Sunday Oct 7 |
 | RunningS 20 [3] | |
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| Spot prize competition. |
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| C • ummm 2 |
Saturday Oct 6 |
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| Event: Control 90-Multisport Rogaine
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| Kayaking race 3:00:00 [3] | |
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| I can't say I had the best preparation for this event, especially since I have only been kayaking once or twice before. And finding that our Hypernova had a broken rudder 15mins before the start didn't seem the most auspicious beginning. Still a little bit of rope and a few knots later and the rudder cable was securely tied to Viv's shoe provided at least some rudimentary steering and a little confidence.
We had no real idea of how many controls we could collect in the kayak and so we had planned a rather cautious route the previous night. However we were feeling much more inspired in the morning by the apparently calmer conditions out on the water and so during the 100m dash down to the kayaks we changed our plans...
The cruise across the bay to the first control was pleasant. Just a gentle swell which didn't even require the application of spray-skirts. At this point our teammates, Cris and Gina were getting a little worried as with Viv and I in a speedy kayak and racing ahead, they were stuck in a sea bear. An apt name as it was almost as wide as it was long and had a rather considerable displacement. Fortunately Viv and I were had the electronic tags, and so could race off to the controls and muck around getting in/out of the kayak to punch.
After the first two controls we were finally heading out of the inner bay and the conditions started to get a little rough. The nasty NW wind was still quite strong and picking up quite a swell. It was easy to see why several of the controls had been canceled because the organisers were unable in the rough conditions to put them out, even in a motor boat. Nonetheless we continued to battle our way around the rocky point for another 10mins, before eventually giving it up as a stupid idea and changed our plans to head to more sheltered controls. It was still quite an effort battling back across the bay, with the swells now coming more side on and the wind pushing against us.
So in the end we only picked up the controls in the sheltered and accessible bays, which meant we only needed about 3hr of the 4 available and gave us an even longer rest before the mountain bike. It actually turned out to be a very common score with only 3 teams managing to get more points from some more difficult controls. Most teams who tried to get out to the further controls either turned back, were rescued, or struggled horribly for 4 hours for only an extra 50 points...
The most amusing part would undoubtedly have been watching Viv and I getting in and out of the kayaks. Every time I tried to get out my legs were horrible and I would collapse into the water. Inevitably Viv would forget to remove the rope from her foot and she would end up rolling about too. And the waves would come crashing in causing all sorts of mayhem.
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| Cycling - mtb race 3:56:00 [3]35 km (6:45 / km) | |
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| Our team was full of strong cyclists. Except for me of course; I'd never been mountain bike riding in my life. As with the kayak there was early gear failure. This time it was Gina's bike that was misbehaving up the first hill. Fortunately she is by far the fastest cyclist of us all, so none of us had much sympathy.
I found this to be the most enjoyable of the rogaines, with most of the riding on steep and muddy forest tracks, farm tracks, gravel road, and a little sealed riding for some speedy sprinting. And, I didn't fall off! Actually Gina was the only one to come off, heading down some steep section, she applied a little too much brakes and went diving over the handlebars.
Our route was just about perfect for our team's speed, and we collected most of the controls, missing only 4, and arriving back with 3mins to spare. |
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| C • so 2 |
| Orienteering 3:57:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Sarva |
| A pretty nice night for a rogaine. We didn't pick the best route really, and didn't execute so well either. Oh well. The was lots of bashing through native bush, full of supplejack and other tangly vines. Made one silly mistake trying to bash up to a track some 100m through the bush. Well it didn't start out as a mistake, since if the map was correct we would have come across the track. But sadly the map wasn't correct and we stubbornly bashed our way far too far through the bush and up a nasty little creek, determined to find the track that was surely just around the bend only to be once again disappointed and let down and determined to get to the next bend....
The course design wasn't very exciting and so there wasn't much chance to make a loop and so we had to head back pretty much along the tracks we had gone out on. But we did finish off with a nice scramble around the headlands scrambling over the rocks as the waves crashed around us. And finally a little sprint to collect a 60points in the last 5mins, but as with the rest of the trek we didn't find that either. |
| Note | |
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| Check out the google earth thingee of our route and photos. It is 1.3MB so may take a while to download. |
Thursday Oct 4 |
| Running 29:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Saucony Triumph 3 |
| Morning run. As stiff and tight as anything. |
Tuesday Oct 2 |
| Aquajog 43:00 [1] | |
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| Horribly early morning pool run. One key to this training is to avoid hypothermia induced by the ridiculously cold temperature of the pool. The other is to keep your mouth above the water: Otherwise you drown. Aside from these obvious challenges I believe it is good recovery for my poor legs. |
Monday Oct 1 |
| Cycling - Road 1:07:00 [2]30 km (2:14 / km) | |
| shoes: DMT road shoes |
| Nice Commute |
| Cycling - Road 15:00 [2]6 km (2:30 / km) | |
| shoes: DMT road shoes |
| Flitting back and forth between computers |
| Cycling - Road 57:00 [4]32 km (1:47 / km) | |
| shoes: DMT road shoes |
| Home again. |
| Note | |
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| There is some kind of macabre satisfaction with removing prickles from your legs. |
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| C • prickles 3 |