:: g e o q u e s t

It’s funny how 6 plus months of training and planning can boil down to just over 24 hours of racing. The whole event was a whirlwind chock full of ups and downs and hard effort and emotion.

This was to be the first geo half for our rookie team and our first time of racing or training together. As a team we had communicated solidly via social media and met up at the Rogue 24 hour. I think that out first rookie error for this race was in that we had not actually trained together. This meant from the outset that we were a mismatched team in relation to our strengths and abilities. Training together may have assisted us in identifying these deficits prior to the race start.

Competency day was fun and the geo atmosphere was amazing. The race was well planned and organised. Map hand out time came and we were relieved to find that we only had to travel 120 odd Km’s to complete the half. We knew that we could all do this based on our rogue experience and with 48 hours it was a shoe in. The course didn’t require too much planning as there were distinct paths and really it was a case of just going and doing it. The geo half started with a split rogaine and a swim for the guys in the team. A miscommunication in this leg meant a delay in return to TA which cost us half an hour straight up. The mountain bike leg to Smokey Cape was next and it was quite fast until the sand. When you live on a mountain sand is not a common trail feature and we were slightly unprepared for the intensity and skill it takes to ride successfully. Finally we made it to the TA in the shadow of the light house and then it was off on a trek to South West Rocks. The trek was not too challenging except a few steep hills and a very long beach walk. Finally we made it to the Rocks and off onto a split orienteering leg. We were all pretty keen to get to the next leg before dark which was the mountain bike / pack raft section. We made it just after night fall and then had the joy of finding the campfire on the other side of the bank… The drunk guys at the camp fire thought it was rather funny all these crazy people coming ashore at their what had probably been a choice quiet campsite. They offered lots of things including use of their tent but told us they were not allowed to help us… Which was quite funny given how drunk they were. Rafts deflated and feeling chilly it was back on the bikes and some fast riding to the national park for the rogaine. Lots of very steep hills to hike a bike up though to get there. The rogaine proved challenging for many reasons and somehow along the way it was decided that a time penalty would be better than finding the checkpoints. With a 12 hour penalty for 4 checkpoints incurred this was perhaps not the best decision. We would have in hindsight been better to try for at least a couple of easy ones. But that’s hindsight hey, woulda, shoulda, coulda.. Back on the bikes and some more massive climbs and an unplanned for checkpoint on the bike leg. A broken chain proved to be slight respite for the hills. Soon enough we were riding on the hardtop to the next TA and everyone’s favorite leg… The car transport to the kayak start. We had two support vehicles and had to travel via the Pacific Highway yo get the kayaks. We were a little shell shocked as we watched our front support car brake suddenly and a big grey thing moving nearby. The big grey thing turned out to be a domestic horse (17 hands high) and it’s friend a pony who must have escaped from a nearby paddock. The crew in our car decided that in the interest of public safety and other teams who we knew we were using the same route we would try to catch the horses. They had bridles so it was quite easy to pull up in front and they walked to us. Police called, race directors notified we waited patiently for someone to rescue us from holding the horses until finally a kindly farmer took them in. Back to the race. Arriving at the kayaks we were told that there was a wait to get the boats back. The wait ended up being quite long but eventually our ship er boats came in!! Now I like kayaking but 16k in the dark and cold with a cramp in your shoulder pushes the friendship slightly- but it was really nice to see the sun come up and some warmth arrive!! Last trek on the beach and through more sand and finally we crossed the finish line!

Was it the race we wanted? Maybe not. Was it challenging and interesting? Yes! Did we overcome our challenges to cross the finish line? Yes! I am grateful for the opportunity to have done this race and I am thankful for the team and support crew that made it happen. The most important lesson for me was to have raced with your team prior to doing a bigger race. In our case this would have helped us understand each other better and work better as a team. Also keep focused on why you are doing the race. Determine up front if you are racing for the experience or the podium. I have learned many things and I look forward to next year. This is such an excellent race and if you are wondering if you can do it I would say – yes!

JT

I think I remember saying that this race would be so hot it would melt the rubber off your tyres.. Well Mt Crosby lived up to her reputation.. 35 plus degrees on the day.

With my usual navigator on family duty it was time to recruit anyone who had a heart beat and shoes, or enter the solo division. Because I like to chat as I race I thought the solo might be too lonely so I slowly sussed out a few friends. My powers of persuasion didn’t seem to work and it was then I found him.. My 13 year old computer geek/ wanna be music producer son. I didn’t have to look hard as he doesn’t stray far from his computer. The conversation went like this:
Me: ” do you want to race with me?”
Him: “why?”
Me : ” so you can see what I do and because I no one else is available”
Him: ” I can’t run and I get puffed when I ride”
Me: “we will just do it for fun”
Him: “ok, can you listen to this song I just made?”

So I trained a bit more and he.. Well he just played mine craft and made more songs.

Race day dawned and if you have ever attempted to wake a sleeping 13 year old boy you will know it is nearly impossible. Fortunately he woke up straight away, perhaps spurned on by the Russian adventure racers he confessed he had been watching on you tube.

It was already warm by the time we got to the race and while I marked up the map he took selfies and spread GU all over the car. Ride, run,kayak, ride, run..sounded pretty easy.

Like a shot we were off, in the excitement we sped past CP 1, but this was to be the first and only navigational error. We even took a great shortcut through the creek.. A trick my usual nav likes to do (thanks E!)

Bike leg done, the temp was soaring and we started leg 2. By now we were starting to feel the heat and we walked fast, but still had that goosebumpy heat feeling. We hydrated slowly but religiously every 15 minutes or so. It was as we reached the kayak transition I realized we had not packed our bike bottles with electrolytes. A dumb mistake on such a hot day. We assessed our water and drank sparingly knowing we didn’t have any water source until the very last TA.
We couldn’t wait to hit the kayak, however Jacob had trained once in the pool. After flailing about for a bit I concluded a time penalty for missing CP’s would not be as draining as trying to paddle by myself. We grabbed 2 checkpoints and took the opportunity to jump in the river to cool down.

Back to the run on low water and we found two tricky CP’s with ease. After getting number 14 we watched a number of teams trek cross country back to the TA. By all accounts it was very hard going and we elected to take the longer but easy trail back, given our dwindling water supply. I think at this point Jacob said his legs hurt a bit, and it was a bit hot..

Finally last TA and fresh water in our backpacks we set off on the home stretch. I had said to Jacob I wanted to be back by 1230 (4 and a half hours racing is a big ask for a kid) and we found ourselves streaking towards the finish nearly at our goal pace.

12:35 we crossed the finish line still smiling, very hot and thirsty.

Jacob had a great time racing and regaling his tales to the rest of the family. I am proud of his effort but overwhelmed by his good attitude. He has inspired some of my other friends to have a go at Adventure Racing too.

This wasn’t my fastest race, but it wasn’t my slowest either. It was awesome to see so many new faces having a go!It was very cool to have a few of our local riders join us in this race. Well done T’bare and Man overboard!

Also well done to Matt and Amanda at iAdventure for another awesome race. Thank you for the time and effort you put in to giving people a chance to run through the wilds looking for orange and white things.

And next time your friends say “I could never do that..” Tell them about a 13 year old computer geek who did!

Finally a race on our gorgeous home turf! We were so excited and lots of our regular riding and training buddies signed up..

This year we will enter a team in the Geo half so this was a great chance to have our full team entered as MOJO derivatives..

24 + hour races are not for everyone. It takes a special kind of crazy to race all day and night.

We decided this race would be perfect for training as Liam’s proposed kilometers meant we would be able to cover our goal distance of 100k easily.

My race partner for this race was Jaime the super bike guy who rides road bike distances that would make your tyres curl. I was very hopeful that we would get to “play” in our favorite training area that we affectionately know as the “Hamptons”

My usual team mate E had volunteered to course set and so we were very good players and stayed away on course setting days so they could do secret Rogue Business.. I have to admit it is awesome to debrief the course now with one of the team as it gives us better insight into course planning, we also had a name to utter under our breath when we couldn’t find the CP!

So the race. Couldn’t wipe the smile off our faces when we saw the Hamptons were a key CP holder in the big race plan.

We also knew that our strength was on the bike and we needed to set our race plan accordingly.

I had done a trek through the Valley of the Diamonds early this year, on the hottest day ever (literally) and have a love hate relationship with it. Our average pace on out trek was mind bogglingly slow and I wanted to avoid it at all costs.

I find with racing there is the plan you make, the plan you wish you had made and the plan for when you break.

We found an immediate nemesis in CP 9 on a watercourse in an area of gullies and watercourses. It was not to be our day with it so we (eventually) crawled out of a gully ( but not THE gully) to find some other CP’s.

I felt unwell and wanted to get to HQ ASAP, but we pushed on and got some high points on the way. Once we got there I was able to get sorted and felt better and then kayak time.

Cressbrook is a beautiful dam. The kayak leg was intentionally smaller than our plan and by the end we paddled in dark and I was shivering.

Thank goodness for team mates who make you coffee!

We had eyeballed the CP’s for the trek leg from the kayak but the cold and the sore legs after the first trek made us dump even an easy CP.

I really wanted to get on the bike to make up for lost points. At 8 PM we got on our bikes to travel up to the Hamptons. 6 hours later via some very cool CP’s and a steep climb up we made it. I could have kissed the ground up there (mostly for being flat!)

We zipped around the Hamptons so fast Jaime told me to slow down. Fast is good but I was a bit excited to be in familiar country and was riding too fast to sustain for hours. The ride back to Perserverance was amazing and fast too.

Back at HQ it was decision time after 9 hours on the bike, we could do a number of cool things kayak, archery, stand up paddle board or Liam’s “easy 4k orienteering course” We decided to start with the orienteering and finished it – but a bit slow as we hadn’t slept yet, archery was cool and I make a rule of racing with guys who can shoot. It hasn’t let me down yet! We finished with a stand up paddle board,as the thought of getting our kayak down the slope we has walked a few times by then was too much for our brains to synapse.

Having never paddle boarded before I tried kneeling but my feet cramped so badly I ended up lying on my tummy and arm paddling the whole way. (There are photos – apparently)

2 hours before finish time we stopped – having achieved our distance goal and learned some very important racing lessons. (Learning is always good!)

We had a great race. We didn’t score highly on the leaderboard but our effort was massive. We definitely had moments where we thought “what the heck” but the awesome course and high 5 moments made up for it. On a personal level I found out I do no sleep well, except that sleep monsters make me giggle. Incessantly and for no reason.

Thanks as always to Liam and the band of volunteers who supported us. It was a well planned and challenging race, and in such amazing place too. But there is one last question that needs to be asked for this race.. Where the heck was Checkpoint 9????

Jo

Saturday the 7th of March will see the MOJO crew take on the perils of night rogaining with an 8 hour overnight rogaine at Daisy Hill. Starting at 11pm on Saturday night the race finishes with breakfast at 7am Saturday.

The MOJO girls have formed a team and most of the MOJO geo crew hope to form another one.

If you aren’t afraid of the dark this is a great way to test your night navigation skills!

Contact us for more details

http://www.qldrogaine.asn.au/qraonline/jsp/event.jsp?eventcode=EV15001

Jo

24/8/2013

It was a glorious winter morning when Team MOJO set out on what would be our 8th Adventure Race since the teams inception…

This race – the 8 hour- was nearly double the length of previous races, and a step up in testing our skills.

We had a fairly dodgy lead up to the event with outside of racing commitments and ill…ness impacting heavily on our energy levels and training time.

Nevertheless we set out to have a go and see what happened..

Map prep for the longer race was a little more intense, but with our cool map measurer we at least could easily calculate approximate distance and times per leg. Optimistically we wrote them on the back of our control card..

After so many sprint races we know we can usually ride and kayak pretty well, and knew the run legs would challenge us. We elected initially only to get bonus points in the ride legs.

Leg one started well, although we knew my sudoku training would not be required as we elected to not go for bonus points in this leg. We picked up the shoreline CP’s with ease and set off in the kayak.

Now, we don’t know Matt the race director that well but somewhere between the start hooter and the kayak he must have sent up a prayer to heaven that went something like this,” God the teams look a little too strong this morning, and might finish this race early, any chance of a 100k/hr headwind to slow them down?”

And it was so. It wasn’t 100k/hr but it was strong enough to blow your paddle and kayak backwards. It also meant a second shower as the waves crashed onto me..

After much wailing and nashing of teeth we reached the shore on our kayak that had turned into a giant log. We were so happy to see our bikes!

The bike leg was pretty amazing with some very nice single trail, some steep hills and a watery tunnel to drag our bikes through. We managed to find two bonus checkpoints and felt good…we munched on lolly snakes (an omen I think) and even scored a great photo of my bike dumping me off into the mud. My awesome Nav, E even bush bashed us through a really dense bush section, compass in hand to land us almost on top of the checkpoint we were seeking!

The run rogaine was on our next leg and all seemed well till this point. We managed to find one checkpoint buried deep in a magical forest, full of ferns , tall pines and those orange magic mushrooms. We didn’t actually eat the mushrooms but things went down hill from there… Power lines on the map, no power lines in reality, finding clumps of trees in a forest, a CP in a creek that didn’t seem to be there at all..

By this time E’s feet had started to catch fire and even walking was problematic. We stumbled back to the TA to make a survival / how to finish the race plan. After some discussion with the TA guy we elected our best bet was to scrap a couple of legs and ride back to the kayak drop point. We felt bad leaving Matt with our kayak to pick up.

We were up to hours 7 to 8 now of racing but felt ok -except for E’s feet. The race briefing had mentioned snakes and as it was a warm day we had been cautious when trekking and kept an eye out for them the whole race. At the crest of a hill I managed to ride over my first snake, a baby brown about 30 cm long… It scared me a bit and I’m not sure how he fared in the encounter..

Eventually we found ourselves back at Kayakville and went to look for our lone kayak. Our spirits lifted to see that there were still 25 kayaks there, which meant that only 19 teams had actually completed this leg. We stored our bikes by a boat shed resting on some ropes. I think my bike was a bit miffed about the snake still! As it was now over end of race time we managed a swift paddle back to finish, joined by another few teams along the way. Thankfully the wind had died down a bit by now, so it was relatively easy even though we were getting a bit weary.

Finally we finished…all I wanted was cold can of coke (I don’t drink coke normally). Our punch card looked like a bad night at Bingo, but at least we finished the race in a convoluted sort of way.

We went back later to retrieve our bikes only to be greeted by kayak carrying baby soldiers.. Thanks cadets!

Every time we race we learn something new. This race we learned heaps about our team tactics and skills. Adventure racing is not for the faint hearted.. I think it is for the fun hearted. We are elite athletes by no means, just a couple of friends out having fun testing our skills and bush smarts.

If you are keen to give AR a try but don’t think your good enough, fit enough or have cool enough gear, just do it! This is an awesome inclusive sport where you are nearly guaranteed to be cheered on for your rookie efforts – no matter what your age or stage!

Thanks to Matt and Amanda for another great iAdventure! Can’t wait for Mt Crosby..

Jo and E

6/7 March 2015

An 8 hour rogaine is always an awesome way to test your nav skills and get to know your team mate/s better. It’s fair to say that you should be able to get a fair way around the course in 8 hours and get lots of checkpoints. Except when its at nightall..

This race was held at Daisy Hill and my partners in crime were Dr Seymour and Mrs Lucas. Both of whom I have independently raced with for long races. After a lazy day and late breakfast we headed off to Brisbane from home at 7pm, the 2 hour drive was uneventful and we chatted excitedly all the way down, we got really excited when the policeman waved me down on the Blacksoil strip near Ipswich. Not sure if I had been speeding due to our nattering and giggling I sheepishly pulled out my licence sadly contemplating my first ever speeding fine. When the policeman approached my car and said “Ma’am I was waving the car behind you down – you are free to goal” It was a pretty happy moment..

We arrived about 9 and waited for our maps, which when we got them showed some fairly well spread checkpoints. We planned a route and prepared to set off dumping just about everything we didn’t need from our packs.

Now here is my first race at night tip you can’t see yellow highlighter in the dark..ha.

The first couple of checkpoints were pretty easy hits with the crowd leading the way. I was personally pretty keen to lose them and run our own race. We step counted like no-ones business and had it pretty down pat by the end of the night.

One after the other we ticked off the checkpoints, keeping moving, talking and laughing , eating regularly.

By about 4am things got a bit tougher as our lights started to dim and the air cooled in predawn anticipation. Note to self: run ayups on half to 3/4 and not full…

With not much light to show our way we intentionally walked past a couple of CP’s because we knew we would get lost in the dark with our failing lights.

Mrs Lucas was starting to be attacked by sleep monsters around this time and when she told me that she could see a horse and carriage I wasn’t quite sure if she was joking or not. (she wasn’t – she was positive she saw it).

Finally the sun came up around the time we went to the Daisy Hill quarry and it was nice to be able to see again without our lights.

We headed out of the forest and to the last points near the Hash House being past by the early morning bike riders, who smelled and looked fresh. I asked one guy if he would swap his bike for a gu and some panadol, but he didn’t get my joke.(perhaps being faced by 3 crazy eyed girls at 6am wielding a map and compass and smelling bad was a bit too much for him!)

Finally back to the Hash House, and the sleep monsters had come to carry Mrs Lucas away.. she was totally smashed!

We finished fourth in our category and then drove 2 hours home, chatting about nothing that I can remember.

A hot shower and bed were a magical experience that day!

It was an awesome night and as with all races we learned more about course setting and racing ..in hindsight we could have got double our points staying in an arc 5kms from the hash house..but well live and learn.

Thanks so much to my two race babes for the night..we had a blast! You are some of the best race buddies ever!

Thanks to QRA for continuing to put on such fun and affordable events.

Jo

MR6 Race Wrap-up

Heres how it started…an incessant crazy incorrigible ideas big picture adventure junkie (me) and a grounded detailed awesome designer (but also somewhat adventure addicted) team mate decided after 4 years of racing as MOJO Adventure that we may be able to put on a race for a few friends.

Step 1 Run a training event for a few teams on the hottest day on earth last October. All good, more teams than we thought, everyone survived (just). Processes learned and refined – lots. Do it again! they all told us.

Step 2 Big picture person says – we could do a proper race. Grounded team mate agrees = success. Lets talk to Liam St Pierre… he seems to know what he is doing.

Step 3 Meet Liam at the pub, discover he is as crazy as we are, we may be onto something, I think this is a thing.

Step 4 Decide to run race under the banner of QRA. This is a great organisation and Liam has worked well with them… race day proposed.

Step 5 Permits and planning – Liam takes the lead and guides us through the perils of permits, It was pretty easy actually and it was good to see how the process worked.

Step 6 Find some boats… OOOHHH what’s that? Jarad Kohlar from Peak adventure will be coming back from XPD with his boats? Perfect timing = WIN!

StepA 7 Maps and course vetting – I can’t lie, this was probably our favourite part exploring the awesome terrain that the teams raced in, getting stalked by council (we had permission- it just hadn’t been communicated to everyone).

StepA 8 Promotion and event release – Finally the entries opened… we thought 30 teams would be cool… nearly 70 teams later = GOBSMACKED!

StepA 9 Course setting – hanging the tape here there and everywhere, making up those awesome descriptions we all love to hate… find the saddle in the middle of the lantana guys… Mwahahaha.

Step 10 Gear for the race – emailing Paul Guard 20000000 times. (each time he replied gracefully and swiftly – thanks so much Paul!) Fun trip to Brisvegas to buy our start arch and get a million water containers and flags and heaps of other cool stuff from the Aladdin’s cave that is the QRA shed.

Step 11 Sponsor love – we are so grateful for our awesome sponsors TriRunning Toowoomba, Jonny Sprockets Bike Shop and Tailwind. The prizes gave the race a little extra ZIIING!! Special thanks to Aaron for his mentorship and believing in us.

Step 12 Race week… So much to do! We broke up the ‘have to do’ admin stuff with the being in the bush… at night until 1230am… Ha! Even had pumpkin scones and tea, and a farm tour on the back of the ute with our awesome land owners who let us use their property. I was pretty sick all week so also grateful to the pharmacist for those special codral with its nice kick along ingredient.

Step 13 Race Day – quickest trip to the Dam I have ever done following the white Hilux… we will blame adrenalin I think! So many people, so many amazing volunteers and so many boats. The place was buzzing, we were buzzing, the generator was buzzing… then everyone went to race and it was quiet.

Step 14 Logistics of race day – it would be great to say it ran perfectly from our end but we had a few little hiccups. I don’t think too many people would have noticed in the end but it has been good to reflect back on how it ran and review tactics for next time.

Step 15 The race was over! We packed up and had a beer with a storm lighting up the dark sky in the distance and water of the dam glistening in the moonlight.

Step 16 Feedback – You guys… you encouraged us so much with your awesome feedback and encouragement. We had so much fun, met some amazing people and challenged ourselves, we worked well as a team and learnt many valuable lessons… (one being… bring a compass but that’s not my story to share… haha)

Step 17 Exude gratitude to everyone that contributed, seriously, if you helped in any way, big or small, we thank you!!

Step 18 Get back into training and spend some time with our families.

Step 19 The date is penciled in… the course for next year is forming in our heads. Other cool events and sponsors are also appearing on our radar… Let the adventure begin… AGAIN!!!

Step 20 Putting on this race was a most epic journey in itself, from it’s inception nine months earlier to when we closed the gate at the ski club after the day was over. A journey that was enriched by the people that imparted their knowledge along the way, to the old friends we spent time in the bush and on the water with, to new friendships that were formed along the way… we are truly thankful. Our families have been a great support in allowing and empowering us to take on what is predominately a labour of love. We felt honoured that so many people would hand over their hard earned money to take part in a race that we received so much enjoyment putting on. We were equally amazed by the number of first time adventure racers taking part as well as some legends of the sport! As we catch up on family, work and sleep our minds continually wander to the future and the awesome task of putting on this event in 2016, to the exciting races we’ve scheduled to take part in and catching up with both familiar friends and friends we haven’t met yet in the adventure racing family.

We would love for those who raced the MR6 to write a race report which we will publish on our media sites. Also if you haven’t yet seen the photos from race day you can find them here

video from Team Tea Bar can be found here

// MOJO