Things have gone a little pear shaped overnight during the firsft trek of the leg for Orionhealth.com ... read the reports below for the news. (There is no focused report on this on Sleepmonsters yet but I am sure that there will be eventually!) Latest Sleepmonsters race report is at: http://sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_action=rep&race_id=7511&article_id=6223
Basically the delay on the trek was due to Wayne becoming separated from the rest of the team and "whatever" followed after that! This is obviously the bad news of the last hours but you'll be pleased to know that there is good news too ... the team have made the 2pm cut off at the end of the mountain bike so will be able to continue on the full course from this point - sounds like they only managed this by minutes!
Dependent on penalties for the separation (and in most races unfortunately this would normally mean disqualification as essentially the rest of the team ended up leaving Wayne behind) this does keep the team in the race from an "able to collect CPs" point of view. Exactly how many CPs they have missed in the last few stages is an unknown but it is quite possibly more than those "conservative" teams who have allowed themselves more time (and energy) for this latter part of the race.
Orionhealth.com were still racing with Nike (who Wayne "rejoined" his team with) and I imagine they are also starting to get in a bit of a bother with missing CPs in these last sections of the race although they were carrying a reasonably healthy buffer prior to this point.
Helly Hansen are looking really good which will be excellent news for that team who have been in and around adventure racing for a long time (regular race watchers may recall them racing previously as Aberdeen Asset Management).
Here is all the info available at the moment ... from Karen (and Roy) first as official awesome team support crew! 
Karen's Latest message ...
Well Orionhealth.com arrived off the water at approx 10.30 very cold and wet.
I am still not entirely sure what happened but it seems Orionhealth.com was walking with another team, some went one way around something (Maybe a checkpoint) and Wayne the other. After searching for a bit the others contacted the organizers who started a search themselves but within half an hour Nike walked past Wayne and he went with them to the start of the kayak where the others were waiting.
There hasn't really been any discussion about penalty times or points so I am unclear as to where they stand. However they are leaving it very fine to make the next trek cut off at 2 pm. They would have to do the ride missing the bonus in 2.45 hrs which is taking other teams around 4 hrs to complete. They could be conservative and collect the 2 mtb bonus' dropping the (?4 checkpoints and 1 bonus) on the trek. Nike who left 15 mins may be in the same boat, if they try and make the cut off and fail it will result in dropped bonus' on the mtb too.
I am not sure how they will stack up against other teams who missed earlier points but made the cut off in time as I have no results here and we cannot leave here until Orionhealth.com reaches the end of the mtb section.
Will let you know as I find out.
K
Reports from Annie ...
Interesting goings-on in the night
It was a night of action at TA4. After the flurry of activity around Nike's arrival and hasty departure - the TV cameraman loved the footage - said you could cut the tension in the air with a knife - there was more to come later in the morning.
Rumours were flying at the end of the kayak, that Orion had 'lost' a team member last night. My unofficial version of the rumour is thus...
After their sleep out of the transition, Orion headed out on the 12km trek to the top of the river, and somewhere en-route, when they were with one or more other teams, people split to walk either side of a building. Another team was walking behind Orion, and Stu, Brent and Anna didn't realise for a time that Wayne was no longer with them.
When they realised that Wayne was missing, and searching was unsuccessful, they pulled out their emergency phone and reported that they'd misplaced him. Sometime in the next couple of hours, Nike came across Wayne in the bush, and led him to the top of the kayak where he was reunited with the team.
We're not sure whether this will incur a penalty, and what form it will take. Will probably depend on how loudly Nike protest.
Nike arrived at the end of the river about 10 minutes ahead of Orion. Both of them had only got the easy CPs on the leg. Nike were freezing and having trouble sorting their gear to take on the next leg. Brent and Anna looked chirpy, Stuart and Wayne a bit groggy. Best comment was from Stu when Karen informed him that there would likely be a gear check on the next leg and they should double-check they had all their compulsory gear ... Stu replied 'it's ok, we've got Wayne now'.
Rumours were flying at the end of the kayak, that Orion had 'lost' a team member last night. My unofficial version of the rumour is thus...
After their sleep out of the transition, Orion headed out on the 12km trek to the top of the river, and somewhere en-route, when they were with one or more other teams, people split to walk either side of a building. Another team was walking behind Orion, and Stu, Brent and Anna didn't realise for a time that Wayne was no longer with them.
When they realised that Wayne was missing, and searching was unsuccessful, they pulled out their emergency phone and reported that they'd misplaced him. Sometime in the next couple of hours, Nike came across Wayne in the bush, and led him to the top of the kayak where he was reunited with the team.
We're not sure whether this will incur a penalty, and what form it will take. Will probably depend on how loudly Nike protest.
Nike arrived at the end of the river about 10 minutes ahead of Orion. Both of them had only got the easy CPs on the leg. Nike were freezing and having trouble sorting their gear to take on the next leg. Brent and Anna looked chirpy, Stuart and Wayne a bit groggy. Best comment was from Stu when Karen informed him that there would likely be a gear check on the next leg and they should double-check they had all their compulsory gear ... Stu replied 'it's ok, we've got Wayne now'.
Middle of Stage 5
Nga Rakau just came through the end of the Stage 3 Leg 3 MTB. They only picked up the easy CPs, as they still have to fit a 35km trek, 65km MTB and 25km trek into the last 21 hours.Neil is feeling a little bit toasted at the moment, apparently when things got desperate on the last leg, they stopped at a cafe for coffee. Mark pointed to a tray of food in the cabinet and asked him which things he'd like, he said 'probably all of it'. Which they did. Then ... story according to Mark ... some old local chaps came in and asked in Portugese the equivalent of 'where the f&%k is all the food ?'. The old duck behind the counter pointed at Nga Rakau's table and replied in Portugese the equivalent of 'those greedy pricks'.
Orion and Nike will also be shortening this MTB, as there's a 2pm cutoff here, and it will be fairly tight. It's 1:26pm now, and neither are here yet.
"RECENT TWITTERS"
While #01 Orion kept on, #46 Nike stayed resting.
About 3am this morning (14 November 2009)
About 3am this morning (14 November 2009)
#01 Orion and #46 Nike just left T14. Few minutes before the cut off.
About 3am this morning (14 November 2009)
About 3am this morning (14 November 2009)
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