Training Log Archive: Timato

Final day of the race. As we were paddling down stream in a sleepy daze a team actually went past us like we were standing still. We mis-heard them and thought they had just overtaken us for 5th place. Well, this really woke us up, until we realized they had only done 2 score-o points. Out onto the open water and I was so tired I was almost falling out of the boat. After some pretty blue pills from Tys I was a bit better (and apparently pretty talk-a-tive). We finally finished the paddle and took our celebratory cruise through town onto the finish.

The crowd was great, even though it was 4 am and they cheered us throughout town. It was a really special moment with the police escort into the finish and all those cheering people (actually the town was dead and I don't think we saw a single person).

And thus MIX was over and Tys and I had finished our first expedition race. Great time and a great team made this a very memorable experience.

C • Well Done! 6

Pulled into the TA and we had to decide if we wanted to cave or score-o first. Since it was still dark out we opted for the caving. This was an interesting event in the race, the cold water in the cave felt great on our feet. Although I never felt comfortable down there.

Back to the TA, and a 20 minute nap, then we hit the score-o. We were all hurting by now (well everyone but Pete it seemed), but we just kept moving and ended up with a very good time. Came out of the score-o 3 min down on Wedali for fourth. A quick TA and out onto the bikes for the second last long stretch. Wedali took the road route and we had plotted to use more back roads. Big mistake since we spent 12 k fighting through deep sand. Ended up loosing 90 min to them on this section. OUCH. To their surprise 3rd place also took the trail and they were able to pass them.

Finally off the bikes still in 5th and we had a paddle to finish town.

We spent the night between day 2 and 3 biking from the island over to Rudyard. I think this bike was my favorite. 70 miles all by ourselves at night. We met one team at the ferry, but didn't see them again. Had another 15 min nap at a CP and then just continues until the TA. Once at the TA we laid down for 2 hours of rest.

Next stage was a paddle, very unexciting, we tried to dry my feet out as much as possible, hoping the blisters would get better.

After the paddle it was trek #2. After about 15 min on my feet I was sure I couldn't go on, but my team really helped me out. We little pills for the pain and taking my heavy weight we were able to pass a lot of teams on this trek, so much so we came out in 5th place.

We hoped onto the bikes after some more blister treatment from the medical staff. At this point my feet were just wrapped in duct tape. The bike was pretty heinous, we spent hours just pushing our bikes through sandy trails and then we had to ride along a rail road track. At one point we thought there was a train approaching, but then we passed the team standing still on the track and realized they were the "train".

We had a quick sleep on the trail and then worked our way back to the TA. We were done in 12th I believe. A not so quick TA because of my blisters and onto the bikes for another loop of the island. This bike ride was pretty good. A lot of rock at times, but nothing too hard. We didn't have any nav problems. I felt bad for some of the teams we saw still trekking as we passed by on our bikes. They'd obviously had a much worse trek then us. Back into the TA and it was off to the sea kayak.

We were able to finish the sea kayak before night, nothing too exciting, we had some fierce wind at one point, but it died done pretty quickly.

MIX day 1. This involved a bike start (with the helicopter filming us from above) to a canoe put in. We got delayed about half way through when Leanne got a flat. On the water the wind was pretty bad, so they shorten the paddle. We did pretty good on the water and were able to pass a few teams.

Back onto the bikes and we passed a team as we just caught the ferry. This put us right back up with most of the teams as we ran into the main pack again on this ferry.

Off the ferry and we biked into the TA. Then it was off to a trek. The trek started about right with me throwing up beside the trail. We then spent 4 hours looking for a check point. Oh well soon it was night and we were wandering around on trails getting checkpoints by the edge of the island by moon light.

MIX

Race prep day. This involved seeing the race course, all 390 miles of it, and planning the maps. Also we finished building our sail umbrellas and packed all the gear. The gear bins had to be split up into 2 groups half for Drummond and the rest for the 2nd half of the race.