Training Log Archive: Rowl

Leg 7 – Orienteer (1:55:32)
I sat this leg out and after helping set up our gear for the MTB managed to have a good chat to a few people, eat some cheese and ham croissant, drink a bit of coffee and just generally wake up a bit more ready for another full on day.

Andrew, Glen and Ann returned about mid-pack and after slowly coaxing Andrew into his riding gear we took off.

I had a little bit of trouble getting us to the heritage trail and Andrew and Glen were less than impressed when I made them wade through a creek and bash through some bush to get there. We had a short discussed about toughening up and then put Andrew back on the tow behind Glen as he was already suffering after the run.

The rest of the leg went fairly fast apart from some trouble finding the CP on the strainer post. Andrew seemed to come good near the end of the leg, maybe because he knew he had a break coming up, and we put in a solid effort to blast to the TA.

When we arrived at transition Ann was dressed and ready to snorkel so Glen and I quickly changed and grabbed some food to eat down on the beach.

We decided not to go for the 80min bonus CP as at our pace I thought it would probably cost us more time than it gained, so after we got CP71 we connected to the Bibbulmun, and then the sandy, boggy 4wd track and commenced our trudge to TA.

Ann and I were walking along and chatting at one point and realised we hadn’t glanced back at Glen in a while, we stopped and waited, and waited…and he finally stumbled up. We put him on the tow behind Ann and kept trudging along.

Everyone was starting to find it all a bit hard at this point as the tracks didn’t seem to match the map and although we were heading in about the right direction and we could see lots of footprints we weren’t 100% confident and were again pushing the paddle cut-off.

I started to get cold but didn’t want to stop the team to put my fleece on as the others were already wearing all their layers and I knew stopping would result in everyone being cold.

We finally stumbled into TA looking like cold, unhappy, drowned rats to find our support crew and Andrew tucking into blue cheese, dip, crackers and a beer – bastards. They offered us some pea and ham soup but it took me a while to pull on my paddling clothes as I was shivering and in the end I missed out.

Looking at the weather and considering that I was already cold and that Andrew might go downhill again I asked our support crew to meet us at each of the CPs in case we needed some extra help or a withdrawal.

After a long haul along the beach to the start of the inlet, during which I was very grateful Ann had decided to paddle an Endorfinn instead of her very heavy sea kayak, we launched into a very messy choppy inlet and almost straight away got hit by a squall.

We had originally thought to paddle along the right bank and cut across to CP70 but as the squall wiped out visibility we cut over to the left as quickly as possible. Unfortunately Ann was not having a great time of it in the unfamiliar ski and we were reduced to a quite slow pace. This resulted in me getting even colder and she was not happy with me having blasts off the front every minute or so to try and warm up.

Our support crew cars made CP71 easy to spot and after I quick rustle through my gear looking for a beanie and only finding a buff we were once again on our way.

Ann fell in about mid way between CP71 and 72 and Andrew and I had to turn around and steady her ski for her to remount. After that we hugged the shore closely, stuck closer together and reached CP72 with me very cold and unhappy. I was ready to pull out but Mum (who knows not to mention quitting by now) nudged me back into my ski and sent us on our way.

The paddle to TA was a bit calmer but it was raining steadily, and we were knackered and still going very slowly. By TA both Andrew and I were shivering uncontrollably and needed to be put in the car with the heater on before I could even think about doing the last MTB leg.

We headed out of the TA riding hard to warm up and in the process missed the start of the heritage trail. JJ who was behind us in his car thought that meant we were going to ride the highway back to town and us being the last team pulled in all the controls on the leg. Meanwhile I connected to the heritage trail and backtracked to find the control missing. I thought that it might have been pulled and was pretty sure when the next control was missing too.

We blasted the rest of the ride, and I was impressed that Glen could keep up with Ann on the tow as I set a fairly solid pace out front. We got to the finish line as the sun was setting and Sam and JJ were packing up. We were chuffed to have finished and after talking to JJ we managed to get credit for all the controls on the leg.

Event: Denmark Adventure Race
 

After a short run that already saw us seeded to the back of the pack we launched in the nice calm water at Peaceful bay.

I had been watching some big sets rolling in close to the shore outside the bay as we launched and paddled out and made sure to stay well out past where they were starting to break - good thing as I heard a double ski got wiped out and snapped early on.

We followed the pack slightly past the right bay for the first control but were lucky not to have to back track too much. Just after turning to head in for the control I heard Ann swear and turned around to see a wall of water coming up behind me. I added a few swear words of my own, but made it over the top and then watched a lot of skis in front of me get wiped out pretty badly.

Feeling very lucky we headed into the beach quickly after that hoping to avoid another big set, punched CP1 and headed back out for the paddle to the inlet.

We were pretty slow getting to the inlet with Andrew suffering back and stomach pain and unexpectedly being the slowest paddler. Landing at the inlet Andrew and I managed to surf the waves to shore but Ann got tipped out fairly early on and took a while to swim to shore.

The rest of the paddle was fairly uneventful but quite slow with Ann later discovering she had been lugging an extra 20L of water in her ski!

The paddle took a lot longer than we were expecting and we knew we would be pushing the paddle cut-off as we started the MTB. Luckily we had anticipated this possibility and marked some short cuts on the map with times we needed to make at the turnoffs in case we weren’t going as fast as planned.

I started out navving but my map board came loose and started flapping about almost at the start so I handed the maps over to Andrew and got snapped by the photographers dicking about removing the sail from my bike.

We were making pretty good time on the flat but the first big climb we got to Andrew, having started the day with a pretty bad cold, couldn’t breathe and after letting him have a short rest I convinced him to walk the top and then we put him on the tow behind Glen.

About half way through the leg the tow rope broke and with Andrew feeling steadily worse and the cut-off looming we thought we were finished. Luckily I remembered I had a few small cable ties in my bike bag and in under a minute we had the tow rope back on and ready to go.

Andrew navved this leg flawlessly despite feeling really ill and got us in for the paddle just before the cut-off with one bonus CP.

Leg 3 – River Paddle (1:52:15) 9km
This was by far the most fun leg of the race for me. The Endorfinn was the perfect ski being short and with having a bow that slopes up. I found by paddling hard at logs I could get half way over and then just push off with my legs to get the rest of the way. I could also get a good head start at the next log by diving front first onto the ski, which was a bucket load of fun and entertaining for the rest of my team to watch. By the end I had log crossings down to around 10sec and was having an absolute ball.

We passed a fair few teams on the log dodging section even although I don’t know how much Ann enjoyed my bumper car technique and Glen wasn’t enjoying the underslung rudder on the Finn Molaki.

It was a bit of a slog to the TA on the flat water and I was happy to know I was having a break during the next leg.

When I pulled the control card out to get the CP on the jetty I realised it was getting very waterlogged so I slipped it into a zip log bag with some snacks hoping to get it to the end of the day in one piece. I grossed Andrew out at the end of the leg by licking the soggy chocolate biscuits off it when I handed it over to him.

Leg 4 – Run (2:53:14)
I was disappointed to have to sit out the treetop walk having never done it before but was grateful for a break. Unfortunately my stomach decided to rebel and I spent most of the break either squatting in the bush or curled up in a pathetic little ball feeling sorry for myself. Luckily Wal had some Immodium I could scab and after popping a fair few I started to feel better just in time for the next leg.

The team had missed a few compulsory CPs, hence our 9hr time penalty, on the run leg when Andrew had gone downhill and passed the maps over to Ann who didn’t realise the difference between the compulsory and bonus checkpoints.

We sent Andrew home for a sleep hoping that he would be able to race Sunday and Ann took his spot behind Glen on the tow rope for this bike leg.

I grabbed the control card back to find someone had spilt some juice on it as well- yummy.

I was regretting not packing the hand drawn mud map as I stuffed up getting out of TA and managed to confuse a few other teams in the process. Finally got on the right track after some logical thinking and we blasted along trying to make up time.

Had a few more navigational wobbles as I didn’t know whether we were allowed to ride the track marked dual Bibbulmun and heritage trail as the Bibbulmun had been specified as out of bounds. In the end this appeared to be the only way around as the locked gates on the other trails blocked the way. Also had a few wobbles in the sand and we ended up walking most of it as Ann couldn’t stay on tow or ride these sections.

I almost had a very interesting run after starting in my bike shoes. Luckily Glen noticed the clicking sound as I walked across the car park and after a quick dash back the TA we were on our way.

I had thought I’d be the slowest on this leg but luckily the day of racing combined with Glen being smashed from towing on both the bike legs meant that I was out the front setting the pace for a few weary and discouraged team mates. I tried to raise their spirits by feeding them copious amounts of sugar and caffeine and they at least managed not to fall asleep.

Our pace was not fast but steady at about 5km/hr as we walked the uphills and flats and jogged the downhills.

The navigation for this leg thankfully was fairly simple following the Bibbulmum track back to Peaceful Bay and we got all of the CPs with exception of the hooded plover which we guessed from the big time credit would be tricky or slow going for some reason.

We finished up at around midnight almost tripping over our feet and after handing our soggy, chocolate and juice coated control card to Bridget and helping her figure out which control we had actually punched she had to prompt us to make our way out to our support car and home for a sleep.

Started a tad late and spent all session chasing and not catching people. Feeling very slow out there today.