Training Log Archive: nmulder

Last transition, also doubling as the finish. Took a bit longer than wanted as the warmth of the fire slowed things down.

Last trekking loop. We thought we had a 60-90 minute lead at this stage, so wanted to push a bit more and open that gap so we could be confident of beating Merrell by more than 90 mins for the overall win. Went okay on the way out parrallel downstream to the Orange River. At the furthest CP, we spent about 1h stuffing around looking for it in the dark. I really misread everything around here despite feeling quite alert. Started working it out just before first light and quickly found the island with the CP and snuck out of there quickly.

On the way to the next CP a while later, we saw one team heading downriver and thought they were 70+ minutes behind if they didn't make any mistakes. It apparently was Jabberwock in 2nd position, and they still made the mistake of staying too close to the river like we did in the thicker riverine bush and loosing a bit of time.

Our return to the finish via the final 4 CPs was mostly uneventful, apart from being slight off on one small koppie (3rd last CP). Looking at tracking, the other 3 teams all went to a wrong koppie here as well! Looks like the CP # and circles hid a bit of vital info at a few places in the race. We kept up a good pace and finished in just over 26 hours, with 1 hour lost at the island CP and about 20 mins of mistakes elsewhere. Jabberwock finished 1h49 behind us in the end and Merrell 2h41, but with time penalties for Jabberwock as well, Merrell took 2nd place.

Fun race and well organized except for poorly worded race book instructions. Team worked hard and kept the pace up form most of the race which seems to have been the biggest factor in our lead over the other teams.

Looks like the map scales were a bit out, at 1:44' rather than 1:50. Makes sense for my first mistake on leg 2 and why I started searching too early for the island CP.

A1 Series - Gariep 30h Adventure Race - hosted by Castle Light AR Team

Team DSV Cyanosis with Mac, Darren Berry, Tracey Campbell.

6:30 start in the morning where the temperature was reported as -5'C. Was dressed okay, apart from short-fingered cycling gloves, needed thicker ones.

Short run around a few local koppies from Destiny River Lodge just below the Gariep Dam. John Collins was racing as a pair, and Jabberwock, Merrell and Neverest all racing as well. Tight group up from with all those teams, Jabberwock setting the early pace.

Super-quick.

Led the teams out of transition after a fast one. John and Jabberwock right behind. Saw Merrell approaching first CP on bike from a different direction, probably about 1-2 mins slower on their route choice.

2nd CP, didn't see the main entry gate into Washbank Lodge, but John and Jabberwock followed us in via the back entrance.

We overshot CP3 as well. This put Neverest in the lead by about 5 mins, Merrell about 2 min behind them, John with us and Jabberwock a couple behind as we rode across farm fields towards the dam. Neverest made a mistake here, riding on an out-of-bounds tar road and were given a 90 min penalty later.

We passed Merrell just before going into the Gariep Nature Reserve where we did a big loop on the bikes on the north shore. Gap to Neverest stayed about 2-3 mins, whilst John stayed with us and Jabberwock took the place a few mins behind us and ahead of Merrell. Next team after that was miles back.

Felt weak in the middle part of the bike as my ill health over the last few days caught up with me, but recovered again towards the end. Eating felt good and no stomach problems at all.

Neverest left about 4 mins ahead of us. Didn't notice that 2 people ran out of T2 and the other 2 paddled out.

All 4 of us hopped into the boats and paddled off for the first of 3 CPs. Caught Neverest at the first where they where searching for the CP on a koppie on a peninsula. Quick chat with them showed a major difference in interpretation of race instruction for this leg. "Teams to Split half the team to run to CP the other half to padddle the kayaks to pick team members up at pinnacle point".

We thus paddle across a bay, dropped 2 team members to search for the CP and then regrouped at the point, whilst the organizers meant for 2 team members to run there all the way from the Transition. We were given a 90 minute penalty when we got back after the leg, along with Jabberwock and John's pair who also did the same as us. Thus only Merrell didn't have a penalty amongst the top 5 teams.

Next CP after that was on to of a massive mountain on an island in the middle of a dam, then an easy one on another island on the way back. Good head wind starting to pump on the way back to the Aventura Resort and the transition.

Quick transition where we were informed of our penalty despite an appeal that race book could be interpreted 2 different ways. So goal was now set to beat all teams in head-2-head race across the finish line, apart from Merrell who we also needed to beat by 1.5 hours.

Short run around the mountains at the dam wall. The tunnel under the wall was cancelled due to permission problems, which was a pity.

Another change onto bikes, put on a bit of warmer clothing as it was only about 1 hour to sunset and a very cold night.

Rode out in 2nd, just behind John and his partner, whom we caught at the first CP on the bike, in the Oviston Nature Reserve on the southern shore. From there they rode with us, but suffered a critical MTB mechanical shortly thereafter and had to withdraw from the race.

We kept up a good pace into the night and seem to have stretched the lead on the chasing teams from about 20 mins to just about an hour by the next transition at a stud farm.

Set out on a short 2 CP loop across a farm, aiming for 2 koppies in the dark. As per other trekking legs so far, this was also any-order format. We seemed to have gone opposite direction to other teams on this loop, leaving a track for the way back rather than on the way out.

Saw Merrell and Jabberwock close together on the way back, so figured just over an hour ahead. We seemed to be a fraction fresher and then they also apparently had trouble with the 1 CP.

Final MTB leg. Lots of enjoyable MTB riding on farm tracks. Seems to have been a lot of downhill on this leg and a few off-track sections across farms which we crossed quite quickly. Got sleepy at one stage for about 20 mins and the pace must have dropped a bit, but recovered and pushed on again. Some very cold sections and thick frost (our water bottles froze around the nozzles) but I was okay apart from cold fingers.

Had an abseil late in the stage which we did efficiently. Apparently it was cancelled after us as ice had started forming on the rock ledge. Thereafter a CP in a small pub and a quick shooter, the pub was still open at 2:30am.

Trying to clear up bronchitis before this weekend's AR.

Over the worst part of the cold, so decided I'd run Shane's Copperleaf 10km Night Run with Steph. Felt fine all the way around.