Fiona and I took on the 4hr urban adventure race held by Brett Stevens of Active Adventure held this morning. What a way to spend a Sunday morning. The race was an urban adventure race with a 4hr cut-off, with rafting, mountain biking, running, and a few challenges in store.
First leg consisted of us scattering to four corners of the course to gather tubes, wood, one paddle, and duct tape. Once we had everything together, we had to build our own raft by using copious amounts of duct tape to hold it all together. Unfortunately, my engineering skills are best left in the ground than in raft building. Some mid race repairs held things together.
The rafting leg started in a narrow, very muddy drain (swamp?), which led out into a larger tract of water with lots of lily pads that really loved our legs. Paddling with one paddle, the aim was to get to the other end of the lake to get a second paddle, which would really help us. Unfortunately, with our very basic raft building skills and Fiona sitting side-saddle so the tube valve wouldn’t interfere with certain body parts, we didn’t gain much with the second paddle.
After the first bit of paddling, we then had to run about a km or so to the next paddle leg, which was located in another lake. The start was OK, but the checkpoint (being a gold coin chocolate in a bucket ties to a tree on the edge of the lake) was positioned in another very swampy bit of lake with millions more lily pads. After getting our raft bogged we were finally able to push off and get to the finish, and run back to the transition area.
We managed to burn up about 1hr 15min on the first leg.
Feeling much better onto the bike leg, we set off to try and pick up as many bike checkpoints as possible (there were 32 of them), and leave only a small time for running (too hot for running today). The ride went mostly well, and we eventually picked up 25 CPs before thinking it was time to head back, giving us about 1 hr to run.
It is always funny in these races to see people at the start and not see them again for hours. Such as happened on the ride leg, when we would meet up with fellow competitors, only to see them go off in a different direction.
By the time we got back to transition, we had about an 1hr to go, and through that is a enough time to pick up a few more CPs. However, Brett had other things in mind. The first one being bike golf, whereby riding the bike you had to whack a tennis ball around a circuit all the while staying mobile. What a tricky challenge at the start, but once into it, I think this could become an Olympic Sport. While I was off swinging, missing and sometimes hitting the ball, Fiona had the mental challenge of doing a jigsaw puzzle. At home, well rested, and not fried by the sun, it would take no more than 2 mins. However, in the headspace we were in it took us about 10 min at least.
After the above shenanigans, we set off for the run, with about 50 mins to go. Needless to say we were not going to clear the 25 or so CPs on offer. The start of the run took us through a box culvert that had about 0.5 m of water and mud at the bottom to cover your feet. Must say, it was nice and refreshing. After slopping (certainly not running) through the culvert we made our way around the closest part of the run course picking up 7 CPs, before heading back to the finish with about 10 min to spare (better 10 min early than 10 min late).
The eventual winner was Guy Andrews (of ironman fame) and his teammate Jody (not sure of the spelling there). They cleared the course but came back after time cut-off and received time penalties (they still won though). They didn’t receive as many time penalties as Trevor & Diane of Tiger Adventure fame, who should know better.
Of particular note with this race was the number of kids younger than 13 yrs old that were having a crack at it with their parents. What a great effort by them.
Thanks for a fun and challenging race to Brett and his team of support staff. Certainly a lot of effort goes into these races, and it is well appreciated.
