Wet and wild is how we like it in adventure racing. So when the clouds opened up, the 45 teams lining up at the start of WCAD 4 at the idyllic Cascade Manor were in for a more of an adventure than they had bargained for.
When setting out the course, I had a navigation tester in mind. What I wanted to display in this race was the real dynamic of AR, in that people who were accurate with their navigation, could compete with the fit and speedy on the course. This definitely showed.
What made the navigation so tough, besides the mist and rain, was the fact that there were endless tracks, forest paths, farm roads, cattle tracks and irrigation paths, of which maybe 5% were indicated on the map. Almost every team pitched up at an unexpected junction scratching their heads.
Navigating through a maze of forest roads high up on the Kleinboschkop mountains led a host of teams astray when trying to find the infamous Check Point 15. The stories of 3 teams doing a chicken run type land scour were some of the methods described in trying to find this illusive CP.
“Whatever happened to a good old compass and altimeter,” I asked?
Whatever the method was, some teams took up to 3 hours to find either CP 15 or 16. This is ‘vasbyt’ in my mind. One cannot simply give up when the going gets tough. Some spirited performances came to the fore during Saturday’s event.
A great representation of one of the best performances over the WCAD series happened when team Hillbillies – Gus Hojem and Jon Sherry, managed to pull a short course win out of the bag. This was done by consistent navigation and the will to just keep cracking on.
Weekend warriors turned to heroes when these guys pulled ahead of the rest of the field to take the honours. This is why anyone can compete for top honours in AR, one of the beauties of the sport. But all who reached that finishing arch were winners. Winners included newbies racing for the first time, people trying to navigate for the first time, teams overcoming the desire to leave CP16, and even someone getting down on one knee during an adventure race to propose in the rain.
You all overcame your own challenges, and we hope WCAD provided small lessons for each of you who took part. Thanks again to Cascade Manor for facilitating such a great event, and all the sponsors involved. Be sure to prepare for 250km WCAD X on the 11th October.
For more info, please click here. Entries are OPEN! And don’t forget about the WCAD sprint race at the Gravity festival. Entries are open, so get involved.
Abridged Results of category winners– full results at: www.wcad.co.za
- Short Course Female winners: “Feisty Fillies” – Sarah Garland & Kathryn Lamb
- Short Course Male Winners: “Hillbillies” – Gus Hojem & Jon Sherry
- Short Course Mixed Winners: “Team Odyssey” – Freddie Enslin & Medelief Roux
- Long Course Male Winners: “Team Light foot” – Jacques De Villiers & Adriaan Jansen Van Vuuren
- Long Course Mixed Winners: “Team Olympus” – Tim Deane & Kelley Hess
Here’s a video from the race…
Author: Grant Ross – Race Director