KINETIC FULL MOON AR

Well, after not updating this blog for a while here is some feedback from team mates from this past weekend's Full Moon AR superbly put on by the Kinetic crew, with the same precision that they have been running their sprint series.

We decided to enter 2 teams and all the others besides myself were novice to this longer distance which is designed as a "bridging" race from the sprints to the longer races.

FEEDBACK FROM GREG:

Dewpoint –
Lauren Goulding – experienced AR
James Holland - Novice
John Nelson - Novice

The Turbo Tortoises – All Novice
Pam Goulding,
Anthea Hoskin
Greg Goulding

When I was asked to do the race – I looked it up – and got the following info from the AR website:

26-27 June

Bronkhorstspruit

Kinetic Full Moon Adventure Race

Distance: 60-80kmDuration: 8-24hrs (overnight)Team Format: 3’s

Heidi MullerTel: 082 564-6468 http://www.kineticgear.co.za/

Excellent I thought – I will be able to handle this – a nice step up from the sprint AR format – and just long enough to give us a challenge – not much training required for this – as anyone should be able to walk 80km in 24 hrs and we were also going to be riding bicycles – in fact 24hrs sounds way too long! The last “long” AR I was involved in was as a second in the 150km – 36 hour - race around Loskop Dam area about 2 years ago. Therefore 60 -80km in 24hrs sounded just right to me. In that race – it felt like huge amounts of time was wasted as all the racers did was eat food and spend inordinate amounts of time looking at maps! What is the point – just get on with it! Little did I know!!

Paddling Leg – 14km
The race started with a 14km paddling leg. 14km does not sound like a long way – but when your boat is designed for 2 people and you put on 3 – it tends to fill up with water - as the water line tends to be above the back of the boat. Every speedboat, jetski, swimming duck, flapping fish or anything else which created a wave was cursed as the water lapped over the edge and filled up the boat. Add to this the non existent steering capability of a whole bunch of other boats – you can imagine all the chaos caused at the beginning of the leg – all the bumping, bashing, flashing paddles – what fun! We were expecting a wet and cool trip – so we sneakily put on waterproof pants (and tops for some) to ensure we stayed dry. Getting into the boat – Pam split her waterproof pants right in the crotch. The first water to spill into the seat (about 10 seconds later) ran straight into her pants! About an hour later I was only too happy to get out of the boat to do the run to control points 1 – 3. We emptied the boat out at this point. At CP 3 I was then picked up by the boat and before we departed on our return leg we emptied the boat again. Once again – navigating through the water ways – dodging other weaving boats who clearly had not managed to get the steering sorted out was a lot of fun. The trip back was fairly uneventful – with the exception of one stop about half way to empty the boat out again. Reaching the end point we emptied the boat out again and as I was sure the plugs at the bottom of the boat leaked water in too – I shoved them in as far and as hard as possible at this time – as I knew we would be on this boat another 3 times during the race and the next time would be in the middle of the night – not a very comforting thought! We all got out of our wet clothes and into our riding gear. All the paddling clothes were put into a bag on the boat for later use :)

MTB Leg – 10km
I had not brought my cycling pants – only normal tights – so I was not looking forward to any cycling leg! We ate and then set off on the MTB leg, and 100m later encountered the mother of all , abeit nicely paved, hills. Halfway up I decided I could walk faster than ride – and ended up walking the rest of the way to the top. Happily - I was not the only one pushing their bike at this stage. The ride was an easy ride with the only small obstacles being a small fence which we crossed (which was surrounded by friendly vuvuzela blowing kids from the local settlement) and a lovely swampland which we cleverly avoided and arrived at the farmhouse transition point.

Trek – 14km
I was happy to see our kit box at the transition point. We ate again, changed into our hiking gear, added warm kit into our bags as it was getting cool and headed off into the setting sun. 500m later - like complete twits - we walked straight into the swampland and got our shoes wet, when only 30 mins ago we had bypassed the swampland by riding down a path 100m to our right – maybe we were scared of the extra distance – maybe our minds were not working properly – who knows, but luckily the mud and water was not too deep and we did not all get our shoes completely covered. A short time later the full moon started to rise. It was a beautiful sight, but one which we unfortunately did not have the time to stop and watch. So we motored on at a cracking pace – and then disaster struck. Anthea – in a wheezing voice asked for us to stop. The dreaded flu lurgy had caught her – and her chest had closed up and she could not breathe properly. After a short break she decided to continue at a slower rate - so on we went – slowly up the hills. All the dust from the long grass seemed to make things worse for the breathing, so we went slowly with breaks whenever she needed to try to beat the lurgy back. The first CP on this leg was a beacon. We were absolutely certain we were heading in the right direction to the correct hilltop – when we walked into an unmarked fence! After lots of head scratching, mumbling, pointing at maps, we finally decided we were right and the fence was wrong, and on we went – straight to the hill which would have the beacon. Only it was not there – maybe the map was wrong too. Not to worry – more looking at the map, something to snack, fight back the lurgy – and on to the next hill 100m away which would definitely have CP 7 – and it did! More snacks, break, lurgy beating and off we went to find the quarry and the next CP. On the way – we decided to save the batteries and walk using the moonlight. This works well for flat surfaces, but on the rocky sides of the mountain – sometimes not a good idea. Looking back - we saw 4 other teams’ lights - looking for CP 7. We were doing well! CP 8 was easy to find on the dam next to the quarry – and we then decided to get off the rocky and dusty mountain onto a road – to try to keep the dust and effort down. We headed over the mountain and down onto the road, the grass at this point was covered by beautiful frost crystals. CP 9 was above a dam behind an informal settlement. Approaching the settlement we heard bit of noise, vuvzelas blowing and loud voices and were a bit nervous that the locals or the local scrawny looking dogs would find us a bit tempting. No worries – we snuck through the settlement, and only found the CP by using my magnificently bright headtorch! Break, snacks, put on more jerseys and fight back lurgy. On our way to CP 10 we met up with 2 guys from another team. They had managed to lose their 3rd teammate when they were walking along a gravel road – how, who knows! (We did see all 3 of them come in to the transition later). CP 10 was easy to find on a bridge – but we could now really feel the cold and gloves, tops, snacks, lurgy fight and off to the transition.

MTB - 30km
The next time we were going to see our kit box was after the next 2 stages of the race (MTB and paddle leg) in 3 to 4 hours time, so we had to make sure we had all our correct warm gear with us. We ate, changed into cycle gear, added more layers and headed off. We were travelling slowly and the last of the teams passed us. Anthea was feeling ok when we started this leg, but 4km into the cycle, she could hardly breath. Do we go back to transition or head on? She wanted to continue, so we decided to tow her. James started and did a sterling job at the start, but slowly started losing legs as it felt like we were going on a never ending uphill. He was eventually riding at 8km/h, and the rest of us began freezing as we were not doing enough work. My toes were so cold I thought I had frost bite on them. My borrowed thermal gloves helped me enormously, but the rest of the poor team members who had normal gloves had long past lost the feeling in their fingers. My headtorch was so cold on my forehead, that it was giving me a headache – so I had to reposition my torch to keep material between it and my skin. John was then chosen as the lucky person to tow, and up went the pace to around 12.5km/h for about 4km. Lauren “The machine” then took over the towing duty and sped away up the hill at 18km/h. Pam and I could hardly keep up. It was now FREEZING. I was puffing so hard and the mist from my breath was so thick in my headtorch light I could hardly see the road. I decided to take a drink from my water bladder – and the water in the tube had frozen and turned to slush. My leg muscles started aching – was it from the cold or from the effort?? Probably both. What would the temperature be like next to the dam at our next transition?? Would we be able to face getting wet???

We continued on with no navigation errors to the transition at the dam. Riding along the road next to the dam was freezing. Dotted along our route were tents and caravans – those die-hard fishermen who came to enjoy the solitude of the sport – only to have over 100 AR racers pass them by over the duration of the evening back and forth.

Paddling – 3km
Unfortunately for Anthea her race stopped here. She decided to take the motor boat back to the main transition area to get her asthma pump and to get warm.

For the rest of us, the mental challenge we were faced with here was enormous! It was probably around -3 degrees, the boats were all covered with ice and frost and we had to get changed out of our cycling gear into the paddling gear. Do we also want to bail or continue? Pam was freezing. She was shivering like a virgin bride. She needed a drink. She took her juice bottle from her cradle on the bike, and tried to take a sip – nothing. She looked at the bottle – it had juice in it – why was it not coming out. She shook the bottle – the contents had turned into ice slush. How flipping cold must it be to freeze her juice bottle and now we must get into that wet and leaky boat!!! We could not stop now; we had to continue – so we collected our frozen paddling bag off the frozen boat, and started taking out wet clothes from the earlier paddle. Pam picked up her wet paddling glove which she used earlier in the day – and tried putting it on. It was frozen stiff. No matter how much she tried bending it, it would just not unfreeze – I think she used some other gloves. I took out my waterproof pants from inside the bag, only to find them covered with a white layer of frost. My wet paddling shoes from earlier in the day had frozen too, but I managed to put them on my feet anyway – the ice exfoliating my frozen skin in the process. It was like standing in a bucket of frozen water!!! This made my feet and my toes soooo cold – it was excruciatingly painful, and I had to take the shoes off quickly before I lost them to frost bite. I decided to get out my pair of spare dry socks and do it again, and I also put my shoes next to the fire to get them to thaw out a bit before trying. This time it worked and the shoes were only mildly painful to get on. Off with numerous layers, on with the raincoat and we were ready. Besides Pam and myself – the rest of the team looked fairly comfortable and raring to go. But wait – someone had taken one of our boats as it was not here. “Maybe the useless thing has sunk” I thought. Wouldn’t have been a bad thing. Boat for team 6 was missing. No problem – maybe team 9 has taken your boat by mistake. “You can use boat 9” says the marshall, “ but you have to take all their gear which they have left on the boat too.” Not if hell froze over – and it felt that we were very close to that – would we be taking any other teams gear over on our overloaded, sinking, frozen boat. We didn’t take the gear, but took the boat.

Unbelievably, our boat did not leak. I think the plugs had frozen themselves in place and no water could leak in. We also only had Pam and myself in the boat, and we had no water leaking in over the edges (maybe all those wake creating swimming ducks were sleeping). By midway across the dam I was actually warmer than I had been in the past 3 hours and my toes and fingers were warm. I think the 10 degree water which I was splashing on my legs, hands and feet during the paddling was actually warming me up compared to the below zero air temp!!! I arrived on the other side feeling tired but warm – and remarkably dry but not looking forward to getting undressed again for the orienteering/hiking leg.

Orienteering – 7km
Oh what to do now? It was around 02h20 and the rest of the race would take us around 10 hours to complete. We would finish around 12h00 if we left now, but we needed some warm food. We heated up some chicken and rice till there was so much steam coming out of the container you could not see the food. I gingerly took a mouthful – careful not to burn my mouth – looking forward to the first warm food of the race – only to find that the food was not piping hot – but luke warm!! We ate it anyway. During this time, first team (Red Ants) came in to finish the race. 13hrs 38 minutes. We did another quick calculation – a very average AR team normally takes double the winning time to complete the race. Would we be racing for another 13hours?? Things did not look good for us.

We had changed into our hiking gear and off we set on the orienteering leg. One of the CP’s on the route was on the dam wall. It was a fairly impressive sight seeing the water pouring over the dam wall. This was where one of the next paddling legs would be ending and a 7km hike with abseiling was in store for us later. A brisk walk around the route – very well navigated by Lobs – and we were heading back to the transition. My legs were aching again – this time from efforts and not from the cold. My feet were sore as they were not used to the AR shoes (the last time I wore them was probably 5 months ago). My butt cheeks were rubbing raw from the damp clothing. My ass was sore from the ride with no cycling shorts. The longest I had ever ridden a MTB was around 35km. The longest I had ever ridden a bicycle was the 94.7km. The longest I had done continuous exercise in the past 20 years was just over 4 hours. I was trying to psych myself up for the next 50km cycle – and failing dismally.

Back at transition the team needed to decide if we were continuing. We still had to paddle back 3km across the dam, cycle 50km, hike7km and paddle 3km back. If the next cycle leg had been 30km or less, Pam and I would have continued. I knew in my aching muscles that I would not be able to complete the 50km cycle without help. If the rest of team was willing to tow, I may have continued, but as it was Pam she said she had had enough. Turbo tortoises went back into their shells, climbed into their sleeping bags and quietly passed out. As for the rest - John said he would continue and James was undecided, but wanted a rest first. They took a 1.5hr hour rest, and then the decision was made that they would not continue. Dewpoint also changed their sponsor to DNF (Did not finish).

Looking back, the race was filled with adventure, fun, agony, suffering and teamwork. It was a real experience – one which I am looking forward to repeating – with a finish time.

First time for me:
1) Any sort of AR besides a sprint race.
2) Paddling – especially 14km in those wonderful boats!
3) Riding a MTB for 40km!
4) Riding a MTB at night!
5) Paddling at night!
6) Water in my camel pack pipe freezing!
7) Putting on frozen clothes with ice on to keep warm!
8) Wearing 7 layers of clothing!
9) Racing non stop for 16hrs.

I look forward to the next one – which will be warmer – and which we will finish!!

FEEDBACK FROM JOHN:

My race.
Sat 06:00:00 AM
Wake up, eat, final food prep (add water to bottles etc) and pack car

Sat 06:30:00 AM

Drive to meeting house to pack travel cars

Sat 07:00:00 AM

Meet and pack cars and bikes into two cars to travel with

Sat 08:00:00 AM
Drive to Bronkhorspruit dam

Sat 09:30:00 AM
Setup camp area and sort out equipment

Sat 11:00 AM
Race briefing and team introductions
Get maps for first leg of race.

Sat 12:00:00 PM
Get gear sorted into transition bags and plan routes for fist set of CPs (control points)

Sat 01:00:00 PM
Race start. 14km paddle.
James front, me middle, Lobby back

Sat 01:30:00 PM
Severe discomfort in stupid paddle boat that was only designed for 2 people but has three people on it.
Not a very good paddler! zig and zag zig and zag

Sat 02:00:00 PM
I leave boat to do a 3km land section to collect 3 more CPs and meet up with team further along the dam to paddle back to T1 (transition area 1)

Sat 02:30:00 PM
New seating arrangement on our boat is much better, but more unstable (I want to kill whoever designed these boats or at least who thought they were a good idea for this race!). Some teams resort to walking along the side of the dam and not paddling.

Sat 03:00:00 PM
Transition at T1 onto our bikes.

Sat 03:30:00 PM
10km MTB leg to get to farmhouse.
Collect CPs along the way.
See some teams already going on the trek.

Sat 04:00:00 PM
Get to farmhouse.
Leave bikes and prepare for 14km trek with gear we have setup in our boxes that have been brought from T1.
Beenie, tights and thermal top

Sat 04:30:00 PM
Trekking.
Sun starts to dip and can feel the cold in the dips near the water.
Fleece top added

Sat 05:00:00 PM
Full moon is awesome

Sat 05:30:00 PM
Darkness descends as we hop some fences to look for next CP, a beacon no a hill.Can hike in the dark for the most part in the moonlight.

Sat 06:00:00 PM
See some headlights in the distance on a hill we think is the wrong one.
Too dark to see the top of far hills makes things tricky.

Sat 06:30:00 PM
Do one wrong hill and Anthea starts to have trouble breathing.
Add gloves to keep warm.

Sat 07:00:00 PM
Over some more hills to find a dam.
Entertain people with stories about pretty much nothing. ie girls at soccer matches and other nonsense

Sat 08:00:00 PM
Lobby's idea of 200m away is seriously questionable when looking for the river intersection, but since she is the best navigator I keep this to myself.
Find a team that has lost a team mate, sucks to be that guy.
Some sining may have occurred to keep entertained.

Sat 09:00:00 PM
Walking in corn fields at night reminds me of every horror film I have seen.
More fence hopping.

Sat 09:30:00 PM
Back at farmhouse to change into cycle gear again.
Add thermal long-johns and cycling pants.
Have some coffee and a roll for dinner (have been eating snacks and other stuff along the way)

Sat 10:00:00 PM
30km MTB leg.
Super cold on the bike, can't feel fingers.
Add gloves over my cycle gloves.

Sat 11:00:00 PM
Anthea sounding terrible, losing her voice.
Add the tow (a piece or rubber tube) to her bike and pull her along in turns.
My turn pulling warmed me up in no time! Almost killed me.
Lobby tows Ant so quickly we can hardly keep up :)

Sat 12:00:00 AM
Winning teams pass in other direction, they are now close to 4 hours ahead.

Sun 01:00:00 AM
At dam for a 3km paddle.
Water in bottles has started to freeze.
Can no longer feel my feet, the soles are totally white.
Anthea pulls out so she does not die.
Rain gear added for the paddle to keep me dry (if I get wet I am screwed)
The gear that was left with the boats is frozen. James has to cut his shoelaces to get his shoes on.
I paddle without shoes, figure my feet are not going to get any colder.
Another team has taken our boat! we take one of the boats of a team that has retired.

Sun 01:30:00 AM
3km paddle is again terrible, but actually warmer than on the land.
Super slow and unstable.
Cramp in my inner thighs that made me want to jump out and swim the stupid thing (those are NOT designed for 3 people!)

Sun 02:00:00 AM
At the other side get our grear box and add to gear for orienteering leg
I put on my ski pants over my other stuff.
Take off fleece and thermal, add new thermal and my down jacket.
Watch the finishers come in. 2 really tall guys and a tiny little woman (Team name - Red Ants)

Sun 02:30:00 AM
7km walk to find CPs all over.
Got a little warm even with the cold, but that was ok since I could unzip a bit to cool down.
Not much you can do if you are freezing.
Cool view of the water cascading down the damn wall at night in the moonlight.

Sun 04:30:00 AM
Back at transition.
Greg and Pam decide to stop.
James says he is too tired to be confident of not making a mistake in the next legs.
I say I will continue with Lobby.
We convince James to have an hours sleep and see how he feels.
I take off my down jacket and sleep in my sleeping bag in a mattress in the open, do not have time to wait for a tent.

Sun 06:30:00 AM
James says the wind has picked up and the dam looks very choppy.
Lobby says she is not feeling great but will carry on if we want.
I say I will carry on if we finish as a team but not worth it if James pulls out now.James checks conditions again.We retire.

80km's 16 hours
Legs not completed (we expected still another 7 to 9 hours left!)
3km paddle
50km MTB
7km trek
Abseil
2km paddle

Thanks for the race teamies and well done on your 16 hours of racing. I look forward to the next one where hopefully we'll all cross the finish line and you'll get to experience the thrill and satisfaction of completing a distance AR!