Spring Challenge 2008

Sometime in March this year Helen, a colleague from work, mentioned that the Spring Challenge (see http://phandcr.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html) would be on again, was I keen to take part? You bet I was, but so were a few other girls from work. Last year the team I was in consisted of Caroline, Helen and myself, but this year Rose, Michelle, Linda and Myra were keen, too. As the Spring Challeng is an all women adventure race, with teams of three, we had one too many. Luckily, Caroline offered to be the super sub, basically she would keep the weekend of 28th of September free, in case one of us got injured. Teams were put together and we entered the event in April. Just as well, as it quickly filled up to the maximum capacity! Anyway, Helen, Myra and I were in one team, and Rose, Michelle and Linda were in the 'other' team. The 'other' team took training very seriously, with weekly runs, bike rides and orienteering events. My team got together once, in July, but mainly trained (for me just normal gym visits, nothing too strenious!) by ourselves. Unfortunately, Myra fell ill a few weeks before the Spring Challenge, and the super sub was only too happy to step in. So, my team was to be the same as last year. Which was great, as we knew each other's strenghts and weakenesses. Just to get the team spirit up, we decided that it would be a good idea to have a 'training' session together. Two day before the event, we walked Caroline's dog, and had a few beers together. Great training!

On Friday, after a half days work, we loaded Caroline's car with three mountain bikes, lots of gear, the team members, as well as Myra, who was now well enough to be one of our support crew. Off we went, to Kaikoura. At registration we had to attend a rafting safety briefing. Last year, I was quite nervous about the rafting, but the Hurunui then was very calm, and we did not even get a rapid. So this year I was just keen to get out onto the water, and only listened out when the OS rope was mentioned (the only way I remember this is the Oh Shit rope, something to hold onto when you fall out of the boat). Later on that evening we had to attend the race briefing. Here we were finally told what to expect for the following day, what the distances were, and the order of disciplines. Due to the bad weather in the weeks before the event, the organisers had to resort to plan E, they had to revise the course so many times as dry streams now where raging rivers, the rivers were flowing too fast to cross with a bike and gentle walking paths had disappeared.

After the race briefing we went back to our accommodation, where Pete joined us. Trying to pack our bags for the following day, making sure we had all the compulsory gear, as well as organising our transition bags, and as we were now taking the event seriously, we only had one beer each!

Sleep did not come easily, and the next day I was awake at the crack of dawn. So excited!!At 9am the event started and we were off. A 3km jog took us to the rafts. The rafting was 11km on the swollen Clarence River. A bit more challenging compared to last years river! We also only had 5 paddles (two teams and a guide per raft), which I guess we were meant to share around. But as I was taking this event as training for the Coast to Coast, I was not giving my paddle up. Caroline also wanted to paddle the whole way, and luckily the other ladies did not complain.After the raft we embarked on a 25km bike ride along the State Highway. Conditions were perfect, not a lot of wind, a great road surface but we were on mountain bikes! It was here that we found our from our very enthusiastic support crew, that we were ahead of the 'other' team, which gave us all a bit of pleasure! After 25km we got off the State Highway and entered a more scenic part of the bike ride. This was a bit more like mountain biking! A few river crossings, a lot of mud, single tracks but full of women in purple bibs!

We made it to the second transition point, and realised we were stil ahead of the 'other' team. This was very suprising, but made us feel great! At transition we took on more water, more food and prepared for a hike up Mt Fyffe. Bye support crew, see you at the finish, should not be too late. Famous last words....
We had to cycle for a few more kms and then we started our ascent of Mt Fyffe. We followed the path up, and it was steep! It was just a bit too far for me, my knee started aching about 20min from the top, wich slowed me down quite abit. What did not help either, that by this stage we had already walked through hail, and it had just started to snow! Spring? Did not feel like it! Anyway, after what did feel like ages, we made it up to the DOC hut. We managed to squeeze inside where it was dry, and tea was available. After sitting down for about 5 minutes, the 'other' team arrived. At this stage we decided it was probably best to group together, and we made the descent together.By now, we were walking in proper snow, and it started to get dark. No idea what the time was, all I could think about was how quickly we could be finished! When we did make it down, we still had a 12 km bike ride, followed by a 2.5 km jog. We were all very tired, cold and fed up, but stayed together. The bike ride was challenging, if only because not everyone had decent lights. Caroline and I had bike lights to be seen with, but we could not see a thing with them! This last bike ride was hard, we had to all stay together, it was pitch black, and not everyone felt comfortable riding in these conditions. This resulted in this leg taking nearly twice as long as it should have! And then, all of a sudden, I could see the finish. But I also knew we still had a 2.5 km jog. to do. Strangely enough, I was actually looking forward to this, as it would mean warming up body parts I could no longer feel! But when an official told us we had to keep riding until the finish I was even happier, only 300 metres and I would be done.

I dumped my bike, and we all crossed the line together.

I was past smiling, as this photo shows me 11 hours and 25 minutes after I started. I felt miserable!

However, the following day I was much better, most of the hard bits have been forgotten and I am already looking forward to next year's event, which will be held in Queenstown. Might even do some hill training, for once!