Our First Race

Gumbies

Firstly we arrive … 3 girls, in the wrong attire freezing our booties off not realising what we had got ourselves in for. We searched the boot of our cars (this is every woman’s second handbag) and found some sexy thermals. Not my idea of a fashion statement but I was quickly learning comfort is a high priority.

We pump up the canoe sorry kayak (as I was corrected), used the smelly toilets, covered the map with contact and collected our ginormous life jackets … that I think would have kept my whole family afloat … and set off for the water.

The kayak seemed so big and safe and I am thinking to myself this is going to be the best fun and then I sat in the kayak. This boat had a mind of its own … it was possessed by an angry person with a fear of the Carillion …because no matter what we did he was not going there.

I sat at the front, second person back-to-back with me (because that was what everyone else was doing so we copied) and then the second paddler at the back. I was paddling away thinking my trusty team member was dyslexic … I mean how hard could it be to steer this kayak??? We got our map at the Carillion and my caring team members handed me the paddle and said you get in the back this time!!! Now I understand … how horrible I was to think they were dyslexic. I spent the next 10 minutes apologising.

We got rid of that kayak and then the fun really began. We head off up the hill in hope we would find someone that was doing this race because we were a long way behind. Into Parliament House??? Surely this cannot be right? But off we went – being new to this sport we just didn’t realise how crazy a sport it really is. Did anyone notice how dirty and smelly we left the place? He he he giggle giggle giggle. I felt like a naughty school kid again going inside the house with my dirty shoes on, it was great. I was just waiting for someone to hand me, the homeless stinky person, 20 cents.

Our trusty map reader had it all under control I had full faith in her ... so when we arrived at the top of Red Hill to learn we only needed to go half way I thought it was time to stop have a drink, eat some jelly lollies and pretend this never happened. Do not despair we got better at this because we got every marker first go from this point forward.

So, we arrive at the transition … we are so proud of ourselves … we feel like we are invincible. The official (quite innocently) says to us quote “great everyone has checked in now … you are the last ones” – not what we wanted to hear but it put the will to win (well, more like not come last) in our bellies and we were off.

No one told me there were no toilets along the way so after that big drink and a bit of a run on a full bladder I set off to find a hidden tree … only thing was there were 50 crazy people running around Red Hill with maps looking in every nook and cranny … not good … not good (hope your legs are crossed thinking about how I felt) – I kept saying to myself this is all character building … this is all positive.

Much to our surprise we found the markers quite easily and head off along Mugga Way … we knew this was the way to go because we saw teams leaving Red Hill as we were arriving. If you had not got the picture yet we were not coming first.

Now this is where we really got our act together and made some ground. If you look at our splits they were pretty good (for a bunch of learners) from this point and we just got more and more excited.

I had arrived in bike pants, white cycling shirt, new white sneakers, ribbon in my hair and my mountain bike that had never left the bitumen and well now I was fifthly dirty, my sneakers were the brown wet squeaky things under my feet and I was loving every minute of it and if you knew me … you would realise this is quite amazing.

I just remember laughing, running, laughing, riding and laughing. I had no idea how to read the map so I did the extra leg work to make sure we could see the marker and we were heading in the right direction and my trusty team mates had the map reading totally under control … actually spot on (well close enough to it) every time.

We got back to the lake and for some reason we thought we had found a new lease of life. The legs were running but the mind was tiring and the challenge at this stage was to be nice to one another …as we dragged each other between each marker.

Then we were trotting to the finish line … we could see the tunnel … the chariots of fire music had started in our ears, we were patting each other on the back and THEN out the corner of our eyes we spotted them … the team we had been sitting hot on their heels the whole race. AAAAAAHhhhhhhhhh we realised we had to sprint … the chariots of fire music was in fast-forward and our legs were doing the same. They noticed us at the same time and reacted in exactly the same way. After 4 and a bit hours there were 6 crazy women on a sprint finish, what were we thinking? We got to the line with nothing between the 2 teams, I think we just got them at the line but now we have set the precedent and I am sure they are going to kick our butt at the next race and I can guarantee, there IS going to be a next race … Our team had an excellent day.

Congratulations to all the organisers of the race!!! We’ll be back!!