We had an awesome race last weekend up on the Central Coast for the start of the adventure racing season, even if we did make a major mistake at the start line.

The race started out tough with a long beach run from Shelley Beach to the Entrance. We made the mistake of heading to the streets to avoid the first section of sand. This unfortunately put us behind the pack and we ended up at the first transition area in 106th place out of 153 teams. Oh well, that is what it is all about, making the correct navigational decisions.

We then had to swim across the channel at the entrance, which was short and intense with an extreme current running through the mouth of the river.

The next leg was a kayak from The Entrance to Wyong. Kayaking is always our least favourite leg and this was an extremely long kayak, seeing us completing this leg in 1hr flat.

After a quick swim across the Wyong river in the freezing cold water, pushing aside the masses of jelly fish that floated in our paths, we emerged dripping wet and with a mild case of hypothermia. (well it felt like it for 10 mins anyway)

We got onto our bikes and headed to Ourimbah State Forest. Sweet! I love those trails. Unfortunately, we were stuck behind so many poeple and it’s all single track, so hard to make a break for it. The upside is that I saw some scenery I have never seen there before as I have never been along the tracks so slowly before.

The next leg was running and navigation. We had a great run, no mistakes on the navigation and managed to make up some ground on this leg.

Back to the bikes and the dash for the finish. When I say dash, I mean 1hr 5mins intense uphill and single track mountian biking. Awesome fun! For those of you who know Ourimbah, we had to get back to the top of the Roller Coaster before heading back to Wyong.

Then it happened… I got a flat tyre! Luckily we are somewhat fast at changing flats, so we were done in around 7 mins. Unfortunately, this put us back about 8 places.

We finished up the race in 52nd position. not our best result, but we thoroughly enjoyed the race! (other than the kayak)

Our direct competition was Jack Peacock’s team – “The Calamari Brothers”. Jack was my team mate in April at Lake MacQuarie. We beat his team by 6mins and 10 places.

Our other competition was Mark Smith’s team – “Giant Gonzalez”. Mark was my team mate in last October’s Cattai National Park race. We beat them by 41mins and 51 places.

The next race is on the 28th November, let’s get a few teams together and have some fun!