Kawerau Adventure Race

Nerves were a little high for this race.  I've finally quit the job that was driving me mad and killing my training with overtime, but I'm reflecting on nearly a year of reduced exercise.  Top that off with abdominal surgery in April and..... excuses, excuses but I'm pretty worried Rochelle is going to kick my butt!!! 

Kawerau is cold, cold, cold!  The race start is a half hour walk from transition base, we shed our warm layers with some reluctance and grin and bear the -1 degrees.  As we approach the start line we are given an egg - keep it safe till the end for 100  bonus points; I tuck Egg-bert into the front pouch of my UD vest, making a little nest of my merino hat, and wedging in a couple of muesli bars to make little walls.  Sleep well little guy, I don't like your chances.......

The start line is chaos - they always are!  We push hard (well I do, Rochelle can run about 2 mins a km faster than me, I'm practically sprinting!) as we want to be near the front and not caught up in the congestion.  The first mystery activity is an open forest space with multiple bird pictures nailed to trees; find 5 forest birds and move on for maximum points.  Great plan #1 - it's a long skinny area marked on the map, alongside the road which we are going to continue down.  Rather than splitting up and meeting back at the entry point, Chelle and I take one side each, run the whole length of the area while remaining in calling distance, and meet up at the end.  We've seen a Kiwi, Fantail, Kokako, Pukeko, and a bird which I thought was a Kaka, but the guy running nearby called a Kea....... as we run off we catch a glimpse of a Kereru, so quickly swap that one in.  Fairly rapt to be in the first bunch heading out from the area, which gives us a clear run through the falls and into the climb without getting stuck behind anyone. 

I've told Rochelle beforehand, that one of my goals is that when it's too technical, or I'm too tired to run; I want to maintain forward momentum, to not switch to an amble.  As a result, she's often saying "Fast walking" or "Run this bit".  This strategy totally worked as we came off the trek well ahead of teams who would have had potential to move faster than us.  I was possibly also a little more knackered than I would otherwise have been!!  It's definitely a strategy to put a teammate in charge of. 

The Tarawera Falls are so impressive, and it's lovely to run along the turquoise river which Rochelle had never seen before and was very admiring of.  The trek leg in general was awesome, great variety of climbing, bush, a shingly wash, regular CPs to keep us busy - one of my favourite treks I think.  The path is totally marked with pink tape, as the RD was concerned about someone falling off the huge bluffs to our East, but this is balanced with some of the CPs being out of sight, on the backs of trees, and quite hard to find.  You really had to be on the map and know when to look, and we did really well through this section, although the Dead Tree which hardly looked dead, I just happened to fluke looking back at the right time. 

We leap frogged a little with another ladies pair, who were moving faster but overrunning some CPs.  They missed the access into the wash, and Rochelle and I put some quick yards in to make the most of our adventage.... and proceeded to overrun the CP!  Arrrggghhh!!!  We decided to leave it and continue on rather than go back.

We came off the trek leg well ahead of our envisaged time..... so as a result, decided to head out on the extra loop rather than be faster than expected on the bike as well and run out of points to collect.  Turns out we should have stuck to our plan, as that's what the ladies who won did!!!  Friends from Orienteering Bay of Plenty took out the win, by a considerable margin, but both are very strong cyclists. 

Running the long loop was fairly torturous for me - pushing beyond my current run legs as it was open road and speed was vital.  I seem to be comparatively faster trekking!  I also got a bit behind in my nutrition, and heading out on the bikes was decidedly legless and thought I might be done!   Rochelle has joined a MTB group, and a windtrainer competition against Mr Bib Shorts Man; her legs were in way better shape than mine initially.  Luckily I got a second wind, and was able to finish a little stronger, managing to get just far enough ahead of Rochelle to return her earlier reminders to speed up with a "Fast pedalling" jibe!  (I'm pretty sure she just let me get in front for my prides sake!)

We had a great time on the small rogaines, getting all CPs although with a bit of mucking around on one CP which cost us a bit of time.  The second rogaine was compass bearings and distances, which I quickly ran through while Rochelle cleaned her shoes.  (Yes, she cleaned her shoes!).  This was a highlight as I'd take my bearing and say "300 degrees, 45 metres - somewhere there by the leaning tree" and I'd run to the leaning tree and it was right there!!!  Managed to repeat this for all so was rapt to pick up these 500 points really fast, as we were running late and getting penalty points in a gamble to be earning more than we were losing.

At the Mystery Activity centre, hatchet throwing Rochelle's gentle nature was possibly a disadvantage as it kept bouncing out, maybe my East coast upbringing helped me there - but I pretty much watched and chatted to the race organisers while she finished our wordfind!   Egg-bert was gingerly withdrawn intact from his nest for our bonus 100 points; and we finished with puddles still frozen around our feet!

I hoped for a top 5, felt disappointed to not be called for 5, 4, 3; and then fairly rapt to be called for 2nd.  As it turned out, there were only 50 points between us and 3rd - 5th.  If we had been 3 minutes slower we would have been pushed out. I wonder what 50 points other teams are lamenting in hindsight! 

ARC long course - Raging Rivers and the Muddiest Bogfest on Earth

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.

 

Challenge #2.  The next river crossing.  Oh boy.  I can confirm that it was higher and faster when we arrived that in the photo above. We watched our friendly mens team attempt a crossing 2-3 times and keep returning.  We spent an hour ranging up and down the river trying to find a safe crossing point with other teams catching up and trying also.  At times as we clung to trees on the bank someone would lose their footing and have to be grabbed by the others.  I've never experienced a current so strong.

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??


 

Whangamata 12 Hour AR - November

Whangamata 12 hour

Walking down a stream, for hour after hour...........hours after we thought we'd be finished the race. 

That's pretty much all I remember of this race, trying to write the blog a few months later. 

Wow.  Boy, were we in a tough place.  Short of food, short on energy, stumbling down a steep gorgy creek with numerous falls, pools, technical difficulties.  2am, 3am, 4am, and we thought we'd be finished around 8pm.  Where did this all go wrong?

This race had a Godzone level trek - a full on off track, hours bush bash in impenetrable forest. 

We got to this trek stage in good spirits, albeit a number of hours later than the leaders.  Bang - we hit the first CP like a brick wall.  A tricky off track bush bash from a high point, down and up to hit a ridge and out to another high point.  Except we ended up back where we started, doing a complete 360 back along a ridge.  Ouch.  Loads of teams struggled, and most turned back, opting to finish the bike leg back to the coast.

Not us.  No, no, not us.  We sat down for a good 40 minutes, looked over our maps, even rang the race director.  And decided to go on, because:
A) We had live tracking beacons enabling us to communicate with base - when do you get the chance to test navigation with this level of safety?
B) It was a point to point race, miss a CP and become unranked instantaneously.
C) This IS the next level of nav that we need to work on, we'll never be able to do it, if we don't give it a go.
D) We had an escape route - at any time, if we turned and headed East, we would be funnelled into the river system which would return us to the end of the trek.  An excellent (foolproof?) catching feature. 

So, we backed ourselves and went for it.  Looking over the maps the night before, I was struck with the difficulty of the section between the next two CPs.  I couldn't find a handrail, nav feature, catching point - it was just a long stretch through thick bush, relyling on a compass bearing which can so easily go wrong.  Talking to other teams the following day, I learned that some experienced navigators actually took a general bearing, put their maps away, and simply said- we have to go that way for a couple of hours, and put away their maps.  They planned on the height climb toward the end to put them right - and they had the benefit of daylight, so as they got closer, they could SEE the high point they were aiming for.

Despite pushing hard, and even climbing trees - we didn't manage to spot the high point before the sun went down.  In the dark, we knew our chances were slim, so turned to Plan B, and headed out through the river. 

Hours later, stressed, tired, over it, we had to face reality.  It was taking SO long to get down the river to the next CP, something must be wrong.  The only alternative I could see, was that we had headed south PAST the previous CP, and instead of being in the river which would track us north back to transition, we were in the river which would keep going West and take us to Thames.  It's a long walk back from Thames.  We dug out the yellow tracker.  "Please confirm position".  And we trudged on.

About 40 mins later a reply came, confirming that Plan B was in fact successful, it was just very slow, and we were tracking as planned towards the next CP. 

Wow.  Boy, were we in a tough place.  Short of food, short on energy, stumbling down a steep gorgy creek with numerous falls, pools, technical difficulties.  2am, 3am, 4am, and we thought we'd be finished around 8pm.  Where did this all go wrong?

Learning:
We've discussed this so much.  The following day, the following week, months later.  We still back the decision to go for it, even though it resulted in hours of torment.  We're proud we had the guts to give it a go.  You don't learn to swim without getting in the water............
Altimeter - I need a good accurate one as we could have used it to help us know when we were off the table lands to a sufficient height.
Get all the way to a high point before taking a bearing - being just 50 m off top will run the risk of heading back up to the same high point!
Even when you've given up and decided just to go home, keep eating, drinking, talking, planning, as it might be HOURS until you make it home.  We stopped eating, drinking, and lost the will to live, and this made our exit even longer and slower.
If you get an emergency evac in a vehicle at 4am, you'll struggle to find the driveway into the forest where you hid your bikes.

And, you know you've had a long day, when your alarm to get up that morning for the race, goes off just as you get into bed after the race..............

Marokopa Munter

Marokopa Munter Munted Me.

A 24 hour is a big undertaking - finding a crew at late notice is difficult.  So, race day brings a whole new dawn of teammates.  This totally awesome group of women, have signed up to be the only women's team in a tough 24 hour event, and they are pretty much novices to AR.   Lauren has done ONE 12 hour event.  Lyndy and Tracey have done a handful of 6 hours.  That said, I've done my research, these ladies have a pedigree of long distance events, in triathlon and running; and word on the street is that they have the most important X factor.  Attitude.  I've basically convinced them, assured them, sales pitched them to get them to agree to do this.  As a result, I'm taking the start line feeling very nervous and very responsible.  Responsible for their enjoyment.  Responsible for their safety.   Responsible for the navigation.  Whew!!

 

Anyway - we look good!

Lyndy proving very capable helping with the route planning

The race starts with a bang and a fast foot race through the (3) streets of Marokopa to the beach.  In true form to being the only women's team, I run all of 300 metres and am rapt to be able to stop at the public toilets.  As a result we are back packers when we hit the  thigh deep river crossing which is WAY deeper than our thighs.  Also, my sealy bags of snacks aren't sealed properly so I now have manky salty frooze balls and scroggin.  Blearrchh!  

We are stunned by the views as we climb high above the wild west coast.  Climbing is a theme for the day, but at least there are views!!  I'm way too conservative in the nav on this leg, so desperate to not get the team wrong early.  I can see the intended route would be to follow the ridge and pop out at the farmland, but I'm really nervous about not hitting the correct ridgeline, and I know from experience how easy it is to be drawn sideways off a ridge when heading downhill.  So we opt for the safe option around the outside which has way too much climbing.  Worse news, apparently the middle route had a fire break that teams just jogged down that wasn't mapped.  Good news (well, not for them) a couple of teams that were well ahead of us, still haven't arrived at the farm, showing that the nav mistakes I was afraid of were a distinct threat!

 

Mystery Activity - Shooting.  Nailed it.  One of the best scores.  Woop woop.

As we run down the road we contemplate that we've been racing for 5 hours, and we are now comfortable enough to squat in a little row and wee right beside each other.  No point delaying the inevitable, there is going to be no room for any preciousness.  

 We manage to totally goof off when we see the photographer pulling off our only run of the day.....

The remainder of the trek is on farmland. Bloody hard to navigate on farmland, the only handrail features are fences, half of them are wrong and they other half aren't on the map.  Lyndy is obsessed with bees and wants to go past all of the hives, and trying to constantly go around all the fields of dangerous looking Bulls is trying my patience and nav skills.  After skirting 3-4 paddocks, we come to a gate with a big looking bull within 20 m of the gate, glaring at us.  The ladies say no, and I'm ashamed to say that I just opened the gate for them and made them walk through the paddock with the bull.  After reassuring them the night before, that they could tell me any time they felt unsafe, I basically herded them into the paddock, no doubt with a grouchy look on my face.  I did walk closest to the bull on my left, while they all scurried through on my right.  This is probably the worst captaincy I've ever shown, sorry ladies!

We move solidly through the rest of the trek, and our nav keeps us up with a couple of other teams who are moving faster, but sometimes in the wrong direction.  It's always a good feeling!   We have a hairy river crossing which we underestimated slightly, and are pleased to be hopping on to our mountain bikes while the kayakers will paddle the same route in the river which the road is following.

Totally gutted to get to the next CP, clearly marked on a bridge, to find that the bridge is broken and the CP is on the far side. Obviously no problem for the kayakers, but nearly a 10km round trip for the MTBers to go back for it.  I'm totally not biking back!  No way!  I'll swim.  And then Lauren, who is a competitive surf life saver feels obliged to offer to swim as obviously the strongest swimmer amongst us.  I really wasn't hinting Lauren, but gosh you swim well!

We hit the transition after the long trek and short MTB, right on dark.  That's a long day so far and a lot still to be done.  Back on the bikes and there is a clear route choice to head around the beach and cut off a BIG, LONG UPHILL bike ride to Kiritehere Beach.  We decide to give it a punt.  I can confirm there is nothing quite as scary as trying to walk through thigh deep water, on a rocky reef, carrying a bike, while wearing bike shoes, IN THE DARK.  We made it around the first point and chose to skirt up through the farm for the next.  Overall, we caught up with other teams so it was a good option, but it felt pretty dodgy. 

A shot of the reefs we were trying to walk over in the dark at nearly high tide - with bikes!

The big boring bike ride up kilometres of gravel road took a big toll out of us. Tracey had been fighting a bad virus all week, and was really digging deep here.  I was working hard to stay close on the map and rapt to be hitting all the CPs spot on, even when other teams were riding back down the hill looking for those they had missed. 

Transition in the dark and walk off into the unknown.  This night leg had a tricky off track bush bash - I got tight on a bearing and took my team up hill and down dale, scrambling down banks and into creeks - my favourite way to move through the bush.  Basically I got this completely wrong and emerged way west of the track marked on the map, just luckily the track extended further than drawn and we found a faint trail which we followed to the CP.  Relief!!

3am.  I'm tired and cold.  It's drizzling, hails on us for a while, and I realise that I'm paying for my lightweight gear choices.  I don't want to stop and have to strip and stand in the cold to add extra layers, so I push on but I'm starting to get a bit incoherent.  Tracey, bless her, is feeling so unwell, when I stop to navigate she just sinks into a weary crouch and stays there motionless until we start moving again.  However, in her own pain she is still able to recognise mine and eventually makes us stop and while I strip and wait, they each hold a layer ready for me to get back into as quickly as possible.  Nothing like having your newbie team take care of you to humble you back into a good place!

We've kept up with a few teams here, and for a while all of us are milling around and going back and forward unsure of the next step.  It's late, dark, wet again, we're cold, and I contemplate pitching the tent and waiting for dawn.  Is that what the team needs now?  Morale is pretty low.  Lyndy is still thinking clearly and suggests we walk up the hill again to look for the airstrip as an attack feature, she sells the idea in that walking up the hill at least we will stay warm!  She's totally right, and once we get there, it quickly falls into place and we head off quickly in the right direction.

8am Sunday morning, we wander into transition to be met with hot pies and milos.  Mate, we could have kissed that bloke who kept the food hot for us even after allotted time.  Best food I've ever eaten, and a good representation of the hospitality of the event, where even the prizegiving came with a delicious meal just right for sensitive stomachs after 24 hours of abuse.  We get a truck drive home, out of time to do the bike ride to transition or final rogaine.  Technically this is a DNF, but it really doesn't feel like a failure.

 This crew.  Wow.  Ladies, that was tough.  Really tough.  So tough, there were long periods where I really wasn't enjoying it.  But you had awesome attitudes, dug deep, and I'm super proud that we were brave enough to put ourselves out there.  Thanks so much for answering my calls!

It's hard to sum up a race in a ten minute read. 24 hours of sometimes repetitive nastiness.  Sometimes boring,  sometimes scary.  Sometimes exhilarating, sometimes hilarious.  I'm not sure I can express how our bodies were feeling, or how taxing it was trying to positively lead when I felt so responsible.  This was not fun.  Mostly.  But we managed to have some really fun times, and some awesome adventure.  Those are the bits I'll remember.

Learning:
Appreciate the bravery of people prepared to take on a 24 hour race.
Back myself navigationally - take the shorter option, just take it carefully.
More straight line deep bush compass work required - still not sure how I got the night bush bash wrong, still relieved it turned out ok!
Captaincy - this was probably both my best and worst race.  I'm not sure now what I'd do in hindsight about the bull.  Did I need to explain better how hard it was for me to continually navigate around them?  Follow through on my word that I wouldn't let anyone feel unsafe.  Reassure them?  Dunno.  I'll keep thinking on this.
River crossings - always link up, even if it looks easy.

Tarawera Trail and Exploring

NZ Topo Maps is a dangerous thing.  A little browsing..... I wonder what that is?  You must only be able to get there by boat?  Or could I get there cross country.......?

So, while all the 'normal' people from the Papamoa Running Buddies group ran the Tarawera Trail to Hot Water Beach, took a boat trip back to the start point and relaxed in a cafe........  when we got to half way, I got out map, compass, gaiters and arm warmers, and headed off to explore. 

My plan was, to stay high until I had the distance, and then find my way down into the river valley.  Contours looked ok. I wasn't expecting any difficulties.  (Famous last words)

Anyway, it turns out that those contour lines aren't gradual 20m drops, the terrain is littered with straight down 20m banks into crevasses and I keep getting stuck.

A - multiple forays to the edge of the river gorge before skirting around
B - hit another stream gorge that I wasn't expecting, follow it until I find a lower part I'm happy to scramble down into where I can see that the other side will be ok to climb out of
C - hit another stream gorge, try north, and find a way in.  Not sure if I can get out again, but by now I'm frustrated and impatient so I give it a crack.

 My little gorge gets narrower and narrower until..............

I end up crawling through little holes!

But finally I make it to the river valley, the valley of the wallabies as it turns out - I have never seen SO many wallabies!!

I end up on a beautiful valley path, all the way to a punga fence with open gateway.  I wander in - the buildings are set up like a little camp - a few cabins, one that looks like a lounge space.  It's all very quiet, but there is washing out at one cabin.  I'm a bit shy and walk straight through, not sure if I'll be welcome or not.

After cooling my feet in the lake, I turn around to retrace my steps....... and walk straight into a big NO TRESPASSERS sign.  I guess they don't bother to sign the bush entrance, probably no one has ever come through there before.  As a result, I nervously bush bash around the camp, now worried about irate landowners and vicious dogs.

Clare's 50km ultra training

I hate to run.  Yes I've said it before.  But, I love to plan routes, to navigate, to be a tour guide.  So I piggybacked  Clare's run training for Tarawera 50km.  She gave me the brief, distance, technicality, climb and I designed the courses.  Of course I had to run them with her, and quadrupled my run distance with no warning!  Bloody pleased the body help up, although towards the end of these runs, she was still sprightly and I was struggling. 

Whangamata 12 hour

Even though ARC in February wasn't Jen's favourite introduction to the new sport of AR, I somehow convinced her to give it a shot at Whangamata.  Christine was our support crew at ARC; a friend from orienteering, I'm in awe of her nav and have managed to swing her along to this one also.  Christine expressed some concern over 12 hours vs 6, but I've assured her we will be fine.............

Boom, we are off.  Fairly hectic start, lots of bikes moving fast, a couple of crashes.  Someone breaks a chain and the 30 seconds that it takes me to find a chain link and throw it to them, sees our team near the back of the bottleneck heading into the narrow, clay single track.  We've discussed this the evening before.  It's so dodgy to miss checkpoints early, and run the risk of finishing early and allowing teams behind you to continue collecting points and finish ahead even if moving more slowly.  But, Jen and I were burned taking our bikes into a mud pit at ARC, and we really don't want it to happen again.  So, we head straight up the road and miss the nasty push bike grind.  A decision I'll stand behind!   It was also fun to be in the very front, and have the speedy teams come back past us 20 minutes or so later!

Stage 2 trek was fast, tricky and fun.  It was great working alongside Christine, hearing her take on the map, and having a solid navigator alongside.  Christine was finding the maps a struggle as they are so indistinct and lacking in detail compared to orienteering maps, but she was better than me at using the topography and ignoring everything else.  We got CPs on high points, trees, tunnels!

Heading up towards the far end of the loop, Tom's (much faster) team came racing down.  Owen was having chafing issues and Tom had told him that if they could find me, I was bound to have some anti-chafe with me.  He looked super relieved, as I fished it out of an easily accessible pocket of my Sport Billy bag. 

Stage 3 = Ride bikes on Forestry Roads.

  

 Stage 4 - the mammoth trek.  Winners and Losers.  It's not often we get a good off-track trek like this to have a punt at.  Our nav was really solid, I loved the reassurance of Christine's confidence, it takes so much pressure off the responsibility.  Coming back across to the farmland towards the end, we were alongside a competitive kayaking team with a good navigator, and made loads of time over them as they wandered off their bearing further up the hill doing unnecessary climbing. Unfortunately, it was also a bit of a loser, as the trek was so long, and with so few points, we also  lost the race here.  There were also two CPs incorrectly placed which many teams spent AGES looking for to no avail, stretching it out even further.  Good old Clare and her team correctly judged the trek as really long, missed it completely and won the race.  Pleased for her, am I gutted for us?  I don't like to lose, but I wouldn't have liked to miss the opportunity to take on the monster either.

Starting the final MTB in the dark wasn't what we were expecting.  We only had about an hour, and had to choose between going West for two checkpoints and finishing early, or going East for three checkpoints and having to push hard back up a hill.  Of course we went East, but on getting to the bottom of the hill we found we were too fatigued to push out bikes up narrow tricky trails, so we just rode back up the big hill again and went East.  Better value for money though!

Learning:
It's so much less stressful when you're not the most experienced navigator.
Always consider how long a leg will take and if it's worth it - do you take the gamble and miss it out?