finding the grid reference at Aspen Island

Geotropic in Black Mountain

Team Pink Bits dressed for the occasion

Weston Park maze

Dave Baldwin takes the opportunity to refuel at CP7 - the Organic Cafe at the Belconnen Markets

Goldfish at CP4 - the top of Tesltra Tower

Tubing a work out in tough conditions

AROC Racers Weather Four Seasons - the AROC 24 Hour Urban Adventure

Gretchen Hart at HQ, National Museum of Australia

On a balmy Friday evening in Canberra, 45 teams from Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and even Mt Isa, Queensland gathered to drop their bikes off at the bike drop in Garran, Canberra in readiness for the AROC 24 Hour Urban Race.

Some racers were new to the sport and a little curious as to what the next day would bring, such as Team CIA and Three Fat Geeks, whilst other teams who have competed in an adventure race before were excited about experiencing the weekends challenges together outdoors amongst friends.

There was some friendly banter going on between two of the three all female teams – with Team Halloumi, (whos name comes from a brand of cheese, which in their words, is “soft and smelly”) and strongpella merrimerri, (which is pidgin for strong woman) parking their bikes next to each other for a bit of overnight bonding.

Well the weather forecast for Saturday may have been a cold front and snow on the ranges, but it was a little hard to believe on a summery Friday night as the volunteers all went to dinner in downtown Canberra, with many a look from the Friday night drinking crowd as they poured over maps at the restaurant dinner table. A few teams tried to walk past and sneak a peak at the next days clues but Valbe the dog kept them at bay.

Saturday morning arrived to find the weather forecasters on the money. As teams arrived at registration at 6:15am, the temperature wasn’t quite as warm as Friday, and the clouds were looking a bit ominous. Nonetheless, all 45 teams appeared and had their multitude of maps and clues spread out in the spectacular National Museum foyer. With so many clues and checkpoints (over 100 CPs in total) – all team members had to pitch in to get the planning done in time – whether it was contacting maps, drawing routes or working out strategy.

As the starting gun went off, that must have been the signal for the first few drops of rain and the wind to start to blow as the teams kayaked down to their first check point at Aspen Island, where they had to kayak under the bridge to find the grid reference of the location of their control card. Turning around now, the going wasn’t quite as easy as teams paddled into the wind now, past the start line and further west, where two members had to get out of the boat and find the control card on foot before meeting up with number three back in the boat.

Once back in the boat, and with intermittent rain, teams paddled to another checkpoint (CP), a quick run/walk then a short swim across the lake towards Black Mountain. Of course there was a CP right at the top of the mountain otherwise where would be the challenge in that?, although a number of teams did run straight to the top and outside the tower only to have missed the fluorescent orange checkpoint inside. Most of the more ‘strategic thinking’ teams (ie teams who were walking!) did not suffer from this problem though – only the fast running hares.

Once down off Black Mountain, the teams headed North to Jamison, where they received a “Great Race” type surprise envelope that told them that they had earned a well earned rest and that they could catch the bus to town.

Some teams, however, did not get to participate in this put the feet up activity – they had opted to miss a few further away checkpoints around Black Mountain assuming they would be able to pick them up on the way back to town – Team Fugahwe and a number of other teams fell into this camp. Some teams managed to convince the bus driver to let them off halfway so that they could pick up the extra checkpoints and run back to town.

TA2, which is also event Headquarters at the National Museum, back at Lake Burley Griffin saw the field start to spread out after their first loop out. The Grunting Wombats, who were first to collect their control cards after the kayak in leg 1, had dropped to 6th – did they fall victim to the bus trap like some other teams?

The NSW Stingers, had increased their lead on Dufflecoat Supreme to 10 minutes, having managed to be just that little bit faster to get on the earlier bus. Team Crank, the first mixed team, was a mere 18 minutes behind NSW Stingers after almost 3 hours racing. Further back in the pack, two female teams Halloumi and strongpella merrimerri were just 7 minutes apart coming into the transition area.

Team 22 – Mondo Benji Dudes certainly had the most interesting adventure racing gear of the event coming into TA2, with a plastic bag full of loaves of bread and a jar of jam – they tell me that they decided that they hadn’t had any for breakfast and that they had done a bit of shopping in town when they got off the bus.

After TA2, teams headed off to the much anticipated inner tube leg and TA3, before kayaking back to headquarters/TA4.

By 3pm, with white caps on the lake and the wind strengthening, organisers decided to give the one third of teams yet to arrive at TA2 the option of walking the long way over the bridge to the south side of the lake and taking a time penalty, rather than attempt to swim into the wind. Teams 8 – EPIRB Blues, 21 – May Contain Traces of Nuts and 32 – Team Booty – all took this option without much hesitation, a wise move choosing to conserve their energy for the still 18 hours of the race to go.

So with the first teams off walking/running and, unbeknownst to them, catching another bus to TA5, but most of the field still on the water – there are still a lot of hours to go – and judging by the four seasons today some very different conditions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------