Geo quest race report
June 9th, 2009
A race report from Greg who competed in the Geo Quest at Forster NSW in the weekend…..
Well we finished, 32.5 hours (8.30am Saturday to 5pm Sunday). Commenced in the Barrington Tops, high in the great dividing range and about 3 degrees.
Started with 6km bush bash to pick up 3 checkpoints. Took us 2hr 13 min, bashing through dense scrub (lantana) and up and down a river. Hands and arms cut and scratched, feet always wet from multiple river crossings.
Then off on a 25k mountain bike, and I mean mountain! I believe it was about 900m at the summit. This was a slog with many instances of pushing the bike, but what a great descend. Through private properties with only the hint of a track, all the time navigating to pick up checkpoints. 2hr 45m. There was one crap bit, one the descent down a steep ridgeline with no track and an awesome view the rider in front of me kept going through fresh cow pats. Needless to say when riding about 2 metres behind I could not avoid the spray. The outcome was smelly and didn’t taste the best.
We then had a transport section in the ute to a lower river. On the way we dropped off our bikes and trekking gear at a future checkpoint.
Pumped up the kayaks and paddled about 10k up a river. It was a bit difficult in the last few k’s as it was pitch black and the river narrowed.
We then went into a sectioned that contained a 53k mountain bike and a 20k trek. We could not have any assistance so needed to carry all clothing, food, water and lights(enough batter power for at least 12hr) for what we thought was going to be about 12hrs, we took 7.5hrs on the bike, right on target, but the trek took us 9.5hr to cover 20k. 17hr in total (shit!)
We started the section at 6.30pm Saturday and finished it at 12noon Sunday. We had to pickup 10 checkpoints in any order out of a possible 14, done.
There was some really serious bush basing, extremely steep slopes and very thick lantana. By the time we picked up the bike check points we had covered 70k and we reckon the trek was closer to 30k.
We had arrived at the final leg. Build a raft, paddle across a lake, carry the raft for about 1.5k overland and paddle across another lake to the finish. It took us an hour the refuel and build the raft and 4hr to reach the finish. The bloody raft kept falling apart, a wet encounter.
What a way to spend your birthday, the team sang happy birthday to me at 12 midnight on some isolated bush track.
Had a couple of beers at the finish, slept on the trip back to Forster and then went out with the team and supporters and celebrated
No injuries, no arguments and still friends. A great race and will do it again.
Most of you will know how I usually don’t feel the cold. I raced with a short sleeve thermal, then a long sleeve thermal, a thermal tee shirt, a bike vest and a race top. In the early hours of Sunday morning it rain and I added a gortex jacket. Never over heated. On the bottom half, merino wool race shorts, then long leg compression tights and a pair of bike knicks on the MTB legs. Always wore light full fingered gloves.
Vince did a sterling job as our race support crew and Geri was our rock at base camp. Thanks to them both, we could not have survived without them.
Hope you are all well and I will see you later
