The Brindabella Challenge 2005

    Did the Brindabella Challenge on the weekend. Took Friday off and headed down to Canberra for the Night AROC adventure race (stage 1). At about 5pm a *massive* cold from came over and wreaked havoc on Canberra. Trees were uprooted, there was traffic carnage and the Canberra hospital had many windows blown out. The Race was postponed to Saturday night. That meant that my team mates had to drive 3 hours to attend to family commitments and then drive back the next day. Lucky them! I just had to ride a 55km MTB race! The postponement meant that I would have to race the 55km Brindabella classic in the morning then drive straight to the AROC adventure race, get a few hours kip and then get up and do a 7 hour urban polaris. It was going to be an epic weekend!

The rain continued to fall heavily making the mostly fire road 55km classic somewhat more technical than expected. We climbed from 450m up to Mt Blundell at 1225m and then decended *rapidly* back to the start/finish area. I was reaching speeds in excess of 55km/hr on the descents and getting plenty of drift around the corners. A hesitation around one corner saw me hit the deck badly at about 40km/hr. Its the first time I had ever hit my head cycling. Luckily there were others around and I got them to check me out before I continued. I was *absolutely* blanketed in mud. The crash busted my shocks up pretty bad so I was going to have to ride a rigid all weekend. Bummer.

I finished the 55k at around 2 and headed straight back into the event center for the AROC briefing at 4. I had to configure (and clean!) my bike before the race as well. As usual we got to the start with only minutes to spare. My team mates and I worked quite well together and we kept up a cracking pace. Transitions were smooth and roles allocated effectively. We were told at the start that, to make it more interesting, the top teams would be sent out for another loop if they finished in the daylight. I didnt think we would be up there but I spoke a little too soon. We placed in the top 10 and were sent out for another loop consisting of 2 run legs, 2 bike legs and a long kayak section. I hit the wall pretty bad in this section but we all kept together ok. My weakest leg (no pun intended) was running, my legs just wouldnt go because they were so full of lactic acid. Melissas lights malfunctioned on the bike and we made a crucial route error costing us 20 minutes, 3 places and another long run up a big friggin' hill. I nearly threw up near the top as all I had eaten since 9am was powerbars and goo... it was now 10pm. We finished in about 4.5 hours and came 13th (I think) overall. not sure about our category place. I got a pizza with Graeme, Melissa drove home and I was in bed by 1am.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzt. 4:30am. Rise and shine. Time for 7 hours on the bike! Simon and I were off for the urban polaris. We got to rego just before 6 and were (luckily) assigned a start time of 9:30. This gave me time to tweak the bike and dry out some clothes. The urban polaris is a unique event as you are rinding around the city (and surrounding bushland). Canberra is undoubtedly the most beautiful city in Australia. There are so many little nooks and crannies. The controls were interesting too: one was placed in the tigers enclosure at the zoo, another on an island I had to swim to. One control was at a bowling alley where we bowled two balls and this score was added to our tally. We went up black mountain tower, fully kitted in adventure racing attire... One control we didnt get to was up a wall at a climbing gym! It was a top day but it tooks its toll on me and for the last hour or so I was just cooked. We covered 95km in our 7 hour stint. We finished mid pack but that was great considering my state. Blurred vision, slurred speech, sleep deprived, dehydrated, sunburnt... what a top weekend! :)

All up I covered just shy of 200km of mountain biking, I have ho idea how far we ran and paddled. I got a prize for being the only person at the presentation that did all 3 events (there were only a few of us crazy enough to do that). In two weeks the AROC comes to Narrabeen in Sydney. Im teaming up with Simon and Jiri. We should rock...