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.
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/
