Whakatane, New Zealand
June 2005
Summary of the legs
Run 2 mins
Kayak 2hrs 28mins
Mountain Bike 5hrs 16mins
Trek 9hrs 15mins
Mountain Bike 3hrs 1min
Total 20hrs 2mins
Run
From the main street to the yacht club at Olympic 100m pace, the shortest leg of any adventure race any of us have ever done!
Kayak
With the threat of an excessively dangerous river mouth looming over us, it was never a certainty that this leg would go ahead. Pacific ocean swells of over 3m had been hitting the Bay of Plenty for several days and showed no sign of letting up on race morning. The coast guard declared the river mouth safe enough for us to start, so with trepidation (based on lingering fear from our last experience in big seas), we took on the walls of water! Incidentally, the river mouth was closed again minutes after the last of the kayaks had navigated it.
Safely over the worst of the swells we set about knocking off 22km of paddling to the Waiotahi surf club. As the name would suggest the surf club provided another exciting surf landing aboard our 7m Insomniac double kayaks. Stu and Sonya executed a textbook landing, but Wayne and Carl tested the construction properties of the ‘Insomniac’ again, digging the nose into the sand while heading down a large wave toward shore, simultaneously launching the tail into an aerobatic routine! Safely ashore we were quickly heading for the hills aboard Mountain Bikes.
Mountain Bike 1
On the cards was over 80km of steep hills, farm tracks, riverbed riding and traditional adventure racing bike carry up steep undefined tracks. For team Subaru this leg was riddled with frustration… first Wayne was to be subdued by a flat tyre, promptly followed by Carl breaking a chain. With a solid 2nd place quickly fading to 3rd or 4th, we relied on some excellent navigation in the river bed to pull back some time on the runaway leaders.
A second broken chain further affected the hard chase we were putting in, and it was with relief that we mounted the final hill into transition in the hills of the remote Motu township.
Trek
Setting off into the late afternoon we were faced with a serious trek of 9hrs, which would challenge our navigation, strength, speed, tactics and determination, not to mention the hardiness of our feet (affected badly by spending 3 hrs swimming and walking in a stony-bottomed river). Our fantastic New Balance ‘wheels’ performed admirably again, particularly in draining quickly to protect the vital feet in the river sections. We steadily pulled back precious seconds on the early leaders, and by the time we had been out for 7hrs the gap was down to 15 minutes. The only setback of the trek to this point was the demise of Wayne on one of the long downhills, where he had slithered and crashed his way 30m down a steep bank, his fall arrested by a combination of rib bones and a staunch tree trunk.
Faced with a tactical dilemna of continuing in the river or proceeding up an infernally nasty semi-marked track, the decision was made for us with our only navigational blue of the race. Staggering across a checkpoint we hadn’t expected, we made haste out of the bush and up the road to transition, in hot pursuit of the leaders, now only 5 minutes ahead going into the final Mountain Bike.
Mountain Bike 2
The location of an important track 15 minutes into the ride was to prove the crux of this race. With numerous teams spending up to 3hrs searching fruitlessly, we were onto it instantly and into the lead for the 1st time in the race. A brilliant ride ensued, with many stream crossings and some fast, sweeping downhill interrupted by 8-foot high gates! With a lead of less than 2 minutes it was true cat and mouse racing, with the 2nd place team turning off their lights in the hope we would relax and slow down.
There was to be no relaxation however, especially with the realisation that we had left the vital part of the map to the finish at the last transition. Operating on memory, instinct and adrenalin, we located the last checkpoint and gave the towropes a workout before arriving at the finish in the 3am chill with a buffer of less than 5mins.
Summary
All in all a very successful adventure, topped off with our 3rd win in succession, an accomplishment that we are all very proud of. Given the multitude of factors that can spell the demise of any team in adventure racing, we feel that Team Subaru is becoming a very solid unit, capable of winning races from any position.
This win has raised us to 3rd in the National standings, and with a race in hand, our next goal is to overtake the leaders in the race for those honours as well.
Special thanks must go to our brilliant support crew, Lynne, Marilyn, Gavin, Deb and Haidee, without whom we could not have raced.
Preparation is going as well as possible for Team Subaru’s bid at the World Adventure Racing Championship in November, but next up is the Auckland 24 hr race in July, our aim is to go 4 from 4!
Thanks Subaru, New Balance and Insomniac for making it possible.