It was Sunday afternoon, around
3pm, when I finished the Avon descent and our plane was at midnight that same
day….I was flying to California for a 5days expedition race and I couldn’t move
my arms up, my abs were on fire and I had banged pretty bad my wrist and hip…I
was a bit concerned and exhausted too. I put my unleash compression top hoping
it would help my shoulders to recover even if I would be in the plane for 18
hours or more. I had my usual compression pants and I even put some compression
socks since I landed in Perth with
cankles :/
When I got LA I didn’t get much
time to switch terminal and get a plane to Las Vegas
where team Sole, Paul Karen and Aaron were going to pick me up from.
I had shipped all my gears to the
race headquarter at the bear valley lodge so I didn’t have to worry too much
about my bike etc. I was only travelling with my paddling gears.
Shortly after I landed in Vegas
team Sole picked me up and there we go for a 12h roadtrip in their awesome van
directionBear Valley California .
At 6pm
the van stopped, it was time for a “short run in the desert”. I had landed a
few hours before and my body was swollen and in pain but I didn’t want them to
think I was weak so I went but didn’t managed to run very well :/ oh well, at
least it was team bonding .
Late that night we got to Bear
valley where we “camped” in the awesome trailer attached to the van.
On Tuesday I got my gear from the
lodge. We had to go through check in and a few test (ropes and swim out and in
the boat) at registration. We needed to give our transition boxes, bikes and
bags by the evening before the dinner and briefing where we would have the
maps. We managed to fit in a real quick MTB
with the team before handing everything thing and by 6pmwe were having dinner
with the other teams etc…
After dinner we got the maps, we
plotted, double checked everything and went to bed at a pretty reasonable time.
Wednesday morning, start of the
race. It started by a 40km ish paddle in tandem kayaks not very manoeuvrable
and pretty heavy. I was paddling with Aaron and Paul was with Karen. It took us
a couple of hours to get the bloody boat to go straight but we ended up
mastering it J. We came in the first transition in 3rd position just after the
yoga slackers and technu. After a pretty fast transition we were off with the
yoga on the second leg, a 40km trek. It started climbing a lot and the
temperature was very very hot. Being in long sleeves as I never raced in tee
shirt before (I have always been cold too easily) I overheated very quickly and
in no time my team had me with only my bib on and they were carrying my
backpack up the hill. I recovered fairly quickly which was unfortunately not
the case for other teams. We passed technu who had some troubles with the heat
on that climb and the yoga too. After 5pm
I started to feel a lot better with the temperature dropping even so slightly.
The dark came and we were in a canyon. I just bought that new 100lumen headlamp
which I thought would be enough for the trek but the lamp didn’t end up working
well and I couldn’t see much. One of my team mate had to walk behind me to give
me a little bit of light which slowed us down a lot. By the morning the Spanish
team flew by. They were so fast. We decided at that point to go over the
mountain and down the other side which I don’t think was a good move after all
due to a thick bushwalk very unpleasant. We arrived at TA2 in third place, the
Spanish team being 1h1/2 ahead of us and the second, perdidos being in
transition. We had a technu shower there to remove the poison oak from our
skin, got changed and jumped on our bikes for a 160km MTB .
After the trek of the day before
and the massive heat we decided it would be a good idea to stop during the
hottest hour of the day to sleep. So we stopped about 3hours in total along a
nice flowing river but because of the heat neither Aaron nor I got much more
than 1h sleep there. By the time we jumped back on the bikes we just saw
Perdidos and the Yoga slackers passing by. In no time we were climbing on the
bikes and not even an hour after we saw them we passed Perdidos. I was very
lucky to have Paul Aaron and Karen with me as they are awesome bikers and they
coached me during the whole race. I seriously think I have learned a lot from
them on the bike and it made my experience amazing. There was a lot a lot a lot
of climbing during that MTB section but it
was ok. I even felt stronger as we were climbing. The last 30km of the MTB
leg killed me as my bum was so sore. I made the mistake of having too many
layers with my shorts and undies etc and couldn’t bare sitting on my saddle
anymore… What a damn relieve when we saw the transition TA3.
This transition ended up being a
little bit slow but it was ok. We were still in 2nd position after the Spanish
team when we headed for the 72km trek. My feet were sore but not from blisters,
from the cleats of my MTB shoes. I struggled
a fair bit during that trek. Once again we were in a kind of canyon for most of
the day. It was amazing though with lots of little and not so little pools here
and there. We even had a quick dip in one of them.
We then climbed a mountain which
went a lot better for me as I think my weight wasn’t distributed the same on
the sole of my foot and finished the trek by walking/jogging from time to time
on a dirt road which was painful…no fun…
We reached TA4 in the middle of
the night and decided to sleep a couple of hours. We were still 2nd, Technu 4h
or so behind, the Spanish team at least 8h ahead and no other teams were on the
“full course”. Unfortunately my alarm didn’t go off as expected and we stayed
in transition a good 3hours.We jumped on our bike and started going down to the
next CP. After that CP we started climbing and climbing again. Karen and Paul
were on fire (as usually…they are soooo strong) and Aaron was hanging in the
back with me. We got to that CP that was a loop on foot to the giant tree and
when we came back to the bike there was oranges and melon yum yum yummmmm. We
got to TA5 where even more yummy food prepared by some volunteers was waiting
for us. Cheese sandwiches, beans etc… that was great. I think I ate 4
sandwiches haha.
We left that transition to attack
what was going to be the last leg of the course, a 24km trek in the canyon to a
rope course followed by a packraft orienteering and a small trek to the finish.
We were moving pretty fast and confident in that canyon. It was still very hot
and we were drinking often from the river…until the fire!!! About 3hours
through we saw some smoke and an helicopter. There was a forest fire that had
started on the other side of the river. After sitting there for almost an hour
trying to make contact to the helicopter above us and or to the race directors
without success we decided to keep going. The fire was at our level anyway but
on the other side of the river. It would be as safe to keep going as to turn
around. We kept going keeping us low close to the water in case we needed to
jump in. No long after we were safely far enough from the fire to be worried
anymore. We kept progressing through the canyon, even swam across the river to
get to the other side. The dark came quickly and we were still progressing
pretty fast until we reached the point where we made a navigational mistake
following the wrong river south which cost us a log long trek. We finally found
a kind of campground where we slept for a few hours till we could figure out where
we were. After a few hours more trekking in the morning we ended up near a
reservoir pretty far off where we were supposed to be. Once we reached the road
a pick up with race volunteers were there and asked us to jump in. They said
everyone had a ride and that they would take us to the ropes before it closes.
So we did. We got to the rope site and did the ascend, the rappel, the traverse
and the other rappel down. It was pretty cool.
We realised we wouldn’t have time
to get to the packraft section before the end of the race so we hiked back to
the finish from there with Aaron proudly leading the way.
We passed the finish line at
about 3pm exhausted.
I have never pushed as hard in my
entire life than during that race. It was amazing and I thank Paul Karen and
Aaron for giving me a chance to push my limits so much and for giving me a
chance.
We got second place at the end.
However there is a lot of talking as to revise the results. It is a complicated
situation as all the other teams got a ride from TA5 to the rope course. We
were the only team to go through the canyon after the Spanish team. And since
we didn’t get the time to clear the whole course whilst other team did without
doing the canyon it poses some problem to the organisation to take a decision.
However as per the award ceremony
the race was called to an end at TA5 and the ranking then is supposed to be the
final ranking so the Spanish team first place, Team Sole (us) second and Technu
in third place.
Once again I would like to thank
Unleash compression without who I would have never gone through the race in one
piece but I would like to also thank now bars, frs and most important my
wonderful team.
N.L.
