Opotiki 12 Hour

Team Destination Unknown

The 'usual' crew - Tui and Taryn; rejoined by 'if you love something, set it free' Tilly; and completed by 'new recruit' Laura.  

We may not have known our destinations, but we sure had some adventures getting there!

The first activity was a sprint race to collect a written puzzle, which then had to be completed.  The New Recruit started as we meant for her to continue, utilising that youthful enthusiasm to be back fast with the puzzle.  Then good team organisation meant that we had a number of pencils available and were all able to contribute to the Sudoku.  "The girls have it!" someone shouted, as we handed in our completed work and raced out of the start zone.  First.  On discussion later, it appears Laura was the only one who actually managed to write more than a few numbers in, her hand was flashing and filling boxes like lightning.  We'll add Sudoku to her list of team assets!

After a solid road run our first activity was to find 7 letters in a maze of tracks in a private garden.  It took a few minutes to work out that some letters were repeated and make sure we had them all, but we split, then rejoined and stayed together fairly efficiently to move off with all 7.

L  P  O  D  N  H  I  - Can you work it out?  While running and navigating?  :) 

 Trek one we settled into solid Nav - putting the time into getting a good compass bearing and making sure we were hitting the right gullies and ridges in a fairly nondescript area.  We weren't moving fast but were consistently moving in the right direction.  Taryn and Laura slid down a 30m bank on their bums to pick up CPs with a considerable amount of speed if not stealth due to all the squealing.  CP16 to CP17 was the silly nav mistake of the day - not taking a compass bearing and searching for 25 mins in the wrong area of bush. 

Stage 2 MTB had the excitement of rifle shooting - that always adds to the atmosphere!  From CP4 we followed a clear trail, knowing we were heading towards the road we could see in the distance.  Mistake #2 - I didn't take a bearing again, and wasn't sure which ridgeline we were going down.  This became a major as CP5 was actually set on the back of a gate, presuming we would be on the track, rather than coming up the road.  15 minutes of cycling up and down the road and we realised we WERE where we thought we were - and the CP was on the back of the gate we'd checked twice already. 

The second part of the MTB was a beefy climb, gut wrenching.  Some fabulous views over the moody coast with patches of sun on the green hills was tempered by a chilly wind.  After the long hard slog, was the long hard slog along the gas line, rough as guts, overgrown, pushing our bikes and sometimes having to carry them.  Tilly's legs were obviously still cycle strong even though she's been under an injury cloud, and Laura was able to share some strength to keep the team rolling through.  After this was a glorious farm downhill - the sort that makes you smile.

 A quick swap into running shoes and the remote trek was underway through the pine forest.   Some quick estimations and we decided to still keep collecting all checkpoints even though we might run out of time for the later ones.  Laura and I tackled the scramble down the hill from CP7 to 8 - heading off on a different compass bearing to most of the footprints we could see, and picking up the CP on the first pass.  I'm loving the new thumb compass for taking a proper bearing!

After another hour walking knee deep in a cold stream, we hit transition right on dark, all starting to get cold.  Racing downhill towards Ohiwa, the dark seemed to amplify the speed and I was nervous we'd miss CPS but picked them up with a minimum of fuss.  Maximum speed of 51km hr, at some stage we heard an immense snarl rush out at us from the left, as a large dog lunged out at Tilly in the lead then had a good snap at my wheel as we blurred past.  With visions of Laura on my rear wheel going over the handlebars and then being mauled, I was pretty relieved that all four of us were through unscathed. 

 Yes, that was one of the last 4 maps.  No scale, no contours, no markings, just good old Google Earth Satellite pictures.  Highlight of my day - we nailed it!  Solid movement, great hunting, picking up those faint landmarks and clear on compass bearings.  Not fast, but not lost!!  Laura sang us a little song about not being able to feel her cold feet, Taryn seemed to be gaining energy rather than losing it, and Tilly was thinking on her feet, suggesting with time running short we did all of this trek and skipped the next rather than transition twice more and waste time.

The marshall was still full of good grace although it was 7:30 and freezing, she shared her potato chips and sent us on our merry way, deciding we had time to for a small detour to pickup the final MTB checkpoints.  I asked the girls how long it would take us to get back, Tilly reckoned 15 mins, which I quietly thought was a bit ambitious..... but as we entered the transition to the final trek, I couldn't resist heading out for just one CP that I could see on the map, only a couple of minutes from the transition.

Back on the bikes and it was like a Tour de France Peleton - we were pumping back to the finish line.  Thirteen minutes - full credit to Tilly on that one!!

Learning
*Always take a bearing!
*Keep spare socks in your pack
*Do the maths of the time penalties - I think we could have cleared the last trek and lost less points than we gained.
*Ask how time penalties for mystery activities work - it might make the difference

One of my favourite races ever.  Nice variety in terrain and stages.  Challenging, tough, but not demoralising.  Not a lot of route choices, but enough navigation involved to add that mental dimension.  (Surprisingly, having four of us on maps went really smoothly and everyone was able to contribute positively at various stages.)  Mostly - this was a great team.  Bloody hardworking, determined, tough chicks; but out to enjoy the adventure and explore.  Teamwork A+.

PS - Surprised but pleased to get 1st - the results show we were the only women's 4; when we'd been passed early by four strong ladies and didn't manage to catch them again.  They showed in the results in the women's 3 person teams, and somehow we'd managed to get ahead by just a single checkpoint. 

That time I thought I'd get a PB without any training

After some recent health issues, and with surgery pending later this year, in late March a wrote a melodramatic Bucket List of goals for April.  One of them was a Sub 2hour half marathon.

The reason I aimed for a sub 2 hour PB was just because anything starting with a 1 is SO much faster than something starting with a 2.  A whole hour faster really.  There was no basis in talent, form, training.......... it was  just a number I wanted.

Unfortunately, the Post It note on the wall above the computer didn't do it's magic and motivate me to actually run.  Remember, I hate running - I had hoped the post it would exude some magic motivation, but maybe I need a pink one. 

So I went out to run a half marathon, having run over 10kms all of four times in the last four months. I had said I'd do it (stupidly) to two people, so I was bloody well going to give it my best shot. 

I was on track (just) until the half way turn around point; at which stage my pace consistently drops from on track, to coping, to not coping, to shuffling, to demoralised, in pain, knowing-it's-a-stupid-idea-and-heading-for-injury.

2:04:40.  Still a PB for me - but only about a minute faster than a hillier Rotorua trail course.  I've only actually ever run a half marathon twice before.  I guess I'll need to run at least one more.....

Post-cyclone Moerangi

Cyclone Cook and Cyclone Debbie have done a bit of damage around the country.  We had some wild weather in Tauranga, and know that Edgecumbe was dreadfully flooded.  But we hadn't really appreciated the strength of the storm, the viciousness of a cyclone, until we headed to Whirinaki for a few days.

The Moerangi is one of my favourite trails.  At last count, it was 5 hours of honest riding, through glorious ancient forest, with an abundance of wildlife.  Today, Moerangi and Mother Nature whooped my ass.

Massive sinkholes in Okahu road added an extra hours (uphill boring) ride.

And small tributary streams into the main river were now in vast, fresh gorges, where huge flows of water and treefall debris obviously came gushing down when the storm was at its height.  It was hugely impressive, and nearly unbelievable to see.  A reminder that we humans are small and insignificant.  I love being reminded that I am small and insignificant, I think it's the part of going bush helps me to brush off the stress of a busy life.

At some slips, I had to haul my bike over huge treefall and down into the river bed, yanking on supplejack and trying to keep my footing on fresh new banks and falls.  At one gravelly slip I couldn't get traction to carry my bike up but Tom had given me a short rope so I could haul it up after me.  (mental note - work on knot tying...)  

Anyway, SEVEN AND A HALF hours after starting, I dragged my aching, weary, stinging nettled, bush lawyered, cutty grassed self into the car park where the family were waiting.  It was a fairly stressful day once I realised I was going to be even later than our conservative estimate after Tom had ridden a day earlier and checked out the track. 

Arohaki Lagoon with the girls

I love that my girls have developed into full on bush walkers.  They hardly even bother to pretend they don't like it any more.  We left the car park with my day pack carrying supplied for the walk of about 2-3 hours, but they wanted to try out their new tramping packs so we re-distributed the gear and they both added their puffer jackets to their loads to flesh out the packs a little.  It makes me chuckle to hear them make plans, that everyone needs some water and food in case they get lost, and a survival blanket.  Obviously they've watched Tom and I pack for adventures on the lounge floor regularly. 

The forest around Whirinaki is so lush, and so...... big.  Our girls were interested in some of the history of this area, where native logging was taking place until the 1970s, when protests took place and there was violence between the greenies and local forestry workers reliant on the milling for employment.  

 After crossing a big puddle, our track became much smaller and less distinct, crossing with other trails.  The girls quickly picked up that the track felt different, and we hadn't seen a marker for a while.  It was great to be able to show them in real life, how important it is to be able to track back to where you last saw a marker, what features you've seen to navigate from.  It turned out we had only gone a couple of hundred metres wrong from the puddle, where our trail turned and disappeared knee deep in the lagoon!  So much rain recently saw the lagoon expanding it's banks by about 50 metres.  Piggy backs required to sit on the seat islands of the viewing platform for lunch! 

Night Riding - Segment Stealing

We must look ridiculous, my cycling partner John and I.....

we head out on the Papamoa Waterway reserves, where the toddlers ride their bikes and the residents walk their fluffy handbag dogs.  But John and I go in the dark, in our lycra, with our headlights.  And go Segment Stealing.........

We target a Strava segment, and in the blink of an eye we go from a gently chatty roll, to all out demons.  Legs screaming, gravel spinning, lungs gasping.

Two grown adults pretending to be in a race...

All for the sake of an imaginary Strava Crown.

Adventure Race Coromandel - Midnight Express

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!   

 

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.

MAP SNOB
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!  

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.

Team work

GOOD SORTS
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.

End of the First Trek

BROTHERS
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.

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%. 

Heading to the finish line - top of the last hill!

TOUGH DAY
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. 

Rameka Two Days in a Row

Day 1:  A bit nervous, short of time, unsure how South Island trail grades will compare.  They are tougher!  Rockier, more exposed, more natural, less constructed.  It makes me conscious of how artificial the Redwoods are when it comes to off-road cycling.  There are a new series of tracks constructed below the Rameka, and at times I felt I was clinging to the handelbars by my fingertips.



Day 2:  Up for the challenge - determined to conquer!  This time I made it up through the full Rameka, enjoying the beautiful bush and the achievement of hitting the tops at Canaan Downs.  There are also a whole lot of new tracks there which I didn't have time to explore - another time!

No wonder I'm a bit scared!

The Klicks were really beyond my capability - but I had a bloody good time riding what I could!

Summit at Canaan. 

Add caption

The photo doesn't do justice to the green of the Rameka

Great Expectations Track - great open fun through forestry, popping out to overlook the valley

Part of the Rameka  - last time I rode this was on a hardtail!

Big country