Keen Torq'ers Adventure Racing

Forrest 6hr enduro

2009-07-09T16:36:00.001-07:00

The inaugural Forrest 6 hr MTB enduro was held on the weekend. I was riding solo and Grant teamed up with Sam Maffett from the Rapid Ascent crew.
The tracks down at Forrest are simply awesome. Fast and flowing single tracks usually end with a sweeping berm, there are virtually no rock gardens and despite being in the Otway Ranges there was a minimal amount of climbing. Despite being wet in the lead up to the race, the tracks held up pretty well. During the middle part of the race there were some sections which were failry heavy and slippery, but this was more than compensated by the super fast downhill sections.
I finished up 2nd in the vets to local rider Dalen Court with a total of 9 laps of the 10+km course. Grant and Sam came in fifth in the pairs amongst a top class field. Congrats to Dam O’Connell (Torq) who cleaned up nearly the whole field despite riding solo, Katherine O’Shea (Torq) who took out the women’s solo and Luke and Steele (you guessed it; Torq) in the men’s pairs. Thanks to Baretta’s Bike Hub who set me up on my brand new Cannondale Scalpel. Both going up and down the bike is the best I’ve ever ridden and is in a class of it’s own. Thanks also to Area 51 (our newest sponsor) who supply high performance outdoor gear and clothing.

We got a good dose of the S.H.I.T.S.

2009-05-16T19:17:00.000-07:00

The team continued their winning ways on the weekend. Del and I travelled up to the first round of the six hour enduro series, Six Hours in the Saddle (SHITS). Despite the forecast, it turned out to be perfect racing weather, cool without being too cold. The track had a bit of rain leading up to the race, but despite a few muddier patches was in great condition and just got faster during the day as it contnued to dry out. Elevation gain was minor, but this was compensated for, by nearly all of the racing done on tight single track which was littered with rock gardens. The track was 100% rideable but demanded 100% concentration all the way (a lesson which many competitors learnt the hard way).

We both went into the race, pretty relaxed, looking at it as a lead up to next months Geoquest. Despite this we somehow ended up at the pointy end of the field. In the end Del won the women's solo fairly confortably. In fact she was racing a couple of other solo women in the last lap not realising they were a lap down. Then current world 24 hour champion James Williamson came up behind her with 2 kms to go on the last lap, Del pushed a bit harder than normal so as not to slow him down before he got the chance to pass. Sometimes being selfless doesn't pay, Del overcooked a corner and slammed a tree, Willo then slammed them both. Del scored a busted helmet, a wreaked rear mech and Willo's blood all over her bike. James ended up with a nasty cut over his eye and missed the opportunity to do another lap. Despite the mishap Del ran her bike over the line to take the win.

I ran consistently all day, and crossed the line in second place in the over 40's solo men. Finishing my 8th lap with 10 minutes to go, it was an anxious wait to see if any other Vets were going to cross the line forcing me to do another lap, luckily it didn't eventuate and it was with a sigh of relief that I listened to the countdown.

Another successful training session, lets hope it serves it purpose and helps us go even faster at Geoquest.

Stu

Top work at the Keen Race 2009

2009-05-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

Grant and Lukie finished 1st Male Team and 2nd overall on Saturday after a tough, cold muddy hilly week in the 5 day KEEN "jounrey through the Otways". Never far behind the leaders (who are the current world champions), and despite a few hiccups including Grant riding 120k with a collapsed front fork through the long stage & Luke apparently having some trouble breathing ("my rib is clicking"?) they were both on fine form all week. Top work you guys - Very proud of you.

Testimony to their achievment was Lukie having AT LEAST THREE drinks on Saturday night, and Grant being very excited about the prizes.

Del & Stew also went very fast in the Keen 1 Day Exposé leading all the way 'till Del left the Course Notes floating somewhere in Bass Strait, and Stew decided we should visit the top of the wrong hill between checkpoints Y & Z. But we never said we could navigate.... Fast in the wrong direction earned us 3rd Place. It would have been SO SO cool to take out the one day as alongside Grant & Lukie's 5 day performance... but hey..

A long blow by blow tale of the 5 day journey is sure to follow. Meanwhile we'll be preparing to meet what looks to be an all out line up of Australia's best teams at GeoQuest in a month's time...

Keen Torqers: Local Heros

2009-05-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

Article from The Geelong Advertiser 5/5/09

Warming up at Mars Challenge

2009-05-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

April 19th - Great results for the team at Mars pulling off three podium spots 1 (Grant), 2 (Del), 3 (Luke) and some fastest run and bike split times (Del & Del agian;-)) Stew came home from Vietnam the night before especially to carry all our boats to the river. He only mentioned that he wished he was doing it too about once every 3 mins... Everyone was pleased with their efforts, one bloke in particular couldn't stop grinning..! A good day all round.

Jindabyne Multisport Classic

2009-05-04T02:24:00.000-07:00

Sri Chinmoy have been running the Jindabyne Multisport Classic for five years. I’m surprised that it has failed to generate a bigger following in that time. Ever since supporting a friend in the second year of the race, it has held a fascination for me that has been hard to shake. This is despite the fact that it involves three significant swimming legs, and at the time of my introduction to the race, I couldn’t swim more than 250 m.
Three years later, I was on the start line on a chilly Sunday morning. I had spent the night listening to the wind and rain squalls and watching lightning through the curtains of Jindy Inn, wondering whether we would be allowed out on the lake in such foul weather. The morning turned out to be fairly settled, although the wind was already threatening to pick up. The eight solo athletes (including 1 female) took to the water 15 minutes ahead of the teams. As the swimmers ploughed into the water, my first thought was; “Shit; there’s 12 hours of this ahead of us. What’s the rush?” The initial rush of the soloists was nothing compared to the speed with which the team swimmers came past me about 20 minutes later.
Exiting the water 30 minutes and 1500 minutes later, my sister was introduced to the world of the support crew. She was a novice at crewing and was nervous, despite the detailed transition notes we had developed to take her step by step through everything I needed and in what order at each of the 11 transitions. The nerves at the start line paled into insignificance when she didn’t push my boat out far enough into the lake and the rudder stuck in the mud. As we freed it and I took a stroke the boat swung around 90 degrees, convincing me that the rudder had broken and my race was over. Some choice words were uttered and darling sister was sent for the tool box. As she returned I had freed the rudder and was paddling off. It wasn’t the best start to the race, I’d lost time and a number of places.
The first 9km paddle was straight forward, downwind and with a building chop made for a fast time, even better when you can jump on the wash of a behemoth on a spec ski. Lesson number one of the day, was to get a wire in my camel bak so you don’t have to stop paddling to drink, as soon as you do you lose the wash. Soon enough another behemoth came along and a congo line line formed. No more drinking until I bottomed out on a bar coming into the inlet. Then it was a sprint to the next TA anyway.
Overcoming any misgivings from the previous TA we had a lightning TA and came out onto the run in 4th place. The 7 km run started off easily enough on a concrete bike path, but quickly left that for obscure single tracks and bush bashing. I’m sure the track was well marked, but being color blind meant I couldn’t see the pink track markers unless they were fluttering in the breeze. I had to let the solo female overtake me so I could follow her. Despite this I still managed the 2nd fastest solo run for the day.

I was looking forward to the first 9 km MTB, which was advertised as; “Not for anyone without excellent MTB skills”. As I jumped on the bike Janet called out; “Just follow the orange tape” I inwardly groaned, orange was even worse than pink. Luckily the track was distinct and I had no trouble finding it. It was easy, wherever there were more rocks than anywhere else that was where the track was. As I was riding along at about 5 km an hr picking my way over the rocks I was wishing I could meet the guy who cut this off camber technical nightmare into the hillside. It took me around 40 minutes to complete the 9km course, but it was great riding and great fun. Especially the final gully, where the guy after me launched his bike, scattered the spectators and landed on a parked car, busting his ribs in the process.
2500m swim; my nemesis. I had actually raced reasonably conservatively, knowing that I had only swum this distance a handful of times before. The first 500m went along alright, but as a rounded the first bouy and started off down wind, I lost all rhythm, felt my legs dragging in the water and quickly reverted to breast stroke. I’d recently read Des Renford’s book on marathon swimming and learned that the first guy to swim the English Channel had done it breast stroke, so if he could swim 40km then I could do this swim no matter how long it took. I must have got sick of people asking me if I was about to drown, because at the bottom marker, with a bit less than a km to swim I went back to freestyle and finished the swim off. 1hr 20 min is a long time to swim 2 ½ kms and I had fallen back to 6th place.
The good thing about swimming that slow is you don’t use up a lot of energy and back in the boat I switched out of preservation mode and back into race mode. The next paddle was only 5 ½ km straight into a freshening breeze. Boat selection proved to be an important strategy. Many paddlers had already been picked up by the rescue boats, having not been able to handle the wind chop. Others had stayed close to the shore, while I was able to head straight across the bay, making up one place. The other important strategy was to actually know where you were going, the paddle legs were not marked particularly well, and the only way I pinpointed the TA was to watch the MTB’s riding along the shore and head for where I could first see them coming out from behind a headland.
From the boat it was time to give the upper body a rest and jump onto the MTB for a quick 11 km blast through open farm land. The course was relatively flat and the greatest challenge was for the support crews to get the boat packed up and to get to the next TA before me.
The most challenging run stage followed the MTB. It was a 12 km run along rocky single track which climbed up a gully for around 9 kms before turning around climbing a ridge line and then descending to a picnic ground before a final climb up to the TA. It is the first time the course leaves the lake and enters the Kosciusko National Park. As soon as you leave the lake you enter the eucalypt forest. While the climbing was starting to take a heavy toll on the quads, the change in scenery makes a welcome change. Despite walking some of the steeper sections I was able to pass a couple of other soloists, and arrived at the TA in fourth place.
The longest ride of the day was a 40km tour around the north western corner of the lake. It started with a steady 6 to 8 km climb (depending on who you listen to) climbing 500m up into the snow fields. The gradient was a manageable, being under 10% most of the way, although the head wind through the pass almost had me back in granny gear. The descent on the bitumen then hard packed gravel was fast and freezing; by the time I hit the bottom my hands were cold enough to prevent me shifting up into the big ring. This proved unnecessary as you are almost immediately faced with the second climb of the day. It is a much harder gravel climb, the first half of which can be done in the middle ring; just, the second half is down into granny and a winch up the hill. The best thing about this ride, is that once you’re over the top there is about 15 km of sweet downhill, complete with water bar jumps, sweeping curves and sharp gullies. The course setting sadists are not far away and after you exit the forest into open farm land you seem to approach the lake at least 5 times before you actually get to descend down to the TA.
The end of the race is tantalizingly close as you enter the water for the final 1.4km swim. I was seriously nervous about this leg as it was 3 years ago that I saw the athlete I was supporting crippled by cramps, and needing to hang off the kayak repeatedly as I paddled along beside him. My quads were pretty juiced and my hamstrings were tight, but I had been sucking down the Torq electrolyte all day and there was no indication of the onset of cramping, so with more than a little trepidation I set off. My nervousness was unnecessary as I quickly got into a rhythm, and slowly but surely stroked my way round the course. I was navigationally challenged at times, and did appreciate the rescue boat which followed me, thanks to the insistence of my support crew. 40 minutes later I crawled from the water thankful to be taking off my wetsuit for the last time.
As I jumped into my boat for the penultimate satge, a final 9.5kms paddle across the lake towards Jindabyne, Janet called out; “just paddle to a marker, then to another one, cross the bay then head into a little inlet that you probably won’t be able to see.” Another groan, and a prayer that there will be someone to follow. I knew the inlet was going to be hard to spot, but I had recollections from the last time I was here and I had semi committed the map to memory. Still feeling strong I headed off to cross the lake for the last time. Frustratingly, my prayers weren’t answered, there was no one to follow and not even a rescue boat to ask directions. I had to stop with about 3 kms to go and try and decipher the landmarks I had committed to memory. The idea of heading for the final marker was fruitless; there were buoys all over the lake, and no sign of curiosity rocks, which I was meant to be heading. There were lots of low lying rocks, but none in the direction I felt I should have been heading for. Another paddler eventually came up to me and we quickly discussed the best option. As it turned out after progressing another 1500m, I recognized the rocks I was meant to be heading for and was able to head directly for the TA, the navigation issues probably cost me another 15 minutes.
The final run is an easy, flat 5.5 km into town along the shore of the lake on a concrete bike path; that is if anything is easy after a race like this. Getting out of the car back at the accommodation was challenging enough. Finally I crossed the line having held onto fourth place for the last half of the race. The last 4 hours seemed to fly by, I’m not sure whether it was because I was in a daze, or whether because I was enjoying myself so much, but before I knew it I was crossing the line to the half hearted clapping of half a dozen Sri Chinmoy volunteers. My support crew only made it to the line in time to watch me inhale one of the delicious veggie burgers that were on offer.
Having completed the race, I am even more surprised that more people don’t take up the challenge. It is a good fun race, which is constantly changing and keeping you on your toes. The shorter legs are a great format that ensures the racing never becomes a grind and motivates you to keep charging the whole time. Yes, being a good swimmer is a big advantage, but I proved that it’s not essential to being able to complete the event. The country side is stunning, the MTBing is fun and the paddling is fast for the better paddlers and yet achievable for beginners.
A big thanks to Janet, my official support crew ( you were totally awesome, and were as professional as any athlete could ever wish for), Lizzie, my unofficial crew, who is typical of the great people you meet at these events. Having met at the start line, she was just as supportive, encouraging and helpful as any long suffering support crew would have been, Gen and the crew at Torq, I am constantly amazed at what you can achieve on these products. I got around the course in around 12 ½ hrs, almost exclusively on liquid carbs and gels, I never felt flat, never felt close to cramping, and was able to move freely the day after. Del my Keen Torqer team mate who taught me to swim, and finally to my long suffering family who have to put up with the time away from them; training and racing, the mysterious debits from the bank accounts for gear and race entries, the mindless banter about all things outdoorie and yet continue to be supportive of nearly all of the crazy things I do and still want to do.

Anaconda Lorne 2008 by Grant Suckling

2009-01-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

The Anaconda race in Lorne was my first ‘adventure race’ late in 2006; it was an incredible experience, literally life changing. Looking back at the athlete that limped across that finish line two years ago and comparing him to me today, it has been an awesome journey. This race will always be important to me, and any improvement in my sport will be judged by my performance when I return here each year.

This year it was all about everything but the swim for me, with the words “your race starts after you get out of the water” ringing in my ears from our coach Simon Knowles, I started the race with a grand total of two swimming sessions under my belt, totalling 1:10 in the water! I came out of the water next to Bruce Dunlop who said “good swim Grant…” as I ran past him on the beach. Looking at my watch I looked back at him in horror, 40 minutes!!! Bloody hell… That’s worse than any numbers I had worked through my head before the race! Over six minutes slower than last year. This equalled a 10 minute deficit to the individual leaders as I started the paddle.

I was to find out later that the swim course was a fair bit longer this year, wish I’d known that out on the course and I wouldn’t have been so hard on myself, it certainly gave my confidence a nice little smack on the chin at the time.

Due to the marginal weather conditions the alternate course was used. This meant paddling in Louttit bay which is a triangle course largely protected from the South Westerlies blowing out at sea, the first turn around buoy near the Lorne Pier was exposed to the wind a bit, but as soon as we turned we had a great tail wind and swell pushing us all the way down the longest side of the triangle to the next buoy. It was here that I had one of my finest dummy spits of all time when a scared and confused competitor stopped in front of me in the middle of the racing line beside the buoy. I dug deep into the water to avoid “t-boning” his boat, and a moment later was hit from the side by a swell that put me in the water. I could count the amount of time it took to get back in the boat by the number of expletives I sent across the water at my fellow competitor if I could remember them all, not my finest moment!

No real harm was done; in fact I should be grateful for the activation of the angry switch. The rest of the paddle went reasonably well, but didn’t feel as fast as I would have liked. It was fast enough though, taking me from 37th to 7th individual in the 3rd fastest individual paddle split for the day only 39 seconds behind the fastest (Richard Ussher).

The heart rate was pretty high for the run up the beach to transition from paddle to run, precious seconds disappeared whilst I wrestled with the tangled race bib in the transition area and headed out 1:04 behind 6th placed Sam Hume. Sam was running well but had much less speed over the rocks, which meant I came up to within 60-70 metres behind him by the time we reached the crossing at St Georges River. I slowly whittled away the gap before overtaking him in the orchard at Allenvale where I ducked under the trees at the corner to sneak a few metres in front of him, he was to run on my heals for most of the back section of the run, briefly overtaking me for about 100 yards climbing up from the last Allenvale road crossing, but I immediately took the lead again on the short downhill section that followed. One thing was obvious to us both, rough technical running was not his strong suit, and me being one of only a handful of competitors who had actually trained on the alternate run course, I was excited about the ripping decent and rough country ahead where I planned to make my move.

In typical Jacoby (race director) style, the run included a gnarly off track section with dense, prickly undergrowth followed by a nice scramble up a ridiculously steep rocky slope that. It was through here that I finally got rid of Sam Hume. The more undulating terrain was nearly over, with only a couple of small sharp climbs left before a steep decent back to St Georges River, I overtook another couple of team runners and continued at good pace. It was at this point that my race was almost shattered. A bad ankle sprain had me rolling head over heels down the hill screaming in pain. Anger and despair raged through my head, more cursing, this time all aimed at myself, how could I not be more careful?!! Was my race over? It was pretty bad… Just keep moving, run like it doesn’t hurt, harden the hell up princess!

The run back to Lorne was excruciating, but I was determined to maintain my position and pushed through the pain without losing a place. Jumping onto my bike I was relieved to know the running was over for now, but as soon as I stood on the pedals to race back onto the course it was immediately obvious that this ride would be done sitting down, the ankle was not okay.

No bother, I had been looking forward to this ride and a little thing like a sore ankle was not going to stop me exorcising last year’s MTB demons. I knew I was better than I had shown and was determined to prove it. The ride went well, despite not being able to stand I reeled in individual competitors John Kent, and last year’s second place getter Glen Kirby. In the end my ride time was the 3rd fastest individual time registered behind 1st and 2nd’s Richard Ussher and Jarrod Kohlar.

Whilst the final beach run was agonising, I was grateful that there were no other competitors in sight, so with no need to flog myself back up the beach I cruised home knowing that I had run a pretty good race. I was to finish in 5th place; Sam Hume had unfortunately short coursed the run by accident and slipped by me without either of our knowledge. A top 5 finish earned me the honour of standing on the podium (not to mention getting into the prize money!), which I was quite chuffed about.

1st place Richard Ussher congratulated me and suggested I come and race in NZ some time, to which I replied “Yeah for sure… I’m actually coming over for Coast to Coast in February”. I never would have dreamed 2 years ago that I would have shared a simple conversation like that with a world champion whilst standing on a podium, what a ride.

Kathmandu Adventure Race; by Grant Suckling

2008-12-21T20:47:00.000-08:00

“Huh! We’ll win that easy” said Luke. Hmm, surely there’ll be enough competition to ensure that’s far from a foregone conclusion I thought, but Luke’s confidence was so blatant that I assumed the field must be fairly average at best.

Those were the thoughts that preceded the Kathmandu Adventure Race at Lysterfield. I had never really started a race assuming that we would win before, it was unnerving. My typical pre-race mental game hinges on me being the underdog, “prove the bastards wrong” and all that. I tried to get comfortable with the assumption of a win by telling myself that the event was for less experienced/fit people and that we’d probably be the only experienced Adventure Racers there. The car park at the start however was chockers, with heaps of the usual Adventure Racers that I’ve met over the past couple of years, and these people were neither unfit nor inexperienced! I was sure Luke and I were in better nick than any of the people there that we knew, but their presence meant we could afford no mistakes, and what’s more, with all these people, what of the ones we didn’t know?

Anyway, whatever, go hard and prove to the bastards that we’re the best; aye!?

This is officially the first time I have ever started a race and sprinted into the lead with the intention of dictating the race on our terms. Luke and I worked brilliantly as a team from the outset, with a fluent transition from a short sprint to paddle seeing us already clear of the field. We lead the first paddle from start to finish with a couple of teams reasonably close behind.

The first run was to make Luke re-assess his earlier assumptions of victory when two very fit blokes cruised past us effortlessly, as we laboured along wondering how the hell they managed to make their speed look so easy. They finished the run a good 500m ahead of us, but a poor transition saw us riding out close on their wheels for the first bike. After a km or two of open track we hit the first single track right behind them and watched with glee as they re-oriented their map with confused looks on their faces.

As if the revelation that they weren’t great navigators wasn’t good enough news, moments later we discovered that whilst they were very fit, they couldn’t ride the technical single track as fast as us. Add intermediate navigation skills to intermediate technical MTB skills and the resultant lack of speed in those conditions meant we never saw those guys anywhere near us again, nor anyone else for that matter!

Luke had a great day with the maps, and I was feeling good enough to run ahead (<50 metres!) and punch the control card, then catch up again with the ‘unrelenting forward speed machine’ that is Luke. The race had a lot of transitions (run, paddle, run, bike, run, bike, run, bike, paddle!) and we nailed every one really well, the last run we even managed to smash the rest of the field by several minutes, showing increased speed as the day went on.

In the end we came in about 11 or 12 minutes ahead of second place in 2 hours 43 minutes, proving Luke correct. I think it could have been tighter, but it was a perfect race for us. We never backed off the pace, every transition was seamless, and despite Luke’s insistence that the nav was easy, all due credit must go to him again for never once taking a wrong turn.

Surf Coast six hour MTB Enduro by Grant Suckling

2008-12-21T20:44:00.000-08:00

Luke and I had chatted about the Surf Coast Six Hour as a good prospect for a training ride to keep things mixed up a bit. Beretta’s Bike Hub was keen for us to ride with their team and we were keen to do what we could to fly the flag for them. We both agreed it wasn’t a target event so there’d be no tapering, but we were going pretty well and hoped for a reasonable sort of result anyway.

I was looking forward to participating as I learned that more and more people I knew would be there for the race. Best of all, my brother would be there with the CFA team which was great news.

Beretta’s Bike Hub ended up entering a few teams, and the boys who hadn’t tapered (i.e. Grant and Luke) were to be a team of only two, whoops! Looks like the workload was to be a little more than expected… My late arrival at the start meant that Luke would do the first two laps; we had agreed to do 2 each to start with and see how we went from there.

The place was jumping, bikes and riders everywhere, sponsors tents, live music, food cooking in stalls to tempt us back to transition, it was all happening. Luke went around the first couple of laps in a solid time, keeping within a reasonable distance of the leaders. Then it was my turn.

The course started with a ‘little pinch’ to get the heart rate up (way up if you ride it the way I did!), my first lap was a self imposed shock to the system, any concept of ‘pacing myself’ for later or ‘not pushing too hard’ so I could train the next day was completely gone from my head. I reckon I had the worst case of white line fever that I’d ever had, something was telling my brain that this was an all out sprint race! Silly boy…

As it turns out, the course was a good ‘up and down’ course with no really long climbs, so recovery time was available to help me get over my adrenaline fuelled pace. But the penny hadn’t dropped, after every small recovery I attacked againJ.

Fortunately I ironed out my brain a little for my second lap, the fact that I was hurting (just a little) contributed to the change of attitude. But still not enough to stop me running through the bush to overtake a few more whilst straddling the top tube of my Cannondale Rush (‘Kenny’), I seem to remember people saying something that involved references to their God, and maybe something about an animal as I passed, either they were getting involved with a deeper meaning of what they were doing, or possibly enjoying the native wildlife…? Maybe I was still going to hard…

The course was great with some good little climbs, and obviously the resultant downhill sections were great fun. There was heaps of good single track however some had sandy pockets that rutted up a bit as the race went on which made for some hairy squeezes through the trees as you were pitched back and forth at the ruts whim, but happily accidents were only witnessed on this day.

The riders thinned out as time went on (particularly after the 3 hour finished), so less people to overtake meant we could settle into a rhythm. Our lap times became more consistent as we switched to one lap each, and the night riding was pretty familiar to us from a long winter training in the dark at the You Yangs.

We were going pretty well in the field, the leaders were well ahead of the pack, but we were still within reach of 2nd place (Team Rapid Ascent), running a few minutes behind them for most of the night. Team Rapid Ascent’s John Jacoby and Sam Maffett were both riding well, the gap seesawed for pretty much the entire race, but the positions never changed and we were to end up finishing about 5 minutes behind them in 3rd place.

Of the 145 teams that entered the 6 hour, we were one of only 3 to complete 13 laps finishing 3rd outright. Luke and I were both very pleased with the result, especially considering we had just gone down there to participate. My inability to follow my ‘participation’ race plan earned me some great stats – of the total 1,658 laps timed, I had both the fastest and equal fourth fastest day lap times of 25:31 (49 seconds ahead of the next best!) and 26:28 respectively. I also had both of the two fastest night laps in 27:09 and 27:31. This race was a great confidence booster for the upcoming Anaconda race in Lorne; all going well last year’s bike time would be obliterated!
A special thanks to Beretta’s Bike Hub for organising our entry and providing the fully decked out tent for our racing comfort, and once again, how could we keep the speed up without the most powerful weapon in the arsenal – TORQ bars, gels and electrolyte energy drink, Forrest Fruit gels were made for this event!

Upper Murray Challenge

2008-12-21T20:31:00.000-08:00

The Upper Murray Challenge has had my attention for a very long time as a must do event, it still does. This year was to be the year that nearly was, with my running legs still arguing with my competitive brain about whether they as a team were over the Bull of Africa, my individual aspirations would have to wait. In the end it was to be my paddling that would get me an invite that was too good to pass up.

Scott Rantall approached me looking for a capable paddler, for which I was most flattered. Self belief is still not my strongest suit so to get an invitation from one of the best runners in the country was a fantastic compliment and I intended to do my very best to prove myself worthy. Scott planned on doing the ride as well as the run in an attempt to build on his goal to become an adventure racer, but alas, the quickest legs going around only mean it hurts more when you fall off your bike! Scott ripped the skin off his forearm and damaged his shoulder a couple of weeks before the race, he couldn’t ride... If I had a little more confidence in how well I was going on the bike I may have been a little more assertive when I suggested I was capable of doing the ride in his place, you’ll know why if you read the Surf Coast Six Hour report...

After some stress during the week leading into the event with Scott being both injured and unwell, we finally locked in a team only a day or two out. Our rider, Tim Briggs, was to be the unknown quantity to both Scott and I, but we had started to believe that as long as he could ride in the top 20% or so, Scott’s run speed and a solid paddle from me would get us somewhere near the podium.

Keen Torq’ers navigator Luke was in his element the day before the race, walking me through the course and giving me the heads up on what was to be expected on race day, valuable information that gives you that handy little edge. Very heavy rain had been forecast for the region, which had prompted much debate over the expected river levels for the paddle, those that had concerns wouldn’t have felt any better when they awoke to the sound of heavy rain on race day!

There were some tense moments prior to the start as I wandered around in the rain unable to find my team, but eventually we managed to track each other down. Tim appeared nervous which I took as a good sign, and before we knew it he was riding off into the hills and we were on our way to the MTB/Paddle transition for the long wait. A really long wait. So long in fact, that we were compelled to ask the event organisers if Tim was still coming at all! As time went on I started to worry about food, I had planned my day without allowances for waiting this long, and with only two TORQ gels (one to have 10-15 before starting and one during), my nutrition and hydration requirements were thrown into a bit of a tailspin, the longer I waited, the more my body would crave it’s next meal.

The wait continued, most of the mountain bikers had already finished the ride, and we were sure something wasn’t right. Eventually we noticed the event Director conferring with some safety people and looking in our direction. That look is unmistakable, it speaks volumes, bad things have happened.

Tim had come off his bike in apparently spectacular fashion and broken some ribs, all for a free ride home in an ambulance. Our transponder and race bib were on their way to transition and we had to make the decision as to whether or not we’d proceed as an un-ranked team. As thoughts for Tim’s wellbeing tortured me, I resisted the urge to jump in my car and head to his bedside in hospital where I could hold his hand and tend his wounds in his time of need, and decided to go for a paddle first instead (insensitive bastard that I am)! Donning the race bib it was time to hit the river.

Snowy Hydro lets extra water out of the reservoir for the race, so the river was up from the day before. Conditions for paddling were perfect, little wind, and not to warm. I ramped the pace up early planning to rate as high as possible for as long as possible.

The body felt good and with the river littered with paddlers to chase down (averaging about 1 per km), it was shaping up to be an ideal situation for a quick time. One of the best thing in any time trial style of race is the carrots that dangle ahead of you, there was no shortage of these as I had left so late, so gunning past them was a great motivator that kept the adrenaline delivered from start to finish. Some grade one rapids along the way bought variation that kept my attention the rest of the time. The river wound its way through farmland between Khancoban and Corryong, Luke had told me there would be several bridges with one main bridge signalling the half way point. Passing under the half way point suggested I was on target for a very sharp time, unless the bottom half was longer or slower than the top half I would exceed expectations.

Doing the maths is one of my favourite ways to motivating myself and occupy my mind during this type of race, calculating my progress was getting me a little bit excited, I was moving well and before I knew it there was a ‘2km to go’ sign on the side of the river!

All thought of taking care of my boat vanished as I rammed it into the rocky bank near the finishing line, leapt from the seat and sprinted for the transition. Scott was ready to go and we transitioned very fast, my wife Iris was genuinely surprised to see me already, having timed some of the earlier paddlers and made a guess as to how long I’d take. It’s so difficult to tell if you’ve gone hard enough when you’re paddling, the rate of recovery is so much better than running or riding, so it’s easy to convince yourself 5 minutes after the race that you maybe could have gone faster!

Scott ran very well, but his illness that he’d had through the week took its toll. The run course was apparently torturous, Scott’s first words at the finish line were “that was hard, I’d rather run a marathon, a marathon’s easier than that…” That said, he over took a very long line of people and ran us into 3rd position in the teams, pretty impressive!

Discussions at the finish line centred around trying to find out ‘who’s done what’ to see how your times would compare. There was one common theme when discussing the paddle, everyone expected Australia’s K1 marathon representative Tim Naughtin to produce a repeat performance and smash everyone in the paddle split, especially hot from the World Championships in the Czech Republic. I had accepted that he must be in a league of his own so imagine my surprise and pleasure when provisional results were posted at the finish line showing that Tim and I had indeed smashed the field, but the best news of all, I had Tim by about a minute!

Scott ran the 4th fastest run time which I think he was a little disappointed with, but keeping it all in perspective for him, he had been sick as a dog and nearly pulled out all together. God help us all if he gets a good lead in to an event, especially if he learns to keep up in the kayak!

The Upper Murray Challenge is now etched in bold print on the list of must do events for me as an individual competitor, hopefully 2009 is the year.

Grant Suckling

Random Stuff

2008-09-29T03:51:00.000-07:00

On the weekend three of us; Grant, myself and Del went for a paddle. It was an average weekend weather wise, but I took the opportunioty to try out a sea kayak, cause I don't have enough boats and I need one of these to add to the stable. Del and I planned to take the MTB's out before hand and my hard tail sitting on the roof reminded me that I still haven't got my duallie back from the shop.

Our MTB's were freighted back from Africa to avoid the ridiculous excess baggage fees we would have been slugged if we tried to bring them with us. During the race we were forced to swim with our bikes across a salt water river. So when we finished the race we carefully rinsed them, sprayed them liberally with WD40 before packing them away in their bike boxes. We finally picked them up from Aus customs some three weeks later. Customs and quarantine were as big an epic as any all day ride in the bush with no compass. In summary:
Join a queue
Fill out a form and rejoin the queue
Hand in the form and join join a queue to take a number
Take a number
Join a queue
Be told you can't get your bikes inspected; come back in two days
Argue
Join queue
Get another form
Fill it in and rejoin queue
Hand it in
Get another number
Join the second queue
It's too late to get your bikes inspected
Argue
Wait
Go pick up your bikes
Computer systems down come back tomorrow
Argue
Wait
Get bikes
Join queue
Get bikes inpsected;

You get the picture, if you ever find yourself in the same situation, persevere, don't stop smiling, flirt where possible and don't take 'come back tomorrow' as an answer.

Anyway looking at bike # 2 was a sad reminder that salt water, three weeks in a box and another week before getting to the bike shop is not good for your bike. The guys at the shop tell me that there is salt crystals in my bottom braket, my frame is full of oxidised aluminium and every bit that could rust, has, The pivots are OK though. Looks like I'll be paying for this race for a while yet.

Regardless of that sob story, the weekend paddle was awesome. We went through the shore break, straight into a pod of dolphins, paddled along in close proximity to them for 20 minutes or so, then paddled back and played in a nice 2-4 foot break for another hour, trying desperately not to murder young children learning to surf with 25kg of out of control, rampaging sea kayak. Great fun!!

Stew

Post Race Shenanigans

2008-09-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

The 12 hours after any race can be summed up easily ‘Sleeeeep’. Although the sleep is regularly punctuated by; ‘Eeeeting’. Such it was after the Bull. Del and Luke, after cleaning up and having an initial sleep went off in search of food, while Grant and I continued to sleep. In fact Grant didn’t raise his bones until around 6:30 that evening, and only then because I woke him so we could do some more eating.

The next day is cleaning and sorting gear. Gear boxes and bike boxes inevitably contain the smelliest, dirtiest, hard to identify stuff you can imagine. It never ceases to amaze me, but while your racing, in your desperation for carbs, you can squeeze every last drop of gel from a packet. But put that dessicated wrapper in a gear box and it will continue to ooze gel over every piece of kit in the box. So after two days of sitting in the hot sun, when you finally come to clean out your box, every sock, every glove, the handlebars of your bike, your one clean t-shirt will be covered in a mixture of horrible sticky red, orange and yellow gel. The only solution is; if it can bend put it in the wash, if it’s solid then hose it down. If you can’t decide, hose it first then either, chuck it out or wash it, simple. Then once everything is sorted out, be prepared to continue to return and have returned various pieces of kit (especially socks) for the next couple of months from your other team mates.

The after race party was the usual affair of drinks, plates overflowing with food, people sleeping at the table and dancing afterwards. The KEEN Torq’ers put on a brave show, but the honors for the final leg had to go to the Russian girls from Areena, who can really move it, and the guys from the video crew, who can still move it regardless of how much they can drink. Special mention has to go to the South African girls from Dew Point, who made an emotional entrance on their MTB’s during the ceremony, some 10 hours after the official finish of the race.

We kissed Lukie goodbye, as he was flying out on Monday, while Del, Grant and myself started our overland tour to Johannesburg before flying out on Thursday. The idea was to cram as much sightseeing into the next four days as possible. To start the itinerary we drove out to the Southern Drakensburg Ranges, to ascend the Sani Pass the following day. This 4WD track climbs 1300m to an altitude of 3000m over 8 km. A steep but relatively straight forward climb, the fastest descent over the 8km is held by a MTB in just under 13 minutes. Some 4 minutes faster than the fastest motorbike and significantly quicker than any car. The Sani Pass sits in the country of Lesotho (Lah-soo-too), and is populated by the Basutu who speak Masutu (something like that) They are the descendants of the tribes who fled from the persecution of the Zulus under King Shaka. They live a hard life on a barren plateau, (when we were there it was well under 0 deg with a biting wind), tending sheep and goats with some supplementary income from the tourist trade. A quick beer was had at what was once the highest pub in Africa then it was onwards and downwards to the midlands and the town of Howick.

Howick provided an excellent hotel. The Pre requisites for this are comfy beds for sleeping and good food for eating. SA is a great place to eat. We managed three courses of gourmet quality food, two bottles of wine and five desserts for under $30 a head…..how good is that. The next day was spent flying through the trees on zip lines at Karkloof. This was the best. The longest line was 180m and you fly over or through the trees and tremendous speed, at times up to 30m off the forest floor.. Then it was up to Spion Kop for some horse riding and some more eating and sleeping.

Spion Kop was very olde worlde British Empire type stuff. Reading in the lounge, overlooking the property, with a scotch in one hand and the Jack Russell terriers at you feet, was all very comfortable. The three course meal followed by cognac, cheese platter and dessert wine was equally as pleasing. The next day we rose just in time for a cooked breakfast before rushing off to go horse riding through the local game reserve. Seeing Red Hartebeest, blue wildebeest, zebra, impala, jackals and kudu up close and personal from horseback was very special. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the endangered White Rhinos, but we did see evidence of their passing.

From Spion Kop we headed back to J’Burg to meet up with Ben. Ben loves crotches, bums, has a fetish for drink bottles and socks, and when he’s not busy with all of that he looks after Ian, who raced with team Kreatures at The Bull. Ian’s hospitality was typically South African, even if he was an ex pat Pom. We ate his food, drank his beer, slept in his house, used his washing machine and he even took us to the local J’Burg tourist market, which was way above and beyond the call of duty. Messages from home confirmed that both Grant and I both had kids bursting with excitement at seeing their dads again. There is certainly nothing like being swamped as you re-enter your home. So it was with mixed emotions that we boarded the plane on Thursday morning. It would have been great to have had more time to travel through Africa, but the reality was anything less than 3 months was never going to be enough.

As for what’s next for the KEEN Torq’ers…….watch this space.

Day 6. The Final Push

2008-08-31T17:08:00.000-07:00

Sleep deprivation is an insiduous thing. We have all heard of various symptoms including; poor decision making, mumbling, staggering and hallucinations (sleepmonsters). When we fell asleep in the dunes we had planned to get up at 4:30, and in fact, Del, Luke and Stew all did wake up at this time and then, comfortable in the knowledge that the other two had decided that we all needed another 2 hours sleep, settled back down to get up at 6:30. When we next woke up we silently got our gear together and moved on, careful not to wake the Russian girls from team Areena, who had decided to sleep adjacent to us in the dunes. Back at the river a couple of local lads ferried us and our old friends Outdoor Extreme, who had arrived at the river at the same time as us, across the river in their Canadian Canoes.

On the way to the wreck of the Jacaranda (which was a CP) the issue of the extra two hours sleep came up in conversation.
Stew: "I can't say I'm sorry you two decided on another 2 hours sleep, but how come, three hours should have been heaps?"
Luke: "How should I know, you and Del made the decision not me"
Stew: "No way, Del told me that the two of you decided to wait until dawn, Del; are you playing us off against one another, so you can get more sleep?"
Del: "Piss off, as if I'd be the one needing more sleep? You were the one that said wait until 6:30"
Grant; "Hey guys, what's going on? I feel great, that sleep was the best, Gee Luke's good to cuddle up to, how far to the next CP? must be time for some more video, how's everybody else feeling? it was good to get ahead of the Russian girls wasn't it? I wonder if we're still ahead of the Americans? cereal in a bag tastes good hey! Do you reckon we're top 10 still, Gee I hope so, my knee hurts, how's everybody else feeling"
Stew: "Well we should try and push on to the finish now without any more sleeps"
Luke: "We're not stopping again"

The wild coast lived up to it's reputation; rugged and wild, we were treated to 5-6 foot sets and perfectly clean breakers rolling along the reefs, empty, except for the white pointer sharks and a pod of pilot whales (I think, or they could have been orcas or bloody big dolphins). We kept the pace hard and raced to Seagulls Ocean Resort. This was were the CP's ran out. We were issued with the rest of the course at this point. Lukie quickly copied down the location of the new CP's while the rest of us readied the bikes and got our gear and food organised. This was the last time we would see our gear boxes, so everything we needed for the rest of the race needed to be carried from here to home. The last ropes section was only 5 km up the road, it required only two of us to complete an abseil and Jumar. So we hurried on up to it, as these sections are notorious bottlenecks.

While Luke and Del rearranged gear and plotted the rest of the course, Grant and Stew got to play around in a waterfall. A quick 15 m abseil down the waterfall, followed by a swim across a brain shrinkingly cold pool, snap a CP, swim back, Jumar up, try and wipe the grin off your face, cause it's so much bloody fun, back on the bikes and resume racing.

The next section of MTB was not a happy one for us. We failed to find the track down to the river until we bunderbashed and hike-a-biked across a hill for 30 minutes, when we eventually got down to the river we had to swim our bikes across it (and it was salt water. Yes, bikes do float, and yes they will need a rebuild when they get home, and yes Grant did cry as his 'Kenny' Cannondale Rush hit the water and yes we did manage to hit high tide; AGAIN). Once across the river we headed back to the coast. At least this time there was enough wet sand to ride our bikes along, until we ran out of sand and had to carry the bikes over coastal rocks. The track then went up onto the sea cliffs and we followed along a narrow coastal track probably just wide enough to land a skinny seagull. Riding along, I though I heard one of those skinny seagulls calling out. I turned around in time to see Del tumble off her bike and down about three meters, self arresting a couple of meters above the next sheer drop. My chivalrous gesture of a helping hand was abruptly spurned, and my sympathetic description of the chain of events that led to Del's unfortunate demise was only grunted at, any hint of smile, laugh or even chuckle for the next hour was countered with a glare that would freeze your blood.

When the decision needed to be made at the next CP to take either the inland route or the coastal route, it was not hard to work out which way Del was going to vote. Grant too had seen his bike in salt water and sand too much already and Luke was worried that if there was a lot of rocks we could lose more time, so the decision was made. In the end we arrived back at the coast after a very long inland route which culminated in climbing a razor wire gate with the sign; "This property is protected by tactical response troops". The local farm worker assured us no-one had been shot in a loooong time and 'Yes this was the road to the beach', so expecting to see the orange dot of a laser guided sniper rifle on our chests at any moment we headed off with some trepidation. Thanking God it had been a fast and downhill all the way to the beach, we started the last coasteering section on our bikes before heading in Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve.

With other teams hot on our heels we grabbed a CP and headed off to the rogaine section. It was in this TA that we realised we had overtaken the Uruguans and the French Team, Epitact, who we'd last seen on day two of the race, we also still had Extreme Outdoors hot on our heels and Pro Pepto ahead of us. Pro Pepto had taken off 1 hour ahead of us on the beach trek from Mazepha Bay, so with our long sleep in the Dunes were an unknown factor. The rogaine was frustrating with one of the CP's not where it was shown on the map. We lost contact with the French, and not knowing whether they were in front or behind us, pushed hard to collect the rest of the CP's and get back to our bikes. We still had several CP's to collect before starting the next paddle section. These proved difficult to find in the dark and we lost 30 minutes after we missed a track turnoff to a deserted farmhouse, we had been going for 18 hours with only two 20 minute breaks, sleep deprivation was starting to kick in again for some of us, while the pressure of maintaining our spot in the top 10 was playing on the others. It was a tense time, which was releaved by the sight of wild game in our bike lights. In particular, as Del found a CP in an erosion gully, Grant and I from the road above could see the shapes of about half a dozen lions as they stalked towrds her until they were about 5 meters away and looking hungrily down at her in the gully as she blissfully unaware, stamped the control card. The lions were in an enclosure,so there was never any real risk of her being eaten, I just hope the fence was in better condition than some of the others we had crossed in the game reserve.

We moved on to the Areena game reserve where we were chased by a tame giraffe and then after some running around finally found the TA to the kayaks. Getting into the boats we were amped about getting to the finish line, just two more CP's to go, a 4 km paddle and 3 km trek. Home for breakfast. The paddle was straightforward, although the tide was again racing, thankfully it was heading in the right direction for a change. Now only one more CP, but we had seen the French team walking to the boats soon after we started the paddle, so they were hot on our heels. The last CP was on top of a sand dune. The dune was covered in the thickest, prickliest scrub Hano could find. I went up first, and lacking confidence in Hano's CP location descriptions, gave up when it wasn't on the high point of the dune, then Luke went up, then Grant, finally Luke came down with the prize and we headed up the road.

It was a very relieved team that left the vicinity of the sand dune and didn't have to race any other teams up the hill to the finish line. The relief was tangible as we headed towards the line. Joking, and laughing and looking forward to a shower and a sleep [ ed. strangely enough I think Grant and Luke shared a single bed that morning, the habit just too strong to break straight away]. We crossed the line in eigth place and showered each other in peach champagne. The French came in just 20 minutes behind us and Pepto Pro aboubt 2 hours in front. I think we again, surprised a lot of people with how well we performed. It was a super tough race, even by international standards, with close to 22,000 vertical meteres of climbing and descending. We came through in good health and in good spirits. While many teams wilted over the closing stages of the course, we were able to keep racing strongly and made up at least four places and held off another strong finishing SA team.

Thanks go to our sponsors; KEEN footwear and Torq Nutrition Australia, the race directors Hano and Sonja Otto, for putting on a superb race, our families for all the encouragement, sympathy, support, compassion, patience and money and of course my team mates who are the best bunch of guys you could ever hope to hang out with and who make any and all the deprivation worthwhile.

Stewart

Day 5

2008-08-30T18:03:00.001-07:00

Even though we overslept , there was no great hurry to get out of transition. Local teams had advised us that we didn't want to get to the Kei river crossing before dawn, it was a wide deep crossing that was potentially dangerous for the unwary. We set out from the TA with the intent on getting to the river at around 4:30-5:00 AM, if the locals were exagerrating we'd have the jump on them, if they weren't. we wouldn't have to spend to much time waiting on the river bank for the sunrise. The weather was in distinct contrast to previous mornings. Them temperature could only be described as 'balmy' as we cycled towards out rendevous with the river. Nothing is as easy as it may seem in Africa. As we descended to the river, the temperature dropped quickly, making the thought of a river crossing decidedly unpleasant. THe Uragauy team had been tooling around the river bank for over an hour when we got there, and we scoped out the river for a further 30 minutes until we discovered a relatively safe and easy crossing several hundred yards downstream. We waded across with nothing more than wet feet. Any difficulties had been well exagerated. The Uruguans gleefully followed, then took off into the Transkei.

Once we found the road into the Transkei region we were quickly initiated into this region of SA. We had been warned the roads would be poorly maintained, what we didn't realise was that the whole region was lost in time. On one side of the Kei river, modern farming practices and fast well kept roads were the order of the day. On the other side, people lived in regional villages, there was no running water or electricity and people seemed to live a semi-subsistent lifestyle.

Navigation in the Transkei was challenging. Tracks and roads were marked on the maps, but you had no way of knowing whether a track was rutted single track only suitable for hike a bike or two lane 4WD track. Often they went from one to the next and back with random abandon, so that you would be flying along making great time one minute, only to find yourself crawling along at snail's pace the next.

The locals were enthusiastic in with their cheering and their directions. Though when asking directions, questions had to be carefully worded. "Is this the right direction?" would always be met with a wide grin and a nodding head; regardless of which direction you pointed. "Which way would you go?" might have you going via a relatives house several kms out of the way. "What is the fastest way?" proved to be the safest, but you had to be prepared for everyone to have their input and then you needed to choose the option from the half a dozen different routes you were offered. Offering a local the map was just not worth the effort, as you woudl soon draw a crowd all offering an opinion and generally none of them seemed relevant.

We passed through village after village; the country seemed to support an impossibly large number of people and you could only imagine what it could be like in times of drought, when there is not enough food for everyone, but we were there in times of plenty and the kids were well fed and healthy. The air was often thick with smoke from burning off and several times we passed within meters of flames 6 foot high. This was Del's day to suffer and we paused briefly for a cool off in a river. Again it never fails to surprise me, the rejuvinating effect this can have. After struggling to stay positive, Del was back to her bubbly self (almost), while the bike seat was still a challenge, cooling her feet had reduced them in size and she could now walk without significant pain. While a 15 minute stop may be agonizingly long when you feel like your in a hurry, it probably made us up well over an hour, because we were able to move faster and for longer for the rest of the day.

We cycled down to the Wild Coast for the next section of the race, sorry to leave the beauty and simplicity of the interior, but thankful that we would be walking along the coast, and Lukie should be able to give his brain a rest for a while.

Arriving in Mazeppa Bay we had a 45 minute rest after paking our bikes up, with the idea of pushing as far as we could before resting. Consequently the march along the coast was fast. Lukie was glad of the break and even gave the maps to Grant, as a consequence of not having to think his brain shut down and trying to stay awake became a problem for the first time in the race. By the time Grant was walking like a Zombie there was no need to even consult the map, 'just keep walking until you run into a river'. We timed our arrival at the river poorly, it was nearly high tide, but the water was still running in at a frightening speed. The decision was made to get a few hours sleep in the dunes before trying to continue. It was relatively mild on the coast compared with the high country, but some pretty tight spooning was still justified. [ed. Grant and Luke haven't still been able to look each other in the eyes since that night]

Day 4

2008-08-29T02:59:00.000-07:00

Having arrived at the TA at 9:00 PM, we had an extra long sleep and were still on the road for the next trek at just after 2:00 AM. Lukie decided to avoid the plunging back into the river valley and climbing back out and instead kept to the high ground and the roads, although this did mean we bunder bashed for a couple of kilometers it was significantly less thant the more direct route. It also added several kilometers to our total trekking distance. But soon after sunrise as we reached the first CP (which was manned) we were informed we had made up several hours on those teams ahead of us. The rest of the morning and early afternoon had us slogging up and down hills in the hottest weather so far. At the top of one we were informed by Gerry, the landowner: "I know the country you've already covered and I know where your going, believe me, what you're doing would test the elite troops of any country". I didn't feel very elite, hot tired, dehydrated and foot sore, pretty much covered it. By the time we had descended back to the river, we had run out of water and most of our enthusiasm. We filled up our water bottles as far out into the muddy stream as we could and waited for the thirty minutes to pass before our purification tablets cleaned the water. Then it was more bunderbashing up a creek bed before we made it the bottom of the Jumaring section.

We waited for 15 minutes while the team ahead of us ascended the ropes then headed up behind them. I waited at the top of the first pitch for Del to come up not realising there were two more 50 meter pitches to go. The views of the valley were breathtaking but we didn't hand around to admire them for too long. Even though we were all novices at ascending ropes we took to it well and climbed quickly, Even the cold beer the marshalls had waiting for us at the top didn't distract us for too long. We set off quickly with confusing directions and stories of Russians mad with drink accosting teams along the way, to get the next
section of bunderbashing completed before dark. The African scub is thick and ALL of the vegetation has either prickles or thorns, it's not a place you want to be trying to find your way through with a head torch if it can be avoided.

Along the way we again teamed up with the same South African team, Extreme Outdoors, as we had the night before. This time it was their turn to aid us with local knowledge and help us find a road through thick scrub. We found out later that the female in their team lived locally and actually trained on some of these tracks. So we marched along with them up the final hill and as thanks, left them as we moved ahead towards the next hunting lodge. The hospitality was, as we were beginning to expect first rate. All the rooms at the lodge we full, so mattresses were laid out in the dining room for the adventure racers and all types of food and drink were laid on. One of the race doctors was summoned to attend to Del and Grant's feet, before we again snuggled up under blankets supplied by the lodge and overslept our alarms.

Day 3

2008-08-29T01:45:00.000-07:00

Day three started after what was for all practical purposes a waste of time at TA. We tried to sleep, but the cold noisy conditions made that impossible. The only other justification for staying at the TA was so that we didn't arrive at the paddle section before the sun had time to warm things up a bit. The overnight temp was -5 deg C, and none of us wanted to brave the water in those temperatures. We only set up our bikes after rubbing the ice out of our frozen jerseys (authors note: 'If you ever have to put on a frozen jersey only do so AFTER putting on your thermals). We set off into the clear pre-dawn morning with chattering teeth and fozen camel backs. One of the couple of checkpoints that morning was a quote from black activist Steve Biko: 'It is better to die for an idea that lives, rather than live for an idea that is dead'. On this particualr morning when I had woken up stiff, sore and doubting my ability to keep up with the others, I hopoed it was in no way relevant.

We gained the dam 2 hours later than we had aimed to and manged to scoff the worlds worst (but in some wierd way desirable)hamburgers and filthiest coffee, before heading out to collect two CPS. This was to be a 40km sufferfest in tub-like sit on tops, but one CP had been cancelled so the paddle was only going to be about 20kms. Lukie was pretty pleased about this, but he was still only half as pissed as he would have been at having to paddle 40kms, which made him still pretty grumpy. Made worse when he realised the tiny wind chop exploded on the bow of the boat and drenched him and left me dry as a bone in the back of the boat. To warm up Luke and Grant headed off for the CP while Del and I minded the gear (caught up on some sleep and did some stretching). Thius proved a turning point for me. Prior to the break, unable to barely raise a trot, I was questioning my ability to finish the race, 40 minutes later I was feeling like a new man, and even jogged the 50m or so to get the next check point. Such are the vagaries of adventure racing.

Off the boats it was back on the bikes and a long MTB to another hunting lodge TA. There were several memorable moments the first of which was Grant's frightening one handed descent down a killer fire road, steep and rocky, I'm sure there were people that would have baulked at tackling it two handed, but Grant kept up while taking a video of the rest of us plunging down to the Kabusi River. The other memorable moment was the look of despair as we realised we had to carry our bikes up the ciffs on the other side of the river. The property owner declared: This is where 'The Bull' grows balls." He obviously wasn't aware of what we had already been through., This Bull had always had the full package. The course then returned to the river via the Kabusi Safari Lodge, we were warned as we departed that the buffalo were last seen down by the river, where we were heading. Luckily we didn't have to avoid these notoriously dangerous beasts. It is a well known fact in South Africa, that buffaloes kill more people each year than any of the carnivores. Difficult nav through the river saw us team up with another South African team, Outdoor Extreme, although Luke ended up leading us all out before we powered ahead to arrive at the next hunting lodge.

Again we just missed out on a luxurious bedroom. Rivals Pepto Pro, who initially were going to keep going decided to stay and forced us to again sleep in the lounge room. This time though we put all the cushions we could find on the floor, put on all our clothes and crawled into our bivy bags. Making full use of 'The Puppy Principle' we spooned hard enough that we had the first warm and uninteruppted sleep of the race. So much so that none of heard our alarms and we overslept by an hour. A fact none of us regretted at the time.

Day 2

2008-08-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

After a very cold night in the Mnyemi hut the day dawned clear and fine. We raced a couple of other teams out of the hut and headed off up the valley. The waslk out was nothing short of spectacular. We wold follow the river up until it hit a large 30 m waterfall at which point you would have to zig zag up out of the gully before heading back to the river to repeat the process. After doing this several times we eventually broke out onto the Amatole high plains.

It was about this time we realised our food was getting a bit low and would need some rationing. There was no option for scavenging on the way as the nearest town was probably at least a two hour detour. From eating a Torq bar every hour we would need to restrict ourselves to a bar every three hours, and hope that the rest of the walk went to schedule. After walking over 50kms we arrived at a high saddle; Lukie explained the rest of the walk, we go down to the CP at Kata hut climb up and hopefully find a way around Mt Thomas before climbing up the escarpment on the horizon called Kabusi, after that it's only 10-15 km to the Transition. At Kata hut we were met with the news that we were now in 20th position. Teams that had gone cross country rather than sticking to the walking track had made up nearly 5 hours.

Going around Mt Thomas we experienced our first South African burn off. Regardless of weather conditions the scrib and grasslands are burnt to promote fresh growth. Tramping around the mountain our progress was sped up by the crackling of a scrub fire and the sight of flames up to six foot high only a couple of hundred meters from where we were.

Kubusi was finally climbed right on sunset and it turned out to be the highlight of the trek. We took a snapshot of the CP and headed off on the long slog to the TA. By this stage we were all over the trek and just wasnted to get the weight off our feet. Yet that was still hours away, and the walk down the fenceline was done on autopilot.

We finally got into the TA tired and hungry with news that dorm beds awaited us. Alas, they were all taken and another couple of hours of shivering together on a couch while other teams came and went and interupted any thought of productive sleep awaited us.

Day 1

2008-08-25T01:25:00.001-07:00

Rise and shine 2:30 AM for the bus ride out to Katberg resort and golf club. The bus trip took longer than expected and the race start was postponed an hour to 9:00 AM. We gathered under the starting banner, with the helicopter overhead and a few words from Hano we were off. As usual there were a few rabbits at the front of the field, but most of us jogged along at a steady pace. We took a conservative approach and decided to stay on the road as long as possible before heading up the hill. We smiled smugly to ourselves as we saw other teams tackle the nearly sheer sides of the hill. Our smiles turned to frowns, then gradually to tears as we headed off the road and into impenetrable African Scrub Think of the thickest Australian bush you can think of then add thorns, spikes. This was our first encounter with African bunder bashing, and we were quick to learn that it is to be avoided. By the time we covered the next 500m we had lost nearly 40 minutes on the front runners.
Our next lesson was in getting directions from the locals. A local lad confidently gave us the direction in which all the other teams had gone. We failed to communicate that we were actually looking for a checkpoint, after following his directions for 30 15 minutes, we eventually realized we had to back track to get the CP. Not a great first leg.
Onto the MTB’s and heading for Seymour dam for a paddle rogaine, collected a few CP’s on the way, and probably made up some places. The paddle rogaine was another lesson. On top of the hill, can mean anywhere along the summit ridge line (thanks to the local teams who helped us out here). Back on the MTB’s we heading off into the sunset. As darkness fell we passed several more teams and heading up towards Hogsback. The climb was steep and long and rocky, and while the others pushed granny gear, I pushed my bike. Over the top we picked up speed and flew itno TA. A quick transition and we headed off on the first trek. A 70 km monster through the Amatole Mountains.
The first CP proved elusive and many teams, us included, found ourselves at the top of the waterfall instead of the bottom. Although only 20 meters away it was 300m straight down. 30 minutes later we had rectified our mistake and re-climbed the steep 300m back to where we had been when we discovered our mistake. Although we were trekking strongly, we were impressed by the all girl Russian team, who during this section trekked away from us. We would cross paths several more times before the end of the race. We also built a rapport with South African Team Pepto Pro. Their navigator Donovan had helped us with getting our Torq gear into South Africa and we had slept at his parents’ house when they arrived in East London. Following the walking trail while others cut across country we ended up at Mnyemi hut at around 3:00 AM. We decided to bed down for three hours sleep before heading off at first light.

Pre Race Prep

2008-08-25T01:24:00.000-07:00

We’ve all arrived at the Balugha Inn which will be race HQ. Our digs are quite comfortable, with good food and coffee on tap and plenty of other international teams staying here. Race

preparation is in full swing with rego, competency checks, marking maps and organizing food taking up plenty of time. We were pretty pleased to find our Torq gear waiting for us in East London. Everyone was very nervous sending it on ahead of us, and it’s a relief that this part of the preparation went to plan.
We were asked by Sonja (one of the race directors) to take part in a project they have organized to give out footballs to the local schools. The program is a Christian initiative where the balls have a Christian message printed on them. We went along to one of the schools were the children from three secondary schools had gathered. They sang songs for us in the African way, with lots of harmonizing and clapping, in what was a truly uplifting display. We made some short speeches and then played soccer and rugby with the kids. Grant and Stewart then tried to teach them how to kick Aussie rules style. It was a real privilege to be involved and it was an experience none of us will forget in a hurry.
Competency checks were pretty basic. Although with a huge abseil (180m) and a big 150m Jumar expected our climbing skills were thoroughly examined:
Climbing instructor: “So Del, you’ve climbed before?”Del: “Uh huh”CI: “Can you rig up your Jumar for me?”Del clutches a random piece of nice shiny climbing kit and holds it up; the CI raises his eyebrows and shakes his head.Del: “He he he, that’s the going downy thing, not the going uppy thing isn’t it. You mean this don’t you?”CI: “Yeeeees, you sure you’ve done this before”. The others in your team have they got any climbing experience?”Del nods enthusiasticallyCI: “and will they look after you on the ropes?”Del nods even more enthusiasticallyCI: “Goood, I think were done here, you can unclip and make your way back up……NEXT”
Luke has been flat out marking up 15 maps all of which are 1:50,000, navigation is going to be challenging, but it’s the same for everyone, and even without local knowledge, Luke will be better than most.
The African way is certainly different to what we have come to know as typical in Australia. In Africa it is understood that we have signed up for an adventure. We are expected to be self sufficient and have the knowledge to be able to look after ourselves. We will only see our gear boxes three times in nearly 600 km, so we will be carrying heaps of gear and food in our packs. Torq bars and gels will certainly make this part of the race easier for us than most of the other teams; trying to carry enough normal food to meet the ~10,000 cal we need per day, would be hugely taxing. We always expected this to be a tough race; we are only now coming to realize just how tough it could be.
Race start is at 3:00AM in the morning, when the buses leave for Katberg resort where the race start is a 10 km trail run. There’s nothing like a full night’s sleep before you start a big race.

Cape Town "Acclimatisation" Phase!

2008-08-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

After a few days we are all still waking up at 4:30am; not sure if it is jet lag or just because there are so many exciting things ahead of us! Our city centre apartment was pretty full with 8 people ans 8 bikes whilst Rob, Kim, Richard and Damon of Australian tema team Blackheart/Stingers crashed with us for a night. They are currently driving East towards the race via an elephant park. KEEN Torq'ers are all flying over tomorrow/Weds.

Here in Cape Town we just got back from an incredible ride up the tracks and road around Table Mountain. We took some video and photos of us riding with a backdrop of impressive mountians and sheer cliffs on one side, and spectacular city scape on the other. We were grinning and laughing like kids all the way - Somehow the boys managed not to kill themselves larking around though I did nearly ride Grant off the track at one point (serves him right for undertaking!). The contrast between poverty and affluent society here is stark, and we have not quite worked it out yet. But one thing for sure, Cape Town has an enchanting natural beauty which our cameras won't do justice to.

On Saturday we went to the Cape of Good Hope, we saw Osrtiches on the heath, Baboon (eating it's lunch on top of a car) and had a great walk along the coastal path. Stew and Grant couldn't resisit doing a timed run up the staircase from the beach (homesick for Torquay sets?) . By that time Lukie had "seen enough rocks" and went back to watch the baboons! It was pretty chilly and blustery - we started to worry that packing just a light weekend size bag of clothes each

might not have been so smart.

We remedied this by conducting a thorough survey of Cape Town outdoors stores and climbing stores and bought lots of adventure gear (most of which we do actually need!). Despite feeling white and wealthy and conspicuous we have had a good time exploring, we found some nice places to eat, made friends with the Big Issue seller at the market, Luke and Stew saw squirrels for the first time in the botanic gardens. Tonight we have done some final race prep and gear organising, and are starting to get focussed the race (i.e. we ate a bit less cake today!).

The pictures are taking an age to upload to blogspot so Stew has jsut given up and put them on Facebook instead (see link on the right og this page)...

'till next time..
Delxxx

Leg # 2 KL to Cape Town via J'Berg

2008-08-03T03:05:00.000-07:00

Getting on the plane in KL we were informed that we had to have a stopover in J'berg. Not welcome as it added and extra 1 1/2 hours to our travel time, but it did give us the opportunity to watch the sunrise in Africa for the first time. It was just what we expected; a brilliant deep orange glow followed by a burning sun rising out of the plain (or should that be plane, we were sitting in an airport and out view was obscured by the tail of plane sitting on the tarmac). Walking casually to board after an hour in the cafe, we were told by some staff that we were late and our bags were about to be taken off the plane. That solicited some hurry up, and we raced into the plane, only to sit patiently for another 40 minutes as we waited for another recalcitrant passenger to fiond their way onto the plane.

We arrived at Cape town at last, made our way casually through customs to find Rob waiting for us with a great big van. Rob is racing with another team from Australia who we will be knocking around with for a day in Cape Town. A lazy lunch and a few hours were spent getting our bearings in the cafe district before the keys to our apartment were ready. We can now concentrate on finding the stuff we still need for the race and doing a bit of sight seeing.

Bring it on :-)

Stew

Leg # 1 Tullamarine to KL

2008-07-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

After LOOOONG negotiations at the airport we managed to get on the plane after copping (only) $1000 in excess baggage fees. Which the airport staff assured us was a really good deal. Now after 8 and a half hours on the Melb-Kuala Lumpur leg KEEN Torq'ers cramped up like tetris pieces we are preparing for another 14 hours to Cape town. At this stage the movie tally is Grant= 4, 9 holes of Golf and 2 games of Galactica (yes in just over 8 hrs) Luke 3 movies 2 documentaries and some cyber golf Stew= 1 movie couple of rounds of Galactica and half a book.. Del 1 movie, and lots of sleep. So with some duty free chocolate, a bowl of noodles and several chocolate muffins we're off to the boarding lounge for leg #2.

Packing and schmoozing..

2008-07-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

Some of us got some sleep last night, and all of us are nearly on our way to the airport... we've packed absolutely bare minumum to avoid excess bagage fees of $30 per kilo ( if we run out of clothes it will be cheaper to buy new ones there!) It looks terrifyingly little - but lets face it we'll probably wear the same jersey for the whole race, few thermals and couple of pairs of shoes.. easy! All have our fingers crossed that we get a friendly person at checkin; SA here we come!!!

What taper week is really all about.

2008-07-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

After off-loading the to-do list in his post below, Stewie resorted to the infamous Cowey spreadsheet (6 pages) to whip us all in to shape. I'm anticipating the updated versions in flow-chart and spider diagram format any day now ... Thanks to the spreadsheet at least we know who to blame if anything goes wrong!

We are hunting for new accomodation in Cape Town because in between Tuesday, when we paid for it, and yesterday, they sold the appartment we'd booked! The Cape Town adventure gear shopping list is growing VERY long since we discovered that 1. Excess baggage fee is $30 per Kilo, and 2. the biggest adventure shop in CT is in the Stellenbosch wine region 3. "ZAR" the South African Rand is a wonderful currency to do business in.

This weekend:

I learnt that when paddling in zero degrees, the boys are not as tough as they like to make out.

We decided that KEEN Ridgelines are great shoes, and come in fancy colours (see picture) but my pink laces won't fit in Grant's size 13's

We confirmed that catching a chill can be remedied by eating a lot - and we are all doing good on that front of late.

We put all our faith in coreflute ("plastic cardboard" explains Lukie) spending vast amounts of time and energy building deluxe bike boxes which will not disintegrate in the rain.

Overall KEEN Torqers are having a ball. We've done all the hard work, will all surve our to-do lists, and in spite of practicing our sleep deprivation over the next few days we're going to be in South Africa in less than a week rejoicing in the fact that the world is a beautiful place..

NOW GET ME ON THAT PLANE!!!

:-)

Del

The Taper

2008-07-24T04:30:00.000-07:00

It's just as well you're meant to taper before a big event,because there isn't much time to train. Going away for three weeks, there is always the inevitable rush to get things finished at work. I could quite easily be doing 12 hour days and still not get everything done that I would like/need to. Unfortunately, in getting ready for the race we don't have the same luxury....stuff just has to get done. The 'to do list' has been cut done dramatically in the last week or so, but there is still a myriad of of minutiae that needs to be dealt with. Everything from vaccinations to building bike boxes, from chasing up that last spare part for your bike to finding your headtorch, from naming 10 pairs of socks to re-stan'sing your tubes, from finalising accomodation to organising hire cars.....you get the picture. In amongst all of this you are trying to fit in 10-15 hours of training, it just doesn't all fit. And I haven't even mentioned trying to stay awake each night to watch Le Tour.

During the course of the week, we all recieved two new pairs of Keen Ridgeline trail running shoes. I tried mine out at the You Yangs last night, in two words; "Bloody Fantastic". I've been hanging out for these puppies since my Wasatch's finally died after the Keen Adventure Race, and they haven't disappointed. Hopefully I'll write a full review after the Bull, where I'll put them through their paces.

Another highlight was recieving not ONE, not TWO, but THREE boxes of Torq stuff. Heaps of new kit so we are once again the sexiest looking team out there. Enough electrolyte, natural energy, bars and gels to keep us powering through 6 days of racing. Due to excess baggage restrictions we have to post this stuff over ahead of us. It will be a nervous wait for all of us (including Gen) until we hear from a friend of a friend who is picking it up for us in South Africa. If something goes wrong with the post, I'll need Gen to calculate the energy equivalent in creamed rice. I really hope it's there to meet us when we get to East London.

I'm so looking forward to getting on the plane. All the organising, preparation and training (or lack of it) will be behind us and all we'll have to think about is racing and enjoying ourselves while we do it.

Stew.

Wednesday Night Jumaring

2008-07-17T02:18:00.000-07:00

Last night saw the Keen Torq'ers and friends trade our Wednesday night MTB for a Jumaring lesson at Geelong's climbing gym; 'The Rock'. Lukie had done a bit in a recent race in Ireland, but the rest of us were complete newbies. Thanks to Richard at The Rock, for his expert tuition. We're all confident we'll be able to handle any rope work that's thrown at us during The Bull, which is only three weeks away now. Thanks also to Brain who came down from Melton to impart his local knowledge on the Transkeii. I'm sure it will be help as we race through this stunning part of South Africa.

July Training Weekend

2008-07-14T02:07:00.000-07:00

With just under three weeks to go before we head off to Africa we decided a team training weekend was just the thing to help us sharpen up. Sheepyard Flat just outside of Merrijig was the chosen location. Grant towed the camper trailer up as a consetion to worldy comforts. This was most appreciated when we arrived at sometime after midnight on Friday. The weather in the week leading up to the weekend had abviously been pretty wild as there was lots of snow visible a long way down the mountains.

Saturday morning was cold, but clear and we headed off out of the Howqua Hills towards Mt Stirling. The plan was to ride around the Stirling circuit road to Bindaree Falls and return along the river track. Typical of recent history, after an hour of riding we found ourselves back at camp due to a flat tyre and a realisation that we had no workjing pumps and had just used the last CO2 cannister.

Not good when your heading up above the snow line. Back to camp and we grabbed another pump, more Co2 and headed back up the hill out of camp. We got to telephone box Junction on Stirling only to find the road was unpassable past this point due to heavy snow falls. Our route had to change from loop to an out and back. The local snow patrol were somewhat bemused to see four MTB's arrive and the riders start warming up chocolate muffins and cooking fruit toast on the pot belly stove.

The ride down was cold, very, very cold, and muddy, but good fun. It made the fire baked potatoes on the fire that night taste even better. The smell of Del's poloypro thermals couldn't even dull the appetite.

Sunday was a casual 25km hike. We left the road at 8 mile gap and then headed up Eagles Peaks ridge. By the time we got to the top we were pushing through knee deep snow. Stewie (aka the plough) broke trail to the top. The steep slope and gnarly trail made sure he was pretty stuffed byt he time the second summit was reached. The others had had a relatively easy time following his footprints, so it was time for Grant (aka Dozer) to take over. By this time Del had measured her length in the snow at least 6 times. The only thing funnier was watching her untangle walking poles and try to stand up again in the soft snow was her trying to leap from one thigh deep footstep to another.

The late afternoon was spent racing the setting sun back down the spur to the campground. With the ski fields of Mt Buller to the North East and the setting sun in the West the trip down was spectacular. Racing down a 25% gradient slope, the quads were well and truly trashed. Mission accomplished. Another truly memorable training weekend, and one which will have us nursing aching limbs and catching up on sleep for the rest of the week.