Today I'm likening Adventure Racing to childbirth - 24 hours later you have quite a different perspective on it! The 2017 ARC Long Course duathlon was tough day out, I think one of the toughest I've had physically and mentally in a race. It's only afterwards that the struggle becomes a positive challenge overcome.
Thursday, Tom got called up for Godzone and ditched me for the better offer! So my race partner Jen had all of 12 hours to prepare for this race, and had to do a day's work in there too.
Race briefing, maps distributed. I've entered a 12 (for winners) -18 (slower teams) hour race, and first doubts set in when the notes say 14-23 hours. That's quite a big difference!
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| A Looooong Way |
MIDNIGHT
Race start at midnight is full of intensity, excitement, mood, and a great chance for some navigation practise in the dark. Being awake for 18 hours before race start, and 36 hours straight for race finish has a huge impact on mental capabilities!! I realise now, that this drastically affected my attitude in the hours of the early afternoon - when the pedalling just became monotonous and the brain cycle slowed and I felt particularly whingy.
The early nav went pretty well, negotiating through to the Harray Track and for the most part staying out of the clusters of other teams pondering a number of off shoot trails not showing on the maps. Extra and/or invisible tracks became a bit of a theme of the race. I took up orienteering to improve my navigation for adventure racing, but orienteers are notorious map snobs and spend hundreds of hours making sure maps are up to date and accurate. That's just not possible on a large scale adventure race map and if I learn to navigate REALLY well I will not be so thrown by invisible trails or small tributary streams not shown on the map.
WASPS
The first real adventure hits when we are just finishing the Harray Track, running with a large group of 15-20 people when someone at the front yells "Wasps - RUN" I'm good at following instructions, take off and can feel them hitting my body, instantly burning on shin, thigh and tummy. Unfortunately I shouldn't have presumed that Jen had also heard the call, and when I took off, she hesitated before following suit. Perhaps due to this, she got a good dosing, and by the time she made it to me had about 8 of them clinging to her clothes. The map bag got unintended use to knock the little buggers off and we luckily had antihistamines in the first aid kit, but boy those stings hurt viciously all day!
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| Stung by wasps, stalked by a giant gorilla, terrified now at the slightest noise... |
SCARED
It is really stressful and scary to one minute be amongst a lot of teams struggling to find CP2 and get out of the stream, and nek minnut be standing in the stream on your own with everyone gone and still unsure where to go. It was a long, scary time before we found our way out, thinking we were last. We found out at prizegiving that a few teams had given up and headed back to the road up the hill instead.
CIVILISATION
After over an hour in the dark with no one around, it's amazing (and reassuring) to find civilisation at the top of a hill. We could hear that small city of teams hunting for a mine shaft WAY before we got there, and our relief at catching up again is probably what pulled us into the melee of racers on the wrong pink ribbon line.
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| Team work |
Opotiki Possums. Once we had checked the pink ribbon line for ourselves, and also deduced we were all on the wrong line, we headed back to our last known mapped spot. We were tracking behind Adv Race legends Opotiki Possums, who many years ago loaned me a track pump at a race in Kawerau, and whose philosophy to get the most out of every race I admire. I mentioned that we were pretty unhappy to end up in the stream on our own, and didn't want that to happen again. As they peeled off from the main group in the hunt for the mine, I was happier with their nav choice than where most teams went, so we stuck behind them to check that option. Ten minutes later, my battery died and we had to stop to hunt out my headtorch, and the Possums continued into the night as possums tend to do.......... but after a minute one of those Possums, turned back and came to check we were ok, and even offered to wait until we were sorted. That's a good sort and it was much appreciated.
GORILLAS IN THE MIST
Scrambling through a mine, I can hear an odd groaning sound I think is wind whistling through the shaft. I've turned around to help Jen through an awkward vertical hole. I take a step back and look to my right and nearly fill my pants as a full sized Gorilla steps out of a mine shaft beside me. My lasting impression will be of Race Director Andy sitting behind his mate in the very professional gorilla suit, chuckling like a school boy.
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| End of the First Trek |
Having been fairly confident that CP5 wasn't where it was mapped, and not being game to bush bash night nav to 6 - some quick decision making saw us quickly move ahead of other teams still getting a grips on the situation and get an advantage towards the transition. We reach the farm road at the same time as men's team "Brothers from another Mother" who have negotiated the slippery track more quickly. It was nice to have some company as they joined us out to CP 7, sharing stories and discussing the course so far. Over the course of the day we saw them a number of times, they always cheered us on and congratulated us on our progress. It's a highlight of adventure racing, meeting teams and support crews out on the course and enjoying some camaraderie in the shared challenge.
GUILT
We had a chuckle with the "Brothers" team as another men's pair turned up and we pretended to look for the checkpoint we had already found, in what we knew was the wrong place. The sort of gamesmanship that keeps me entertained in a long race. A minute later we came across two more blokes, only to realise it was actually half of the Possums team we'd been foxing! Oops.
JUST KEEP PEDALLING
So, Stage 2 was a LONG ride. A really long ride, with lots of climbing and I started to suffer keeping up with my fitter and faster teammate and the effects of mental fatigue as well. Although Jen's never done an adventure race before, she's done a lot of endurance cycling, and has "Just keep pedalling" inscribed on her headset. At times, that's all I could do, just keep pedalling, but it definitely became a struggle. We tried to focus on positives - like riding trails in beautiful places where I had never been before - but I really was in a right funk. I love adventure racing and have been excited to have the chance to move up to the longer events, however I'm finding they usually have a lot of kms for not an equal amount more adventure. Actually not being a talented athlete or that keen on any training, I'm not sure that the long course events are really my thing!
CLOSE ENCOUNTER
Jen called "That's a steep one" as I followed her into a stream on a little switchback corner, like many we'd already ridden. Fatigued, not pushing down through my arms and heels, I floated the tyres to have a close encounter with sharp rocks and find myself with a throbbing elbow and leg, stuck to my pedals lying in the stream. I shredded the arm of my good riding jacket($$!) and struggled to get even pressure on the handlebars for the rest of the day through a stiffening arm.
MUD
Ew. Oh. Sigh. Yuck. Grouch. It's drizzled on and off during the day which hasn't been a problem, only wore my jacket for about half an hour (the half an hour when I happened to fall off.....). But, as a result or 3 days of rain, the trails are pretty sloshy, and on the farm at the top of the peninsula we hit so much mud our bikes are barely functioning. Literally handfuls of mud all through the drive train, clumped around the forks, filling all the tread, and our bikes were toast. We spend 20+ minutes trying to wash them off in a stream then later at a campground hose. The sort of mud that makes a bike mechanic rub his hands together and make "cha-ching" sounds and the person paying the bill cry. This did not add positively to my mood.
SUPPORT CREW
Wow. Completely humbled that a friend who I don't even really know that well, answered a Facebook plea and offered to give up a (rare) child free weekend to drive in circles around the Coromandel, shove food at smelly racers, refill drink bottles, and scrape up our manky dirty gear to put in dry bags. Wow. I still don't really know why she did it but she was very good at it.
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| Showing off my bike injuries |
RAFT
Relieved to (finally) be off the bike and have some respite for my dead legs, I developed a new race strategy. Having made a number of ARC rafts before, I knew they would give us sticks, tubes, rope and a couple of paddles to construct our raft. I also knew I was crap at it, with my tube usually falling off and collapsing the vessel. So I sat down, chatted with the marshalls and left Jen to it as I was really pretty over it! Sorry Jen, I don't usually get in that state, but you made a wicked raft!!
MARSHALLS AND VOLUNTEERS
I think the marshalls and volunteers at the ARC actually inhibit my ability to have a fast race. They are just all such interesting and entertaining characters, I'd rather hang out with them than keep moving. The guys at the rafting had no sympathy for my over dramatic claims of exhaustion and enjoyed hassling us about how muddy us and our bikes were and expressing concern that we might have been planning to strip off more than just our shoes and socks to take to the raft. Keith told us we should have done more training so the marshalls could get home at a reasonable hour, and the safety kayak had the patience of a saint following our snails pace out to the checkpoint. He did have a good chuckle when we were trying to commit the CP number to memory "1722, 17 is my birthday and 22 is how old I'll be" I said. If the gentleman at the rifle range doesn't already have a crew of kids, I'd be happy to be adopted by him - he waited so patiently when I lay my head on the shooting table for a little nap, then talked my through body position so carefully I got 5/5 ducks for the first time ever!! He probably didn't realise that I've been haunted by letting my previous teams down in the shooting in not getting the bonus minutes for 100%.
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| Heading to the finish line - top of the last hill! |
As I said to Christine "Take the slowest expected time, add a couple of hours to it, and that's when you can expect us in transition." We missed a lot of checkpoints, and the Race Organisers cut the whole final stage for the long course, a 35km mountain bike with the winners still only just finishing in the expected winning time. I spent a large portion of the day pushing my limits past having 'fun' but after a hot shower, a good sleep, and some real food, it all comes into perspective.
I went to places I'd never been before, and places hardly anyone has ever been to before, and that's why I race. I met and enjoyed the company of new people, and that's why I join in. I didn't think I could move forward for 18 hours on rough terrain and big hills, but my race partner taught me to "just keep pedalling" and that's why I have a team. I got frightened half to death by a giant gorilla in a mine shaft at 3am in the morning, and that's why I keep going back. Better work stories.
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