Thursday 18 April 2019

Mountain Designs Wild Women gear up for Raid 100


Mountain Designs

With the relaunch of the Australian iconic brand - Mountain Designs ‘a heritage born of the mountains’ I am extremely proud and humbled that the new owners – Spotlight Group Holdings have entrusted Mountain Designs Wild Women, moving forward, to continue to promote the Mountain Designs brand which focuses on a passion for adventure and developing the best possible quality gear and equipment for the outdoors.  As in previous years the team has the ongoing support from Ay Up Lighting Systems to keep us on track when it gets dark, and Tri Adventure to provide us with some quality training sessions and events.
So after months of training, planning and preparation for the Raid 100, our Mountain Designs Wild Women Team are super excited to get out and test ourselves against some of the best Premier Mixed, Male and Female teams in the sport of adventure racing and we have no doubt that this unique ground breaking event is going to be a real challenge for everyone.
The Team:- Kim Beckinsale, Cass Kimlin, Ali Wright and Amie Munson.

Raid 100 Preparation

Our preparation for the Raid 100 has been varied and different for everyone, here are some of the highlights:-
Kim went to Victoria in January and raced Alpine Quest with the Thunderbolts finishing 2nd outright in the premier mixed category.  Kim, Jan (Tri Adventure), Cass and Ali lined up for the Paddlegaine finishing 1st & 2nd Female.  Cass and Amie took the top spot on the podium at the Max Adventure race with Kim and Mel (Tri Adventure) finishing 2nd and Jan (Tri Adventure) rounding out the podium. Kim then organised a big training weekend for the Tri Adventure teams doing the Raid 100 up at Elanda Point, which included about 24hours of training and transitions for trekking, mountain biking and kayaking with navigation also included as well.  Kim has then completed another two rogaine style events – the Bunyaville 3hr Rogaine and the X-cite Dam Dash 4hr Adventure Race just to fine tune the navigation and decision making skills in the lead up to the event.

About the Raid 100

Unlike most expedition length adventure races where controls are collected in order for most of the race, the Raid 100 will see teams racing rogaine style, pretty much non-stop for 100 hours, searching for potentially 100 controls on foot, mountain bike and kayak. Instead of finding mandatory controls and all following a similar course with the winners being the fastest team, the Raid 100 is a points based race, meaning all controls have different points values ranging from 10 – 100 with key time cut offs and the winning team will be the one with the most points after 100hours.  Missing a CP is not an issue in this race in terms of maintaining a ranked finish, yet time will be of the utmost importance as teams can potentially spend hours on parts of the course for no gain if their navigation is not up to scratch or tiredness and fatigue takes over.  Sleeping will mean loss of vital time and potential points, yet lack of sleeping can mean the team may not function as fast or efficiently and this can also be dangerous.  For these reasons the Raid 100 will be the ultimate test of fitness (trekking, mountain biking and kayaking), navigation skills and strategic planning, so it will be interesting to see how teams approach this event, as we have never had a race of this length like this before.

To find out more about the event here is a link to the event site

Why the Raid 100 for the Mountain Designs Wild Women?

For those of you who are wondering why on earth would an event like this even exist and why would  a group of 4 women want to go out and do this stuff…….well here are a few reasons:-
We love the great outdoors and the environment, we love breathing in that fresh air day and night that you just don’t get when you are in your normal life or normal routines of work and home life. We will be escaping reality for 100hours…. no phones, no laptops, no TV, no luxuries….we are basically self sufficient for food and water for 100hrs with access only to the boxes and gear that we have packed to be dropped at locations unknown at the time to us.  The training and preparation for this event encourages us to minimise our impact on the environment, as we drive less and ride more and we work out ways to create less waste as we want to be able to protect some of the most amazing places that we have the opportunity to explore.
We do this for fun and fitness and relaxation all at the same time. As Australia faces an obesity epidemic and more and more people are suffering from mental illness or increased work / lifestyle stress, getting away from it all and testing yourself against mother nature is seriously uplifting and beats sitting in any 'mindfulness seminar’ hands down (in my opinion).
We do love competition and competition is healthy, it encourages us to challenge ourselves in ways that we can’t even prepare for! We are not able to be part if the A1 series officially as we are not a ‘premier mixed team’ – meaning we have no male in our team – Yet I can tell you we will be trying to finish in front of as many teams as we can – no matter what category – because it is a race and it is a competition.
Adventure Racing is a thinker’s sport and the more you think and challenge yourself the more you grow in mind body and spirit. The thinking in and AR event is so much more exciting that any computer game, crossword or other more sedentary problem solving task as not only does it challenge the mind you are keeping physically fit and active at the same time.  In the RAID 100 we have no set course, just 100 checkpoints to find hidden in somewhere in potentially a 400km radius between whereever and Tallebudgera Camp on the Gold Coast.
We the Mountain Designs Wild Women just want to promote our active lifestyle and inspire others that they can do things that they never thought possible……it is never too early or too late to have a crack at this sport or similar events such as Navigational Trekking, Mountain Biking and Kayaking (Orienteering and Rogaining).  Women together have lots of laughs fun and adventure, so after any AR event in particular there are always so many great stories, photos and wonderful long lasting memories.
 
Hopefully our previous experience with foot rogaines, cyclegaines and paddlegaines as well as previous editions of the 24hr Rogue and Rogue Raid events will be of some advantage as we take on this strategic dot to dot race around the Qld NSW Border.
To watch our progress check out the live tracking here:-  http://raidadventures.com/100live/


If you are inspired to get out into the outdoors this winter why not check out the Mountain Designs Winter range to get yourself geared up for your next adventure:-






 

No comments:

Post a Comment