Espresso 24-Hour Adventure Race 2008

30/08/2008

After two solid race finishes the Moore River and Anaconda it was time to revisit an old nemesis - The Espresso 24 hour. Arguably the toughest adventure race in the West Andrew and I teamed up with a couple we meet at one of the Anaconda familrisation Jason and Rachel Wallington. Unfortunately our usual form showed up and Rachel had to pull out of all competition this year with an old knee injury which affected her performance during Anaconda 07. A new partner was found in the form of Jill Royal, an expatriated Texan. Fortunately the language barrier wasn't the issue we thought it might be.

Last years Espresso experience paid off in the pre-race prep with Andrew and Jason focused on mapping the course and Jill and myself focused on packing the transision trunks. We were one of the first teams ready for the race, in fact we even had time to pose for a team photo:

The first stage of the day was a "Metrogain", basically navigation through the streets of Bridgetown. After this stage we were on to the paddle leg in the inflatable Sevlars. After 30 minutes of foot pumping we off down the Blackwood river. This stage had a lot less portage than last years race which caused a lot of joy. Two hours into the paddle four of the race leaders got their boats out of the river to carry them over land to save six km of paddle. While it looked like hard work to us it turned out it saved them 30 minutes.

Next stage was the first big trek. I had

TEVA Adventure Race 2008

20/07/2008

First placed mens team!!

Off Road Tri 2008

20/01/2008

Second from DFL. Oh the shame....

Anaconda Adventure Race 2007

4/11/2007

After failing to finish last year's Anaconda as a team of four Andrew and I thought we would attempt to complete the whole course as a pair in 2007.  With two finished Adventure Races under our belts and no training for six weeks we headed down to Dunsborough with lots of confidence.

7:15 am Sunday morning saw the swimmers enter the ocean before the deep water start.  After fifteen minutes of bobbing around the start boats in semi confusion the start gun was sounded and we were off.  The swim is Andrew's strong leg so we spent the first half of the swim with Andrew swapping between free style and back stroke while he waited for me to catch up.  Three quarters in to the swim I found my rhythm and started to gain some ground.  Unfortunately I also managed to lose Andrew but at this stage he was about fifty metres in front of me so I just concentrated on finishing the leg.  I half waded and half dolphin dived the last hundred metres to the swim finish and tried to find Andrew.  After looking for five minutes I assumed he had gone through transition and was waiting for me at the boat.  No Andrew at the boat and there aren’t too many swimmers left in the water.  Finally our support crew (our children) spotted Andrew and tell him I have already made transition.  The main cause of the confusion was that neither of us thought I could have past Andrew, but it turns out I did when he was chucking his guts up on to one of the swim buoys.

After a few words were exchanged we dragged our ski in to the water hoping to gain back some time in the paddle.  During the week we installed a larger rudder on to our double ski which had the effect of transforming it from a possessed demon from a Stephen King novel to merely a mildly disturbed shopping trolley.  With this new found control over the ski we managed to pass three skis while still inside the surf.  Once we were in deep water we aimed for the point while most of the boats around us made for much deeper water.  After rounding Meelup beach we went through the Gannet Rock Check point.  This was a bit hairy as it is the surf that has the most impact on the direction of the boat.  As it turns out only nine teams other remembered this was a part of the course and we all scored a two minute credit!!  After eagle bay we spotted a ski pretty close to the rocks with no rescue boats in sight.  We decided to investigate and as we got closer we spotted a swimmer about ten metres away.  Having tried to swim in a PFD myself I knew this guy didn’t have much chance of getting to his boat in time.  I managed to get a hold of his ski while Andrew paddled us back to him.  After our good deed for the day we made for Bunker bay.  As we got closer we could see a large number of spectators at the run transition.  We were very impressed as usually most of the spectators are gone by the time the end of the pack come in.  After lugging our ski on the beach we jogged into transition to find team runner's everywhere.  As it turned out we overtook forty four paddlers according to the results and probably more as I was in the swim transition for five minutes waiting for Andrew.

We had a lightning transition to the run with both of us standing on one towel washing the sand off our feet in another competitors water bucket.  As soon as I got out of transition I felt pretty slow - a lot slower than in the familiarisation so I must have been feeling the effects of the bronchitis still.  About a kilometre into the run and another pair Jane & Greg Windsor overtook us.  Greg was in the lead and Jane was holding on to the bungee cord on his hydration pack using it as basic tow setup.  It turns out Andrews pack had a similar bungee cord so I grabbed it.  We were a lot faster after and used it to cover the sand sections.  I was fast enough with the rock hopping not to need it (too dangerous anyway) and we managed to pass Rachel who was walking before Sugar Rock.  At Sugar Loaf Rock we had the five metre swim.  The water was very flat compared to the familiarisation days and we even overtook someone in the water!!  After Sugar Loaf was heart break hill and we managed to keep Jane and Greg in sight either behind us or in front of us.  My speed still wasn't great even under toe and at this point some unranked team runners started to over take us.  Later we found out these were teams who’s paddlers just couldn't complete the course with the amount of chop in the water.

After overtaking "Lily" in the run we entered the MTB transition.  Again a bit of prep the night before with bike placement meant we overtook two pairs in transition.  Unfortunately five minutes into the ride Andrew started cramping up and my legs weren't feeling too much better.  To compound our woes Andrew was faster up hill and I was faster down hill so it wasn't too much longer before the pairs and Rachel past us again.  On to the first single track which was very nice - except it was up hill - very wrong to any experienced mountain biker!  Over the road and on to the second single track which we had not seen in the course familiarisations.  If taken fresh this would have been a very enjoyable course, but after six hours competing I found myself taking all of the chicken runs and looking for the shortest path over the course.

Exiting the single track and 100 metres of tarmac later found us dumping our bikes into transition.  At this point we had the option of cleaning our shoes (because of dieback) or doing the beach run bare foot.  A no brainer in our minds that meant we overtook another team in transition.  The high light of the beach run was all of the competitors returning back for their bikes, all of them still cheering us on.  I was quicker in the beach run than I was on the trail run and we even had enough energy for a flat out sprint finish...

Seven hours and ten minutes after time credits which was about forty minutes slower than we wanted but still a finish.

Moore River Adventure Race 2007 .

I wasn’t planning to do the Moore River Adventure Race as it is so close to the Anaconda Adventure Race in November, but my race partner Andrew came up lame and needed a runner and rider. Therefore I decided I needed to prepare my excuses in advance which were:

1) Two weeks with Bronchitis

2) Haven’t done any training for three weeks

3) Girlfriend dumped me on Thursday

So with that level of preparedness I felt very confident going into the race.

As Moore River is a lot closer to Perth than Dunsborough I went for the comfortable bed option and drove past Andrews’s house at 7:00am arriving at race HQ before 8:00am to drop our gear in to transition. We then caught up with Rachael and Jason who were also doing the Moore River as a two person team but were planning to retire after the paddle as they were as lame as Andrew.

At 9:05am Rachael and Andrew started the non ocean swim in a very nice and calm river. Twenty nine minutes later Andrew stormed out of the water to a quick team transition. The first section of the bike leg was sealed tarmac with some nice rolling hills through the town. After the sealed section it was on to the farmland which was littered with double gee’s and bovine landmines. At this point every fly in 100km radius descended on to the riders to add that additional motivation to finish the bike leg. At the end of the farmland section I had past 5 riders with flat tyres – of none of whom had heard of thorn resistant tubes. One rider I talked to had punctured three tubes!!

But all of this was bliss compared to the sand section. I currently hold to the belief that any Adventure Race Director worth his salt feels he has failed if you ride your bike more than you push it. Below is a picture of a guy burying his front tyre while going down hill !!

After the sand was some very nice limestone fire track. After almost being wiped out by some lads in their 4WD’s and taken out by a postie on a quad it was very refreshing to be able to over take five people pushing up hill while I engaged the granny gear. After another kilometre of tarmac I handed the time band back to Andrew for the paddle.

At this point I debated whether or not to tell Andrew that I wouldn’t be doing the run before or after his paddle. I decided to wait until after so he would still put in a good effort. In the calm waters of the Moore River Andrew managed to not only stay in his boat in spite of the efforts of an mad outboard but also managed to claw back 5 positions! One complementary can of Coke and Banana later I was ready to tackle the run, so fortunately I hadn’t said anything to Andrew.

After the first 2 km of beach run I was starting to feel the combined effects of two weeks of bronchitis and one can of Coke – a particularly nasty combination. This was followed by the very surreal surroundings of “The Desert” which reminded me of a National Geographic picture and the 50 m river crossing. Again something about Race Directors and fascination with wet running shoes. Heading out of town was more sand just like bike leg – but so much better without the bike to push!

In the end I crossed the line with still a few people behind me (three) and with both lungs still intact, all in all a good day.

TEVA Adventure Race 2007

Almost last mens team, but we beat all of the womens teams!

Espresso 24-Hour Adventure Race 2007

After the 2006 Anaconda disaster Andrew and I decided to attack it again in 2007 by doing a few low profile events first. Coincidently Murray Byrant was organising the Espresso 24 Adventure Race which would be the the first unsupported Adventure Race to be held in WA. During a pre-race gathering at the Stirling Arms we met our new team mates Bronwyn and Truc. Unfortunately Bronwyn had to pull out of the race a month before and we found another team mate Sue to replace her.

Race day found us a bit overwhelmed with race logistics. Between the four of us we had to plan a course spanning 12 maps and pack 3 transition trunks. By the time Andrew had finished the planning the trunks were already gone and some of his gear hadn't made it into the trunks!

Anaconda Adventure Race 2006

Early in 2006 four Silverfern Systems Engineers formed a team to compete in the newly announced Anaconda Adventure Race to be held in Dunsborough. Andrew with a back ground in Rogaines and Orienteering was chosen for the 12.5km trail run and Graham with a lots of white water experience was chosen for the 14km ocean kayak. That left Michael with some road bike skills and Glen with five years of weekend Mountain Biking. Even though it was a 20km MTB course Michael wanted the bike leg as it was assumed the 1.9km swim would need the fitter person.

With a month to race day Graham had to pull out of the race due to work commitments and with a week to race day it was announced that the 20km MTB would actually be a 30km MTB. Some of Michael’s clients claimed they saw him cry on the day of the announcement. Many rumours went around regarding the increase in course length including that Tom the race director had set his bike computer to miles and not kilometres. Conversations with Tom during the 2007 season revealed that private land owners withdrew their permission for the race. This meant that Tom had to create a new bike course in one week and this caused him to age 10 years in that time. To allow for the extra distance the cut off time was extended from two and half hours to three and a half.

As it does, race day arrived much quicker than expected and suddenly I was jogging down to the beach to line up for the event start. About 300 metres in to the swim I realised I had made a newbie mistake. Having trained in a heated pool for the last nine months I had never trained in my wet suit. Unfortunately is was an ill fitting water ski wet suit and was causing massive lacerations to my neck and shoulders. This slowed me down as I had to do breast stroke for large sections of the swim. With about 200 metres to go the last person I could see over took me. Hoping to not be last I put in a Herculean effort but in vein as he crossed the line in front of me. As it turns out there were still 10 competitors’ behind me. After all of that my pool time of 45 minutes for the 1.9km turned into 1 hour 15 minutes on race day.

Andrew grabbed the time band and race bib and legged it out of transition hoping to claim back some of the positions lost in the swim leg. At the end of the 12.5 km trail run which included a 10 metre swim Andrew had brought back 18 places in a shorter time than it took our team’s spectators to drive to the bike transition.

I arrived at the Run/Bike transition in time to see Michael ride out on to Bunker Bay road. Andrew and I then settled down to wait his return as the Bike/Paddle transition was in the same place. Two and half hours later the course was closed with Michael still on the course. In the confusion the volunteers manning the Bike transition closed the course with the original two and half hours. When Michael came in 55 minutes later he thought that we were still a ranked team!! Andrew had the option of doing the paddle unranked but without an official time it was hard to get motivated.