The 24 hr challenge

We pulled out of the race some 10 hours in. By the time we'd called it I was convinced I was never going to be able to achieve 24 hours.


Since then I've had time to digest the experience, as demonstrated by the long-awaited publishing of this blog entry, and to reassess my thinking.

When deciding to give the 24 hour Adventuregaine a go I never really gave full consideration to what was involved. The closest we have achieved is 5 ½ hrs in a Teva race, so not quite comparable.

I went in to the race with my usual embarrassing lack of training. This was due in part to a 5 week niggling bout of tonsillitis which I thought I'd kicked just prior to the race.

The extent of my preparation involved getting my gear out and packed 4 days prior, which really is quite impressive for me. I also quit my minimal intake of caffeine over a week out and happily loaded up on carbs the day prior. Note lack of actual physical training mention here.

On the morning of the race I was little nervous, but also excited. The excitement turned to fear and the adrenalin started building as the race start got nearer, particularly when organiser Liam mentioned the race starting with a large and unpleasant hill in his pre-race briefing.

The race

The first leg was on bikes, and we commenced the hellish goat track climb within a few minutes of setting off. The one (and only) benefit to this ride was an enjoyable downhill to the first transition and trek leg.

After the trek we were back on the bikes for road and track ride. We reached the kayak transition at around 4.30pm where we stopped briefly to refuel. Paddling started at the base of Wivenhoe Dam and included a 10km trip down the Brisbane River. We were able get in around an hour of daylight, before the banks all but disappeared in to a sea of darkness, save the moonlight and occasional house or camp light.

The night started to chill down while we were on the river, and by the end of the leg I knew the tonsillitis was fighting its way back.

We got in to our warm clothing and topped up on food before heading off on the next cycle leg. As we set off I was starting to get worried about my ability to continue and in hindsight I should have reassessed this at the transition.

Around 6km down the road I was starting to really flag. We came across Liam driving back from the next check point and after a quick discussion made the decision to pull out. There was really no way out of the course if we had continued on, but at that point we still had the opportunity to back track to the last transition and grab a ride back to HQ with the guys from Blackheart Adventure Racing.

We competed for around 10 hours, which is nothing to be ashamed about!

Maps – don't be fooled

The course was hard. The big map, which all bike legs were on, had topography lines of 35 metres. So decent elevations could easily end up not translating on to the map.

I discovered this when we rode a ridge line parallel to Wivenhoe Dam. I naively made the comment at the start that it should be relatively flat. I was so wrong. There were tough climbs in there that just didn't show up on the map. They involved a lot of pushing bikes up inclines, cursing and general unhappiness. However I felt vindicated about my behaviour when a couple of the top teams passed us on this section, as they were even pushing their bikes up the hill (note - faster than us) and commenting about 'this not being on the map'.

navigation

There was a lot of room for improvement in our navigation as on trek leg as we made a few errors that could easily have been avoided if we were on the ball a little more. I love the strategy around navigation and am still amazed at how much information can be found on a map. There are so many elements to look at, such as the lay of the land, tracks, directions, human structures etc.

There was a later section on the kayak leg where we demonstrated some savvier nav skills. We were able to work out roughly where we were on a rather long and unassuming section of the Brisbane River after dark by using house lights on top of the bank of the river and relating them to the tiny black dots representing 'structures' on the map.

I want to hone in my nav skills by making more of an effort to participate in to a couple of longer rogaines this year. For me, a 12 hour race would involve trekking rather than running, so you get more of a chance to take in your surrounds, appreciate the bush and prevent run-ins with spider webs. We live in such an amazing country, and living in the city you really tend to forget what's out there.

The joys of nature

I've always had a fear of spiders. As an example I will opt to go without bathing should an eight legged critter be in or near the shower. I'm so intimidated I can't even get close enough to relocate them should one threaten my happy existence.

When I lived alone my greatest fear above all else was to have to deal with a one. For some unexplained reason they really freak me out.

So the notion that I quite happily take off through the bush without any contact with the outside world save a pealess $2 whistle, and nothing more than a plastic A4 map holder for safety, is somewhat hard to explain.

I am very conscious that they are out there, but I somehow lock the thought away the majority of the time. However if I happen to walk in to a spider's web my female instinct kicks in and my reaction is very stereotypical. It involves a high pitched scream, a lightning quick retraction, and mad-person arm waving and leg flying. It happened a few times during the race so I hope it provided entertainment for Taryn.

She on the other hand had a nervous moment relating to some brown cows we came across on a bike leg. Some would think her fear is slightly more justified as an unhappy cow could probably do more harm than a small spider.

And so we continue…

I am keen to try another longer race, with more preparation of course!

We are talking about doing the 24 hour Fairy Bells race (the reduced Geocentric Hells Bells course) in October. We volunteered for this last time and agree that it should be achievable.

It's great to look back and see how far we've come in a fairly short space of time. I was really intimidated in our initial races as our fellow competitors looked so confident and experienced, which in hindsight was not necessarily the case. I look around now and realise that we can hold our own. We have some good skills behind us and don't look so amateurish – or clueless – any more.

We are still relative newcomers to the sport, however I think that through our enthusiasm and willingness to learn, we are starting to tackle the adventures with some solid knowledge behind us.

M