Mountain Designs Wild Women

Mountain Designs Wild Women is an Australian All-Women Adventure Racing Team formed in 2017. The major team sponsor is Mountain Designs an Australian outdoor clothing and equipment retail business. We also are sponsored by AyUp Lighting Systems an Australian provider of high-performance LED lights for outdoor sports. Our team of strong and experienced adventure racing women are supported by Noosa based training group Tri Adventure, founded by team captain Kim Beckinsale and Jan Leverton.

Monday, 20 June 2022

Age and gender no barrier for these Wild Women

Mountain Designs Wild Women Geoquest 2022

Mountain Designs Wild Women - Geoquest 2022

Adventure racing is a sport that is tough, challenging and certainly takes you way outside of your comfort zone, but for these strong fit women, it would appear that age and gender are no barrier to success!

Yes, adventure racing like many other sports is a male dominated sport and that’s fine, but what sometimes happens is that women automatically think that adventure racing must be too hard for them, because they are not always as big and strong and seemingly fit as their male counterparts. In the sport the ‘premier category’ is a mixed team, so this means that most teams toe the line with three males and one female. This is certainly a great way to race and for women who want to race at the ‘elite’ level in fact it is the only way to really achieve the highest level of success in the sport.

For many years I did exactly that, racing in mixed teams and racing for Team Mountain Designs. In every team, we achieved great success, winning many of the big-name adventure races in Australia against some of the best adventure racing teams in the country……Geoquest 2007, XPD 2013, Hells Bells, ARA Darkside …….but then I wanted more from the sport, I wanted to be able to lead a team, navigate the entire way in some of the big events…..so at the start of the 2017 season, I put my case forward to our major sponsor Mountain Designs to support an all-women’s team and so the Mountain Designs Wild Women were born. Here is a link to our welcome blog…..

http://mountaindesignswildwomen.blogspot.com/2017/03/welcome-to-first-edition-of-mountain.html

So, since then the Mountain Designs Wild Women have had some success indeed, winning the women’s category of some of the major AR events on the calendar….. Rogue Raid 2017, 2018, 2019, Geoquest 2017, 2018, and 2019; Hells Bells 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 Wildside Expedition Race Canberra 2017, XPD Tasmania 2018, Raid 100 2019 and XPD Rivers of Gold Cairns 2021 and we are proud to have had the ongoing support from Mountain Designs along the way.

Fast forward to Geoquest 2022…..and the Mountain Designs Wild Women are still on fire…..despite icy conditions at Shoal Bay NSW and the reality that we are not getting any younger!!!! In fact Wild Women originals Kim Beckinsale and Gina Dunsdon are both over 50; joining the team for the first time was Nicola Jelinek, who is just shy of 50 and Amie Munson is our baby, aged just 42. So, as you will see age is no barrier for the team as we believe that women are tough and strong and can achieve anything as long as we, stay positive, stay focussed, and keep doing what we love best. So really that is what adventure racing is all about and why we love coming back to Geoquest!!!

Part of the thrill of AR is not knowing where you are going until maps are released and then it is all systems go, map planning, gear planning and lucky for us - support crew planning. Geoquest originally was a supported event and so we opted to stick with tradition as the crew become part of the ‘team’ and thus live the adventure as well! Dot watching and tracking from home is okay….but there is nothing quite like being right there in the thick of it and being allowed to offer support. Retired Cowgirl and Geoquest tragic Jan Leverton was joined by Cowboy Mark Denham and super cyclist Nick Baker ……. wow what a crew!

This event because of the polar freeze and winds predicted was going to be one of the coldest events we have experienced for some time, so we spent a lot of time making sure we had packed gear that we could rely on:- Mountain Designs thermals, Mountain Designs socks, Mountain Designs waterproof and windproof jackets for paddling and yes more Mountain Designs socks…..and we were prepared to carry it 😊

Geoquest 2022 - Full Course Overview

So, to cut to the chase here is how it all panned out……

The start / finish line for Geoquest 2022 was on the beautiful beach at Shoal Bay. Race morning the sun was shining and the wind was howling and yes, we were going to be paddling right smack bang into it. The first section of the event was a paddle, trek paddle and we planned for this to take us about 8hrs but we made sure we had lights and extra gear in case we did not see our crew till dark.

Geoquest 2022 - Mountain Designs Wild Women ready to race!

There were new Surge kayaks for the event and they have no steering, so this was going to sort a few teams out, as you had to be able to paddle using your kayak blade as a rudder and in these conditions, this would prove to be challenging. The team all have plenty of paddling experience using all types of craft, as this is definitely one thing that women do need - skills over strength and speed. So, we always make sure we prepare for the event as best we can, prioritising the skills required for each discipline. Winner winner chicken dinner! - well that was our carrot to get to the finish - the dream of a hot chicken and guess what, we had an awesome start, finding ourselves in 2^nd place as we arrived at TA1 and on our way on foot to CP1…… and by the end of Leg 2 somehow we nailed CP3 and were somehow leading the whole race. I promised Amie that I would not try to win Geoquest outright, but I must say it’s pretty fun to be right up at the pointy end as a team of girls - turning heads!!!

Mountain Designs Wild Women - Leg 2 on our way to CP3 (in the lead)

Navigation is key in any event and this race would be no different, the paddle up the Myall River for almost 30k was tough and made tougher by having to navigate up a tiny creek and trek 1k out and back to CP 4 (some teams dragged their kayaks up the beach instead of paddling, this was never an option for us) and then face gale force wind and waves whilst crossing Bombah Broadwater – 5k on a bearing of 300 degrees to CP 7. By this stage there were at least 4 teams in front of us one all male team and three premier mixed teams, we were still right up there and the light was fading fast and we were starting to freeze. TA 2 was less than 4k away, so instead of stopping and adding layers, we just paddled our guts out to Nerong where we were greeted by our crew, with a fire and hot soup!!!!

Kim set a bearing of 300 degrees to cross the broadwater.....note the 12degree offset!

The next three legs would be in the dark, so not only do you need to carry warm gear, but also have good lights for trekking, mountain biking and paddling. So, on go the Ay Ups over our buffs and jacket hoods as we ran out of the TA to try to get warm, as we could not stay by the fire all night! We had nice dry shoes and socks for all of 5 minutes before we crossed a swamp, bummer……but lucky CP 8 was a high point. After CP 9 we had a bit of trouble finding Jacks Creek Trail, sorry dot watchers…. In fear we missed it and were heading for OOB we backtracked almost right back to the CP before finding this vague foot track - well spotted Amie! It is always great to have someone in the team who looks around and notices things that the navigator might not! We nailed CP 10 and 11 and were soon at TA3 near Devils Hills enjoying some hearty sausages prepared for us by the crew. It was pretty freezing, so best to just keep moving, so that’s what we did on the bike. Nicola was on fire and set a blistering pace out of the TA, then some hills would slow us down a bit! Lucky were all had pretty good descending skills on the bike as there were some doozy down hills. Just before we reached the TA we were approached by a random car - I got a bit scared thinking someone was trying to chat up the girls, but it was only Sloshy (Dave Schloss AR legend) who was working at the event on search and rescue -- phew! We started the final paddle down the Karuah River at a TA4 near Booral, it was so freezing there so we put on almost everything we owned and started paddling….. there was one rapid too….so lucky we did not fall in! We were still in about the same position in the race as we were at the end of the last paddle, but we knew there was another all male team hot on our heals and that we would be on the water in the dark for more than 5hrs. It was so cold when we got out at CP18 and somehow a boys team got in front of us there. We paddled toward CP 19 as the day dawned and picked off the features along the way to the next TA…..inlet on left, oyster leases, big left bend, oyster leases bridge and then TA5 was in our sights….yay!

Did someone say cheese toasties???? Yes, these were on our menu too!!!! We inhaled these as we tried to find shelter from the howling wind. At the little town of Karuah we had a split trek, so it pays to have more than one navigator in the team. Amie and I teamed up to get CP A and B, while Gina and Nicola sprinted around to get B & D. Part of my goal as a team captain has always been to encourage team mates to navigate, so in this race Gina had the second set of maps on the trek legs, Amie on the paddle and Nicola on the bike - working to our strengths. This proved a to be a great strategy for Geoquest 2022, as we left that TA ahead of the two male teams that had been in front of us! We were in 4^th overall!!!!

Split Trek - A B C D

According to the crew and our course overview it was only short MTB ride to the next TA, it was mostly all on just one map and it looked relatively straight forward. As it was daylight it made the navigation much easier but the riding wasn’t! Why???? Well we were actually riding through mud, mud and more mud, or should I say mostly carrying our bikes around mud holes that looked like we could almost swim in.

Gina Dunsdon

Amie Munson

Nicola Jelinek

Kim Beckinsale

The TA for Leg 9 Rogaine was just some spot on the side of the motorway near Twelve Mile Creek. We had made pretty good time but our crew were enthusiastically trying to ensure we had a very quick transition and get out on the 10k rogaine without any time wasting! Why???? Well the lead teams Thunderbolt, Alpine Quest and Three Points of Contact had not yet returned, so this meant that the navigation was probably tricky. So, while the rest of the team were getting sorted, I was carefully marking up the maps, yes sometimes in the more challenging legs in an event, you have to draw on your own circles on your map. There were 8 CPs all up and we had to find 5! I could not see a clear route at first glance, so before we headed out, I got Gina to check that I had marked up all of the CPs correctly and we as a team all had a look! The route we discussed would have us collecting J I K H and E - in that order - but I was not entirely convinced as there was no real backup in case we could not find one.

The team chats - just before we set off on the rogaine.

We ran walked our way to CP J and nailed the watercourse bend CP. CP I was a high point so other than a few tracks looking a bit weird, we got it fairly quickly. All this time I was not happy with our planned course, so I showed the girls an alternate route, which was a bit longer, but maybe safer! So, we headed for L and F and were using all of our orienteering skills to make 100% sure we were going the right way! Pacing using steps and time, checking off track junctions and other features…. although the contours and creeks were barely visible on the map….we tried. To find CP L we aimed off a bit early so we knew we just had to walk left (NE) once we hit the creek…..I noticed a second creek in there, so we spread out and bush bashed! Nicola soon spotted the CP – Bingo! The track to F was there and the high point was obvious, so now just a long hike to H which was ‘head of watercourse’ on the side of a hill. I probably did not pace this one too well and we went in a bit too early, but once again we spread out and walked NE and eventually located a very obvious watercourse and our final CP! We hurried back to the TA where were we greeted by the crew and event officials who were very impressed with our speed and with the line our tracker drew….a dog!

Can you see the dog we started to draw!????

There was no time to mess around in this TA for Light was going to fade fast , we knew we had just two legs to go, but they were quite significant and we would be spending another night out in the cold. With fruitcake, snacks and water loaded in our packs we set off on the bikes for a 54km ride to Anna Bay! Amie and Gina were checking distance and Nicola and I had the maps. CP23 on Gold Mine Road came up pretty quickly, but we know that we would be hitting CP24 in the MTB park in the dark as light was fading fast and it was almost 10k away. We were on an awesome trail and suddenly this turned into a swamp! Yes, is was pitch black by now and we were trudging through waist deep water…we were getting pretty cold, but we could see that others had been there….so on on! Finally we came out onto something that looked more rideable, but I could not see that anyone else had been there…no tyre tracks…no foot prints. So, as I was not 100% confident that we were ‘going the right way’ I convinced the girls to go back and take the alternate route that we had discussed when marking up the maps! I was just upset, that I did not think of this earlier! We came across some crazy young people bogged in a car and their rescuers as we headed back up Taylors Road and they confirmed the other route might be better. We were not sure who was the most crazy at that point…..them or us! The alternate route was a superhighway and we finally arrived at the Medowie MTB park to look for CP 24. Just as we arrived, we were swamped with teams and there was a frantic search happening….no one could find anything. We just had to take a deep breath, start again and ride the course slowly and not be distracted by others, so with Nicola following along on the map right behind me we picked off every bend until bang….CP 24 glowing right in front of us! Phew!! Out of the bush now and all roads to Anna Bay! We came across other teams looking for CP25 it seemed so easy, but the CP was not where it was shown on the map, so everyone was running around the streets looking at every sign saying Pacific Dunes….I got locked inside the golf course at one point too! After we finally got the CP and waded through another waist deep swamp, we rode our little socks off all the way to Anna Bay trying to keep ahead of the guys!

This is what happened for those who may have been watching the tracker!

I have no idea what time it was, but it was PARTY TIME at Anna Bay for the Mountain Designs Wild Women! We were still in 4^th place overall and we were ‘just ahead of the guys’ we were all feeling pretty good and we just had one final trek! The crew were amazing feeding us pizza and playing tunes ‘Wild Women Do’ as we left the TA running!!!!! We got out of sight and found the location for CP 28 but we just could not find it…..so a quick reset and we were back in exactly the same spot….a few teams were all around together looking….as well! This was a low point for me as I just could not work it out….we had not had any sleep it was the bewitching hour and everything was just getting funky! But lucky for us another team spotted the flag, hiding low in the bushes….we had been in the right spot…..but had just not spotted the CP. Canberra AR passed us at this point, they were motoring! We were still ahead of the guys though, Amie told me they said they wanted to beat us….but we thought that they had not found all of the CPs. So just 2 CPs to go and the race was on…..MD Wild Women Vs the boys from the Gold Coast – Kooks on Debut! They took off when we hit the road near Boat Harbour and were soon out of our sights…. we kept our cool…. however we were actually freezing….so very chilled indeed! CP 29 and 30 had us walking along sand dunes and stretches of beach…..the waves were thumping and the tide was incoming and at one point we almost got swept off our feet into the water…..so had to hobble along the dunes to get to higher ground. The full moon was setting, so this meant that the sun was almost going to rise, we better get to the finish then! So, with a spring in our step knowing that we were going to finish Geoquest 2022 in our best position ever well under top 10 we powered down Government Road to the finish line just before 5am!

Mountain Designs Wild Women at the finish....wild as ever!

Our support crew were there and so was the Race Director! Congratulations Wild Women…… 5^th overall!!!! What about the boys we said???? “NO you smashed them, they did not find all of the CP’s on the rogaine’ the crew said! So there you have it a TOP 5 finish for the Mountain Designs Wild Women, just behind Canberra AR who finished 4^th . Our closest ever finish behind the podium premier mixed teams Three Points of Contact 3^rd, Alpine Quest 2^nd and Thought Sports 1^st .

So all of you women out there remember ‘Wild women do, And they don’t regret it’, why….. because they can and don’t you forget it! Why not, get out there and plan your next adventure!

Thanks to Wild & Co for bringing us Geoquest 2022, it continues to be ‘Australia’s original and premier adventure race. Thanks to our fabulous support crew for feeding us and keeping us going through the night, sacrificing sleep as well! Finally, thanks to our major sponsor Mountain Designs for continuing to support the sport and this group of ‘Wild Women’.

Saturday, 14 May 2022

Raid 100 Risk vs Reward

Team Tri Adventure Mountain Designs

Team Tri Adventure Mountain Designs

Did you watch the Live Tracking at the Raid 100? Did you imagine what teams were thinking out there? I was thinking, ‘what was I thinking’, by even imagining that I could step up and race Raid 100 in the premier mixed category in the 100hr Raid 100.

This is the Mountain Designs Wild Women Blog, but as we had two ‘Wild Women’ in the team and the support of Mountain Designs, I think it more than appropriate to share this experience.

Team Triadventure Mountain Designs were ranked number 2, so I must admit I was asking myself lots of questions in my head like, am I good enough? Will I be able to keep up? How much am I going to have to suffer?

Anyway, so rather than just write up a race report about each leg of the course we thought about giving you an insight into some of the decisions that take place out there amongst a team racing at this level, as the dots and the live coverage feeds only tell some of the story…… here we go!

Do you think a quick game of Volleyball will help settle the nerves??

Risk vs Reward – Navigation – by Dave Schloss

Wow, having toed the line of many rogaines over the years, I have never been daunted like I was in the lead up to the Raid 100. Justified, with some of our usual teammates and competitors opting to sit this one out, due to the huge demands placed on the mental side of which controls to get or to drop. My normal approach to a rogaine is just go HARD and try to clear the course. Then you do not have to think too much. So, will this approach lend itself to the Raid 100???

Dave Schloss

Maps in hand and going through course notes, there were a number of cut-offs that needed to be made. Then you add in sleep strategy, OMG, give me another beer, this is going to take some thinking. We worked our way through the course notes and at certain stages worked out where we needed to be when and then worked backwards.

Our first glimpse at the maps

I have never been one to calculate how many points/controls need to be punched per hour. As a team we looked at which legs carried the most points and looked at the most economical ways of seeking these points. When we put the maps down for the night prior to the race, with our gear packed, we thought we had a pretty good route laid out ahead of us. (Editor’s note: after about 50 or so scenarios….) We included sleep but had options of possibly pushing through nights if we needed to the get to the next cut-off whilst gaining the maximum points. Although, there were 2 legs that we hadn’t finalised based on timing and well, wonder what the other teams were planning???

Sloshy looks at the maps and explores options

Half way through map mark up - we are all part of the decisions

Leg 1 Trek - Paddle. This was one such leg. There were so many options. When to trek? When to paddle north? When to paddle south? Best time of day to travel north and best time of day to travel south? This is all in the name of finding those orange and white flags. We went through a number of options; (Editor’s note: yes, the editor went to bed with a sore head after the 50^th…) in fact, this was the leg that we spent the most amount of course planning on. Tides, water flow, amount of water in the estuaries all contributing factors. We only decided our final route choice after we got off the bus when setting up the kayaks. Was it successful? Well, we cleared the course, had a good trek in the middle of two long paddles and we finished with enough time to clear the mountain bike, leg 2. So yes, success!

Beach start! Run 3k to Kayaks - Team Tri Adventure Mountain Designs Number 2

Leg 2 had some bail out options to make it to the cut-off but with great travel, the only thing that nearly brought us undone was a terribly timed flat. Finally sorted, we were on track, back to the bus, fed and trying to sleep. So, we had cleared the course so far! Things for me at this point were great and somewhat normal.

Leg 3 was a trek around Washpool NP. There were a series of ‘out and backs’ and going with the majority on this we moved well and were on track. Towards the end of this leg, there were a couple of CPs that were an hour out and back. We finally started to think strategically. We had a lot of course to go, a long mountain bike to do next and another cut-off at the end of this. Shall we push through the night and get them all, or consolidate our position, drop some of these long out and backs on the whim that our competitors would also drop these? Chipesti (also cleared the course) decided not to, but they were moving a fair bit quicker than us at this point. So - good on them! We decided to stick with our plan. We thought we made a great decision until we hit a CP that did not have the best description of which we lost an hour searching for it and was joined by many other teams including Chipesti. Damn…..not happy Jan! (No pun intended 😊). Throughout the next few legs, due to cut-offs we started to drop CPs. Not large values but due to some strict cut-offs we needed to be not so greedy.

These were the most spectacular CP's on this leg! A reminder of Girraween Raid 100 - 1 - Leg 1

Sloshy and Liz - Searching for the CP

Got it - we all must punch our wrist bands

Leg 4,5 Bike Trek, Packraft. All were no-brainers as far as what CPs to get and what to drop given our timing. The trek in the middle of the packraft - well, we hadn’t even marked the map on this one. We would wait and see how fast travel was and how long we had on this leg, knowing the end of the next packraft had a time cut off. Looking at the trek when walking up the rather large hill, we decided to go in an anti-clockwise direction trying to hit the easy navigation in the dark, as it was only 7pm with a long night ahead. All things were going well, including a sleep and an off track down a long ridge to CP68. We decided to miss one planned CP (CP75) in a watercourse due to the course notes description and the fact that it was down in a creek with a lot of vertical loss and was not a good travel option to the next CP. As it would mean a long climb back out, only to return to the same creek. In fact, we attacked this next CP (CP74), got turned around by the twisting creek, thought we found the CP, only to not and then decided to bail out due to timing. Looking back at the tracker, we walked straight over it!! This was our only blemish of the entire race. If this was any event other than a rogaine, we would have spent more time trying to find it!

Our route on the trek - anticlockwise - we opted not to try for 75, then could not find 74!

Leg 6 & 7 After t

he packraft, we had a mountain bike, trek and paddle to go. We were always getting all the CPs on the last paddle as it was more of a linear nature. So, this leaves the Mtb and trek. It was pouring rain, and we needed a sleep. Again, we had not decided our course on these 2 legs until we there. The trek had more points than the mountain bike, once committed had no bail out option. If the mountain bike leg was muddy it would be very slow. So, we made the decision to consolidate our position and do the trek with a short road ride to the paddle.

Our Course - 84, 82 back to Bike Drop - Sleep - 83, 86, 87, 88, 85

Looking back, did we make the correct decisions in each leg? Well, we finished second, so yes! Regarding the last mountain bike and trek legs. Maybe we should have taken a chance on riding as it was quicker than everyone thought. Buy hey, that’s racing and as a navigator, there are always areas to improve. Hence why we keep coming back for more!

Risk vs reward – SLEEP (by Elizabeth Dornom)

Throughout any adventure race, one is making decisions constantly, so a race as long as Raid 100 means these decisions are multiplied. Should I eat this lovely fruit cup now, early in the leg as it is heavy so I don’t have to keep carrying it, or do I save it for later in the leg when I am more fatigued and will savour it more. Do I eat this vegemite croissant now because it is exactly what my taste buds are craving for, or do I throw it away because I saw a bit of mould on it (P.S. I totally ate it).

Elizabeth Dornom

But I want to concentrate on the sleep decisions that took place during the race, so I will leave the nutrition part up to Glenn and you can read about that a bit later!

Liz - making the most of the opportunity to rest before the restart

The first night, this decision was almost made for us. Given there was effectively a race restart at 7am on day 2 after the bus, we decided to approach the first 2 stages as a separate race with a cut-off of 3am and go for every checkpoint. When we were dealing with a few flats on Sloshy’s bike at about 2am at the furthest point in the state forest I was reassessing this. But yes, I believe this risk paid off as we made the cut-off with 30 mins to spare (in the end this would be our most luxurious cut-off that we did make!!!) We certainly got less sleep and were less organized on the bus than some other teams but we figured you don’t normally sleep on the first night anyway, so see how it played out.

Kim and Liz - rest relax and refuel before the restart

Night 2 slept on the side of the road after the bicentennial track on stage 4. Decisions over when, where and how much sleep were talked about for a while prior to this leg. In the end it was a good decision, although perhaps 2 hours was too long as we were all pretty cold when the alarm went off. We would take that on board for the next sleep.

Night 3 we decided to sleep early – probably lying down around midnight for a 90 min kip. The risk was we were bedding down well before the usual witching hours of 2am till 4am however the reward was we were actually quite refreshed for the early hours of the morning and our navigation was on point.

A team sleeps under a tarp - we did not have this luxury but those little orange bivvies are awesome!

Night 4 - the last night. Do we sleep, do we push through? I would count this as our most effective sleep strategy, we had all seemed to get the sleepy staggers around the same time and so being close-ish to the TA we ended up in a dry horse shed lying on a questionably stained piece of carpet at about 11pm. 90mins later we were up and moving a darn lot faster than we were before the sleep. It also meant we were able to push through and stay awake for the long paddle to the finish without falling asleep on the ever enticing long & wide river paddle.

Risk vs reward – GEAR (by Kim Beckinsale)

In every adventure race we have a mandatory gear list, however this, in reality, is the bare minimum gear list that you require if things go pear-shaped. When I race I am always happy to carry a bit extra so that I am prepared in any situation, however when racing at the pointy end of the field many of these gear decisions are made by the team and based on discipline, leg / stage length, time of day and anticipated weather conditions. So much time before a race is spent gear selecting, sorting and shuffling, then when you get the maps and logistics, you sort and shuffle again and then as a team you check that you have everything where it needs to be! Then while you are out there it is about using the gear when you need it…..no point in carrying something if you are not going to use it! Yes, it may mean you have to slow / stop but is the risk or slowing worth it???

Gear sorting - where it all begins - the calm before the storm

Day 1 – Stage 1 Paddle / Trek / Paddle – Glenn and Sloshy carried our mandatory gear for the 11k trek on this stage, I only carried a whistle and a water bottle and shoved food in my pockets. The strategy was for Liz and I to go light – risk was worth the reward as we nailed the trek 😊

Leg 1 - Run to Kayaks - Kim ,Liz and the team go light....because we were allowed!

We had decided to clear the paddle course and after the trek we still had more than 40k of paddling to go, I was cool earlier whilst paddling but warm from running.. I discussed putting on my jacket for the rest of the paddle – risk was that I would be too hot and have to take it off again or paddle slower to avoid overheating. I took the chance and the reward was I was not freezing for the rest of the paddle, did not overheat and did not loose too much energy trying to stay warm. I was stuffed at the end of that stage, but who wouldn’t be after over 50k of paddling. So, we had cleared the first stage.

Leg 1 - Coasteer - Kim, Liz, Sloshy, Glenn

Day 1 Stage 2 MTB – When getting our gear sorted, we divided up the bike spares so that we were not all carrying tools, tubes etc. So, basically Liz and I gave our stuff to Glen and Sloshy to carry. We were at the furthest point out on the bike course when Sloshy’s tyre went flat, Sloshy tried some gas, but the air was still escaping through the valve. Time was ticking away as we had a 3am cut off, so, as a team we worked together helping make the change as quickly as possible. The first tube did not work, so we had to use a second and last tube?? What??? We only had 2 tubes with us…. we knew that team 3 points of contact were just up the road, should we ask if they can lend us a spare….just in case??? Definitely worth the risk! We were thankful that the tube held air for the remainder of the leg, we did not need to use the borrowed tube and we made the 3am cut off with just 20 mins to spare and had cleared the course at this point! Thanks to Nicole from 3points of Contact for the spare tube😊

Day 2 Stage 3 Trek – To tow or not tow that is the question!!! Right from the get go I was suffering! I was trying really hard, my head was spinning - should I say something???? So, I politely mentioned….’someone might need to tow me’. The response from the team at the time was not yeah sure – so the strategy applied by the team was to ‘carry my gear’ so I just had my pack and water. The team did not want to take the risk of towing too early, I could not keep up and felt like I was dragging the chain for the entire trek, out the back door like a poor little lost sheep ready to be pounced on by a fox or a dingo! Liz, towed me for the last few hours…. I don’t think anyone knows how close I was to rock bottom at this stage, but I know the risk was worth it.

Trekking poles - worth their weight in gold - a must for expedition length AR

Day 2 &3 Stage 4 MTB – Guess what??? We carried extra tubes and spare batteries for lights - you don’t want to get caught out in the dark. 😊

Day 3 & 4 Stage 5 Packraft / Trek / Packraft - There was a lot of strategy in this leg and it was difficult to calculate exactly where we would get to given dark zones in place and time available. However, this leg was the make or break for may teams and gear selection and equipment definitely made a difference. Should we carry a battery-operated pump / rely on the air bag – well I know now that this bit of kit is worth its weight in gold….it took less than 2 mins to fully inflate the raft. Throw bags were used to rescue gear and equipment, yes mandatory gear and always carried, but now the importance of having a throw bag accessible at all times was very, very clear! Reminder to always pack and repack your throw bag before use, so it is ready for rescue – as you don’t need it until you do! Liz and Glenn had to use the rope to try to release their raft from a strainer in the first 10 mins of the first packraft….if we didn’t have the gear and the knowledge of just how to use it, this could have been the end of our race and lives at risk.

Kim's Blue Alpacka Raft - So much gear! Dry Bags, Map Cases, Throw Bags, Jackets, Thermals.....

Dry Bags - You can never have too many dry bags…. even better if you can clip them onto the raft – it might be heavy but you may just need your gear when / if things go pear-shaped. We finished the first section of the rafting right on the 6pm cut off, stars were shining so we laid our gear on the raft to dry, bummer for us when we finished the trek it was bucketing down with rain - our paddle gear soaked! No reward there - but we survived and just had to paddle hard to stay warm!

Map Case - yep definitely worth the extra time it takes to put the maps inside for paddle legs, better than losing the map altogether.

Day 4 & 5 Stage 6 MTB Trek MTB – As you can imagine in a race like this, you get a bit of chafing, sore feet, sore butt and sore everything. The risk of carrying some extra items and having that extra weight can help keep you and the team moving forward, so well worth their weight in gold – I carried a tube of Bepanthen, sunscreen and hand sanitiser, Liz carried Zinc, and Glenn carried a huge tub of Sudo Cream - GOLD!

Teams had access to bike boxes at every TA and either Box A, Box B or Paddle bag

Day 5 Stage 7 Paddle to the finish – I took the risk of starting the paddle warm, so wore thermal top, long neoprene pants and gloves…. easier to take off layers than risk loss of energy trying to keep warm, also better sun protection and less risk of sunburn. Being toasty warm can make you want to fall asleep, but nothing that a bit of singing out loud can’t fix!

Risk vs reward – Nutrition (by Glenn Wilkinson)

Nutrition is always something to work on and look at ways to improve on, personally I was looking forward to seeing what others packed and how much people ate in an event such as this.

For Raid 100 we decided to pack 10hr food bags to distribute through the TA boxes for the race. This equated to approximately 2000 calories per bag. Day 1 and 2 worked out pretty well, we had regular team reminders to eat and drink which makes staying on top of energy loss a lot easier for everyone. As time progressed and disciplines changed, eating at regular intervals wasn't as easy, especially during paddle legs or whilst running! A big take away for me during this race was food variety. By Day 3, the treats and sugar snacks started to harvest ulcers on the tongue and the thought of another Clif bar wasn’t so appealing. Thankfully Liz was like a walking vending machine and kept producing an array of gems like beef jerky, dried mango, licorice, and Byron Bay shortbread cookies. Another treat of special mention was Neil's sausages he was cooking up at the packraft/trek transition at CP60, what a man! We devoured a whole bunch of them while climbing a mountain and morale had never been so high!

Given the lengths of some legs we all made a conscious effort to keep weight in our packs as low as possible, this meant relying on fresh water on the course and calculating the correct food quantities before we set off on each leg. This could have gone horribly wrong if our planning was not accurate, however, between the team we managed both food and water very well and yes, we did carry coke on every leg. We topped up water from streams on numerous occasions and treated the water just to be sure it was clean enough to drink. So, you should always pack and carry water purification tablets.

You can put hours and hours into planning food for events, but at the end of the day you need to pack what you think you want to eat, pack enough calories to get you through each leg and then when you are sick of your own food or can’t eat the entire lot, share it amongst your team as sometimes your most favourite food from a previous event can taste terrible the next time.

So there you have it a bit of an insight of what happened out on course in terms of thinking….risk vs reward for team number 2 Tri Adventure Mountain Designs 2^nd Place Raid 100 2022

The finish line of Raid 100 - Tri Adventure Mountain Designs - 2nd Overall

Next up….. Geoquest AR for the Mountain Designs Wild Women….hope to see you there!

Need some gear for you’re your next race…..well check out all of the gear at Mountain Designs online.

Mountain Designs supporting Adventure Racing in Australia for over 20 years!

Thanks to Liam St Pierre for another Raid 100

Liam - Raid 100 Race Director

Thanks to all of the volunteers for your time and enthusiasm...where we would we all be with out you at the TAs , especially Jan for also editing our story, Greg, Michele and Mitchell Krome, Fiona and Richard Crossley and Heather Fearby for just being out there to make us smile!