Training Log Archive: Kim

I could only work out how to add 99hrs at a time so here's the rest of it.

Event: Bull of Africa Adventure Race
 

Bull of Africa AR with Damon, Rob and Mounty. Up at 2am to board the buses at 3am. A quick 4 hour bus ride with little sleep before building our bikes for the first time ready for a 9am start.

10km Trail Run: I lead off the start line unintentionally trying to get someone to come passed which they did after about 80 metres. I don?t like leading. The easy 10km trail run soon turned into full on bush bashing, however plenty of teams appeared to find an easier way up quickly gapping us by about 30mins. Cruised back into transition and jumped on the bikes a fair way down the field.

20km MTB: Undulating ride via a few CPs to a paddle at a dam.

10km paddle: First time on the plastic sit on tops. Very unimpressed with these boats, it?s very difficult for the back person to paddle. I was in the front, but probably should have been in the back. Paddled around the dam jumping out and running to get 6 of the 7 CPs. Probably did more running than paddling which was good. Thorns were very sharp in places. Then back into TA to the bikes.

30km MTB: Another undulating ride through some cool shanty towns. Arrived in about 8th place and left in about 7th.

70km Trek: Started this trek just after dusk. Fairly quickly got on a trail one too high for the CP. Most teams made this mistake. Heading back to correct our mistake I took a bit of a fall hurting my right knee and ribs. Quickly upped my dosage of Voltarin. From here Rob nailed all CPs until we arrived at a hut to hear we were up to 4th place. Then took a wider line to the next, taking a quick 20min power nap to wake at sunrise and continued to the highest point in the race. Back down to the TA in 6th place.

70km MTB: Not sure if this was quite 70kms. Good ride though through many shanty towns with plenty of locals out and about.

20km Paddle: Back into the boats, I jumped in the back seat and didn?t really paddle as the ribs were causing a bit of a problem. Damon did a great job keeping up with the others by himself. At the other side of the dam I waited to mind the boats while the others ran and got the CP. 50mins later they returned to a shivering me. I had not been this cold ever I don?t think. We then paddled back into TA and tried to warm up with a very average hamburger. I was struggling somewhat.

70km MTB: Headed out for 10mins before I started coughing up some green stuff. Thankfully the others talked me into returning to the TA for a sleep. Over slept an hour after missing the alarms and woke 4hrs later feeling much better. Headed out on more dirt roads which turned to rocky single track descents, to a gorge crossing. Managed to find a gnarly bike carry out of the gorge. From here headed on some more single track and road to a nice hunters cabin where we found Buff / Coolmax sleeping, and a generous serve of bush buck hamburgers. Headed out in 5th place to hear later that Buff then withdrew. Awesome climb out of a valley then a great descent into the next TA with the film crew following us. They got some unbelievable footage of us riding the descent, and in the background a group of wilderbeest chasing a group of springbok. Unbelievable!

45km Trek: Tough off road very thorny trek. I managed to rip my o-pants and race bib to threads on this trek. Cruised along then treked up a rocky dry river on our way to the jumar. Phaffed around a bit finding the start of it as it wasn?t quite where it was marked. The jumaring was awesome, but I was glad to have it over. 180m is a long way! Turns out I?m not the greatest ascender! Back down the hill and into another TA via a slight nav mistake. We were all getting tired at this point. Into TA and crashed on some mattresses with the greatest and softest blankets ever ... this was also my greatest sleep ever. It felt like I was asleep for about 5hrs (it was only 75mins). Woke up with semi-chewed chips still in my mouth, I?d fallen asleep before finishing.

90km Transkei MTB: Woke to find Lafuma Sport 2000 in TA, we were now in 4th place. This ride went into ?Real Africa?. This ride was soooo cool, it was like outback Africa. Again very undulating on dirt roads and single track. There were plenty of locals out cheering us along the way and a semi festival at the local general store with a dancing singing group to meet us. I was invited behind the counter and served the other guys to a mix of Coke and Powerade, then left after another sausage in bread. Our first and only puncture happened just after this stop which was quickly changed. Finished the ride off along a 10km hard sand section coming into TA 5mins ahead of Lafuma. Our bike boxes hadn?t arrived meaning a longer untimed TA with Lafuma. While waiting I went alone and got a CP close by on foot as the other?s shoes hadn?t arrived yet. Big moment for me ... I had never punched the control card in a big race until now!!!!

35km Beach Run: Kitted up and left 5mins before Lafuma in a race restart. We wanted to run this fairly hard to try and break Lafuma as they were looking slightly tender at the TA. I jumped on Damon?s tow rope and followed at a fairly hot pace down the beach. It worked, Lafuma?s headlights were disappearing into the distance. Had a couple of river crossings, Mounty had us in stitches with his encounter with an apparent electric eel. Funny seeing Mounty jumping up and down running in circles with his arms waving above his head, screaming. I?m still not convinced it wasn?t seaweed. Had another 90min sleep at the next TA until Lafuma arrived. We left as they went to sleep.

90km MTB: Very windy start to the ride making holding a wheel very difficult. Rode to another abseil, jumar section which only Damon and Rob did then back on the bikes. We crossed the muddy Kei River, then back again to our bikes (got some very amusing video footage of the mud). We then rode down to the pont to cross with our bikes. Some teams swam their bikes over. From here the pace slowed a little, especially on the soft sand on the beach carrying a heap of gear. This ride took far longer than expected but I was happy still to be surviving well.
5km Trek: Into a game reserve for a quick trek down an open river bed. It was a shame this was in darkness as we saw no wildlife.

10km MTB: Easy ride out of the game reserve onto the open roads. Damon had a very close encounter with some lions which we only found out later. The CP was placed at the fence by the ? lion?s den?. We thought those eyes were rabbits!

4km Kayak: Into TA where we rugged up for the final paddle. Walking down to the paddle Damon was stalked by a curious ostrich. Had me curled over in laughter watching as this went on for about 500m. The ostrich would creep up behind him before darting into the darkness. The paddle was difficult with us all very sleepy. I don?t think I was contributing much to the forward motion of our boat and was also not doing a very good job steering. As we arrived at the final TA the river mouth had only just broken and some scary waves were coming in. Avoiding them we beached the boats and grabbed our gear.

4km Beach Trek to the finish: We crossed the river, only just avoiding a massive incoming wave and onto the beach where we only needed to find one CP then walk the final 1500m to the finish. Easy on paper ? the CP was on top of the sand dune. We found the apparent sand dune and spent about 1hr trying to find it. I then cracked it and decided I needed to look at the map because the others were looking very tired. I then dragged (literally dragged) them up the beach a little and took them up to the high point on top of the sand dune while Mounty took a quick kip. Thankfully the CP was there and we were finally on our way to the finish. I told Rob I should do the nav from now on where he pointed out he?d done very well for 52 of the 53 CPs. Very good point, Rob you can keep the map!

Finished 4th across the line, however were bumped up to 3rd when the 2nd placed team was heavily penalised for missing a CP in their sleep deprived state. We were very happy with the result, the wildlife, and the course. I?ve pulled up very well apart from a swollen right knee and sore ribs from my trip on night one. Personally I was happy with my race however struggled a bit on the first couple of rides. I did come good but need to do a little more to be riding well from the start.

With Rob, Mounty and Damon. Run along the beach at J-Bay from accom. Did just as much surf watching as running.

With Rob, Mounty and Damon. Run from the accom at Moussel Bay along a walking track. Very nice.