Merrell Adventure Addicts ARWC 2011 race report

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Monday, 05 December 2011 10:08

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South Africans fight the Tasmanian Devil

I am always amazed when looking out of airplane windows when I fly across the country and the world. You get to see the best and worst of what the world has to offer. You see the massive areas of urbanisation, industrialisation and commercialisation that have sprung up to support the world’s huge population. From the different housing structures, suburb layouts, green areas, rubbish, you see the massive differences between the have and the have not’s. We are all part of it, no matter how we all try to stay away from it or limit our part in it. We are sucked in. All necessary to support the world, as we know it. 

You also get to see the vast areas of open land and wilderness below you. Green lush areas, dry arid areas, flat areas, mountainous areas, water areas. Majority of it explored, but some of it still wild and unexplored. It is these sights and the ability to GET OUTSIDE and explore this wilderness, becoming part of it, that keeps me going. It’s raw. It’s simple. Just me verse the wild outdoors. It is these experiences that allow me to recharge after being part of the world, as we know it.

In May 2010 we attended the Australian XPD staged in Cairns. The 780km Expedition Adventure Race was one of the most brutal and hardest adventure races I have ever done. It took us six and a half days to complete. It broke me; physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It made me stronger. It recharged me. It re-ignited my passion for the outdoors. The sense of achievement was overwhelming. This is why I do this fantastic sport.

After our experiences at XPD 2010, our team set a top 5 finish at XPD Tasmania, the Adventure Racing World Champs for 2011. We hoped for a race that was as extreme as the 2010 addition and we longed to be pushed to our limits. As a team we have been racing together for many years. We enjoy racing together. We have fun racing together. We have the same goals, objectives and get the same things out of the sport. We wanted to be part of the race for the win. We knew we could race the top teams and set about working on our weaknesses throughout the year.

Arriving in Tasmania, we were all quietly confident and knew our preparations had gone well. The atmosphere, hype and anticipation in the small town of Burnie was infectious. After a few days of gear and food preparations, we finally received the course information a day before the start. We spent a frantic 6 hours doing the final preparations before handing in all our race boxes to the officials whom would be moving them around the course.

The course was broken down into 15 legs, 37 maps, 120km paddling, 180km trekking, 430km mountain biking. From the outset it looked a very fair, but tough course. The big expedition style legs were in the second half of the race with the shorter faster legs in the first half. We as a team felt this suited us. Traditionally we are stronger in the later part of races. We knew we needed to have a good first half and be in touch with the top teams at mid camp in order to use our strength.

We raced well in the first half, arriving at Mid Camp in 9^th position on the afternoon of the third day, approximately 4-5 hours off the top 4. Our race speed was good and we had only made one error that had cost us a few hours on the second morning when we searched for a CP in the wrong area. We were content with our position, knowing that the race effectively started once we left Mid Camp. Upon leaving mid camp, we had three big legs (65km trek, 150km mtb, 87km paddle) to complete before the final few shorter legs to the finish. We made up good time on the 65km trek, completing it in 5^th place. It was then onto the mtb. We spent hours in the dunes looking for a track, doing something like 20km in 5 hours. The fourth night of the race was probably our lowest point. I battled with sleep monsters like never before. We stopped to sleep 4 times, with none of them really helping, the highlight being when I came off the bike on a tar downhill after falling asleep. Nothing like waking up with a jolt. When you are having a bad leg, your mind just goes negative and we saw the race slipping away from us. To our surprise we finished the leg in 6^th place only a few hours behind 4^th. It appeared that everyone had had a bad leg. The fifth night was spent on the banks of the Arthur River with the 11-hour dark zone, sharing a campsite with four other teams, getting 8 hours sleep!

After a successful paddle leg, we were in tied 5^th place, only 40min behind the 4^th placed team and the 7^th team being 20mins behind us. We realized the final three legs were going to be fast. We thought we had had a good 70km mtb, but lost two hours to the 4^th and 5^th place teams. Seems our route choice was not as good as there’s. We did however manage to open the gap on the 7^th place team. A 25km beach and coasteering trek followed. The race staff told us the leaders had done this leg in 4 hours. We were on the home stretch, or so we thought. With the tiredness and the urgency to chase the 4^th and 5^th and stay ahead of 7^th, I completely failed to see a path marked on the map. We ended up trekking along the rocky shoreline while the other teams took the path. We lost hours to the teams around us, with one team passing us and our fellow SA team catching up to us.

We crossed the finish line after 6 days and 2 hours in 7^th position. The 4^th and 5^th teams, separated by 1 second, were about 2 hours in front of us, the 6^th team 10 mins ahead of us and with the 8^th placed team only 15mins behind us. A close race in the end.

As always, crossing the finishing line of an expedition race is special and indescribable to someone whom has never done it and this was no different. Physically, you pus h yourself to the extreme going through days with minimal sleep and food. Mentally, you go to deep dark places as you drag yourself through the many bad patches. Emotionally, you have to deal with all the ups and downs that go with all the physical and mental exertions. Spiritually, dealing with all the questions that you ask yourself about life throughout the course of the race.

The race lived up to all that I had hoped it would. It was a great course that was well worthy of the status of World Championships. A tough race that pushed us to our limits. Having now spent sometime reflecting about our race, I am content with our position and understand it is a great result, something to be proud of. I do however have a feeling of disappointment not having achieved our goal of a top 5 finish. We raced hard and showed we had the speed and ability to mixed it up with the top teams in the world. I don’t think we could have moved quicker and I feel the error on the second morning, the terrible fourth night and missing the path on the last trekking leg, cost us dearly. But this is adventure racing and you need to get through the good and the bad. To my teammates, Tatum, Hanno and Don, again another special journey and it was a great honour to have raced alongside you guys! This is why I do this fantastic sport.

A huge thanks go to Craig and Louise from Geocentric Outdoors for a brilliantly organized race.