ARC Excalibur - the day dawned like something out of the middle ages - drizzly rain, mist, and the torches moving erratically around in the car park at hahei in preparation for battle. And a battle it would be!
Taryn - our first race together this season - that's the problem when you recruit youngsters from your hockey team!
Tilly - always reliable, back from a huge showing at Red Bull Defiance
Coralie - a new import, super strong cyclist and keen for 12 hours of biking and trekking
The race started in Hahei, with a MTB out to Cathedral Cove and around farmland through to Coroglen, then a big trek up the Rangihau River and through the Pinnacles and Hihi and down into Broken Hills, before biking through a forestry block rogaine where the abseiling and shooting activities took place en route to Pauanui.
I was nervous going into this race - work has been overwhelming lately and I knew I'd be off the pace of my teammates. Sure enough, a sprint straight up the sealed road and I was struggling and lagging and looking longingly at the tow rope we'd put on Tilly's bike, although we'd said it was for the later stages of the race only. Well, I definitely need to do some work. (AND buy a nice new lightweight bike like Taryn's!!!!)
First leg was a bit shitty really, running with bike shoes to Cathedral Cove. As the weakest team member :( When we got there I stayed with the bikes as we were allowed to split them team, with the others running down to beach level to hunt out the CP.
After this our race prep paid off well, as we had the notes available which clearly said we could ride our bikes from the turn off. We passed some teams walking and exchanged some 'banter' about the race rules, which we checked again and kept on riding. Our nav in this section went pretty well too, with a couple of hiccups. We picked up early that we were heading too far North, and a couple of teams heading back towards us confirmed that! There was quite a scramble, and a bit of looking at rough tracks, until Taryn said "Remember, it should be easier than this" so we re-traced our steps a little bit further and found a whole blimmen track that we'd missed on the way up!!!
Second mistake was my fault for doubting Taryn. My maps were set to be lead early, but as we moved towards the end of the leg, hers was set, so I handed over Nav to her. A team just ahead went straight down the road, and Taryn turned us into a gravel driveway - which I then queried as I was expecting another road. I was concerned that just because it was on our map as the next right, didn't mean that any driveway was a right! My doubt threw Taryn, we rode further down the road, spied 3-4 other navigable features to confirm and turned right back around to go down her gravel driveway.
Support Crew. Wow. Support Crew. I've done very few races with support crew. Being a middle aged Mum, I really don't know many people who have a weekend to give up following crazies around the countryside handling their wet shitty socks and offering a variety of food choices. Most of my friends have already parented toddlers thanks, and don't need to spend a weekend reminding themselves of how awful it was. But for this race, Kate and Tilly's Mum had superkindly volunteered.... or been volunteered by Tilly. You couldn't have asked for better, with a super transition area set up in a DRY space, all our gear ready and the most solicitous queries, encouragement and helpfulness. I very nearly offered to stay with them for the rest of the day, but they did their job well and "shoo-ed" us back out into the rain on our bikes.
We were back again 15 minutes later, as we'd forgotten to check out of transition. Bwahahahah! Better than Richie McCaw's team, who made it 20 minutes up the valley to the gear check before realising they'd forgotten some essential and had to go back to transition for it.
Gear check - all good. (Kudos to the race organisers for actually doing a gear check - and for their nazi like Kauri Die Back measures actually, with no exceptions to cleaning bikes and footwear to protect our native forests).
And so the big trek began. We knew this was a big trek, but maybe didn't appreciate just quite how big it would be. 34km. Tilly can probably run 34km in a couple of hours. Unfortunately, this was a road race, or even a trail race, more like an extremely long obstacle mud run type event. You know, those ones that are usually about 45 minutes of good dirty, cardio hard fun? Maybe 5km? Well make that 33kms, add in a whole lot of rain, torrential rivers, knee deep mud, and nightfall. Get the drift?
The first obstacle was fording the Rangihau River above. A very gentlemanly men's team waited a few minutes for us and offered to add some height and weight to our groups crossing the river. I've been reading about river crossings, having had some difficulties in a flooded Tararua tramp recently, so was keen to put my newfound knowledge to practise.
Eventually, we returned to a spot we'd looked at earlier for it's good exit options and lack of white water and rocks. The difficulty here was, our only option was to swim, it was WAY deep. A few teams had joined up here and started swimming across one by one. We could see from our side how difficult it was to drag the teammates out of the water - but I saw a guy I knew on the far side, and asked him to please stay and catch me when I swam. A team of two ladies were sitting on the rock ledge ready to go next, obviously very apprehensive, so I offered to go ahead of them.
That swim was probably one of the scariest things I've done in adventure racing. I believe it was our safest option for crossing the river........ but our safest option would have been to turn back. hmmmmm.
Half was across, I was underwater and partially submerged as it bubbled around me, trying to get forward motion in running shoes and with a pack on. I could see Tim with his hand out, but knew I was going to be swept past him downstream without making enough distance - he took a big step out, with another teammate holding his other side in shallower water - grabbed my hand and towed me into the shallows. Despite being in knee deep water, I couldn't gain my feet, and thrashed in the shallows like a hooked fish for a bit before standing. Super relieved, I looked across at the rest of my team on the other side of the river.
Now, as the ladies told me later, my relief must have shown on my face. Apparently they read me like a book - terrified, relieved, and then visibly working to master my emotions and look encouraging. (this is all the while I'm thinking F***, do I encourage them over or tell them to turn back???) Anyway, everyone did make it across, Taryn showing some improved swim form compared to previous races. (We have to tease her about her swimming!) Coralie had said early, she wasn't a swimmer - it's ok there's no swimming in AR!!! Tilly cruised across with a ginormous pack on and made it look easy!
From here, we had a big climb up to the Pinnacles Hut. We enjoyed the company of some other teams, chatted away, worked well, navved well and enjoyed a rest at the hut. I'll complain to DOC that the BBQ wasn't going so I couldn't heat up my cheeseburger.
With time getting on and MANY kms to go, we skipped the out and back checkpoint at Pinnacles heights, and headed around to the Hihi.
Nav wise, the next few hours were easy to find your way on marked tracks, but difficult to stay focussed and stay tight on the map to know when to expect the CPs. I was pleased to nav through the camp and find CPs even when clues weren't quite exact.
Energy wise - the next few hours were a mudfest. Oh gosh. Quite literally 7 hours of wading through mud. Sometimes it was ankle deep, sometimes it was knee deep, sometimes it was thigh deep, but you never quite knew until it was too late and you were toppling over. There was no other option but to forge ahead in a bit of a daze really.
Somewhere about hour 5...... of the mud.... this is about hour........13 in total......... I returned to my contemplations of long course AR. I don't mind challenges, or tired, or wet, or muddy. I know I'm signing up to be pushed and be exhausted and have to keep moving forward. But I think I get really bored of the SAME agony for hours on end. The Monotony of "lift foot, learn forward, put foot down, sink up to knee in mud" Rinse and repeat for 7 hours. And I had an epiphany.
Maybe 6 hour races are more my thing - suit my ADHD better by changing it up a bit?
Anyway - the only good thing was, once we hit the downhill I was totally familiar with the area, having raced, camped and trained at Broken Hills a number of times so we wasted no time on nav at all. The trail is really technical, and I enjoyed the challenge of trail finding when sometimes the trail was actually a gushing stream, with only the orange markers confirming it was actually where we were supposed to walk. I guess at this stage I was relieved to be able to make up for some of my earlier weakness and lack of speed, as I'm quite comfortable on technical trail and was able to move fairly quickly while leading out.
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Broken Hills. 12.5 hours for that trek. (We entered a 12 hour race which has so far taken us over 15 hours)
Oh, our poor support crew. The only thing worse than wading through mud all day is spending all day wondering if your team is dead in the hills and you're wasting your time waiting in the cold, dark, damp campground in case they do emerge alive. And our wonderful crew once again had everything out and ready. I'm going to support crew for someone one day to repay this wonderful Karma that I have received.
Anyway - the rifle shooting is long since packed up. Tom and Hannah snapped the rope at abseiling so that's not an option, and we know we have no energy to contemplate heading into the forestry block on a bike rogaine. Given that the race is already in excess of what we'd thought, and that poor Coralie's TWELVE hour time frame was blown out of the water, in the end Tilly and Coralie stay at transition to help pack up and get a head start on hot food and showers, and Taryn and I are pigheaded and end up back on the bikes. I think this was the still stinging hurt of 'losing' the Whangamata race after getting a ride back to HQ, when we felt we'd actually completed more of the course, and the tougher part of the course, than the other ladies teams who turned back early. We were making it to the finish line under our own steam - the little engines that could.
It was a slightly eerie, lonely MTB. Surprisingly, our legs were good and we moved pretty well, definitely getting some pace along the slightly downhill and flat final sections. Although I must ask Taryn how she was feeling, she was right on my back tyre, in the draft, sounding cheerful when I checked she was ok - but didn't pass to take the lead at all! Was she tired and needing to draft? Or full of energy and not wanting to embarrass me by making me go at the back?
Our final challenge was a swim across the canal. The only good thing about being this late back, they had given up on making teams take their bikes across the river, so no salt water expensive bike shop visits for us. That said, Taryn and I totally played the feeble female card, whinging, moaning, squealing, asking advice and enjoying the attention of the marshalls at the crossing. Obviously we'd had enough of being tough chicks.
We finished at Midnightish? I don't even know! About 16 hours.
Learning:
*Don't make it hard on yourself - look for an obvious track first.
*But a lightweight bike if you're planning to race with people who are machines, with light bikes, and either 10 years of youth or 10 hours a week of training on you, and sometimes both! Or I could do more riding!
*Map setup with scale and mag north continuing to make things easy
*Topo maps are inaccurate - keep working on distance measurement and track this closely. Once you're off the map it's tough to get back on.
*When wading up a river bank, best to make sure all items in backpacks are zipped away, or that jacket washing down the river might be yours that you've stuffed in a mesh strech pocked! (It was rescued)
*River crossings. River Crossings. Hmmmmm. Learn a bit more. Do a proper Federated Mountain Club course. Turn back? I don't know. We all lived?
*Put up or shut up. If you're back up Nav, don't doubt the lead nav. Instead, if off the map I think I should ask the lead nav - what are your nav points - to be checking they are working from triangulation and be helping to spot the features.
*Support Crew. There are such good people in the world.
*Move back to 6 hour races??
