Training Log Archive: Jacko

Event: Espresso 24hr Adventure Race
 

The Rangas came out of rehab (injury rehab) for this race after what has been a pretty ordinary 10 months or so, for Dolf and I in particular. Unfortunately I arrived at the race in probably the worst shape I have been for any race. After 3 weeks of poor sleep and heavy work load I was completely run down with a left eye that hadn't stopped twitching for 2 weeks and a massive cold sore on my lip (always a clear sign I am at my limit). But enough excuses we made it there and were prepared to give it our best shot.

Liz was our dedicated runner and returned in the first few runners so we appeared to be off to a flyer. Dolf and I got the first boat down to the water and returned to find Joel looking forlorn with the second boat hissing. Really can't believe we pay so much to race in boats that have not even been cleaned since last year let alone repaired.

No other better options at this point and Liz and Joel did a great job in a sinking boat. Left the bank in second last but were middle of the pack by transition with all 3 controls.

We transitioned OK and left with Juffy and co but elected to take the hike a bike option to the first control which it seems was the slower option. Rest of this leg we did really well getting the bonus controls too, until we got derailed by the bit of missing track somewhere. (can't recall where and I don't have the map to check) anyway it allowed Juffy to catch up but he helped us solve the mystery and a bit of bush bashing got us back on track. At this point we realised Liz's back tyre was flat so stopped to put some air in to get us to the TA.

The rogaine leg started OK and we planned to only get the 6 closest. Dolf offered to give me a break from nav and got us to 9 where I did the log balancing act. Then we proceeded straight past the track to 10 and ended up taking the next track and planning to cut back across. Don't really know what happened but by the time I took a good look at the map we had gone way past the cross over point so we elected to skip 10 and get the remaining 4 to get the minimum. Dolf seemed to be struggling a bit so I took back the nav duties to get to 11 and kept them from there on. I think it was this leg on the long walk back that Liz and I battled not to walk of the track as we were almost sleep walking.

My recolection of the rest of the race is a bit sketchy but we did the mundi biddi section pretty well and got onto the hike just after 1am. I seem to remember some help from Juffy to find the control below the dam after we got stuck next to the wrong dam. We tagged on to their tail for a few controls then which was a welcome relief for my brain which was suffering nav overload. Eventually we dropped off from them just before sunrise I think. Messed around looking for the TA when we hit Lesly Road and thought we must have overshot it. Only to find out there was two ?? Lesley roads and the TA was between them.

Here we got short coursed so had to skip the time trial and drop the 3 'internal' controls and just complete the outer loop of the next MTB leg. I was still feeling pretty strong physically but really struggling mentally with the map reading. I got us around the bulk of the leg but as we reentered town I couldn't get my head around the parrellel roads that were all mapped the same wether bitumen or tracks. Plus we hadn't written the CP description on the map and we had lost the written descriptions. This meant we ended up spending probably the best part of an hour trying to get 39 and 40. Crap way to finish and I was mentally destroyed.

In summary the team was great as always. Dolf put in some awesome efforts towing Liz. Joel was consistently strong doing his thing and Liz was tough in the face of some heavy falls. The course was reasonable but the promised single track didn't eventuate, unless you include the horrendous bit of bush wacking which I am sure would have been unrecognisable to the first few teams who went through. Was much better this year in that we saw lots of other teams out there and our distance planning on the MTB legs allowed us to flow much better through those legs.

Not sure I can bring myself to do this event again though unless Murray takes the boat issue seriously. When I mentioned the boat lottery to him in TA1 his response was 'oh well at least you don't have another paddle leg'......

Short paddle with Liz from Hillarys to Whitfords point and back, great way to start the day