This year I got invited to be in a competitive team by Tim Farrant which included a few GODZone competitors such as Elisha Nuttall and Ben Gibson. Due to my current lack of fitness and lack of time on my feet, I went into the event pretty nervous about my ability to survive 24 hours on my feet let alone in a fast team which would be running a lot of the event.
Due to the nature of the event, we had no idea where we were off to when loaded onto the buses Saturday morning, but I had heard rumors of the event being held in the Ashburton lakes region which turned out to be correct. Another major part of this event is the fact that the majority of teams dress up in costumes for the first leg. Our team decided to go for Cadbury Favourites as the theme for our costume which not only looked impressive but also worked as some protection from the masses of matagouri bushes which always seem to feature in a Twalk course.
The first leg was held from Lake Camp back to the sealed road via Lake Emma, a circuit I have done many times over the years both on foot and mountain biking. Of course this didn't really help with finding check points, but was a bonus for knowing exactly what the terrain was like. (Turns out the course for the first leg was fairly similar to a rogaine I had previously done up there) We managed to find all 16 check points on the first leg, but lost half an hour to the fastest team.
Heading out on the second leg we decided to do the course in reverse to make the most of traveling the greatest distance during day light and hopefully be at the highest point with only a couple of check points left to get as it became dark. This worked well as we were also able to use the lights of teams just starting leg 2 to guide us to the check points. Another bonus was also finding all 16 check points again which jumped us into 2nd place, although a huge 1.5hrs behind the 1st team now.
On the 3rd leg we decided to reduce the team to just those who were willing to run the entire time, with the hope being to collect all the check points in a fast time and hopefully extend our lead over 3rd place. Unfortunately things rarely work to plan and we spent a lot of time trying to find a few check points and in the end had to give up on one point as we couldn't find it. This, along with my legs deciding I had run far enough already, meant we slipped back to third place.
I sat out leg 4 to let my legs recover and get some sleep before heading out on leg 5. Unfortunately the damage was already done to my legs, and although my feet were fine and I didn't feel tired at all, my legs were feeling the effect of my lack of training in the past few months.
In the end up we finshed in 4th place overall due to the team coming back late and incurring a penalty. Not the result we were really after but still a good time out racing, and a good result considering the calibre of the teams in front of us.
Due to the nature of the event, we had no idea where we were off to when loaded onto the buses Saturday morning, but I had heard rumors of the event being held in the Ashburton lakes region which turned out to be correct. Another major part of this event is the fact that the majority of teams dress up in costumes for the first leg. Our team decided to go for Cadbury Favourites as the theme for our costume which not only looked impressive but also worked as some protection from the masses of matagouri bushes which always seem to feature in a Twalk course.
The first leg was held from Lake Camp back to the sealed road via Lake Emma, a circuit I have done many times over the years both on foot and mountain biking. Of course this didn't really help with finding check points, but was a bonus for knowing exactly what the terrain was like. (Turns out the course for the first leg was fairly similar to a rogaine I had previously done up there) We managed to find all 16 check points on the first leg, but lost half an hour to the fastest team.
Heading out on the second leg we decided to do the course in reverse to make the most of traveling the greatest distance during day light and hopefully be at the highest point with only a couple of check points left to get as it became dark. This worked well as we were also able to use the lights of teams just starting leg 2 to guide us to the check points. Another bonus was also finding all 16 check points again which jumped us into 2nd place, although a huge 1.5hrs behind the 1st team now.
On the 3rd leg we decided to reduce the team to just those who were willing to run the entire time, with the hope being to collect all the check points in a fast time and hopefully extend our lead over 3rd place. Unfortunately things rarely work to plan and we spent a lot of time trying to find a few check points and in the end had to give up on one point as we couldn't find it. This, along with my legs deciding I had run far enough already, meant we slipped back to third place.
I sat out leg 4 to let my legs recover and get some sleep before heading out on leg 5. Unfortunately the damage was already done to my legs, and although my feet were fine and I didn't feel tired at all, my legs were feeling the effect of my lack of training in the past few months.
In the end up we finshed in 4th place overall due to the team coming back late and incurring a penalty. Not the result we were really after but still a good time out racing, and a good result considering the calibre of the teams in front of us.
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