This year I decided to finally participate in Twalk after hearing alot about it's reputation of being a tough event. And it sure didn't disappoint. I was in a team with my Dad and Steve for the 24 hour epic that would follow. This would be my first event after surgery on my jaw 6 weeks ago. After an early start in the UCSA carpark, we loaded on to buses with another 280ish competitors to travel to an unknown location. Our bus driver told us we were heading to Kaikoura, so as we started heading north we assumed that this location was indeed where we were heading. So as the bus turned off to start heading inland towards Ashley Gorge we realised we had been lied to. The start of the event was in fact at Glentui.
After a chaotic start and somehow missing the first check point in the chaos of clowns, road cones, licorice allsorts and even a coffin we headed on to the general location of check point 2 where it soon became apparent in well known Twalk style we wouldn't find this check point either. Searching in an area of around about 250m for a checkpoint the size of quarter of an icecream container lid seemed almost impossible in the bush with hundreds of other people around as well (I didn't hear of anyone finding this point). Continuing through the rest of Leg 1 we had some good moments with finding check points almost straight away, and of course others where we spent ages looking to end up eventually finding it in an obvious spot or not finding it at all.
Our strategy for the event had been k's not check points, in other words, do as many legs as possible and if we happened to find some check points that was a bonus. With clues like "cold and wet, we crawled into a wooden den to sleep, only to find a martyr for interspecies marriage guarding it. Had to head upstairs", finding the check points for this event would always be hit and miss. (turns out this checkpoint was ontop of a fallen tree after crossing the river). After 20 hours out on the course, we retreated back to our tents for a well deserved break from the rain. In the end, after 4 legs (out of a possible 5) we posted a pretty poor score in relation to checkpoints but we covered just over 60km with around about 1800m of climbing, not bad for my first over night event and first event where I have been out for more than 7 hours.
After a chaotic start and somehow missing the first check point in the chaos of clowns, road cones, licorice allsorts and even a coffin we headed on to the general location of check point 2 where it soon became apparent in well known Twalk style we wouldn't find this check point either. Searching in an area of around about 250m for a checkpoint the size of quarter of an icecream container lid seemed almost impossible in the bush with hundreds of other people around as well (I didn't hear of anyone finding this point). Continuing through the rest of Leg 1 we had some good moments with finding check points almost straight away, and of course others where we spent ages looking to end up eventually finding it in an obvious spot or not finding it at all.
Our strategy for the event had been k's not check points, in other words, do as many legs as possible and if we happened to find some check points that was a bonus. With clues like "cold and wet, we crawled into a wooden den to sleep, only to find a martyr for interspecies marriage guarding it. Had to head upstairs", finding the check points for this event would always be hit and miss. (turns out this checkpoint was ontop of a fallen tree after crossing the river). After 20 hours out on the course, we retreated back to our tents for a well deserved break from the rain. In the end, after 4 legs (out of a possible 5) we posted a pretty poor score in relation to checkpoints but we covered just over 60km with around about 1800m of climbing, not bad for my first over night event and first event where I have been out for more than 7 hours.
What, no comments about electric fences ? LOL
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