At some point in all of this I thought it might be fun and something different, so agreed to do something I have never done with someone I had only must met. Typical Deb Gore spontaneous fashion. Sandi, new friend who is a personal trainer in the Mount and has legs like none I have ever met (from years of mtn bike racing and training and all that good stuff!), asked me to join her in a 12 Hour Adventure Race, something involving multiple sports such as running, tramping (hiking), mtn biking, orienteering, caving, rock climbing, rifle shooting and a mystery event. Agreeing we would do it only to finish and have fun, not caring where we placed, I agreed, maybe foolishly, but sounded like fun, and Sandi has great energy and a nice smile so couldn't be too bad….
Event took place in early March in Raglan, on the West Coast, known for its great surf. It was a place I was excited to see, and we would have Jamey and Maggie in the Super Custom van to be our support.
Originally we were to be a team of 4 women, but two dropped once they took a look at Sandi's legs! Actually they were not big mtn bikers and the race was to be roughly 40-50% of that.
Very little training was done for this as we entered the event only a month before it was to be run, and who cared, we were just doing it for fun anyway. Well, Adventure took on new meaning the week prior as cyclone Lusi made headlines as she was tracking directly towards New Zealand and was to hit the North Island the hardest. All week I watched the weather reports as dense circular clouds descended south from Fiji on the map, with predictions for 120-150 km/hr winds and lots of heavy rain. Thinking initially the race would be canceled if such a thing hit, and then I had to rethink this recalling what country I was in and how cancellations rarely happen due to weather. Put on a jacket, take those concrete pills my boys haggle about to toughen up and forge on. Cyclone or not, we were racing!!
Jamey, Mags and I left Friday after work, leaving the boys with Jaz for his 15th bday party, and off we drove across the N. Island for Raglan. Got there in time for the pre-race briefing where I looked around at this group of seasoned adventure racers and asked myself many times what I was doing in their midst. Sandi and husband Shane arrived late that night leaving us a few minutes to organize our required gear list, adjust bikes and maybe catch a few minutes of sleep as our anxieties about the next day settled in. Oh, and the mystery event? It was paddle boarding, something I had done only once two years prior. And yes there was a vague Plan B in case rains were too much, but sure didn't seem like this group was going to let a bit of rain stop them.
So here we are moments before the start-- happy, excited, refreshed, ignorant, maybe even a bit stupid!
(see what I mean about her legs?! that girl is made for going up hills either on foot or bike!)
We woke to high clouds, very slight wind, no rain. Race was definitely on!
There was a kayaking option to this event, but we opted for the non kayak version thinking it was too much equipment and so glad we made that choice, but here are the kayakers starting out. I should mention there was an 8 hour and 24 hour option to this event as well. We chose what we thought we could do best given our lack of experience in such things. So glad we didn't go for 24!
We started on the paddle boards, Sandi paddled across the estuary and I back. She is in this pack somewhere. We were supposed to jump off a bridge and swim to shore and then hop on boards, but tide was out, water to shallow and the wind was beginning to blow.
There I am below in the middle paddling back across. Having fun so far….
Due to circumstances beyond our control, much of the race was not documented by photos. I left the camera behind fearing rain and the camera getting wet. After paddling, we hopped on our bikes and off we rode 15 km down the coast to a car park at the start of a 7 km tramp up and over a peak. Our fantastic support crew was there to help with the transition, offer us nourishment and help us trade bikes for running shoes. With momentum and adrenaline, up we went, as once again I experienced the kiwi tramping way-straight up! No gentle contouring around anything, this time so steep the Dept of Conservation provided chains and ladders on some parts to aid our ascent. As we got higher, so did the intensity of the winds. Howling with such strength we were nearly blown off the ridge we followed. Roaring too loud, in fact, for us to have the long awaited conversations as we still did not know each other very well. By now I knew she was a steady climber of hills on a bike, worked at a summer camp 20+ yrs ago in Wenatchee of all places, and kept up a steady pace hiking up. I kept up on the bike, made up for my slower pace going up on the descent and was loving this gal who could match me in energy, enthusiasm and ability to just keep going.
And while we climbed, Maggie and Jamey made good use of their time!!
Here is the view looking west on the approaching cyclone!
Once at trasition point #2, we were feeling our legs a bit, ready for some water and more food, and changing again back into biking gear for what would prove to be the test of this whole event-35 km biking through farm land, a wind farm, and finally descending into a valley. We would have to call on our map reading skills and have to decide if we wanted to pick up extra time points by collecting Rogaines (numbers that if we had them would take minutes off our final time). 35 km on a mtn bike up and over can feel like a long time on a sunny day, but of course as soon as we left the parking area the rain started and did not stop for 5 hours. Lusi gave us a solid taste of her drenching/blowing abilities as we rode up and up, over hills, along fence lines, through the wind farm. Nothing more eerie than hearing the whoop, whoop, whoop of a huge wind generator only 10 meters away but being engulfed in clouds so thick in the pouring rain with howling winds that you can't even see the thing.
At one point I was literally blown off my bike! Hard to fully describe the variety of thoughts going through my head during this ride. Probably one of the more intense things I have ever done physically mostly due to the weather. It severely pounded us and yet once committed there was really no way out but to keep going and hope we were on the proper track. At one point, as we ascended through sheep fields in the piercing rain, I chuckled to Sandi that the organizers had added a hidden spa treatment for us as the stinging rain on my face reminded me of an exfoliative regime one might pay lots for in some swanky, warm, dry, towel laden environ.
We did benefit at a crucial point by meeting up with small group of guys who had taken a wrong turn, the one we were about to take, and were heading off in another direction. We chose to follow them in this new direction no doubt! At another momentary rest stop, we debated this entire operation, possibly quitting once we were back at the next transition, and other moments when you just had to laugh at the absurdity of what we were doing. We were near hysterics (laughing that is!) on the final downhill after hours of climbing up. I was so relieved to be heading down until we were immediately met with mud (clay!) so thick and viscous at this point, riding was not possible, and even walking bikes/staying upright through this was an achievement in itself.
Eventually, after this truly epic scene, on our bikes we rode into transition #3, another large farm paddock the organizers had arranged. It felt like Hawaii on a good day here-rain ceased, clouds high in the sky so we could see more than 10 m in front, and many happy people with good food and drink to welcome us, including our own terrific team! Such a relief to see Jamey, Maggie and that van with their smiles and big hugs to welcome us!
At this point, we would have a bit of a rest of sorts. Did a quick change into dry clothes and off we went in Sandi's fathers' coveralls for our rifle shooting, rock climbing (jumarring for those in the know) and a small caving endeavor. These events were strategically placed around the car park so we could walk from one to the other. My bottom was thankful not to get on a bike again!
Rifles were sweet little 22's and we shot down duck targets. Thankful for years of riflery back at camp many years ago I nailed this section! Jumarring was next, ascending ropes with the help of these small metal devices. Here is Sandi getting instruction.
And both of us ready to go….as you can see behind us weather was not great and this shot was some of the best we had since 9 am that morning!
Here is Sandi on the right up she goes!
And me below holding her rope steady. (Hard to believe I was still able to smile after the crazy bike ride just moments prior.)
Turned out we opted to can the caving section. It was clear Sandi was not keen to do it, and didn't seem to benefit us much except we had the option to recover more romaine points. We figured we could make up time by not going. And who cared really, we just wanted to finish.
Into our last stretch, another 9-10 km tramp up and over a smaller peak, through sheep fields to a smaller car park in the middle of no where. At this point, we were chasing darkness, so grabbed headlamps and off we went. The terrain obliged and gave us a bit of break, and before we knew it we were up and over as the sky turned black and the lights of Hamilton came out. Learned that sheep's eyes turn blue when lights are shined into them as they ran from us.
By 8:30 pm we banged on the van doors, greeted once again and for the last time, by great big smiles from our support team! And how grateful were we to be there! 12.5 hours after starting, we ended this day. There was no fanfare, no finish line per say, no one else to welcome us back but a man in a vehicle who took our number bibs and off we went. What a relief!
Sorry for all the writing on this one, but due to lack of photos, felt I needed to fill some space. And though I may not have communicated it well, the entire day was quite dramatic for us. Retrospect makes it all seem worth it in the end, and certainly time spent with Sandi was a huge gift. She is a dynamo and now a lovely friend! We agreed such a race would be fun to repeat, esp under sunnier skies!
No comments:
Post a Comment