Race Report Team MOJO Blackhearts Southeast QLD Series October 16th 2011
Hopefully this will be the first of many race reports for Team MOJO AR. After a fairly solid lead up to the race and then a floundering last two weeks interrupted by sickness and Uni residential school Team MOJO set off to the wilderness that was to be Mt Crosby.
After arriving at race HQ Jo nearly cried when she discovered that her beloved Fox Flux helmet had been left in the MOJO mobile back in Toowoomba. After very quickly making some new friends and then begging them for a helmet, Wendy and her team came up with the goods in the form of a pink beast that would do the job. Thankfully it wasnat E who left his helmet at home that would have been embarrassing Lesson#1 Recheck the gear during vehicle transfers.
With helmet problems sorted it was time to collect the maps (read: paper with squiggly lines on it..) and map out a route. As newbies we elected not to go for the extra points except in the Kayak at the end if we felt like it then… always the optimist haha.
The first leg was a rogaine, finding checkpoints as you go map to map. The problem with this is if you miss one you don’t actually know where to go. While we never missed any it did take a bit to sort out we should mark the next point on the map instead of trying to remember them Lesson #2 Mark the rogaine check points on the map.
Leg two was a bike leg that included an interesting sand riding section not sure it was meant to be included but we did it anyway Up (big) hills and down hills all the way to the next transition point. After collecting all the checkpoints and thoroughly enjoying the ride it was off to the transition area for a fresh sunscreen spray. Lesson #3 follow the map, sand is hard to ride on.
Leg three was a running section well in theory anyway we will call it running in slow motion aka walking. There were 9 checkpoints to collect we had hoped in the prerace to collect all of them but opted for 5 which was the minimum. This section added in a new skill trekking through creeks, which in theory sounds bad, was probably the thing that saved us from heatstroke as we ran through knee-deep water. Lesson #4 Creeks can be good.
Leg four back on the bike and surprise surprise – some more hills. Only 3 checkpoints here but they were a little tricky, and involved yeah you guessed it..hills.. Thankfully all hills have a down part and we had mastered the down sections nicely by practicing riding down the Toowoomba range. Lesson #5 – Hills also have a down section… whoo hoo!
Leg five final leg KAYAK. We had trained a couple of times in the kayaks and thought it may have been enough guess we hadn’t figured on having to carry and not drag the million kilogram kayak down a very steep embankment to the river. Thankfully some awesome young men swapped kayaks with us so we didn’t have to carry them quite as far. With nothing left in the tank and after a bit over four hours of racing we were feeling a little weary .travelling downstream was very cool (literally) and even had some rapids.. But you know what goes up must come down and aforementioned rapids proved a challenge to paddle against and walking through the water with the kayak ended up being the best option. Foregoing our plan to collect extra points in the kayak section we struggled back up stream with the carrying of the kayaks up the hill foremost in our very weary minds . After struggling about 20 metres we managed to swap kayaks with another team and repay the favor that had been bestowed on us previously. Lesson #6 Kayaks are heavy. Especially when you have to carry them up vertical inclines.
The end was in sight and if we could just get those PFD’s off and walk another 100 or so metres we would finish
Finally it ended! We were tired, muddy, wet and salty but managed to be back in time to see the presentation ceremony and still enjoy the BBQ. What a fantastic day of challenging our skills and determination.So happy not to have fallen off anything and to have learnt more about what I am capable of achieving.
J
All in all the experience was just awesome and highlighted, when pushed to the limit, the human body really is an amazing machine. We had expectations of where we would place but more importantly of what overall time we would finish the race in this regard we definitely surpassed what we were hoping for.
A couple of navigational miscalculations and the heat/humidity that we on the mountain are not used to saw us fall off the back of the pack early but through some good decisions and a better grasp of the maps we were back amongst it though there was still plenty of time to enjoy our race with a few laughs and photos along the way as if we’d take anything to seriously!
I think the main highlight of the course for us was definitely from checkpoint 8 to 9 which was a refreshing trek up the creek literally! But some of the fast sections on the bike were up there too.
The crew from iAdventure (Blackheart Events) put on a great race that suited many differing levels of competitors and the whole atmosphere created by all the teams made the day so much more enjoyable Already looking forward to competing in the iAdventure Sprint Series and other races of similar format next year.
E