Anything really is possible

By Monica Lindemann, a Mixed Nut

"Anyone for a lunchtime jog?" It may seem like a sensible suggestion for a group of fairly sedentary office workers, but beware where a lunchtime jog can take you. For Inge, Miachelle and Monica it was the beginning of a fitness odyssey and the creation of our alter ego – the Mixed Nuts.

In October 2003, we started jogging at lunchtime, just two or three times a week. We all had memories of being fit at some time in our past lives and we wanted to feel that way again. Besides, work was really getting us down and any excuse to escape the office for an hour looked damned attractive.

It was a fairly aimless training program. We got a little competitive, monitoring our time to complete the same 5 km course each run, but our interest was waning. We needed focus and a goal to work towards.

That’s when AROC Sport and Adventure Sprints entered our lives. Miachelle read about Race 1 of the Adventure Sprint Series in the Canberra Times and mentioned it to Inge. Inge did a little web surfing and presented Miachelle and I with a proposition. “Let’s just try it out. It could be fun?”

So, it was on. The Race 2 entry form was completed, money was paid and the Mixed Nuts were formed. We had three weeks to learn to use a map and compass, paddle in unison and reach race level fitness! We were really going to test AROC’s claim that the events were suitable for novices.

We also made a pact at the very beginning – under no circumstances would we point fingers, blame one another or otherwise turn nasty over the inevitable race day stuff-ups. This was for fun.

Race day, 7 December 2003

Race 2 started at Weston Park, Yarralumla. What a great spot. Perfect for a post-race social event. Having no idea of what we were in for, we’d told all our friends and family to expect us at the finish line between 12:30 and 1pm. We’d really talked up the race. Picnics were arranged, eskies were filled, the kids invited their friends and a crowd of 17 enthusiastic Mixed Nuts supporters gathered at Weston Park to cheer our big finish……..….I’ll come back to that story.

Wisely, Inge suggested we do the pre-race navigation training. So we met at the crack of dawn at Weston Park, having dropped off the bikes at the designated area along Lady Denman Drive. Tom, of AROC Sport, patiently took us and other beginners through the mysteries of map reading and navigation – grid lines, grid references, contour intervals, map symbols, blah, blah, blah. Inge had done some bush walking before and was our team leader. This meant that she got to hold the map and had the final word on which direction we would head, a heavy responsibility. It wasn’t until mid race, somewhere in the Black Mountain bushland labyrinth that we discovered, although good with a map and compass, Inge suffers from Fatigue Induced Direction Dyslexia (FIDD, symptoms: insisting on left when you really mean right and vice versa).

We were so excited in the lead up to the start, even though given our map for the first leg we made no real race plan other than to go like the clappers and pick up all the checkpoints. As it turned out this was not a prize- winning strategy, to our surprise.

The start whistle blew and we were off with 23 other teams. First it was into the water to collect a checkpoint from the pontoon. The more experienced racers must have had a good laugh to see us taking of our shoes before swimming. Mia really enjoys swimming in the lake (heavy sarcasm used here) and delighted in dipping into the cool, clear waters of Lake Burley G at 9am, gulping down the splashes of some 60 swimmers all heading in the one direction.

Out of the water, shoes back on and well and truly at the back of the back, we set off, full pelt to collect the series of checkpoints along the lake shore. Already, the “going like the clappers” plan was starting to show some flaws – would we last the distance?
Next leg – the Kayak. Teams had to hand pump their own inflatable kayak. A job done well by Mia and Inge (I was back in the lake collecting another floating checkpoint). However, mechanical trouble struck. Our kayak’s stopper valve thing that prevents air gushing out when you remove the pump nozzle, was broken. We fiddled around trying to keep air in while securing the stopper on the base of our kayak, but time was getting away and every other team was already in the water. We just had to go with a slightly soft base on our kayak, how bad could that be?

**%#$* awful is the answer to that question.

Imagine three people trying to paddle 5km across a lake in a big plastic bag. Imagine the well-pumped up sides of the kayak rubbing on the tender skin on the inside of your upper arms with each paddle stroke. Imagine the frustration of paddling with all your might, yet somehow only moving centremetres at a time and never in a straight line. We really weren’t usually into swearing, but there were nothing but expletives coming out of our mouths for the entire kayak leg.

Miachelle’s frustration became so great that in an inspirational exhibition of team spirit and chutzpah, in the middle of the lake, she leapt out of the kayak having decided to swim to the next checkpoint. This immediately reduced our drag and made the remaining half of the kayak leg somewhat more bearable.

Now for the mountain bikes – what a joy to climb out of the kayak. Miachelle, having spent more time in the lake than anyone else in the race and than most Canberrans spend in a lifetime, was particularly pleased to hit dry land. We quickly put the paddle leg behind us and focussed on our next map. We set off for Aranda and the base of Black Mountain.

There were bikes and runners everywhere at the Aranda transition area. It was a relief to see other people and teams again. The third leg sent us out into the bush for some rogaining. Feeling pretty confident after our pre-race nav course, we set off, although perhaps not strictly sticking to our race-plan speed. We picked up a couple of checkpoints quickly and were feeling good. We got very excited at the effectiveness of navigating by compass. How amazing to actually find a little white and orange marker in the middle of the scrub. Such was our excitement over our new-found ability to find stuff in the bush, that we collected all 10 checkpoints in the area, completely disregarding the race instructions advising teams to only pick up 5 and report back at the transition area. That oversight landed us a 15 minute penalty added to our total race time. Ouch!

After another leg of rogaining around Black Mountain on our mountain bikes, we left the Aranda transition area for the final leg of the race. We headed back towards the lake via Stromlo forest. Once again, we were on our own with not another team to be seen. Our spirits were starting to flag.

It was a long, slow cycle through the burnt-out forest, over to the aquarium and back to Yarralumla. We came across one other team along the way and we tried to encourage each other with feeble jokes about it being a photo finish when we all eventually cross the line.

We had now been out running, paddling or cycling for over 5 hours. We were more “clapped out” than “going like the clappers”, but there were only two checkpoints left and there was no way we were going to let them beat us. The last checkpoint was only about 100 metres from the finish area, but where exactly was anyone’s guess. All three of us were off our bikes, on our hands and knees scouring through the long grass trying to find the final elusive checkpoint. Was this some sort of sick joke? Could Tom and Alina (AROC Sport) really be this cruel? Or, had we completely lost our senses? We’d forgotten to eat anything during the race, so perhaps delirium had started to take hold. We just couldn’t make sense of the map and really resorted to blind faith in our search for that checkpoint. I think Inge found it, but can’t be sure. At last the end was in sight. We’d collected every single checkpoint, our control card was complete. Nothing to do now but cycle down to the finish.

What an absolutely amazing feeling to cross the line to the cheers of the Mixed Nuts supporters and the other teams. It was an almost spiritual moment (or perhaps just the effects of delirium). We held hands as we cycled through the big AROC arch into the “winners circle”. All three of us were smiling, astonished that we had really done it. We’d pushed ourselves for an incredible five hours and fifty-six minutes!

And what did our dear supporters have to say about our remarkable achievement? - “You’re three hours late!” Yes, they’d all gotten a bit hungry waiting for us so there wasn’t much left to eat. The kids had cleaned out the sandwiches and chicken, the adults had scoffed the dips and most of the salad. At least Sasha, our workmate, had the decency to hold onto a cold bottle of champagne for us. So we toasted our feat with champagne and a sponsor supplied PowerBar. Bliss.

After the race

In the race post-mortem we decided there were some things that we did absolutely right and some areas for improvement. What we learned was this:

Always read the race instructions, twice.
Don’t follow others – they’re not necessarily on the same leg as you.
Agree roles/responsibilities at the beginning of the race and at each leg
Have a plan, set your course and follow it.
Practice orienteering, map reading and navigation – smart racing can take hours off your completion time (see the guys at ACT Orienteering – they are really generous with advise and nav tips and very friendly)
Use hand signals to indicate the direction you want your team to head in
Eat something, drink plenty – your mind falls apart if you don’t
Get your gear ready the night before
Never, ever blame each other for things that go wrong
When things do go wrong, don’t waste precious energy apologising more than once or feeling bad.
HAVE FUN

The Mixed Nuts went on to compete in the next three races of the series. At every event we learned something new, improved our performance in some way, had a great time and strengthened our friendship. We finished the season with an absolutely cracking performance, finishing in three hours thirty-seven minutes and taking out second place in the female team category. It was a very proud moment for us. Unfortunately, not a moment shared by our friends and family as they had exhausted their enthusiasm and patience for adventure sprints back at Race 2.

A small group of hard-core Mixed Nuts supporters did eventually show up at the final race, astonished that we had beaten our own finish time predictions. We enjoyed the festive atmosphere, wallowed in glory for as long as those around us would tolerate it and made our second pact – the Mixed Nuts will be back for the AROC Adventures 2004/5 series. Our goal: to win at least one race in the Female Team category. A pretty high goal, but we now know, that with a bit of focus and commitment, anything really is possible.

Thanks Alina and Tom for bringing Adventure to Canberra.