Firstly, thank you, the competitors, for your support of this event and for all the fantastic feedback saying how much you enjoyed the race. Thanks for the spirit (& beer) with which you took part in the event. It means a great deal to us when we see people having a ball at AROC events. And the good weather – an added bonus.
The iRULE 12 hour Urban Debacle was always meant to be an active and fun filled day which made you think a lot about possible route choices. The event was all about keeping a balance in your day and there was a combination of many different things which helped to achieve that. There was orienteering in beautiful bushland, a 20 minute free Debacle pizza stop, a visit to a legend of ANZAC, some great single track mountain biking, playing scrabble, ten pin bowling, mountain biking along Stromlo ridge at dusk on a beautiful clear night, shopping for smoothie ingredients and various items of hardware, kayaking on a still lake under the stars and moon and dropping in to various pubs and cafés. With a point score style to the event you could do as much or as little of the course as you liked which suited everyone no matter your adventure racing experience or fitness.
Thank you to our sponsors and the great prizes and support they provided. The winners from each category (who were also the top 3 places overall) went home with the most awesome prize - a full iRULE race outfit plus tubs of Hammer Nutrition and Bounce Balls and Aloskaks. The teams in second and third places will be looking super sexy in their new Linebreak shorts and crop tops, eating well with a good supply of Bounce Balls and Hammer Nutrition products and keeping their maps and essentials dry with their new Aloksaks. All place getters also get the chance to celebrate with a $25 voucher to Debacle Restaurant & Bar.
A special note for our title sponsors iRULE and Debacle. We love and wear the iRULE gear and it is gaining huge popularity in the Adventure Racing and mountain biking world. Lots of our competitors are getting into it. Make sure you try it out. One iRULE 12 hour Urban Debacle competitor even purchased some AR knicks from the AROC Shop during the event. In addition to the major iRULE prizes all the place getters and many of the spot prize winners received an iRULE Troppo – the essential headwear accessory. Debacle Restaurant and Bar provided two tasty free pizzas to the 41 teams who made it to that checkpoint. They provided the registration area for the race and $25 food vouchers to all 27 place getters. Great atmosphere and great food to be had at Debacle.
There were lots of spot prizes too. Team BiGGGfish with a Disabled Hardtale (Greg Bacon, Garry Sundin and Greg Hollands) won the oldest team with a combined age of over 160 years. And it seemed age was not a barrier with a very respectable 15th place overall. On the other end of the spectrum Grammer Adventure Racing had the youngest members with Ashley Jenkins (13 years) and James Bornholt (15 years) and a combined age of 51 – young Matthew Purcell isn't so young anymore at the ripe old age of 23.
Operation Spandex – Ian Warren, Shoko Okada and Wes Martin were rewarded for entering early by winning the early bird lucky draw and each receiving a pair of iRULE knicks which they were stoked about. A Montane Featherlite jacket (weighing only 85g) was also given away at the presentations for the AROC Shop draw.
Four lucky Adventure Race novices went home with a Salomon wetsuit worth over $400 and the other novices at the presentation all received a little bag of goodies from our sponsors.
There is also a few other notable team mentions…Dude Where's my Compass liked to do things properly and were the only team to wear bowling shoes at the AMF Bowling. MSJ got a good healthy start to the day and were first at the Iron Gut checkpoint (brought to you by the letters L, M, S, T, R, V) with a well thought out combination of mango, strawberries, raspberries and lime. Contrast this with Mixed Up's concoction of red grapes, mushrooms, lemon and tomato or We Can't Kayak's super mix of muesli bar, snakes, vegemite sandwich and lime jelly beans. A few others made the most of this checkpoint bringing in rum, vodka, and a mix of mint, sugar and lime.
The ToyBoy Racers got into the groove in their specially made t-shirts and bribed officials with Easter Eggs, cheerleading shows and music renditions on their whistles. But the real stand out team for the highly sought after Happy Pants Award went to the 3 lovely ladies, Dame Edna Everage (Andrew Renwick), Holly Valance (Chieh Chen) and Kylie Minogue (Luke Su) racing together as Racing with a Pommie Wannabe. In character for the whole event in sparkling skirts, pink scarfs and flashing glasses, they attracted some strange looks from the crowds…A quick stop into a 7/11 store and Dame Edna exclaimed “Can you help me? I've lost my nuts” to which the shopkeeper replied “Are you on drugs?!!”. “Oh no dear, we're not on drugs, we're ladies”. AROC Sport HQ now has a beautifully signed photo of the stars out on the course.
There was more bribing of officials happening out at Edgars Inn and the scrabble checkpoint with the volunteers receiving lots of drinks, coffees and Easter eggs. The 20 minute pizza stop at Debacle was again a highlight and the most worthwhile checkpoint to visit. Mulligans Flat was beautiful, and the sky and views from the Stromlo Rally where just fantastic at twilight – checkout the photos featuring team Mixed Up (a huge thank-you Sean, Rohan and Kimberlee for being in the right place at the right time so Chris Holly could capture the action).
Onto the podium and David Baldwin, Julie Quinn and Randall Fitzsimon in Tangerine ‘moseyed' around the course, never looking tired or strained and with some excellent course planning and some mild persuasion from Julie won the event with a total score of 3650 (out of a possible 4050). They even had time for a lunch stop at Belconnen while waiting for the AMF Bowling checkpoint to open.
Still up the top of the field and taking second overall, Dufflecoat Supreme didn't look quite so comfortable. After studying the maps, Hansie and Steve, without Karl as he went to Cirque du Soleil, decided that they could either clear or at least get very close to collecting every checkpoint in the 12 hours. At 6 hours into the race they were looking really good and moving fast and we thought they might just do it but they had three cut offs still to make: TA2, Kid City and TA1. It was leaving these cut-offs until the end where their plan came unstuck having to miss the Majura bike leg and some Mt Ainslie orienteering CPs to make the TA1 closing time.
The Control Freaks' Susie Sprague and Heather Logie teamed up with Selina Stoute and were not far from winning the event outright. Uncharacteristically misreading the instructions about the value of the bonus items, they were the only team who didn't collect any items at all and so failed to get another 300 points which would have put them in second place and only 30 points behind Tangerine.
Matt Koerber of Adrenalin Adventure TerraX, only just managed to stay ahead of his fiancé Amanda Gross, coming in second place in the mixed and 4 th overall with team mates Mark McDonald and Sara Hely. Maybe it was the ring burner pizza they got served up at Debacle that handicapped them and maybe Amanda had something to do with the extra chillies. Amanda, Danielle Winslow and Wendy Stevenson of Adrenaline Adventure Mandatory Equipment took out second place in the females and 5 th overall. Second male team was We Can't Kayak with John Spooner, Rick Bennett and Gavin Boehm confronting their weaknesses and deciding to collect all kayak checkpoints directly after starting the event.
3 rd place in the mixed category was Drink triple, see double, act single… 3 rd place in the male category was Not a Pretty Girl. 3 rd place in the female category was 3 Black Monkeys.
A possible route...
To work out a way to clear the whole course was difficult due to the cut off times of the various urban checkpoints and TAs. Like team Dufflecoat Supreme, a possible route might have been to go straight to Red Hill on a bus but instead of going to CP41 first (a very bold move by Dufflecoat) go via a supermarket (iron gut) before getting the bus. After Red Hill, kayak from TA3 to TA4 via only the two CPs in Central Basin rather than all the kayak CPs at once. This would not only break the kayak up but take the load off getting to the urban checkpoints within the cut-offs. Then do iron gut and collect bikes from HQ and ride to CP41 via sushi, a camera shop (photo) and on to TA1 for orienteering and MTB in Majura. Then via Kid City and Goorooyaroo to Mulligans for orienteering. Then ride to AMF bowling, Belconnen Markets and Bunnings Hardware beside the markets. Then via Bruce Ridge to All Bar Nun and Edgars Pub for scrabble. Then to Debacle for pizza. Then the War Memorial and out State Circle to Stromlo for the kickbike and bike rally. Then back to TA4 to kayak to as many of the remaining 5 kayak CPs as possible before the finish. This route should have allowed getting to all the urban cut offs without extra distance and it may have been possible to get everything but the two furthest kayak CPs near the dam wall… Then again it would have also been easy to stay in Debacle for a long lunch.
Thanks to the Volunteers
A huge thank you goes out to all the volunteers for their generous help without which the event would just not happen.
Thanks also to Sailability and the Ibotson family for providing a scrumptious post race BBQ.
Thanks to the local attractions and businesses
The iRULE 12 Hour Urban Debacle was made all the more fun due to the support of the following businesses:
Thanks to the AROC Staff
It is a fun job but someone has to do it. And the AROC Staff do it with lots of passion, enthusiasm and excellence.
Super Celia Thomspson at the AROC Shop – everyone loves Celia. Super generous with her time and smile.
Grant Bluett – level headed, efficient, lightening quick course designer and setter. Ably supported by Dave Meyer and future World Orienteering Champion, Julian Dent.
Thanks also to Chris Holly from Holimage whose photos show a great overall coverage of the event.
Photos, Results and Reports
These are all up on the website. There are some great photos – check out Stromlo at sunset. There is a report by first timers Are We There Yet? and the travels of Basil – the team mascot for Team BiGGGfish with a Disabled Hardtale.
Results – click here
Photos – click here
Reports – click here
Next year
The iRULE 12 hour urban Debacle will be back next year. Put it in your diary now for Saturday 29 March 2008. There will be even more fun CPs and challenges so be prepared! Plus, next year this event will be teaming up with Hartley Life Care. A portion of the entry fee plus any additional funds teams raise will go to this great Canberra based non for profit organisation. For more information on Hartley Life Care go to www.hartley.org.au
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