If only I had a dollar for every time I heard that leading up to the Munter!!! I can confirm that 24 hours feels much longer when you're trying to navigate, coordinate, decision make and force your legs to move forward, during the hours when your brain just wants to be sleeping. Apologies for the long blog, but as this blog is really just so one day my kids read it and think "Mum really was crazy", I reserve the right to write it so I can remember it as I'm pretty sure my memory is already going.
MM is big. It's a big time. The legs are big. The navigation is big. Distances are big. Community Spirit is big. But most of all, those hills are big. Even with the baptism of fire that was the 2017 inaugural MM, I still can't look at those contour lines and get a mental 3d picture of the size and steepness of those hills. Standing high at CP A, overlooking the Rogaine stage, my heart sank at the bigness of it all.
"So, those bush CPs, M and N, are..............." (moment of quiet)
"Yep, way over there." (everyone looks at the trees so far away they are in the haze of the late afternoon sun, protected by numerous BIG hills and BIG valleys.)
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The Munter is big. But a big challenge is exactly what we came for. Journey Wild is the only Women's 4 team entered, just as we were last year. (I have grand plans to be the only female team to have ever raced ALL Marokopa Munters - do you reckon we'll get a free entry in the 10th year celebrations?? Matt? Nev?) Last year's incredible adventure, we toiled out the back all day, jostling for last place with a couple of other teams, and got a truck ride home having run out of time with two stages still to complete. We knew we'd done really well in a BIG race - but it's still a DNF aye?
2018 is a new format allowing teams to collect those CPs which they choose, missing CPs and cutting legs short to finish as much of the course as they feel able to. We'd discussed this beforehand, and our key team goal was to complete all legs, and to finish the course under our own steam. We worked really hard on our timing and strategy beforehand, as the nature of the MTB legs linking the major treks and Finish line, meant we still needed to be careful to allow enough time for the distance travelled, regardless of whether we were collecting the CPs or not. Tucked up in bed on Friday night checking over my maps, I found a key mistake and had to reconvene with the team in the morning and re-set our plans. Luckily, I asked Taryn to check the timeline and support crew timings and she found a mistake in my maths shortly before leaving time which sent me into a spiral of panic and re-re-timelining!
Stage 1 - Kayak:
Kayaking is not going to be our (my) strength. This is my first ever kayak in an AR. We've decided to miss checkpoints 1-4, get ahead of the pack and then enjoy our own race. It's a beautiful sunny morning on the Kawhia Harbour as we take the boats.
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| Kayak Stage 1 |
RACE CLOCK: (all times are approximate, because really, it's just a blur!)
00:05 Paddling in circles, with a jammed rudder, looking like total wombles right in front of the organisers on the start line. Cringe. I'm surprised they didn't send a boat out to get us and tell us we obviously weren't safe to take on a BIG race.
00:15 Rudder sorted, making forward progess, watching the team in front of us struggling to paddle in shallow water on an outgoing tide, we make the decision that it'll be faster to run on the mud.
00:17 Liz is storming through the knee-high mud, making good progress but using plenty of energy while the rest of us waddle behind to stay within our allowed team distance, but using her strong legs to do the extra metres.
00:18 Liz is wading through thigh high mud.....
00:19 Liz is languishing in waist deep mud and we return in shame to the boats to paddle closer in. It's hard not to be frustrated at the loss of time, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, and now we've learned not to take that mud lightly!
00:40 We've got some rhythm, picking up CPs solidly, with Lauren and Liz calling our lines around the mud and into the channels where possible. The sun is shining, and being in a kayak feels a great adventure for me as a novice. When we exit the boats for CP 7, the water is another 200m further away by the time we return from the mud dash to the CP, and we realise how much less water and more mud there is for the teams who went for CPs 1-4 first.
01:10 Taryn and I paddle merrily past Liz clinging precariously to the ladder under a bridge to clip CP8 while Lauren tries to hold the kayak steady underneath. There's a reason why we put the two strongest paddlers in one boat, and that's it right there!
1:50 Owhiro Stream gets smaller and narrower and windier and has windfall. Windfall on a kayak leg!!!!! I would never have imagined that was a thing, as we hop out of the boats and lift them over and around trees in a setting that would be very picturesque if it wasn't for needing to carry the boats!
02:30 Transition 1. I'm a real adventure racer who did the paddle leg! KAYAKING IS THE BEST THING EVER! Where do I buy one?? Woop woop!
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| Kayak to Owhiro |
Stage 2: MTB
02:45 We comment on the deep ruts in the farm track, now dry and hard, and reminisce on the constant shin deep mud from 2017 MM and feel pretty lucky. GOOD WEATHER IS THE BEST THING EVER!
02:55 We grind our bikes up a bloody steep hill in the beating sun and think maybe we're not so lucky...... "It's ok girls, once we hit CP 10 we'll be in the bush and get some shade"
03:15 So, maybe it's just head high scrub and still totally exposed to the sun.........oops.
04:00 After CP 11 we hit the farmland, and look across to CP 12. I wanted to check if there was a way through there, but it looks fairly rough farmland so we continue around the track. At this point our friends and partners in team Disco Lemonade overtake us, the second team to come through from behind having collected all the CPs, but on looking at the tracking later on, did the winning team take the shortcut across the lake edge and pass us all here??
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| Giving some encouragement to Team Disco Lemonade. |
05:00 Transition 2, ahead of schedule after a strong bike making use of Liz's legs on the front of the peleton.
Stage 3: Rogaine Trek
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| Rogaine Stage 3 |
05:10 Mystery Activity Shooting - go girls, great score which means we carry only a little penalty sand for this leg.
08:00 It's taken us a while to find our Mojo in this leg. The nav is challenging - I've got excited by being able to see the watertank of CP C and wandered off my bearing to a totally different water tank; and CP E we were short on our distance and went down the wrong ridgeline. We pick up CP D with a return to confidence, we are tired and hungry but with the sun fading we continue to push on, trying to make the most of the light. We decide to climb high toward F to get a good viewpoint with the last of the light, then pick a good route through the saddles to CP I at Puketarata Pa.
09:00 Team Naki Bits are sitting at the Pa having a break watching the sun set, and we wish we had a camera as it would make a great team photo of their silhouettes. Without a lot of confidence in my night nav though, we continue pushing on till dark. We are now REALLY tired and hungry and it feels like it's been hours that we've been trying to make use of the last hour of the daylight!
09:30 It's dark. We're cold. Someone is going to sprain an ankle trying to walk without lights. We finally take a break, get changed, sort lights, take a deep breath and head into the darkness. My warm jacket feels like THE BEST THING EVER!
10:00 CP F. CP F. CP F. I'm totally gutted we didn't find this one. After initially overshooting without realising we were on the road which didn't look as much like a road in real life as it did on the map..... we found the right high point, checked by looking for the loop in the road, checked elevation of the vague high point, and scrambled around in the bush with a number of other teams. We took bearings, pace counted, grid searched; and even decided that the centre of the CP circle was actually due south of the highpoint rather than magnetic south, so grid searched in that direction too. Gutted to find out later that it wasn't gone and some teams did find it, in a very dense scrub.
11:00 Heading back to TA, we'll just wander up the stream to pickup CP K on the way. Yeah right!! As per MM styles, this little stream was quite steep and gorgy in places, but we choose good routes and continue on a good ridgeline towards the TA.
11:30 Transition 2 for a good old kiwi sausage in bread and a hot milo which may have just been the BEST THING I'VE EVER TASTED.
Stage 4 MTB
14:00 TA 3. Wow, we're here already! Go us, nailed that MTB leg! Our super amazing support crew made me a chicken cuppa soup which is THE BEST THING I'VE EVER TASTED.
Stage 5 Trek
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| Trek Stage 5 |
15:00 We are way ahead of schedule, so decided to adapt from our previous plan to just head straight through the check and only pick up those CPs on the track towards the next TA. Intrepid adventurers that we are, we head off for CPs 15, 16, 17 and join a whole lot of other teams wandering around saying "Have you guys found 15?" Changing the race plan is the WORST PLAN EVER! This is the time when brains stop to function, 2-4am in the morning and not only were we struggling to navigate in a very challenging area, decision making was definitely impaired. We just couldn't quite bring ourselves to give up and walk back to the TA along the southern farm track to be sure of our position and head out on the gorge track. The longer you leave it, the harder this backwards decision gets. And we went back and forwards in making this decision and then backing out of it. Eventually we decided to take a bearing north to hit the gorge track and just hope we didn't get bluffed in. We headed that way and stumbled upon CP 15!!! BEST FEELING EVER!! More good luck than good management then saw us hit the gorge track and spot a marker, so we were back on our way.
18:00 Taryn had a terrible night's sleep on Friday night, and she has hit the wall. She's pale, her eyes are puffy, she's pretty much lost the will to live, but somehow she is digging deep and putting one foot in front of another to move forward. Everyone has got a little quieter, but Lauren has been here before in a 24 hour race, and steps in behind Taryn to keep an eye on her and talk her through while Liz and I continue to navigate. The darkness before dawn is tough, but Lauren reassures us that we'll get a second wind when the sun comes up. We head off the track in just the right place to nail CP 19, wet feet at this time of day is a bit mean!
21:00 TA 4. I put on clean, dry socks which is THE BEST THING EVER! Taryn has a coffee and is pretty much a new person. Liz storms through transition, obviously aware that time is of the essence to get to the finish line in time.
Stage 6 MTB
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| MTB Stage 6 |
23:00 I'm super impressed with how well everyone is moving. These chicks are tough, 23 hours non stop and they're still in the saddle, climbing well, not an inkling of a whinge amongst them. As we turn off the road, Lauren and I have been through this section in last years MM, and have the unfair advantage of knowing that the farm track goes a LOT further than it shows on the map, so I'm confident that we'll be on track all the way back to the road. There are some steep downhills with fist sized gravel rocks, balanced with some pinch climbs and pushes, so everyone is needing to stay focussed and dig deep. It's quite a relief to hit the tarseal road, and we think we have JUST enough time to hit the finish line within 24 hours.
23:30 &%$# HEAD WIND. WORST THING EVER. That's just a cruel West Coast joke. I can sit in behind Liz quite comfortably as she grinds away, but when she hears me freewheel and fades out to give me a turn it's like being hit with a brick and my legs are screaming at me. We grind it out until we see the Marokopa Hall in the distance, but call it adrenaline or pig-headedness, instead of relaxing knowing we still have ten minutes, we keep pushing hard. There's a stunned silence when I call out "CP 28 up the hill" so I follow it up quickly with a "Just Kidding"
23:52 Finish line. Planning and timing spot on. Ignore Nev and Matt's handshakes and launch into hugs instead. That soup waiting for us on the finish line is the BEST THING I'VE EVER TASTED.
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| Hugs |
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Finish Line
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Reflections: The change of format this year has made the MM a much more achievable option for teams wanting to challenge themselves navigationally and physically, while still maintaining difficulty and distance for those Godzone level teams. Our results show that we were racing in the big pond with some quite big fish, yet being able to miss some CPs enabled us to remain in touch with the race and enjoy the momentum of the whole event rather than sitting out the back. The terrain is BIG, leading to BIG views and rugged West Coast scenery that is super impressive to race through. The course setting and clever placement of CPs kept us engaged in every leg, with minimal sections of that monotonous, soul destroying plod that can happen in long races. The marshalls and team involved are the icing on the cake, while I'm sure the event will continue to grow with so many happy competitors, I hope it never loses the personal touch which they have totally nailed.
Learning:
Be Decisive. Consider the options, make a decision and go for it. (Post script - I failed on this one already at Otorohanga McDonalds - so many options on the menu...………..)
Distance. OMG how many times is this going to be on my learning list!!!!!
Continue being awesome at choosing teammates. Nailed it with this crew.
Carry first aid kit, phone and survival blanket even on a Kayak leg where compulsory gear isn't compulsory. The story of the bloke who tangled with an oyster shell and spent the day with the Waikato DHB wasn't friendly.
Inject some support crew Karma into the world - Jo our support crew was an absolute storm trooper and took everything in her stride, with Neil also adopting us while waiting for his team and offering all sorts of good help and advice. Good sorts.
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