Southern Lakes 24hr Adventure Race, Nov. 2014

Chimpanzee Bar Team - Race Report
Southern Lakes 24hr Adventure Race, Central Otago, New Zealand

The race is located in the southern part of the South Island of New Zealand in an area renown for it barren landscape, scorching heat and lack of wind. Unfortunately with the race starting at midnight we weren't able to see any of the beautiful surroundings and it certainly wasn't warm, dry and calm!  The cold rain started to come down just as we headed off on the initial MTB section, the strong wind followed closely behind and 30 minutes into the race we had all our clothes on and were freezing up on the exposed mountain tops.  After spending an hour up on the hill tops shivering we began down what would normally be a very fun descent however we were slip sliding everywhere in the mud, clay clogging up our chains and weren't able to generate enough heat to keep warm so were chilled to the bone by the time we finished this first section.

A quick transition into a dry set of clothes (what a treat) and we were off into the darkness once again, this time trekking up the mountains. 3am.  Still raining and very windy.   After the MTB leg we were one of three teams all within a few minutes of one another and we thought we might have been able to get a break on the other teams in the trek. But we ended up in a very tight battle with us leading for a while before a small hesitation while trying to find a good route through the prickly bush allowed two teams to sneak in front of us. For the rest of the trek we swapped the lead several time before all three teams finished the stage together just as the sun was coming up.

By now the rain had stopped and with the sun up the racing was much more enjoyable. My team mates (Milan Brodina, Simone Maier and Rob Creasy) are all strong cyclists so I really struggled on this second MTB section as we zoomed along fantastic single track by the mighty Clutha river – popular location during Gold Rush in New Zealand 1860s. This was followed by a brutally steep climb that somehow Simone managed to ride (even just returning from hard racing in China few days earlier) but I had no chance. Eventually I managed to get some Chimpanzee energy bars and Gunpowder Drink into my stomach and slowly started to improve. This 70km MTB leg finished with 10km straight into a strong headwind and with another team right on our heels there was no easing off.

Another quick transition and we were off kayaking into the head wind. This stage was really tough, we started out leading but struggled to maintain a good pace and the other two teams slipped ahead of us. After 2hrs nonstop paddling into the wind –which was as physically as mentally draining we could finally get out of the boats. The steep hills and lack of vegetation make this a stunning area to race in but the endless up and downs are hard work, and we had another hill in front of us on the next trek. We powered up the hills trying to enjoy the views but were dreading the thought of another long quad destroying descent.  After the quick run downhill we made it back to our kayaks and could enjoy surfing the waves back down the lake to the finish, what a great way to complete a race with awesome teammates.

We ended up third and had spent most of the day in an incredibly close battle for first.  It was a really enjoyable day out and another chance to bond as a team before the Godzone Adventure Race next year.

Thanks to Chimpanzee Bar for all the support.

Greig Hamilton

10hr solo MTB race - Wanaka 2014

I like this race, that's why I keep coming back. The tracks are awesome to ride - big burms with good flow, steep climbs, forest single tracks, mountain views .....   
The weather forecast sounded horrible this year - with rain, wind, snow. But actually it did turned out not too bad. This year's race was going to be another good test to my plant based diet. I have completely eliminated all the processed foods from my diet. If man made it, we don't eat it. Thanks to my partner we have a nice veggie garden full of kale, spinach, silver beat, radishes, beans, carrots.... So the staples of our diet are now fruit, veggies and legumes. We have also eliminated all processed sugars and gluten from our menu, too. Many people ask us - so what do you eat? Believe me, we are definitely not starving. It opened up a whole new world of nice foods and choices we did not know about. It's a journey I am really enjoying at the moment.
 Anyway - back to the race. I was not disappointed with the result. We are getting older, right? But I still managed to beaten my time from 3 years ago when I have won the race. This year I finished 3. due to very competitive field. Very happy with that. So it looks like I will stick to my plant based diet for now.
See you out there.

My support crew - Lance.

EDORAS 12hr adventure race.

Rangitata valley, New Zealand. 28.9.2014

I was little bit nervous going into this 12hr race. For the last year I have been learning, reading, listening and gathering as much information about vegan diet as I could. I have been experimenting with it in my training for the last year, but didn’t really fully commit to it. Until now. Leading to the race I was recovering faster after training. I had more energy. I needed less hrs of sleep every night, so I could get up and train early in the mornings, ….

The race HQ was in an old homestead deep in Rangitata valley. I always enjoy driving into this spectacular area. No wonder that this is one of the location where Lord Of The Rings has been filmed. Our ChimpanzeeBar team entered this race too late – all the rooms have been already filled up so we end up sleeping on wooden floor in a game room without electricity.

28 teams were shivering on the start line at 7am anxiously awaiting shotgun start. The race consisted of two legs – running and mountainbiking. In each leg teams had to navigate and find series of checkpoints hidden around the country.

I was keen to push hard.  Navigation was a critical part of the race. Luckily both of my team mates – Jim Cotter and Greig Hemilton are excellent navigators. After few hours of running, crawling up hills, sliding down steep slopes, crossing rivers we noticed another team ahead of us. That was about the same time as Greig started to feel very sick. We took his backpack to lighten his load, pushed him up the hill, but the other team still managed to disappear from our view. We were clearly in 2nd place. Greig decided to stay in the transition as he was barely standing upright. Jim and I left on the bikes. At that moment we did not know where the other team was, but we knew that we have to move pretty fast if we want to win. Jim did an excellent job navigating as we moved smoothly from checkpoint to checkpoint. We were leading by 1 min, but they were catching up on to us. We decided to take it up a notch and bike hard. In the last hour Jim started to cramp on climbs. Not a good news when you have a team chasing you. But Jim is tough and we rolled across the finish line in first place.

Milan Brodina

Team ChimpanzeeBar

RUBBER DUCKY HUNTERS @ TWALK 2014

 

It is simple: get a group of people together, dress-up as Rubber Ducky Hunters, navigate 24 hrs nonstop around the hills and try to find business card size clues hidden under rocks, on trees and in grass. We had lots of fun during this event. We have really hoped to win the best dressed team. We did not, but at least we won the event, and being the second team in events history to collect all the checkpoints was extra bonus.

2014 Godzone - Kaikoura

“An experience does not need to be enjoyable. It just has to be memorable…”

KAIKOURA – a place where mountains meat the sea – teeming whales, seals, penguins, dolphins and 3 000m high snow capped mountains… What a playground!

I wondered where the adventure will take us this in 2014. Will it bring long distance kayaking on the ocean or bush-bashing in forests, wading through creeks and rivers? Rafting? We did not know until Saturday in early March just a few hours before the race started on the Kaikoura beach …

Stage 1 and 2 – Sea Kayak and Coasteering – about 2 ½ hours – “a warm-up”

Our team of 4 split into 2 couples – Jim with Petr and Lara with Milan. From the start gun we all ran on soft sand beach to the boats.  Jim and Petr were kayaking first so we helped them into their boat and push them through the surf. We were doing well – until we realized that Petr, allready 10 meters from the shore, does not have his paddle – he was focusing on putting his spraydeck on. We had to act fast as waves kept on coming. So Milan found the paddle just floating around in water, run into water until waste deep and throw it like an javelin. It landed right next to Petr – that was lucky. While they kayaked, keeping the pace with world champions we set off for a coastal run. With life jackets on we ran around Kaikoura peninsula, avoiding  curious seals, wading in water,  jumping reefs and climbing over cliffs. Just beautiful. We paced our self as we knew we have long 5 days ahead of us. After coasteering we ran back to the boats, found our one and pierced the waves. I remember that during the kayaking  I thougt a lot about my preparation for the race - it is a self-supported race so it's important that your equipment is in perfect order. With GODZone, which has so many disciplines, careful preparation is imperative. Failing to pack a spare bike part or taking a Gore-tex jacket with a rip in its lining could bring about your withdrawal. Equally, if you’ve underestimated your calorie count, going hungry is not a happy option.  I trusted my carefull planing and rather focused on landing the 6m long boat through the waves crashing on beach. We maneged well. Transition. Jim and Petr were already there. Onto the bikes as 4^th. 

Stage 3 – Mountain Bike – around 53 km – 5:11 min

We started to draft as as soon as we left transition – to save energy. I was pulling Lara and Jim and Petr were taking turns up front.  Then there was the first major navigational choice which split all the teams – Jim our navigator made a very good call. We were carrying bikes on our backs up this steep hill for a very long time. All the way to the summit. Then a long downhill which left a smell of brake pads behind us. Another river bed – big boulders, unrideable, few crossings, fill up our drink bottles. Another hill to climb and yuppiii – transition. Our trek box with clean cloth, dry shoes and food was waiting for us.

Stage 4 – Alpine Trek – Tapuae o Uenuku – 51 km, 22:07

It was getting dark. Lights on. Compulsory gear check in this transition surprised us – we must have missunderstood instructions and did not packed a strobe light. So instead of it we had to carry extra 3 lights  on every stage from now on – untill we get the box with the strobe light in it. We left into comlete darkness. Our plan was not to sleep that night. A huge trek up the highest mountain on South Island outside the Southern Alps – 51 km,  4 500 ascent (and 4 500 descent) was awaiting us …

Untracked tarrain, bolder hopping up George stream with many cold crossings are  keeping us awake. The last climb up to a saddle is very steep and involved bushbashing. The reward is sweet - an awesome scree slide down the other side.  We picked our way down the Jam Stream navigating around waterfalls, the river opened up and we reached Clearance River. The river was in flood – so GodZone crew set up a zipline and we rafted acrossed. The biggest climb of the whole race just started. Our feet need looking after them after all those river crosings – so we dried them, put more antichafe cream on and changed into dry socks. As we were climbing up towards the summit of Tapuae (2 885m) Lara was falling asleep - we put her on a tag line not to loose her in complete darkness. The ascent is tough – big scree slopes, snow fields, boulders, scorching sun. We spotted another team behind us! We pass the checkpoint tent on top by first sunlight looking at clouds from high above again. It feels good when we were told that we are 3^rd team through here. Bumm slide down on snow on and through a beautiful canyon with endless river crossings. The water is freezing cold. So good to be here during daylight. To the next checkpoint we are bashing through bush and on our hands and knees this steep climb. Got it.

Another ridge and down to the transition to get ready for a monstrous 151 km long mountain biking section. Tiredness is setting in.

Stage 5 – Mountain Bike – Molesworth – 151 km - 15:16

Transition crew gave us hot lasagna and soup. Our bikes needs cleaning after that last ride. Jim is organising maps. Everyone is sharing the chores – filling up drink bottles, assembling bikes, pumping up tires … It will be dark soon so we mount headlamps onto helmets . We left with the last traces of daylight but quite a bit less organized then on the previous bike. This section starts with a few massive and very, very long up hills. Milan is pulling. The night falls in and we switch on the big lights. It is getting colder and colder. Misty. We are stopping freqeuntly to put more warm gear on. Everyone is cold. We are tired and really slow. Jim falls and brakes a rib. Within couple of minutes he is back on bike and wants to carry on. Around 4 am we take 2 ½ hour nap under a willow tree. We should have slept next to each other to stay warmer, but  brains are not fully working . Beautiful morning riding up Jollie Pass to Hanmer Sprigs. We stop to get water and local farmar pulls over in his truck and have a chat with us – how he is following our progress online, where other teams are and motivate us to keep going. Next transition is about an hour away. With start of a new day and some sleep we feel good.

Stage 6 – Mountain Trek – Glynn Wye Range – 38km - 20:27

We took about 3 liters of water per person and head up for the ridges. The plan is to stay high up covering many miles over the tops of the mountains. The ridge is offten narrow, steep and exposed so we are helping Lara and each other. We know that we are getting dyhydrated – but there is just no water around. Late afternoon we made a key (and wrong) decision to stay longer on the ridges instead of heading down to the forests and rivers. It will cost us later quite few hours – a few hours of precious sleep. We think it is still ok as we will get full night sleep next day on the long river section.

Finaly we stop climbing. Sliding down massive scree slope is sooo fast and sooo much fun. End up in beach forest and roll down as stones as fast as we can to the river bad. We want to get there before it gets dark. It is partly walking, partly sliding and partly falling. Hard to keep up with Jim, even though he broke his rib on a bike last night. End up in the creek which is very cold and very, very slippery. We are expecting to find a trek there and move fast into the transition. The trek is not there! Frustrating, hours lasting bushbash through dents vegetation is ahead of us. The progress is slow. In the middle of night we find a cosy hut and sleep there for 1 ½hrs. Jim does not want to get up and hope that this race is just a dream.  We want to be in the transition by 6 in order to get changed, inflate the boats and be at 7:00 on the river.

Stage 7  - River Canoe – Harunui River – 101km – 14:07

And this is exactly what happens. It is a busy one hour to get everything organised – wetsuits, inflate boats, drybags, pack up overnight camping gear, food, safety meeting with the officials… At 07:01 we are allowed on water along with 3 other teams. The race is now clearly split. Seagate at the front racing just against themselves, then another group of 5 top teams racing each other with a few hours. Then another gap and the rest. The Hurunui is a long, beautiful river paddle that takes on almost the entire length of the river all the way to the ocean. The river in it’s upper reaches is surrounded by gorges, steep mountains and native bush. The rapids come thick and fast with near constant grade 2+ rapids until Maori Gully where the difficulty increases to grade 3. Jim is really sore and paddles in various picturesque positions. Some of these are really creative.  In one of the rapids Peter finds out that he is the only person in the boat. Jim is waving him of the shore. Petr picks Jim a few hundred meters down the river.

We paddle non-stop. If in need for a toilet we hop into the river. Two gorges. Lots of rapids. Lots of willow trees. The river is expected to take about 23 hours which would force us to spend a night on the river. We are all looking forward to getting 7 or 8 hours of solid sleep. Well things turned out differently. In the early afternoon after we do the math we realize we might be able to do the whole lengths of the river – all the way to the ocean – in just one day – instead of two. Instead of paddling steadily we spend the rest of the afternoon and evening paddling very, very hard. 30 minutes before the “dark zone” time (8:30 p.m.) we get off the river to the next transition. We are excited.

Stage 8 – Mountain Bike – Gore Bay – 25 km – 2:50

I am cold, Lara is very, very cold. Petr makes her a cappuccino. Jim is sorting out maps so we help him with his bike. Our bike boxes are becoming a big mess. I feel exhilarated to be there. In transition we are with 3 other teams. Next bike leg is short and easy but already in the dark. We pass another team.

 

Stage 9 – Coastal Trek – Kaikoura Coast – 25km – 14:29
The night is very dark, the mist is thick, the moon is not up yet and the mountains are covered in clouds. Petr has a sleepmonster - he is seeing boats, microwaves and letterboxes everywhere. His eyes are closing while walking. Navigation is difficult and we are not making much progress. We put on our Goretex top and bottom to protect bodies from prickels during endless bushbashing. We all need to sleep. There is a white-baiters hut on the map which we should reach in the next 30 min. We get there 3 hours later. It’s an old, small hut and there is already another team sleeping on the floor in dust, amongs dingi, nets, paddles... We fall on the ground and sleep from 5:30 to 6:30. Peter is feeling not good, is vomiting and has no energy.
We cross a chest deep  Waiu river. The next few hills are steep and Peter is getting slowerWith Jim we pull him up the hill to move faster. Finaly we leave bush and endup on beach. The coast is beautiful and endless. Pulling Petr and soft beach sand and stones is a hard work. Petr is spaced out.
Stage 10 – Mountain Bike – Spy Glass Point – 38 km - 5:51
Peter goes through the transition sitting on the ground. He is feeling sick, too tired to stand. When he gets up he has to hold the bike not to fall down. The fever starts to set in. But once on the bike he can keep on moving. After a few hours he is getting better. Jim is helping Petr on every steep and technical sections to push his bike. Final descent towards the kayaks makes everyone quite happy. Not really racing at this stage as we know nobody is close behind and nobody is within an hour of us …

Stage 11 – Sea Kayak – South Bay – 26 km - 4:30

We launched by sun set, the moon was there early on as well as the coast guard boat to help us navigate around many reefs. It is quite an eerie feeling to paddle on massive waves hitting the kayak from all sides and a large boat looming close in the middle of a night. I feel tired and every now and than fall a sleep while paddling towards the distant lights. We have curious dolphins and small shark for company. The safety boat marchal sent us to the wrong place on the beach. We leave the boats on beach, garther all our gear and walk on deserted main street to the official finish line. We get to the finish before midnight. Warren, Adam, Anna and other organizers are all there to shake our hands, offering a pie and a beer.

Final thoughts

For me Godzone became highlight of the year. The event is well organised  and during every stage of the race I knew that organisers have put lots of thoughts into designing the course. The team dynamic was great, we enjoyed each other company and had an awesome time together.  We covered  550km with 12500m of ascent and seen some spectacular parts of New Zealand.

Team ChimpanzeeBar Training Weekend

With 3 weekes to go to the race start there is no time to waste. Everything we do now is helping us "survive" those 120 hrs + in New Zealand widerness.

             Here is an example : sometimes when I wake up in the middle of night and go to loo I also take my headtorch. I go to garage, dissassmeble my Specialized Epic bike put it in my transition box and then go to bed again. In the morning, just before I bike to work I assemmbel the bike again. Another sample is toughening up my feet - our driveway is about 100 m long and it's got sharp little stones on it.It does hurt even just stand on it barefoot! So every time I need to empty the mailbox or take the garbage bin out I walk barefoot. And man it hurts! First walking barefoot toughen up the skin on my feet and secondly it is teaching me the mind over matter trick

Let me introduce our team:

Milan Brodina - pack horse, log home builder, Geraldine
Petr Sykora - motivator, entrepreneur & philanthropist, Czech Republic
Lara Prince - back up navigator, lawyer, CHC
Jim Cotter - team captain, navigator, university teacher, Dunedin

We’re lucky in sharing the same goal; to have an adventure and race somewhere we haven’t experienced. The land looks amazing on a map and even when passing through at 100 kph on the asphalt. So we’re all looking forward to spending most of a week immersed in it, well away from work. We’d be hoping to complete the long course, near the top of the field. But, you never know what lies ahead in yourselves, competitors and the terrain, so come what may. Individually, Jim’s hoping to get fewer than 5 punctures and to finish with his bib and the correct maps this time. Jim forgot his racing bib in one of the transition , so the whole team lost lots of time going back and getting it.  Milan’s hoping that Jim’s hopes are fulfilled. Lara’s hoping that we’re not kidding when we say that an adventure race isn’t any harder than a 24-hour race. Petr’s hoping that Kaikoura is warmer than Prague (-20^oC), and to finish without resembling a beetroot. We work in different fields (academic, lawyer, builder, entrepreneur & philanthropist) and live in different places, so at least we’ll have plenty to natter about, but will also be racing as hard as we can, short of unnecessary risks.

 So with 3 weeks to go to the race we got together in Geraldine for our team training weekend - just the perfect playground. On saturday morning we spent few hours going over our compulsory gear list - who is going to organise what etc. One of the items on the list is a tent - waterproof, 3 season tent to fit the whole team in - we tested it too - it was pretty cosy in there.
 Then we head off to the Rangitata river to test our kayaking skills. We had lots of gear with us , but everything fit nicely into Blairs Transit. Thank you Warren. Once on the river we tried all different combinations of best matches as the boats are two person. It must have been ammusing watching us as we were offten swapping places in boats and going from back to front as we float down the rapids.
 

Once off the river, we drove to Mesopotamia - closer to the hills. We practised the transition onto bikes and in short time we were off.  What a beutifull part of New Zealand - no wonder that Lord Of The Ring location seekers have chosen this area as one of the filming location. After 2 hrs of biking - some of it was very steep and even included carying our bikes we  got to the end of the trail and could not bike any further. So we stashed our bikes in the pine trees and continued on foot. It was a hot day so every river crossing was well welcomed. After few hours of river bashing and admiring the surrounding views we climb out of the river onto small terace and were greeted by Growler But. It was pretty busy day for us, so after dyhadrated vegetarian pasta for dinner we set the alarm for 5am and climbed into sleeping bags.

5 am is pretty early but we all quitly appriciated all the luxury we had tonight - sleeping on beds with mattrasses, dry clothes, warm dinner and full night sleep. During the 5 days of racing our plan is to go without sleep for the first night and then have maximum of 2hrs of sleep each night. Nobody was complaining today about an early start - we still had big day ahead of us. Still in dark, with headlamps on we left the hut and our main navigator - Jim - lead us up through tall grass and motagouri away. Our plan was to find our way up a Growler stream, climb a ridge, over a saddle and down another creek and back to bikes. Around 6 hrs trip, with 900m of climbing.

             It was was a cloudy, misty morning as we were finding our way up in dark. Continuesly crossing the  creek back and forth and helping each other at tricky sections. At one stage we found our self  climbing  on nearly vertical wall high above the creek - the only way to get past a waterfall. We helped each other with packs and one past one managed through this section. After an hour of walking in freezing cold waters we were happy to leave the creek and started to climb up a ridge. It wasn't the warmest morning and we hoped that the cloud will soon burn off. It didn't - instead we found ourself above the cloud and were greeted by the warming sun. We were rewarded with breathtaking views of snow covered peaks poking through the cloud bellow.

             This was surely the hilight of our trip - we even had a wee brake right on top - luxury we will not be able to do during a race. We were keen to practise some scree running/sliding, so on the way down we were choosing our route acording to where the best scree slope was. It was lots of fun. After 6 hrs on foot we arrived at the bikes. Fixed flat tire on Petr's bike and biked back to the transit. This time we chosen different route back - staying on the river flat. It tested our technical skills as we rode amongs big river boulders. Once back at the parked transit we practised transition again - as transitions are important part of the race and last year we were pretty slow.  Great weekend away and a good team building trip to have under the belt before another expedition adventure.

 
 

 

2014 St. James Alpine Adventure

In 6 weeks time our team – CHIMPANZEE BAR – will be competing in GODZONE - gruelling 5 day nonstop adventure race across NEW ZEALAND. But that book is yet to be written. So for now as part of my training for the ”big race” I have decided to enter this kayak – MTB – run race in New Zealand high country.
With kayak, 12” and 29” bikes, lots of gear and my support crew (partner Lucie and our 2 year old son Lance) loaded into the car we travelled to the race start on Friday afternoon. In Hanmer Springs, the last town we passed through, we filled up the tank with diesel, our tummies with tuna fish and rice and left the big smoke behind. One of the reasons why I have chosen this event is the location – right in the heart of New Zealand – in the middle of nowhere. Even the travel to the event location is a memorable experience – with 2 hours to the closest civilisation, snow capped mountains, crystal clear rivers and azure lakes, it was good to be there. Due to the start location being so far away from nearest town most competitors were camping out – always a good opportunity to catch up with your friends and eye up the competition. While I was preparing my gear for the next day our Lance was ripping around the campsite on his 12” bike and biking through every puddle and mud patch he could find and telling everyone – “I am like daddy”.

We woke up into a bluebird day. Thank you Mother Nature. I still get nervous on the race day even I have done plenty of times. We were all line up in our kayaks on the lake Tennyson. The gun went off. My strategy for the race was to keep up with the top of the field during the kayak leg, ride hard on MTB as that’s my strongest discipline and then try to survive that 18 km run. Kayaking was going to plan – with the calm lake and no wind I have chosen bigger blade wing paddle so I was hurting, but the choice has paid off. After 45 min I jumped out of the boat and ran to a bike transition in second place. Shoes, helmet, gloves and CamelBag and with help of my support crew – Lucie and Lance, I set of for a 65km mountain bike journey. The course had everything from gravel roads, multiple river crossings, technical single tracks, steep climbs, fast descents and mud puddles that will cover your 29" disc brake rotors!
On a course like this one it was very easy to forget that I am actually in a race, slow down and just enjoy the scenery. I have to come back, I was telling myself. I was pushing hard – running through the rivers with bike on my back, sticking to my nutrition plan and hoping to catch the race leader. But there was no sign of him at all. 3,5 hours later seen me drop my bike at the St James Home stead - so good to get off that bike seat and out of carbon soled MTB shoes into my soft running shoes. When I ran past the timing tent I did envy the shade race organizers were sitting in - it was getting pretty hot. The legs were tired and I knew then that I am not going to break any running records today. My plan on the run was to survive it and make it to the finishline. I settled into a 6 min/km pace (Slow Jog) on all flats and walked most of the hills. I used every river crossing to cool off as much as I could and was keeping a good track of my electrolyte intake to prevent cramping. It was so good to see Lucie waving at me from the finish.
I crossed the finished line exhausted after almost 6hrs of racing. This was the last individual race for me and from now on all focus is on our Chimpanzee Bar team preparing for GodZone Adventure Race.

2013 WANAKA solo 10hr MTB race

There is not much to say about this race. Honestly, I would rather forget that it happened - the weather was  bad /rain, very cold/, the track was very muddy so I was changing bikes every 2 laps, our transition tent got flooded and the list can go on. Lets just move on....

2013 BIG DAY OUT AT THE OFFICE

So happy that this race is back. It is still one of my favourite multisport races. 
This year had pretty good race. It was also good to see many of my friends on the start line.  During the first cycle leg I was quite happy to do some in the first bunch, where I found myself riding next to Glen Currie and Dougal Allan. Then on the run I somehow lost few gels so was running on empty for the last hour. Not happy place to be! So good to see my support Lucy and Lance in the transition :) I managed to gain few minutes back on the next cycle where I pushed hard and ate lots of food. Due to flooded Rakaia the kayak leg was on water race. Thanks to Monty - Ian Edmond for helping Lucy in the transition. I felt so good in the boat that I just kept on passing others. After the paddle it was only a short cycle back to Methven. After 6hrs and 42 min on the go the only thing left to do was relax in the hot pool with Jess Simpson :)



WINTER 2013

In winter I was just hanging out.



Dunedin 6hr AR, team-up with David Slater.