24-hr Adventure Race
ARC Coromandel: Race results and pictures should be posted here soon.
They don't call it adventure racing for nothing! wow...from start to finish there was always a challenge, but this was FUN FUN FUN! On Friday night we found out the course at the race briefing, then headed back to our cabin to plot coordinates and plan our route. The alarms were set for 5am...
The race went as follows : 7am start at the surf beach in Whangamata
Sea Kayak to Onemana Beach - big surf, lots of fun, with quite a scary start and finish...one broken rudder for our team plus 28 surf rescues but thankfully none for us!
Coasteering - mandatory gear included bike helmets and life jackets - lots of scrambling over rocks and a couple of swims involved, quite the adrenaline boost incase one was needed!
Mountain Biking - in the pouring rain through forest tracks...one puncture for Dean, otherwise all went well
Trekking - included a 30m abseil down a waterfall, plus a mystery event which Dean attempted - swimming through a waterfall...very cold! darkness fell as we reached the six stones, and finding the mystery 7th involved wading through muddy water up a mine shaft...otherwise a really fun trek!
Rifle Shooting - 4 out of 5 for me, with the army team watching...take that!
Mountain Biking - mainly on sealed road this time, a fairly straightforward section
Night Kayak on the river - for 5 hours, wow...i nearly fell asleep but pain in my right bum cheek from the hard seat kept me from doing so. It was tide-assisted until we reached the harbour at Thames, with fish jumping around all over the place - the one that landed on my spray skirt definitely woke me up, and my scream probably woke everyone else up :). The tide was so low at the end that we had to get out and push/carry the kayaks 5 times over sand and rocks...I started to think it wasn't quite so fun anymore
Mountain Biking - apart from the painful rash i'd developed from wet clothes rubbing all day (it really wasn't too pleasant), i felt really good on this last section. Something just gave me a boost and I hammered those pedals up every hill until we crossed the finish line at 3:42am on Sunday morning. Big smiles on our faces - a great sense of achievement!
Our support crew (Dean's wife Tracy, his brother Danny, his parents, and Steve from Great Outdoors) were absolutely magic - at every transition they had our gear ready, hot food and drinks, snacks, towels, and anything else we needed to prepare ourselves for the next leg. Dean, Mark and Jamie were great team-mates as well - good banter and support for each other the whole way (and being the only woman really does have its advantages because they all looked out for me!)
Whakatane Great Outdoors sponsored the team, and I've already agreed to doing the local 24-hour race a month from now...my mind must be seriously affected due to sleep deprivation.
They don't call it adventure racing for nothing! wow...from start to finish there was always a challenge, but this was FUN FUN FUN! On Friday night we found out the course at the race briefing, then headed back to our cabin to plot coordinates and plan our route. The alarms were set for 5am...
The race went as follows : 7am start at the surf beach in Whangamata
Sea Kayak to Onemana Beach - big surf, lots of fun, with quite a scary start and finish...one broken rudder for our team plus 28 surf rescues but thankfully none for us!
Coasteering - mandatory gear included bike helmets and life jackets - lots of scrambling over rocks and a couple of swims involved, quite the adrenaline boost incase one was needed!
Mountain Biking - in the pouring rain through forest tracks...one puncture for Dean, otherwise all went well
Trekking - included a 30m abseil down a waterfall, plus a mystery event which Dean attempted - swimming through a waterfall...very cold! darkness fell as we reached the six stones, and finding the mystery 7th involved wading through muddy water up a mine shaft...otherwise a really fun trek!
Rifle Shooting - 4 out of 5 for me, with the army team watching...take that!
Mountain Biking - mainly on sealed road this time, a fairly straightforward section
Night Kayak on the river - for 5 hours, wow...i nearly fell asleep but pain in my right bum cheek from the hard seat kept me from doing so. It was tide-assisted until we reached the harbour at Thames, with fish jumping around all over the place - the one that landed on my spray skirt definitely woke me up, and my scream probably woke everyone else up :). The tide was so low at the end that we had to get out and push/carry the kayaks 5 times over sand and rocks...I started to think it wasn't quite so fun anymore
Mountain Biking - apart from the painful rash i'd developed from wet clothes rubbing all day (it really wasn't too pleasant), i felt really good on this last section. Something just gave me a boost and I hammered those pedals up every hill until we crossed the finish line at 3:42am on Sunday morning. Big smiles on our faces - a great sense of achievement!
Our support crew (Dean's wife Tracy, his brother Danny, his parents, and Steve from Great Outdoors) were absolutely magic - at every transition they had our gear ready, hot food and drinks, snacks, towels, and anything else we needed to prepare ourselves for the next leg. Dean, Mark and Jamie were great team-mates as well - good banter and support for each other the whole way (and being the only woman really does have its advantages because they all looked out for me!)
Whakatane Great Outdoors sponsored the team, and I've already agreed to doing the local 24-hour race a month from now...my mind must be seriously affected due to sleep deprivation.
posted by Mhairi
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