Xcite Adventure Racing (i.e. Fiona and I) took on the Paddy Pallin Adventure Race this morning, and what a lovely morning it was. The race consisted of running, mountain biking, and kayaking along the tracks and creeks of the Wildhorse Mtn park. Seemed like a good idea after last week’s 8 hour night-time rogaine at Mt Crosby!
We were expecting a wet morning and very muddy track, however, weather was perfect for racing, and the course was in a pretty good state.
First leg was a run to collect at least 5 of 7 checkpoints. Getting the other 2 CPs gave a 20min bonus. We collected all 7, but I am not sure we achieved too much of a bonus. Probably took us 10 min to find one of the CPs. This leg was about 7km, and took us about 45mins. Navigation running is not fast, not the way I navigate anyway.
Getting onto the mountain bike felt good. Cooling breezes blowing through our hair was refreshing. There were 17 CPs to collect before the kayak leg, with another small running leg thrown in for good measure.
We reached the first 2 CPs reasonably, but just completed butchered the third. Riding down a track, we saw a few people gathered around a CP. My great thought was that it was too close to CP2 and must be another point for the alternative course. How wrong I was. After riding around in the bush, nowhere near the CP, for about 30 minutes, we finally back tracked and found it. You guessed it, right where those people were congregating. Unfortunately for me, Fiona suggested that it may have been the CP we were after. Guess I will be hearing about that one for a while.
The remaining CPs were picked up in regulation, hitting the tracks we were after and actually picking up a few competitors who leapfrogged us after my nav debacle. The first non-mtb section within the mtb course was a small run, which via our plan would be about 5 to 6 km or so. By this time Fi’s achilles was becoming her Achilles Heel. Becoming quite painful (the heel, not Fi), we decided to walk a bit, which enabled us to take a couple of non-track bushbashing through some recently logged areas. Seemed like a good idea, but probably cause more discomfort. This small run took us about 40 mins, by which time we were glad to get back on the mtb.
Back on the mtb, we picked up the remaining handful of CPs to get to the kayak. After donning our vests, we lugged the kayak the 50 m or so (felt like 500 m) to the “boat ramp”, which consisted of extremely sticky mud. Sliding into the kayak, we set off to pick up the couple of CPs needed. This was a nice little paddle, 2 km in about 17 mins. The water was so refreshing I just wanted to jump off into it. At the end of the kayak, we had to slide back up the bank and re-lug the kayak back. By this time the kayak felt like 50kg and the track felt like 1km.
Back onto the mtb for the final charge home, about 5km. At the start of this section, I started cramping badly, and thankfully, I had one salt tab and gel left. I slapped them down and the pain went away (amazing little things those salt tabs). Fi was leading our little posse, and still riding strongly. We finally picked up the last couple of CPs and got to the finish line.
Total time was 4hr 45 min, and we covered about 48.5km. Maybe we should have got a bit more lost and made it a round 50km.
Greatest regret was stuffing up CP3. I wish we hadn’t but as my old dad used to say “if you pooped in one hand and wished in the other, what would be full first”. So we will just have to accept the mistsake, and move on. That is the great thing about adventure racing, doesn’t matter where you finish, just that you have a go, and there is also another race coming up.