GEOQUEST 06 TALES OF JUST TRIPPIN

Our team upgraded to the Geo full at registration on the Friday. We had managed to borrow my son’s mirages as they were trying out new kayaks for the race, so we all agreed to make the plunge. I had completed the Geo half last year but my team mates, Tsalina, Luke and Andrew were rookies. We got through all the mandatory checks OK even though the water was a little on the brisk side. This was Andrew’s first time in a sea kayak but he figured it was a bit bigger than his surf board and he would be fine. We started work on our maps after the briefing with all four of us working on the course. At 8.00pm it was down maps and pencils and off to the Geo twist carrying one buoyancy vest and a chocolate.
The twist was that one poor member of each team could swim out to a boat in the middle of the river and exchange a chocolate for a card which we could trade off to miss any one of a number of checkpoints on the course. We started undressing Andrew before he could argue with us and then he was off into the freezing water in his underpants and life jacket. It was a great sight and a huge laugh for the crowd, some team’s representatives even did the swim naked.

Race day forecast was for clouds with a chance of rain later in the day. We had checked the forecast and we were prepared as best as we could for some rotten weather as the race went on. The race start was at 8.00am just on high tide. Thankfully for us novice sea kayakers the surf was

not too big and there was a reasonable break between the larger sets. We managed to get through the surf OK and we were off on a 12k kayak to Trial Bay.

LEG 1 Kayak 12km approx

There was a south east swell to head into and a few messy sections as we crossed from headland to headland. We were in around 2nd last place in the mixed kayaks as we neared trial bay with only two all male teams passing us as they started 15 min after the mixed. The exit at Trial Bay looked easy with only a few long rolling waves, the kayak in front of us went side on to the waves and rolled, I looked behind and they were starting to grow in size, one wave rolled under us and we were also side on to the waves, a quick lean into the wave and we stayed upright then into the beach. So far so good!

Trek 15 km approx

This was a good trek leg with some solid climbs around the hills at Trial Bay then onto the flat sandy areas. Most of the teams were jogging this section so we joined in, only walking up the hills and the rocky down hills. One of our first memorable quotes was made here by Luke, ”Wow, this race is not going to be too bad, we are already one 50th of the way through.”
We passed a few teams on this leg with others also passing us, at least there were teams around us to keep up the momentum. This was a fun section.

Tube/swim 1.5km approx

After the run we jumped into our long wet suits as it had started to drizzle then onto a single tube for our swim down the river. The tide was running out at this stage and there were times where we could walk or push off the bottom to keep going. We had a short walk down the road to a boat ramp then another crossing of the Clybucca River which was around 150 m wide then on to the next CP. The current was a lot stronger at this crossing and we ended up around 100 m downstream of the TA. Andrew had towed me for most of this leg, but at least I offered to carry his tube while we were walking.

Kayak 10km

We were now heading back down river, then onto the river arm back to Stuarts point. We could see several teams ahead of us during this leg and picked up around 10min on the pack in front of
us .The water was dead flat with the tide assisting us. The navigation was also easy and we managed to miss the odd sandbar.

We were still doing a steady pace and the quick changes between disciplines made the time fly by.

Tube 5km back to race HQ.

We jumped straight out of the kayaks, still in our wet suits then grabbed our tubes for the final stage of this leg. We had to visit 3 x CPs attached to channel markers on our way upstream. Once again the tide was out which meant we could walk or wade most of the way with a few short tube sections as we crossed the river. It was still drizzling but we were comfortable in our wet suits. Our times for these legs had us in around 30th place. We were still enjoying the race with the odd sing along to keep us going (this is something that came along with Andrew joining our team. I still only sing on the inside).

Transition

We had a 20 minute mandatory stop at this stage before our 50 min drive/ set up time to get to the next Leg of the race. We took our time at the TA to have some hot chunky chicken soup which was great and get into our wet weather gear. We decided to put on rain pants and gaiters for this leg as

we knew it would be wet and we saw all the cuts on Chris Clausen’s leg from putting out CP’s. This worked for us as it was cold wet and miserable for most of the night but we were all comfortable. We knew that this would be a long leg so we had plenty of food and water.

Andrew, Greg and Luke relaxing at the TA.

Bike rogaine 25km to 30km

As we arrived at the TA just on dark it began to rain steadily, we had to assemble a few of the bikes after the transfer. We were leaving on the rogaine as the leaders were completing it. The CP’s were not difficult to find as we had the route and distances well marked. I was a little slow on the nav due to my glasses fogging up as soon as I stopped. Tsalina had a few falls in the wet as she skidded in the mud and had difficulty unclipping from the peddles. Andrew liked her comment ...”Do you think that tiredness could be affecting my balance, inability to clip into my bike shoes, vision and reflexes?” By now it was almost impossible to change gears on my bike as I had picked up a stick and bent the derailleur. Luckily the hills were not too steep. We had a lengthy stop when my chain jumped off and got wedged around the spokes. After talking to many of the competitors this was one of the hardest parts of the race as the weather took it’s toll on the bikes. Due to a few break downs we had a slow rogaine, we picked up nine CP’s on this leg. We arrived back at the TA with still many of the teams around us and there were still teams that had not started the bike rogaine.

Trek/rogaine 12km to 16km

We missed our first CP, probably because we were still talking and joking. We had a quick conference and changed our route and decided to pick up the missed CP on the way home. Next was the first of the creek CPs
They looked easy enough as long as you dropped in at the right point. We searched one creek for nearly an hour with three other teams. We met a team than had been looking for two hours and could not find it. Two Cp’s down and five to go. Once again we walked past one of the tracks we needed and had to go back around a km to pick up the right trail. We arrived at the CP near the rail line only to find there was no crossing as marked on the map only a big cutting. We searched for around half an hour then saw a team come out at the top of the cutting having just picked up the CP. By now we had teamed up with Acuity and found the next couple of CP’s together. Once again we had wasted time by walking past tracks, but at night when you are tired it is not as easy as it looks. It was now around 5am as we arrived back at the TA ready for the next bike stage.

Bike 24 km

This stage saw us heading east then climbing Mt Yarrahapinna, the only problem being we had to carry our bikes around 400m up the mountain as there was no access trail from the area we were coming from.
The hike a bike was damn hard. I have no idea how the leaders managed to get to the top in the dark as it was hard enough in the daylight. In places you were on your hands and knees. I found it easier to lift my bike uphill first then drag myself up. Every time I put it on my shoulder I got tangled in vines. Tsalina did it tough on this section, it took us around two hours to get to the top. Once over the top of the mountain it was mostly downhill to the bike/trek split. We had a few chats to some of the teams doing the split, they all told us to do the bike

section clockwise to avoid going up the slippery single track. We saw one of the CP’s on our way to the split and made a mental note of where it was.

There were still several teams at the TA, the other teams told us that it
had been taking around three hours to complete the trek. Our problem
was that Andrew and I could hardly walk with blistered feet, Tsalina
had lost one jogger on the hike a bike, plus our bikes were a mess. We
pushed on with Andrew and I taking around two hours to do the bike
leg and Luke and Tsalina completed the trek in a little over two hours.
We teamed up with Acuity on the bike leg and had a leisurely ride
back to the TA. At the TA we had a quick chat and decided that we
would not make the 6.00pm cut off on the next bike leg mainly due to
the condition of our bikes and the need to attend to the soggy feet. We
made good time back to the main transition area and we were looking forward to a good meal and putting our feet up. The weather had been good for most of the day and all seemed fine to complete the short course.

TA before leg 3

We arrived at the TA mid afternoon, as soon as we had checked in I raced over to see if Hugh Flower was still working on the bikes. Hugh said that there should not be any problems with replacing brakes, cables and adjusting the gears. We spent over two hours in the TA having showers, eating cleaning and preparing bikes to make sure the next leg went OK. We asked the support crew to pack sleeping bags for us as we would need a sleep before starting off on the final kayak leg. We set off on the final leg around 5.30pm confident that we could complete the short course by around 10am the next morning.

Bike leg on short course to Kayak

We had no idea where we stood in the field as we had stopped looking at the leader board long ago. I started the bike nav as I was feeling OK and the bike was running like a dream. Andrew had no granny gear so he walked a few of the hills on the way, he could walk as fast as the rest of us could peddle. About an hour into the leg Andrew snapped the chain as it did not like too much pressure being exerted on the hills. It took around 30 min to fix the break. We had another stop searching for one CP at the wrong intersection until someone checked the map. We had one more

food stop up on the top of the mountain range, thankfully out of the wind which was quite strong at this stage, we also had a 10min sleep. Then Andrew’s comment “Can I press the 3 minute snooze button? All proper alarm clocks have a 3 minute snooze button” gave us a chuckle.
The down hills from here on were great, I was glad my brakes were working again. Luke took over the nav from here and he also picked up the pace which kept us awake.

We arrived at Taylors Arm to make our phone call , typically the phone was out of order and our CDMA phone had no service. Luckily the girl from the hotel reopened for us to let us make a call. The last leg of the ride was fairly fast on sealed roads, we passed one of the teams that had completed the full course, they looked knackered. Onto the kayaks!

Kayak leg approx 2km with portage

We arrived at the kayaks around 1am and found that the support crew had set up a lean to on the truck with beds and sleeping bags ready. We quickly had a bite to eat and dressed in warm kayak clothes, unfortunately Luke’s wet suit was damp, then into bed for around a 30 min sleep. The sleep was great and we started this leg warmer and refreshed. Once again a run out tide was with us, with the full moon visibility was great and it did not take long to warm up. It took us around 90 min to get to the next CP at Macksville. Another short paddle and we pulled up to take on the portage. As we were getting out of the kayaks, Girls On Top pulled up and exited at the same point.

We fixed slings to the kayaks with Andrew carrying both fronts of the kayak with Luke and I at the rear, Tsalina carried the spare gear. The portage took around 50min with only a couple of stops. The girls were doing it tough carrying the mirages and we soon lost sight of them.
We finished the portage just on dawn, we were all in a good mood and glad the portage was over. Another short leg saw us pull into the TA with our support crew cheering us on, what a great feeling. We took around 15 min to have another bite to eat and change for the trek, not long now.

Trek approx 11km coasteering/beach run.

We were all feeling in good condition and agreed that we would run as much as we could, we were not expecting to see any teams on this last leg. We had just reached the grassy headland at Scotts Head where we were surprised to see another team about a km away, we picked up the pace as we did not know who the team was or if it was doing the full or short course. We lost sight of the team ahead while we ran along the beach to the first CP on this leg, as we reached the CP there was the other team above the CP on a cliff face looking for a way down. We were all hyped again and started running again. Apparently my memorable quote happened here “I don’t want to go through all the reasons why I’m running like a retard” We came to another small headland and decided to go lower near the surf to find a crossing. While we were there we met the Pink Ladies who had already crossed the headland. The quickest way according to Andrew was to make a 2m jump into the surf as it ran out, then run to the other side, I said No as the surf was at least chest high when it came into the cave and I had visions of being swept out to sea, 10 seconds later Andrew had jumped and was yelling for us all to follow, he caught us as we jumped, the water was out and we ran to the other side just before the next wave crashed through, once again we were all yelling and yahooing. We caught up to the Pink Ladies just before Grassy Head and quickly picked up the next CP, still jogging all the way. On the last beach run we caught up to one more team, the last 11k had been a real buzz, off the beach then over the bridge to the Finish line. Andrew started his sing

along while we were on the bridge and once again there was our support crew waiting and cheering us on. We had made it in 49hours and to top it off we were the last ranked mixed team in 13th place. To our surprise we had the 5th fastest trek time and only 2min behind my son’s team Hardtale.
Our support crew of Andrew O’Brien, Julie Hill and my wife Kerry had done an amazing job for us, they had only had around 4hrs sleep in the last 48hrs but they were as keen as ever. Andrew, Luke, Tsalina and I had just finished an amazing 48 hours of racing with more highs than lows. We did not get too lost, did not break anything, kept a steady pace had some good laughs and made some good team decisions along the way.

Thanks again to all the teams that we joined up with along the way and the help that they provided, the course was interesting, spectacular in places, hilly and challenging, the kayak leg through Macksville was a highlight to me. Thanks again to Craig, Louise and the Geo Team for a great race and some great memories.

GREG BACON

Mountain Designs GeoQuest 2006 - Guy Andrews team Anaconda

You have to love the coastal locations Craig and Louise of Geo centric find every year for the Geo. I remember traveling the east coast many times in my surf Ironman days and seeing all the signs off to small towns like Hat Head, Seal rocks, Scotts Head the east coast has more “head” than Bill Clinton... well anyway... this years Location was fantastic as always but as I was traversing the cliff line last Sunday night with a full moon to light the way a thought that perhaps one year it would be nice to stay on the coastal strip the whole race.

Team Anaconda’s race started a little shaky with us scrounging up one support crew at 8pm on Friday night. We were pleasantly surprised to have new recruit Ross on board one hundred percent taking notes like a secretary (not Bills!) and truly getting into it.

Along with Ross was my twelve year old daughter Maddison who came along to every transition and seemed to be awake as long as the team. Heaven help me when I have to support her team in a few years time..

Gloria my beautiful mum was there as last year cooking up a storm “in Styrofoam cup” every transition along with a thousand Cheese and vegemite sambos.

Thanks to those guy’s from all of us.

Stage one
Kayak 12km, Trek15km, tube 1.5km, kayak 10km,tube/run 5km

Stage one went quite well for us we set a steady pace and where happy to follow Millie into CP1 where we made sure to change clothes and shoes not wanting to carry sand and drying Salt for the ensuing trek.

I was quite upset with Nav after leaving Gapp beach right on the tail of a fast running Team Mountain designs when I found myself struggling to find the tracks that where indicated on the Topo map. After being joined by Wilderness wear and loosing sight of MD’s my frustration grew.

Apon arriving at the tube to kayak transition is was surprised to find that Tronk had found a way by us by MD’s where actually still trailing.

It’s indicative of all the top teams in Australia now that the Navigators can all find Cap’s it’s a matter of route choice and surmising where new tracks may be or others may not be in some cases.

We set of encouraged that Tronk and Wilderness wear where in sight and Millie a mere four minute up the road, I mean River.

A great transition from kayak to Tube saw us dropping Tronk and WW and within 2.5km of HQ and end of stage one catching Millie.

Stage Two
20min Compulsory stop and 50min car Drop to Remote CP, Cyclegaine, Rogaine, Cycle with Hike a bike from Hell, Team split, cycle.

Anaconda had a great race for transitions with our change over times being a total of 3hrs 5min against MD’s 3hrs 7min, terra X 3hrs 2min and tronk 3hrs 17min. This included 20min compulsary stops and two 50min transits.

The top 4 teams where very quick in transition. Speed in transition was our plan from the onset as it’s “free time” it’s a lot harder to ride, run and paddle 30min faster in a race that just be a bit more organized in transition.

The Rogaine section on the second stage for us was great. We decided to go for 9 of the possible 10 CP’s on the bike completing this in two hours and one Minute and enabling Rosi to rest her Hamstring injury that mainly hurts in the run leg. This left us with 7 CP’s to attain on foot. With darkness and rain firmly set in we started a little cautiously with me aiming off into the creek line nice and early to be sure to hit the CP only to cop some really thick watercourse scrub.

The rhythm picked up but was never super smooth with the rain pelting down and the Freaking Flora frustrating the ...... you get my drift.

We arrived back at the Start Finish CP tailing Tronk who had navigated superbly to move into first with us trailing by a few minutes. Millie and MD’s where still on the course and un be known to us MD’s some one hour and forty five minutes would pass before they reached the end of the Cycle/Rogaine section.

There was a short cycle section to the well talked about and anticipated “Killer hike a bike” This was an over grown trail that seemed non-existent running to some 500m elevation. Team anaconda and Tronk where lucky to have John Jacoby out front bull dozing a track up the mountain. After what seemed all night we reached the ridge right below our intended target, the tower.

Quickly off and riding I realized I had a flat back tire but climbed for as long as possible towards the next CP before changing the flat.

It was nice to hear the guy’s from Tronk offer words of encouragement as they passed by.

After a nice decent and some solid shorter climbs riding head to head with Tronk we arrived at the Split sport leg.

This saw Rosemary and I doing the Cycle CP’s and electing to use the “get out of a CP free card” allowing us to drop one of the three check points before heading back to meet John and Darren who had to find a further two check points at the same time.

When we arrived back at the transition area with our two CP’s stamped we found no one had yet returned but within a few minutes John and Darren emerged much to our excitement as our plan was to get away from the field and let everyone play catch up.

My stomach had that sinking feeling when John quietly said, “ we didn’t get any check points”

Plan ’A’ out the window time for plan ‘B’ I threw on some runners and John and I headed back out. I was happier when down at the first creek line I ran into the guy’s from Tronk and Stingers (I think) having the same problem as us and felt like we still had a chance to maintain the race lead.

After some searching I re calculated that we had simply dropped down onto an unmarked road too early and started heading back up the ridge to re establish ourselves. After two ours we emerged back at the T/A having reached the two CP’s

We were elated to find no other teams had found the foot section check points and in fact Tronk where still in the T/A insisting that the CP’s may have been miss placed. Their disappointment was matched by our own when just as we mentioned we found them team MD’s Brett Stevens bolted in with his Control card punched.

This put a new contender at the front of the race team Md’s and Anaconda now in a tie for first place and heading for the end of stage 2.

It was ground Hog day when we arrived back at HQ at 4.30am for the compulsory 20min stop, Gloria’s cooking and Ross and Maddison’s eager support.

This time around we where helped out by Rosi’s brother Andrew who joined the convoy of cars out to the drop off point deep in the forest west of the Pacific highway.

Stage Three
42km ride, Mystery trek, Ride, 20km Kayak, 11km trek. Finish!

The start of the stage saw us one minute down out of transition but we soon passed MD’s just after sun rise and moved on snaking our way down the long descents with us guy’s barely staying with Rosi who always gets stronger as the race gets longer as many of the ladies do.

The climbs in this 42km where some of the nastiest I’ve had in the Geo quest but seemed to agree with Team Anaconda as we found ourselves with a 26min lead at the start of the mystery trek.

I quickly plotted the 4 checkpoint locations and headed off up the ridge making short work of the first two CP’s on the high points along the ridge.

This is where we lost the race for the second time. If we hadn’t already done so in the split section we made sure of it now. We needed to drop off the high point very carefully to miss the steep overgrown ground or risk taking too long to reach the trails below and losing the race.

I had lost my compass from my bike earlier in the ride and stupidly tried to navigate from the top of the Knoll by asking John what the bearing was. The result was that we headed south off the top and into some Very thick vegetation eventually making the track below a little further around the Mountain. The track we found was so over grown with lantana we invented the sport of “Lantana Caving” finding the easiest way through was on our hands and knees.

Finally on the climb back to the bikes we were joined by Mirage Terra X they looked strong and we felt a bit dejected realizing the race must have slipped through our fingers. To add salt to the wounds we had lost the use of Darren’s rear hub at the end of the last climb and knew with the 20 odd km remaining on the ride that we would lose more time.

At the TA from Bike to kayak we found we where 20mins down on Terra X so we mounted our skis and set sail.

At the Phone in I had to break into the Compulsory gear to get some warm dry clothes after getting a steady drenching sitting in the front seat and the fall of darkness making temps drop quickly along with the wind chill factor it was a bit chilly.

We quickly dispatched with the portage although I do believe the Double surf ski was never intended for this kind of use.

Back on the river all went well along with some singing and fantasizing of food and the finish.

Out of the last T/A and 15min down on terra x we where happy to be dry and following the trails along the moon lit headlands and enjoying what we all thought the most scenic part of the race.

About one km from the second last CP and with 8km of beach trek to run we saw the bright lights of Tronk streaming down the headland behind us. “They could not be more that 6 or 8minute behind” I yelped.

This saw us jump into high gear and functioning in stealth mode running by moonlight.
We rock hopped around a small headland and found the high tide had cut us off from crossing to the other side. With the impending pressure of Tronk behind I took a leap of faith into the blowhole quickly swimming/wading to the other side escaping the 3 to 4 foot surging waves.

Darren, John and Rosi quickly followed and we soon found ourselves running harder to keep warm.

The novelty of sprinting wore off after about 5km of beach and two headlands later and finally we made the trail head to the HQ.

For the record we put 25 min into Tronk in that run finishing 3rd at 9.35pm 14min down on Terra X and 1hr 32min from race winners Mountain Designs to a well- deserved feed and shower.

Well done to all teams and to MD’s whom I do some training with on the Gold Coast. They worked hard during the season lead up the geo and have the benefit of training together on the coast. It’s also indicative of adventure racing that you can “never give up” the race is not over till you cross the line.

Yours in Adventure racing Guy Andrews

The Cowgirls Ride Out Geoquest ‘06

The Cowgirls bravely took on the Geo full course this year after Jan and Kim won the half last year and Janie came third in the mixed. We also had our gun navigator Wendy who was new to geoquest, but who had titles such as national rogaine champ under her belt, so we were feeling keen and committed to the big adventure ahead of us.

49 teams had entered the full course- 11 all-male, 4 all-female (a record) and the rest mixed. The female category was competitive as the NZ ‘Girls on Top’ team of experienced AR chicks was there as well as the last minute Thor-pedo team who had some classy AR talent, then there were the Pink Ladies who were styling throughout the course!

We were hoping we could win the female category as well as finish amongst the top end of the 49 teams. Well..... we may not have won the girls, but it was close (-ish), and we certainly finished in the top third of the course as the other two thirds didn’t finish at all!!!

Yep! It was definitely a race of attrition. Here are some stats to prove it:

No. of full teams to finish the full course:

o o o

No. of teams finishing shortened course (did not make time cut-off):

o o o

No. of teams finishing unranked (lost a team member):

o o o

No. of teams to DNF

o

Mixed teams...11 Maleteams... 1 Female teams...2

Mixed... 2 Male... 2 Female... 1

Mixed... 5 Male... 0 Female... 1

Mixed... 9

o o

Makes the girls look pretty tough heh?!!!!!!!
So, it was a TOUGH course this year. But the cowgirls were tougher! We never said die (although Janie did say the other ‘d’ word- doonah- on night 2. Sorry about that Wendy).

LEG 1:

o o o o o

Now, as you can imagine, cowgirls like it hot and dry. This leg was wet and cold. But we came off the paddle 1 minute behind the Girls on Top (GOT) and transitioned like pro’s to take the lead on the trek. And a lovely trek it was- nice trail running. We grabbed our tubes and jumped into the freezing mangrove swamp with gay abandon. We were frozen by the time we hit the river crossing and were nearly all swept out to sea by the tide, but managed to scramble up the oysters to be met by our support crew who were offering hot milo, coffee and assorted goodies to warm us up.

Back into the boats with extra layers of clothing on and we were soon met by a dolphin... oooooh! We all said. There was a near portage, but cowgirl Janie was luckily talked out of this by the other cowgirls and we quickly caught the 2 teams ahead of us who had portaged through a mud bog which slowed them down.

Into another TA with Jude’s milo and a quick change into wetsuits for the 5k tube. This was more a sandbank run with short tubes across channels to get CP’s. We had some good tube songs going, with “I like the way you tu-uube” being janie’s fav. She sang this to Kimmy as Kimmy control ferreted through the bog. Well done Kimmy.

We were very lucky to be travelling with some other teams here as just when we thought we had all the CP’s, we found the other teams heading off to another control. So, we followed and picked it up! Did I say lucky?!

LEG 2:

o o o o o o o

Our support crew showed great nav abilities to get us to the start of this leg in the cars. We headed out as night was falling on our bikes. The bike rogaine was a cinch and we collected 9 CP’s in good time. Cowgirl Wendy took over the nav controls for the trek rogaine and again, we flew through, managing to keep our lead.

Now the next bit was hard. Where they say ‘24k bike’, they really mean 22k bike and 2k bike haul from hell. I don’t mind the occasional bike carry if it’s getting you somewhere, but this was just plain silly! How the hell the first few teams cut a trail through the

Male.. 8 Female... 0

12.5k sea kayak 15k trek
1.5k tube swim 10k river kayak 5k tube swim

Car shuffle
30k bike rogaine 15k trek rogaine 24k bike
Team split
7k bike
10.5k trek

jungle I hate to think, but by the time we got there, there was a manky trail straight up the side of this hill through the rainforest. And while cowgirls are tough, they are not known for their brute upper body strength- so this was a particular challenge. We dragged, carried, threw and generally man handled our bikes on this climb. Kimmy nearly swore, so that just shows you how bad it was! The rest of us swore heaps, but that doesn’t tell you much really. We lost an hour to GOT here, but were still in front at the start of the team split.

Unfortunately, the team split was not our thing. Obviously, cowgirls like to travel in herds, and splitting us was not good for our performance. Kim and Janie went off on the MTB’s and got 3 controls while Jan and Wendy trekked for the other two CP’s. Janie took the good map which didn’t help Wendy. Janie got her first broken chain but fixed it like a pro (thanks for the lessons Cookers- see photo) and, to cut a long story short, we lost 2 hours here. OUCH!. At least Kimmy got a good sleep by the fire.

Now GOT were in the lead

And now I can’t even remember the 7k bike and 10k trek. So I’ll skip these and go to... LEG 3:

o o o o o

The bike was a push as we were heading for CP18 and the cut off at 6pm. After breaking my chain again, we managed to get there at 5.30pm- phew! Two more teams came in behind us, just making the long course cut-off. Now for a long uphill ride to the start of the rogaine. We all rode strongly on this section... hang on, no we didn’t. I made the girls take a 20 min roadside sleep as my back was killing me. Then we all rode strongly. Thanks cowgirls!

The rogaine looked deadly on the map. Soooo steep! We had 4 controls to get and Wendy nailed them all. At one point we seemed to be slipping backwards down the side of this incredibly steep slope, but Kimmy’s altimeter was slowly showing signs of upward progress and eventually we gained the ridgetop. YEEEEHAH!

42k Bike
9k trek
22k MTB
20k kayak
11k trek to finish

Back to the bikes now and we felt like we were on our way home- for a while. Soon we were slowing with fatigue. Janie had to start singing Abba at the top of her voice to avoid falling asleep while doing 60k/hr down dirt roads (nasty). Aunty Jan’s legs were beginning to feel like lead. Wendy was turning into an icicle. But we kept on going!

Eventually we got to our support crew and our kayaks. Thank heavens. Wendy sat in a heated car for a bit while we gathered food and water and pondered the upcoming 2k portage. We ate risotto, soup, creamed rice and more soup while our support crew ran around following our requests for this and that. Cookers was helping with support at this time which was extra nice- thanks Cookers.

Then into the boats and off we paddled. Jan and Kim appeared to be falling asleep for a while there, so Janie started singing again. Although cowgirls like to holler a lot, they are a bit shy about singing in public. But after a slow start, these cowgirls were soon singing non-stop and Kim and Jan were paddling away from the others. Janie was starting to regret her stay-awake tactic.

We stopped at a jetty in town and Janie jumped out to make a phone call cack to HQ. we had nearly run out of coins, so we SMSed HQ to say we were still in the race. Soon we were at the portage point. We got out and lifted the boats to the roadside. Just this little bit of carrying had us totally whacked. We couldn’t imagine making it the 2k with the titanic pittarak, so we about-faced and paddled the whole thing. This proved a costly decision time-wise, but we were just too fagged to carry the boats. And we all agree that the paddle was one of the most enjoyable parts of the course.

Now we were on the last trek. We had 1hour to get 2 CP’s over 12k of beach and headland running. Yes, in hindsight it looks impossible, but at the time we were fired up. We took off at a gallop and soon had the first CP in the bag. A loose rocky scramble up the next headland slowed us down a bit, and then we were stopped in our tracks when we couldn’t locate the last CP. We looked everywhere, then decided perhaps it had been cleared by officials since it was past the finish time already. Just as we were about to head for home, never-say-die-Wendy decided to keep looking on the other knoll. And guess what..... there it was! It seems cowgirl Janie had circled the wrong knoll!!!!! Geez cowgirls, all I can say is SORRY! What a stuff-up.

We rolled along the last stretch of beach and into the finish at 1.10pm. They were dismantling HQ, but had kept the finish chute up (thanks Craig!). Our loyal band of supporters were there to cheer us in and had a bottle of bubbly to share.

YEEEEHAH!!!!

We had made it. We found out that GOT had missed the final CP, so the result was up in the air. We had come close, but their time penalty was not enough to put us in the lead. We felt great to have done the whole course.

But we didn’t do it alone! No, no, no! as tough as we cowgirls are, we really needed the TLC of our tireless support crew. So, a HUGE thank you to Jude, Ian, Karen and Adrian. YOU GUYS ROCK!

GEOQUEST 2006 - Team Mexican Stingers

The 5 instalment of Geoquest was held at Stuarts Point, located between Port MacQuarie and Coffs Harbour,

over the weekend June 10-12 2006. Kim Willocks and I normally raced as the Mexicans (being from south of the border), but were unable to drag some of our regular team mates up this year, but were lucky to team up with some brothers from Sydney, Rob and Peter Preston, who were looking for a team. Rob and Peter are members of the Sydney Ultimax Stingers orienteering team, so we compromised to call ourselves the Mexican Stingers. We were supported once again by Carboshotz, the makers of the best racing food around, ensuring we had plenty in the fuel tank all through the race. It was hard to pick a clear favourite from the start, with many of the frontrunners of similar abilities and all were keen to grab the title of what is considered the premier adventure race in Australia.

The race was to consist of 3 legs, each with multiple disciplines. We started leg 1 at 8am on Saturday with an ocean kayak, coastal trek, river tube, kayak and tube. The weather took a turn for the worse a few hours into the race and the rain pretty much settled in for the next 12 hours. The top teams put the pace on early and had opened a bit of a lead, we finished this leg in over 6 hours, 50 minutes behind the leaders and were out of the top 10 but knew the harder stuff was to come and hopefully we would make up some ground.

A car shuttle and compulsory 70 minute break (including a shower) brought us to the start of leg 2, the longest

for us, and which would be the crux of the race for many teams. A mountain bike and trekking rogaine,

collecting 16 of a possible 20 checkpoints, started the leg and 5 1⁄2 hours, we had caught up on the field to be in

th
4 place. A short mountain bike led to a mammoth bike push on an overgrown trail up Mt ??, where we caught

rd
the 3 place team Millie. Finally glad back on the bikes, Pete found he had broken some spokes on the climb

and his brakes no longer worked so we struggled around to the next transition, now 90 minutes behind the two leading teams. Here the team had to split, where Rob and I went and collected 3 CP’s on bikes and Pete and Kim went to collect 2 CP’s on foot. After a tough and hilly 2 hours on bikes (race directors note estimated 40- 60 minutes for this bit), Rob and I returned to find the two leading teams still out on the course looking for the two foot CP’s, our guys with them. When they finally returned, they were unsuccessful. Thinking the CP’s were incorrectly positioned, we were all a bit unsure what to do and as it was around 3am we were a little tired and grumpy, until team Mountain Designs, in a huge turnaround, returned with the new they had found them and they were correct positioned. Rob and I quickly tried to fire up and went out to grab them. Another couple

th
of hours later we returned, now to find we had dropped back to 7 place, just under 2 hours behind Mountain

Designs. We took 5.5 hours for this split compared to around 2.5 for the quickest! At least we weren’t the slowest. A final 7km mtb brought us back to race HQ as the sun was rising, and the blue skies were back.

After a quick bike repair from Hugh at City Bike Depot (thanks Hugh), we had another car shuttle and compulsory 70 minute break (with another shower) brought us to leg 3, which began with a hilly mountainbike. We quickly caught Team Tangerine and joked that we hoped it didn’t come down to a beach sprint between us again like the previous year when they smoked us on the final beach run after we nearly caught them. They didn’t laugh. We came into transition just as Team Salomon was heading off on their trek and as Mountain Designs was finishing it. Team MD gave some tips on the trek course in thanks for us telling them where they were when they were lost on the rogaine (wish we hadn’t done that now). We needed to collect 4 CP’s as we

th
trekked around Mt Martha (?) and managed to overtake Salomon and got back on the bikes in 5 place, 3 hours

behind the leaders. What was supposed to be a mainly downhill ride still managed to have a bit of bite in it and we arrived at the next TA at sunset happy to be finished with the bikes and ready for our final kayak. We cruised down the river in the dark for a couple of hours, under the Pacific Hwy bridge until we opted to cut approx 12km of paddling off with a 1.5km portage along a road. After about 30 minutes of hauling the boats over to the other side we found ourselves at a cliff, with the water several metres below us, bugger. Rob commented that Craig (race director), was not that much of a bastard to lead us into an obvious portage only to have it end at a cliff and have to go back, but I wasn’t so sure (sorry Craig). We found a ramp a few metres around and quickly jumped back in the boats for the final few km’s. Our support crew, Fleur and Dave, greeted us with hamburgers for the final transition and we set off for a final beach trek to the finish. This was probably one of the highlights of the course for me, under a full moon, in perfect conditions. There were about 3 beach sections to run, with a few headlands to climb in between to find some checkpoints. We kept an eye out behind for headlights but they were a fair way back, allowing us to enjoy the run. Fleur met us at the end, took our orders and dashed to the nearest roadhouse for some pies and burgers. We finished in 5 place, in 39 hours, 54 minutes. Team Mountain Design came good in the second half and cruised to their first win in 36 hours. Team Mirage Terra X and Anaconda rounded out the top 3. Thanks again to Carboshotz for supporting us.

GEOQUEST 2006 – REPORT BY TEAM No. 34 – ICCY

All the Race reports so far have been from Teams who finished the Race, so I thought I might give an account from a Team who didn’t, but still had a most excellent adventure.

Team ICCY was created from 4 members of Indooroopilly Canoe Club in Brisbane.

Linton Burns – An experienced & successful Adventure Racer & Mountain Biker.
Erin O’Keefe – Champion Marathon Kayaker.
Robbie Edgar – Ex Champion Marathon Kayaker & Workhorse.

Darren Wallis – 25m freestyle certificate 1971. Long time dabbler in

endurance sports.
Linton & I roped in Erin – who was too inexperienced to say no, and then used peer group pressure on Robbie until he caved in.

We entered the race, booked a Campsite and then sat back & let 3 months go by while we all did our individual preparations. With 3 weeks to go we had our first real meeting & the emails started flying back & forth. We secured the services of Paul Gardner as Team Manager & Erin’s brother Josh as support crew. We managed to find 2 double racing ski’s that roughly matched our leg lengths, acquired the rest of the mandatory gear & were pretty much organised.

Going into the Race, our 2 major concerns were:
1. Thecold/fluthatRobbiehadpickedupinthelastweekontopoftheone

he had already had for about 3 months.
2. Erin’slimitedtraining/experienceontheMTBcombinedwiththe$400.00

bike she borrowed from her sister weighing in at about 20kgs or more. Robbie assured us he was getting better, and we did some work on Erin’s bike including removing the reflectors, handlebar streamers, basket with flower on front & swapping the wheels for some lightweight tubeless ones off Linton’s Spare Bike.

We arrived at Stuarts Point about 3.30pm on the Thursday. We had time to comfortably set up our Campsite complete with a Fridge & a Microwave which Robbie had got from an appliance museum somewhere. Settled in, we headed off to the local Bowls Club for some Chinese & a glass or 2 of Red.

Friday proved to be a full on day starting with last minute gear preparations & bike servicing, registration, checking out the coffee van, compulsory gear & competency checks and catching up with friends & acquaintances. At 4.00pm we got our Maps, marked up some changes. Linton & I went back & started plotting the course & the others went to the pub / bowls club to get meals.

At 8.00pm we all assembled on the side of the river for the “Geo Twist” with Life Jackets & a Chocolate Bar as instructed. It was soon explained that if a team member was willing to swim in the freezing water to a Boat, their Chocolate Bar could be exchanged for a “get out of a checkpoint free card”. Excellent! we thought, ditch the checkpoint on top of Mount Yarrapahinni !Erin took one look at the guys quickly changing into their Birthday Suits and volunteered before any of us could do the gentlemanly thing. The horn blew & Erin was off, Paul bolted for the bridge to check out a rumour that there was a naked female in the water. Erin returned safely with the Card, which we found out would not get us out of Mt Yarrahapinni, but was still a good acquisition anyway.

We did some more work on the Maps, packed & checked some gear & went to sleep at about 10.30pm pretty satisfied with our course planning.

LEG 1: Paddle, Run, Tube, Kayak, Tube, End – not a lot of Nav & plenty of contact with support crews – so carrying minimum gear.

The Race Started next morning about 5 minutes drive away on the beachfront at Grassy Head for a 12km paddle across the open ocean to South West Rocks – we expected to do fairly well here, being competent paddlers and paddling one of the faster craft on the water. The plan was to paddle at a comfortable pace and this seemed to work as we exited on the beach in 1:08, about 6 minutes down on the fastest and right with the Mountain Designs Team.

We had a reasonable transition (6mins) & headed out onto the spectacular trek through the National Park. Robbie was struggling up hill a bit due to the remnants of his flu, but once we reached the top it was a fantastic gradual decent to the beach. Then it was up again for a while off the beach & another gradual descent to a Lighthouse. We were doing very well and had beaten Mountain Design to this point who must have taken a slower cross country route. Running down the hill from the lighthouse we were passed by Mountain Designs, Crank & Mexican Stingers. After about 4 km or so we clipped of a checkpoint near a track junction just in time for Mountain Designs to pass us going backwards – must have got a bit carried away & missed it. As I jogged past the female team member I said “Smile” & she almost managed one.

We arrived at the 1st Tubing transition, changed back into our wetsuits and plunged into the icy creek. We did pretty well on this leg overtaking a number of Teams including Crank & Mexican Stingers, Erin’s tiny tire tube turning out to be a huge advantage with low water resistance. We climbed out of the creek for a quick portage of the tubes & into the River. A few of us got caught out here a bit by the fast moving water in the deep channel near the far bank.

A quick fully supported transition & onto the Skis again with the current & it felt like we were flying. All went pretty well until we went for the “easy” portage across the mud bank. 200m later & we were portaging our Skis over a rock wall. Erin damaged her shoulder here with some sort of rotation injury & we hoped it would not affect her training for the Kayak Marathon Worlds in August. By the time we cruised into transition I was wishing I hadn’t backed off on Kayak training so much & that there was a bit more leg length on the ski.

The next tubing section was a bit of a slog, wading through water carrying the tubes while Linton clipped of the Control points. Last checkpoint done we headed for the Beach for the run back to HQ.

Back at HQ we changed clothes, had a quick warm meal, re-organised & hopped back in the car for the transfer to:

LEG 2: Bike Rogaine, Foot Rogaine, Bike with hike a Bike (how hard could it be), Team Split Rogaine, Ride back to HQ.

We hopped out of the car at the start of leg 2 feeling pretty good warm, full of food and about 2hrs ahead of where we estimated. We had a fair chance of completing a good portion of the Rogaine(s) during daylight. This is where our troubles started. Linton looked at the support crew & said – did you guys put my backpack in? The look on their faces told us no. We quickly scratched around to see if we could summon up a compulsory kit for Linton, but unfortunately we came up a waterproof jacket short. We quickly dispensed Josh for the 50min round trip to HQ & hopped into the 2nd car to stay warm & dry as it was now raining pretty steadily.

After 30 minutes or so, anticipating Josh’s return we got out of the car & started to get ready. It was here whilst handing Robbie his pack that I discovered that he had packed nearly all of his worldly possessions. Straining, I handed it to Linton & said “we have a problem”. Linton grabbed the pack & started trimming the contents whilst Robbie started chasing him round the car insisting that he really did need 40 breakfast bars, 4kg’s of Lollies & nuts, 10 litres of water, a bike chain & some Gumboots. Josh returned, Linton donned his pack & we were off on the Bikes.

Thinking that the Bike Rogaine would be one of our weaknesses, we had decided to do the bare minimum number of control points – even using the “get out of” card. In retrospect this was a big tactical error as we really weren’t that bad & flew through the bike Rogaine hitting each checkpoint spot on – we should have done as many as possible on the bike as, unfortunately this now left us with 10 foot Rogaine control points, all except one of which was at a “creek junction”,... sorry – there was also a “minor creek junction?” Should have said “Leech infested creek junction” – at one stage someone said look at your ankles – a quick inspection revealed about 10 very satisfied leeches on each ankle.

We wasted a bit of time getting to the 1st Control point due to a map scaling error (ours), and then proceeded to lose track of our position on the Map whilst trying to find a knoll to take a bearing to the next point. It took hours for us to recover from this and we were getting a bit frustrated. Somewhere during this the sky cleared, let all the heat out and the temperature dropped about 4 degrees. Erin was pretty wet & cold by now, she was shaking uncontrollably & we became worried she may be going hypothermic. We stopped & made her put on some extra dry clothes and started jogging for a while to warm her up. She recovered pretty well but I think the hours of cold wet clothes had sucked a lot of energy out of her. This was in direct contrast to Linton & I – hyped up on a few no-doz, I honestly felt like I could run forever, by the sound of it Linton had switched to Gas Power & was going strong. We finally got back to transition & started preparing for the next section. Linton decided this was a good time to start being a transition Nazi, but was told by Erin that she didn’t give a Duck - strange thing to say, or maybe I didn’t hear right.

We set off on the bikes. Glad to be departing the area at last, we were moving pretty well & catching a few teams along the way. Daylight had just broken as we arrived at the foot of Mt Yarrahapinni, the Sunlight warmed & seemed to energize us – just as well, we were going to need it. The course instructions had hinted this might be a bit difficult but it exceeded all of our expectations.

The “hike a bike” up the side of the Mountain started off hard & just got harder & harder. At one stage I looked up & was sure the grade was in excess of 45degrees. The tangle of vines & logs to negotiate made it even harder. We thought about the leading teams that would have blazed their own trail at night & realized we were getting it relatively easy. Erin was still depleted physically from last night & was not capable of carrying her bike up the Hill. Robbie was probably suffering more than he was letting on from the after effects of his flu. We knew Robbie was losing his patience when, in a tirade filled with expletives he grabbed his bike by the hair & skull dragged it up hill about 100m on a rampage, flung it to the ground & started vomiting. Linton & I took it in turns to leapfrog Erin’s bike up the hill – taking it up about 50m, going back to get our bike – taking it up 100m and then back to get Erin’s & so on. Sort of like going up, 1⁄2 way down & then back up again – almost a bit too much adventure for one morning.

Funny thing, when I got to the top of the Jungle, after about 10 seconds I felt good & managed to get the team off their butts & heading to the real top. We had the control point marked at the top of the Mountain, but a quick re-check of the coordinates showed it was actually at a lookout further down the other side. During the descent to the lookout we discovered Erin’s bike had virtually no brakes – this was going to be a long descent. Linton swapped bikes with Erin for a while until the Brakes completely wore out, and then Robbie took over and snaked down the hill doing power slides in the leaves on the side of the Road to slow down. As the grade reduced, Robbie was able to ride behind Erin holding onto her to slow her down. Linton & I would check the road a bit further down hill & yell out if there was an uphill section as a safety ramp, Erin would then come whizzing down the Hill while we hoped our judgement was right on the stopping power of the safety ramp.

About 1⁄2 way down the hill Erin was really starting to suffer & Linton & I started estimating our times for the course ahead & realized it would be virtually impossible to make the cut-off point on the next leg, even if we continued unranked. We decided we were not really interested in completing a shortened version of the course. We discussed this with the other team members & reached a consensus to withdraw. We offered to make a phone call & get the support Team to pick us up, but Erin stated very strongly that she wanted to return to HQ under her own steam.

We reached the bottom of the Mountain & completed the very flat 7km or so ride back to HQ. We rode in, pulled up at the desk, explained what we were doing & why, then turned around to find that in 10 seconds flat, Erin had fallen off her bike & was asleep on the ground. Everyone was pretty concerned, her pulse & blood pressure were taken & the signs were good, we knew she had been drinking & if you managed to wake her up she could tell you what day it was. We concluded she had just pushed herself to the brink of exhaustion.

We carried Erin back to the tent, put her in some clothes (under the supervision of her brother), made her drink some orange juice, popped her in a sleeping bag & she went off to sleep for about 6 hrs. In between having a few beers, red wines & eating the delicious pizza Paul & Josh had got from the Tavern last night, we kept checking Erin’s pulse & breathing. When she awoke, she was completely revitalised & we were relieved.

Later that night we went to the Tavern for More Pizza, Hamburgers & Drinks. Despite not finishing, we were all feeling really good. By the time we arrived back at Camp we were all laughing our heads off from a combination of the “tired giggles” and a bit of alcohol. We all agreed we had had an excellent adventure which included a lot more than just the Race itself, and made a Pledge to come back for another crack next year.

Sitting back in Brisbane now 2 weeks later the memories are still very vivid & I’m sure they will remain that way for years to come. I remember the motto of the now defunct JLW Race “Making Life Memorable” – this certainly applies to Geoquest as well. The only thing is, as time goes by it becomes more disappointing we didn’t finish.

I know we all came away from the race better friends than when we started. Hopefully the same team we will be back on the starting line next year, more experienced & better trained. I think we have all learnt a lot & now know which weaknesses to work on. Many thanks to Paul & Josh who did an excellent job as a support crew.

Thanks to the Race Organisers and volunteers who put on a good race and created a great atmosphere.

In retrospect Mt Yarrapahinni wasn’t that bad & I would rather do it than find another bloody creek junction in the rain in the middle of the night.

A Broken Neck & a Caved-in Head Doesn't Stop the Torsos - GeoQuest 2006

By Ben Scott

The lead up to GeoQuest 2006 for the Phantom Torsos hadn't been ideal to say the least. Dean had spent almost a week in hospital from a serious arm infection gained from a MTB fall and Todd was still suffering from a stubborn knee injury brought about by his brilliant 24hr MTB solo effort in March. GeoQuest signaled the end of six months of recovery and an amazing comeback for Kim from major injuries she suffered in a MTB fall where she was airlifted to hospital. Less than six months earlier on New Year's Day, Kim had sustained a serious brain injury, and a broken neck and shoulder from a MTB accident that left her unconscious and not breathing. She suffered amnesia for over a week and was unable to walk unaided for 3 weeks - full story www.phantomtorsos.com/kimsstory.htm

Unlike many teams who were there to compete, with this in mind the Torsos were there for another reason. Our goal was to take it at an easy pace that everyone could maintain with the sole focus on getting through with everyone intact while having fun along the way. The logistics and team preparations for the race were great including last minute sponsor Helly Hansen coming on board with the provision of thermal base-layer clothing. It was great to get some assistance from the team there and we look forward to working more with Helly as the race season progresses.

Arriving at the GeoQuest HQ on the Thursday night, we found that we had a prime camping location on the river where Dean had set up a fantastic base camp and was relaxing with his first beer. We soon set up camp and proceeded to the town Tavern for a pub meal and another beer. It was early to bed in preparation for the next day's competency tests and final preparations.

GeoQuest Competency (Friday) Friday was spent preparing, packing, checking and undertaking the first aid, navigation and deep-water kayak recovery competency checks required to commence the race. The tasks were completed quite easily, however the tragedy of the whole event occurred when Kim's favourite compass and whistle came off in the water whilst rolling the kayak in the deep-water kayak recovery test. Unfortunately, it was lost and swept away by the outgoing tide. May that compass rest in peace in Old Davey's Locker!

We received the course instructions and checkpoint coordinates at 5pm and went into final preparations plotting and preparing our course. At 8pm we had to assemble again for the GeoQuest twist... which involved a team member immediately swimming out to a kayak in the river and recovering a bonus card (where you could use it to drop a checkpoint if required). Ben volunteered for this and jumped into the cold water in his underwear and lifejacket in freezing conditions. Lucky for many spectators that this occurred in the dark of night as there were many a backside exposed as many swimmers decided to unclad completely for the swim! Luckily enough the water temp was warmer than the outside temps! After the excitement of a late night swim and completion of our course planning, the team went to bed to prepare for the next 48hrs of racing!

Race day (Saturday)

Race day started out as overcast and cold. It threatened to rain prior to the start but held off until just after the start siren had sounded. It didn't relent until daybreak on Day 2! Leg 1 - We started at 8am with a 12.5km ocean kayak where the team emerged victorious through the crashing breakers and hung on to the back of the front pack leaders. Dean and Kim did it easily whilst Ben and Todd were paddling hard to keep up. In the end we finished the paddle in just over 1.5hrs and only 10 minutes behind the leaders who were using race-grade double ski's! The

paddle was followed by a 15km trek along trails and singletrack which was easy in both terrain and navigation.

Unfortunately, Kim tripped whilst checking her map and running and came down on her knee, jarring her neck. She'd have to carry this injury for the remainder of the race. Moving consistently throughout this leg we managed to stay mid-pack without any exertion. Once we'd finished this first trek we had our first encounter with the cold water... a freezing cold 1.5km tube swim (swimming with car tyre tubes) along a river in thick mud with only cycling knicks and a long sleeve top on. The rain was continually falling and combined with the freezing water and thick, sticky mud, this leg was slow and exhausting. On completing the first 1.5km we got out and walked with the tubes for about 500m followed by another 300m tube swim across the Macleay River a free running tidal channel. In the cold water with the tide running out, Kim and Ben were swept downstream about 100m from the exit point where we were supposed to get out. Finding themselves on oyster-covered rocks made the exit from the water quite nasty.

We had a quick hot drink to get our body warmed up again then headed off for a 10km kayak in the rain. The kayak was relatively uneventful, But it led into the final stage of Leg 1 which was a 5km tube swim and estuary trek stage along the muddy river bed. We had to criss-cross the river quite a few times and the mud was so thick in places that we would get stuck in it up to our thighs! It was a slow and tough experience. Arriving at Geo HQ at 4pm we ate and changed into a set of dry clothes for the evening. We had calculated that the next leg would take us up to 18hrs before we would see the support team again, so we'd need to carry enough food and water to ensure we would survive this timeframe. Once dressed, fed and warmed up, we hopped into our race support vehicles and were driven 30 minutes to the Leg 2 start point.

Leg 2 - We started at 6pm for a 30km MTB rogaine in the rain and mud. It was dark, slippery and muddy. Even worse, it was littered with branches and sticks that were even more slippery. Todd managed to do a classic layover when he tried to ride along a slippery branch. Despite the conditions the team moved quickly along the trails (with a few logs, ditches and branches thrown in to hinder our progress). Kim's navigation put us on top of the checkpoint every time. On collecting 9 checkpoints (in 4 hrs) we went back to the transition point and then commenced a 16km night trek rogaine through thick scrub where we had to collect 7 checkpoints. The nav on this was quite technical and we passed many teams who'd been out for hours and hadn't found any checkpoints. This was a significant turning point for the team where we quickly and accurately found every checkpoint we were aiming for (despite so many other teams having such difficulty). Finishing in about 5.5hrs and suffering several leech attacks we made it back to the transition point.

It was now 3.30am and Kim was suffering quite significantly in the cold. We needed to get moving again quickly to warm up. We had now been going 19hrs and the rain had been unrelenting. We got back on the bikes for another 24km MTB ride up some huge hills including a bike carry straight up Mt Yarrahapinni. This was a real test of will as the bush was thick, lawyer vines were everywhere and some parts were so vertical you had to either scramble up on hands and knees with your bike on your back or use a vine to pull yourself and the bike up. This was particularly difficult for Kim with her residual injuries, but with absolute guts and determination she hauled her bike up the mountain. We finally got to the top after 1.5hrs and found a few teams fixing bike damage from the ascent.

We continued to climb more hills on the bike (with a race photographer capturing the moment and we even managed to smile) . The view from the lookout was spectacular but we weren't sure that it was worth the horrendous climb we'd just endured. A few more checkpoints and some fast downhills and we reached the next stage where the team needed to split into a mtb rogaine and a trek rogaine stage. We had found that several other teams had experienced significant difficulties with this section, so we set out knowing that it wasn't going to be easy. Kim and Dean headed off for the trek and Todd and Ben did the MTB rogaine. Ben and Todd finished the MTB checkpoints quite quickly and waited for Kim and Dean to return. Some teams

took 5 hours on this leg but we happily finished it in 3.5 hours!

A quick removal of more leeches and then all of us were back on the bikes for a half hour 7km MTB up more huge hills back to HQ. We were well into Day 2 by this stage returning to Geo HQ and base camp at around 2pm. We had been on the move for this Leg for over 21hrs!

Leg 3 - A compulsory 20 min stop at HQ which we drew out to 50 mins. Well deserved hot food was downed quickly and Dean spent some time with his jar of Vaseline (less said the better....). It was at this point we had learned that a significant number of the teams had withdrawn from the race. It was a battle of attrition and many of the teams had suffered in the cold, wet and miserable conditions. Despite the tough components of the race we had experienced, the team was in relatively good spirits and feeling fit.

We left base camp at around 3pm and embarked on a 30 minute car trip back out to the transition point and start point for Leg 3. We got back onto our bikes and started an enjoyable (?) 42km MTB ride through more huge hills. It was a race against time and we had over 34km to cover in 2hrs20min over hilly terrain. It was going to be close. The climbs were slow and hard... the downhills were fast. At one point, the team hit almost 60km/hr down a downhill. We had to reach a small little town and make a phone call back to Geo HQ by 6pm. As luck would have it we made it with 15minutes to spare.... However the phone was faulty and wouldn't accept money!

Ben rushed into the pub next door and used their payphone (note: wearing lycra bike pants into a country pub for Ben was a unique experience). In the end we made the final cut-off by 3 minutes!

From here we had a big 4km ascent to Mt Martha Ann where we spent a bit of time pushing the bikes towards the summit. We reached the top 3 hours later (which goes to show the severity and difficulty of the climb). At the top we were given new checkpoints and commenced a trek rogaine to do through absolutely mountainous, cliff-ridden scrub. This was not an easy section and had taken some of the top teams 5 hours to complete. We didn't have 5 hours to do this without missing the race closing time. So we made the call to get one of the checkpoints and leave the remaining 3 and incur the time penalties.

The team was starting to tire at this stage as the constant hills on the bike had taken its toll. After completing the rogaine we jumped on the bikes for an exhilarating downhill ride interspersed with short sharp steep uphills to the next kayak stage. We covered around 30km but the team had continued to suffer. Both Todd and Kim were tiring and we were running fast out of time. It was 2am and we had to make the right call for the team and for our ability to finish the race.

We decided at the next transition (kayak leg) to take a short recovery nap, bypass the kayak leg and go straight to the final 11km trekking/coasteering leg back to the finish line. Shortly before 5am we were kicked back out of transition and feeling better for the short nap, we trundled off for the last leg, a 11km trek along sandy beaches and a couple of headlands. Halfway into it we were met by the most beautiful sunrise over the horizon ... moments like these make it all worth it! The leg was relatively easy with some climbs down headlands and runs across the beach. For the last 2-3kms, motivated by the sunshine we ran along the beach and across the footbridge to the finish line.

We were greeted by our support crew Dan, Trev, Kim's son Kyle and Guy cheering us on across the finish line. It was a great feeling to complete the race that was so physically tough and a wonderful effort by the team to finish with such a lead up to a race. It was testament to the strong will of each of the team members to have the ability to continue and finish such a tough race when two-thirds of the field had pulled out.

It also allows Kim to close a chapter on her recovery phase and prove that she is now able to move on from those terrible injuries suffered in her New Year's Day accident. Her brain specialist said it all when his only comment upon seeing reading the race report was "Incredible". The Phantom Torsos finished at 7.43 am on Monday morning after racing for 47 hours and 43 minutes. Unfortunately due to missing the kayak leg we were unranked, but we certainly achieved a lot and now turn our focus to next year's event.

Thanks again to all the support crew who did an amazing job of looking after the team, getting us fed and keeping us moving. It was greatly appreciated and they deserve the accolades and recognition of having suffered through the race with us! It's just as tough to have to support four exhausted people and ensure they're right to finish the race. We'll return the favour one day!

More Training Required do the GEO (again)

I had this idea: Why don’t we take a disposable camera and get some mid-race photos? Great idea – especially as Mike was going to carry it. ‘Good job I took this then’ he said as it came out of its bag, pristine and virginal two hours after the finish of the race.

So, no photos then. No photos of me dragging my weary arse up some simulated mountain in northern New South Wales in the middle of Saturday night.

The spell-checker won’t recognise ‘ARSE’. It thinks that it ought to be ‘ass’, but no one I know was dragging a donkey (or equivalent) up the hill in question that evening. Although some kind of pack animal would have been entirely appropriate.

And ‘simulated’ because although it was only 500 meters high it felt a lot further, and every inch of it a tedious pain in the, yes, arse.

I was last to the top. I’m always last. People only race with me because I book the caravan site early and do the paperwork.

Still, they’re polite enough not to say that at the time, or later, or remind me that it was my idea to get involved in this bollocks in the first place.

It was a tougher race this year: The weather obviously; elements like the bike carry and the bike/trek split at the end of leg two; less time spent on main roads then I remember from previous races (especially on foot); some more intricate navigation; the distances seem about the same but the race felt longer – and certainly seemed to take longer.

As usual, damaged equipment and human breakages (with the weather a contributing factor) forced plenty of teams out of the race. But, yet again we were spared (through no particular virtue of our own) any significant gear failure or injury. Mike and I both ran out of brakes at different stages and Rob swapped onto the spare bike for the third leg – nothing major.

It was more straight-forward too, in some ways: The surf wasn’t at all challenging and from our own perspective there were some other advantages:

For the first time no-one in the team was carrying any significant injuries. This allowed us to run (more-or-less) the first trek leg and keep jogging and shuffling for pretty much the rest of the race.
We had ‘massive’ Mike Paige to keep us honest, particularly during the treks and at the end of the race. Not to mention towing me across the strong out-going tide at the end of the first tube leg.

•

•

Rob & Tim lead us through the Trek & Bike legs respectively, their excellent nav helping us to push ahead of the competition throughout the race and break clear of the surrounding pack on at least two occasions.

Unexpectedly finding ourselves at the head of the ‘All Male’ division tended to give us a bit of encouragement as did knocking on the door of the (still elusive, as it turned out) top-10. At one stage I thought that we might’ve cracked it, but not this time. Still, in 2004 we finished six hours behind 10th place; last year it was four and a half hours; this year it was less than an hour (just). Not for nothing are we called ‘More Training Required’.

As ever, Craig and the gang produced an excellent race with some interesting twist and turns. Not to mention visits to beautiful bits of the countryside.

The creek bed linking two of the check points on Mount Martha Ann was a standout – a pristine spot complete with glow-worms and yabbies. The estuary run into HQ at the end of leg one was fun as well. The long-ish beach haul at the end should have been a pleasure – a clear, beautiful night with plenty of moonlight and a flat (for the most part) run – but by that stage it is only getting to the finish that matters. Someone asked me later if I felt elated crossing the finish line – they were a bit disappointed when I told them that, speaking personally, all I felt was an overwhelming sense of relief. Just at that moment (it’s different in retrospect) I’d describe AR as a like beating your head against a brick wall: It’s great when you stop.

The twists started with the get-out-of-jail-free cards (‘massive’ Mike going in for the team). We saved this until the end and played it on one of the last Mt M A CPs. It was a risk that the four checkpoints were in a circuit and that it wouldn’t be useful. But, it was the right call for us as it turned out.

The bike and trek double was another twist: We didn’t appear to follow the trend here, sending the trekkers to get three CPs, but it seemed to work.

•

Two car moves provided a brief respite (see photo) and kept the course interesting, avoiding the potential for a long road ride or trek – never that much fun.

The last paddle was a bit tricky – we all kept falling asleep. I disturbed the peace (and the primeval beauty of the last leg) by singing rugby songs at the top of my voice. We fell into a trap here during the portage. We tried to rig slings to carry the boats (mirage 780s) but they proved too awkward and (after quite a bit of stuffing about) we ended up doing what we should have done from the start: Shove the boats up on a shoulder and just get on with it.

All-in-all, a top race. We hung on to our all-male 1st place, finished with beer and pies (see photo) and, entirely unexpectedly, won prizes. If I’d thought about it at all (and I had never given serious consideration to the fact that we might win our division) I’d assumed that only premier mixed teams won prizes. So, thank you to GAR and Mountain Designs.

Hmmm...who was the logo modeled on?

I was a bit ungracious in my thank you speech – having a dig at Craig for the bike carry. Ungracious because all he could do was smile politely (which isn’t really fair – sorry mate). Like the Mountain Design guys, when I had slept on it, I felt differently: I’m not hankering to do it again, but one of the things that I love about this sport is the unexpected and the requirement to turn-up and deliver on the day, no matter what. I also confess to enjoying the occasional looks of horror on people’s faces when I tell them how we spent our weekend. There may be some things I’ll forget about this race but I won’t readily forget that hill.

A final thank you to Jen & Anna – the support crew: A superb job (as normal) in trying conditions. We love you both.

And remember – Eat More Pies.

Charlie MTR

Patience my friends, one step at a time - GeoQuest 06

On the start line and we were still goofing off, oblivious to the teams around. We positioned our boats at the furthest point on the beach and took a few photos. Then the hooter sounded and I actually saw the lunacy of a race start as if from the outside looking in. You bastards are mad! Skis, kayaks and people plunged into the ocean in a frenzy of paddles and PFDs. The splashing was mayhem and as we jumped into our own craft, I was amazed that there were no major collisions!

After two unsuccessful years at the Mountain Designs Geoquest, the 2006 event meant a lot to team Hardtale.com.

In 2004, Ant was hit by a quad skull two weeks before the event and sat out the rest of the year with a broken back. Three of us turned up to the start but at the 17 hour mark we were reduced to two and it was all over.

In 2005, the squad was complete, but I had a nagging hip injury that dictated our pace, and when Hugh rolled his ankle late on the first day, it was curtains for HardTale.com once again.

This year, Emily wasn’t racing due to excessive study commitments, Freya was an unlikely starter due to her focus on the World MTB 24 Hour Solo Champs and Hugh gave notice that he wanted to win, but planned to do it with team Tronk! It was a shaky start indeed, but a date change opened up Freya’s calendar, Ant declared himself ‘enthusiastic’ and HardTale co-founder Paul Barry decided to have one more run before the birth of his first child. With the squad decided, we just needed a bit of training to make the line, but my moving interstate the week before the race, Ant and Paul both taking extended holidays overseas and Frey competing back to back 24 hour MTB races meant that:

a) we couldn’t train together
b) none of us really trained at all

c) the expense, effort and energy of getting to another big event took its toll on all of our motivation levels.

So we all simply turned up on the Saturday morning, shook hands and said ‘let’s have some fun.’

10 minutes into the paddle and Paul and I decided to put skirts on as our boat was filling pretty quickly with water. We pumped her out and skirted up, only to find 10 minutes later that we were full again! The return valve on the newly fitted bilge pump was missing and the outlet became an inlet. Oh well, paddling with a boat full of water isn’t so bad...is it? We persisted to the end and still managed to keep sight of the middle of the pack. The free waves to shore were perfect for a surf and I even considered paddling back out to catch a few more.

On foot now, we teamed up with Tangerine and Gear for a beautiful trail run along the coast and over some headlands. We invented new songs, harassed the teams around us and kept our heart rates in check. At the transition, we donned wetsuits, picked up tubes and headed for our kayaks. What a rude shock that creek was. It smacked of ‘sewer outlet’ and I was dreading the bite of a mutated bull shark! Crossing the Macleay River proved interesting as the current swept us toward Fiji instead of transition, but at least when we got there our boats were no longer full of water.

Jumping into the kayaks with Gear and Tangerine still beside us, my fat arse dropped to the hull and I looked down to see that the seat had broken off the deck. Doh! These super fast new boats needed some tweaking! Paddling lopsided with a busted piece of foam trying to penetrate my wetsuit wasn’t that much fun, but the current helped the first few km’s and Ant’s rendition of the Lact-Away song kept us grinning. Onto the tubes again and it occurred to me that we were just about through the first stage and we still hadn’t asked what position we were in, or in fact how far ahead the leaders were! Unheard of I say!

The 20 minute stop allowed for some quick showers and a change of clothes before the transport stage. It was great to get a feed during the transport, but a bit dodgy when we did three U-Turns on the Pacific Hwy before finding the next TA. Then the heavens really opened up and life turned to custard. My derailleur packed it in, leaving granny, middle and the big chainwheel, but no rear cluster. Towing team mates was now out of the question...how good is that! Then Paul asked if we could stop so that he could tighten his seat, only to find that the seatpost had snapped and there wasn’t a spanner or nut in the world that could fix his ‘loose’ seat! An hour of friggin around with makeshift sticks, shims and sighs got us no closer and we began pushing our self-destructing bikes when the gradient picked up.

On to the rogaine and Ant’s magic compass placed us within spitting distance of all but one checkpoint, but we soon found it and were off onto the bikes again as the day came to a close and the broken record of home made songs wore thin. We pushed our steeds up that hike-a-bike to a new chorus of potty- mouthed competitors that all declared to give Craig a piece of their mind. Then I tore off down from the lookout with Freya while Ant’s brakes ate themselves a new a@#ehole and forced us to walk all the way back up to him for urgent repairs. All told, we needed two sets of fingers to count the lost hours due to equipment failure, but still no-one complained. The race was gone, but the dawn brought new songs.

Into the split rogaine and somehow there were only 8 teams listed as reaching the stage and 3 were still out there? ‘Damn, this must be tough’ I thought as Frey and Ant rode off while Paul and I looked helplessly at the photocopy of a map. In the drizzling rain however, our photocopy disintegrated and 3 hours later we sent Ant and Paul back out for a second look. The magic compass fell asleep and it was lunch time when we returned to HQ to commence the final stage.

We stripped bikes and bodies to the bone before applying the necessary bandaids to steel and skin. The Tiger Leeches shrivelled under the salt shaker and the support crew slaved tirelessly, all-the-while questioning our sanity...and their own. Adventure Racing starts after 24hours of sleep deprivation and we were having a ball!

Fearing the cut-off, we rode like demons to post the 3rd fastest bike split, despite our makeshift repairs. When a local manned the phone booth indefinitely however, Paul blew a vessel and over at the local pub Redgum belted out “I was only 19..... and what’s this rash that comes and goes, Doctor can you tell me what it means? God help me, I need 3B cream!” My favourite song echoed on as we waited for the phone, live and unplugged by the real McCoy! “They must be in their 60’s” Ant grinned, “Pauly kicked the phone booth, the day that mankind kicked the moon, God help him, his last race was in June.”

Back on foot an hour or so later we headed for the high hills, but the magic compass told a white lie and we battled lantana for an hour on a parallel to the road. Then it found its bearings and some creeks and we were back to TA. It was cold and late again and morale dimmed with our lights. ‘Note to self: pack more batteries.’ Coming down the mountain my front end washed out at 45kmh and the back wheel swapped past me. I shat my dacks, reached for a tear off and kept her pinned. Paul shrieked “How the f#ck did you save that?” “Not sure mate, but I nearly tore my lips off kissing my arse goodbye!”

Falling asleep is a 48Hour specialty, so Freya and Paul were having a go. Ant and I chattered meaninglessly and sung even more ridiculous songs in an attempt to stave off the monsters. Dad’s team transitioned beside us, but elected sleeping bags over spray skirts. The paddle was relaxed and our singing off key. The new super fast kayaks excelled in the portage and rice cakes never tasted better. We transitioned again before the second dawn and ran for home. The surf was up and we thanked Craig (I mean Angus) for starting the race two days earlier. The finish line arrived, someone said smile and the flash bulbs popped, or was it the sunrise?

47 hours and 15 minutes had passed and taken 22,458 of my calories with them. Despite all that time and energy, along with 6,245 metres of vertical ascent and ten teams between us and victory, we still felt like winners. Adventure Racings gives you so much more than it takes. Matt Dalziel summed it up at XPD 4 months earlier. “I’ve pulled out of races when I shouldn’t have, and pressed on when I couldn’t. I’ve won, lost, laughed and cried. It doesn’t matter how you did this time, at least you bloody tried!”

Yes the fastest, smartest team won the race, but don’t think for a second they are better than you. The start line is more important than the finish and each and every person that jumped into a kayak on Saturday morning rates a mention. I just hope that my next race is half as much fun! Special thanks to LineBreak Performance Wear, Mountain Designs, Hammer Nutrition, Min Min Lights and Lact-Away for making our journey that little bit easier. Sarah, Aaron, Kate and Sharon, thanks again for your fantastic support, we’ll trade places next time.

Keep it on two wheels Angry