After 27 months out of adventure racing in South Africa, Team Red Ants returned on Saturday, 20th February at the Diamond Dash AR near Cullinan, with Ryan Hodierne, Nicky Booyens and Brian Gardner making up the mixed team.
Team Red Ants took a self-imposed sabbatical from racing since the end of 2007. This has been due to various team members focussing on National mountain biking, road running, National triathlon series and as for me, Brian, I’ve been travelling and working overseas since January 2008.
This year’s Diamond Dash comprised five legs, made up of a short run, 2 MTB legs, 1 navigation hike/run and final short 3 legged race and swim. Strategy would also play a role in this race, as there were compulsory Checkpoints (CP’s) and a number of Optional points (OP’s) to collect.
After a lung-busting 2km field-splitting run, we decided on getting the abseil over as soon as possible, and headed out on the marked MTB route to the abseil, in hot pursuit of the Cyanosis pair of Nic Mulder and Ryno Griesel who set a blistering pace on first run.
The ensuing cycle up to the abseil was fast and furious! We were joined by 2 other teams, sharing the pacing on the front into a strong headwind. Ryan quickly negotiated the abseil and we were back on the track heading back to transition.
Next up would see us grab the map and instructions for the navigation hike leg. This would be the longest and most challenging leg of the race, as the mercury began to climb into the red. We soon found a good solid rhythm on the run, and were feeling strong until about OP2, where the heat and diminishing water supplies started playing a crucial role. Our pace slowed slightly at this point, and as the cave at CP9 approached, we were all out of water, really feeling the heat. It was to our great relief that there was a water point at CP9, were we spent a good couple of minutes cooling down and filling up before heading towards the compass navigation section at OP3. This next little compass orienteering section was rather tricky to say the least… For those of you who wandered around searching for “Wits” or “Heidelberg”, don’t worry, you weren’t alone… It was on this section that we caught up with Nic and Ryno again, very surprising as I thought they would have pulled a big gap on us on the hike. None-the-less, this compass orienteering baffled us all, with the 5 of us wandering around together searching for “Wits” until finally gold was struck! Probably lost about 10mins searching and recalculating bearings! Once back on track we took a stiff run back to transition, just behind Cyanosis to gather our thoughts before heading out on the Mountain bike navigation leg.
Feeling a little better after rehydrating following the scorching hike, we headed out quickly on the MTB Nav, about a minute behind. This MTB leg looked fairly straight forward, or so we thought. Our troubles started soon after transition, in search of OP1. With a track that was on the ground, but not on the map, this was a considerable curve-ball. It was at this stage that we met up Nic and Ryno again, also in search of OP1. After some consultation, bundu bashing (and cursing!!), Nic kindly pointed us in the right direction of the OP and we were on our way again. There was only one tricky route choice from CP5 to OP2, where one could chose to hike-a-bike to OP2 or stay on the bike and cycle the longer way around to OP2. We chose the latter, as Ryan had just about hit a wall from the heat (but as he put it, it was fortunately only a pre-cast wall not a brick wall!) Machines don’t stop. Ryan proved it! Our route back to transition took us from CP5 around to OP2, then OP3 and onto CP 6, 7 and 8. With Ryan now feeling better after we found a leaking hose pipe and filled up our bottles, we cursed the last few km’s and were really looking forward to a good swim and ice cold drink!
To our surprise, Cyanosis were only half way through the swim when we arrived, meaning we must have somehow reeled them in a little in the latter stages of that MTB leg.
We eventually crossed the line about 4 minutes behind Cyanosis coming in 2nd place overall, and winning the mixed category! We were ecstatic about our result, having been out of the AR scene for so long. Nicky, Ryan, thanks again for being part of the Team! It is always a pleasure racing with you two.
Team Red Ants race statistics
Race start time: 7:40am
First run: 8 mins
MTB 1 and abseil: 53 mins
Run/ hike navigation: 2hrs 4 mins
MTB 2 Navigation: 1 hr 41 mins
3 leg race/ Swim: 6 mins
Total transition time: 3 mins
Finish time: 12:35pm
Total race time: 295 mins = 4 hrs 55 mins
Stats compliments of Ryan’s wristwatch computer:
Total distance – 54.8km (includes all MTB, hike, run and swim legs)
Average speed – 10.6km/h (includes all MTB, hike, run and swim legs)
Total ascent – 1130m
Total descent – 1104m
It was great to see old faces again, and even more fantastic to see so many new faces doing AR! Huge thanks must go to everyone in Team Gijima and at Goodland estate for putting on such a fantastic event. Well done guys, and thanks for showing so much passion for the sport! Long may it continue.
It’s great to be back! Hope to see you out at the races in 2010!
Team Red Ants
Author: Brian Gardner, briangardner@mweb.co.za