Race Report Team Echo

“Good morning” my team mate, Alistair, calls with a friendly half wave as we pass a local drinking a cup of tea on her front porch in Bulahdelah. I had to agree with him: it was a good morning. Sure, it was overcast, we hadn’t slept for over 26 hours since setting off for the GeoQuest start line the morning before and we’d just finished almost 8 hours on the bikes battling hills, faulty derailleurs, mud and the night, but the rise of the sun always seems to pick sleepy racers up again. 

The lady on the porch seemed to think differently though. “Don’t you give me good morning you stupid f@#&ing b@#%&ds! Waking me up at f@#&ing 2am in the morning with your talking you bloody a@#%holes!” Craig, another team mate’s response of “Well, I guess a cup of tea is out of the question then?” seemed a much easier response then the full explanation that the noise wasn’t our fault, but that of the leading teams. This small tirade certainly served as a pick me up though, putting an extra bit of spring in the step of the team, however this was rapidly ablated by the first climb up into the surrounding hillside.

The 2009 GeoQuest represented our second foray into this race after a successful outing at Emerald Beach in 2008. The team included one new member, Alistair, along with a new team name: Echo. This year we were hoping to improve on our overall placing in the rankings and possibly take out a win in the men’s category. A look at the line-up suggested one of the largest and strongest fields ever to front a GeoQuest with a lot of tough competition. As with any big race, the logistics started months earlier with a multitude of emails. Getting any team of four healthy racers together and to the start line of a race is half the work itself and I’m sure we all felt like we could have done with a bit more training in any one particular discipline. 

After a long drive from Brisbane down to Forster we arrived with bikes, kayaks, tubes, wood planks and support crew in tow. Friday morning was almost a relaxed affair, passing all requisite competency checks. The Geocentric crew had a surprise in store with a 5-legged race to rank start-times the next morning (suggesting that the opening leg would be on bikes, and not the traditional paddle). After a quick practice, we were one of the first teams to have a crack at this and it was with much amusement that we later heard ours was the second fastest time of the day. At map handout it was revealed that the much anticipated white water section was cancelled due to high water levels in the Barrington River, which was a disappointment. I can’t say I’ve ever actually had fun in a Sevylor kayak before, but I was hoping this would be our first chance. Maybe next time.
A quick look at the course revealed only two stages to this year’s race. The first stage would be a short bike-run-bike with a long 3Hr car shuttle followed by a much longer stage looping out from Forster into the surrounding mountains and back up the coast via the large inland waterways. It was also apparent that there would be a lot of paddling this year, with most of the biking finished on the first day. Marking up the maps took all of the next five hours and it was close to midnight by the time we made it to bed.

An early rise at 5am saw a procession of teams and bikes make the long drive up to Barrington Tops for a high altitude, cold start. I have to admit being a little nervous starting second off the line. The first leg was a 40km bike ride with a lot of descent down the Barrington Range to the Bowman River. After our 20 seconds of fame, we were quickly passed by a couple of the gun teams, however APEX, winners of last year’s GeoQuest managed to break a chain just 5 minutes into the race. Amazingly, they had the chain fixed and caught up to us just as we reached the first checkpoint. After leaving this checkpoint we were witness to the lead teams riding back up the hill to where we just came from, obviously over shooting the CP, which was a nice little confidence boost for our navigation. We were then passed twice by team Mountain Designs on the way to the second checkpoint and then a third time as they rode back to CP2. All too quickly the ride down to the Bowman was over and we had the first trekking loop of the day, requiring the collection of 3 CPs in any order. We settled on an anticlockwise loop which was made a lot easier by the earlier lantana bashing efforts of the Geo Half teams. The last leg of the first stage was a purported 23km ride over the Copeland Ranges. This ride had a few stinging hills in it, and it was on one of these hills that I started to feel the first effects of dehydration. Big efforts by my team mates with towing on the bike (in the first few hours of the race!) saw us make it in to the transition area. In a way we were lucky to have the white water section cancelled as it gave me a chance to come good again. It’s amazing the difference a bit of food and water can make and a great lesson in that no mater had bad things seem to be heading, you can always turn them around again. The first stage wasn’t quite done with us however. Organisers had allowed a generous 3 hours to drive back to HQ, dropping off gear along the way, before the start of the second stage. This 3 hours, however, blew out to longer when we suffered a flat tyre on our support vehicle. Fortunately, it was our only flat for the race.

Stage 2 started with the first paddle of the race just on dark, with a lot of tricky navigation to pick the right passages and quickest routes around the islands. We were fortunate to have the tide with us on this and all subsequent paddle legs. The kayak was followed by the last and longest bike leg of the race. The next two legs required collecting 11 out of 14 checkpoints over a bike and trek leg. We decided to collect all but one of the bike leg checkpoints, and settled on a longer route that cut out some of the worst hills and included a section of bitumen for some of the worst climbing. I think we all struggled with lack of sleep at some point on this stage which, combined with some tough navigational decisions on old tracks, made for a slow time.

Never-the-less we made it on to the trekking portion of this leg by morning, past our lady friend on the porch, up into the hills and to the ropes section just in time for the rain to start. Unfortunately the rain made the rocks too wet to climb (as evidenced by the fact that neither our team mate or a climber from another team were able to make it up over the rock face despite only two other climbers from the lead teams also failing to do so). We were made to sit out our 15 minute time penalty in the cold and rain after which point I heard rumours that the ropes section would be closed down. We then collected the 3 remaining CPs on the ridgeline, spiking each dead on. Perhaps I let my navigational guard down, perhaps it was the lack of sleep or perhaps it was just too much social chatting (probably a combination of all three), but I managed to take the team on a 20 minute loop starting and ending at the same set of powerlines on the walk out to the transition area.
The next leg was actually a really strong one for team Echo, requiring construction of a tube raft, followed by a 5km paddle across the lake with a portage halfway. Knowing that these legs can really sting a team, we had practiced building and paddling our raft on two separate occasions prior to the race (probably the only two times we got together as a whole team outside of the pub). Our design was essentially a long line of tubes with overlapping planks of wood strapping them together on each side. Alistair demonstrated some hidden talents with ropes and knots which alone justified his inclusion on the team. I assumed every team would have a similar variation on our long skinny raft, but this was far from the case. I saw rafts which were 4x2 tube arrangements, rafts stacked two tubes high and cross shaped rafts. These alternate designs culminated in a team starting just in front of us, who had a gondola-designed raft, complete with a tiller-man standing on the back of the raft. We were fortunate to make a lot of ground on this leg.

The next kayak stands out as my favourite leg of the race. Over a 20km paddle across Myall Lake with a portage three quarters of the way through, we were lucky to have flat water, trailing tide, an awesome sunset and full-moon rise on this leg. Thanks to the inclusion of a trolley and a few tie-downs in one of the kayaks by Alan, we were able to portage both kayaks on the 2.5km portage at a slow jog, overtaking about 5 teams struggling with skis and mirages on their backs. It was probably the only time during the race our shorter, dumpier kayaks were a blessing. Over taking so many teams put a new wind into the team, and we breezed through this leg so quickly that we caught our support crew, Scott and Bill, by surprise, interrupting them just as they were about to dig into some well earned burgers. 

Struggling into wetsuits, we set off for what looked like, at a glance, an easy 20km coasteer north with some inland tracks thrown in. This leg was to start with an 800m tube swim, but when we got to the shore, we realised we could wade around the edge of the lake and not go any deeper than our waist. It was a longer distance, but would be at a quicker pace, less effort and a lot drier. It unfortunately meant that our wetsuits were redundant weight (along with our now deflated tubes and PFDs) for the rest of the leg, but probably the right decision in the end, even if it cost a little extra time just to stay dry. The next section of the trek caught a lot of teams out with the confusing absence of a marked trail around a golf course combined with the dark, cold and fatigue. When about 6 teams all caught up together and no one could find the track, we decided to just take a NW bearing and hopefully hit the trail further along. Twenty minutes later and we had just given up on ever finding the trail, deciding to just bush bash it north, when literally 10m later we stumbled across the track, giving us the chance to make some good time on the teams behind us. 

From this last trek, it was just a battle against the sleepmonsters for a final quick paddle home. Another twist came at the TA when we realised that there was an extra CP that we hadn’t punched yet, but hadn’t marked on the map. We were lucky to find out that it was part way along the final paddle, and lucky to find it without a written description or grid reference, just the information that the punch was at the end of the point. During this paddle, I could hear Craig chuckling in the other kayak as Alan was talking in his sleep while paddling. According to Craig, he could feel the boat slow as Alan nodded off, followed by some mumbled gibberish. At one point however, Al could clearly be heard asking “What’s a tea filter for?” - we’re still not sure what a tea filter is for at this point.
We were just finally paddling in to the finish line when no sooner than someone had finished saying “Let’s just enjoy this moment boys” when Craig called out “S#@t, there’s another team!” Sure enough, appearing from a side channel and just ahead of us, another set of headlights was steaming to the finish. Judging from their pace, they had obviously seen us before we saw them. The race was then on in earnest. I don’t think I’ve ever paddled as hard as I did then, even after 43 hours of racing – it’s amazing the reserves the body can dig into when the mind thinks it’s exhausted. We knew that there was another men’s team in the mix for the lead and that they were on skis just like the team we had spotted. They hit the beach about 20m ahead of us, and we nearly wrote both kayaks off when we collided amongst ourselves in our rush to get through the break water. When we hit the land, it was skirts off and a crazy scramble of bodies up the path, through the gate and over the finish line. In the end, we got all four team members over the line first, but it was quickly realised that the other team were mixed team. We were then greeted with the news that we were the first ranked men’s team across home.

Despite being awake for almost 46 hours, it was still almost 90 minutes before we made it to bed as we relived moments from the race between team members and support crew. A big thanks must go to Scott and Bill who did another stellar job this year, backing up from their efforts last year. I’ve done a number of 24 hour races with Scott, and I’m convinced racers make the best support crew: they know how your feeling and what you need done to get you back out on the course functioning properly. So, Geo ’09 was a successful outing - a win in the mens division and a 13th place overall after time penalties were taken into account. The course was brilliant with a great mix of trekking, biking and paddling on different terrains with the right balance of novelty disciplines. Just a shame it’s another years wait until the next race!

Liam St Pierre, Team Echo.

Team Dude Where’s My Bruno

KATRIN VAN DER SPIEGEL Mountainbiker, mum, lawyer

Geoquest, June 5-8 2009 (Forster NSW)

Racing with Richard Mountstephens, Sam Maffett and Kris Plain as team Dude Where’s my Bruno. Words by Richard Mountstephens

Mountain Designs GeoQuest 48hr is Australia’s premier adventure race. It involves 48+hrs of non- stop endurance racing in the major disciplines of trekking, mountain biking and kayaking. Mixed, Male or Female teams of four must navigate their way through an arduous 200+km course that is only revealed to them the evening before the race.

It was a bit of a trip in to the unknown for this year’s June long weekend adventure racing pilgrimage to Geoquest. Katrin’s decision to swap support crew duties for a racing bib triggered the construction of a new team with newcomer Kris Plain, who’d never raced more than 6 hours before, and the experienced Sam Maffett joining us to race as “Dude, where’s my Bruno” in honour of Bruno the support crew van. A flippant last minute choice of team name that would turn out to be slightly embarrassing when, to many people’s surprise, we won.

The course handout on Friday night promised an interesting linear trip from Barrington tops back down to Forster and a journey through the Great Lakes region. Much to Katrin’s horror, it also promised a sh*tload of paddling with over 60km on the ski almost double what I told her she would be getting herself in to.

Cycling 2:02:00

Absolute cracker of a first leg, dropping 1000m on the bike from the peak of Barrington tops with a couple of checkpoints on the way. As expected the lead teams took off like nutters and duly overshot the first checkpoint. Partly I suspect because the leg was slightly wider than an A4 sheet and no one dared stop to refold the map, which meant getting caught out when the map turned out to be a bit wrong around the control.

Ride of shame back past the field to collect the checkpoint, then settled in for a quick ride down to the rogaine in a group with Apex, Blackheart (Rob & Kathryn), Keen, Mountain Designs & Austrelaps.

Orienteering 1:03:00

Quick transition in to a short but steep rogaine through some very pretty rainforest, and obligatory pleasant creeks. We stayed out of the creeks which seemed to be a good choice as we got back first. I also discovered with my forehead that the big green leaves are stinging nettles.

Cycling 2:09:00

Back on to the bikes and a solid 400m climb up over a range towards Gloucester. Katrin snapped her chain halfway up, which meant for 10 minutes of pfaffing that let Austrelaps and MD’s past. Then onto a highlight of the weekend, a classic descent down a huge very steep farm spur – not really on a track – with spectacular post card backdrop if you dared to look up.

Life’s little lesson #239. If you ride through a cow paddock, the mud on the nozzle of your waterbottle is not just mud. Urgh.

This meant the end of the first section as the white water paddle was cancelled due to river levels. We arrived at TA 5 minutes behind Austrelaps and MD’s, with Apex, Blackheart, Keen and co. spread out over the following 20 minutes.

Race then stopped with 3 hours allocated to transport teams back to Forster for a restart in the boats. Notable on the drive back was being stopped by a breathalizer, and the confused look of the cop upon seeing the van’s occupants and equipment.

We were pretty happy with how we’d gone so far. Still trying to get the hang of moving together as a new group – a bit disjointed on the bikes – but getting on well and enjoying the journey. Katrin was a bit suprised by the pace of the riding the field set, but on the flipside I was suprised that her

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Geoquest, June 5-8 2009 (Forster NSW) | Katrin Van der Spiegel

running was showing early signs of impressiveness. Kris was cruising and starting to relax, and Sam was enjoying himself.

Kayak 2:15:00 22.0 km

The first part of the course had felt like a bit of a prologue, with the race proper starting back at Forster after the 3 hour break. From here the course was a big day-long anti-clockwise loop down to Buladelah and back through Myall lakes.

Every now and then in the long races, you find yourself somewhere at just the right time. And so it was at the beginning of this paddle, as we headed out of Forster at sunset up a glassy Wang Wauk river, dodging dolphins out of the boat ramp and with a strong following tide to keep things moving. Made sure we enjoyed the moment.

And equally quickly it gets tough again, as the sun drops, the temperature plummets, and the course takes you to a shallow, smelly section of rock-filled river under a highway bridge. Noice.

The navigation on this paddle was tricky, so we pushed hard to get through the crux of it before the light faded completely. Sam and Kris set the tempo in the XT double, and Katrin had a crash course in wash-riding in the front seat of the Mark 2. Reasonably happy with how the boats were moving, but impressed by Blackheart’s form as they came past near the end.

No major dramas on this paddle, expect for Katrin being a bit under-dressed and hence cold for the last hour. Also lost a few minutes when we ran in to a submerged tree and got pinned against it by the tide.

Into an absolutely freezing TA next to the highway, and the race proper began. We saw all of Blackheart, Apex, MDs, Austrelaps and Keen at this transition and headed out on to the bike rogaine within 20 minutes of each other. Game on.

Cycling 65.0 km

Slow transition for us – dropped 10minutes – but the only bad one for the race which in the scheme of things was pleasing for a team of newbies and support crew all over 70.

The next section had 14 checkpoints spread over 60k of riding and 20k of running, of which you had to collect 11. We opted for skipping one CP on the ride, and taking the wider road options to avoid what looked like a potential mudfest through the Wang Wauk state forest.

Party time for the hour or so with the top 5 teams crissing and crossing each other, with route choice and small mistakes offering plenty of opportunity for banter. A ripper of a steep rocky descent in to the 3rd checkpoint with the group before things spread out and quietened down.

Tracks were less muddy than expected, but we stuck with the originally planned low-risk route. One thing we hadn’t factored in to planning is that riding on bitumen for long periods in the middle of the night sends you to sleep, and Katrin (mountain biker at heart) began to fade with the snoozies. When she eventually fell asleep and rode in to the long grass along the side of the old highway, decided a 5 minute powernap was worth a try and she settled in for a kip on the verge.

Seemed to work, and we slowly regained momentum with the only remaining frustration a turn down an unmarked track to waste 10 minutes.

Rolled in to the Buladelah show ground around midnight together with MDs to dump the bikes with Blackheart and Apex 40 minutes down the road and Austrelaps 20 minutes behind them.

Running 3:44:00 20.0 km

Across the Pacific highway and up the hill overlooking Buladelah for a spot of rock climbing before descending in to the annual Geoquest scrub bash on the other side.

Another one of those entertaining race moments, with MD’s and the volunteers at the rock climbing checkpoint knocking out a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to herald the beginning of Katrin’s birthday in the scrub.

Dodgy descent off the other side of the hill, with Sam doing an excellent job of ferreting a way through a large lantana patch before we stumbled on to an unmarked track. At this point we went right and MDs went left, giving me a feeling that one of us wouldn’t be coming out of there for a while.

http://katrinvds.wordpress.com/race-reports/geoquest-2009/[19/06/13 10:56:20 AM]

Geoquest, June 5-8 2009 (Forster NSW) | Katrin Van der Spiegel

Our call turned out to be the good one, and we found ourselves having reeled in Apex and Austrelaps at the final CP overlooking the lakes.

Real race feel now as the 12 of us ran as a pack for the next 5k into transition with a steadily increasing pace – Christie doing a good job of jumping on the front to raise the tempo if things slowed with thoughts of Blackheart up ahead.

Arrived at TA suprised to find no one there yet, and into the raft building race.

Rafting 2:12:00, 6.0 km

Next leg was to traverse 6km across 2 lakes using 8 inner-tubes and 4 planks of wood, with a 1km portage in the middle.

Ex-scout Kris constructed our raft in the time it took me to put on my wetsuit, and off we headed in a head-to-head 2km/hr race across the lake in the dark. Consensus was that we looked absurd.

Missed the portage entrance with Apex, and spent 10minutes bashing around in a swamp looking for it before trudging across to the next lake.

Rafting across one lake was kind of fun. Rafting across a second was like being told the same joke again – not funny. Grumpied our way across then in to the skis for a big paddle across Myall lakes to the coast.

Kayak 2:32:00, 22.0 km
Timing for this one not great. Just happened to arrive at the same time as a squall, so rather than

a glassy cruise we had a 15kt breeze and windchop right on the beam.

Katrin hasn’t paddled rough water before, so doing it in the reasonably twitchy Mark2 (and steering) was a bit comfort-zone expanding. A tad zig-zaggy but we got there.

Did the 1.5k portage in the middle well, and was suprised to see Apex not that far ahead when we hit Smiths lake, suggesting either they’d missed time or had some tiredness on board. In the end our split on this leg looks pretty good – not really sure how.

Running (with a lake wade) 3:19:00, 20.0 km

20km run now from Smith Lake sandbar, through Booti Booti national park and up 7 mile beach to Wallis Lake.

But first a 1km crossing with redundant inner-tube and PFD to sandbar beach, as the lake was mostly wade-able. Wouldn’t have minded so much, except it meant carrying a 4WD tube and PFD for the next 20k. Thanks.

We were all feeling pretty good at this stage, and with Sam knowing the area pretty well decided to put our heads down and see what happened. We got through the dodgily marked track area around the golf course well thanks to Sam, and came across Apex just ahead at the CP at Bluey’s beach – they’d lost some time around the golf course.

Apex hadn’t seen us, and when the opportunity to take a parallel street through town came up we hammered to try and get past without being spotted. We did in fact get past and stayed out of sight for a couple of k, but were seen just before leaving town.

With a 12km paddle to come, we had 9km of running to try and build a gap – not particularly confident in holding off those guys in a paddling race.

Pedal to the metal for the 4km up 7 mile beach, and then an all-time pb transition in to the boats on Wallis lake.

Kayak 1:13:00, 12.0 km

Support crew had it dialled for this one – boat, paddles, map, etc were all ready on the water’s edge, and as we’d just run 20k pretty much in paddling gear it was just a matter of chugging a Red Bull and jumping in. Were there for about 30 seconds I think.

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Geoquest, June 5-8 2009 (Forster NSW) | Katrin Van der Spiegel

Pushed up the lake for a cracking paddle split and first home with a nice reception from the kids and crew.

Big day out. We had a ball.

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GIRLS ON TOP - Anything Men can do we can do also!

Men aren’t the only one’s who love a challenge.
No-matter the obstacles it seems clear, that Women of Action have no fear!

The Girls on Top Adventure racing team have just returned from a very successful result in the Geo Quest 48 hour Adventure race in Australia. Here is how it all came about.

This year the race was held in Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia. Apart from the infamous “Big Banana” this location got the thumbs up from the girls because of the warmer temperatures and also the existence of the airport, meaning the NZ based team members could fly directly from Sydney and save themselves a six hour drive.

Racing overseas is never an easy undertaking but this is one race where everything seemed to come together for the girls. The first coup for the girls was securing support from www.smartwool.com to cover the entry fee and keep them warm and snug during the event, the second was being able to find Ruahine Adventure Duet kayaks for the event from Steve at Q Kayaks, the third was the arrival of three new hot pink Ellsworth Truth mountain bikes www.ellsworthbikes.com in time for the event and the help from www.bikesmiths.co.nz in Albany to get them made up, the fourth was that they had a very experienced support crew team made up of Craig Gibson (NZ) and Steve Cooper (sleepmonsters.com.au) and the fifth was that they scored themselves a cabin right in the main transition area.

The team for this event was made up of three of the original Girls on Top, Debbie Chambers, Anne Lowerson and Ally Davey and newcomer Zoe Albon. As with every race their goal was to race their own race as efficiently and effectively as possible. After their experience of losing focus and struggling to make sound decisions at around 35 hours in their last 48 hour race, they even put a sleep strategy in place and planned to grab a twenty minute nap on the first night.

The course was revealed at 3pm on the Friday afternoon and Anne and Debbie then spent the afternoon and early evening plotting the checkpoints and working out route choices, whilst Ally, Zoe and the “boys on the side” sorted out the food and logistics of transporting gear etc to the various transitions around the course. The race consisted of a total of 259 kms with 155 kms of mountain biking, 42 kms of kayaking, 55 kms of trekking and 7 kms of other. For logistical purposes it was broken up into three stages.

Race start was 7.00am on Saturday morning and after a few nervous dashes to the loo and the obligatory photo shoot, they found themselves lined up on the start line ready to tackle the first discipline of stage one which was a 26 km kayak from Coffs to Woolgoolga. Helmets were compulsory on this paddle so it was with some trepidation that the girls left the beach wondering what type of surf landing was in store for them. The paddle along the coastline was particularly stunning but it was the thought of seeing hump back whales that really excited the team. Unfortunately, the three – four meter swells and building Southerly meant that looking around was an absolute no no and all concentration was needed to keep the boats upright. The Duets were perfect for the conditions though and the girls made good time on this leg only stopping for a couple of feed the fish sessions due to Anne’s sea sickness. Much to their relief the landing was in a sheltered cove and offered no real challenge.

The kayak was followed by a body board which the girls executed with such finesse that Debbie and Ally ended up coming in on the same wave and nearly taking each other out!! This was followed by a simple urban run of 3km, a 7km uphill ride to Wedding Bells forest where they did an 8km foot rogaine which required them to make decisions about which points to collect and which to leave for later and called for some off track navigation. Anne's navigation was impeccable and the team worked extremely well together sniffing out tracks and spotting checkpoints to ensure relentless forward motion was a top priority. The next 25 km mountain bike leg required them to split up in order to collect all the checkpoints most efficiently. Zoe and Debbie took the most exciting riding but least technical navigation option and Ally and Anne tackled the tricker nav options. This turned out to be the right split as they arrived at the next meeting point within minutes of each other. Feeling reasonably happy with themselves, the girls set off at high speed to the next TA only to find that their support crew were nowhere to be seen as they had forgotten to call them to tell them they were leaving CP 6!! After a 20 minute wait the girls were on their merry way again disappointed for not having followed instructions but knowing better than to dwell on their mistakes and lose focus. The final leg of stage one was an estuary run followed by a beach trek back to the camp ground. A local Staffordshire terrier, nicknamed “digger” by the girls, took a shine to the team and escorted them through the estuary to the beach.

What a lovely feeling it was coming into the cabin to a hot feed and a change of clothes. Oh that bed looked soooo nice!!! Before they knew it the girls were being whisked into the cars by the “boys on the side” and driven off to the start of stage two at the Corrindi River at Red Rock for a 16 km paddle. It was here the girls made a strategic decision to portage their kayaks in the hope of cutting paddling time down they then smoothly navigated their way around the twists and turns of the various estuaries in the night getting the occasional slap in the face from fish confused by their lights.

The next “mangroves by moonlight” run/swim leg saw the girls use their heads to collect all the dry controls before launching into the water to collect the water based controls. By the time the girls got to the water section the tide was in full flow and Debbie who went to test the waters did her fastest sideways hundred meters ever. Bearing this in mind the girls popped back into transition to pick up their body boards for extra support before heading across the channels in the dead of the night. The rest of this leg was spent

floundering around in mangroves and swimming across deep channels luckily no crocs were seen or heard!!!

Glad to be warm and dry and out of their wetties and full of two minute noodles, the girls set off on their bikes ready to take on the 40 km navigationally and physically challenging ride ahead of them. Around midnight and about an hour into the ride the girls made the decision to stick to their sleep strategy and sneak off the track for 20 minutes of sleep. In previous races they had become inefficient in the later stages of the race due to sleep deprivation and they were determined not to let this happen again. Although a team passed them while they were snug as bugs in rugs, the girls were glad to have had their power nap as the ride turned out to be physically and technically challenging. Boy were they happy to see “the boys on the side” at the transition before the final 3km beach trek to the campground for the end of stage two.

This time they arrived into camp to a feed of toast and spaghetti, boy those boys were good to them. Stage three consisted of a 25 km trek through the Nymboida gorge, a 40km MTB, a 4km trek, a 13 km MTB and a 3 km beach trek. The whole leg bar the last beach trek was to be self supported. This meant the girls needed to organise food and water for 17 – 19 hours and to make sure they had all the gear, maps and instructions required. They were more than aware that the race organisers had warned teams not to underestimate this leg so spent a reasonable amount of time in this transition making sure they had got it right.

Once again they were bundled into the car for a car drop to the start of the trek. The corner riddled one hour drive was enough to make Debbie car sick and boy was she glad to get out of the car and onto the trek. By this time it was day light and the girls were injected with a new blast of energy as they strode off into the wilderness. The Nymboida gorge was stunning with massive rock cliffs, sheer waterfalls and miles of untracked forest. Once again Anne’s accurate nav paid off and Debbie and Ally’s tracking skills came into play. They also had to dig deep in order to cross the full flowing river as it plummeted into a deep pool some distance beneath them. They were so focussed in this stage of the event that Debbie didn’t even notice that she had walked over a snake. A huge 20cm snake!!!

It was only on the following 40 km bike leg that the girls dared to believe that they may finish in a reasonably good time and may even sneak into the top ten. Half way through this ride the heavens opened and it began to pour down. Keen to escape the rain and the ever increasing sticky muddy roads as well as try to get some of the next trek done in daylight the girls pushed hard to the next transition. They arrived just on dark quickly put their warm Smartwool tops, hats and pants on and headed off into the second part of the rogaine to get the two remaining controls. Aware that this section could make or break them Anne made sure she was on the ball with the navigation and followed the map every step of the way. As a result of this the girls made quick work of this section and exited 25 minutes ahead of the first male team after going in 15 minutes behind them.

Wow only a 13 km downhill MTB and a 3 km beach trek to go. With this in mind and the knowledge that they had requested hot guys with hot towels, the girls were on fire and they sped off down the road averaging 40 kms an hour. This is a feat that was only made possible for Debbie, Anne and Zoe due to their new full suspension Ellsworth Truths, Ally on her carbon Scott has been riding like this for years. The girls skidded into transition, had a quick chat to the boys and then jogged off down the beach for the final three km beach run, remembering to walk in the non-competitive nature reserve zones.

Wow what a race!!! The girls finished 8th overall, beat all the all men’s teams and won the all female category. Girls on Top are passionate about encouraging women to try adventure in the outdoors, and

invite you to join them, in becoming Women of Action!

Visit www.girlsontop.co.nz

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Supporting a Girls Quest for Adventure!

Sam Gibbs in Outdoor Magazine

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Girls on Top Race Report – Triathlon Magazine

Geo 2008 – Cowgirls do the Round-up!

Well, after 4 years of trying, the Cowgirls finally got to do their job – round up a herd of cows.... It was like those little cows were put there just for us – or were we possibly hallucinating?? As we all know, you don’t necessarily believe what you see when you head into the 2nd night at the Geo..... More on the little cows later....

The adventure went a bit like this......

Four nervous Cowgirls set off from the calm, sheltered port of Coffs Harbour for a long journey on water - that took us north to the little village of Woolgoolga. Cowgirls, being much happier with 2 legs on dry land (or over saddles) were completely out of their comfort zone during this 26k paddle! We rode up and down over the increasing swells with quiet trepidation and it was ‘smiles all round’ when we made a very safe landing into the TA at a protected cove – a few scary moments out there, but, unlike some other teams, we managed to stay firmly inside our trusty sea kayaks!

Going surfing was not really our thing either, but luckily we had a coastal Cowgirl in our midst and, along with the mighty Thor, we took a few brilliant waves, and relaxed our nerves after the treacherous outer ocean worries!

A quick run through town – Thor was very excited navigating via a Google Earth map – “‘look, we are now running past the building with the blue roof....”.... and we made it to our bikes with our crew a bit rushed to get to the TA before us!

An interesting uphill ride followed and we got to the Rogaine and grabbed the required CP’s.... had no trouble with these, it seems... and then we were off to the MTB split which we didn’t think out quite so well, with 2 gals waiting 45mins for the others to arrive back – as we have experienced before, Cowgirls are much happier travelling in herds – and the splits do not suit our style! Happy back together we rode to the final beach trek and headed 9k north back to HQ for the finish of Leg 1.

A car drop at Corindi Creek kicked off Leg 2 and we experienced a beautiful night paddle watching the moon set! Back to TA where our wonderful crew were waiting patiently in the cold....they quickly dressed us in our wetsuits, handed us our boogie boards and watched us paddle across into the mangroves for a fun, but cool, mangrove run/plod/float.... We had a few laughs as we became the ‘floating Cowgirls’ getting swept along (somewhere!) by the incoming tide......And then a run through the middle of town, carrying boogie boards, and wearing wetsuits was a bit special – not your usual dress-up for a Saturday night in town, as some spectators noticed! A 40k MTB took us through forests and back to Sandy Beach (not sure we made the best route choice!)....then a 3k walk south back to Emerald Beach and HQ.....some yummy breakfast was prepared by our crew and then we were bundled up in the vehicles for the long drive to a remote area when we would have daylight for the spectacular trek through the Nymboida Gorge...

With some of our compulsory break time still remaining, we chatted to officials at the TA (the lovely Kirsty was all smiles!)... We saw MD’s finish the trek, not looking too joyful??....and prepared our MTBs for the next transition....as our crew were heading back to HQ for some much needed rest!.. Hmmmm.....lucky them.... We had to leave enough food and water with the bikes... and we all seemed to have a truck-load of stuff – especially Tamsin (our resident Eating Machine..)..

We were excited to be starting the incredible trek – undoubtedly the highlight of the event.....Slow and steady we made our way into the gorge, and finding a handy worn ‘track’ to the first CP was a definite advantage. We were lucky enough to make this trek in the daylight.... So many Ooooohs and Ahhhhhhs were heard from Cowgirls as we gazed at the awesome cliffs and beautiful forest in this area..... A couple of tricky crossings put us a bit on edge – but we all made it in tact..... Before leaving the gorge we had a brief stop on a rock to take in some nourishment and discard some clothing... and went for a quick skinny- dip to enjoy the water...(no, that last bit didn’t really happen....but, it was tempting at the time as the day was getting warm.....!!!!)

We momentarily struggled locating the next CP (you know that one in the creek junction – so many junctions!).... And the Cowgirl consensus was to go out and make a second approach. We found it on ‘take 2’... albeit, only a few metres from where we were searching the first time – oh well, that’s the frustrating part of Adventure Racing... especially on day 2 when we were all getting a little tired!!

Happy to be on our way back, we joined a few other teams who had missed the last CP and abandoned... we gave them some sound Cowgirl advice, and they headed back for a 2nd attempt as well..... then we ran into Matt (course photographer...) and it seemed he was completing his own little adventure race, having trekked the whole gorge too!!!! Nice job Matt....

Back to the TA and we rolled out on the 40k ride back to the site of the Leg 1 rogaine where we had to locate 2 extra CP’s .....This ride was challenging to say the least. We started off on the advertised ‘downhill’... and then the rain set in. We stopped in a town to don our jackets and warm gear – and discard some of our excess food and water we had taken from the last TA..... luckily we did, as a very long uphill followed. On the way, we were flagged down by a male team to render first aid to one of their members – so (Dr) Tamsin pulled out her medical chest and we ‘stitched’ up his leg with butterfly clips (ok, so T, that wasn’t really just all food inside your unbelievably heavy pack!!).... and went on our way...a bit tired, wet and miserable at this time ....... so motivation was necessary....songs, and words of encouragement all round kept us going when things were getting tough. Night set in.... and this is when we found the little cows! Grinding up one of the many hills, we saw in the distance, tiny lights (in sets of twos!) – Like little aliens looking down at us.... On closer observation, our forward scout, Alison, realised, no, we were not about to be abducted, we were, in fact, face-to-face with a herd of little cows!!! Just then the Cowgirl instincts took over, and we knew what we had to do...... Up we rode, hooting, herding and laughing – and absolutely in our element! The little cows moved themselves slowly back up the hill and scattered into surrounding bushland, under the close eyes of the 4 Geo Cowgirls!!! We know they were really there because little green cow- pats dotted the track for a few 100m afterwards... and we had a revelation about our purpose in this event! Did anyone else see them?.....I wonder! Seriously, we are positively sure this really happened......Hmmmmm.......

Finally made it to the TA for the final rogaine – and a mud-fest awaited us! Teams were having difficulty with the CP’s – fatigue had definitely set in and the rain hadn’t let up!

Track walking is a great way to fall asleep on your feet – and Thor was experiencing this phenomena at this time – so was Aunty Jan - but didn’t let on, and managed to have couple of micro-sleeps while standing up waiting for the Nav decisions......a little jog back down the hill woke us all up from our hazy sleepiness and we found our bikes and headed off on a well-worn track for a 13k ‘fun’ downhill to Sandy Beach. We decided someone had got that ‘fun’ word a bit wrong..... wet, muddy, steep bits were our real memory of this ride – and we were very happy Cowgirls to see the lights of Sandy Beach in the distance! Happy, too, as we knew we were going to finish before the end of the 2nd night – which hasn’t happened before in a Cowgirl Geoquest team. With our spirits lifted we greeted our gorgeous crew with smiles and race ‘blabber’ (you know, that wide-eyed, loud, meaningless talk that comes with sleep deprivation, mixed with extreme physical, and mental, exertion .......) The lovely Kim – who had finished the previous night in a much faster team – had hitched a ride with our crew to be present at our last TA..... We were on auto-pilot as we changed from muddy bike shoes to runners for the final trek....and we headed the wrong way onto the beach which had the crew alarmed and yelling at us..... “Well that’s the way we went last time”, we said.... Apparently we could have taken a much easier route last time too – but, I guess, that just wasn’t our style....We took our time on the final trek – as we knew we had it conquered. Our wonderful crew met us at the finish line (it was about 2.00am) with the obligatory bottle of champagne that we Cowgirls love to reward ourselves with.... Photos, hugs and stories followed, and we headed back to camp for a bite to eat and a well earned sleep !!!!

So, another Geo in the bag... There is something about this race that makes us keep on coming back for more....the ‘little cow’ thing was a brilliant addition to this year’s event .... (Did you arrange that for us Craig?) ... and finishing before the end of the 2nd night gave us the ability to function properly (ie: ease back into reality) the next day , which is a huge bonus when we had to split the herd and head back to our distant parts of the country....

Many thanks to our brilliant crew of ‘Milo makers’ – Helen, Rod & Ellie.... Hope you gained a sense of belonging and camaraderie from your great efforts in getting us through this epic event.... And hope you have been inspired to have a go at something like this for yourselves one day....

It’s a beautiful world...... See you out there!

Xxxx Aunty Jan
on behalf of Tamsin, Thor and Alison The COWGIRLS TRI ADVENTURE

Team “Adventuregear.com.au” take out line honours

Race Report by Kim Beckinsale - the “KEEN CBD” connection

Just in case you didn’t know Adventure Racings Premier category is usually mixed. This means that usually three guys and a girl team up and navigate their way through challenging course of Kayaking, Mountain biking and Trekking! So as you my have guessed I was girl and I teamed up with John Jacobi (one of Australia’s best AV racers and the brainchild of Rapid Ascent who put on the Anaconda series and the Keen Adventure Race) Guy Andrews (Australian Surf Ironman Legend and Leading Adventure racer) and all- rounder Sam Maffett (from the Rapid Ascent Team that John has hand picked to design some of the most challenging courses around).

Now adventure racing is not just about survival of the fittest and toughest it’s also all about team work and planning organisation. Our preparation was not as easy as it is for some given two of the team were from Victoria and two from Queensland. But thanks to numerous emails back and forth we managed to all get there to Sawtell. We passed gear checks and competency checks with flying colours and I got my first taste of paddling a RED 7 Double Ski and also the opportunity to paddle with JJ – I was very very comfortable with that which was a huge boost to my confidence for the ocean paddle which was set to start the race.

Mapping and course route selection talks up most of our time prior to the start of the race. (This all takes place the evening before the race) Once the maps are issued at rego its all eyes on the map and the team goes to work. JJ and Guy plot the coordinates – Sam and I read details and write notes for the team – this is the business end of the race. Sam was particularly organised and on top of everything – this included briefing the support crew of their role during the race. Our support Crew David and Alan and support Chef Gloria (Guys mum) were always in the right place at the right time and this was a huge boost to our team. (We would not have been so successful without them)

Race day arrives and threats of cancelling the paddle due to extreme weather conditions that flooded many parts of the Central NSW coast failed to dampen the start of Geoquest. We all made our way to the beach at Sawtell and pondered what we had in store for us. It was cold and wet and windy, the Geo Half competitors got hammered on the waves on their start prior to ours – but ours was seamless! JJ and Guy on front of the Red 7’s with Sam and me sitting behind just ploughed throughout the waves and opened up a huge lead on the entire field. JJ found and caught the biggest swells possible – I was paddling my little arms off but somehow managed to keep in time (well mostly).

We hit TA one and y made an exit down the beach on foot in ride and tie style. So while three ran one rode the bike dumped it for the person at the back. We got a great rhythm going found the CP on the headland then snapped the chain on the bike just near the end of the leg. But the TA was close by so we were soon again paddling but this time up stream to a park where our support crew met us with our bikes.

So off we set on our MTB’s out a paddock along a train line then we started a climb! It was wet slippery and mostly unrideable – so the hike a bike had returned to haunt us from Geo last year – but lucky this time there was a track. Guy managed to break and his chain, repair it and get back on the bike. Meanwhile JJ was showing his supreme strength pushing two bikes (his and mine – the light GIANT ANTHEM thanks to Anthony from CBD Cycles Melbourne) up the hill. So this allowed me to keep up and stay in touch with JJ as he powered up the hill. We were still in front but once we started the Trek we found out that Team Mountain Designs had slipped by us on route to the first Trek CP. They stumbled on as track which led them in the right direction while we were left bush bashing through thick scrub (lost of lantana and wait a while) but that is what adventure racing is all about – lost of planning but a bit of luck here and there does not go astray. We did not get in front of MD’s and at the end of the trek found that Team XTerrain was closing in on us. As it was getting dark we were riding down steep rocky descents, the guys hammered and I peddled cautiously – being a light weight makes it pretty impossible to generate the speed that the guys can anyway – and sometimes I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. We met our support crew and they drove us and our bikes back to the campsite ready for the next leg – our transitions were lightning fast and this was in our favour.

We had a feed of Gloria’s fine foods - things like hot potatoes risotto chicken strips and warm soup – while we had a compulsory 50minutes in the TA. This time flew as we were also required to organise gear for a bike gear drop that we would then have to carry everything from that point on.

Warm and kitted out for a 14k trek off we set out of the TA. But the only problem we had a cold stream to cross and we were dry and warm. So off come the clothes and into a dry bag as we all wade in the raw with arms up high. We quickly start to get our gear back on only to hear JJ call out “ come on guys stop powdering your noses” – JJ was dressing and running at the same time..... Mmmm I can’t say that that had been a part of my training routine! So Sam Guy and I eventually caught up and off we set down the beautiful beach listening to the crashing sound of the waves – the starts were out and it was a beautiful night. JJ carried my pack here as I was a little off the pace (mmmmm I ate too much food in the TA and it was not settling too well) Some good navigation by JJ and Sam saw us off the beach and running along a network of trails behind the dunes until we reached the TA where our bikes had been dropped. We found out we were 30mins down on Mountain Designs so we had to dig deep and go up a gear!!!!

We headed straight for the split trek – it was a road ride mostly and when we arrived MD’s were still in front. Sam and I went for CP X and Y and JJ and Guy went for W and Z. Sam and I managed to locate the CP’s without delay ( Thanks to Sam’s fine Nav ) then we saw Xterrain on their way out as we were heading back – the gossip was that MD’s were not back yet. We sprinted back – JJ and Guy were back too – and this meant we were ahead once again. So we hit the Bike Rogaine with a good lead. Now I am not exactly sure how it happened but Xterrain somehow caught us on this leg – think the route they selected was faster and we did have a few corrections to make (those ones when you just fly down a big hill and then the navigator says – we missed it we have to go back up – Mmmm not really all that fun!!!!) Nonetheless we were still in with a chance and we managed to get a break on Xterrain and get into the TA 4 minutes ahead for the 7k Paddle to the campsite. So another quick transition and we set off in the RED 7s downstream. JJ paddles without jocks because he doesn’t want them to get wet!!!!! I think he must enjoy getting his gear off??????

We have another stop at the campsite – but only 20 minutes – barely time to dry off and change. We jump in the cars loaded up with plates of food from Gloria’s kitchen and head out to Thora – a little town at the foot of a massive range which we were about to ride up. We had a 4 minute lead still so once we are allowed to set off – off we go – Sam and I hear a loud Holla from JJ – his chain has broken – that’s broken chain number 3. But this does not faze us we set out strong once it’s fixed just seconds ahead of Xterrain. They pass us before we hit the hill and we struggle to stick to their lights – they are out of sight. So as we start climbing JJ starts encouraging us all to dig deep. He tows me up the steep climbs and sets a cracking pace. He sights lights ahead and yells out – come on and we all left a gear – JJ continues to tow me and I crank up the hills in middle ring (Granny Gear had a spack attack and wasn’t working). Soon I am totally stuffed I jump off the bike and manually shift into Granny gear and leave it there – Mmmm not so fast on the descents – but I could climb. Soon we catch Xterrain and get in front they pass us again and then we get in front t again – after 36 hours we are still racing for the lead. Xterrain stop suddenly and we motor past and don’t look back – we al realise know we have a chance with less than 10k to go on the bike and our strongest disciplines as a team to go – a Kayak and Run!

We get into TA and into the kayaks – there is no time to eat or stuff around – we just paddle paddle paddle! We look behind – no one is in sight but we keep the pace up!!!! The 19k paddle into the sun is harsh – JJ sets a cracking cadence for me to follow and this is probably helping me to keep awake – oh and the occasional splash of water helps to keep me alert. We find the CP in a tidal pool – JJ has to look long and hard as a cow has attempted to eat it for brekkie!!! We reach the end of the paddle and waste no time despite Xterrain are not in sight. Our support crew have everything all ready to go – my Keen shoes, socks, hat and within second it seems we are off and running on the final leg of the race and we are in the lead!!!!!

We are Team AdventureGear.com.au and we have one CP to go as we run 11k along the beach toward the finish. We are quick to locate the prominent rock and Sam punches the CP – we can see behind and no one is in sight. We relax and chat all the way to the finish and enjoy the lead we have developed and ponder moment. It’s a long slow run after you have been out for almost 28hrs – but we find the energy to wade the final stream to the campsite – hug or support crew and supports as we make our way to the finish of Geaquest 2007. We raise our arms as we cross the finish line, we smile and embrace each other – we achieved the ultimate success – it was our moment!!!!!!!

Hardtales in the wild

The Cast: Greg (Pa) Bacon, Kerry (Ma) Bacon, Sarah (Stixy) Bacon, Paul (Stiffla) Barry-Bacon, Matt (Angry) Bacon

Day 1, 7am - Pa’s Ponderings: As I held onto the back strap of our kayak I heard a loud crack and looked over to see one kayak being pole driven into the sand, further out to sea the Geo half teams were under way with the first wave of the Geo full teams close behind. Our team was ready to go when we all looked out and saw the biggest, meanest looking wave appear which sent kayaks running for cover, luckily the wave did not take any teams out but in that one split second I decided that I was not up to the challenge.

Angry’s Account: It had been nearly three months since I last paddled. A wedding, extended Italian honeymoon and squeez- ing in some work along the way had all conspired to keep me dry and my withered torso was feeling very underdone. Paul is always fit, but had paddled only once since Geo 2006, Sah had paddled a collective total km’s amounting to less than our first paddle leg (since having a steel plate inserted in her arm last June), and Pa, well he’s as strong as an ox on flat water, but the waves make him nervous thanks to a couple of near misses in recent times. Although Stiffla and I would readily bluff our way through the stage, if either boat turned over or struck dif- ficulty, the rescue in confused seas didn’t strike me as worth it. I just wasn’t prepared to put Pa and Sah into the water. The downside wasn’t worth it. I know Stiffla was devastated by the call, but he also knows it was the right one.

Pa’s Ponderings: We waited and discussed our options as the rest of the teams made their way through the surf. Our race was over before we started, but in the end we made a team decision based on the conditions and our team experience. We spoke to Louise who asked us to wait around till all the teams had made it through the surf. Matt went over to team Shackle- ton who had split their kayak trying to get out through the surf and was out of action, he offered them one of our boats, which they quickly set up and were off at the tail end of the field. We were fairly dejected as we watched the kayaks in the distance and we did not see any more rogue waves.

Our penalty for missing leg 1 turned out to be 2.5 hours on top of starting at 10.00am after the majority of the teams had reached Coffs Harbour. We started with two other teams that had withdrawn from the sea kayak section. Thanks Craig and Lou for understanding and letting safety come first for us.

Angry’s Account: Talk about a shitty lead up! Apart from some good hard riding in Italy, the major focus for 2007 has not been AR for me. Pa got very sick in May and wrote to us saying Geo was not an option, a blood infection stripped several kilos from him and the easiest session left him fatigued for days. Sah has been struggling with that awful break that just isn’t healing the way it should. Add to that a death in our other support crew member’s family and it was all looking a bit hard. Just to make it really interesting, the day we left for Coffs, the heavens opened and put the Homestead on high flood alert. This meant Ma had the added stress of trying to re-locate her elderly mother and sister from the farm whilst solo supporting us.

Day 1, 10am - Pa’s Poderings: Kerry being on her own also meant that our transitions would take a little longer as we all helped to move gear around for each leg. We knew that we could count on help if it was needed at the transition areas.
We started the first beach run from Coff’s without the bike as we thought it would be easier if we all jogged the 13 odd k back to HQ. It wasn’t long before both Sarah and I were struggling with the pace as we tried to keep our position in the field. It was a fun run and we chatted to a few teams along the way while we picked up a few CP’s. The run took us a little over an hour, which is around 30 min more than I spend on my usual training runs and about one hour longer than Sah’s combined runs in the past three months. The tide was out on our creek crossing before HQ so we all stayed dry for the next leg.

Angry’s Account: Dumb arse! Taking a bike would have spared Sah from running at 97% maximum HR for over an hour and Pa’s legs wouldn’t be smashed up as they could have ride/tie swapped back to TA, saving a bucket load of effort and keeping them fresher for the other 47 hours.

Day 1, 12pm - Pa’s Ponderings: The start of Stage 2 was a short kayak of around 6k to the next TA. We kept pace with all the teams around us and enjoyed the paddle. We made a note of the marker buoy with a CP for one of our return legs to HQ. There was a bit of a queue at the exit ramp to the next TA then it was off on the first MTB leg. We took time to get some food down at the TA, unfortu- nately we were taking around 20 to 30 minutes at each TA which slowed our progress.

Angry’s Account: Stoked with my call to skip the Leg 1 paddle. Stixy tea bagged most of the way to Transition and my arms and shoulders are hammered. Stiff and Pa ate the whole way, chatting merrily while we busted our arses trying to keep up, starving and thirsty! There’s a perfectly good towline in the Kayak tub. Dumb Arse Grade 2 status just awarded.

Day 1, 1:30pm - Pa’s Ponderings: The ride out to the hike a bike hill was straightforward and we passed a few teams on the way. Our big mistake was not taking off our bike shoes and using our run- ners for the climb. The climb took us a little over one hour with Paul helping Sarah along the way. The track was very slippery after the recent rain and getting a good foothold in bike shoes was not easy. My walking sideways up the hill soon set off leg problems and Sarah was starting to wonder what she had got herself into. We did the climb in a Congo line with the other teams as we all seemed content to fol- low one an other. Once at the top of the hill at around 600m it was time for the rogaine. We arrived at the TA for the rogaine at 3.00pm ready to tackle the next 18k Trek leg.

Angry’s Account: Hmm, hike-a-bike is fun. Great to be riding the hardtail, nice and light. Have in- creased my Dumb Arse-ness to grade 3 though! Broke two retractable towlines dragging Stixy’s bike, now we’ll have to fix or install new ones before the next big ride. More lost time in TA!!!.

Day 1, 3pm - Pa’s Ponderings: We set off to CP 8, the first of the deep creek legs and luckily by now the path was well marked by the teams before us. We met a few teams that had come down the spur before joining the creek and before long we were once again in a long line on our way down the moun- tain. The first two CP’s were picked up before dark and we set off on the leg to the CP below the wa- terfall just on dark. This was a tough climb back up with thick vegetation all the way. The razor sharp vines ripped many competitors through this area. We popped out above the waterfall and quickly went back a short distance and found the track down to the CP. We met more teams coming up the creek to the CP. It is interesting to see the different ways teams navigate on the course. We had marked up our maps to use as much of the roads as possible especially at night but on our way to CP11 we took the long route on the road, which probably took 30min longer due to some of the hills. The teams we were with had all turned earlier. By now Sarah was really starting to hurt and our pace slowed, we had been trekking for nearly 3 hrs by now so we had a break and food before pushing on. We picked up the other CP’s and ran into a four-wheel drive that had skidded down one of the many steep hills. We found it hard to walk on some of the roads, as there was little traction in the clay.

We picked up the last creek CP before climbing back up the mountain. We decided to go directly up the mountain instead of taking the road around. This worked for us as we got back to the TA before some of the teams that we were with who had decided to go via the road. Once we were back on the ridge track it was another grind up and down before the TA, on our way back there was a steady stream of teams all telling us not far to the TA but it seemed to take forever to get there. We spent another 30 min at the TA taking on food. The trek had taken us 7hrs and we were not looking forward to pushing our bikes up some of the hills on our return.

Angry’s Account: The demons are strong in AR. For those of us who have faced them before, the fight is easier with muscle memory and experience for teammates. For the uninitiated however, it’s
a lonely and frightening road. I’ve seen hardened iron men buckle after 12 hours in the bush, and
it’s a frustrating thing. The ‘Dig Deep’ ethos they live by turns to custard and there’s no talking them through. My Stixy said nothing however and just placed one foot after the other. I knew she was done well before midnight, but she just kept trudging. Pa and Stiff sensed it, but they too said nothing, they simply ate and worked and kept going in the right direction. The witching hour was upon us indeed!

Day 1, 11pm - Pa’s Ponderings: The bike leg to complete this stage was along a rolling ridgeline, and then when we hit the tower hill it was a steep hike a bike down the hill with plenty of sliding on the way. We made our next mistake part way down the hill. We were in conference with a few other teams, two kept going down the dozer track the other turned back to look for another road. By the time that we worked out where we were, we were too far down the hill so we decided to cop another penalty
for missing the CP. By now we were up to three hours in penalties and all of us were a little worse for wear. We finished the bike leg around 1am then headed off to HQ with our support crew (Kerry).

Angry’s Account: The track off the fire tower looked suspicious, but was the only one. 200m into
the downward march and Stiff pulled me aside, ‘We need to head back that way and up. What do you think?’ A quick look at Stixy trudging and Pa hobbling and our answer presented itself, ‘down and out!’ Getting back to TA with as little effort as possible was the only option if we were to salvage anything the next day. With that, we proceeded down the hill on the way to TA.

Day 2, 2am - Pa’s Ponderings: By now Sarah could barely walk so we told HQ that we would be

stopping for a while before heading off on leg 3. By the time we had eaten, showered and managed to scatter gear all around the camp site it was 2.00am, To top things off my wife Kerry had been fielding off phone calls all day as flood waters threatened to engulf our house near Newcastle. She made a few phone calls and decided that there was nothing that we could do and we would wait till after the race before worrying about it. Off to bed!.

We didn’t set our alarm before heading off for a sleep as Matt, Paul and I all thought that Sarah had just about cooked herself and probably would not continue in the race. I was up around 7.00am and Paul and Matt soon joined me. Sarah was still sound asleep so we decided to do some housework around the campsite. It was a beautiful day; we’d had a good sleep so it was now time to pressure Sarah into continuing. The three of us helped to drag her out of bed then proceeded with all the rea- sons why we should keep going. To our surprise a few of the Geo full teams were just heading out on leg three so it was time to get back into it. It still took us until 9.30am before we were all ready and our support crew vehicle packed for the next TA.

Angry’s Account: Nothing like a good sleep to wipe away yesterdays pain I always say! The best chance of getting Stixy going again however was Pa’s undying enthusiasm. I opened the window in the ute and let Pa do the rest. Paul and I packed in the background while Pa forced some coffee into the girl and convinced her we were just heading out to loosen up the aching muscles. Magic!!

Day 2, 10am - Pa’s Ponderings: We started Leg 3 with a short creek crossing, luckily the tide was out and it was a pleasant stroll across the river. I heard later that some teams had fun making the crossing at night, and with a high tide. It was now off on the 12k trek south along the beach and forest roads to the bike TA. We walked the first half of the trek then jogged the flats and downhills. It was a quite stroll by ourselves. We picked up the CP’s without too much fuss and continued to the next TA, we were greeted at the TA with, “What are you doing here, we were told that you had withdrawn”, No we just had a long break! Our bikes and gear were waiting for us at the TA. While riding along the riv- ers edge the first of the teams heading for the finish line could be seen coming down the river. It was a little disheartening knowing that we were so far behind but it was our call to take such a big break from the course.

Angry’s Account: 2 doses of Nurofen Plus in 4 hours were not working and Pa’s gait had crumbled into a hobble. The pain he was in was apparent to us all, but he didn’t complain. At 55 years old, his unspoken message was clear to any aspiring Adventure Racer, ‘Harden Up or Go home!’ I don’t think he’s ever DNF’d, and there wasn’t much chance of him choosing that option now. Stixy was improving in confidence with each hour and Stiff commented more than once ‘Hey Matty, how good is it not to be suffering behind Hugh and Ant and Freya? This cruisy speed is awesome!’

Day 2, 2pm - Pa’s Ponderings: We picked up two CP,s on the way to the rogaine split. Our next mis- take was not carrying a second phone for the split which meant Matt and Paul would have to pick up all the CP’s while Sarah and I relaxed around the fire. There were still a few teams with us as we had caught up to the back of the field again. To our surprise Matt and Paul were back to the TA in around 50 min but they had incorrectly marked CP-X on their map so it was back out again. This CP was the furthest out and it took them another 45 min to return. Back onto the bikes to pick up 4 CP’s on the way home. We took a wrong turn on one of the newer unmarked roads and wasted around 30min get- ting back on track. On the return trip we passed two of the teams that had left before us then it was downhill to the kayak CP. The evening was very mild and we enjoyed our ride home. We were all feeling well although a little let down by making a few more errors on the way which took the shine off a good days racing.

Angry’s Account: ‘How come you guys can all spin up the hills? My bike has crap gearing’ Pa yelled as he mashed past us, oblivious to the fact that he was still in the middle ring.... clearly feeding on other teams misery as we worked our way back through the tail markers. With his race face on, he panicked whenever we slowed to check our placement or correct minor errors. Stiff and I dumped the walking wounded by the fire place at the split rogaine, clearing the course in around an hour it was sweet to open the lungs up and suck it in. Unfortunately, we’d marked the wrong creek junction and ran straight past CP-X. 5 minutes of deliberation and determined not to miss any more CP’s, we ran back to TA, re-marked and shot back into the bush to clean things up. The ride out was solid, with a small error costing around 15 minutes as we climbed an unnecessary hill for the fun of it. Pa doesn’t know it, but we were just testing to see if he had found granny gear.

Day 2, 9pm - Pa’s Ponderings: We arrived at the kayak TA around 9.00pm. One of the full teams that we were with had just pulled out at the kayak leg. We set off on an ebb tide for the short kayak trip home. Paul and I had a tow line on for Matt and Sarah to make things a little easier and it took us a little over an hour for the trip to HQ. We arrived at HQ at around 10.30pm where it was now time to make our next decision. The organizers gave us the option of continuing on a short course by doing 20 odd k of the bike leg.

Our problem was we only had the ute set up to transport the bikes and kayaks with one support crew and we did not want to drive another car out to the TA, leave it there and have to return the next day to pick up gear etc. We were still feeling OK but the edge had gone off for us and it was an easy deci- sion to withdraw from the race.

Angry’s Account: ‘Pa STOP! What are you doing?’ Stixy exclaimed as Pa ripped open half a dozen glowsticks and started handing them out before emptying every dry bag in sight. ‘The Glowsticks are already set up! Leave that gear here, you’ve got poly’s in the boat already’
‘I’m just looking after myself now!’ Pa shot back as he gorged into some cheezos and a Le Rice. Every- one was a bit tired after two solid days.

I’d managed to keep my feet dry until now, and with 6km to go until TA, things weren’t about to change. I sent Stixy into the water to hold the kayak while I climbed out on an overhanging branch to lower myself in. Mission accomplished and I thanked Christ for the towline! It allowed Stixy to ad- mire the stars on her first night paddle and gave the comic relief of Pa calling out ‘Oh Shit, we’ve run aground!’ whenever the rope picked up slack as I put paddle up to eat.
Arriving back at TA near midnight, the chance of getting Stixy out of her sleeping bag in time to go out for a shortened version of Stage 4 seemed remote at best. Craig laughed and scribbled DNF onto our control card. The irony is that we did finish. We completed as much of the course as we could in the time available. Stixy found a whole new level of suffering that she didn’t know she could endure. Pa discovered the joy of being able to see where he was going in a race thanks to Laser surgery 3 weeks earlier and the loan of my HID light on the bike at night. And Stiff and I, we just enjoyed two solid training days, albeit somewhat overloaded with excess food!!

Day 3, 12:30am - Pa’s Ponderings: Things had not gone to plan but we still thoroughly enjoyed the legs that we had completed and as a team we had a great time. Our only support crew was thoroughly exhausted from the pressure of the event and the dramas unfolding at home and we were not pre- pared to make things worse.

Thanks to all our friends in the AR community that supported us through the event, especially the sup- port they gave Kerry while we were out. Thanks Louise and Craig for supporting our decision not to proceed on the sea kayak leg and to all the helpers on the course.

On a foot note Kerry and I stayed at Sawtell till Tuesday, the surf was around 2ft high, seas calm and there were heaps of whales making their way North. What a difference a few days make! In addition our house on the Hunter River escaped flooding and stood out like an island for a few days. Once again only good memories from Geoquest 07.

Greg Bacon & Matt Bacon Team Hardtale.com HQ www.hardtale.com

Team ‘Sleepless in the Saddle’ tames Coffs Harbour’s bronco like terrain

Adventure racing is the sport of paddling, mountain bike riding, trekking/and or running where the aim of the game is to navigate to a series of checkpoints hidden within a landscape comprising of anything and everything. The Geoquest is an annual event where teams of 4 travel to checkpoints together with the aim of completing the course within 48hrs. Teams are permitted a support crew which provides essential assistance in transportation, nutrition and morale throughout the race.

This year’s theme for the Geoquest 48hr adventure race was that of big hills, big surf and big floods. Anxious anticipation was the general feeling of competitors in the lead up to the Geoquest as weather reports were being circulated of rain being the most substantial for the east coast and ranges in months. Some locations were expected to get close to100mm and would coincide with a couple days of gale-force winds, causing damage and beach erosion! Not the sort of thing you want to hear leading into a race like the Geoquest.

Our Canberra team, Sleepless in the Saddle, comprised of Keith Conley, Paul Ledbrook, Eddie Fardell and myself, Sara Hely. As we made the 9 hour road trip to Sawtell through the heaviest rainfall seen by us in years, it was difficult to look forward to a gruelling 48 hour race that lay ahead. On arrival in Sawtell however, the large dark mass of rain and wind subsided almost suddenly and the eve of the race dawned sunny, with clear blue skies. Although the air temperature was chilly, hopes were beginning to rise that we would be lucky with the weather.

The next day was spent going through numerous gear and competency checks with the menacing sound of enormous waves pounding the beach behind us. The discovery of a broken steering peddle on one of our hired kayaks created more chaos as somehow we had to either fix or find a replacement for the kayak. Fortunately for us, team AROC being the professionals that they are, had packed a spare of everything which included a spare kayak! I can’t say enough how thankful we were for that boat.

The official race briefing and map issue was approaching. The course is kept secret until the day before the race, which adds both mystery and stress to preparation. After sitting impatiently through a long winded briefing, and the final mad grab for maps, it was time to finally settle down to read the course.

The next few hours were spent mapping and preparing our gear. Dazza, our support champion, was getting acquainted with our course and what was expected over the next 48hrs. We were pretty sure we were the only team that only had 1 person (compared to up to 9!) supporting us for the race, which we knew was a big ask when it came to lifting a double sea kayak onto roof racks. Given the sophistication of the campsite that Dazza had set up for us upon our arrival, we weren’t too worried. By the end of the race, Dazza had also made friends with just about anyone who wasn’t racing, and thanks to him and his dedicated followers he always had us covered.

The morning of the race was dark and gloomy, and the fear of rain came back to haunt us. Our start point had us in full view of the terrifying 3m surf and the look of apprehension was clear on most competitors’ faces. The race organisers had been aware of the chances of a big swell and we were all enormously relieved to see that our start point was from a nicely sheltered section of the beach. By the time the siren sounded however, there was rain, a strong wind and a bunch of very cold people.

LEG 1
• 17 km kayak – 1:45 – 2:30 hrs
• 11 km trek/ ride&tie – 1:10 – 2:10 hrs

The entry proved difficult for some teams but we were lucky to go through the surf reasonably smoothly. The next 17km were strangely uneventful despite the large rolling waves that saw many of those brave enough to paddle surf skis, dislodged from them. As we paddled into Coffs Harbour the sun came out, the wind was behind us, and a pod of dolphins escorted us in to our first transition. We moved easily through to our first coastal run leg, careful to find a pace that we could maintain through the long hours that awaited us.

LEG 2
• 6km Kayak – 0:40 – 1:00 hrs
• 15km Mountain Bike – 0:50 – 1:15 hrs • 18 km Trek – 3:00 – 6:00 hrs
• 11 km Mountain Bike – 0:35 – 1:00 hrs • Car Move

Leg 2 began with a simple paddle on flat water, a welcome sight after the high seas of the open water. The next mountain bike leg was far from flat however, with our first ‘hike a bike’ (termed this in adventure racing because, generally there is no way in the world it is possible to ride bikes up these hills and often bikes have to be pushed, dragged or thrown in some instances). The rain from the previous day had turned the narrow, extremely steep firetail into a buttery, slippery slide of people and bikes. For what seemed like hours we pushed and dragged our bikes up the enormous ridge line, a climb that would set the scene for the rest of the race.

Despite the tricky navigation at the top of the ridge line, we arrived for what was to be the most challenging of the foot navigation legs. The terrain for this leg looked like something from the jungles of Kokoda; thick rainforest with undergrowth and vines that made the simple act of walking hard work. Despite a couple of checkpoints being incorrectly marked, Keith’s ‘spot on’ navigation got us through without a hitch and we would gain several places, from 24th to17th by the end of it. Darkness fell before we arrived back at transition for our ride down the ridge to meet Dazza, our support champion for the first time. He stacked us all with hot sandwiches and drinks as we were driven back to Head Quarters for a quick change before leg 3.

LEG 3
• 14 km Trek – 2:00 – 3:00 hrs
• ~35 km Mountain Bike Adventuregaine – 2:40 – 5:00 hrs • 5 km each Split Trek – 1:00 – 3:00 hrs
• ~15 km Mountain Bike – 1:00 – 2:00 hrs
• 7 km Kayak – 0:45 – 1:15 hrs

Leg 3 began a little shakily. Our team newbie Ed, will never live down his battle with consuming a plate full of food quickly. Although it provided the rest of the team with hours of entertainment we took the next running leg steadily to ensure that Ed had time to take on enough food to get through this section.

Tiredness was setting in as we approached the dreaded witching hours of adventure racing. The hours between 2am and 4am are mentally and physically draining and signs of fatigue were showing in Captain Keith. He handed over navigation responsibility to me in order to have a well earned rest. The tricky mis-match of the map with roads on the mountain bike had us losing a lot of time at the start of the adventuregaine, however we recovered well and continued through to the team split. Keith and I were going for the supposed tricky navigation section and Paul and Ed going for checkpoints on the longer leg. Our teams easily collected the checkpoints and returned to the transition area only 10mins apart. Making up several more places, we were back on the mountain bikes before a short kayak back to race Head Quarters. There once again was Dazza with pasta, coffee and moral support. He would now have to drive us out to our final transition about 30mins drive away.

LEG 4

• Car Move
• 50 km Mountain Bike – 5:00 – 9:00 hrs • 19 km Kayak – 2:00 – 3:30 hrs
• 13 km Trek – 2:00 – 3:00 hrs
• FINISH!

For the most part, our team was still in good spirits. This was despite the next leg containing a daunting 50km mountain bike, featuring the biggest climb of the race. There is no doubt that this leg of the race was tough. It was relentless in the 7km of climbing to the top of the ridge, and despite promises of a long down hill, for each relief of elevation, we were greeted with another up hill to compensate. It was slow going and the kilometres dragged on. Just when we didn’t think we could bare another second on this arduous ridgeline, we came flying into transition and couldn’t have been happier to see Dazza this time with hot soup, bread and lots of encouragement.

The battle for us was nearing the end, but it’s not over til it’s over! The 19km paddle at 9:30pm at night was accompanied by thick fog making visibility low and creating a very eerie atmosphere. We regained one of the lost places from the mountain bike on the paddle leg, and were hopeful to gain yet another on the final 14km to the finish. Despite out best attempts, our speedy transition was counteracted by several errors at the start of the final trek resulting in us missing our opportunity to move into 12th overall.

The final beach run gave us an opportunity to reflect on the race and by switching off our lights, we were also given a spectacular view of the Milky Way and numerous falling stars. There were also patches of phosphorescence in the sand which entertained our fatigues minds for quite some time. In the last 5 k’s of the run, a team sneaking by us in stealth mode (no head lights) awoke us from daze as we realised that we may need to push a bit harder to maintain our position. We picked up the pace in the last couple of km’s with our lights out. We rounded the corner to our final river crossing before the finish and were caught like rabbits in the high powered spotlight which we came to fondly recognise as Dazza. The finish chute saw our team jog in comfortably within our goal of a midnight arrival. We crossed the line 14th overall and 10th in the premier mixed. Considering the calibre of the field in 2007 this was an impressive result.

The outcome of the event revealed that 45% of the field did not finish, many had trouble with problematic checkpoints, and injuries had plagued a number of teams. Overall, the weather held dry despite the rest of the central coast being metres under water! The race was won by the all star team which contained amongst others, Guy Andrews, and John Jacoby.

To wrap up, I would like to express a big thanks to my team Sleepless in the Saddle for a great Geo experience. I personally benefited from navigating under the watchful eye of Captain Keith and having this experience is bound to serve me well in the future. Paul, thanks for the light hearted nature and continued strength through out the race. Eddie, you were a source of enthusiasm and positiveness- and a welcome part of the team. I’d also like to acknowledge our sponsors- Cube Home Loans, Travel World Orange, The Beast Magazine, and 2XU. A huge thanks must also go to our support champion, Darren Conley. We could not have done that race without you, and you are the only person really capable of doing a job like that single handedly. For any other teams that saw the way our Dazza was working out there, don’t get any ideas, we already have him booked for next year!

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

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!

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!

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!

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

Until next time.

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

Author: Lucy Coldwell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GeoQuest Report by Jodie Willett (Tiger New Caledonia)

I’m sitting here with my feet elevated trying to reduce the swelling which is apparently ‘normal’ after a 29 hour adventure race. If I had to pick an area that took the worst beating it would be the feet. Though, considering the brutal terrain they covered, I’m surprised they don’t feel worse. I love that each Geoquest is different and the 2016 course was a change-up from last year. Located in Port Macquarie, there was actual single-track, paddle legs where navigation would be critical, and a night abseil. Thankfully I couldn’t see any leg that would require naked swimming (see 2015 report). At briefing we were also warned the second foot rogaine would be ‘epic’, taking between 6 and 8 hours.

Our team name, Tiger New Caledonia, reflected the work of Trevor from Tiger Adventure matching adventure race legend Gary Sutherland and I, with Laurent and Martial from the French-speaking islands. Along with our Hungarian-heritage support crew, Attila, we were like the United Nations of racing. We only met two days before the gun went off but we were going to give it a crack and make it work. I knew we were at pro-level when Gary brought his laminating machine to waterproof the maps. Everything had a process that has clearly been tried and tested. There was a ‘WTF?’ exclamation when he saw my rookie beanie which may have been a little bulky and 50 grams overweight. I didn’t know there were beanies for weight-weenies!

A little dance was performed (by me) when the traditional ocean paddle start was cancelled due to big swell. Relocating to the quiet river mouth, the first leg was a game of strategy allowing teams to split up and get checkpoints (CPs) using any combination of running and paddling. Our strategy turned out to be rubbish and we lost a bit of time when Gary and I got tangled in rope from an oyster farm and the New Cali guys got a hole in their boat after a close call with some rocks.

On to the run leg and due to things getting lost in translation we discovered a CP hadn’t been punched on our card when we passed. It was a case of everyone thinking that someone had done it so no one did it. The most important skill in AR is clear communication with team mates, closely followed by the ability to put mistakes behind you and focus on a solution. After a 30 minute round trip we were back on track, across the rocky coastline and on to the mountain bikes. This Geoquest was one for the climbers so the buff Police Tactical Squad member on our team was not enjoying this scenario.

Gear was showing the signs of strain as the event went on – skis filled with 10 kilos of water; the MTB helmet clasp failure which induced a blind-folded descent; lost screws from vital equipment. They were all fixed with two things – stubbornness and gaffa tape. Stuff broke and we fixed it as best we could. On the night paddle all 12 of our glow sticks failed to glow so we begged around other support crews for spares. Thanks to Team 21 for the multi-coloured glow bands which meant we were prepared for any raves we should encounter on the way. It was incredible the camaraderie with other racers and their crews. We arrived at one transition well before our support guy and were showered with offers of hot soup, chips and assistance from everyone there. To the lady who fed me the bacon and cheese scroll – you are a legend!

Each team had different strengths and I’d say ours was navigation. Between Gary and Laurent we found crazy rogaine CPs in indescribably dense scrub littered with fallen trees from recent storms. It was impossible to walk around all of them but treading on top risked falling through the branches. Making a path through thick vegetation is not my gift apparently and I constantly lagged behind. Having short legs and protecting the recent stitches in my knee I was being far too dainty. After hours of frustration I went full-blown ninja on the branches and vines while punctuating the forest with F-bombs. I’m not sure it was effective but it made me feel better. 6 hours of bush-bashing later, we emerged and agreed to never speak of the Punchbowl Rogaine again.

The sun had come up by this time and we had a straightforward MTB to our last TA before a 2-3 hour paddle to the finish. Making our way down the river was lovely and serene but not what you really want when you’re sleep deprived. Every few strokes my paddling partner’s stroke rating dropped as he had micro-sleeps so I had to yell and splash him with water to keep us moving. It was when he started hallucinating and dodging boats that weren’t there that I showed concern. I did this by laughing so hysterically I almost fell off the ski.

It was a big relief to cross the finish line at 29 and a half hours. To finish 6th after last year’s DNF was unbelievable. The post-race analysis started immediately and there were definitely time-savings to be made but seeing the winning team 5 hours ahead of us, the mind boggles at the consistent speeds they must have been moving at.

I had such a great time and learned an incredible amount that I’m looking forward to putting into practice at my next adventure race. It’s refreshing to start at the bottom and have so much to improve on and I don’t seem to lack any motivation for those 4.30am starts. I haven’t been able to say that for a while.

Thanks to:
Team mates: Gary Sutherland, Laurent Devaud and Martial Devillers – seriously tough guys. Our support crew of one who did an amazing job with almost no instruction or experience – couldn’t have done it without you Attila Kiss.
Tiger Adventure: for throwing us all together.
Bikes and suspension: For the Riders and NS Dynamics for the immaculate pre-race service
Ride Mechanic: The new Bike Mix longer lasting lube was perfect and went the distance
Shotz nutrition: Gels to keep the carbs going in
Tineli Australia: Best fitting kit around