Well, where do I start? This race took our breath away; both literally and figuratively! Nicky, Gert and I had not raced together since Singletrack Africa AR in September 2007. This was Team Red Ants first 100km + race since then, and we would most certainly be up against it with the quality of the field that assembled on the shores of Bronkies Dam on Saturday morning. Old AR faces had “come out of retirement” to test their metal and have some fun in the winter sun!
Having studied the course book after registration, and seeing that Leg 1 was a 14km paddle, we reckoned that the race would start at leg 2 for us… Paddling has never been our team’s strong point, and coming into this race very well rested on the paddling front we knew that we may be some way off the leaders at the end of leg 1.
We were in about 5th place approaching CP3 on the paddle where we would pick up Gert again having dropped him off to do a short run from CP 1 to CP 3 whilst Nicky and paddled the winding river to CP 3. As luck would have it the 4 teams ahead for us, (and some behind us) decided that paddling all the way to CP3 was not a option, so they all disembarked their vessels and ran to CP 3 to pick their other team mate up… bad plan. Instructions said to PADDLE to CP 3, so when they arrived on foot, the marshal promptly sent them back to the boats to paddle there. Hence, we did a quick field jumper and arrived at CP 3 in front. J
The paddle back to T1 from there was a little easier as the paddling muscles finally found their “muscle memory”! However despite this we were still passed by a couple of boats, the male trio of Team Olympus being one of them.
Back on dry land and chasing Olympus we mounted our bikes and headed to T2, to start the 13km hike. Our plan from the outset was to try and get the hike done before darkness fell, but that was hard to plan up-front as we had not plotted the hike CP’s yet, and we did not know how technical the hike may be. We arrived at T2 with Olympus, plotted our route and left before 3rd place arrived. The hike was fairly easy going and uneventful as we pushed hard to be off the mountain before sunset. Gert started getting some serious stomach trouble on the hike, and we were concerned as we still had a good part 8 hours of racing left. Needless to say, Gert sucked it up like only he knows how, downed a litre of rehydrate and was back on track!
Having hiked in the vicinity (or with) Team Olympus most of the way, we both strolled into transition again just before sunset. This worked out really well for us, as we still had 20 mins or-so on the next bike leg before the lights went out and our bike lights came on.
Leg 4 was a 30km MTB to the start of the next paddling leg, and with Gert seeming to have recovered we were moving along well. Olympus was a few hundred meters ahead of us the whole time, and we spotted their lights on a couple of occasions, which acted as a good incentive to try and catch them! Catch them we never did, but we managed to get in to T3 just as they were leaving to paddle away.
Arriving back the start/ finish/ T1 we grabbed the Orienteering Google map and set out with Olympus into the Kungwini Estate darkness. We got thought the orienteering without incident, except having to scale a minor cliff on the route back from OP6 to our boats. Olympus managed to find another route and snuck away in the dark.
Reunited with our boats after a slug of hot coffee at the transition we headed off back over the dam to our bikes at T3. After getting warm at the fire at T3 and readying ourselves for a 50km MTB, we left transition (or rather left the warmth of the fire) and nearly froze… It was only 9pm by then but already bitterly cold. Gert, being Gert, only had short finger gloves and short cycling pants, and I thought I was cold… well, nuf said!
In AR there is one thing that you have to focus on when things are going pear-shaped, and that’s team work. Years of bush-whacking and pushing our bodies beyond what we thought was possible may never have been achieved without team work, and understanding. Gert was taking a bit of strain having dehydrated earlier in the race with stomach issues, so we all really needed to dig deep as a team and push on to T4 and a change of discipline. Olympus was still tantalizingly close ahead of us all the time and we could not let them slip away.
It is sometimes amazing how a change of discipline can lift your spirit again, and as we headed out on the last hike to the abseil that’s exactly what happened! Gert was back to his old machine self and we knew we were almost home… We arrived into T4 off the bikes at the same time as Olympus after catching them just before CP20, so we knew they would also be pushing the last hike hard. The Nav was OK, except we inspected the wrong “big tree” at CP 23 before we found the right one… What a beautiful hike it was, hiking most of it by full-moonlight and not relying at all on our headlamps.
As we arrived to do the abseil, we saw the Olympus lights coming over the ridge to the north towards CP24 and we knew the race was not over yet, we still had the small task of a 2km paddle at 2 in the morning. Fun huh? The abseil was spectacular, and under the full moon it was even more special with the glowing rocks all around us! At the end of many hours of suffering you realize why we come back time and time again. This night was one of those moments we will always remember! Yes, we do lose a whole lot of brain cells in the process which severely effects reasoning post-race, but what’s more fun than losing them doing AR?!
With a short run from the abseil to T5 and one last paddle to the finish, we crossed to finish line 1st overall at 2:37am to a roaring fire and warm coffee! (O, and a warm shower!) Remind me why I do this again?? Well done to Team Olympus who were only 17 mins behind us in the end. If it wasn’t for you guys, we would have taken it a whole lot more relaxed and never have chased so hard!
The whole team from Kinetic Gear pulled out all the stops to put on one of the best races I have ever done, thanks so much to all who were involved with putting this master class together, from the race organises, Heidi and Stephan to the marshals, sponsors and the Oom cooking breakfast. THANK YOU!
I would love to thank our sponsors, but we don’t have any, so we’ll just thank our parents instead! Thanks folks! J
Until the next one, remember, it’s only 33% physical; the rest is mental and team work. You can do anything if you try! See you out there (never lost I hope…)
Here are some stats of our race: (sorry, I love figures and stats!)
Leg 1: Kayak 14km. Time: 1hr 51mins
Leg 2: MTB 10km. Time: 30mins
Leg 3: Hike 13km. Time: 1hr 44mins
Leg 4: MTB 30km. Time: 1hr 26mins
Leg 5: Kayak 3km. Time: 24min
Leg 6: Orienteering 7km. Time: 1hr 07mins
Leg 7: Kayak 3km. Time: 26mins
Leg 8: MTB 50km. Time: 3hrs 05mins
Leg 9: Hike/ Abseil 6km. Time: 1hr 49mins
Leg 10: Kayak 2km. 17min
Total transition time: 58 mins
Total race time: 13hrs 37mins.
Check out the Google Earth track (.kmz file) for their route.
By Brian Gardner | Team Red Ants | Kinetic Full Moon, Bronkhorstspruit, 26-27 June 2010