Whitianga, New Zealand
20 - 21 March 2010
ARC is one of the long established adventure races, but it was something of a new start for Orion Adventure. With long standing team members Anna Berthelson and Wayne Oxenham taking a break from adventure racing, Brent had rounded up some replacement team mates (myself, Carl Bevins and Marcel Hagener) and although we had yet to race or even train together as a team we were hoping for a good season opening race.
Race day began at a leisurely hour of 8am, starting on the beach in Whitianga. We paddled in a frenzy of churned water and crashing paddles for all of about 10 metres before having to leap out of the boats and portage a small sandbar. From there it was steady paddling on a calm sea, and the four of us worked hard to move toward the front of the field. That work turned out to be in vain when we reached the second checkpoint, supposedly located under a distinctive rocky arch that rose from the sea. We were definitely in the right place, but the marker was nowhere to be seen. As we milled about looking for it, assuming it was craftily hidden, the teams we’d paddled away from caught up one by one and joined the hunt. All were treated to a loud tirade of infuriation from Marcel, who was so determined to find the ‘hidden’control he got out of the boat and into the sea, and searched over, under and around the rock arch. It was a good effort on his part… especially since the marker had actually washed away with the incoming tide and all teams received an automatic credit for the CP.
The rest of the stage passed fairly smoothly, and after a couple of hours at sea we transitioned onto bikes. There were a few route options available to us in the early part of the ride, and Brent quickly sorted the most efficient path to take. There was just one small hitch; a short section of road shown on the map turned out to be a driveway, and the owner of the driveway was lurking. He didn’t seem overly impressed that we were on his property. Actually, it’s fair to say he was quite an angry man. And had he known that after talking to him we backtracked, climbed a fence and snuck around the bottom of his paddock, I imagine he’d angrier still!
The Coromandel is one hilly place, and we were treated to some of the best of them on our bikes. Every now and then we’d drop down onto a flat section of road, where you’d think we’d get some reprieve. Marcel had other ideas. He’d set up an aerobar system on his mountainbike, and any chance he got he’d move to the front, drop down on his bars, and put the hammer down. I think the rest of us were in two minds. We had to take all opportunities to widen the gap between ourselves and the chasing teams, but at the same time our legs were screaming each time we picked up the pace. Here I’d like to thank confess to using the towline far more than I should’ve in a 24 hour race – thanks Marcel!
Toward the end of the ride we reached the first of several mystery activities. This one was Operation Blue Moon: armed with paintball guns, we had to get at least one team member cross a sniper ridden battle field to retrieve a moon rock from the fortress at the other side. I failed miserably, shot by a sniper within meters of the start. The others had more stealth, with Marcel eventually making it across, partly thanks to Carl acting as a human shield and sacrificing his own paint-ball life.
Mystery activity number two came shortly after. This time it was a dive into a rock pool to retrieve an underwater control. It seemed straightforward enough, and Marcel and Carl quickly volunteered for the task. They discovered the catch: the control was guarded by a large caged eel, and it was a little ironic -and pretty amusing - that Marcel, the committed vegetarian of the team, came to the surface yelping after the eel had a chomp on his finger.
Stage three was on foot and mostly off track, running up a creek and then bush bashing to a ridge which we’d follow back down to transition. Here we learned our lesson for becoming a little complacent when we overshot a control and the turn-off that went with it. It took a while to realize our mistake, and it also meant we did more bush bashing and scrambling up waterfalls than we really had to… all reducing the lead we’d built up and that we’d possibly need later in the day.
The race went from trek to bike, and we started with a short ride to the final mystery activity, the rifle range. We each had five shots, five targets to hit, and while there were some time bonuses at stake it seemed like bragging rights were more important. So, Marcel and Carl, four from five is fine as long as you tried your best, right?! I’m sure that Brent and I just had beginners luck or something…
The rifle range was a welcome rest for the legs, as they were about to get worked. The bikeride followed much of the ground we’d already covered in the morning, only this time going in the opposite direction. So the nice long down hill we’d enjoyed earlier in the day became a painful slog. On the plus side, it meant the steep uphill hike-a-bike section became a quick single track descent, and even with a stop to mend a puncture we finished the stage well under the expected minimum time.
Next up was decision-making time. We had two rogaine stages remaining, one coasteering and the other in kayaks, and we could choose which to do first. We decided to make use of the last hour of daylight as well as the low tide, and set off on foot around the coast. Even with the tide out, we were forced to swim a couple of gaps, but the real work began when we left the shoreline and headed uphill. The bush bashing earlier in the day had seemed tough, but it was a mere warm-up to this. At points the vines were so thick I doubted I was actually going to make it through, and the top couldn’t come soon enough. There was a strange ambience as we trudged up upward: dance music from a beach party nearby reverberated around the hillside, a reminder of the very different ways that people can choose to spend their Saturday nights!
As is often the way in adventure racing, the final stage was anything but the home straight. We had to navigate an estuary filled with mangrove islands, which may have been straightforward in daylight but in the middle of night it seemed to depend on luck as much as skill. Or at least on a really grunty head torch. Once we thought we’d reached the right spot for each control, we had to scour the area and hope we’d happen to shine our torches in the right place. It was easy to overshoot markers, and in doing this Marcel and I found out the hard way what happens when you paddle a 7 meter kayak too far down a channel that is 4 metres wide, then decide you want to turn around. Marcel vetoed my idea of paddling backwards, and it was out of the boat and into the water for both of us to get the thing half onto cry land and eventually pointing in the right direction.
Teams had the option of splitting up on this stage, getting half the controls each and potentially taking half the amount of time. We opted not to do this, as while there was the chance to gain time there was also the chance to completely lose one another in the dark. Our conservative approach may not have been the quickest, but it was safe and we kept our place at the front of the field. 18 ½ hours after setting off, we made it home to the finish line in first place. It was a great way to start the year, and satisfying to have had a reasonably smooth and drama free race. More importantly, I think we’ve laid some good foundations for the longer races ahead. We’ll get to test them in May when we head to Australia for XPD – a 5 to 10 day expedition race in Cairns.
Thanks to Roy Edwards who was a support crew star, the ARC team for putting on such a great race, and off course to all of our sponsors.