Whangamata Adventure Race - 6 hour

Rochelle and I headed out for Take 2 of our quest to take over the world of Adventure Racing, 1st women and 7th out of 70 teams overall.  Did I mention last time, that Rochelle is a completely talented runner.  Me, not so much.  I love to ride mountain bikes.  Rochelle doesn't even own one.  Luckily, I own three!  My point is, our strengths are completely different.

Leg 1: Straight into a tough soft sand beach run - I'm puffing and lagging, while Rochelle is loping like a long limbed gazelle and schooling me to stand in her footprints where the sand is already partly compacted.

Leg 2:  After a short ride through some open forest, we're pushing our bikes along the same soft sand while I'm internally crying in frustration Rochelle is rapt to have every excuse to be pushing her bike already.  

I've got Tom's old XTC with no suspension and one part working brake - I wasn't taking the Anthem on the beach!

Leg 3: The Race Director has unleashed his particular liking for streams and we spend hours rock hopping while I wait to break an ankle or a wrist and ruin my plans for joining an NZ representative hockey team in just two weeks.  (I can hear you ask = Why am I doing a risky adventure race just a few weeks out for a major event?   Well, because Rochelle's a beginner cyclist so it's not like I'll be tearing up a technical downhill and breaking a collarbone is it?  What can go wrong on a run leg?  Duh!) 



Leg 4: Back on the bikes and Rochelle is consistently on my back wheel, with a view of my backside for over an hour.  She said it in the most positive way, a compliment, I can't quite remember the wording but it was something along the lines of "Look at the size of your legs, no wonder you find it so much easier to pedal than I do". 




 Leg 5:  We get to the finish line with about 30 seconds to spare, to be told that there is a Mystery Activity they have neglected to mention at briefing or include in any of the race notes.   I'm tired, I've timed it perfectly, they're going to give me a time penalty for some daft activity they didn't let me allow for; I settle myself in for a good legal argument about it but good old Runner Rochelle is already speeding off towards the Mystery Activity. 

It turns out, we were REALLY good at the mystery activity - other teams were experiencing carnage!

One of the activities was to take a selfie - so we just joined someone elses.........

So much fun to be had!