Control Freaks Control the Race

Emma Muray

Heather Logie and Susie Sprague had roped me in to join them for the first in a series of AROC sprint adventure races. They did most of the organising - and I thank them heaps for that - the race was an absolute blast!! Although I would expect nothing less from Tom and Alina :-)

Sunday morning I rode from Dickson out to the western side of Lake Ginninderra to meet Susie and Heather at the bike drop at 7am, where we left our bikes and drove round to the race start at John Night park. Here we had a few hours to read the race instructions, put on our sexy yellow bibs and organise our maps and gear before the race started at 9am. It was here that Heather introduced Susie to spacefood sticks. Dunno how Susie had survived childhood or adulthood for that matter without trying a spacefood stick but its no turning back now...

I was feeling really lethargic and worried I might let the girls down. A powerbar and a quick trip over to support the local McCafe for a coffee fixed me up a bit and I tried to gee myself up thinking about how fun the last (and
only) Tom and Alina adventure race I had done was.

At 9am all the teams lined up ready to go and Tom leisurely gave us a pep talk before we headed off. The first leg was an orienteer through the Canberra Uni campus, which we managed to finish near the top of the field. Then came our biggest challenge - the ten pin bowling leg. We had to bowl some strikes to get our card punched. We were simply crap and didn't get close so we had to run a bit extra to punch a penalty control. I have to
admit I had neglected my bowling training leading into this event :-(

We then ran over to the kayaks and put on our life jackets, which involved stripping off backpacks and bibs, putting on jacket and putting on back pack and bib. Unfortunately I also hadn't trained for all this dressing and undressing and was the last into the kayak for the long and arduous paddle across Lake Ginninderra to where we had left our bikes. I was at the back where you are suppose to steer so I was trying my bestest to keep us going in the right direction. It seemed an eternity for us to get there, the other side just never got any closer. Most other teams were kayaking around the same speed as us. I don't think many teams would gain much ground on this leg.

Finally we pulled up at the beach and undressed and dressed again... and again I was dragging the chain fiddling with inside out bibs and zippers and tying on my backpack harness (somehow I had lost one of the clips even before starting the race).

Susie sped off on her bike, followed by Heather - and I tried my bestest to keep up as we raced along Coulter Dr towards The Pinnacle. I starred intently at Susies back wheel trying to stay in contact. Finally we pulled up at the transition and started the next orienteering leg around the Pinnacle. They only give you one map so I navigated and communicated constantly what and where we were going. Having to do this was really good navigation practise and also a great teamwork exercise... I think as a team we worked awesomely well. We finished this leg with no dramas and then took off for a tour around the outskirts of Belconnen using a combination of Heather navigating using her spanking new map mount that she had made herself and Susie's local knowledge which meant we could avoid many of the horse jumps.

Again I was struggling to keep up and could see Susies frustration as she indicated for me to draft her. We raced through the long grass and at times mud around the edge of the golf course and Ginninderra Ck emerging in MacGregor where we did another orienteering leg which involved some climbing through drains and mud puddles... then back on the bikes for more fast riding along bike tracks. Navigation was very challenging here with lots of turns and bridges and underpasses and when going so fast its hard to keep up where you are on the map. Heather did awesomely well navigating most of these sections. She made a mistake at one point but quickly fixed it and we were on our way again with some easy nav back to the Lake and - oh dread - another kayak leg and some more wrestling with life jackets, bibs, paddles and backpack straps.

Paddling back across the lake we had a mixed team in front of us but we couldn't gain any ground on them. Once back at John Night park we stripped off and ran across to the finish but couldn't manage to catch the mixed team.

Wow... what an event... we were the first female team, and 9th overall out of 64 teams. I even won a headtorch to replace the one I left in a hotel room in Darwin a few months ago.

Thanks Heather and Susie for having me along and Thanks Tom and Alina for a great event... and all the volunteers, there were heaps of them all along the course.

Heather and Susie were very strong and so focussed and determined. Geez they are going to go far. They said they might do 6 foot. I hope so. They will be a great addition to the ACT mob. I will keep working on them.

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