Adventure Racing race (Red Ants Rumble) 6:06:00 [3] 26.0 km (4.3 kph) +713m
shoes: Asics Gel Trail Sensor 5
Raced in a male pair as Team Charnas with Seth. I was really looking forward to this race as I knew Brian would have an adventurous course planned for us in this spectacular area. And he didn't disappoint... maybe a little too much baby-sitting with the bunting on the hike ;-)
It turns out that medical interns don't have much time to train so Seth was moving fairly slowly on the main MTB leg up into the Wolkberg. The heat didn't help either and there was much bike pushing up that hill. He made up for it by doing the lion's-share of the paddling on the final leg and hauling my weak ass across that dam! Oh and also for jumping out of the boat and pushing when we were stuck in the reeds just 500m from the finish :-)
Something I have come to realise is that constant, efficient progress in an AR can be really forgiving on even a very recreational pace. Minimal time in transitions and minimal nav errors go a long way to keeping you up the leaderboard.
We managed to finish 4th overall (of 29 teams) and 3rd male pair (of 11) - really enjoyed the race!
Leg details (overall postions indicated at the end of each leg):
5km Orienteering (39 mins - 11th)
10km Paddle & Portage (1h20m - 10th)
7km Hike/Run (1h13m - 7th)
49km MTB & Caving (4h23m - 3rd)
15km Hike & Kloofing (4h14m - 2nd)
31km MTB (3h11m - 3rd)
10km Paddle & Portage (1h47 - 4th)
Turns out we had the fastest total transition time of 40 mins! What did I say about consistency? :-)
Logging disciplines separately - this is for the hiking/running.