XPD - Climb a Rope Day

Rumour has it that we will have a 100m prussik to complete during this years XPD.

Prussiking involves climbing up a rope using clamping devices to prevent you from sliding back down.  According to Race Director, Craig Bycroft - all teams are strongly advised to practise.  When Craig uses the words strongly advised - followed shortly after by - 

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Only people with a desire to endure extreme pain or who suffer from some form of brain damage would ignore it!

So with that in mind and the simple fact that we don't like to suffer.  Carey and I organised a Team training day to teach Tim, Joe and Kolya how to prussik.  The photos below tell the story.

A great day out with the Team - dialled in and ready to go.

Bring it on Craig!

Carey demonstrating technique to the Team

WHAT!!  "There's a problem with the rope???"

David looking concerned about Joe's rope concern.

Carey practising her XPD photo techniques

Kolya figuring out foot technique

Joe perfecting the Hump technique

Tim clearly having too much fun!

Kolya looking too calm and cool.

Apparently it works better when you stick your tongue out.

David demonstrating more empathy than normal.

Rock to River

As part of our XPD training, we had signed up for a multi sport race.  The Rock to River was to be run from the main street of Katoomba finishing on the Nepean River at Penrith.  For a number of reasons it was cancelled.

6.59 am and raring to go - the cold might have had something to do with the "let's get out of here looks"

This was good for us - as I had concerns that we would find the tight cutoffs a little too tight for our capabilities.  So we decided to do the course as planned - regardless.

Carey was co-opted to be our support crew.  

Three legs: 20km trekking across the Jamison valley, 50 km of MTBing down to Glenbrook and 24 km of paddling up the Nepean Gorge.

Sunday morning - 6.30 am in Katoomba - on the coldest day of the year was a pleasurable start!  The forecast was for snow - but it had dawned - cold, clear and a blue sky - things were looking up!

Cold and Blue - crossing the Jamison

A rather brisk walk took us into the Jamison Valley and warmer temperatures 600m lower than the start!

Jamison Creek

After 4 hrs we had climbed the infamous Kedumba Pass - back up into 1 - 2 degree celsius temperatures and a COLD driving wind that took the wind chill well below zero.

Nearing the top of Kedumba - a brisk 700m ascent

Time to ride - rugged up we headed down to lower climates.  By 3.30 pm we rolled into Glenbrook and a quick transition to paddling.

Done walking - time to ride

Up and Up

Last light saw us on the river - clear skies with an amazing moon made for super bright paddling up the Nepean Gorge.  COLD was now pressing - numb fingers and tiredness found us back at the car after 24km of brilliant night paddling.

100km in total - 14 hrs - 2200m of climbing.  A good day out.

A cold night on the river....

Breakfast Creek and Humble Pie

The Team prior to Humble Pie night

It started as a Gung Ho training trip - XPD style - it quickly unravelled into a hard night out.  It was to be a circuit - 6 Foot track to Dunphys - down Breakfast Creek to the Coxs River - then up Coxs until we hit the 6 Foot and back to the cars.

Hell Hole - a good name

Next, we were to ride up to Blackheath, Katoomba, Narrowneck and Taros Ladders back to the car.

Kolya scrubbing it out

What we actually did - was to spend a long time traversing the rocky terrain of Breakfast Ck - blackness, poor tracks, scrub, slippery rocks and multiple creek crossings meant very slow movement.  

Emma negotiating one of multiple crossings

The Coxs junction was reached at 2am and our plan was aborted - it was apparent, that at the rate we were travelling it would take another 6 - 10 hrs to walk up the Coxs.

Tim enjoying his stroll down Breakfast Creek

A steep ridge - affectionately known as Iron Mongrel was our new exit point - 600m of sharp climbing later, we were on top of Iron Pot Ridge - a piece of terrain well known to all North Face 100 runners!

Happy to be on top of Iron Pot Ridge - 3.30 am

So with our tails between our legs we made it back to the cars an hour before daylight.  We decided to have a quick kip in the car - by doing this we wouldn't need to put lights on our bikes.  And a little rest seemed a good idea - we had been moving constantly for almost 10 hrs.

After an hour of dozing a throbbing knee woke Tim up.  At this point it was obvious that further heroics were out - so we headed up to Blackheath for breakfast and 
a BIG slice of Humble Pie.

We had been thoroughly Breakfast Creeked!

Rubicon at its best - still laffing!

Solo on Solitary

Looking west to Mt Solitary and Narrowneck across the Jamison

Training in the Upper Blue Mountains has got to be one of the most spectacular places in NSW where you could spend a day suffering. A circuit of Mt Solitary and the Jamison Valley via Kedumba Pass is no exception. The day started cold - the rain of the week before had gone - the sky was blue and the air temperature a balmy 2 degrees. The westerly wind meant that the windchill was well below zero. A cracking start to a big day out. 

The walls of Kedumba Pass

A 700m descent off the couch got the knees a bit wobbly - then came the East Summit of Mt Solitary - a thigh burning ascent of 700m - straight up from the Jamison River. A crossing of Solitary is always stunning - cliffs and mountain views abound. 

On top of Mt Solitary

The North Walls of Solitary

The Ruined Castle track takes you below the majesty of the Landslide then onto tourist land below the Three Sisters. After this you are on your own to cross the Jamison. 

Below Ruined Castle

Crossing the Landslide

The Northern Walls of Mt Solitary - last light

About here, the light disappeared and the cold intensified. Steeply down to Leura creek - steeply up and over into Jamison River and then the lovely leg snapping 700m climb up Kedumba to finish. 10 hrs - a coupla 1000m metres of climbing and 40km of stunning terrain - a great day out training.

Rubicon Territory

GodZone 2014 - The Kaikoura

Chapter 3: Promotional Video from 100% PURE Racing on Vimeo.

Wet and Wetter - Training for the Desert

Pouring rain, heavy fog, flooded rivers, cold, dripping temperate rain forests and steep climbs - perfect training conditions for Western Tasmania and the 2011 XPD!  

But it's 2013 and in 8 weeks time we'll be in the desert of South Australia. The chances of this sort of rain and tempestuous weather will be low!

BUT you train when you can and you do what you can - whenever you can - that is the nature of preparing for an expedition length race!  The Adventure Racing World Series often uses the phrase "no second chances and no turning back" to describe their races.  

XPD is one of them!

So with that in the forefront of our minds - off we went into a VERY soggy Saturday in the upper Blue Mountains. Katoomba to the top of Mt Solitary and back via several ascents of the cliff line. Solid pace walking in difficult conditions - 29 km, 1500m of up and the last three hrs in swirling fog, pitch blackness and heavy rain.

A cracking day out.  The pictures tell the story......

Katoomba Falls on the rise

Down Furber Steps into the Jamison Valley

Ruined Castle Track to Mt Solitary

Perfect terrain for Rubiconners

Climbing Mt Solitary

Half way up Solitary looking back to Katoomba

No helmets here!

Golden Stairs up onto Narrowneck

More Golden Stairs - now a river - mist and rain swirling

Road back into Katoomba - lost in the fog and rain

Down Furber Steps - now in flood - air filled with water

Top of Giant Steps - 30 minutes to a pint of Guinness

Ahhhh GeoQuest - why we love you!

Taking a wombat out at high speed on my MTB - followed a week later by being rear ended at high speed while in my car was not the ideal Geo preparation!  Participation in this years GeoQuest was on and off and then finally on - filled with the maximum dose of Ibuprofen I finally put the Geo vest on!  With a fractured shoulder, twisted pelvis and two displaced ribs - sense prevailed and I opted out of the paddle legs - we were to start unranked.  I would join Tim, Dean and Rajan on the first trek leg and continue on with them for the rest of the race.

Launching :Leg One - Crowdy Head to Diamond Head

The first leg was an ocean paddle north from Crowdy Head lighthouse.  The sea looked benign but IT IS Geo and that rapidly changed. A tailwind and a following sea meant that the 16 km trip up the coast turned into an exciting and difficult paddle for the boys!  Tim our ocean paddler became seasick.  Raj and Dean kept their boat upright while many around them were upside down - a number of rescues took place by the marine safety boats.

Landing At Diamond Head

The boys came ashore, Tim was looking pale and rather forlorn and promptly threw his guts up! This was not a good start to our Geo campaign. After a good ralph - Tim was feeling better enough to start trekking - no running for a while but at least we were moving.  

Trek Leg Two - Diamond Head

Leg two - was a coastal trek with a 500 m swim - we carried pfd's and fins to help us across the waterway.  By the time we reached the swim - Tim was almost back on his game.  A tough effort!  There's nothing quite like cold water, wind and a cross sea to make the swim a little challenging. 

Sorta happy  - about to swim...

Deano enjoying a little backstroke.

A mangrove bog was next, then a couple of Kms later we began the steep ascent of North Brother. From here it was all downhill into Laurieton and the TA.  Leg 3 was another kayak paddle, 13km on an inland waterway - so the old fella got to have a little nanna nap while the boys paddled into the setting sun.  We'd been hustling all day to get onto the paddle with enough time to find the 3 checkpoints before dark.  Tim navigated the team well and the last checkpoint was tagged just as the lights went out.  Cold and wet Tim, Raj and Dean came into the TA 45 minutes after dark - a good effort.

Carey and Robbo were on the job when it came to supporting the team - hot food and coffee got us all sorted for the night ahead.  Leg 4 was a trek leg with 8 rogaine points to be found before the next TA.  This was going to be a difficult night nav leg.  Robbo's parting words to the navigator - "switch on and stay switched on!" 

Many teams came to grief on this leg. We nailed every checkpoint - walking directly onto every CP.  It was a brilliant team effort.  No mistakes and accurate navigating!  The highlights - deep ravines, awesome creek beds, rock slabs to climb, giant trees, a starry night and lots of body eating scrub! It's good karma to help other teams out - so in the dark we shared some of the checkpoint lead-ins with our mates. We arrived at the TA -  
1 am Sunday.  A hot coffee and a change into bike gear quickly saw us onto the road.  There is always one CP in Geo that is a nemesis to teams - and this leg had it. Fortunately we minimised our downtime here to about 30 minutes but many teams lost more than an hour finding CP12!

The rest of the night disappeared in a gloom of mist, pushing bikes up hill, riding cold down the other side and nodding off while riding.  First light brought a reprieve - and serotonin kicked in when the sun finally hit us! After numerous bog holes, steep climbs and descents we rode into the Forest Camp TA.  It was 9.45am - that was a long slow bike leg!  We were about 3 hours behind our timeline. It was time to get cracking.  Well, as cracking as you can get at hour 26!

Beautiful and difficult terrain - Leg 6!

Leg 6 - was going to be another difficult trekking leg. Just 3 checkpoints to get - but they were in deep ravines. The start looked good - the map indicated a walking track. It wasn't long before the track disappeared and we were scrub and rock bashing up a very deep and rugged river gorge.  Hard yards!  The only reward  - a beautiful gorge to offset the drudge.  The first CP was at the top of a very steep climb - a leg snapper.  From here - a compass bearing took us out onto a fire trail. A long slog up into the sun meant that the nods were upon us!  Left right left right for an hour and we were at our next lead in point.  A deep, heavily forested ravine and CP 19 was tagged and then it was about face - steeply up again to the trail.  

CP 20 - deep in a dark ravine and it's only 3pm!

The last CP on this leg was in an even deeper ravine followed by vines, thorns, spiky things, lantana, rotting logs, steep mud and at times the ubiquitous impenetrable Geo jungle! Covered in bits of the forest we emerged onto a fire trail for an 8 km road slog into Comboyne and the TA.

Shuffling into the Comboyne TA

We were racing the light again - this time we needed to get onto the final bike leg before dark - so we sucked it in and moved our tired and dead legs into a Cliffy Young shuffle.  As a team we trotted into the TA.  It was motivating to see Carey and Robbo - once again they fed us, got us sorted and mounted on our bikes, just as the lights went out for the second night.  

Off into the night.  Last Bike Leg

This was going to be a long tough leg with a rogaine half way through.  The good news - all we had to do was to safely complete the night and we would be at the final paddle leg at dawn!

We were promised a downhill run on this leg - well - that was the case for about 10km - then it became what I would describe as miserable. Push the bikes up 200m in altitude, ride down 200m and push up the other side to the same height - repeat this about a dozen times and it soon became an exercise in persistence, suffering and hanging on.

By 9.30 pm - my brain had turned to mush - after 37 hours, the fog of exhaustion and no sleep turned me into a zombie. 

Seen better days!

It was time for caffeine - two No Doz, 40 minutes later and in a somewhat drugged state I was starting to function again.  The boys, Tim, Dean and Rajan were lost in their own private worlds of suffering - it had taken a day and a half BUT this is when the Real Race began - it was now entirely in our heads. At this stage it is easy to crack and give in. Eventually, every Adventure Racer will face the dilemma - stop or go on.  It is this choice and what we do next that defines us.

At 11.45 pm we rolled into the rogaine.  Many bodies surrounded a big fire - all in various states of exhaustion - many dead asleep where they lay.  Their remaining teammates were out somewhere on the rogaine.  Tough team work saw many teams send two people out while two stayed by the fire to regain some capability for the final push.  Here we caught up to our friends the Radders. It was great to share war stories by the fire!

At this rogaine we had to tag 4 CPs across about 6 square kms of terrain.  Normally a simple exercise BUT after 40 hours of constant movement - ANYTHING but simple! We decided to spilt our resources - Tim and Rajan would collect two closer ones while Dean and I would go for the CPs further a field. Foggy brains, cold air, steep mud, heavily forested creek beds, dead legs and a starry night saw 3 hours disappear!  We shared the love with Peter Fitzgerald and Dave Hunt from Fully Rad by helping them find a checkpoint that had eluded them for a long time.
  
By 3am we were on our bikes for the ride into the final TA.  After 30 minutes - I couldn't string two words together - things were VERY rapidly unravelling - time for more No Doz - if I was the praying kind - I would have prayed for them to work and get me home!  By 4 am - I could talk again and ride with a wobble.  CP's disappeared in a fog of exhaustion - the boys were in their own world of hurt, again!

A Rob Marlow special - 4.58 am Day 3

A tricky bit of navigation was nicely solved by Tim - and the final "hard" checkpoint was nailed.  It was down hill into the TA.  In a sharp pace line we rode strongly into the TA.

It was an absolute pleasure to see Carey and Robbo - they too had gone hard - for 48 hrs they delivered perfection in support! And it was great to see Dean's friend Noa helping at the final TA.  WE had survived the night and as dawn broke our spirits soared - one more leg and it would be over!!  After all of the suffering from the previous 40 hours - there was no way I wouldn't paddle the final stretch home to the finish line with the team.  High fives all round and we were very quickly onto the water.

Mist was rising off the water as we paddled silently along a beautiful waterway. The sun rose and our cold and exhausted bodies warmed - time for us to reflect on an awesome journey!  13kms and 1 hr 45 minutes later we beached the boats.

Mission done!

A shuffle over the finish line and we had completed GeoQuest 2013.  48 hours and 46 minutes of pleasure, pain and reward!