Manly Metorgaine

**UPDATE 14/03/07: Lynda and I managed to secure 3rd place in the Novice Category.



My original partner Debbie, had to pull out a couple of day's before the event (Manly Metrogaine), but her sister was fantastic and said she'd fill in for her. Onya Lynda. She was a great partner and considering she really didn't know what she was getting into, it was a super effort.

The day started at 8:00 with registration, then plannignout our route. 9:00 saw the pre-event briefing and 9:30 we were off. The map basically covered 50 sq km of the northern beaches (60 odd controls - full map) and 6hours to get as many points as possible.

Controls covered: 13, 25, 83, 70, 44, 84, 35, 36, 60, 34, 33, 71, 24, 65, 40, 91, 50, 31, 27, 90, 15, 80, 52, 46, 53, 63, 41, 22, 16, 11, 10, finish (5hr 45min).

About now (4.5 hours into it) the heavens opend up and we got a right soaking. So I had to pack away my camera.

Tired and stiff, we celebrated our efforts with a sausage sizzle.

Summer Series - North Epping

21st February, Whale Rock, Epping Oval, Norfolk Road, North Epping


It was a beautiful evening for the run, perfect. the courses looked good and I was confident of a reasonable score. All started out well, until the 8th control in where I took a wrong turn and ended up bush bashing, but more importantly losing time, when i finally emerged from the bush, I had miss 2 of my planned controls (wasted 5-10mins) but some how managed to find the street that i was on straight away, finally back on track, I arrived 3 mins late, scoring 320 points. A good run.


NB: 100 paces = 100 mtrs, good to know when trying to judge distances between points. especially on the bush tracks.

MTBO SS1 Belanglo

It was a beautiful day, perfect for a ride, and a great way to start the first MTBO Super Series for 07 (Long Course - 45kms) yesterday. The only thing not ready was me. I miscalculated my travelling time to the Belanglo State Forest. So it was a rush to register, set my bike up and make the start line in time. As I was collecting my map I saw the rest of the field disappearing into the distance. But not being too disheartened I carried on, and infact I did manage to make up some ground by the first control. Infact as I was heading to the second control, I passed someone who was already lost (before control 1). I felt a bit rusty and made a coupel of simple navigation errors that probably cost me 30mins over the course of the day.

I did finish in the end, in 3.5 hours and not last. :-) Better luck next time.

Happy trails.


Update: Results 30/33, 201.10mins (Full Results)

AROC Sydney Results

Team #: 48
Team Name :Mixed Nuts
Division: Male
Total Time : 4:31:49
Overall Place: 46
Division Place: 25
Leg 1 - Run: 0:11:37
Leg 2 - Bike: 0:28:06
Leg 3 - Run: 1:03:02
Leg 4 - Bike: 0:16:02
Leg 5 - Run / Building Challenge: 0:30:20
Leg 6 - Bike: 0:29:51
Leg 7 - Kayak / Borat challenge: 1:05:40
Leg 8 - Bike / Aquatic Challenge: 0:27:11
Leg 9 (Bonus) - Digestion Challenge / Bike / Aquatic Challenge: NA
Finish Time: 22:40:14
Time adjustment: NA
Reason for Adjustment: NA

Click here for the full list of results.

Summer Series - Roseville Chase

14th February, Explosives Reserve, Echo Point Park, Babbage Road, Roseville Chase

This weeks event was held in Roseville Chase, it was a long and hilly course, again i headed out to the furtherest point and was 7 mins late and scored 270.

AROC Sydney Olympic Park

The second AROC race of 2007 was at Homebush, it was a Day/Night event. There had been a forecast of showers that night, but at 18:15 (Start time) it was overcast, but dry and warm. It was going to be a 7 leg race, but instead of control punches at each point, there were a series of questions that had to be answered, and the location of some checkpoints depended on previous answers. My teammates for this event were Dan & Konrad, we started the day off with four legged race to CP1, at TA1 it was on the bikes to TA2, it was then a running leg to TA3. We were 38th when we got back onto the bike and heading off to TA4, From TA4 it was a run around the Newington Armory to TA5, it then was a ride to TA6 and it was onto the water to Kayak from the Ferry stop to a shipwreck (near the Rhodes Waterside Shopping Centre), again this was my weakest discipline, I've really got to do something about it, once back in land there was a challenge of locating clues and deciphering a code to be able to head off to the last TA (8) the "Aquatic Centre" this was a fun section and we just missed the cutoff (22:30) by 90 seconds. Wading in the pools and climbing over the inflatable obstacles was great fun. Our next and last stop was the finish line, about 4hr27mins after we finished (and hopefully in the top 50 teams).

It was a great night and we were well pleased with our efforts. We're now looking forward to the next event in April on the Central Coast.

I'm in and I'll raise you...

Friday night was "Poker Night", it was a night of raising and bluffing, quite a bit of bluffing actually. It quickly became apparent that who knew how to play and those who were starting out, but it was a fun night.

Summer Series - Putney

7th February, Morrisons Bay, Morrison Bay Park, Frances Road, Putney



This week I found myself in Putney, which is just one suburb away from my office at Rhodes so feeling energetic I decided to ride to the event after work. a rather large storm was gathering about and with 15mins befor I started the was plenty of lightning and the spitting of rain. But fortunatley that was as bad as it was going to get.

The course itself was pretty open and undulating with plenty of running, but not too much double backing involved. I collected 19 controls and was just over a minute late (20 point penalty), but i managed to get my highest score to date, 370.

Dirtworks Training Begun

With the Dirtworks ride only 3mths away now, it's time to get into some serious training, so I officially kicked it off with a 84km ride round Sydney (San Souci, Rhodes, Balmain, Liechhardt) on Saturday and increasing the number of commuter rides to work and a bit of running, I'm hoping to be ready for the event this time.

Opportunity lost WWS Round 1

Well, it was an opportunity lost this week, on picking up my bike after a service, I found out that Round 1 of the Working Week Series was being held in Lithgow the next day (Sunday). Bugger! It was my intention to race. I had the race date down in my calandar as the 11 Feb 07 a week later.

Oh well, next time.

P

Summer Series - Telopea

31st January, Vineyard Creek, Vineyard Creek Reserve, Tintern Avenue, Telopea

Telopea is located in the North West of Sydney, some say in the "Bible Belt of Sydney". By the time I arrived there were a few spits of rain from the sky and it all looked like it could come bucketing down at anytime. There weren't any obvious routes to choose on this one, there was plenty of doubling back. I was happy with my run and things were going well until I hit control 19, this cost me around 5~7mins ( I just couldn't locate the control) that would make me 6 minutes late. 220 point (inc penalties of 60 points). An enjoyable course, especially after the hills of Cremorne last week.

Summer Series - Cremorne

24th January, Folly Point, Primrose Park, Young Street, Cremorne.

It was an overcast evening and the threat of rain, but in the end it didn't eventuate. The air tempreture was perfect for running. This particular course was set to hurt you, there were plenty of hills and spread out controls, no easy points on this one.

Again my plan was to head to the furthest point and work my way back collecting the controls along the way. Climbing out of the start (Primrose Park) point was tough, but once the heart rate came down below 200bpm :-), now settling into a nice rhythm this allowed me to focus more on my navigation, although I did start to second guess myself a couple of times the overall effort was good.

In the end, I came home with 2 mins to spare and collected 260 points, even more surprising I manage to pip Nick and Alastair this time. Next week we're off to Telopea (wherever that is?).

Summer Series - Greenwich

It was back to my old stomping ground of Greenwich (Manning Park) last night for the latest Summer Series event. The weather was threatening and with a stiff breeze that made the run, just that little bit harder than it had to be :-) And of course plenty of hills.

This week I decided to try a different plan, it was going to be about distance not points this week. Instead of going for the natural clump of controls, I thought why not push myself, by making my way to the furthest points this week. Trying improve my fitness, by having to run further. So I chose to attack the controls in Woolstonecraft, running along the bush track linking the suburbs. It was much nicer than just running along the street.

In the end, I ran over time by 4 mins. But was happy with the distance covered.

100KM Classic... am I crazy?

Now, call me crazy, I've committed my hard earned, but I just couldn't help myself. I think I'll need to do a little bit of training for this one.

Now this is the ride profile from last year.



The other crazy man to join me so far is my "Highland Fling" and "Adventure Racer" buddy, Mark.

MaxAdventure : Results Update

Place: 86th out of 125 (Overall)

Time: 07:51:19

Penalties: None

 

Full results: http://www.maxadventure.com.au/k107_results.htm

 

MaxAdventure - Blue Mountains

Yesterday at Leonay NSW (the foot of the Blue Mountains), was where it started. The first MaxAdventure race of 2007. Due to numbers we were to start a hour behind the first group at 10:00. 8hr52mins later Mark and I finally carried our kayak up the enbankment to complete a long day. The presentations had long finished, the prizes distributed and speaches given, only the organisers and a few weary compeditors remained contemplating the day.

It was a gloroius day, it started with a run leg, the off onto the mountain bikes and we headed up the Blue Mountain. Then back down to the transition area, and off on the trek leg, a kayak (up the Nepean), back on foot (through the Blue Mountains National Park @ Glenbrook). The leg was particularly challenging as it required us to traverse through Glenbrook Gorge - no track) and finally back in the kayak to finish the day.

We did make a couple of navigation errors that cost us about an hour and a half over the course of the day, but we did finish (even some of the elite teams didn't finish) and we did collect "all" the checkpoints. The only injury for me was my right knee about an hour out from the end. While I was certainly tired I was not a compelete wreck which I'm claiming as a victory to me.

Here's to the next event.

Summer Series - Harbord

This week the Summer Series finds itself on the Northern Beaches "Harbord". This time I stuck to my plan, didn't get lost and finished early (no penalties). Now I just have to improve my running. Course Map



"Curl Curl" Beach

Sydney Summer Series - Linfield

Well it was a my first attempt at a "Summer Series" event last night. It's a way for me to do some running but with a purpose. The course location this week was Linfield, I was happy with my progress and chosen course until a made a wrong turn on my way back to the finish line. This cost me about 7 mins, that ultimately made me run 9 mins late (max time 45mins) and penalties were accumilated. Something to be more careful of next time. But a nice way to spend a summer evening.

Happy New Year to All.

Happy New Year to you all, and may 2007 be all that you want it to be. Remember to "Live Loud" :-)