Team MD’s – Fast and furious start to the year!

Team Mountain Designs lined up this year for the annual Wild Horse Mountain Adventure Race, run by Maximum Adventure. This year we saw the name change to the ‘Paddy Pallin’ Adventure Race after being the Kathmandu since 2004. It was great to see so many seasoned adventure racers come out of the woodwork to mix it with the more recent AR converts and some complete beginners. This race has always been the perfect event to try the sport of adventure racing.

Back in 2004 the event was just up the road at Coochin Creek and there were two classes – novice and expert. If you were EXPERT you used your own craft and raced solo or in a team, if you were NOVICE, you could still race solo or in a team. Gary raced solo and went head to head with Guy Andrews, they had both been doing some adventure racing and had way more experience than me! I was lined up  with my great friend Narelle Ash (aka Narelle from Skirt Sports) to do the event with her, but the night before she talked me into racing solo-novice! Narelle raced expert and gave Gary and Guy a run for the money out on the course! Jan Leverton, my Tri Adventure partner in crime, was also doing one of her first adventure races this same year, with Col Andrews (yep….Guy’s Dad) and raced the course as a pair.

Paddy Pallin Adventure Race Map 2015

So eleven years on, the event is still going strong, and four of us (Gary, Guy, Jan and Kim), from that very first one were all on the start line again. Gary has finished every single one with seven outright wins to his credit and I have finished nine. Prior to this Gary and I, representing Team Mountain Designs, have managed to win the premier mixed four times at this event since 2011. The tension was mounting as ‘everyone’ had come out to play, including Gary’s former MD’s team mates Britt Caling and Brett Stevens, last year’s outright winner Paul Elby, Liam St Pierre - Team Rogue, Rob Gowland – formerly SCAR, Gary Palmer & Todd Vallance – Cyclezone Mooloolaba, Ray Deetlefs – Gary’s training buddy and so many more! Every category was going to be super competitive, nothing has changed!

The Start - Paddy Pallin Adventure Race 2015

Fast and furious it was, with a running start, over 100 teams and all following exactly the same course, what else would you expect! Knowing how many young guns were lined up, Gary and I had decided to opt for a more casual start, however by the time we neared the first CP we were right up there…..so much for taking the start easy! Everyone was flying Guy & Dean were first out of TA 1, with some other teams following, we were a little back as our early detour to try to separate ourselves from the field left us a little behind, but at least out of sight….for now! On the bikes we managed to catch the front of the field in the tricky sand beside the highway…..poor Gary Palmer had some derailleur issues (again), and soon we were chasing Guy & Dean. Unfortunately we were just going too fast and overshot the track to CP 8, so lost our 2^nd spot and found ourselves behind Brett & Britt, Ray & Greg, Paul & Andrea, however we were working very hard to catch up! We did not select a great route to 9 either, so it was a very hard grind back to the front of the field, but a bit of MTB team time-trialling with Ray & Greg, saw us hit the foot rogaine together with all of the other teams mentioned just seconds behind.

Kim & Gary head into TA 2 off the Foot Rogaine

Gary and I opted for the CP order ABDC and once again separated ourselves from the field, as most of the other teams went the opposite direction. Gary was absolutely motoring, and we found ourselves first back to TA2. We set off onto the bikes for the Mystery Leg, but at CP 13 (out & back) we could see Guy and Dean hot on our tails. The mystery leg was a Ride & Tie, this is where you have one bike between two and you ride and dump the bike, then start running, your partner then grabs the bike and so on! Somehow we held our lead, but only just! Now with only 3 CPs on the bike to the finish and a 30 second lead, we knew we just had to go for it. Gary was so strong, I was sitting on his wheel with just an inch separating us, and we would have been doing over 30km/hr, that’s how much I trust my team mate. Guy and Dean had us in their sights and caught us at the final CP just 1k from the finish, we tried to go with them, but could not quite hold on! So we finished about 20secs behind absolutely exhausted and very happy with our result, after all, mixed vs male racing is always tough ask!

Team Mountain Designs finish Paddy Pallin 2015

Great racing everyone, it was fast and furious, but so much fun! Guy Andrews Adventure (Guy Andrews & Dean Cane - 1^st Overall 1st Male Pair,  Old and Baldy (Gary Palmer and Todd Vallance) – 2^nd Overall 2^nd Male Pair, Gold Coast Physio & Sport Health (Britt Calling & Brett Stevens) – 3^rd Overall and 2^nd Premier Mixed Pair. Not to mention Tri Adventure Girls (Jan Leverton & Shannon Mc Grath) 1^st Female Pair.

Premier Mixed Podium - (minus Britt & Brett 2nd)

Next week Gary and I team up with our other race partners Leo and  Sloshy,  for the rescheduled Mountain Designs ARA Darkside.  Instead of 2 ½ hours of racing we have up to 18 hours, so we’ll see how the not so fast and furious start will go this time! Out will come the HOKA's and Ay-Up lights! Sloshy is in great form with a recent win at the Upside down Rogaine and Leo has been training like a professional down in Victoria with some great results at Bike Buller finishing 11^th outright in the 50k MTB and 2^nd outright in the 11k trail run…..he’s on fire! 

The X-Marathon Experience!

Well, I was always planning on doing this event this year having booked leave from school to fit in both the Lorne Adventure Fest and the X-Marathon, so my Tri Adventure partner Jan and I had planned a big drive holiday from Queensland with boats and bikes. When Team MD’s (Leo and I) won Hells Bells earlier this year we won a free entry to the X-Marathon (thanks to an arangement between Dare you Adventure & Adventure Junkies). So I planned to team up with Schlossy at the X-marathon as both Gary & Leo were at that time unable to commit. In the meantime I was hit by a car a week out from Darkside and was quite thankful that it was postponed till March 2015. Soon I was on the road to recovery for Lorne & X-Marathon and Gary and Leo decided they were now keen race X-Marathon too……so Jan lined up a new partner from our Tri Adventure group – Cassie Percival who has also signed up for XPD 2015.

After a great race at Lorne placing 3^rd overall and 1^st in the Veteran Women’s category and recovering quite well, I knew I would be ok to do the race with Sloshy! This was the first time that Schlossy and I had raced together as a team of two so I was certainly looking forward to it, and having Gary, Leo, Jan and Cassie out there on the course too, made for a great weekend of adventure racing…..

Here is Gary’s race report!

Team MD had a great weekend at X-Marthon AR on the weekend, It was hot but not humid , the conditions on lake Eildon were perfect and even though the field was small the competition was high class. Kim and Schlossy won the mixed and finished an incredible 4th overall. Leo and I finished up second overall after trading the lead all through the race with Jarad Kohlar's Peak Adventure and Adventure Racing heavy weights Hugh Stoddard and Josh Street teaming up after extended family camping adventures to form team Round Oz Recovery. 

Our Journey started weeks before the event with Leo and myself being crushed under heavy workloads and high temperatures with humidity levels above 95%, We both decide we needed a break so X-Marathon was to be our Holiday / Xmas party. I forgot to bring everything , which I didn’t discover until I weighed my bike box at the airport and it was only 25kg instead of the 30kg I normally travel with….."Oh well who cares it’s a Holiday Race"

We also didn’t get the race notes so arrived thinking we could only use tyre tubes for the bike transport/paddle leg which the race directors so kindly supplied . Which as they handed them over informed us they had holes and hoped we had a patch kit "Oh well who cares it’s a Holiday Race"

All other competitors except for both the Team MD and Tri adventure Teams had inflatable rafts.

We headed out the morning of the race to drop off our gear with the great boats we hired from Peak Adventure who provided a great service dropping off and picking up the boats. Leo only took us the wrong way twice "Holiday Race"
We got to the start and I had forgot to leave my runners out at the T/A so lucky I bought my big pack to carry them on the bike "Holiday Race"

The race started off with a foot orienteering event around Eidlon  township, using Google Earth maps which we didn’t get till the gun went off. Leo did a great job nailing everything and getting  us into second place , but with my lack of planning I had to jam so much gear into my pack we left the T/A in fourth "Holiday Race" .We caught and passed MD 2 but the other men’s teams were leaving us behind up the long climb. So still in 4th, but wait we soon discovered our strength, downhill madness we made up over 5mins on the first descent to move into second which we held till the paddle.

This is where we unleashed our second super power PADDLING 
Hugh and Josh headed off in a clockwise direction as did Jarod 10 mins in front , we wanted to do our own thing and even though we had planned to go clockwise we decided to go the other way thus keeping our super power under wraps until it was to late for the poor other lead teams. We came out in front and now on our holiday were leading the race. 

The Trek was Hilly and the Temp was rising. We traded places with Team Peak up the initial hills, these speedsters were obviously not having a good day.We snuck away but then our first real challenge. Leo's Thermostat jammed closed and we had to have numerous breaks so his radiator could cool down. 

Lucky we were in no hurry for our Holiday Race . We sat in the shade on top of hill and admired the many beautiful arms of the dazzling Lake Eildon . Finally steam stopped coming out of his ears so amazingly still in the lead we headed down to the Lake for a refreshing swim to the other side to continue the trek. Knowing now Leo's Thermostat was cactus we could manage it better and backed off the pace on the up hill sections and managed to finish the trek in 1st.

The notorious Bike Transport/Paddle/ bike leg was next. Our first effort capsized but with a re-shuffle we were off , the bikes were dragging but we had the tied on well so even if the went upside down we were confident we would have bikes at the and. So only 55mins for a 3.5k paddle "Holiday Race"

The three teams were all back together for a nasty steep Hike a Bike, we managed to keep for a while but the Temp gauge snuck back into the red so we backed it off and Hugh and Josh motored away. Team Peak were also in trouble. We relied on our 1st super power, down hilling to catch back to start the 3.5k paddle back with our bikes in equal 1st. Unfortunately one of our patched tubes had sent the air on a "Holiday" so lucky we had our bikes to keep our flat tube afloat

We headed out onto the last bike in a distant 2nd and enjoyed the cooler conditions to cruise nearly to the finish without incident. We got a little confused in some exclusive marina precinct and then my rear tyre tried to go down but after telling the tyre air it couldn’t go on "Holiday" as we were short staffed the latex jammed the exit and the air had to stay.

Hugh and Josh met us at the finish and kindly shared some food with us. Thanks boys it was great racing with you. What a great Holiday

Thanks Leo, Kim , Dave ,Jan and Cass

Wildside Wandering with Team Mountain Designs

Wildside Adventure Race , Forster 2014

We all arrived in Forster Friday at the Nial's home. Terry and Sheryl have been welcoming athletes into their home since the start of the Forster Ironman and they volunteered to run the Start/ Finish line of that event for 17 years. These incredibly generous and giving people made our race preparation a much easier task.

On Saturday we got a race briefing and completed all the competency testing. Team Bear Hunt had the most difficult tent to put up, but at nearly half the weight of ours, I was extremely envious.

4.00pm map hand out and we were off to start the planning; we had 23 hours as the gear boxes had to be loaded onto the transport vehicles by 3.00pm Sunday.We didn't get maps for the first trek leg or know where the race was to start, but with 33 maps in total we had a huge task in front of us.

We decided to get a good night sleep and stopped course planning at 10:30pm and then recommenced at 6:30am. This took longer than expected as we finished laminating our maps at 12 noon leaving us a very short time to pack boxes. We made it with minutes to spare and were soon on the bus for a short trip out to a Wooton Winery where we were given the first trek leg maps and were told the start would be at 1.00am. A good feed was provided and I limited myself to only one glass of red. The tents provided had no bedding so we were all huddled together shivering our way to the start time on the cold hard ground, our tent soon fell into fits of laughter with stupid jokes, reminiscing on past races and way too many Dutch Ovens.

Wildside AR.....and they are off!

The gun went off and we all disappeared into the darkness across the paddocks and into the bush trails, Team Tiger and Bear Hunt were first to start swimming across the first river and after assuring us the water was warm enough we quickly nuded up and frolicked in after them. It wasn't long after this that Jody started up with a mild fever and some nausea, we eased the pace to manage her condition; she had also rolled her ankle which was making her a little unstable. Knowing how tough Jody is, I wasn't worried about her ability to continue, I was more worried she would push too hard and her condition could become serious. We were surprised after 6 hours to be the first team to the kayak.

G1 in action with G2 just one step behind

The sun had been up for an hour and the paddle across Wallis Lake into Forster and out to Nabiac was spectacular with clear waters and an abundance of bird life. This was a 5 hour paddle and we all soon realized that none of us had done sufficient paddle training. We all had sore backs, the beginnings of blisters and sore bums. Glenn who was heading up search and rescue did a professional job of strapping Jody's ankle. Thanks to Glenn this held till the end of the race and gave Jody the confidence to traverse the many challenges that lay before us.

G1 in action....these kayaks are heavy!

Onto Leg 3 MTB/Rogaine/MTB. The temperatures were soaring, we were still nursing Jody and now Darren was starting to feel the effects of the heat and needed a little help up the hills also. CP 12 was a little ambiguous with the description being 'car' but the CP circle drawn off the side of the track. Our first grid search of the CP location began. We got lucky on this one as Jody rode around the bend outside of the circle and soon spotted the car.

Hot day for the team on the bikes!

The Rogaine went smoothly, this was through a MTB trail park south of Taree and the single tracks would have been awesome on our bikes but unfortunately we had to run. We remounted our bikes for the short ride into Tinolee for our next paddle leg on the Manning River. After the first CP at the Taree Council Chambers, Jody's condition deteriorated and the vomiting began, some in the boat but most over the edge for the fish. She got into warm clothes as she now wasn't able to paddle to stay warm enough. I was quite worried she would fall in as she was also falling asleep; we had to keep yelling to keep her awake. 

The heat is taking it out of everyone!

We reached Coopernook after 5 hours and put Jody to bed on the doorstep of the pub out of the wind, after 4 hours she still couldn't stand up without being overcome with nausea, so back for another 4 hours sleep and dawn. The anti-nausea tablets were finally working and we were able to start our MTB very gently to a large volcanic plug in the forest called Big Nellie, a short trek to the summit for some spectacular views stretching up and down the coastline. Back on the bikes for the grind into Comboyn with both Jody and Darren on tow, G2 [Gary Palmer] and myself had to be wary of not blowing ourselves up with the extra work load. We vowed to have a quick TA here as our last one was 8 hours, we got out in 25 mins but only got as far as the first cafe for a much needed calorie hit.

Taking every opportunity to refuel!

This trek up to the highest waterfall in the southern hemisphere, Ellenborough Falls was going to be a cracker and we were all really excited. Darren was still suffering in the heat and was quickly closing in on his first technicolour yawn. Our pace had slowed and I was now worried about getting out of the gorge before dark as I only had a token mandatory light that was probably good enough to read by but not for jumping around boulders. We had unknowingly passed Team Tiger from a nav error and were in the lead. Tiger caught us just before the climb out and we trekked up the stairs together. Shaun from their team was also in a lot of discomfort in the early stages of bronchitis, which would later see him retire from the event. We got Darren straight to bed as he has physically spent from vomiting numerous times on this trek. He was now a concern, we needed to stop the nausea and get fluids and calories into him. 

In the Gorge with Tiger

Thankfully for us the lovely ladies at the Falls Kiosk decided to stay open all night for the racers and we were able to feast out on chicken vegetable soup, pepper steak pasties, sausage rolls an assortment of cakes muffins and beverages. We slept here for 4 hours which gave Darren some much needed convalescing. He had an organic juice and some soup broth from the kiosk and we were off for a 110km MTB which was one of the longer and more challenging legs of the race. We were back in third but soon passed The Stromlunauts. Tiger Adventure, who were having a great race, were thriving at the front of the field . 

We soon had a minor glitch as Jody's chain broke and then 30km into this leg our next challenge presented itself, the derailleur bolt on G2's bike snapped. We took off the derailleur and converted his bike to a single speed. He now had a max speed of 18km per hour and he could no longer tow anyone. Jody stepped up here and rode without needing any help she was finally starting to get back to her normal fun-loving, storytelling, practical joking self that we had been missing all race. Darren was in recovery mode but still grovelling on tow. He was doing it tough but was determined to keep up. We passed Tiger on a sketchy downhill and cleared the next CP quickly which could have been tricky, but we had questioned the Race Director on the CP location before the start as there were 3 x Track/Creek junctions in the CP circle. Our first of many, ‘hike-a-bikes’ began and finally G2 could help me tow Darren. We entered a more technical navigation plantation section and more hike-a-bike. We were approaching the end, our food and water was gone as we had predicted 8 hours for this leg and it had taken 15 hours. We rode into Barrington straight past the TA and the bemused faces of the TA officials and went straight to the servo for a pie, sausage roll, ice coffee milk and an ice cream each.

Off for a short 5km trek up to the Barrington Adventure centre to pick up our tyre tubes for the paddle back to the TA we had just left. We were all feeling good now apart from being cold from paddling into dusk on the Barrington River. Again a great TA spot, our servo was closed but the TA hall had a microwave, so we heated up our cans of chunky beef soup and I concocted us a dessert of mashed banana and sugar on wraps and heated them up in the zapper.

Look at these for paddles! G2 on the tube!

G1 and his new paddle!

Jody just going with the flow!

We rode out of Barrington for another epic 87km leg, our stomachs were full and we felt good, the next 30km was on tarmac and with a top speed of only 18km/hour it was easy for all but G2 who was spinning his nuts off on his newly detested single speed bike, his trusty steed had also developed a rear brake problem, we were starting to wonder if his bike would see the finish. This was no cheap dunger bike either but a $10,000 black stallion. I think it is going straight to the knackery when he gets home. When we left the tarmac the nav got tricky with our intended trail no longer existing, we traversed through farmers fields along a ridgeline through a  creek  and, hey presto, the trail was back. We were now on some of the sweetest flowing single track you could hope to find. We couldn't find the trail out, so we back-tracked about one km to try a different route, I crashed from falling asleep so G2 took over the nav, it was getting tough and I was a zombie. G2 thought he knew where we were but wasn't sure so we dropped to the ground for a sleep, 6 mins later it started to rain so we were up and refreshed after a good night's 6 minutes sleep and brisk morning shower!  G2 and I got down to the business of nutting out our new route; again the track was no longer in existence. 

We fell back on our Rogaining experience and traversed the terrain cross country till the track once again appeared. We were now faced with a big hike-a-bike which took us off course and onto the wrong peak, after a little two and fro to determine exactly where we were, I gambled on a motor bike track with the assumption that the dirt bikers had to come from somewhere and it was probably from the tracks we wanted below us. Yahoo! We were back on course, another broken chain for G2 and with no more trouble, no food and some water, thanks to a kind resident who spared some of her tank water, we arrived at Bulahdelah. Again we headed straight to the cafe for a pie, hamburger and flavoured milk. We had again planned for an 8 hour ride and it had taken us 15 hours. We packed up our bikes for the final time; G2's bike just crumbled into dust into his box, thankfully the old girl just made it.

Team MD's arrive at the cafe!

When a pie has never tasted so good!

We left Bulahdelah feeling good and had an uneventful but very nice trek through to the Myall Lakes TA. The wild flowers on this leg were beautiful and in abundance. A quick nap and we were off on our final ‘bum-numbing’ 5 hour paddle into the cold of night and strong wind which kept us wet and fresh. Things started to get a bit funky here with the 'sleep monsters' claiming our sanity. Out came renditions of 'row, row, row your boat' and a boat load of other verbal diarrhoea that couldn't be repeated.

We quickly departed the Bungwahl TA, with chattering teeth and began our last epic trek leg running to warm up, we were in great spirits with the finish in sight and we were starting to believe we may win this race.  We had a little trouble with the first CP, surprise, surprise another ambiguous CP placement. Dazza nailed this one for us with some deductive sleep deprived logic, we took pity on Team Search 4 Hurt and told them where this CP was  as they had been doing it tough and had been short-coursed and were disappointed to have missed the 2  big MTB legs.

Team MDs refueling before hitting the beach.

We hit 7 Mile Beach in good spirits but Dazza's mental state soon deteriorated through sheer exhaustion. He thought his food and water were poisoned. We were worried he wasn't eating enough and upon Jody's request he informed her he had just eaten some grilled fish. Where from? she enquired...with a look of disdain on his face he informed her "from the ocean".

Jody tries to give Darren some water!

We finally came to the location of the now famous [only to us] CP 57, control description Dune. Well for 3 x hours we crawled through the thick dune scrub doing a grid search 250m either side of the centre of the circle. Finally, a race official turned up to see what the problem was. He could’t find the control either. It was eventually located  500m from the centre of the circle. With a hearty chuckle amongst ourselves of this amusing trick that had been played on us, we continued on toward the finish and a frosty beer.

Darren's mental state deteriorated further and he could no longer differentiate between fact and fantasy, he no longer spoke, he only pointed, nodded and smiled. I continually asked him if he was going to finish, he always nodded with a determined glint in his eye. We had reverted to carrying him for the last 6km. Within the last 3km he needed to stop and sleep 3 times, doubt was creeping in. He put in a final effort up the sand hill and we coasted to the finish with relief - our goal had finally been achieved. Darren passed all medical checks and after a night’s sleep was back to his normal self.

Team work all the way to the Finish!

G2 finished amazingly, holding strong throughout and helping out every time it was required.

Jody had a rocky start through illness but finished as strong as us boys. Darren's determination got him to the finish.

Team Mountain Designs - Winners Wildside AR  2014

Finally, it was the teamwork that inspired me from a group of rookie's who tackled and won their first expedition race.

Thank-you guys, for a truly memorable experience! What an amazing species we are.

Written by Gary Sutherland Team Mountain Designs 2014

Team Mountain Designs - Darren, Gary S (G1) , Jody and Gary P G2 

Hells Bells done and dusted, Gary’s off to the Wildside!

It’s been a while since we have posted on our blog as so much has been going on. Now that Gary and Sloshy have joined forces with their AR event companies, Sloshy has missed out on the Ridgeline Series and Gary has missed out on competing in his 10^th Hells Bells, so it’s been more racing for Leo and me.

Following Geoquest there have been so many adventures had by the team…..here are a few highlights!

Ridgeline Race 3 

Leo & Kim and the Balloon Tower

‘The Culminator ‘– Leo and I teamed up for this one which was located at the base of Mt Tamborine at Cedar Creek. The course was a mixture of Rogaine style and traditional point to point navigation, despite the race being in the middle of winter, it was a pretty warm day making conditions on course fairly challenging. There was quite a unique start to the event with a balloon tower competition used to spread teams off before setting off on bikes. The navigation was quite challenging and with the rogaine format it meant you did not really know where you were placed, but got to see most of the teams out there on the course. There was a good range of maps including the two foot navigation sections which used orienteering maps. In the first foot Rogaine we made a pretty monumental error which had us go back to the TA and start again, so after losing about 15 mins we had to make no more mistakes.  The bike course  back to HQ before the final foot rogaine was challenging with plenty of hike a bike action and some gnarly technical descents, which suited perfectly….I was a little more cautious. We got back to the TA in 2^nd 6 minuted behind Team Rogue (Paul Elby & Liam St Pierre). Somehow we managed to catch up to them with just 3 CP’s to go…..at the final control we made our move and outran the boys back to the finish….and solved the Clue ‘Octopus’ before they arrived at the finish.  This gave Team MD’s 3 wins from 3 races in the Ridgeline Series 2014.

Wild Women AR  

Kim & Gina on the Plank Walk Challenge

I had to ditch the boys for this one, being an all-girls event, however Gary and Sloshy were the event organisers, so it was still a big team MD affair!  I teamed up with Gina Dunsdon who had earlier this year raced for Team MD’s with Sloshy at the MDARA Sprint event at Mt Cotton. Gina and I had strong competition out there with almost 50 teams all taking part in the 3^rd edition of this event, which was the ‘first ever all women’s AR event’ in Australia.  The event started with a few fun challenges on foot including a target throw, and team plank walk. This spread the teams out well before getting out onto the bike course. Were probably in 3^rd place at this stage as we had had to line up for the planks, but that just added to the challenge. The bike was hilly and Gina and I did not mind the hike a bike section at all. We had an awesome ridgeline ride through the Dulacha State forest before heading to the trails around Ewen Maddocks Dam. Gina and I were in the lead by this stage but team Area 51 and tri Adventure Vintage were in hot pursuit.  We got a lead in the 1^st paddle and maintained it on the Trek, and paddled back to the TA without another Team insight. Gina and I were able to really enjoy the ride to the finish, as we had plenty of time to note make mistakes under pressure. Thanks Gina for a great day out!

MDARA Woodford 

Gary, Kim & Leo drop bikes off at TA

This event was in a new location, flat and very fast one indeed. The event was located on the western edge of the Beerburrum state forest, on the same day as MTBO had an event on the East side of the forest. Sloshy was sick in bed so Leo, Gary and I teamed up as a three for this event. We started with a very short trek to separate teams before the bike. Just one set of maps so Gary was on the nav, I had the control descriptions and Leo the ferret. We took the lead early, and made it to TA 1 for a trek. Great fun was had bush bashing to most of the controls….not sure that it was faster, but just a good challenge, back onto the bikes for the super-fast fun ride back to the HQ for the mystery leg. As it had rained overnight the sandy trails were compact and fun to ride. The mystery leg was a Solo SUP paddle to 3 CP’s, so each team member had to go out & back to one each. The final leg was a short trek around the water ski park and the race was all over by 11am for us……so there was another event on that day….that I thought I would not get back in time for….so off I went!

King of the Mountain 

Kim interviewed after King of the Mountain Win

This is an iconic Mountain Running event held in the Noosa Hinterland town of Pomona and certainly one that has definitely contributed to my involvement in the sport of adventure racing. So I had time to get to the briefing at 2pm and the start at 3pm, and as the MDARA race was less than 3hrs long I did not feel too hammered. So I rocked up in my Team MD’s post event outfit, muddy race shoes and toed the line for the start. I was running 3^rd -4^th female in the run to the base and held 2^nd spot most of the way up the mountain. With just 50m of climbing to go I get to the front and never looked back. I descended the mountain fast but cautiously knowing I was in the lead and just had to get to that finish line unscathed…..easier said than done I can assure you! I crossed the line in just over 30 mins and securing my 3^rd King of the Mountain victory, somehow backing up after an adventure race that morning…..this felt like a dream! But I am off the NZ in October to Race up Mt Edgecombe in the King of the Mountain in Kawarau.

Ridgeline Gold Coast Adventure Race (GCAR)

Gary & Leo at GCAR presentations

Gary, Sloshy and the Ridgeline Team have brought back their own version of the former Anaconda Gold Coast AR, which is actually a multisport event as it does not have navigation. This course is probably one of the toughest multisport events in Australia, and Gary made it tougher, with added single track on the bike. There was also a version that did not have a swim or ocean paddle, allowing for people to work their way up to the full distance course, with a river paddle only option. Leo formed a 2 person team with former MD team mate Nick More completing the paddle and the MTB legs, whilst I was up for the entire adventure. Great results with Leo’s team taking line honours, with fastest splits in the MTB (Leo) and run (Nick) and I was overall female winner.

Cyclegaine 

Gary & Sloshy marking up maps

This was a 6hr rogaine style MTB event. Gary raced with Sloshy as they were missing being out racing and took overall honours, Leo teamed up the Brett Stevens and Ray Deetleefs and were on the podium, and I raced mixed pairs with Alex Austin (who was my team mate for the Ridgeline Step Up event) and managed to take the win in the mixed team category. Great results for Team MD’s again especially Gary and Sloshy who actually cleared the course in very wet muddy conditions…..it rained for the full 6hrs!

Straddie Salute 

Kim, the Cleveland Mayor and the Straddie Salute Trophy 

I was the only Team MD’s member rocking up to this off road triathlon event on the picturesque North Stradbroke Island. I still love a race with an ocean swim and as I am heading to Lorne for the 10^th Anniversary of the Lorne Adventure Race (former Anaconda AR) in December it was a good chance to try a new off-road multisport event. The swim was rough and choppy and challenging, the bike was 60% road and the rest flat off road, meaning it was fast and furious, and the trail run was hilly but rewarding as there was beautiful scenery and plenty of up’s and downs mostly trails. I was crowned Straddie Salute Female Champion and took home the biggest most beautiful trophy ever!

MTBO 

Part of the skill of AR involves keep your Nav skills sharp, so instead of resting up after the Straddie Salute, I backed up the next day with a 38k MTB course at Wild Horse mountain. I was a bit tired and fatigued and when I lost my zinger (that’s the electronic timing stick) I just did the rest of the course with Jan……so we shared the nav decisions like you do in an AR event….great training!

6- 12hr Rogaine….Gary had a niggle, in his hamstring so he had to pull the pin on this event however Gary Palmer (Gary’s wild side partner …..read more about this later) was still up for some good navigation practice and competed in the 12hr event. I opted to race the 6hr in an all-female team with Jan & Gina to get some final navigation practice for Hells Bells and not have to race as hard as I do when I race with the boys. Leo was off in NZ skiing with his old school mates and Sloshy was setting the course for Hells Bells.

The Flight Centre Epic 

Kim receives trophy for Endurance Champion

The Flight Centre Epic is one of Queensland’s most iconic MTB endurance events and has been going for over 10 years……I opted for the 11k trial run on the Saturday (preparation for NZ) and the 87k MTB event on Sunday……good training. Somehow I ended up racing in the elite women’s field and had a cracker of a day finishing 3^rd Elite female on a very tough day of racing especially backing up after the trail run the day before. I was shattered at the end as the mud on the course for the first 2-3 hrs, meant there was plenty of hike a bike and stopping to scrape the mud off wheels that had stopped turning. The trails at Spicer’s Hidden vale are pretty technical too, so it was a great chance to see how far I have come on the MTB since first having done this event as a point to point race back in 2005. A great tough weekend that definitely toughens you up! But will I recover enough for Hells Bells????

Hells Bells 

Leo & Kim set off on the paddle in shallow water!

Gary and Sloshy and the Dare You Team created another great AR event which lived up to its name and did not disappoint!  I was not recovered…..I was tired and exhausted from the Epic and a big week of work…. up late may nights making assignments (the end of term for a teacher is always pretty busy and stressful)…..and having had so many weekends of non-stop racing, I was not sure how the body would react, but at least now I was officially on school holidays….Leo was backing up after a big training weekend with Gary the previous weekend as well as a week of skiing in Queenstown! This year saw a change to an early start to Hells Bells which meant more racing in daylight, and thus more opportunity to see the spectacular scenery. The setting was Delaney’s Creek near Woodford and Somerset Dam, Mt Mee and the D’Aguilar National Park, a totally new area for adventure racing! Map handout was 6am and race start was 8am, so just 2hrs to prepare 5 maps and pack 3 boxes…..think we just had 2 minutes to spare before the start. The format was Bike, Paddle, Bike, Trek, Bike, Trek, Bike, and it was a big mass road ride out to CP4/TA1 for the start of the paddle, with not much chance for teams to split, so we had Adventure Junkies, Rogue, Area51 and Team MD’s all sharing the work at the front to the pack. The paddle was Rogaine style, so Rogue and just one team travelled anticlockwise and the rest of the teams clockwise, and again there was not much chance to split up, with all teams in full sight of each other. 

We got back to TA and out on the bikes in 2^nd behind Adventure Junkies and headed to CP6 – Fig Tree. We found the tree but not the CP hidden in the massive roots…..so the three teams were soon all together again, however we managed to get a slight advantage out of CP 7 from Area 51 and in and out of TA 2 – CP out before they arrived. On this foot leg we had to locate the first CP to find the location of the next and so on….we overshot the first one, and had to backtrack in the creek, so did Adventure Junkies and Area 51, and many of the Fairy Bells Teams….we basically did this leg alongside Adventure Junkies working together to find CP G at the base of the cliff. We both arrived back at the TA and set off on the bikes together again, and we in for some serious climbing……now I was starting to feel the previous weeks of non-stop racing, so Leo and I settled into a good rhythm, sharing the bike navigation and happy to be in 2^nd place. Going a bit easy meant we did not blow up on the hills and made no mistakes, and arrived at the TA CP15 just 6 minutes behind Adventure Junkies…..and were now more than 7hrs into the race. 

We then set out on a foot navigation leg that proved to be very challenging for every team. We nailed CP O, M, and L then had a pretty horrendous bush bash out to the trail up to P. We were then stumped at this point as we could not find P, we checked and cross checked and were 100% sure we were in the right spot, so had to abandon and keep moving…..had the Adventure Junkies found it???? We had no idea…..so we headed for CPK at the lookout. We got to what looked like a lookout….no CP….progressed to another lookout……no CP ….now starting to get worried we checked the map again and realised it was a bit off the high point….and were relieved to see Somerset lookout in daylight and find the punch with no flag! We ran all the way down a great ridgeline and overshot the track to CPN and so went the long way in and found it no worries and hightailed it back to the TA to find that we were ahead of Adventure Junkies and had a 20 minute lead on Area51 going into the leg……but we had to report that we had not located P. 

Mystery Leg that challenged many a team!

We were then informed of a mystery leg….more CP’s on foot which we had to draw on our map. Now as I was going to mark up the map and Leo was having a feed, I noticed that Leo had trimmed map…..but luckily it had 99.9% of the part we needed. I personally never like to crop any of the maps as you just never know in AR what you are going to get……. Anyway it was just getting dark so on with the Ay Up’s and we chose to get CP Q by following the trail to the track creek junction, then walk in and out up the creek….spotting a beautiful Owl along the way. Unlike many of the team we had no troubles locating CP S & R although we did note that the hike up to R would certainly test teams. Just as we were heading back to the TA we noticed lights and knew the Adventure Junkies were hot on our heels…..and we were about to find out if CP P was misplaced or if other teams had found it. 

Leo and Kim at the Finish....whats in the mug? Beer!

To our delight it had been hung in the wrong spot, and we were credited the CP, so we had a lead and just had on bike leg to go, it was now almost 7.15pm. Knowing we did not have much of a lead, we raced hard all the way to the finish and enjoyed the great lights of Brisbane from the top of MT Mee, and crossed the line at 8.19pm after 12hrs and 19 minutes of Hells Bells. A great result for us to make it 3 in a row on the Trophy for Team MD’s ……now Leo gets to put this on his dining room table! Rounding off the podium were Adventure Junkies (1^st Male Team) at 8.44pm and Area 51 (2^nd Mixed Team) at 9.45pm. Now I get to relax and enjoy 2 weeks holiday! Oh and the Prize for Hells Bells this year was  a free entry into the X-marathon Adventure Junkie Race on 13^th & 14^th December in Eildon Victoria , so  I have lined up Sloshy as my Team MD’s partner!

Leo hugs the very special 'Hells Bells' Trophy with Kim!

Wow…..what a year for Team Mountain Designs, so many great places visited and so many awesome adventures!

Jodie & Darren prepare for Wildside

What’s Next ……well Gary is off to the Wild Side……..This is an all new AR Expedition 5 Day event based in Forster NSW. He is teaming with one his original race partners Jodie Miekle & her Geo half partner Darren Harrow from NSW. Jodie now a mum with 3 kids has had some time away from the sport, but is back into it again

having competed at the past two Geo half events, alongside Darren. They have been preparing by doing some of the Kathmandu Adventure Races in NSW and putting in some big training weekends.  Also joining the team is Gary Palmer one of Queensland’s more experienced adventure racers, who races for Team Cyclezone who have finished top 5 at Geoquest in the past 2 years. So Gary Sutherland has been training the house down, when he has not been running around the bush setting crazy courses for all of us. Although this Team MD’s line up will not have raced together as one unit before, the experience and strength of Team Leader Gary Sutherland will certainly be a force to contend with at the Wildside!