The forecast for the weekend was not looking awesome, so we knew we were in for a very wet race. Jan and I were secretly very glad that we had not decided to take on the 36hr championship course which would have had us starting at midnight, in the pouring rain. Instead we were bunkered down in a nice, cosy Gold Coast apartment, having a look at the Wild & Co social media feeds and posts from teams who were preparing to race. In fact, we had a bit of a sneak preview of what the course may look like for us after seeing what the 36hr course had in front of them. We had anticipated we were paddling the Nerang River and riding trails in Nerang…..we were correct.
1800
Friday
As
we had already received our logistics planner, we spent the night organising
our event boxes. We made sure we packed
extra gear. Thanks to Mountain Designs support over the years we had plenty of
thermals, waterproof Gore-Tex jackets and rain pants as well, we even threw in
a couple of lightweight fleeces! The
course looked like this – Paddle (long), MTB (short), Trek (short), MTB (short),
Trek (long), MTB (long), Paddle (long) and Trek (short). Looking at the course timings we anticipated a
finish in the morning sometime after sunrise….. so, in addition to our warm,
waterproof gear we packed more than enough batteries for our Ay-Up lights!
0600
Saturday
We
woke to the sound of rain, no surprises there….. 36hr teams had now been out
all night, we were still dry and warm and wondering what we were in for…..
0900
Saturday
HQ
was at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre in Southport. We were there on time ready
to collect our maps. Looking at the logistics and the maps, the course looked
very long, with a bike all the way out to Numinbah where we would have a trek! Interestingly the course had quite a few
options, meaning on the paddle legs we could collect CPs on the way out and
back and the same for the first and last MTB legs! This made us think! The paddle looked fairly straight forward, but
we saw that if we collected all of the MTB CPs in Nerang on the way out, we
could bypass the single-track on the return.
1100
Saturday
Final
Briefing – well the only briefing, just 1hr to start and we were lucky to be
listening to what some of the 36hr teams had so far encountered, rain, wind,
wet slippery trails….. just what we were expecting! It was not raining at this point, so we were
pretty happy and almost ready to race! A
couple of key points -we MUST leave TA4 at Numinbah if we planned to get through
the final bike leg and we MUST start the final paddle before 7am Sunday morning
in order to finish by midday!
1200
Saturday
The
weather gods were smiling on us at the start as it was calm and not raining as
we set off. Jan and I were decked out in
our Mountain Designs Wild Women kit but had waterproof jackets over the top. We
were ready for rain! As we set off to
the first CP was I absolutely cooking….so had to take off my jacket. I lost my glasses as I jumped back in the
kayak…..as they fell off my head and sunk to the bottom of the river! We did not waste too much time and continued
on our way. We had numerous weir
crossings where we carried the kayaks and a portage as well! For us vintage Wild Women this was a struggle,
but we just did it! As we got into the
TA at Nerang we had to assemble bikes and right on cue it started bucketing
down with rain! We planned to not change
clothes here, but I did put my jacket on and a vest, and Jan put on a thermal
top. Very wise! I did the bikes while
Jan went and marked up the maps. Not
sure how you really do this when the maps are wet and the pens don’t work!!!
1500
Saturday
So
we headed off on our bikes to Nerang MTB park.
We had two sets of maps here, one being the topographical and the other
a Trailforks MTB map. If you have ever
ridden in Nerang, you would know that the trails are usually technical and challenging
as well as NOT flat! By the time we
arrived at the park, the trails resembled waterfalls and on our way up to our
very first CP in there, a guy was walking the other way saying he had just
closed the valley trails….mmm was that where we were headed next??? Yes, Barney’s trail which we had intended to
take was closed, so we went the long way around on a fire trail to Goanna trail
for the next CP. We managed to find all
the CPs on the single tracks and then just had a big out and back ridgeline climb
to CP J before exiting the park via CPK. Well by the time we were on our way back from
J, it was seriously bucketing down and it was dark, we could not see more than
about a metre in front as we were sliding down the trails. Phew - we got out of there unscathed but our
timings were now way out as it was now well after 6pm and we were not even at
TA2. On our way we did see Team Alpine
Avengers flying by the other way…we could not believe they were on their way
back!
1900
Saturday
There
was no box for us at TA2 and we had planned to be in and out of this TA before
dark, so I had carried Ay-Ups but Jan only had the small emergency light! So, our contingency was to just wear our
helmet lights - always good to have a back up plan! We had also opted for a
quick transition here as we had just worn the same shoes from the start, but
before we could set out we had to mark CPs on the map. There were only 3 (L, M
ad O) but it was so hard to see the details on the maps, as contour lines
looked like trails and trails were so hard to decipher! Jan handed me the maps for the first bit as it
was so hard to see and we eventually worked out how to get to CPL. The rain eased and Jan continued with the nav
again and took us straight to M. We had
a bit of trouble getting to the CP 0 at the dam as near CP10 which we had to
come back to later in the event there were a maze of tracks …some unmarked. Here we ran into Team Thunderbolt (36hr
course) and heard Shelley had just been taken out by a kangaroo on the road. Lucky she is tough and yes, she was
okay….just! We got to the dam and the CP description was creek bed, but in fact
it was a fast-flowing river! After
finding the CP we made our way back to the TA and saw our Tri Adventure friends
the Crazed Curlews Kooki Kiwi heading
out on bikes.
2100
Saturday
Our
race times were well and truly blown out now….we thought we might be lucky to
get to TA4 by midnight, but doubted we would even be able to trek. Most of the ride was on tar, but we still had
3 CPs to find. We could have just
skipped these CPs but that’s not how we race! CP Q and S were paddle CPs for
36hr course and they were really challenging in the wet conditions....and took
time. In fact, Q was a rock scramble 500m down a creek line to the dam and S
was not much easier due to the steepness of the banks. Just one CP to go before the TA - CP 5 and it was
tricky! The marked track ended and we
found ourselves on an airstrip and right next to a fast-flowing creek of which
we thought we needed to be on the other side of. There were other teams there and then
suddenly they disappeared …..it was the bewitching hour indeed! We backtracked and found another way in which
was much easier, as the marked route simply did not exist.
0100
Sunday
Not
sure exactly when we arrived at TA4 but we well and truly missed the trek as we
had missed midnight cut-off to get the MTB CPs around the dam. Fiona Crossley was looking after this TA and
she told us that we just had to go back the way we came and pick up CP10. So
before heading off we did a full change of clothes in a nice cosy, warm horse
shed. We were not freezing but as we had been in the
same wet clothes for over 12 hours we thought it might be nicer just to be warm
and dry for just a little while. I think
this was a really smart move as we also put on dry jackets and dry rain pants as
we ‘breathed in’ some corn chips before heading back out into the pouring rain.
We
were the last team to leave the TA. The
ride back was not easy as it was still pouring rain and it was quite
undulating! We used the tow rope to keep
together as it was safe to do so. We
knew the way to CP 10 but found it a bit tricky….100m NNE of multitrack
junction….mmm there were several junctions in the circle….so which one was it! We found it after 3 goes from 3 different
spots! Then we had a fast route planned
TA 1 without having to go back through the MTB park….this saved us a few hours!
0700
Sunday
We arrived
at TA1 just as it was getting light but it was now absolutely pouring with
rain. Greg & Michele Krome had been
at this TA since before the race started and were doing an amazing job helping
teams find their gear and a bit of shelter. We packed the bike gear up and got out of
there pretty quickly, we did not change, but just stayed in our full wet
weather gear. The paddle back was a
tough, hard slog....wind, rain and tide against us....Jan was doing a great job
navigating….but we were not really getting very far…..there was no other option
but to kept on paddling!
Finally
when we arrived at TA 5, it had stopped raining...but we kept on all of our wet
weather gear as it was windy! We headed
to the coast – wow - the ocean was a crazy washing machine and there was no one
on the beach.... usually Sunday morning at Surfers it would be packed with
bikini clad tourists....but this was a stark contrast! We still had to find a
few CPs so maps out along the way! I
must say the last leg was definitely the easiest and we did actually run more
than half of it!
0920
Sunday
The
Mountain Designs Vintage Wild Women crossed the finish line shattered but still
smiling and satisfied that we had persevered in such testing conditions. Nothing about this race was easy and the
attrition rate was probably over 50% so for two women one 55 and the other 62,
this was no walk in the park but an opportunity for us to still continue to
challenge ourselves against mother nature and the crazy race that was the ARWS
Oceania 24!!! Thanks Wild & Co – Race Director – Chris Dixon for having the
confidence to let the race go ahead! Sometimes
in life we need challenges like this just to show us truly what we are capable
of achieving and that’s why we continue to do this sport!
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