First AR of 2011

The plan was simple enough: enrol Team Five Ten into a Max Adventure Sprint race at Newcastle. Ed was out - he was on a bigger mission that weekend - running the Overland Track Race in Tassie. So Colin invited Emma to join him for the Sunday race and Carey and I would make up the second team for the day. That was the plan until Carey dislocated her shoulder on a training run the previous weekend.

What to do? Clearly I was desperate - I approached Andrew Love to see if he would come out of retirement for the fifth time. The last time we raced together, we were beaten to a pulp in the wee hours of the morning somewhere on the Kosicuisko high plains. I seem to remember Andrew swearing at me - a lot - and saying something along the lines of ...

" don't #$@*% ask me again! "

Oh well - I guess we both have Goldfish brains - because I asked him and he said yes!

A pre race meal stop at Maccas saw us witness one of the most powerful staff motivational speeches ever... Supervisor to recalcitrant employee - " I know it sucks arse but you just have to work harder! "

Andrew was in his usual form - with 3 minutes to race start - he was filling his water bladder - and trying to put his pants on - both at the same time. Needless to say we started at the back of 160 teams of two - with 320 people in front of us - you can only get better from this position.

At a balmy 38 deg we started the 1.5km run uphill to the bike transition. For some unknown reason Andrew has nicknamed me Eddie - so in the throng of sweating, panting people - all I could hear was Andrew yelling "come on Eddie let's surge!" I think it was his way of making up for the poor race start and a plan to get to the front. Much to the amusement of all - this

was repeated at least 10 times running up the hill. I didn't surge. It was going to be a hot race.

Once on the bikes, we shouldered past a lot of teams - with the radiators hissing we wheeled into the kayak leg - with one hour done - it was time to paddle one of the barges a couple of km around a coastal headland. Carey was at the kayak transition with some sage advice about a shortcut - but in our normal style we screwed it up and turned it into a long cut.

This was exacerbated when Andrew decided we needed some wet exit practise - what's this I hear you say? Andrew was bored and hot so he decided to tip us both in - and let a few teams pass us in the process - give them a chance he reckoned!

The coastal leg was fantastic - cool clear water and a few bomboras to surf. A three km beach run brought us back to the bikes and the final leg. A hot uphill ride and some fast single track to the finish.