With one of the stalwart members of Jabberwock having hung up his AR trail shoes and another member incapacitated a week prior to the race with a broken collar bone, team Keyhealth Jabberwock found themselves scampering for two team members to fill the quota for the latest Kinetic Events Full Moon Adventure Race.
Nicky Booyens was recalled to duty to fill the gaping hole left by Janneke. I joined as the fourth to complete the team, and so it was a patchwork Jabberwock that took to the field on Saturday afternoon. Although the team members have raced with each other in various combinations in the past, they had never raced together in this configuration before and team dynamics and complementary strengths were a little uncertain. Uncertainty is a good thing. Uncertainty keeps the mind sharp.
Pre-race talks were filled with jokes, laughter and nervous giggles about how some people may have been duped into racing under the false pretence of just going out, enjoying the race, spending some time in the lovely outdoors, and generally just having a good time…oh yes, and winning; also, winning was important. But Nicky was here now and she was committed so there was no going back.
Sometimes the stars align, the universe high-fives you, and things just fall into place.
Sometimes they don’t. The race started with a paddle – we weren’t a great paddling team. Our plan for the start was to drop our heads, paddle reasonably hard and try not to allow the stronger paddlers to get too far ahead of us. As long as the gap wasn’t too great coming off the water, we should be able to give a pretty good chase once we got onto our feet.
It turns out we were worse off at paddling than we initially anticipated with our two paddlers in the lead boat steering against each other, in opposing directions.
“What we have here, is failure to communicate”.
Between that and the sudden onset of choppy water on the sadly severely depleted dam that kept pushing us into shallows prematurely, we were not altogether unhappy to hear the marshals bellowing from the shore, into the wind, that there was no second checkpoint on the paddle leg and we could proceed straight to the transition.
We had done enough to come off the water in third place, not too far behind the leaders, and a snappy transition saw us head out in second, close on the heels of Sugar Monsters.
Up and over the cheeky hill that stood forlorn on the would-be shore and Cobus, picking Nicky up by the backpack and “guiding” her down the steep slope, set course for a direct route towards the big climb ahead. We settled into a gentle canter and his route choice closed the gap on the team up front. The plan was to opt for a slightly more comfortable pace and maintain constant movement rather than push too hard and blow early. The team may have learned this valuable lesson from my misguided and over-eager sprint up the starting hill in 2015’s August Full Moon.
When we reached the next climb, Cobus opted to tackle it head-on, as he is want to do, and the stinging from the myriad of nefarious bramble bush thorns that were dead-set on removing all the flesh from our legs was soothed by the sight of us edging ahead of Sugar Monsters on the opposing hillside.
As we rounded the nook collecting CP5 we knew it was imperative to capitalise on the gap and we ran in most of the way to T2.
In transitions, focus is the key. And speed is the key. Okay there are two keys: speed and focus. So while Cobus swiftly got to work on the maps, the rest of us focused and moved fast. Our communication was good and our spirits high, we got changed, ate and onto the bikes in time to see the pursuing team crest the horizon.
The cycle leg greeted us with a pleasant little downhill start only to suddenly and maliciously mock us with some severe gradients. Severe gradients that allowed Craig to live out his dreams of being the team’s work-horse and start towing. I’m fond of being towed; almost as much as I love cycle uphill. And so it came to pass that inch by inch we tackled those ridiculous hills with their baby-powder soft sand traps and unsettling rockiness and inch by inch our lead extended; we hoped.
Onwards we slogged, up the hills and down the hills and up the hills, and then, sometimes in the midst of your dire and dark moments, the stars align, the universe high-fives you and the race organisers give you a little bit of heaven in the form of approximately 10km of sweet, sweet downhill asphalt. What a life-saver that was – just enough to break the monotony, refresh the mind and offer the legs a much desired reprieve.
Coming in to CP 9 at the road-side cafe, it was a treat to see the team’s supporters and Cobus had to crack the whip to snap us out of the lull of conversation and back into the fray; this is a one-day game after all. CP 9 was a short 3k push from the next transition and we were amped to be able to get off the bikes after those gruelling 70ks.
In transitions there are two keys, efficiency and targeted attention. So, while Cobus got to work on the maps, the rest of us scoffed food, filled bladders, emptied other bladders and made ready to peel ourselves away from the fire and once more to venture into the dark night.
A dark night made less so by the full moon overhead. A dark night that it, turns out is no match for The Cobus’ nav skills, and also The Cobus’ nav torch. The man can nav, make no mistake, and his team takes the utmost confidence in knowing who’s behind the map & compass. It was good to be off the bike and back onto the feet again and we were keen to smash this last leg of the race. Cobus wisely opted to slow the pace a bit and hike rather than run the first section as there were many tracks and paths which could make things tricky. Spot-on nav saw us tick off CP after CP until we approached the abseil that indicated to us that the end was within our grasp.
A swift descent and off we went, this time following the google map to the last remaining CPs where slight confusion had us veer too far left for CP17. As we scurried to recover the lost time, Craig glanced around and announced that he saw headlights relatively close and we felt the breath of our pursuers on the nape of our necks. Crossing the last fence from where Stephan had told us we were to follow the red arrows to CP18 and the finish, we decided it most prudent to outrun the team behind us. We discovered later that the nearest team to us hadn’t even reached the abseil by the time we were done so we outran a phantom team to a sprint finish, crossing the line at 01:52 to a convincing victory and one more trophy on team Keyhealth Jabberwock’s mantle.
It was a very enjoyable race and an incredible experience for me to race with three people so humble, supportive and encouraging. I often caught myself thinking that if someone saw me now they’d see me smiling like a deranged person. What a race! What an experience! What a team!
We’d all like to extend a huge shout-out to our sponsor, Keyhealth and Team Nevarest; to offer an incredible word of appreciation to our friends and supporters; and above all we’d like to express our admiration to Stephan and Heidi for pouring themselves into the sport and its participants and for the unimaginable effort that goes into planning and hosting these events.
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Written by Douglas Finlayson. Team members: Douglas Finlayson, Nicky Booyens, Craig Metherell and Cobus van Zyl.