Run race (Autumn Challenge) 10:00 [3] 1.5 km (6:40 / km)
shoes: Asics Gel Trabuco IX WR
Run to the raft. Trying to keep track of the team and not to loose Alice.
Rafting race (Autumn Challenge) 2:05:12 [4] 18.0 km (6:57 / km)
Argh! Shoulders were hurting fairly early on which wasn't the greatest of starts. Took the front of the raft for about the first half and then moved back to get a little bit of a rest. Nice scenery and at least there were actually some rapids unlike last year but the distance was much further.
MTB race (Autumn Challenge) 4:06:56 [5] ** 30.0 km (8:14 / km)
shoes: Inov-8 Roclite 285
Mostly uphill with some very steep sections up onto the mountain range then fast downhills to the river. Sandra was really struggling on those hills so once I stopped biking anymore we swapped bikes and I pushed hers and then would go back to help. Some kind of tow rope would really have been useful! It wasn't technical at all, just physical which definitely suited me but unfortunately not the others. Certainly weird being the strongest member of the team.
Orienteering race (Autumn Challenge) 2:51:16 [4] **
shoes: Inov-8 Roclite 285
Mostly okay but again Sandra was struggling on the hills. Alice was a total trooper though. I was mostly on navigation being at the front but Sandra, hating hills as much as she does, decided she didn't want to go back down into the valley and up again for CP5 but go round the road up the top. I told her it was still going to be a lot of uphill and a hell of a lot longer but she was determined so yeah, I gave in to that route. She's convinced it was quicker, I'm convinced it was a good 15- 20 minutes longer but oh well. CP5 was pretty hard to find from the angle we came at it too. Thank goodness for some tips from one of the other teams. The orienteering section at the end was a piece of cake and I managed to get the team running most of it (we made up a fair bit of time in this section) but I definitely had a whole lot more energy left at the end I wish I could have been able to use. Yeah, I had an awesome time but I guess I would have liked to have been able to go faster.