Firstly thank you to the race organisers and to Tswane AR Club for a job very well done. Clint’s enthusiasm for this particular race was awesome, and I did not want to miss it, “[advracesa] THE YSTERVARK LEGEND IS ON!!!!!…. WWoooOOOOOooo-HOOOOoOoOooOoooOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!” was the email he sent out and we knew we were in for something special.
While Alec and I were attaching a red light to my bike the race started with a short run around the campsite to split the teams, we got onto our bikes in the top half of the field for LEG 1, 40km Cycle. My cleats had been left at home and I was riding with Wayne’s as he has pedals attached to his bike. Thanks Wayne for riding cleatless.
After wading up a little stream to collect the 1st CP we got going in a big bunch of four teams, including Exhale, Hawkstone, Olympus and Uncharted. Uncharted got ahead, working well together, but we caught up when they went searching for the next CP at an excavation site. Olympus passed both Uncharted and ourselves when the route we were on ran out of road and we had to back track. We enjoyed a bit of chat with the other teams, before we got ahead in the last 5km’s before the transition, thanks to our awesome bike lights that Wayne made a plan to attach to our bikes without the necessary brackets (duct tape works well).
We set our bikes down at the transition and ran up a short path, to find a 50m abseil waiting for us. Luckily we got there first, as this saved us some waiting when the other teams arrived. Wayne and I got our harnesses on before Alec and were allowed to descend, while Amy and Alec had to run down into the cave.
We were now ready for LEG 2, 3km Caving. This was a new navigation challenge for us and we did a few loops down there before Alex of Uncharted, who was very confident navigating underground, came flying past us and set us off in the right direction. Wayne did a good job of keeping us in contact with Uncharted. The caving leg was one of the highlights for us, dodging bats and climbing through tunnels, it didn’t help that we did it at night and please no farting in confined spaces.
Uncharted had 10 minutes on us as we settled into LEG 3, 50km Cycle. We started to combine well on the bikes, and every now and then we had to reign in Alec who was going strong. Uncharted slipped up on the 2nd CP on this leg and we regained the lead again. We were looking forward to the next leg, LEG 4, 7km Paddle, as we knew we may be able to extend our lead by another 5min or so.
The layout of the CP’s suited us as we went searching for the willow tree island first and Uncharted had to follow each of our routes in case we had collected the CP. We found it on our third attempt at a lone willow tree, and set off for the next. Near the dam wall, Alec climbed out to get the last paddle CP in a small cave, while I maneuvered the boat through a mess of branches so Alec could then tumble from the top of the slope right into the boat (almost).
An interesting choice had to be made at the start of LEG 5, 20km Hike, as the first CP was on the other side of the dam. Clint hinted at swimming the 200m to the other side and 3 of us got ready to swim. Amy was opposed to a cold swim and played some delaying tactics at transition, I went back to assist with waterproofing her equipment, and then we set off. The water was warm but progress was slow, and I was not looking forward to getting out into the cool morning air. We set off quickly to get warm again, making our way back to the dam wall for some more swimming below a 10m high water fall.
As always the hiking sections at the Ystervark races are spectacular, and the views from the top of the Magaliesberg were worth the steep climb to the top. We had established our lead over Uncharted now, with our decision to swim and we were motivated to make it back to Aasvoelkrans Nature Resort. But there was more excitement to come, after setting up our shelter for an “imminent storm” (safety equipment check), we began our descent of a 20m chain ladder from the stunning mountain range.
We reached the finish in a total time of 12hrs35min ahead of Uncharted in 2nd and Exhale in 3rd.
To Francois, Nicol, Clinton and the rest of the Ystervark team, thanks for laying out a well-balanced and truly adventurous race. We will definitely see you at the next one.
Thanks to my team for the company and support throughout the race. Well nav’d Wayne, thanks for the tow Alec, and Aims, thanks for keeping the team together and pushing your limits on the bike and the swim.
Our Lessons Learnt were as follows:
- Stick to the rules for your own safety, in terms of compulsory equipment and moving together as a team. Our shelter didn’t work as well as it should have without the trekking poles, luckily we didn’t actually need it. Clinton stressed the point at prize giving.
- Race your own race, one or two missed turns were as a direct result of non-navigators (Alec and I) pushing the pace before instruction was given out on where to turn.
- Communication is key, half the team ran in shoes in the first short orienteering leg, while the rest ran in cleats, this wasted a bit of time, as some ran faster but transitioned slower and vice versa, good communication could have solved this.
Author: Robert Crichton | Team PS. Hawkstone | Ystervark Legend 120km, 9 April 2011
Team PS. Hawkstone: Alec Avierinos, Wayne Smith, Rob Crichton, Amy Witherden