The Race
Storm the Trent – we’ve done
this every year for the last few, finally got the green “5 year” bibs!
It’s a mix of paddling,
mountain biking and running/trekking across marked and unmarked sections. Some modest navigation, but nothing too
serious (although people’s ability to get lost is remarkable).
We stepped up to the Trek
distance from Hike.
The Forecast
Rain. All Day.
Storms. Yikes.
Our Race
We started off strong with
the paddling – although it’s always remarkable just how many people are faster
than us! We have a killer boat but only
paddled once this year before the race, and some guys have the strength, it’s
amazing.
Water was calm, it was a
pretty easy paddle. My arms were
c-o-o-k-e-d by the end, could barely carry the boat back to transition.
Finally reached Glebe Park and did the 3 checkpoints there. We found them pretty straightforward, which which means people who can run fast passed us pretty easily.
We tend to excel at out-smarting those who can out-run us, so more complicated would have been helpful!
Tough running up and down and up and down.
Bike #1
Finally transitioned to bike - and it was a mess for me.
This was at Sir Sam's - 3 checkpoints, up the ski hill to the very top and back down in a big loop.
The only weird part here was when we saw another team of 2 men at the last checkpoint... they came down the hill just like us, and we assumed it was their last checkpoint too, so we were a little disheartened when they got their first!
... except as we sprinted to the finish downhill, they went uphill! So they had clearly messed up the order of their checkpoints somehow, ended up going up, down, up... whoops!
Finished!
At the finish they said were the 5th team to cross of over 20, so we were really delighted with that. Navigation matters, we learn that every year... sometimes the hard way!
(Official results pending)