’t disappoint. Whist the team was lightning fast on foot by any means, the nav was however perfect, nailing checkpoint after checkpoint. Team spirits were now high and we were all suitably rehydrate after drinking what we affectionately called that ‘Crazy Ass Coconut juice’ at transition. Now in 11th position and leapfrogging a number of teams we charged on ahead in the mountain bike leg towards the kayak. A quick stop at the bottom of the mountain to pick up our rafts and supplies and it was onwards and upwards for the South Aussies.

Leg 9, the Kayak/portage leg. When you are paddling 40+kg boats it always scares you when you see a portage section in one of your legs. Particularly so when you don’t have any kayak trolleys to portage with... In a frantic effort on Friday afternoon, Devine intervention took hold when Scotty and support crew member Sarge stumbled across a tip. With 3 minutes to closing time on a public holiday the staff were not to pleased to see these guys. A quick rummage through the heaps and the boys popped out to the front office with a pair cheap folding prams. When asked how much for the prams the boys were told to kindly and quickly “F-off” as the staff locked the doors and gates and tore off down the road at break neck speed to the local pub.... A few alterations here and there, a bit of 100 mile an hour tape and there we had it. The Prambulator portage 2000!! Strapped to the top of the Mirages we copped a few funny looks from other teams but even more so as we belted past them during the portage section!!

Leg 10... Surely the longest 45km in mountain biking history. This leg took us 6 hours + and we thought it was never going to end. Coming off wet off the kayak leg

and a tardy transition saw the team suffer with mild hypothermia for a while. With our Nav man fast falling in a whole, the team did well to keep it together. Especially given the “slightly overgrown track through the creek...???!!!??” The rising sun was a welcome sight in the morning and soon reinvigorated the racing spirit within the team.

Leg 11. The team kicked of the final rogaine leg with a spot of archery. As Team Captain, I admit, I was awful at it missing the target wide to the left on both occasions. Now back in 12th place it was make or break time during this leg to make the top 10. The first two checkpoint were nailed pretty quickly whilst there was a mild mishap on the third saw the team ascend to early and have to take a wide berth to safely nail the third checkpoint. Gaining on a number of teams if quickly became crunch time and key decisions had to be made. Play it safe on the last checkpoint or go for broke and the glory. The vote went three to one. We decided on all or nothing and put our trust in Owens quality navigation skills. It was a move that ultimately cement us in the top 10 and take out the 1st place in the male category. We headed out of the Rogaine leg narrowly ahead of about 4 other teams now in 8th place. The team charged down the descents towards the last rafting section at break neck speeds. The team rafting section was flawless compared to the last effort with set up and pack up completed in double time. Now heading to the last kayak and penultimate stage the team were geared up for a lightning quick transition. Wasting no time at all the team were quickly on the river and sitting in 7th place as a number of other teams were preparing their tilt on the final legs home.

Leg 13 was a relatively easy 15km kayak leg with a short portage over the weir. Thanks to Team Rougue going 10km down the wrong way we were elevated into 6th position. As I punched the control card at the checkpoint the following team pulled up the bank in their race skis having made up great time on the first section of the paddle. Fully expecting to be caught by the faster boats Team SA Ambulance somehow held off the attack coming into the transition and quickly set about taking off on the final 11km coastal trek.

Light was now starting to fade fast and leaving transition there was a bit of a concern about losing the google earth image map of the final checkpoint in the dunes. The map was nowhere to be found so we had to make do with what we had. After 10 minute or so hiccup in finding the final checkpoint we could now see the following team hot on our hammer about 500m away. A quick punch of the control card and we motored through the scrub and onto the beach ensuring we kept a low profile and no lights on. Now struggling and with a team member close to collapse and vomiting we trudged along up the beach in what seemed like an eternity to reach Crescent Head. The lights behind us soon became a number of teams that were fast gaining on us. With a few km’s to go the light behind us went out and we now knew they had a sniff of us and were executing their final assault on our placing. It wasn’t to be..... Somehow, we managed to hold off by the barest of margins, 3 minutes followed shortly by a number of other teams. It was racing at its best. Places unimportant, team vs team aiming at being the best they can be.

What an amazing effort by the top teams too, they obliterated the course and left nothing out there, those guys and girls are truly inspirational racers. Well done to all who came and competed this weekend and thanks to Geoquest and all their merry men and women on a great course, race and job well done! Last but not least, thankyou to the wonderful support crews (Millie and Sarge) whom without you there would be no race.