Team Lickety Split

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2012-01-01T17:39:00.001+02:00

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Centrogaine - 8 Nov 2011

2011-11-22T14:01:00.002+02:00

Last night Susan Belcher I participated in the Centrogaine (Metrogaine in Centurion). It was well organised by Fernandos Santos. It was also a lot more fun than I expected. Sue and I ran approximately 12km in 90 mins and only the last 2km did I feel my tired legs.

Fantastic weather organized by Nando, made for a perfect evening in the suburbs!
Lickety Split finished 16 out of 40 teams and 5th in our Mixed Team category.

Reported by William - posted by Sue.

Mystic Sable

2011-11-07T08:27:00.001+02:00

Re: #ARWC2011

50km is further than I am fit enough for J

On Saturday morning we did a 24km run, overall it had about 500m altitude gain, mostly from running around the Fort Klapperkop monument. At about 18 km I really started feeling it, with light cramps in my calves. Basically I had to walk about 100m out of every 300m to keep going. My time for the 24km was 3:00:17. I also grew a blister where the strapping tape had rolled up (same spot as the blister I got doing the Wakkerstroom Mountain Challenge – I think it is specific to those shoes). At about 3km to go I got overtaken by two girls who were running very comfortably and then ended nearly 3 mins ahead of me. At the end of the race I had a great chat with Nando, Karin and Erik (who came to cycle at Groenkloof), I went and spent the day with a work colleague (an ex-runner) which was very peaceful.

The evening run was a very flat run, I started by matching my pace with the two girls who had come past me so easily on the first stage. At the waterstop they really wasted time and I carried on without them. In the end I finished nearly 2 minutes ahead of them. The route was very flat and I suppose I should have finished the 9km faster than 58mins.

On Sunday morning I woke up so stiff, my legs were killing me. Yolande and Kids came along to do the 6km fun run and Loreley tells me I looked really funny at the start of the last 16km stage. This stage was really technical in places, really rocky uphills but with very fast flowing single track sections. I really enjoyed the section along the top of the hill where there were small lose rocks but overall very flat and comfortable running. I kept up with the two girls again until about 6km where I went ahead. I ran out of energy a little later and while eating a packet of raisins they caught up again. However the last waterstop again let me get ahead and I finished about 2 minutes ahead of them. I did the 16km without cramps and I feel finished quite strongly. Overall time 2:11 which I thought quite slow but I don’t know if I could have done much faster.

So overall we did about 49km, and it took me 6 hours 11 minutes. There were only 32 entries for the long event of which 30 started and 27 finished. It was tough but really enjoyable, I think I need to find a few more of these running stage races to do next year.

Adapt or Die - Racing in the UK

2011-09-28T12:24:00.002+02:00

After having decided a while ago that I wanted to do an overseas race, I did a whole lot of internet searching and discovered the South West Coast 2 Coast race in the South west of England. The SWC2C is a cross over Ironman/Adventure race that includes both a 2 day staged option and a 1 day extreme non stop option. The race seemed perfect as I know quite a few people in England that could help me out, as well as being a solo race so I could organise everything on my own. By the time I entered the staged option was sold out and I entered the non stop option instead (my prefered style of racing).

I did a lot of running training leading up to the event as my cycling was doing well. I also knew that I would overall need to increase my normal racing speed by as much as 25% if I wanted to make the cut offs.

I left Johannesburg on the Thursday night, arriving in London on Friday morning, met a long term online friend Wayne who was helping me out with transport and logistics, we collected a hire bike on Friday afternoon, and went to bed early that evening. Saturday morning started with a 3 hour drive to the start for registration and collection of race numbers etc. A short briefing was held but from my point of view was not very good as it contained no information about race logistics, instead was just a run down of the route according to the race book we recieved. My assumption that things would work the same way as in South Africa came back to haunt me later as I did not get the kit I needed when I needed it. I used a small 15l Salomon rivo backpack I won on the last Full Moon race, but covered it with a South African flag.

Before the race started we had a 2.5km walk to the start - this was quite peaceful until the rain started - it was a short downpur but should really have prepared me for what was to come later. In the rain I put on First Ascent Apple Jacket - while not a waterproof top I have found previously that even when wet it keeps the wind out. The start of the race was the most Northerly point of the Country of Devon (Foreland point) where in the middle of nowhere there is a small lighthouse. Looking down at the lighhouse in a terribly overcast day, with strong winds I could see a "sundeck" with chairs etc - and I thought to myslef that there is no way anyone would ever wnat to sit out there.

Leg 1 - 11km run: By now the rain had cleared and the wind had dropped (being protected behind the hills from the southerly wind) and we started the race at about 7:20. Being proudly Lickety Split I let everyone rush off into the distance and run up the steep coastal hills while I strolled along and reached the top of the hills 50m behind everyone else. At the top the wind was howling again and I struggled to start running. Once over the ridge and dropping into the woods I got into my stride and really started enjoying the run. The path led through the trees, up and down a few hills and along the banks of the river. In many ways the wood reminded me of the forests found in Kwazulu Natal and Mpumalanga with gentle undergrowth under the towering trees. Bit by bit I was overtaking the back end of the field and by the time we got back to the tar roads leading into the village of Brendon I had overtaken 15 or so people. Overall I found the other racers very firiendly and accomodating and everyone let me through as soon as I caught up with them.

Leg 2 - 85km cycle: I transitioned quickly onto the bike and got out ahead of a lot of people that had finished the run ahead of me. Coming out of Brendon were a couple of mean hills and I decided to save my strength and pushed up the hills. At one point I was greeted in Afrikaans by a fellow racer so I was not the only South African in the race. Once over the hills I got going and was enjoying my ride, even the short rain shower I had shortly after that did little to dampen my spirits. Unfortunatly I started getting cramps in my lower calf after only about 5km of riding and these cramps stayed with me for most of the cycle, I am still not sure if the cramps were from the cold, or the 12 hours sitting still in the aeroplane the day before. The most amazing thing was how much spaces cars give cyclists on the roads, in many cases cars drove slowly behind me until we reached a section of double lane before overtaking me. I rode along at a good pace and though I was feeling a little cold (being soaked from the rain and the strong wind creating a large drop in temperature due to wind chill) I felt OK and carried on. Even the second shower did little to dampen the spirits though by now I was feeling really cold. By about 50kms into the cycle and the 6th or so rain shower the heavens opened and we had a lot of really hard rain.

By now the wind was really strong, I was soaked and I had not really adapted to the conditions. Being soaked at 8degrees, with a howling wind probably made the ambient temperature about 0Degrees - thats freezing in case you did not know. Only once I started realising that I could not concentrate properly did I stop and put warmer clothes on. (Difficulty to concentrate is a sign of Hypothermia - at the time I was struggling to remember the next instructions I needed to do "Red Hill Cross, Turn left following the sign that says Meldon 4km"). In the pouring rain I stripped down to my pants and pulled a fleece top on, then put my cycling top over the fleece before once again putting on my wind proof top. This made me feel a lot better and I continued at a very slow pace - the cold was just sapping all my energy, making cycling really hard. Slowly and regularly people were overtaking me. At one point 4 guys came past me and I decided to force myself to keep up with them. I rode the last 20-25km with them and they certainly helped me get to the transition, we were all quite tired so other than them asking me a few question about being South African we did not chat much. I made the cutoff with about 10minutes spare.

Leg 3 - 7km hike/run: At transition (no transition bag) I happily had a hot cross bun my friend Wayne supplied, and cake mix supplied by the organisers and left as quickly as possible onto the hike up High Willhays (highest point in South west england) - I walked up to the top trying to recover some heat and some energy. Instead of a trig beacon the highest point was marked by a large cairn of rocks, I added my rock to the cairns before turning and heading back down. The moors are public access land and I saw various flocks of sheep each makred with a different color spray paint accross their backs. On the way back to transition I trotted as much as possible. Crossing the moors was interesting with what looked like dry grass being 10cm of water when you step on it - fine while walking by definitly ankle turning stuff when running.

Leg 4 - 37km cycle: At transition again I got going as soon as I could and the first few kms were wonderful flat riding on a cycling specific tarred track and I pushed as hard as I felt I could to try recover some time. At one point we went over, then under a fantastic viaduct before returning to the country roads. My 4 friends from earlier soon caught up with me again and we rode along together most of the way. With about 15km to go I decided I needed to push again and started going faster. I still felt really cold and the exercise was not enough to warm me up. With about 6 kms to go I had 35minutes to make the next cut off and thought I was reasonably safe, but I came around a corner and was faced with a 2km long uphill - so I slogged up it (pushing most of the way) and reached the top with about 5 minutes to go - from the top I could see a wonderful downhill followed unfortunatly by another 2km uphill. I slogged up it knowing by now that I would not make the cut off but hoping I would be allowed to continue.

Once I reached the top I had about 1km to go to transition and I took it reasonably peacefully. By now I had realised I was far behind the cut off time and had reached the conclusion that I would be almost happy to be told I could not continue.... I passed Wayne just before the transition and he told me he had arranged an extra 15minutes for me - unfortunatly this was about 40minutes after cut off already. I continued to the transition where I was told I was too late to continue. I went into the hall and had some hot food and tea.

About 45minutes later I went out of the hall to collect my bike and started shaking - not shivering but physically shaking from the cold. I could almost not hold my bike due to the shaking. Even after a warm bath that evening and a long sleep in a warm bed, the next day a gentle breeze started me shivering all over again. I am not sure, but I cannot but believe I had reached the point of Hypothermia during the race.

I consider myself an experienced adventure racer. I have done almost 20 races of over 100km in length, including Expedition Africa of 500+kms. I have titled this report "Adapt of Die" as even with all the experience I have at racing under South African conditions I was not able to adapt to the new conditions I was racing in, and in the end this was the reason I did not finish the race. In South Africa I suffer heatstroke very easily and while racing I would rather be cold than warm to prevent it. Under the race conditions I experienced in England, I should have realised that there was no chance of getting heatstroke and switched immediatly to ensuring that I did not get too cold. At the start of Leg 2 I should have been wearing my fleece as a base layer. I had presumed I would get access to my transition bag at each transition and had left warm leggings in the bag - I should have been wearing at least my leg warmers if not my full fleece leggings on the cycle. At home I have a polar buff, this should have been on my head and not in my cupboard.

Humans are creatures of habbit. And the habbits I have learnt over the last 4 years of racing meant I did not finish the race. Adapt or Die!

Wakkerstroom Mountain Challenge

2011-08-29T13:02:00.001+02:00

On Saturday I did the Wakkerstroom Mountain Challenge, a 21.1km Halfmarathon starting in Wakkerstroom at the church and going out and back along the Utrecht road (The Alternate route back for those that did the Balele Tracks race). The route had 2 big hills in it, on the way out we went up a long climb out from town, I guess it is a climb of 300m over about 3kms, and later at the 8km mark a drop of about 200m over 2kms. It is an out and back race so each downhill had an equivilent uphill etc.

I ran up about 2 thirds of the hill on the way out before walking, and from about the 6.5km mark I really got going. I ran to the turn but the stop at the turn disrupted my running and I struggled to get going again. I walked up the hill and then finally got going again -and comfortably ran the last 6kms to the finish.

I finished in 27th place (of about 40 runners), in 2:09:49. I am happy with my time, and even better straight after the race I played soccer with my boys, and when we got back to the farm took my yougest son for a walk. Immediatly after the race it felt as if I was goign to cramp but by keeping walking around I was OK.

I still think I am going to struggle to make the cutoffs in England, but overall I do feel a lot better about it than I was feeling last week. My fitness is definitly a lot better than I thought it was.

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Full Moon Machadodorp - August 2011

2011-08-23T15:18:00.030+02:00

Team: Lickety Split
Members: William Cairns, Mike Underwood, Sue Belcher, Gail Arnell

After all the planning, map plotting, route choices, packing, getting bikes ready, finding the loo and general pre-race activities the race was about to start. Team Lickety Split faded into the background hiding behind all the teams that were planning to rush off onto the course. When the race started the team strolled off to their bikes, collected their helmets and backpacks before riding onto the route. By the time we hit the road there was not another team in sight - just the way we like it. Off we cruised down the road, passing first one person who in their rush had dropped their water bottle, by the time they caught up we had passed yet another person who had dropped another waterbottle. Everyone we passed came racing past us again as we gently cycled down the road. At the last turn before the transition we overtook another three teams who were trying to decide what route to take.

We came into transition last, but left ahead of three teams. All three quickly overtook us on the 3 km hike to the paddle transition. So once again we arrived at transition last.
Putting in the boats allowed us to overtake three teams once again, and on the paddle we overtook another three teams. The rocks in the river were irritating as each rapid we got stuck, Gail and I took turns getting out and pulling the boat over the rocks. In a way hitting the flat water of the dam was a pleasure - for the first 2 kms when sore shoulders that were not getting a break started being the problem instead.

Again in the transition we overtook another 3 teams, until Sue realised she left kit behind and had to return losing all three places again.
Off we went on the hike, choosing the easier but longer road route instead of the route along the dam shore in case the shore path ended at some point. Half way along the route we ran a few steps until we realised that Mike had decided running was not a great idea and let us disappear off into the distance. In transition we had some food and collected our night gear.

Leg 5, a 30km cycle, included a steep climb, over 400m climb in under 3kms. We rode out of transition in daylight and reached the climb just after night had fallen. In the end the climb felt a lot longer than it really was - most of it was done by the guys in the team pushing their bikes while the girls rode rings around us. Those 3kms took us nearly 2 hours to cover (Ok not so long but it felt like it). After the climb is was easy going to the next transition crossing paths with the race ambulance collecting a team who were struggling.
In transition we heard many stories about how difficult it was to find the check points. One key item I heard was that the fence did not exist, so when we started off I did some careful checks of the bearings along the trees that used to be along the fence. This allowed us to walk directly to the 'difficult' OP overtaking about 8 teams in the process as they had all followed the road instead of a bearing and were searching on top of the wrong koppie. From the first point it was a straight walk along the roads to the next 3 OPs. At one stage 3 other teams were all hiking along with us but some quick decision making without stopping at the non-existant airfield got us away from them and we finished the Leg more than 20 minutes ahead of them.
Transitioning back to the bikes we were discussing the option of stopping to sleep, Mike especially was suffering badly but the decision was made to push on and try and finish or at least get to the last transition before daylight came. Off we went, I was expecting some ups and downs on the first section of road but it felt as though it was just more and more uphill. We nearly missed the turnoff toward the steep downhill due to miss measuring the distance but fortunately we saw the gate. On the downhill we struggled mostly due to being tired. At times the downhill was slower than the earlier heavy climb we had done, Gail's poor lighting system on the bike was especially troublesome as she could not really see what was ahead of her. I occasionally let the rest of the team get ahead and rushed down sections of the trail, I did this a few times until I had fallen twice, then decided to take it more peacefully. Once we reached the farm road at the bottom we went a little faster but still struggled to maintain a decent pace. At one point Mike and I saw some eyes looking us out of the bushes near the road, based on the size of the animal I would guess it was a leopard. A kilometer of so later we finally gave in and pulled onto the side of the road to get an hour sleep. Due to the cold we had not rested enough and continued to the next checkpoint quite tired. Bad navigation saw us overshoot the entrance to the last transition and we had to backtrack.
A superb breakfast of sardines and bread was had before we headed off onto the last leg of the race. It was daylight already giving us great views of the MOUNTAIN we were about to hike up. Daylight clearly gave Gail a bunch of energy (maybe because she could actually see stuff again) and she lead us up the path. Reaching the saddle at the top was a wonderful feeling until we realised there was still another 50m of climb ahead of us. On top of the mountain we were deep in the mist and I made the decision to follow the hiking trail rather than trying to find the short cut over the top that Stephan had told me about, the decision was made based on the fact that by following the path I could not get lost, where taking an unmarked route ran the risk of getting lost in thick mist and wasting a lot of time. I also misjudged distance badly and thought we had passed the checkpoint when we still had about 500m to go to the checkpoint. I blame a lot of the problem the fact that the hiking map was not clear enough. As the "newbie" in the team, we volunteered Gail to do the abseil. She abseiled through a waterfall and seemed to slip quite a bit. From the abseil it was a pleasant hike to the end which we took at a faster pace to stay ahead of the mixed team just behind us. (In the end they were not official).

We finished in 21 hours, an hour slower than expected, but the downhill cycle took us more than 2 hours longer than expected. We were the last team to finish with all members and all checkpoints - placing us in 10th spot overall.

Well done to the Kinetic team (again) for a well organised event and a wonderfully challenging route. Overall the Route was a lot tougher than we had been expecting.

Well done to my team members for putting up with me the whole way. Especially well done to Gail for fitting in well, Mike for the vasbyt in continuing to the end of the race, thanks Sue for being yourself, sorry if I did not hear half of what you were telling me at 1am in the morning.

Thanks to First Ascent for our Kit.
Ably written by: 'Captain my Captain' William.

Full Moon - 13/14 Aug 2011

2011-08-16T07:31:00.002+02:00

Written by Karin Joubert. Team: 4 Peaks 2 Knobs

Firstly - Awesome race! We finished and got all the points! What a wonderful adventure.

However, Bella was not feeling well from the start - was trying her best, but after the paddle on the cycle to the big hill, it was all down hill for her, and for us a 'moerse' up hill. (She was on antibiotics until Tuesday, and still recovering from a flu).

Eish! The paddles didn't even do the trick for us on that river! However on the dam it was much better. As we were the last team (ok, one pair behind us) on the paddle, it was a bit later in the day and the last part was into a strong wind! Wet wet wet!

We still saw Lickety Split when they left for the 2nd cycle at transition.

Our cycle was not good - took us hours. Mainly walking up that hill, pushing Bella's bike as well and carrying her backpack. Erik losing his bike light when the mount broke 5km's into the cycle, didn't help either.

We were really happy to get to the farmhouse. At least we saw a lot of teams there that already finished the trekking.

We asked the medic to help Bella and waited to see if she can continue. After an hour she decided, it won't be possible to carry on as she didn't eat or drink anything for 3 hours on the cycle leg, and not feeling well.

The 3 of us set off on the trekking leg. Some teams said, go for OP4 first, other for OP3. We decided, 4 it will be!

Sherbet! Shaks! Shhhiiiiit! We struggled to get the koppie! Hooked up with another team, that was already trekking for 3 hours with no OP's in the bag. Finally we managed OP4 and the rest was easy. However that leg was just over the 3 hours. (I think - will check spreadsheet).

The time was ticking and we left the transition as heavy mist was descending. 4km's to the turn off where the mother of all rocky technical descents began! The thick mist made it really difficult.

Jaco took a tumble, injuring his leg and Mr Photographer himself missed an action photo as he did a somersault over his handle bar! Testing his new Catlike helmet, which was up to the task.

At the crack of dawn, I had a puncture (not me, my back wheel - lol), and we were attacked by a crazed cow while we were repairing it. Ok-ok! Back to our cycle. Taking it easy through the sandy sections, we found our groove in the last 12km's to T5.

We nearly didn't do the last hike, but sandwiches, hot chocolate and 'a motivational talk' from Stephan, saw us on our way!

The climb to the top of the mountain was tough, really tough, but we raced down with an hour to spare before cut-off.

We all had a great adventure and Erik cannot decide between racing or sticking with photography!

This was my side of the story and I do believe the others had a similar experience! :-)

Whoop-whoop for Adventure racing!

That's all folks!

Senseless Winter AR

2011-08-02T09:52:00.001+02:00

On Sunday I teamed up with Beyers Rossouw to do the Senseless Winter AR sprint race as team Master and Student.

The race consisted of 4 legs and an obstacle course. There were 2 hiking and 1 cycling leg with the third leg (leg 2) being a choice between hiking or cycling – each team could choose for themselves.

First leg was a quick run to the other side of the kopjie behind the start to fetch the map for leg and a short 4km run to fetch 2 CPs. Most teams chose to go over a saddle in the kopjie but we stuck to the easy running route around the kopjie and by the time we reached the map were amongst the front teams. My running fitness let me down as I could not maintain the pace and it felt as though half the field passed us between CP1 and CP2.

At transition we quickly decided to cycle as I had struggled so much with the run, so we quickly transitioned to the bikes, but in the rush I could not make sense of the map – it just felt wrong. I called a navigation stop, calmed down and orientated the map properly. I probably added 3 minutes to the transition but this was worth the effort when we cycled out of transition and saw 4 teams rushing off in the wrong direction. We quickly cycled through the first two CPs and then started the long grinding cycle up to the radio mast. I was hoping that from the mast we could find a way down the other side even if it was only a cattle track – no such luck and we had to choose between turning around and cycling the 10km back, or Hike a bike down the hill. What is an Adventure Race withing a hike-a-bike so off we went. A drop of about 250m over just over a km. I estimate we made up about 10minutes following this route.

We were told the race route had changed and we no longer had the choice between cycling and hiking, and had to hike because we had just done the cycle option (I hate it when rules change during a race) – so off we went – Beyers running far stronger than me - until we reached the horses – a quick 200m on the horses did nothing to relieve the effort pains in my chest before we were off on foot again. On this third leg there were 6 optional points – we were planning to get 4 of them, but found that the one OP was harder than expected to find and after 5 minutes of looking I made the decision to drop it – however we did get the other 3 points we had planned on.

Leg 4 was again on the bikes – looking at the route I estimated a 14km cycle to collect all the optional, and with about 90mins left before race cut off we had enough time to collect them all. It was a relatively easy cycle – especially comparing it to the earlier cycle and we collected the points quickly and efficiently finishing about 20 minutes before cut-off.

Thanks to Beyers for putting up with my slow speed -

Thanks to Senseless for organising the race – it was tough but do able

Well done to Cyanosis for their win

One suggestion to the race organisers – we would have completed more optional points on the final hike if we had known how long the last leg was. In the race instructions I would suggest giving the compulsory distance (minimum distance to collect all compulsory points) as well as the optional distance (minimum distance to collect all optional points) to allow teams to plan their routes better. For example the race instructions could have included the following: “Leg 1: Hike 4km, Leg 2: Hike 6km or cycle 20km, Leg 3 Cycle Compulsory 6km, optional 13km, Leg 4: Hike Compulsory 6km, optional 12km” and let the team mange their expectations themselves.

702 Walk the Talk - 24 July

2011-07-25T07:30:00.006+02:00

30km's walked in a shade under 5 hours. A beautiful winter's day, with excellent organization and the good company of Karin and Eric who joined our group at around the 15km mark. That's the herd of 5km walkers behind us! One more good reason to be doing the longer walk!

Kinetic Sprint - 2011\06\27

2011-06-27T08:55:00.001+02:00

On Sunday the 26^th June, Team Lickety Split consisting of William Cairns, Mike Underwood and Gail Arnell took on the 20km Kinetic Sprint held at Glenburn Lodge near Muldersdrif.

The race consisted of a short orienteering leg, a cycle, a short trek and finished with a paddle and obstacle course.

Careful planning while standing on the start about which points to do in which order proved fruitless as the plan fell apart before the first checkpoint when the team got caught up in traffic and fell far behind where they wanted to be. Fast running between the next points recovered some of the lost ground but in a sprint event of this type the first leg, and first check point always prove critical. The orienteering leg wandered around the lodge grounds before finishing back at the start/finish area.

The cycle started by wandering through the veld around the lodge grounds before heading on a single track path around the local mountain side. From my point of view a large amount of the single track was not ride-able and we pushed/ran along the route below the looming cliffs above us. Once we reached the other side of the mountains we had a wonderful technical downhill before hitting the fence roads and district roads. A few stupid navigation errors such as missing a point on the fence and miss timing a turnoff lost us some ground.

From the start/finish area we went off onto the trek leg, by this time our legs were feeling the race and our pace slowed to a fast walk with regular short jogs where possible, after fetching the first few points we returned toward the start area along the same unrideable single track path. Being on foot was a lot easier than the earlier cycling.

The finish of the race on the short paddle was quickly handled and we stood in the queue for the obstacles, a good indication that we were further back than we wanted to be.

Team Lickety Split finished 6^th in the Mixed teams (3 people per team) category, a reasonably good finish considering my state of fitness.

Well done to Karin and her team for winning the Ladies Team Category.

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Expedition Africa 9 -13 May 2011

2011-05-24T09:19:00.056+02:00

Just how does one eat an elephant? Well one bite at a time, of course!
So that's what we set out to do....right from that first 'preparation' race in February. We tested necessary gear, sleeping times, ingredients for meals and transition strategies. Unfortunately, we were to discover that what works for a 'short' 250km race, does not fit an expedition race! Mainly it was about handling 4 hours of exercise, versus a leg of 16 to 20 hours. You are not just 4 times more tired, but something like 10 times more! Luckily, we also discovered that as the days passed, we became stronger to meet the challenge! William put some thoughts together about the journey we took.

Getting There

Once we got to the airport in Cape Town it was cool being able to collect a bakkie from Sue’s sister to use for the week. Man did we pack that bakkie to the limit, Sue and Nando sat with a pile of luggage between them on the back seat and I had a backpack stuck between my legs.

Pre-Race
We had two tents per team, being almost the first ones there was fun and we sorted ourselves out, visited the shops etc before most of the teams arrived. We had a good meal in Hermanus on Saturday. Making large cardboard boxes waterproof is a bigger job than you would think and we spent a good few hours with packing tape and black bags getting them waterproofed.

Race Start – Leg 1 – Hike/Orienteering – 14km
Due to high winds early in the morning the sea kayak was cancelled and we started in more traditional fashion with a quick hike/run through Hermanus, the highlight being the trip up Hoyskop a small koppie in the middle of town, and then the trip up the kloof behind Hermanus and back over the mountain with the wind howling around us.

Leg 2 – Lagoon/River Paddle – 20km
Most of leg 2 was a peaceful paddle up the lagoon with some wind in the later part of the lagoon making it a wet experience as the waves broke over the boat. Sue and Nando must have been soaked sitting in front of the boats. We struggled to find the river that fed into the lagoon that was our way up to Stanford a few kms upstream. In the end it was a case of everyone go in different direction until we found it, I fell waist deep suddenly and nearly had my foot trapped underwater – but at least we found it.

Leg 3 – Hike – 36km
From Stanford we retraced the length of the river and lagoon to end back on the beach again before hiking along the beach all the way to Gansbaai. Gansbaai has changed a lot since the maps were drawn up and we overshot the checkpoint by a good 2kms or so. We retraced our route got the point and finished the leg. At the transition we stopped for about 2 hours of sleep. (End of Day 1)

Leg 4 – Cycle - 140km
This leg felt like it went on forever. We cycled inland toward the town of Elim, just before getting to Elim we changed direction and headed back to the coast via the Agulhas National Park. We visited the Lighthouse, and saw a dead whale in the little bay as well as a dead seal later along the beach. Once finished with the beach we headed back to Elim where we stopped for a few drinks. Just outside Elim I buckled my back wheel and while we tried to get some sort of rear brakes working in the end I continued for the rest of the race with no back brakes. At transition we again slept a few hours. (End of Day 2)

Leg 5 – Hike – 47km
The hike started with a direct assault or about 5km through the fynbos up the side of the mountain. The alternate route was about 13km along roads. The fynbos was thicker than expected and it seems the alternate route was faster. Once over the mountain we had a similar choice of 8km through the fynbos vs 13km through town.

The option of stopping for breakfast in town won and we headed into Napier for a really good breakfast. Coming out of Napier is where Con’s feet started being a problem. The hike continued going over another 2 mountains and then finally going around a mountain late the afternoon. By this time Con could hardly walk and I think Nando’s back problem was really starting to hurt. Once darkness fell Con and I entered Zombie state and Nando and Sue kept us going. Con’s feet got progressively worse and in the end we called Heidi to organise him to be picked up, while the rest of us continued.

In transition Con had his feet seen to by the Medic – he got the full treatment including ‘staal drupples’ injected into the blisters to dry them out. At the time we did not realise that the major problem he had, was bruising rather than the blisters. (End of Day 3)

Leg 6 – Cycle 105km
After a good sleep, we chose to have a longer sleep to give Con the best chance of recovering we headed off again, unfortunately Nando’s back had not improved sufficiently and after a few kms he decided it would not be possible to continue and he returned to Transition. The rest of us continued meeting Erik on the way and stopping late in the afternoon in Greyton for a late lunch.

Leg 7 – Trek 23 km – replaced with Cycle 30km
Once we reached the next transition we knew that there was no chance of Con doing the Trek, as a team we decided to therefore ride around the Hike leg and continue on to the next transition. It was an easy Cycle being all on Tar roads, but the long uphill really got us down only to be replaced with the joy of the long downhill to Theewaterskloof dam. At transition we took it leisurely, having decided to skip the paddle and complete as much of the last day as possible. (End of day 4)

Leg 8 – Cycle 70km
This cycle made it over 200kms of cycling in a row. It started off just as dawn arrived and had us cycling in the mist over the bridge across the dam, before once again turning off onto dirt roads back towards Hermanus. Just before we reached the next transition we met up with the camera crew and while they were filming us Cyanosis arrived (by car) and handed out ice cold cokes as an encouragement to everyone.

Leg 9 – Orienteering – 4km
Sue and I did the short orienteering leg (pushing our distance on foot to over 100km on the Official race distances). Con lay on the grass and had a good sleep.

Leg 10 – Cycle – 8km
Off we went on the last cycle, a lot of it being on tar roads through Hermanus and Onrusrivier back to the start/finish area.

Post Race
We were about the 7th team to finish after 103 hours of racing. Officially we finished 19th due to losing a team member and the fact that we missed 2 legs of the race. We got some great trophies that I am going to treasure. The trip back was peaceful and unexciting. It was a wonderful experience that I look forward to repeating next year.

Racing thoughts

2011-05-03T13:57:00.003+02:00

Team Lickety Split is on short finals for Expedition Africa, so I spent a couple of minutes today reading race reports from races similar to EA. Getting my mind around the race, so to speak.

Tatum Prins hit the nail on the head with this insight from AR World Champs - October 2010.

"This sport is so incredible. It has this way of humbling you. You end up having this love hate relationship with it. One minute you are crying and ready to call it quits and the next you are laughing hysterically and loving every second. All this changes in a matter of seconds. Quite simply, it’s a beautiful kind of crazy! Your highs and lows are amazing, so much so you can’t understand them. In fact I can’t even try. All I know is that AR sucks you in and keeps you there. It bares your soul. At times it rips it apart and just lays it open for all to see. It teaches you the importance of living life. It puts life into perspective. It teaches you to never give up, to keep looking forward. It pushes your limits. Emotional, physically and spiritually. It shows you the importance of having 3 friends as team mates because without them in AR you are nothing. They are your world for those 5 days. It’s you, them and the elements. Life becomes simple again."

It's going to be uber cool to be taking part in the same race with all the 'heavyweights' next week! Mighty Mouse.

Kinetic Sprint - Amazingwe Lodge

2011-04-26T11:59:00.005+02:00

17 April 2011

Mike & William - 3rd in Men's Pairs

Con & Sue - 4th in Mixed pairs

YstervARK LEGEND - 8/9 April 2011

2011-04-13T14:26:00.037+02:00

Captain my Captain William, This is my Swansong Con, Flying Portuguese Nando and Mighty Mouse Sue.

The final race in the series - rumoured to be LEGEND - we had to be there! As usual it was not plain sailing before the race. William managed to pancake his front wheel rim while riding to work on Monday - this is a model for which you can no longer get spares, AND you don’t want to buy a new bike the week before a race! Then we discovered that one of the canoes we had counted on using, due to a mix up in communication, was not available to us any longer.......!

This had William running around organizing bike parts and canoes frantically in the evening, so that we could test them at Emmarentia on Thursday. The Gods were on our side, as the canoe he bought - a Foxbat - turned out to be perfect for our needs, if you discount the fact that more than half of the team do not want to spend more time swimming it to the nearest bank, rather than paddling it! She’s a Foxy Lady....fast and unpredictable!

The trip out to Aasvoelkrans Resort went like clockwork, William, Con and I in William’s car with bikes and boats on top - we were there by 7......with no sign of race organizers anywhere. We thought we had more than enough time to prepare and maybe even fit in a little sleep? However, putting bikes together, doing kit check, stuffing down food, shuttling boats to the dam at Olifantsnek and testing out our shelter for the anticipated kit check on route, took us right up to race start. Clinton had managed to raise 11 teams from a total of only 2 on the Monday, so we had the usual quantity of racers. A quick check of hands, revealed that around half of them were virgin racers, looking a little chilly and apprehensive in the dark.

The first task was a quick orienteering run around the resort, using verbal clues to collect our passport - surprising how difficult it was in the dark and unfamiliar territory. The teams now split up a little, we hefted our backpacks, mounted our bikes and set off into the dark. (45km MTB)

Knowing we were in the Magalies area and the roads were all likely to go UP, did not actually help at all! Race Director Nico had found the longest district road in South Africa that goes UP AND UP AND.......The trouble with cycling in the dark is that you cannot see how far you still need to climb, but after an hour of climbing, you would just really like to KNOW? Anyway, the turn onto the farmer’s mealie fields was a welcome sight, the grassy jeep track.....a change of scenery, the view downhill heavenly! Into transition some time after midnight and happy Hallo’s shared with Uncharted. They were just exiting the caves and Lizelle was pumped up by everything she had seen and done. She assured us that it was “GONNA BE AWESOME”!
The first of the surprises Clinton had promised us.......this is the Weltevreden Caves - our entry an abseil (30m) down a pit entrance, where miners used to mine lime in the early 1900’s. (3.5km orienteering) We were given a map and instructions to stay away from the fungus on the floors - rumoured to cause illness if inhaled. It being around 2am in the morning, our trip around the caves was somewhat otherworldly! I almost felt as if I had fallen into a Star Trek movie, trekking the 3.5km around underground looking for checkpoints. The ground underfoot was loose and slippery, but we spent time sneaking quick peeks around at the stalagtites and formations, while checking below for fungus, ducking flying bats and negotiating slippery rocks! So odd to be wandering around alone and far away from the ‘real world’ then bump into familiar faces of other racers, around the next corner!

Nando bravely volunteered to crawl into all the small muddy spaces to find hidden checkpoints and Con did a fantastic job of keeping us on route. One vertical boulder strewn shaft was a little beyond our sensible capabilities and we elected to go back by the safe route. With flagging headlamps, we completed that leg and sat down to change batteries and transition back onto bikes. Tshwane had organized hot and cold drinks at this point, and it was very welcome. Thanks, Guys! It was not only AWSOME, but also LEGEND!

Now for the long leg through the dawn to the dam (50km). Knowing that we had climbed so much, we anticipated a long run downhill, back in the direction we had already come. The downhill took a while to arrive, but finally we were tearing into the dawn back to the dam. Several teams were in the area when we arrived, and upon seeing a chilly looking group entering the water for a swim, we told ourselves that they had obviously forgotten their canoes and elected to swim instead - little did we know this was the next surprise engineered by Clinton!

A quick anti-cockwise trip around the dam (7km), into slightly choppy waters, gained us checkpoints at the Willow tree and a trip up the bank for the Cave checkpoint. Back to the log strewn exit from the dam, where Con very nearly dragged me off my feet in his eagerness to get onto the next leg. Here was Eric to preserve the moment with his camera. William whipped out his penknife to remove the headlamp from his bike helmet and being somewhat sleep deprived, left it in the grass, hereby losing us 10 hard earned minutes from our finishing time! Not that it mattered.............

Now we discovered that we had to chose between a hike around the dam, or a swim directly across - of course this being adventure racing, it was the swim (200m), which turned out to be the best option, as the hike lost a couple of teams their final places in the race. Stripping down to as little as possible, exchange some insults with Eric and we set out kitted in life jackets, which then needed dragging behind us for the rest of the race (20km), but as I said before, this is adventure racing! We had exchanged race position with team Stealth several times during the race and were running a ding dong battle with them right up to the dam wall where we left them having a bite to eat and looking a little tired - maybe they were just tired of our incessant banter? The hike to the dam wall was interesting, mainly for the quantities of fauna and flora, specifically the Nephila Clavipes - better known as Golden Orb-web Spiders. Boy! There were plenty of them! Large and carnivorous looking.....though we told ourselves they were not poisonous....we have the odd arachnophobe in the team, so William took up a large stick and beat the trail for the rest of us!

The route away from the dam wall checkpoint, lead straight up the cliff face, past the first peak, then onto the second and at last we could see the first beacon shining high in the distance. That done, we could see the next 2 checkpoint beacons somewhere further into the clouds before us, but this is what we have been training for.....the shrubbery even looked like fynbos, so on we went. William was particularly thrilled to be following a trail only a metre wide, with steep dropoffs on both sides - we felt a lot like we were doing Salomon Skyrun just there. Somewhere on the top of that peak, we met Nico running alone and in the middle of nowhere. He explained that he was just out checking on things and that we were close to the next checkpoint, where we would start descending. Whoop! Whoop!

At that checkpoint, came the expected gear check. We hunkered down and squashed ourselves under the flysheet - unexpectedly discovering the largest ‘penknife’ we have ever seen, lost in the grass. You could skin an elephant with that thing! That completed, we elected to miss the boulder route off the mountain and try the chain ladder - because it sounded like more fun! It must have been quite a climb up, as we discovered Eric (again) and Karin flaked out in the grass at the top. A quick stop to satisfy the photographer and then a shaky descent down the slippery ladder......will it ever end? Legs wobbly and untrustworthy by this stage.

At last on solid, if not horizontal ground, we spent what seemed like hours trailing Con, who could smell the finish, down the foothills and back to the Aasvoelkrans Resort. We told ourselves if just one person clapped, we would run through the finish - well exactly one person clapped, so we raised a jog and completed our race happy......and well before prize giving! We finished in 5th place in a time of 16h05 with a warm welcome from Clint and a bottle of Coke for our troubles.

Congratulations to Hawkstone on a highly deserved win and to all the other teams who took part - you're all winners!

Thanks go to Tshwane Adventure Racing Club for organizing yet another excellent race! We even managed to each win a Buff! (by default) Thanks guys.......it was LEGEND! We’ll be back!

Mighty Mouse

Race Report: Kinetic Double Moon

2011-03-17T14:11:00.009+02:00

Kinetic Double Moon Adventure Race

March 2011

Team Lickety Split

Members: William Cairns (Captain), Sue Belcher, Nando Santos, Con Loubser (Navigator)

Fetching: Mike Underwood and Trish Black

An adventure race consists of more than just racing. Finding team mates, getting to the race, understanding the challenges of the particular race, understanding each team members strength and weaknesses and knowing what to pack and how to transition are all critical aspects of the race. Getting home must also be planned for.

Lickety Split has been together for 18 months now. So finding team mates is a real pleasure as we can rely on finding 4 of the team mates to do the race. Often we can rely on the other team members to help us out with seconding. For this race we knew we were going to be tired after the race and therefore arranged with Mike and Trish to come and collect us from Bethlehem after the race. A really good idea, as on the way home all of us had a good sleep.

After the race briefing and before plotting the maps the team sat down together and worked out the estimated times we would be taking on each leg. This is a great way of planning your requirements for each part of the day, and also for knowing where you need to push (to use daylight on hiking legs) and where you can take it easy (cycling at night) as well as knowing how to pack your race box, and what food you need each day. By planning the times per leg you can also identify the best spots on the route to sleep. Our planning worked out spectacularly and at all times we knew which sections needed the hard work and where we were able to rest.

We took turns plotting maps, with another team member checking the plotted points. We did discover that there was a point that we had not plotted and corrected it. We also spent time tracing the whole route to ensure that every point was plotted correctly.

Out of interest, our team is able to cycle at a good speed at night, not quite our daytime speed but not considerably slower. However we find that hiking, especially where there are not roads, we travel half our daytime speed, or even slower. So by trying to do as much hiking as possible during daylight we significantly improve our times. (Rough averages: Daytime cycling 15-18kms per hour, night time cycling 10-14km per hour, daytime hiking 5km per hour, night time hiking 2-3km per hour, at night hiking over rough rocky terrain without paths, as low as 1km per hour)

Orienteering Trek - 14km, 7OPs, Collect in any Order

- Estimated 3:00, Actual 2:49

We knew there would be about an hour of Dark at the start of the leg and due to the fact that we did not know the quality of the tracks marked on the map we decided to stick to the larger roads that were well marked on the map. This had us starting with the highest point on the leg as the first check point.

Obviously a lot of teams had made the same decision as there was a long queue up the hill. For the rest of the leg we followed the smaller tracks marked on the map and found them to be pretty good roads.

Knowing that we would be hiking during the late afternoon (leg 4) we knew we needed to save as much daylight as possible and ran as often as we could on this leg. While this made this leg faster over all it hurt us as I suffered from heat exhaustion later in the day and Sue struggled with energy levels on the cycle.

Paddle Orienteering - 5km, 4OPs, Collect in any order

- Estimate 1:30 (inc Transition), Actual 0:50 (inc Transition)

On the hike we had already passed 2 of the checkpoints for the paddle, in both cases we were close enough to have clipped them. But back we went to each and clipped them. Having seen the points made it very easy to navigate to them and just having watched some of the teams ahead of us we already knew where a third point was as well.

We have been doing lots of paddling training as we know EA will require many KMs of paddling, I really felt that the paddling training had helped and was feeling more comfortable than normal on the bath tubs.

Cycle - 64kms, 3 CPs, Collect in order

- Estimate 5:30 (inc Transition), Actual 5:50 (Inc Transition)

Pretty soon on the cycle we realised that the running in the first leg had taken more out of Sue than we had realised, Con pulled out our brand new towing system and hooked her on and towed here speedily up the hills, Nando and I struggling (and usually unable) to keep up. Temperature went up quickly and I started suffering from Heat Exhaustion, which made us slow down significantly as I needed to rest in shade regularly.

A stop at a middle of nowhere shop for an ice cold liter of cooldrink really helped but I only really recovered after a swim at the Meiringskloof transition.

As a team we have never really used towing as an option before. However after this experience I admit that it makes a massive difference to the teams overall speed and a towing system should be considered as an option at all times.

Hike - 18km, 6CPs, Collect in order

- Estimate 6:30 (inc Transition), Actual 8:50 to Abseil (Inc Transition)

After a rather slow Transition as I tried to drop my core temperature we went off on the hike. The overhanging cliffs, the tunnels and the kloofing were all amazing. Definitely a place to take the family camping.

Once through the tunnels we climbed a mountain, and went down the other side, climbed a mountain and went down the other side, by now it was dark and we were not traveling very fast, a stop at the check point to refill water and off we went, climbed a mountain and went down the other side.

Con's navigation was pretty much spot on except near the checkpoint where we went the wrong way but soon realised the mistake and recovered. This shows the importance of knowing where you are at all times, and if you don't know exactly where you are on the map you need to continually evaluate your position to identify where on the map you are allowing you to find out if you have made a mistake.

On this hike we met the owner of one of the farms and she offered us water etc, but clearly she thought we were mad to be traipsing round the country side like we were.

As usual I was rather slow on the abseil - I have just never got used to heights and go down at the speed I consider safe rather than trying to save time. When I started adventure racing I must admit my fear of heights made abseiling really difficult, however as time has gone on it has become easier and easier, and mostly I just take the attitude, close your eyes and go!

Sleep

- Estimate 3:30, Actual 5:53 (Inc Abseil)

Back at the transition we decided to have a 3 hour sleep, giving us about an hour and a half of night time riding before sunrise. But when it came to waking up I just could not get going. In addition I had left a flat tire to be fixed after waking up. This meant that we spent about an hour extra getting ready to go instead of going. Looking back at this it was rather disappointing as usually I wake up quickly and am on the go seconds after waking.

I also believe that if we get everything ready before going to sleep we would save a lot of time. I think I could ride my bike while half asleep, but cant change a tube nor pack the box properly.

Cycle - 67kms, 3CPs, Collect in order

- Estimate 9:00, Actual 8:48 (Inc Lunch)

Cycling out of Fouriesburg on the tar road was great, after just waking up we needed a nice easy ride, even the dirt roads we rode on were of good quality and made riding easy. Sue had regained her strength and was doing well, my body temperature was doing ok, and as a team we were progressing well. The tar road down to the Lesotho border was fantastic, and we reached speed of over 50km an hour. I remember thinking that Con better have chosen the right road as there was no way I wanted to cycle back up the tar road.

Cycling along the Caledon river with South African mountains to our left, and Lesotho mountains on our right was like a fairy tale, I personally love mountains and being between them like that was beyond my wildest dreams. The sandstone cliffs, buttresses and valleys were fantastic to behold. At one point we could see what looked like four ranges of mountains one behind another lying in front of us.

Just before we reached the mountain pass we had been told so much about, we caught up to team Hawkstone, a team consistently faster than us, but were struggling as Alec was not feeling well. We greeted them (Nando sharing some of his secret pills with Alec) refilled water at the farm and continued.

We reached the pass and I towed Sue up the first 2 corners. By then I felt like I did the day before, all energy gone and core temperature rising far too quickly. Con once again took the tow and headed off, leaving myself and Nando amazed at the speed he and Sue were traveling. I started dousing myself with water at ever stream and puddle we saw on the pass, this seemed to help as I never reached the same level of heat exhaustion on the route.

Once over the pass we greeted Eric the photographer, who really made us feel as though he were the team personal photographer and headed on toward Clarens. As we came into Clarens we stopped at the supermarket and bought cooldrinks and food, then stopped at a local cafe for lunch. The food we had was really good and made us feel great.

We realised that by stopping for lunch before going into transition we saved time as it meant a short transition, while people that went into transition first completed their normal transition times and then still stopped for lunch. It makes me wonder if an effort should be made to drink remaining fluids and eat more food just before you reach transition would not make for faster transitions.

Hike - 10km (shortened to 6km), 3 CPs (Shortened to 2CPs), collect in order

- Estimate 3:00 (plus 0:30 Transition), Actual 2:20 (plus 0:12 Transition) - shortened route

The hike from Clarence into the mountains was really just there and back to see how far it was. The one CP was removed as it was taking teams too long to get to and would therefore influence the race end time. When we reached the top of the cliffs we found that the landscape did not match the map and we ended up needing to orientate the map purely by compass. This was interesting as normally I tend to orientate my map more by landmarks that I can see than by compass. Many teams felt that the CP was plotted incorrectly but once we found the CP and really compared it to the map we felt it was placed correctly.

On the way down we met Hawkstone (Alec looking strong), Dew Point and Senseless coming up the mountain. We suddenly realised we were sitting no worse than 5th as we knew about some teams that had already withdrawn. This actually made us decide to push hard as it was possible we were actually racing for a podium position. We pushed hard for a quick transition but looking at our times we just didn't get it right.

Cycle - 35km, 2CPs, collect points in order

- Estimate 3:00 (plus 0:30 Transition), Actual 2:20 (plus 0:28 Transition)

As we left transition I found I had a puncture. We stopped right there in Clarens and changed the tube. (Now both tubes were slime filled) and continued, over the rest of the leg we continually found that my tyres were going soft and had to stop and pump them up. Soon we switched to bombs just to save time and try and stay ahead of Senseless who we believed were right behind us.

Just before the next transition we stopped at a stop street for warm clothing and Hawkstone, with a fully recover Alec, came charging past us as if we were standing still (we were). We followed them into the transition and quickly onto the dam. (Later Hawkstone told us that Senseless was about 500m behind us at the time.

Paddle - 20km (Shortened to 12km), 2CPs, Collect in order

- Estimate 4:30 (inc Transition), Actual 2:34 (Inc Transition) - shortened route

We headed off into the dark, Paddling in the dark is always a surrealistic experience for me. You seem so much smaller in the dark and on the dam it feels so silent. Even when noises reach you from the shore it still feels as though you are in a bubble out there on the dam. Con asked if we should go for the closest point first, and I reminded him that we had to visit the points in order. We quickly reached the first point and then we headed off into a headwind to get to the next point. The boat was bouncing on the waves and splashing Nando in front of the boat on a regular basis. While we were heading to the second CP we encountered 2 teams doing the points in the worng order, having a great tail wind helping them across the dam.

Cycle - 17km, 2 CPs, collect in Order

- Estimate 2:30 (inc Transition), Actual 1:43 (Inc Transition)

We transitioned quickly and headed out, Soon we reached the first CP and headed off home, unfortunately we hit some soft sand on the road. This made the going tough for Sue who was too tired to manage without falling, resulting in her and myself pushing our bikes through the sand. We rode the hard packed roads where possible.

If Sue had had a chance to sleep either before the leg, or during the leg we would have coped on this section a lot better, but as she was tired it became a bit of a slog.

We rode into the finish, in 5th spot, behind Hawkstone and ahead of Senseless. At the finish we were treated to a winners podium with champagne. Nando in his post race state found that adding champagne to the end of a race caused lightheadedness and he required a little rest before continuing with the nights festivities.

Overall we were only 55minutes slower than our scheduled time, but about 4 hours of racing had been cut from the course.

Prize giving was fantastic. When we were called up in 5th spot we had as big a cheer from the other teams as the first place team got. That made us feel really special.

Team Lickety Split had set out to use this race as a trial run for Expedition Africa, learning each others abilities and weak points as it was the first time this combination had raced together. We did far better (about 7 hours) than we had expected to do. We found our weak points, and we know what we need to improve our overall performance. As a team we have one more opportunity to race together when the Ystervark Legend race happens next month. We hope that at the Ystervark race we can finalise our preparations.

Thanks

A big thank you to Mike and Trish for making the trip to Bethlehem to collect us.

A big thank you to Heidi and Stephan and their team of helpers and Marshals for organising the race and making it possible for us to travel the country in such a spectacular way.

Also a thank you to all the Land Owners in the area that gave permission for us to travel over their farms.

Double moon - Our Route

2011-03-14T20:22:00.001+02:00

Con spent some time recreating the full route we followed on the race, including the small navigational error. In the end:

Hike Orienteering - 16km distance, 398m elevation gain
Paddle Orienteering - 4.5 km, 52m
Cycle to Meiringskloof - 64.1 km, 881m
Meirinskloof Hike - 20.3 km, 830m
Cycle to Clarens - 63.4 km, 1538m
Clarens Hike - 7.1 km, 368m
Cycle to Saulspoort - 35.8 km, 338m
Paddle on Saulspoort - 11.5 km, 54m
Cycle to finish - 13.9 km, 234m

Total Distance: 236.6 km
Total Gain: 4693m (and that includes google's surprising elevation gains on the paddles!?!?!?!?)

Bike: 177.2 km
Hike: 43.3 km
Paddle: 16 km

YsterVark AMA-Zing Race - 28/29 January

2011-02-08T07:24:00.009+02:00

Written by our guest team-mate Karin Joubert.
Mike, Nando, Con and Karin with William seconding)

Wow! Awesome! AMA-Zing race! I truly enjoyed it….and thank you to Lickety Split for the opportunity to race with you!

Con, Nando, Mike & William – you are all gentlemen – thank you for being so kind, supportive and taking me into your team. I am going to try and say a few things about the race, however, not sure if I am ‘William Shakespeare’, though!!

(I’m not going to write the normal race report – rather want to share my experience)

We all arrived safely at Mnweni – a few of us only a bit earlier than others. We all had a few hours sleep, got up at around 2am – made sure of last minute gear, and ready for the 3am start. Nando however, had to do his last ‘admin’ a minute before the race started – the team did say, ‘that’s Nando’. J And off we went….into the dark – 20km hiking/kloofing! I wasn’t sure how long this would take us….never thought it will be 8 hours! Phew! Surprise-surprise! And it did take us more than 8 hours! What an experience!

Walking – hiking - climbing – kloofing – it was wonderful! The beautiful Drakensberge and surroundings were ‘picture perfect’! (first time in the ‘Berg’ for me!) Going all the way to the top of the mountain, to one of the caves, was difficult, but fairly doable. Not quite sure what the time was when we reached the top, however the sun was already awake and smiling at us.

But now the ‘difficult’ part started (for me though) – I never realized that I am so ‘afraid’ of heights. I couldn’t even stand close to the edge, to see how far we have to go down. I really wasn’t aware of this ‘short coming’ of mine. We started going down the mountain – slowly at places – cause this ‘bangbroek’ just couldn’t get a move on. Thank you for the 3 of you, Con, Nando and Mike for helping me. You know where and when! Finally we reached the bottom! And the legs/thighs talking in foreign languages! But I made it – all smiling!

The last part of the hike, myself and Con was chatting and walking at a steady pace, with Nando and Mike strolling along! We waited for them, and as a team we arrived back – with our wonderful second waiting to take a photo! He was so happy to see us! He filled up our bladders, checking our food supply, making sure my blister is fine, I could feel the energy he was having – thank you William – it was awesome.

Off to our first MTB leg – it felt wonderful just to get of your feet and onto the bike! Really bliss! We were going at a steady pace, I would say, enjoying the moment, moving on swiftly. Until Con told us – yip, we are going to the top! We then realized that this is not going to be an easy ride! Through rivers, up hills, sun laughing at us – 35 degrees! Have to say on few hills – ‘in granny gear’ I was passing the guys – felt really good – hehehe! But it didn’t last – the really tough hills I had to push my bike up – I wasn’t the only one, a lot of the other teams had to do the same!

I really think we had a great bike ride and then it was time for the paddle! And William waiting for us, ready as always, making sure we have everything – paddles, ‘plakkies’, water, and and! Thank you William – you were great!

Have to say, the ‘paddle’ around Emmarentia dam really helped me, and I was ready to start the paddle with Con in the K2! And so were Nando and Mike! The paddle went smooth, and we return to ‘base’ (hehehe) just under 2 and half hours! This was awesome guys! And waiting with warm spaghetti bolognaise – our wonderful second – William, damn you were a star!

The sun was setting and we still had 2 legs to go – MTB ride and a last hike! We were ready and started the ride with smiles on our faces. We were trying to use the last bit of sunlight the day had to offer. This didn’t last long! We got the next CP quite easy and then started heading back to transition point 1 – but knew one more CP was up for grabs before we get there. I was really enjoying every moment of this!

We were counting the river crossings – and it seemed that we were just not getting to the road where we have to turn off to get the last CP at a bridge. Myself and Mike were wondering how far to transition. Nando was ‘just’ riding his bike and Con very determined to get the last CP of the bike ride. Con then said, let’s go down this road, the other 3 of us realized, if we go down this road, we have to come back up again. Luckily it took us to the bridge (only about 1.5km down) and there Nando spotted the CP point. We were all very pleased with Con’s navigation skills, I even asked him, ‘how did you know it was this road’? He just said: ‘I had this feeling’! I then told him: Well done, really proud! J

Heading back to transition was really putting a sparkle into my eyes! Knowing that we got all CP points up to now! Very happy campers – that were all of us!

Still feeling good, not really sleepy – I was ready for the last hike. Or I thought I was ready….don’t want to say much about this last part, just that it was amazing to head back into the mountains at that time of night, through rivers, going up steep hills (yet again I was a bit afraid of the height).

I had a wonderful experience with you guys, I really enjoyed every moment! You are gentlemen through and through! Would love to race with you guys again – hope I didn’t disappoint!

Thank you so much for all the help and support! The gear, motivation, and and....

Bicycling 24hr MTB at Rietvlei - 2nd place!

2010-12-06T08:42:00.015+02:00

The team: William, Con, Adri Ferrari and Goofy Mike.
Lickety Split attended the event with experience gained from last year. We arrived early and set up our gazebo's in the hot, hot sun - right next to the Do it Now gazebo, staffed by Keane, Lizelle, Wiehan, Weylin and Waldus - racing as www.kl.aar. Cat-i Carine also joined our little huddle of tents. She had planned to race as a 2-man team, but found herself going solo, to her horror - but she is game for anything! Time passed quickly and we found ourselves seated amongst a full score of racers - all shapes and sizes, for race briefing. The start was a midday sprint in cleats down the road to your bike. Con was nominated to get us a good lead on the slower teams and beat his way through the field.

The afternoon was hot and VERY windy - entertainment provided by gazebo's rising like balloons and bowling across the field. We checked ours....and added more tentpegs and ties, after three of them tried to get away! Dust and heat coated racers, turning to mudpacks with sweat. The organizers had set up a computer for racers to check their progress - to our surprise, the first couple of laps had pegged us into second place in the mixed fours....and there we stayed! The team was determined to try to close the gap with first place and plugged away hard throughout the night....we hoped that our experience with 'going all night' would serve us well, when other teams slowed down to sleep.

The campsite stayed busy all night....riders coming and going every few minutes, although a few teams stopped to sleep the dog shift. We changed from single laps to double laps to give our tired riders a chance to sleep for a couple of hours. The course was twisty and technical, with a whole new section punctuated with young trees to squeeze through. A soft dusty track and negative camber made sure that riders ran into trees on most laps and during the night, those trees took quite a beating.

Dawn arrived with the cries of peacocks at the unearthly hour of 4.10, during Adri's 2-lap shift. Hot and dusty, it was soon windy again! A check of the computer revealed that we had indeed pulled away from the third team during the night, unfortunately Edenvale Wheelers had been going all night as well, and now had a lead on us that we could not hope to close. Con had been hoping for a podium position and second place it was to be! Actually quite a successful placing, (we did more laps than several other teams who won their categories) we felt somewhat cheated by being unable to win, consoling ourselves by agreeing that we had run our race as efficiently as possible, not wasting a second in transition! Amazingly the solo men's winner managed to completely eclipse the number of laps turned out by any team and was deservedly the winner in all eyes. Cat-i was narrowly beaten into second place by a determined younger rider, while she slept a couple of night hours. Well done Carine, well done Lickety Split! Thanks Do it Now for the support and companionship!

William and Mike win Veteran Mens Foot Rogain

2010-11-02T12:39:00.000+02:00

The whole team attended the Rogaine at Kaapschehoop this weekend. William and Mike won the Veteran Men section of the Foot Rogain. But were so tired that they only finished 3^rd in category on the Mountain Bike Rogaine.

Training.....what's that?

2010-10-20T12:55:00.003+02:00

Juggling the business of race director and work, leaves very little time for pleasurable pursuits... like training for races - especially when you are holding down more than one job at a time. William is presently under pressure to train for Expedition Africa. The Lickety Split team got involved with suggestions for doing 2 tasks at once, such as investing in a treadmill or indoor bike rollers, so he could train while working from home at night. Which prompted the following........

William hard at work invoicing clients & training! (Sometime after midnight)

The Lesser Spotted Lammergeyer Mountain Challenge

2010-09-29T11:38:00.005+02:00

Race report by Keane Ludick

What a weekend for racing and breaking mental and physical boundaries!
Adri and myself travelled down to Aliwal North this weekend to visit some family and enjoy the spectacular scenery of the Witteberg mountain range. It’s a beautiful part of our country and any adventure racer’s dream training ground with breathtaking mountain peaks, rugged trekking terrain and the Orange river for hours of paddling.

A few weeks back we decided to scout for events in the area over the same weekend and came across the Lammergeyer Mountain Challenge. It seemed like the perfect event to do the Saturday morning with the start time being 7am at the local sports club in Lady Grey. The event was hosted by local farmers, Anna-Marie en Pieter, which promised a true and vibrant feel of the area of which it came to deliver on both. This was a totally different race to what you will find in Gauteng. Most of the competitors being local and those who were not travelled from far and wide giving the 4Peaks a skip to attend this challenge. 73 competitors, from young to old(75),from strong to first time trail runners pitched up for the event.

The Lammergeyer route is a unique route and runs through the Skyrun and Wartrail routes for the first 12km. The race starts with an easy run through the town towards the foot of the Witteberg mountain range that has pain and sweat on the menu for the day . Before the race we decided we would go out and break through some mental and physical boundaries and we definitely selected the best race to do this. I joined up with two sub 8hours comrades runners and Adri set the pace in her own group pulling and motivating other runners all the way to the end.

Hitting the foot of the mountain, our 10km-700m climb started with warmed up legs and steady heart rates. We tackled the old Lesotho paths to the highest point in the challenge at approx the 11km mark from where we descended via the third highest mountain pass in South-Africa, the Joubert Pass. Pacing ourselves down the long and painful pass we finally got to see the town. Just as we thought we were as good as done, we got the signal to make an unexpected left turn away from town up the last climb and then turn back towards the end. Looking at the time we realized we could finish this challenge in an even better time than planned so the pace was lifted and pain pushed aside. Coming round the final turn, with legs burning and lungs pumping, it was the smell of pure “boere wors” and the look of friendly faces that kept us going.

The race was well organized and one of the better races I have ever participated in. Anna-Marie and Pieter ensured that we had a clearly marked route, water point every 3km, T-Shirt, Medal and a guaranteed spot prize for every entrant. They might as well have called the race the White Indian Tiger Mountain Challenge considering that we never saw a Lammergeyer, droppings, or any form of evidence of their existence.

We arrived as total strangers and left with dozens of new friends to visit on our next trip. One thing is for sure, you need to be twice as fit for one of these local farm races to compensate for the social chatting that carries on through the entire race. Much better than running next to a Joburg boy with his ipod plugged in!

Otter Trail Run

2010-09-29T11:00:00.000+02:00

It's been a bit hectic from my side since the weekend hence no feedback on how my race went. My legs are still recovering from all those uphill's and downhill's we did (3050m ascent and decent). It was an amazing race but very tough. I finished in 8h17min, well within the 9hr cut-off mark. I hope to put a small report together as only then may you understand and sympathise with me.

One positive outcome from the race is that my foot injury (plantar fasciitis) did not hamper me to much throughout the race and on Monday the pain was altogether gone....a miracle it seems or is it just the muscle pain in my legs that is camouflaging it. So far so good and apart from sore quads, i have no other pains or injury....yipee!!!

Cheers!

Nando

Are we Adventureres or Racers (Scouting Report)

2010-09-25T09:15:00.001+02:00

Our sport has 2 words in its name – Adventure Race – so I wonder how many of us, or what proportion of each of us fits into each word – are we Adventurers that race, or Racers that enjoy some adventure. I know I would rather be seen as an Adventurer than a Racer, but I don’t think I really am – yet.

With only 8 weeks to go to the first race the team has organised we still had one leg that needed to be finalised. On our last trip to the area we struggled to get an understanding with the one farmer who’s land we wanted to cross, so much that we changed the route. This new route had to be finalised. The next team trip to the area will be only three weeks before the race, not leaving much time to finalise maps, race books etc. So I decided to take a weekend trip to the area and do the scouting myself. No other members of the team were available so it was to be me on my own. My plan was to confirm the locations, as agreed with the team, of a hike leg, and then finalise the new cycle route.

My goal was to turn the scouting trip into a mini adventure – a night out in the mountains under the star. As I had lots of time I decided to hike the cycle leg, looking at the map it was to be a hike of between 16 and 20kms. I would leave in the morning, meet the new farmer, then finalise the first set of points returning to the farm in the afternoon and sleeping on the mountain before finishing the leg the next morning. All the team members wished me a ‘safe’ trip. It is rather scary to think that we city folk think a solitary hike in the mountains could be considered dangerous.

My plans did not work out quite right. The farmer was on his way to a family reunion and could only see me at 7 in the morning. Meaning I left home at 3am. I met up with him and he insisted that he should take me around on the route with his bakkie and show me his ideas. I finally left the farm at 8:30 and quickly did the other points, returning to the farm at 10:30. Much earlier than my planned 4pm. I quickly changed and started my solitary adventure into the mountains. I hiked the route, plotted the 4 points, and hiked all the way back, finishing the route at about 5:30pm – my planned time of starting the route.

I slept in the car and woke at 3am to drive home – was at home for breakfast.

So my solo adventure turned into a day outing. I carried everything for a night in the mountains, warm clothes, sleeping bag, shelter, groundsheet, 3 meals.... and never used them. That probably means I still do not qualify as an Adventurer - yet.

So will there...?

2010-09-03T11:39:00.006+02:00

Team: Lickety Split

Members: William Cairns, Sue Belcher, Mike Underwood and Paul Venter

So after Swazi Xtreme the question was “Will there be a Lickety Split team doing the Full Moon race later in August?” The Seconds from Swazi (Mike and Sue) were both keen to do Full Moon as seconding can make you quite excited to race.... But as they have proved before, there could just be a navigational challenge in that case.

Anyway a few days after Swazi I decided to do Full Moon and Con was drafted – but he chickened out- and once again we picked up a highly excited but inexperienced recruit from my work colleagues. Paul was very excited to be given the opportunity and rushed out and bought the stuff he needed to do the race.

We all got to the race in our own ways... Dropped off the bikes and rushed off to the start. Rather a small crowd of excited racers was present and it was clear that three weeks after Swazi prevented a lot of teams from participating. I was feeling fine and was surprised at so few ex Swazi racers attending the always well organised Kinetic race. At race briefing we were informed that there would be no ‘added value’ to the race which caused a laugh and was quite a relief. Unplotted maps were handed out covering the whole route. A quick look over the maps showed a route that needed to followed rather than a challenge of finding the optimal route.

So off the race went. Paul was paddling for the first time ever so I put him in the front of the boat thinking I could see what he was doing and explain how to improve his style. In the end it meant that I was forced to paddle with the same rhythm he used which didn’t suit me very well. The first paddle was slow and heavy across large wind driven waves. Our boat continually pulled into the wind as if the wind was using our bodies as a sail. By the time we got to the end I was really pleased to finish.

Our transition to the hike was easy efficient and quick – off we went along the roads, the beach route was faster but roads are most often worth the extra distance. After the first checkpoint we did a cross country route while everyone else seemed to be retracing part of their route. Not sure which was faster. At the next point we saw a team that had no emergency gear with them. Each team member was carrying a bottle of water and nothing else. This 4 km hike ended at the first bicycle transition where we had earlier dropped off the bikes.

We were onto the bikes and out the gate, down the road and turn right – my words “the checkpoint is 150m down this road” – and yet we missed it. Paul’s bike started giving problems and he and I stopped to see if we could fix it while Mike and Sue went back for the point. And yes it was exactly 150m down the road from the corner. Before the race I had measured all distances between points, turns and landmarks and written them on my map – it made it easy to tell the team exactly how far we had to go, what we were looking for – definitely something I will do again. Poor Paul’s bike could no longer freewheel and he got very tired and his knees did not like his bike any more. After a while gentle hills became a walk for him. We came into transition and he had a serious rest.

The night hike on the map looked epic. No roads to where we needed to go but a quick hike briefing from marshal Alex confirmed my belief that there were a lot more roads than were shown on the map. Off we went into the dark. About half way through the hike I did my normal fall asleep while walking trick and we had a 15minute stop. It didn’t feel like I slept but I have been told with some conviction that I was snoring. Anyway – off we went and finished the hike. Into transition we came and Paul started taking his bike apart. After looking at the cassette he decided the chance of losing all ability to cycle was quite large and decided it would be better to drop out than having to push for 30kms, he went to have a quick sleep before meeting us for the final paddling legs.

The rest of us grabbed out bikes and disappeared off into the night. Things were going well (other than me wanting to sleep – but it wasn’t that bad – actually I think Mike needed sleep more than I did) until Sue’s recently serviced and scrubbed bike finally decided the hole in the tyre was too large for slime to seal. We pumped it a few times hopefully then gave up and decided to change the tube. Due to our mental state no one wanted to do the dirty work so we went to sleep instead. 25 minutes later Sue and I were woken by the alarm and changed the tube, then woke Mike up who slept through our noisy wheel change. Climbed on our bikes and disappeared into the night to finish the leg.

At the final manned transition we found Paul had not arrived (later we found out he had overslept). We had a nice peaceful transition, had some breakfast, devised a towing system for the second boat and went paddling off to Grooteiland. The worst part of my Navigation is over terrain that contains no landmarks – and water certainly counts in that regard. I struggled to decide on a final destination and when I did we could not find the transition. I think the light at the transition had been removed and the teams we later met on the island seemed to confirm this.

We finally transitioned at a random spot on the coast, rushed off to do the Check Points, and included a stop at the real transition – and could find no light when we were there. And returned to the boats – we saw Zebra, Wildebees and Springbok on the island as the sun was rising as we finished trekking around the island.

Back into the boats and what felt like an endless paddle to the end. Once again with me struggling to actually work out where we wanted to be.

A very nice fast event. No real navigational challenges (even the paddling navigation should have been easy). And our team really enjoyed the race.

Our thanks to Kinetic for organising the race, as well as giving us an opportunity at prize giving to advertise our race in November. It seems a nice gap in longer races up until the Balele Tracks race which will give everyone a nice rest.

I was surprised at how weak I felt during the race, obviously three weeks is not enough recovery time since our 320km epic in Swaziland.

The ‘Second’ Point of View – Swazi Pro 2010

2010-08-26T11:01:00.009+02:00

Ably represented by Goofy Mike, Trish & Mighty Mouse Sue.

Life as a second is not an exact science as you are part of the team, yet not a part at all! (It’s life Jim, but not as we know it!) Pre-race meetings to finalise team gear, leave you sitting around with a mouth full of teeth, unless it’s about meals or tents. Packing goes more easily than normal, no bike or paddling stuff, only a tent, sleeping bag and treats for the team.

A Comrades injury to Nando left us with only 3 team members willing to race the distance, so the week before Swazi was pregnant with emails flying back and forth testing ideas for making a team. Abel stepped in and unfortunately pulled out, Nico in / out, Larry in / out, Hein in…..and finally we had found our 4th Crusader! (I’m not even going to go into losing our Team 4 x 4 to a gearbox injury on Tuesday!)

The Swazi Border….an anticlimax, as we had been told horror stories of hours spent in mile long queues over long weekends – luckily, not! So, without incident, we arrived at Nisela Safaris (Faaaar to the South). Team registered, we scouted around and found a suitable campsite to set up tents enough for 16 people, but we were only 7. (More stuff for the seconds to pack tomorrow, but who cares, the team was comfortable!) At this point, the seconds were expected to swing into high gear. “Where is my Hoejockapivvy…..anybody seen my Thingammybob……I’m sure I packed an extra Widget?!” Much scouting around for missing items of clothing, stuffing and discarding of extra gear.

Exhibit A: 10 Race boxes, 2 tents, 1 gazebo, 4 camp chairs, 2 x K2 canoes, 4 MTB’s, fridge, table, stove, 2 cooler boxes, 3 water drums, 3 adults, food for 4 days, numerous groundsheets and assorted other necessities.

Exhibit B: One standard size station wagon Subaru.

………and it all fitted. Just!

Actually there was a fair amount of shuttling back and forth and re-packing which went on between transitions and the Mercedes and trailer, which were full of gear, too.
Nisela Safari’s put on a spread for supper, fit for a king! A 3 course meal, with hot & cold vegetables, assorted meats, pastas and a spread of desserts, however race briefing beckoned and we set off to find seats. Later, rather than sooner, Darron arrived and warned us about the ‘added value’ in store for the teams. Many were left wondering what they had let themselves in for.

Race morning…up at 5 a.m for the start at 6, not much to do, but see them off and collect Hein’s life jacket from Anita. Then pack up the 4 bikes - drive to the 1st transition down the tar road and into a dusty field. We have lots of time as they will be in at around 9, so we plan to be there before 8. Arrive last and start pulling boxes out of the car. The ground sheet is somewhere on the bottom. Wait! The’re here already! Quick! The boxes….. The team is in high spirits and have moved up the field quite a bit already. They grab the bikes and some fresh food and are off in 15 minutes. Boxes back into the car and we are gone in a whizz, leaving other teams looking at us wonderingly.

1st Overnight Transition….. this was on the dam at Big Bend, with reasonable showers (no hot water) and loads of space for camping. The rest of the day’s transitions needed 4 x 4 capabilities, so we shuttled the Mercedes through to the dam and found ourselves the first to arrive. We left the car and trailer sitting in solitary splendour, next to a tree on the grass. Then off to the bike / canoe transition where we were the last to arrive again. Luckily, this meant that the first teams had already transitioned and the best spots were already empty, leaving place for us to set up the gazebo and settle down for lunch.

At around 3 p.m, Team Lickety Split arrived and being hot and thirsty, have us scurrying around mixing drinks for water bottles and tea in mugs. Orders for sandwiches came in thick and fast. The next time we would see them was going to be late that night, so they needed to pack dry clothes for after the canoe leg (expecting to swim a bit) and food for later.

The put-in was difficult, being a choice between a small crack behind the weir in scary fast running water, or a larger area further along, right up against a huge bush of reeds and before a L-bend of note! We chose the easier put-in, but William and Hein elected to swim straight away. Maybe they thought to get the nasty bit over first?

Then the ‘offroad’ drive following the canals through the sugarcane fields to where we had to wait for the team at a bridge. Here they once again surprised us by arriving sooner than we expected.

We were told to warn the team about a sharp right bend and a submerged bridge that could only be navigated by using a metre wide sluice on the extreme right (under another bush) Booby trap of note! We were driving right next to the teams paddling and traded insults, until we found the submerged bridge and stopped to cheer and shout warnings. To their credit both boats navigated this without mishap, while the preceding team and the following teams both swam.

Another Canoe / Hike transition took place shortly thereafter. Here, we found ourselves handing out drinks and food to hungry paddlers from both our own and a couple of other teams who had misplaced their seconds. We had not been near a tap all day and were happy to still have enough for all. Some hot and lots of cold.

Back at the 2nd overnight transition, the empty field had sprouted a mess of tents, 4 x 4’s, gazebo’s and tired seconds. We were not sure we would be able to reach our campsite at all! Set up camp and waited. Lickety Split was due in about supper time and did not disappoint. Trish had made some delicious Macaroni Cheese and brought it as several frozen blocks. The test was to defrost it and re-heat in small pots on the gas, without turning it into cinders! It was also Con’s Birthday, so the secreted Chocolate Cake was unearthed and decorated with candles. It had survived the journey unscathed and was thoroughly enjoyed by us all.

Team transitioned and they set out on the arduous dirt road Hike Leg up into the Lebombo mountains, while we were left to drive to the next transition, at 10 p.m in a convoy of cars. We had to leave bikes at an unmanned transition – a school high up in the mountains. The road was long and very dusty and I felt sorry for the hikers we passed in the dust – managing to nod off in the back seat, in between moments of excitement. We had been looked at pityingly with our bikes tied so low to the ground, while everybody else’s were high and dry on roofs and trailers. Well we had the last laugh, as bikes were dropping off cars like flies, while the Subaru managed admirably!

Transition reached at around midnight and ‘Oh Woe!’ Hein’s bike has a flattie. And it look’s like it’s a tubeless too! We tried pumping, we tried spinning, we thought about leaving it for him to deal with, we asked advice from others, we stopped and watched it deflate at least twice……then we got stuck in and ripped off the tyre to put in a tube. At this point the convoy left us as it was getting early (after midnight) and everybody had already done a 20 hour day….. Mike was peerless at pulling out every last thorn, squishing through a swamp of white goo, which had not managed to quell the puncture and we left the bikes with a note and hopes that the repair would last….at least a mile or two! More fun was yet to come…..now we needed petrol and the GPS said we were too far from home to make it back.

So at one in the morning, Mike is asking his GPS for the nearest town and off we go into the night, down the mountain. Petrol found – Good they take Rands…more driving back to the Dam, where we brew hot chocolate at three in the morning. My 5mm thick mattress never looked so good or comfy!

DAY 1 OVER!

Day 2 dawned beautifully – the camp and I up at 6 for the start of the Sport Race. Smoke on the horizon from the sugarcane fields burning at night and a most stunning sunrise! I was under the impression that the team could arrive at any time, so was running around looking for matches to boil water and waking up Mike & Trish – not to be recommended. Eventually Trish checked with Anita who said that the team had only left the school transition at 6 a.m and would not be expected much before lunch. Back to bed, but now too awake to sleep anyway. We sat around, periodically chatting to Pro teams as they came wearily into transition. They told stories of loooong rides through sugarcane fields like a medieval maze. Stories of lost & found. I think you did good work there, Con!

Another transition and they set off on another bike leg. We had to move quickly now, as we were to meet them with the canoes not far away. A friendly farmer allowed the race to transition right on his doorstep in a most beautiful setting. Team in and transitioned, but now they were neck and neck with just about the last team, so it was quick onto the water for a trip down towards Mozambique. William asked us to repair a problem with his rear wheel which looked buckled, but without a workshop, about all we could do was move his brakes shoes apart.

Back to camp to pack up and top up with water and make loads more sandwiches. We did not expect to see a tap until the bitter end. A spot of indecision as to whether to drive the Mercedes to the next transition or the 100kms to the Race end point. Mike committed his trusty diesel to towing the trailer up the Lebombo mountains, with me following gingerly behind, bikes hovering dangerously over the road and dipping into every bump and ripple. Trish loves people and spent the entire trip lifting the spirits of the entire Swazi nation by waving and greeting everyone she could see. The people responded in kind! We were having fun!

Dusk brought an ominous cloud that got darker and wetter over the mountain, until finally it started spitting down and embedding the dirt which already festooned both cars. We needed to stop and drop off bikes for the team in a dusty field which was not supposed to be the overnight transition, but in light of the rain and anticipated schedule, we decided to set up camp then and there.

It was an excellent idea as it got much colder and very windy. The plateau on the top of the mountain was covered in mist and rain and I was surprised that not many other seconds had decided to do the same. Most teams were expected to arrive in the rain, transition on a groundsheet in the dark, hop onto their bike and go off on a 60km cycle! We settled down for a long wait, gazebo surrounded by sides so amply provided by William and gas stove set up to heat supper. Tonight it was Bolognaise, much anticipated after the previous night’s macaroni! Thanks again, Trish!

Old Brown Sherry out and supper heating on the gas. I popped out to check if our canoes had arrived on the last trailer and found instead…..our team appearing out of the mist. Cold, wet and far too early. What’s wrong? Seems they had gone ‘unofficial’. So the Lickety Split seconds roared into action, gave up our chairs and supper and swapped stories of mayhem on the river, a helicopter evacuation, and miserable conditions on the next leg. It was decided to miss the bike leg, get up at an unearthly hour, pack up and drive the whole team through to the beginning of the Day 3 leg. Good job we brought the Mercedes as it made it possible to do so! Team settled down for the night.

DAY 2 OVER!

6 hours sleep and we were woken up by various cell phones at 4 a.m. Somehow we managed to squeeze everything and everyone into the cars and drive for what seemed ages, through Siteki town, where we passed Pro racers on a hike leg, to the overnight transition, just in time for the 6 a.m Sport start. Once again a farmer’s field, lined by a cage of indignant geese, littered with groundsheets, bikes and porta-potties on a trailer. This long-suffering farmer also owned the helicopter that had been helping with the race, so periodically there was a coming and going of helicopter blades.

Everybody out of the cars, water brewed, breakfasts eaten, backpacks packed and the team set off on a long hike leg. I was happy to find a tap and we filled up all the drums again. Everything back into the cars again…..by now it had become a well worked pattern….everything in a certain place and order ………although somehow the race boxes never did seem to find an exact pattern, what mattered was that they fitted. Our very own Rubik's Cube. By now we kind of expected that the boxes would have become a little lighter, but I swear Hein went home with more in his box than he started with….in spite of everybody helping him to eat some of it.

Bikes back on carrier (again) and set out to the next transition. However, since we were already halfway there, we decided to drive on to the finish and leave the trusty Mercedes ….and pick a good camping spot! Leaving the field, we picked up another second in a bakkie, who accompanied us all the way to the Simunye Country Club. Unfortunately he was lost and did not want to find the finish, but rather his team at transition. Sorry for him, but we had some spare time and spent a couple of hours putting up the big tent, making lunch and sandwiches for the team and generally enjoying the surroundings and green grass.

Back past the Hlane Royal Game Reserve (saw some giraffe), up another dusty road to find the Hike / Bike transition in long grass. Once again we were last arriving and got a really good spot. The well oiled organisation springs into action again, gazebo out (as it was HOT) and begin unloading boxes, when…..Oh Crap! The’re early again! Team watered, waterbottles filled, most of the backpacks serviced, sandwiches whoofed down and the’re off! 5 Minutes pass and William is back complaining that his bladder is empty! Somehow it was missed in the rush. Lucky he discovered it so soon, as 5 more minutes and we would have been gone! Once again…last in….first out!

Trek back to the Country Club…once again the empty lawn has sprouted tents and gazebo’s, with 4 x 4’s parked right around the hockey field – THE END POINT! I had been lucky to set my tent door only 10 metres from the finish, so could lie in my sleeping bag and watch finishers…..which is what I did eventually. We were like cats on a hot tin roof, watching for finishers right from 6 o’clock, when the first of the Sport racers started coming in. Missing the previous night’s MTB leg had catapaulted the team to the front of the Pro race, so we expected them anytime….. now…..now…..later.
Let’s have supper first...then Mike & Trish wisely went off to bed. I was up every half hour clapping in finishers until after midnight, when I got wise and asked Anita when they were due? She replied that they had not yet gone past the last checkpoint, which put them hours away! So back to bed….just dozing when a team comes in….I hear Adri! UP! And clapping and laughing and hugging sweaty people! My people!

Day 3 over – the seconds race also over!

Everybody was still keyed up and supper was on offer all night, so we sat and ate and chatted until around 3 a.m. Another late night, followed by a buffet breakfast and a long trip home.

High Point: Team work and friendship – completing a(nother) race together.

Low Point: Losing William’s teabags and missing filling his bladder on the final day. The seconds who had so far done a sterling job lost all our kudo’s over that one small thing!

Swazi Xtreme - Before and After pics

2010-08-11T10:32:00.002+02:00

Before......clean and fresh

and......

After........still look good......with the exception of Con’s hair!

:-)))

Posted by Sue

Lickety Split standing by for team briefing!

2010-08-05T20:17:00.000+02:00

Swazi Xtreme

2010-08-05T06:28:00.001+02:00

Team Lickety Split is about to leave for Swaziland where we will be participating in the Swazi Xtreme adventure race. The race starts 6 am Friday morning and continues to 6pm Sunday evening. Over the 60 hours we have to travel 250km using our feet, mountain bikes and canoes.

The team is William, Con, Adri and visitor Hein

Our Seconds are Mike, Sue and Trish

A training outing for the Swazi seconds – also known as Kinetic Adventure : 25th July

2010-07-28T10:19:00.001+02:00

8 Legs (Run, MTB, Paddle, Run, Paddle, MTB, Zip Line, MTB, Paddle & Obstacle) Distances guessed at 22km MTB, 6km Run, 600M Zip line, 1km paddle.

Participants: Mike Underwood & Sue Belcher. Both hot in training for fetching and carrying!

Venue: Paddle Power near Pelindaba.

A check of the web site for Paddle Power carried a promise of hectic white water and steep drops over a weir! Discussions ensued as to whether we would need life jackets (with our swim at Yster Vark still fresh in our memories) but since Mike’s lifejacket stayed in William’s car all week, the issue was never resolved. Upon our arrival we were pleasantly surprised by millpond flat river water, a bank festooned with lashings of sponsor banners and tables dripping with race gear for sale. The air was chilly near the water, but with a promise of heat to come. Layering was the order of the day for Good Adventure Racers – such peeps well represented by Lisa, Carine, Alex Pope and their teams….all of whom were well represented on the winners podium, at race end.

All legs were pre-plotted on Google maps, which we collected after each completed leg. Stephan upped the anti, by supplying a race card with a barcode on the back, which was to be scanned into the computer after each completed leg. Each CP had an alphabetical letter to match to a letter on your race card.

Leg 1 could be done in any order – choice of North or South. We went North because it looked good, along with around 15 other teams and having decided to avoid congestion at all costs, conserved our energies by jogging gently and chatting, until we were happy that our CP was relatively free of the crowd. Picking up our punch for the rest of the race, a gentle jog back past Carine to greet the marshall who recognised the team and asked where were Nando and Adri? Mike warned me that it was a devious plot by our rivals to slow us down and to watch out for further delaying tactics!

The MTB transition was made even speedier, when Mike decided that his missing bike pump could become a fatal problem and we decided on a 5 minute detour to the carpark to get it – worse luck, it was not in the car either, so we made do with just an adaptor for my pump. Actually, this was a good decision in light of Mikes puncture later in the race!

Now the CP’s had to be done in numerical order and we quickly picked up CP 1 through 4, with only a 800m detour down the steepest hill, to check out the gorge & view, before turning back past other lost racers to CP 4. Hightail back over the river bridge, transition to paddling back over the river again, for the next run leg. Now I can only think we were tiring without traditional stops for breakfast, because we stormed right past CP 8 and bushwacked into 9, telling other racers who were amazed to see us pop out of the tall grass, that we were following our race plan to confuse and mislead other rival teams!

Transition to MTB, quick bite to eat, peanuts (you have made at least one convert William!) and a false start down towards the river, no…back past the carpark and finally out for our ‘long’ MTB leg. Relatively uneventful, with only one short detour. Chatting to other teams, a chicken run over the Muldersdrift tar road, with a blind rise and motorbikers doing 250km/h……into the lodge grounds and a search for the correct zip line tower. One of 9 fixed lines Stephan had told us. Ah, there it is all covered with USN banners and flags! Promised to be the slowest of the lines, we were still mightily impressed by the speed with which we winged over the valley. More impressive still, was the speed and skill with which the zip line crew, strapped us in and sent us off! Almost no time wasted hanging around this CP, no time to have breakfast, only welcome drinks supplied by USN.

Once again Mike and I added some extra mileage to our route, but were soon back on track, until mike says “Stop, I’ve got a flattie”. With only minor grumbling about Bruce having messed with the inner tubes (Sorry Bruce, we take it back) because it turned out that the tyre was slashed and even slime could not stop that hole! We wondered whether it was once again a fiendish plot by our rivals to slow us down? A quick change of inner tube and after much pumping, Mike unscrews the adaptor ……..and the inner valve……and we begin again! Fortified by a 5 minute rest and more peanuts, my brain synapses started firing again and I suggested that we convert my pump to presta – then for some more pumping!

Back on the road again, into transition, a short paddle down the river to hand in our race punches, back to the obstacle, up and over ……..and the first sprint of the day! Through the race finish…..stone last and just 2 minutes before prize giving! Whoop, whoop! We were perfectly happy!

True to form, Urban Kinetic outdid themselves with prizes for all the categories up to third place, and a table dripping with give-aways. Mike scored a puncture kit!! (wonder why?)…and I grabbed a Morningside Cycles service for my MTB. A beefy burger from the kitchen together with a boozy cooler, a relaxed chat next to the river with Mike and it was the end to another event thoroughly enjoyed by us both. Now highly trained and primed for any eventuality, we are raring to take on the supporters role, at Swazi Pro.

Hens Teeth

2010-07-14T19:13:00.000+02:00

At about 8pm William and I climbed out of the car at Oom Dirks place near Loskop dam ready for new adventure. The stars greeted me happily from an inky black sky, scintillating with joyous freedom at the thought of ruling the night without any moon for a whole night. The beautiful night sky complete with Milky Way and all its nebula had been there all along since my last rural outing, waiting to astonish and lift the minds of the adventurers from the city.

Our minds were ready and excited, waiting to face a night and day of continuous human powered movement. The car was full of the equipment, prepared for whatever Hardy might have up his sleeve for our entertainment. The two canoes had made the journey intact, lashed tight onto the cars roof rack, and the bikes were on the back, repaired from their last outing. The girls arrived about an hour after us and we dressed and did our final preparation, filling water bladders and lubing the bikes. Our team comprised myself, Willaim, Sue and Adri. We all had some new kit to test. This year’s proliferation of Adventure Racing events in mid-winter has broadened the season for us to enjoy our sport, and following a fortnight after the icy adventures on the Noon to Moon at Bronkhorstspruit dam ,my three team mates who had all participated there had a new respect for the cold and new preparations for sub-zero racing, met eish, ne.

This night was fairly mild in comparison, probably at about 7deg C when we started.

I was a little apprehensive of my ability to meet the as yet unknown challenges, having become a happy chocolate eating couch potato for two months after breaking my collar-bone and having a metal clavicle fitted. I hadn’t even been out on my Mountain Bike in that time, having lent it to Bruce for the last race. An hour’s sleep in preparation brought us to race briefing at 9:30 pm, and then having an outline of activities helped us to concentrate more on detail planning than worrying. 3km paddling up river, a 4km hike, 3.3km in the canoes back down stream. We could just float (how easy), but Hardy mentioned RAPIDS! Then 7km Cycle, 4km hike,14km cycle, 14km paddle, 7km hike, end. Straight forward. Wonderful. Now its 11PM. Go!

Sue and I picked up our K2 and carried it on our shoulders the 800 metres to the river. Sue is tough. Testing my new Sealskin waterproof socks I tested stepping into the water. The socks worked extremely well, dry feet, warm toes. Sue steered sitting in the front, me at the back, testing my repaired arm for paddling. Not too bad, no pain, quite strong just a little apprehensive about doing this for 20km.

The beauty of nature intrudes into the race. Mist rises up from the river and engulfs the boat, swirling wisps disorientating as in the blackness it is your only reference. When thick you can’t see the reeds of either river bank, and then a gap swirls past and the stars shine reassuringly, looking down on these going on from above. We explore a few cul-de-sac dead ends, and battle with turning the canoe around in the tight space of each disconnected pond with many other lost canoes doing the same manoeuvres. Whoops, there goes someone capsizing into the cold waters, and I think that we mustn’t do that. No we just can’t. And so we feel our way up through the waterways in the night, and the adventure is definitely on.

We arrive at the start of leg 2 hike. Sue and I pull the canoe up onto high ground and take off our life jackets and new waterproof pants. Their design is poor, pulling down at the back. We won’t recommend those but we are dry, and so we climb the steep hill away from the river. We need to cross a barbed wire fence, but as William leans on it, it snaps, a deep scratch is ripped across his palm, and his hand lands on five barbs from the strands beneath. It’s very rusty, and the pain and inflammation becomes a companion for Will for the rest of the race. He wonders out load (very) how long since his last Tetanus jab. We just hope his navigation remains good. William is our navigator, an integral discipline of the race, and one that ‘Will’ enjoys thoroughly. Its serious business, with Adri seconding the role and gaining more experience in the art. We discussed the differences between Orienteering, Navigation and plotting. He gives us stars to walk towards, and we find our checkpoints easily in the dark, crossing little rivers and surprising cows in the dark. We are connecting with what’s real and finding nature, - and it is magic.

The hike is pleasant and my new dri flannel tights covered by thermal long johns are warm and comfortable. Its been 4 years since Will and I did our first race in Clocolan and nearly froze by not having the correct clothes or experience of what works for AR. It’s much easier now, and remarkable that distance and time are of much lesser importance compared to mental attitude. We complete a circular route and get back to the boats, put on our water proofs to prevent splashes wetting us and put on our frosty lifejackets and helmets, just in case. The current will take us back.

Lisa shouts out to switch off our headlights to use the natural light to see, but there is none, and we don’t take the time for it not to be scary. Its new moon, 2:30 am in mid-winter and we’re paddling on the Wilge. At places the current is quite strong, and suddenly Adri and William are having problems with steering, their rudder is not working. Sue and I slow down, but suddenly we go nose first into the reeds and the current spins the boat. I don’t want to go backwards down the river and I paddle furiously in reverse trying to straighten the boat against the strong current through the narrow section. The canoe wobbles from the effort and tips and next thing we’re over, capsizing into the mid winter midnight darkness. This is an incredible intensity of experience, a moment of acute awareness. All the thoughts of don’t and mustn’t and what if, and the cold reality of the water combine. This is adventure.

My life jacket bobs me up to the surface and I check for Sue, - she’s ok, also holding onto the boat, using it to keep together as we get swept through the fast flowing area. I can see how cold Sue is, but I seem to be OK, all those layers of thermals keeping me slightly warmer. I joke that my water-proof socks aren’t working. I call out to the others, telling them we are out, in the water. Rescue us. Take me home to a fire and bed, but they are having problems too, their rudder cable has snapped and they can’t steer. So Sue and I and the sorry waterlogged boat float into the reeds downstream. With super human effort we pull the boat out and empty it, but the cold is getting into Sue’s system. If we can paddle hard enough we can warm up, but we need to wait for the others who are crashing into each river bank side in succession. It’s cold and Sue starts shivering in the way you think it’s necessary to do something to prevent hyperthermia and there is no time to fix the other boats steering. We carry on, paddling to get warmer but it’s not too long before we are back at the place from where we had set out.

We pull the boats out, 300metres shy of the rapids that Hardy included in the downstream leg. We can legally portage around those and we carry the boats back to the camp. Sue and I go and have a warm shower. I stand under the water in all my clothes and wash the mud off, and then take off everything I'm wearing. You can’t carry on so sopping wet. Ok, so I’m nice and warm again, no hyperthermia for me, but surely this upset has ended our race, Sue looked very cold and said she didn’t have much in the way of dry reserve clothing. I put on a tracksuit and step out from the showers barefoot ready to find a warm sleeping bag and get some sleep, only to find Sue and the others already dressed in her cycling gear waiting for me to hurry up for the next leg.

I pretend I’m not surprised by this and pull on my wet waterproof socks, dry cycling pants and cycling jacket. My cycling helmet pours water on me. My Ledlenser headlamp is still working - remarkable, it must be very waterproof. And then we’re off into the night, first on foot about 1km to the other end of the rapids to get the checkpoint. We see other frozen capsized racers warming themselves at the fire, and are glad to have missed the rapids and more spills. Then it’s back to the base and we're on our way on our bikes. My saddle reminds me to train more.

After 7km we reach a checkpoint and transition to hiking. A short walk to a lovely waterfall and pool and then up a steep kloof scramble of about 250 metres assent to the top of the mountain. Route choices are available and Will decides to stick to the ridge and try and identify the correct spur from the top to find the next check point. We hike across the top until Sue spots a very thin sliver of moon just preceding the rising sun. There is solar eclipse for Easter Island the next day, so Hardy really did choose a very new moon darkness for us, on this side of the earth.

We have a bite of breakfast and descend into the forest valley, going deeper and deeper, like a trip in ‘Journey To The Centre Of The Earth’. It’s an incredible countryside, beautiful and fascinating. A hike around some spurs and over yet another hill bring us back to our bikes and we ride for 7 km finding checkpoints before getting to the place where the others are starting their final 14km long canoe leg. When we tell Hardy we can’t paddle because our boat is broken he looks at us incredulously like he expects good Adventure Racers would have fixed their boat by now, using bubble gum and plaster. Anyway, that choice makes us unofficial and we are now part of the Hoona Tand category.

We do a fun obstacle course and cycle the alternative 14km to the base camp racing each other on the way. From base we set off on the last 7km hike. It’s very technical, (read difficult) walking over loose rolling boulders, up onto a hill and back through several valleys and hills with rolling stones to test ankles, judgment and luck. We couldn’t find one of the checkpoints on top and so probably added three km to our walk while searching for it. Adri commented that being navigator for the team is like been a goalie in soccer, nobody blames you for losing the match but everyone knows you could have prevented it. Well, we’ve won the game, we’re the first team in. We arrived back just after 4pm (17hours 10 minutes) having thoroughly enjoyed our adventure. The race was an excellent mix of paddling, cycling and hiking. Thanks Tersia and Hardy and all the support crew for presenting us this opportunity to be out having fun doing the things we enjoy so much, with wonderful team mates for whom our admiration grows each race.

Lickety Split coming into Transition

2010-07-14T14:51:00.001+02:00

We did ride all the way to here – it’s just the last little bit we walked... Promise!

Lickety Split at Tswane Ystervark and Hoona Tand Adventure Race

2010-07-14T14:50:00.001+02:00

WooHooo! Team Lickety Split goin' to Swazi Pro

2010-07-05T11:50:00.004+02:00

5th to 9th August.

Full Moon Adventure Race - Team Please wait for us!

2010-06-30T10:25:00.001+02:00

Event: Kinetic Full Moon Adventure Race

Team: Please wait for us! (Part of the Lickety Split adventure racing team)

Members: William Cairns, Sue Belcher, Bruce Barker

A race report never does true justice to the actual race. I really really enjoyed the Full Moon race. Overall it was an easy race, no physically or navigationally difficult sections. I was also properly prepared mentally for the race which always helps to make a race more enjoyable.

Sue and I have been racing together for about a year now. Our normal 3rd team mate Mike is currently suffering from a broken collar bone so we invited Bruce to join us for the race. As his first ever AR experience it was maybe being thrown into the deep end.

Between us we had all the required gear - except PFDs, fortunately Sue knows lots of people and could organise some - but they were at the Bronkhorstspruit dam and we had to rush there before the race to collect them. At the race start we met up with Bruce and tried giving him all sorts of advice on kit choices - more than likely confused him rather than helped him.

Leg 1 - 14km Paddle, with a bit of a run

Due to the paddling practise from a few weeks ago we knew that the fastest way to paddle was by not using the seats in the bath tub, but rather to make our own, therfor we arrived at the start with extra pillows to sit on and fitted neatly into the boat. At the start there was the normal rush by everyone to get the boats into the water, which we stood around and watched - rather confusing Stefan who asked us if everything was OK. At CP1 I was elected to do the run while Bruce and Sue paddled up the river. I was close behind 3 other runners when we went past the check point - all three of the others missed the check point - I was kind enough to tell my fellow Lickety Split team member the answer but the other had to go back about a kilometer to fetch the point....

Leg 2 - 10km Cycle

The cycle leg was uneventful, however I quickly realised how unfit I really was because the hill from the Transition area out of the main gate made me walk.

Leg 3 - 13km Hike

The weakest part of my navigation is going directly across country where I cannot see the end point of my route. For this reason I decided to go the long way around and kept on the roads. Probably about 1.5km longer, and 15minutes longer in time, but less hardship on feet and legs. We had no problems finding the point and then the biggest navigational challenge of the route was to go across country and find the checkpoint on the "small dam wall" - somehow, probably mostly by luck - I hit the point dead on after hiking the 3kms in the veld - not even 10m off.

After that it was over the hill follow the road. We found the next check point quite easily - and while punching another two teams caught up - not wanting to spoil the fun we quickly left, and strangely one of the other teams followed us instead of clipping the point first. After a few 100 meters they realised their error and had to return.

Leg 4 - 30km Cycle

Rather straight forward, and most surprisingly exactly 30kms. Poor Bruce was struggling during this leg, the previous week he had done his first long cycling training, and his tender rear end had not yet recovered enough to ride again. This leg was where it really started to get cold. When we reached the Transition at the end of the cycle the marshal "kindly" told us that the current temperature was -3. So -3 seemed to be rather cold, but the real impact of it only struck when we reached our boat and found that it was frozen over, picking up the PFDs made a crunching sound as the Ice broke.

Leg 5 - 3km Paddle

Both Bruce and I struggled to paddle, my right arm kept cramping as I paddled on the right hand side. Poor Sue probably did 60% of the effort to get us to the next transition. Now if you realise Sue is half Bruce's height and probably half my weight (and a 3rd of Bruce's) that’s quiet an achievement.

When we reached the other end Bruce had had enough and decided to drop out. It was quite comical seeing his face when Sue and I said "OK, bye" and marched out to do the orienteering. Maybe if he knew that dropping out would not stop us continuing he would not have felt so bad...

Leg 6 - 7km Orienteering

The many locked gates, no access zones and a map without enough detail made this leg a little frustrating. We decide to do 5,6,7 in that order but the access gates between 5 and 6 were locked so we had to take the long way around 5,7,6. After that we came back toward point 5, took a short cut under a few wooded white fences. And here I got confused. At one point I thought North was in the East and therefore could not Orientate my map properly. For about the first time ever the compass helped in getting my bearing correct and we discovered we had walked straight past OP3 Earlier in the evening. I also made a bad route choice choosing to do

OP1 before OP2 making us walk back up a steep hill we had just walked down.

Leg 7 - 3km Paddle

In all honesty I cannot remember this leg. I think the sleepy monster was getting his claws into me. I can remember the finish and realising our packs had been moved. Then getting to the bikes and finding them frozen. Also here we once again saw Lickety Split and Con admitted to not having plotted the last Hike - so I lent him my map to plot from - This must rate in the same category as taking a tube with a hole in it on an AR....

Leg 8 - 50km Cycle

We went peddling off, getting our legs going after the frozen paddle was quite tough but we slowly got going. A minor navigational mistake took us down the wrong road to the main road and resulted in us backtracking a kilometer or so to collect the point. Back down the main road and left off into the dark. Most of the cycle my Odometer was showing a cycling speed of 14km/hr, suddenly i looked down and it said 11km/h so I peddled harder and it dropped to 10km/h. I then realised I was peddling with my eyes closed, one eye open to check where I was going. Suddenly I fell asleep on my bike and just caught it before it fell. We pitched camp in the grass next to the side of the road and caught 20minutes sleep.

When we woke the sunrise had started and we peddled off at about 16km/h - quickly making up the time lost. We were cycling "so fast" that I missed the next check point and we had to again backtrack to collect it. The morning quickly warmed up and slowly layers of clothing were removed. Soon we were at the transition.

Leg 9 - 7km Hike

We strolled over the grasslands to the next checkpoints. All were found with minimal effort and we reached the abseil. We quickly decended and hiked off down the valley. It was quite interesting chatting cheerfully to all the people busy climbing on the cliffs. Many of them were quite interested in the race.

Leg 10 - 2km Paddle

Paddling the bathtub at this point in the race was like asking us to climb Everest. Even Sue was getting tired and was taking rests on the way back. Coming toward the finish the first person we saw was team mate Mike which was great - and then everyone came out of the Marque to cheer us in. The best time to finish a race is during prize giving, you then get the most cheers!

Equipment:

Socks - due to the cold weather we had bought ourselves waterproof socks (seal skinz). Even though my socks became wet inside I think that my feet stayed warm all the time compared to not having the waterproof windproof socks on.

Cellphone - I have been regularly buying myself a new phone as each race I go on I seem to get my phone wet, it has never mattered what waterproofing I put around it. A while ago I upgraded to a Sonim XP3 Quest. A waterproof and impact proof phone. I did the whole race with the phone pushed into the back pocket of my cycling top - it remained working right throughout and proved to be as waterproof as promised.

Big thanks go to Stefan, Heidi and their marshal team. I think their approach in supplying boats, staging unsupported races is a great way of growing and maintaining the sport of AR in our area.

Full Moon A Race

2010-06-30T09:22:00.023+02:00

The Full Moon Adventure Race will be remembered for the huge yellow moon which laughed at us all night - and the extreme cold! We believed we had prepared ourselves for it, by rushing out last weekend and buying all manner of warm clothing and waterproofing. By 10 o’clock that night, we all wished we had more to put on, but all survived without loss of limb.

Pre-race preparation was leisurely, we arrived hours before the start and floated around digging out numerous pairs of gloves and warm tops, not yet knowing what order the race would take. The weather warm and beautiful - giving no inkling of what was in store for us.

Route handout and race briefing took place and sooner that you thought, we were lined up next to the kayaks for our first loooong 14km paddle to CP1, 2 and 3. We decided to let the rush go first, before getting into the kayak at our leisure and set off in our prepared positions. Bruce on the stern, William in the middle and myself with legs hanging over the bow

Plugging along, we found ourselves overtaking several teams which had not rehearsed positions the previous weekend. Skip the rest......and we were back at the bank a couple of hours later, only to find that it was actually winter and were all frozen to the marrow, upon getting out of the boat! Here we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves only 1 boat behind Lickety Split, exchanged “Hi’s” and when I looked around next - they were gone! Very quick transition Lickety Split! We spent time changing clothes and getting warm for a MTB leg which could run into dusk, then set off up the steepest slope imaginable. Cold muscles screaming at the torture! William easily navigated us to the next transition at the farmhouse, where we added more layers for a hike leg of 13kms, into the dark.

At this point we were around a third of the way down the field and had also met up with Lickety Split just leaving as we arrived. This hike leg, we decided to go the long easier way around on the road, rather than directly cross-country over the hill and through tall grass. Once again William navigated us straight to the CP, with only a small amount of time spent looking for a dam wall, which looked more like an earth embankment to me. At this point the team was still going strong. William singing “Happy Birthday tooo meee”. He protesting that it is the only song he knows!

Now without sunlight, we headed out up the valley navigating by the stars. This placed an unexpected hill in front of us, but undaunted we summited that and found the expected road below....only to discover we had added some extra mileage to our trip. Talking of ‘trip’ this is where Bruce managed to begin his first of several spectacular ankle-twisting trips. To his credit, he gritted his teeth and pushed on for the cause.
Passing a couple of teams returning by the light of the moon, we were warned that the ‘locals’ were not friendly and made a rough detour high up the hill to avoid the soccer crowd in the shacks below. Finding the CP just as 2 other teams approached, we hussled back down the hill, surprised to be followed by a couple of them who had completely missed the ‘river junction’ CP and maybe thought we were members of their team?

At the farmhouse, we added another layer, enjoyed a cold supper with hot mugs of tea and logged out for another MTB leg. Here starts the ‘real’ adventure racing! The temperature had dropped below freezing and the low ground near water, was exactly like cycling in a deepfreeze.....air gasping out of us in white clouds. Hands and feet burning and hurting. Still William kept us up to date on expected twists and turns in the road and we found CP after CP exactly where they were meant to be! Boy was it cold though! You pull your beanie down over your ears, buff up to your eyes, icicle of snot hanging from your frozen nose and cycle on - wrapped in a bubble of discomfort! Feet could not be ignored as they screamed for attention.....burning and then frozen solid. Expensive waterproof/windproof socks and shoe covers were not proof against the cold and wet. Determination had nothing on us though....we pushed through and met the Red Ants team passing in the opposite direction, having already done 2 kayak legs and an orienteering leg. Go Guys!

Kayaking back to the marquee only remarkable in that it was more of the same....ice everywhere....cold.....cold! Bruce was starting to wilt and finally conceded defeat now that he was back near his car, on solid ground, hot drinks and huge bonfires all around. William and I had both experienced unfinished races before and were both steely determined to see this one through to the bitter end. I was feeling remarkably well and the orienteering leg was in front of us, lit up by the moon and street lamps in the housing estate, but the hour was late - the graveyard shift.....12 hours down and more of the same to come. William and I began a bit of a ramble around the estate....the most efficient routes seemed to evade us, though we were still working somewhat within a schedule which we had worked out would bring us into the finish by around 10 the next morning. Exchanged “hello’s” with Lickety Split once again! The air crisp, clear and cold....we stopped for a second, to admire a torrent of icy water gushing over the dam wall.

Coming back to the marquee, we were lucky enough to see The Red Ants finish - they had already completed a kayak, MTB, Hike, Abseil and kayak, which we had still to face! They looked absolutely frozen, which made me feel warmer and stronger. The feeling soon wore off, the kayaking left my fingers in such pain that I was jumping around on the bank crying and flapping until my warm, dry gloves rescued my frozen fingers. A quick change of shoes, check to see that my frozen chain would still turn, rub ice off my saddle, exchange greetings with Lickety Split who were huddled by the fire....and we were off! The night was long and solitary. Plenty of time for introspection, while waiting for William who was slowing down.....and finally we both realised....asleep on his bike....only his forward momentum keeping him upright! So we hunkered down in the grass for 40 winks at 5.30am in our space blankets. Chilly, cold moon still chuckling above us.

Daybreak and we were off, slowly at first and then faster as we warmed. Stops to remove clothing as the sun rose....picking up more checkpoints.....tired now after 20 hours on the road. Transition at another farmhouse....change shoes for the last time....swop beanie for peak cap.....chat to Heidi who was full of enthusiasm and promises of breakfast awaiting us in camp. Off wading through the tall grass.....sloshing through the mushy ground.....up the koppie to the abseil with friendly faces and happy chatter. Dangling on the line as my abseil turns into a bungie jump....quick plod over the hill to the kayaks for the last leg. An olympic entry into the water.....20 minutes to the marquee....will we be in time for prize giving? Hey, there’s Mike and Trish waiting for us on the bank.....what a fantastic surprise! Yells of “Hi Mike” bringing the whole crowd out of the marquee to welcome us in! Wow, what a finish - and we get a trophy too! Final word - Yes it’s worth the pain to finish.
Post-race - surprised to find that I have no sore muscles, just feel heavily hung-over from lack of sleep .....and boy are my lips CHAPPED!
High point: Completing a 140km race and collecting all the CP’s, coming in to a crowd of welcoming teams, clapping and happy faces.
Low point: Frozen frostbitten hands after kayaking at 3am. The pain!
Race Review: Fantastic organization by Heidi and Stephan, CP’s well placed, great support and facilities, distances realistic, lucky draw prizes....as usual amazing! Thanks go to Urban Kinetic for a memorable event.

Nooo Shooos as tested at the Winter Trail Series - 20 June

2010-06-20T16:33:00.005+02:00

I thought I should mention my upgrade from XA Pro's to "Wings" Reason being the difference is remarkable! They stick to rocks like glue! I mean when I bought the XA Pro's I thought that they would be like Windows XP. Reliable, hard working and indestructible.......right? Wrong! The XA's after 3 years of being 'out there' are looking decidedly shabby and road-weary. So when I spotted last year's Wings model heavily discounted, I forked over (still a king's ransom) and tested them out today on the long Trail. Distance: 14.something kms, elevation gain - challenging! To my delight, they performed in a far superior manner to those shoes worn by everyone around me. What goes up, must come down again and we slithered and scrambled down dozens of hairy, loose bouldered descents - me as sure footed as the proverbial mountain goat! What a treat! And they are comfortable too! Not a rub or blister in sight.

The race itself was well attended and decidedly challenging, a good outing for anyone training for next weekend's Full Moon race. Not too chilly in the morning and comfortably warm later on.

I should also mention another purchase - touted as the secret weapon of the Lickety Split team for sub-zero, wet nights spent paddling around Bronkhorstspruit. Sue's 'walking' model Seal Skin socks. I wore them around the house most of yesterday and though my feet were not totally toasty, I did not feel cold floors and a session with the hose-pipe watering plants outside, did not leave me with cold wet feet from the leaks, which usually leave me wetter than the plants!

Needless to say, I'm sure that by this time next Sunday, some 7 new pairs of Seal Skins will be well and truly tested by the Lickety Split team!

Well done Nando - Comrades 2010

2010-06-01T12:45:00.002+02:00

Well done Nando on your Bronze medal at the 2010 Comrades marathon!!

Magalies Monster - Race Report

2010-05-31T14:04:00.004+02:00

So we woke up nice and early. With just over an hour to get ready... We had a peaceful bath, enjoyed a hearty breakfast and were ready to leave – a little late but it was not that bad... well so we thought until we climbed into the car and the GPS told me I was 45minutes late for registration. So I drove fast...

Anyway I was only 24 minutes late for registration – which left me 35mins to register, fix my bike as the brakes were not working, lube all four bikes, check tires for everyone. Ohhh and Yolande left my cycling shoes at home so I had to do the whole race in takkies while I had mentally prepared to use my cleets...

So I got to the start with about 5 minutes to spare, right at the back – about where I felt I should be. Off we went into the orange orchards, and I looked back to see nobody behind me. Yes I was stone last not really as planned. So I pedalled a little faster and flew down the hill, overtaking a person or two on the way. But I was struggling, tired, sort, really didn’t feel like doing 75km on my bike for the day. So I struggled up the next hill, chatted to the girl next to me, and carried on. I looked at my cycling computer and saw that I was averaging about 10km per hour.

There was one really fun downhill at about the 20km mark – very rocky but fast. I was doing about 30km per hour down the path, overtaking a few of the 45km riders who had earlier come past me.

At the 75/45 km split I went peddling up the long flat grassy path to get to the start of the monster. At about this time I was peddling in granny’s big brother (Granny, her big sister then her big brother are the three lowest gears...) I stopped and rested in the road, I told everyone it was to stop them hitting a rock in the middle of the road. And then pushed up the hill – I do push a bike quite well and overtook about 10 people on the way up.

At the top of the hill there was a girl in bright yellow MTN colours, with navy tights, who interestingly enough had a bright yellow butterfly on her bum – which I told her instead of saying good morning.

I missed the half way cut off by 5mins...

So I rushed off down the other side of Breedt’s nek – which had really terrible erosion. At some spots I nearly had to push. One guy just in front of me came off and seriously winded himself. I helped him up and carried on while his friend tried to revive him.

After Breedt’s Nek the route was a little uninteresting but I was picking up a little speed, and started feeling better, or so I thought until Butterfly Bum girl came flying past me as if I was standing still (ok I was but I was having 4^th breakfast). I quickly packed up and tried to catch up but she was actually going faster than me, until her derailer broke and I helped convert the bike to a single speed – which by the way I could not get right until someone who had better tools than me arrived 5 minutes later. So with butterfly bum lady sorted out I went sailing into the sunset again.

It is amazing how much stronger I get toward the end of a race. Toward the end of the race I was starting to ride the uphills again, riding in a proper gear.

I finished in 7:40 – 40mins after final cutoff, so I was an unofficial finisher but I did actually finish. I never saw butterfly bum lady finish, but I hope she did.

Yolande, Loreley and Kaylen all rode the 20km race. Loreley was officially the last finished of the 20km race, but she did win her age group section and got lots of prizes.

Balele Tracks - Scouting

2010-04-28T08:51:00.005+02:00

Brief photo report from Sue – possible race clues removed.

For those of you who were not there.

Home away from home!

The Lickety Split squatter camp. (Hot water, kettle, fridge, unlimited wood, etc)

The nights got VERY cold!

Luckily Con kept the fire going......... Chopping wood.

But the days were cool and dry.

Pancakes at the Birthday Party for Lolly.

Site of Con’s new checkpoint. Fantastic view over the escarpment into Natal. (Through the mist!)

Port a bike........ Hike a bike!

William somewhere up there in the tall grass.......

Looking for another of Con’s checkpoints? How to get through all that thick bush & trees....

Found it! But will anybody else ever find it?

The climb up ......... William says the GPS reports it’s a 1 in 3 climb

Lost in Da Bush

2010-04-14T10:36:00.002+02:00

'Twas adventure racing time again, this time with one of my favourite teams, Lickety Split.

The weekend started with a fuel tanker that blocked the highway out of jozi, and Con swearing to never ever EVER go away on a weekend again.

But that was soon forgotten when we hit the open road and Adri took out pizza, cinnabon-ised muffins and cookies.

We arrived just in time for race briefing - then set up camp in Mankele's camp site.

Race started early on Saturday morning with a quick run to a mini-waterfall - would have been quicker if the mankele singletrack was plotted on the maps, though ...

We than transitioned on a cycle-leg that took us on some of mankele's sweetest singletrack, hike-a-biking up koppies and bundu-bashing through Lantanas. Here's the team (sans the photographer) discussing route options before we left the tar ...

We found controls 3 & 4 quickly. Here's Adri and Will dragging a bike up to control 4.

Control 5 was easy to spot - the paths leading there, less so. Here's Con & Adri running up to the control.

It was a bit of hike-a-biking up to control 6.

We couldn't find control 6 anywhere (we later found out it was about a kilometer off where it was supposed to be) so we took a picture to proof that we were there:

On to control 7, but that one was also misplaced. We heard afterwards that some teams phone the organiser, who directed them to the correct control. Here's some bikes of other teams also searching for the control:

K, so by this time we lost a little enthusiasm and decided that while we're unofficial anyway, we might as well just go for the 'cool' controls. We purified some river water, then headed off to 7. Found it quickly (and where it was supposed to be) and then on to 8 via a sweet singletrack-detour.

Here's will taking a nap at the top of the mountain, just before we clipped control 8.

And then it was a serious downhill that left the bikes with scorching hot disks at the bottom.

The we searched a parking lot for a control that ended up being in a tree about 50 m from the parking lot :(

Here's Adri at the river crossing (where we heard that the last cycle leg was cancelled)

A quick cycle to the transition, and on to the next hiking leg. We decided to go for a finish and a braai, rather than collecting all the points - so only collected one next to a river, and one at the top of the downhill course. Here's the view from the top of the world:

... and here's the whole team at teh finish - just before the sprint to the swimming pool.

Posted by William on behalf of Carine who raced as part of Team Lickety Split. (Carine was part of Lickety Split on our first ever races - it was great having her back for this race)

Easter Sunday Ride

2010-04-06T08:29:00.001+02:00

So we had a couple of RSVP’s for the proposed Sunday ride at Groenkloof at 2h30. Allowing ample time for a good ride before sunset and eat/drink at Moyo afterwards. Carine confirms she’s in Afrikaansstad and already did a ride at Groenkloof in the morning with some others. Oh ofcourse… Joburg2C training. Leaving Randburg already late and hot, I pack ice water, sunscreen and a baking tray with hot cinnabuns (which made me late). The sky towards Afrikaa… Pretoria looks rather grey and the closer I get to Centurion Carine confirms its rather wet. We can deal with wet…already had 2 wet& muddy rides. But looking in the direction of Groenkloof, it’s a dense grey and not long before I enter a heavy rainfall accompanied by cinnamon flavoured steaming windows. Remember the storm-chasers in the movie “Tornado”?

Towards Eufees offramp the water is now really pouring down and traffic slows down to cross the river making its way trough the half-built bridges and construction, all the way to Fountains. We agree to go to Café 41 for coffee until the rain’s passed. (Will I really drive 60kms for a coffee?) Deekay’s also at the Groenkloof entrance, but no-one can go in or out because of the little stream now twenty times its size and taking everything not anchored to mother earth with it. A drenched duck… mountainbiker confirms looootsa water inside the park. Carine’s already inside, and now trying other exists out of the reserve. Everyone out, Carine, Deekay and myself make our way to Café 41 to wait for the torrential rain to go north, hoping to still sqeeeeze in a ride. In the parking area I share the cinnabun-joy with the others. We order hot drinks and already the skies are in our favour. Brilliant, coz for 60kms here the mega-cappucino could at least have had decent foam on it. No worries, as we are going to play now.

Get to the Fountains entrance we are asked if we’re sure we wanna go cycle now.. there’s lotsa water. YES, thankyou. Driving around to Groenkloof… there it is: water and water and more water. The parking area not accessible from either sides as its non-existing. It’s a river with some pine trees not even interrupting its mighty flow! Wow. And wow again. Water is surely not to be underestimated or challenged. Touché. We park on the side of the road, about a 100 metres from the usual parking spot, take a couple of photographs and gear-up for an interesting ride A park-officer and also mountainbiker parks next to us and confirms we can circle the Northeastern part of the reserve without trouble, but crossing to the other side in the valley is a no-go as the Limpopo is surely getting its fire from this side today. Sure, and we head off. It stopped raining… except for under the trees, of course. Deekay, who often sweeps for the DnD rides leads us onto the first track and admits he’s forgotten what a single track looks like. Within seconds our chests open and faces light up. Yea… this is the joy. The joy that makes 60kms and a cappucino-with-no-foam worth it. Single track decorated with mud, slippery bends, rocky ups & downs, tall & wet grass, spider webs aiming for a smaller catch and a 100 different after-the-rain smells. The wooden bridge next to the fence was kind today and the 3-in-a-row climbs next to the road reminding us to be kinder to our bodies.

At the top we enter the snaking playground of short bends now slipperytoo and we are short for words to duly describe the joy of riding on the footprints of only rain. Our single track soon became the obvious path for little streams making their way down to the mighty one. I caught myself laughing like I haven’t done since allowed to write with a ballpoint pen. A long downhill dirt road leads us to the banks of a once shy little river, now scarily impressive. Against the advice received earlier: we’re crossing it. Hike-a-bike-style aware of every little step through knee-deep water. Deekay in, Adri in, Carine taking pics. Deekay out and then coming back for my bike. I was feeling unsteady with my bike and now even shakier without the extra weight (note-made-to-self). Out the other side we slot our now-2kg-cleats into the pedals and make our way up the other side spotting a couple giraffes graciously making their way down the dirt road.

“Good day sir” as we meet up with another courteous giraffe standing tall about 15 meters in front of us. He must be nr 4 and far too relaxed to be the sweeper. We know there are 8 giraffes in the park, so looking back we examine the surrounds for the entourage. And yes, there she comes, straight towards us. Nr 5. Has anyone ever been trampled by a giraffe? Coz this one is walking-with-a-purpose! Heehee! And then it passes slightly left we are in awe of these impressive animals. What a privilege. Right on our doorstep. On just another Sunday afternoon. My white-skinned sacred Sunday afternoon nap is forever outweighed.

The last of the clouds now make sunset seem a little closer and we agree to head round to the fast & endless single track. Blessed again as we meet nr 6, 7 and 8. One sir and two teenagers. Wow again. Mik-en-druk a couple of times and we head off. Left into the anticipated single tra…river! Whahooooo!!!! Left, right, left, right, left, left…. More and more… if this is what eternal life is like, I can go now. Tell my family I love them, and this was great. Oke, not now then… right, left, water, right, left, swoosh, and some more wet bends and sadly the end nears. We take a breather, recollect and decide the route for the ride home: next to the stream with the river crossings. And again we are amazed to see the course the water had taken a couple of hours before. Flattening most of the bushes. The trees next to the fairytale stream garnished with 40c-plastic-bags, a bright orange roadworks beacon, a BIC lighter, lunchboxes and the rest nhhof our streets. About another kilometer and sadly… it is over. But wow, the best ride in a long time. Heading back to the cars the established parking area is still under water, but the tar road next to it negotiable and soon proving to be an excellent bike wash too. Thank you Deekay & Carine for taking up an uncertain challenge with a certain reward! Carine, please follow up with some of your inspiring photographs!

Taking stock in the car on the way home was done with tenderness as the Easter Message has now taken full circle. Scarlet skies greet the day and grace like rain fall down on me. You have set my feet upon a rock that is not moving. Life and life in abundance because He is risen and now lives inside of me. Through Your love we are endless.

May we chase the storms again.

TshwaneARclub : Yster Vark en Lekker Race

2010-03-23T11:58:00.008+02:00

After Nando had run 1km to fetch our punch cards, we set off up the hill on our mountain bikes, all shiny new and matching in our clean and bright nifty new shirts with special reflective branding, determined to win the race. After about 200 meters Williams’s chain snapped, dropping us to last place. Only 15 minutes of dextrous ingenuity by Con with a bread knife and sticky tape saw us roar off again into the night, determined to catch up with the less experienced. Lessons learnt: Carry spares for 8 and 9 speed chains. About 4km downhill to a muddy stream under a road culvert, Nando bravely stepped up to his middle in s(t)inking mud, and had to be hauled out by brute force. Lessons learnt: Read Dr Foster from Gloucester. 23:30 and now second last because another team had got lost, we roared off back up the hill past the starting camp ground, burning our excess calories with enthusiasm. Con was setting a nifty pace, determined to edge past any laggards or lazy. Suddenly Nando stopped, checked the 103 pockets of his race gear 3 times, emptied the contents of his backpack on the road, said words I claim never to have heard before, and announced he must have dropped the punch card when we left transition 1, 4km back. At this point Con mumbled that he hated AR and we cycled back down the hill to retrieve the lost card.....thanks Gerrard and Nicky for waiting patiently for us! Lessons learnt: Don’t litter. As we set off up the hill again William called us back with a flat tyre. William changed the flat by using an old punctured tyre from his previous race. Lessons learnt: Do the bleeding obvious …William. Another tyre change, two gas cartridges and 25 minutes and we were on our way… again. It was about this time that Con became grumpy. Up past the camp ground and onto endless undulating farm roads. Downhill… and uphill. The race instructions warn “Danger in the dark” what would that be, Crocodiles… no, just a very rocky dirt road that you shouldn’t ride at speed. No problem, its two in the morning, I’m just experimenting with sleeping and cycling at the same time. Close eyes just enough to see Con’s taillight. He’s keeping ahead of the pack, navigating with no rest stops, up a farm track to transition. Change into hiking shoes, eat salami and ham buns, and then off along the river, collecting checkpoints. Next check point is up the hill, above the treeline, but the trees are everywhere. Bush babies look at us, there big baby eyes reflecting from our high beams. Eventually it seems if all the teams are combing the rocky mountain ridge for that obscure checkpoint, fanned out in search mode, not even a rock rabbit could hide. Eventually, after what could be two hours of searching the checkpoint is sighted and we rush to get it, thinking we’re back in the race.

Then it’s downhill to the camp where a rock pool awaits us, a 4:30 AM jump from 6 meter cliffs into the water. It’s madness in the dark, stripping down to only a lifejacket, helmet, and cycling shorts...thanks Mandy and Nico for the long wait and inspiring us to go for it!....though it was really scary!. Then, before the shivering starts its back on with the kit, and soon the hiking warms us up. A checkpoint in the caravan park, a fruitless search through the dense undergrowth for a path back, a Jack Russel companion with endless energy keeping us company. We called him Boetie2. We can’t find a way through so we backtrack, over the top of the rocky mountain as dawn breaks, and light spreads its familiarity. Cons grumpiness eases with realization it was fun anyway, even if we are not going to win. Back to the bikes, a cycle to the MTB track, a swim in the dam to dive down a rope tied to a barrel to see what its anchor is, a bicycle rim, very appropriate.
Nando and Con need to be back by midday, we can’t do the 4 hour hike to the big dam and the swim. We decide to short course and do some cycling back to the start caravan park. As soon as we stop tiredness overtakes us. It was good. Driving home a real challenge to then catch up on a well deserved sleep!
Thanks Hardy and the team for putting on such a memorable event. With Mandy’s photos as evidence...thanks!.. we will never forget this awesome AR experience!
CHEERS!...from Mike (the reporter), Nando (the CP runner and report editor), Con (the grumpy navigator), William (captain and 2nd navigator)

Race Report written by Mike, mailed by Nando.

Sighting of Lance Armstrong at Lourensford Estate

2010-03-10T17:57:00.003+02:00

Look out for our new Lickety Split apparel - Like everything else, its an adventure!

2010-03-10T15:18:00.000+02:00

Yster vARk en Lekker - AR

2010-03-10T13:46:00.002+02:00

BREAKING NEWS!!!

On Friday 12th March Team Lickety Split will be racing in their new, custom designed and printed racing gear. The Adventure Racing motif was custom designed by the team for the team.

Overall we have to say, Team Lickety split is going to look fantastic on Friday night. Photos to follow....

We like it fresh

2010-02-26T09:07:00.004+02:00

We either insist on the newspaper being delivered to our homes before
we leave for work or we buy it on the way to work and scan through the
headlines whilst in traffic. There is something about news, the latest
news, smell of printer's ink, a have-to-have, an ASAP. It’s the same
with fresh bread or donuts, we insist on it. No one likes old bread,
no one buys old bread, no one pays for yesterday’s paper either. And
the coffee has to be fresh too, and the 2 go together. Paper and
coffee… and donut if you’re lucky. We want the latest stuff and we
want it first thing in the morning… so we know what others are talking
about or be the first to talk about it and send everyone else to
scurrying to their computers for a News24 update.

In the same way I trust last night’s race report is met by your fresh
coffee. Both fresh, ready for you, first thing Friday morning.

It didn’t rain in Joburg all week. Things were pretty dry and dusty
everywhere. Come Wednesday morning, early clouds confused a few
people’s dress code as the familiar scorching sun was with us by
lunchtime again. Thursday morning the clouds were no longer
threatening and the first drizzle started around 6am. The drizzle
developed into a decent downpour by 10am and a steady drizzle
contributed to a steady appetite for most of the day. Its good its
raining now I thought, coz then the DarknDirty ride tonight will be
fresh, dry, dust-free, dark and dirty. How we like it. A quick email
to Donald on the other side of the boerewors-gordyn to confirm the
weather and his reply: “blue skies” set an expectation for a good
evening.

Arriving early at the Moo-Mall, I paid a regular visit to Mugg & Bean,
this time a chai latte to set the stomach for a good dose of Synap
Forte to silence the 2-week old coccyx injury. I bought the new March
issue of RIDE magazine and read the articles on pain killers &
exercise and the one Milk. Read it, and you’ll understand that my
milky-painkiller cocktail is a nice summary of what I fed my mind
earlier in the day.

Saw Donald and he was sipping on a drinking yoghurt… mmmilky again.
Soon more bikes arrived and totaling 10 riders. Nico as trailmeister,
Donald sweeper, myself, Oupa Gert, Mike, Chris, Brendan, Hennie & his
2 first-time-DnD-rider colleagues. Hardy paid a quick visit and also
told us about the week’s scouting they did for the upcoming Tswane-AR
race.

We set off with the usual start through the veld, fresh bossies
clearing the airways for most people. Left turn onto tar road and down
the side of Cornwall Hill. Rain has sculpted some more interesting
ruts and keeping left at the bottom we turn up to the tar road again.
Here Donald hands out a banana to some guys stranded with their car on
the side of the road, we remount Oupa Gert’s spotlight with cable ties
and then head up to the shebeen for the first speed zone. At the top
we turn right over the highway and further down left into some single
track. The single track was mostly “half track” (a term I picked up
from MTB glossary) meaning rather overgrown and therefore not really
single track anymore.

Braving a ghost ride on a familiar section I loose my shoe due to some
grass stuck to the Velcro strap, and the very long grass made it
almost impossible to make any calculated decisions. I remember only
the shebeen-queen declared a speed zone, but if your trailmeister is
often the queen himself, most parts of the evening was at an
above-average pace. We soon covered a good distance and even got to
name a section as “The Road Less Traveled” as 3 people were down, in a
row because of respectable rocks hidden in the tall grass of the
unfamiliar track. Not sure where this was, but remember Mike showing
me Eric-se-klip just before that. Loose & find shoe again, a few more
turns later and we’re at the bottom of the MineShaft going up….oe eina
I was thinking. But to my surprise the mineshaft was no longer my
enemy; we have befriended each other second time round. At the top we
turn left to do the-ride-to-the-light in reverse which provided for a
refreshing whiz to the bottom. In the last hundred meters our
surroundings got ‘milky’ as mist have now moved into the valley. Left
again into thicker mist that added another impressive dimension to the
usual DnD ride. Sharp left again up past the chicken farm the thrill
of the mist continues until we pop over the top down to the
shebeen-queen again.

Fly down, sho’t left onto the tar and up the side just after the
stream, Oupa Gert’s bike is trying to beat something soon identified
as about 2 meters of wire. Undoing the metal knot we head back up
home. A quick confrontation with taller-than-the-trailmeister (TTTT)
grass and we meet the last turn-off home.

Thankyou’s to the Weather Man for perfect evening, Nico and Donald,
the regulars, the newbies, Spur, fresh burgers, the mmmmilky magic
sauce and Synap Forte
(And a Thankyou billboard from SARS as I crossed the boerwors-gordyn
to arrive home just before 12 with both shoes.)

Small race box for sprint race?

2010-02-19T22:42:00.000+02:00

Nando's fall at XTerra

2010-02-04T11:55:00.002+02:00

So, just when I thought the cameraman lost the photo of my fall in the river/stream, here is the evidence. Oh! and Mike your “buddy” that caused the fall, better luck next time as I was on my feet in no time..hehe!

Xterra Buffelspoort “Full event” 30th January 2010

2010-02-04T09:13:00.001+02:00

Yep…I did say I was not going to write a report…right!

If I had to summarize this year’s Xterra event, I would say it was wet, wild and tough man!

The build up….

So after experiencing my first Xterra “lite” in 2009, which was short, exciting and adventurous, I decided that I needed to up my game a bit to experience the tougher “full” event. In December 2009 our AR Team Lickety Split exchanged emails on numerous occasions highlighting some of the events we were planning to do in 2010. Yep! Xterra was one that came up. 5 of us jumped ahead of ourselves and entered, not realizing that we had the December holidays and Christmas meals in between to contend with. Well with 4 of us (Adri, Mike and Con) entered for the “full” event and one (Sue) for the “lite”. It was always going to be interesting to see how much training would be done during December. With 2 of my teammates as “veteran” swimmers and the rest of us “social…stay afloat” swimmers, we needed a lot of swimming lengths at the gym pool to be able to overcome the 1.5k swim. The 28k MTB and 12k run would still be challenging but mostly it was the swim that bothered me the most. Prior to Xterra I had had only done a 400m open water swim. So with December training (runs and a little bit of cycling) and the pool training in January behind me and a tiring 1.5k swim at Homestead Lake in Benoni with Mike and Adri, the weekend before the race, I came into the race with a bit more confidence. My only concern was swimming with a bunch of other crazy, kicking, punching competitors on race day.

Wet…..

With no sign of the heavens clearing and watching the weather man daily before the race, I just knew this race was going to be an adventurous and challenging one. In fact it rained so much the night before that parts of JHB was flooded! Mike was staying overnight at the Mountain Sanctuary, only a few k’s away from the event, that I was tempted to phone him to see how conditions were there, but decided to rather pray instead for sunshine….and unfortunately my prayers were not answered…until the afternoon. The morning of the race was overcast and at times drizzling which was great accept that the weeks rain had already done its thing making the MTB route a mudbath of note. I have done many muddy MTB races (Sabie, Bonamanzi, Pecanwwod to name some) but honestly speaking, mud and me are not great buddies.

Wild and tough…..

The “lite” race started almost an hour later than planned and the “full” shortly thereafter…due to some technical issues at registration and the organizers checking out the safety of the MTB course. No problem as the weather was great and the water temp. was around 24 °C.. I think…as I normally complain if it’s too cold although I saw a lot of swimmers in wetsuits…unfair man! Saw lots of familiar AR faces (Nicky, Elsie, Heidi, Alex, Phillip, Wiehann, Tommy and many more). With our swim underway, we had to swim to 3 buoys before we headed back to dry land. I made sure at the start to avoid the “rush” so stuck to the left and off I went. For those who have not had the experience swimming in open water, when you in the water the distance looks greater then on land. Alternating between free- style and breast-stroke I managed to get into a nice rhythm (or pace). Around me were swimmers that were trying just about every swimming style they could find to get them going. One guy was swimming without his cap and another backstroke but not checking his direction. Just before the last buoy and on the home straight I experienced my first cramp on my right foot. What now…I thought… and remembered my experienced teammates telling me to lie flat on the water and stretch out the cramp. Right! easier said than done. I was also warned not to ask the life saver for his board as I could get disqualified. Well, even with the cramp I managed to swim it out. It was at this point that a lady with a orange cap swam past me. She was going at a nice easy pace and gliding well through the water. I decided then that I needed some motivation to finish this last section so decided to use some of my reserves and followed her. This worked well and was surprised to see when we got out of the water that it was Elsie. I remember speaking to Elsie at the start of the race who was equally worried and concerned as I was about swim. Once out of the water (feeling like my upper body muscles were blown up out of proportion) and our way to the transition area I nudged Elsie, taking her by surprise, and congratulated her completing this hurdle together.

As quickly as I could, I got onto my MTB to do the next leg. Saw Mike still putting on his MTB shoes and quickly wished him luck for this leg. For those who have done MTB races in this area you will know how technical this section in the Dam area is and worse when muddy. It was also here that I bumped into Heidi who was also struggling with the mud. Mostly this section had to be walked or you would quickly change colour to resemble the path you rode on. We also had to dodge traffic which also came from the front as the “lite” competitors were on their way back. Once we were out of there we headed for the Mountain Sanctuary road. This was where the work started. Besides the ascend we had to contend with, we had a rocky section which we could only be portaged. Once over that it was a descend that was rocky and tricky at times. Just before we got out of the Sanctuary park there was a water stream we had to cross. On approaching I shouted to a guy washing his bike that I was going to ride this one through. Well, he either didn’t hear me or conveniently stuck his ass out to bump me. Next moment I was lying in the water with one shoe stuck in the pedal and doing my best to avoid shouting at him. Well he apologized and then helped me up. On the other side of the stream was a photographer and had to ask him if he got the evidence which sadly he said only got me lying in the water. Still haven’t been able to check if photo is on the website. From there we came across some more muddy sections which was worse than the first lot we experienced. It was also at this point that the fine rain started and added fuel to the mud. We headed cautiously towards to the transition where we found less spectators than earlier, possibly due to the rain.

After transitioning into my trail shoes and upon leaving the water point I had forgotten my race number so I had to quickly run back before getting going again. The first 2 or so k’s was relatively easy until we got to the dam wall. At the dam wall we were welcomed by an amazing waterfall that was so overwhelming that you stood there with absolute amazement grasping the moment as much as you could before deciding to move on. After crossing the river we had to jump rocks, concrete blocks and a climb up a steel ladder. Once at the top it was a fast downhill until we had to cross the river and then walk up a steep tar road to the next water point. It was at these water crossings that we decided to clean off our dirty bodies and shoes. We crossed the main road to encounter yet another hill. The first section had to be walked and from there gradually got moving until we started descending. Once we crossed the main road it was downhill to the finish area to finish lap one of two. I was fortunate to see Mike and Adri on my 2nd lap and urged them on to finish their last leg of the race. The highlight of this leg and the race was definitely the waterfall which gave me a boost of energy for my last lap.

So, after finishing just over 3.5hrs later being welcomed by Max (organizer) calling us Xterra warriors and making us walk onto the stage to receive our medals and seeing Sue on the other side of the stage, I was excited and pleased that I had finished this awesome race.

Thanks goes to the organizers and their sponsors of this event for making this experience such a memorable one for me. For those of you who weren’t able to experience this, book this one in your diary for next year and believe me you will not be disappointed.

Xterra warrior,

Nando

X Terra Firma, now mud!

2010-02-01T22:20:00.003+02:00

So, there I was, swimming across Homestead Lake in Benoni, admiring how pretty the lake and surrounds were since last I’d last swum there many years ago and wondering if Charlize was around again locally since breaking up with that Townsend fellow. Apart from that I was also thinking how I could beat Nando at the Xterra Triathlon the next weekend. This training swim could just be a ruse to spy on his technique, and strategize accordingly. I wondered, just momentarily, about nudging him into the water weeds that grabbed at our ankles and legs, and seeing if he would surface again. Or maybe, with the river flooded as it was he would wash over the weir. No, unlike the Xterra that would be too extreme. Eliminating the competition is not as good as beating it. Of course Adri was swimming circles around us, at home like a duck in the dam. Maybe she would push too hard at the beginning and tire on the run. Not much chance of Nando tiring on the run though, no, his Comrades training was making him fast and lean. I had no plan, no strategy. I told everyone I was going to take on the race at a slow pace, to give them a false sense of security while I planned to beat them with underhand conniving.
On Friday, the day before the race Trish, Rich and I went and camped at Mountain Sanctuary Park, to acclimatise to the altitude, scout out the route and conditions, and also so not as to miss too much sleep on Saturday morning. That plan went awry when a huge thunderstorm caused havoc at our campsite, with rivers and dongas appearing from nowhere. The effect on the course was to make it very muddy, every bit as good as Bonamanzi. Thanks Trish for your wonderful support.
I really enjoyed the race and seeing Sue and the rest of the eager Lickety Splitters at the start. I swam well and uneventfully. The trick of keeping an aerobically sustainable rhythm while slipping through the water like a dolphin made sense, and I closed my eyes for the most part to feel and hear the water gliding over me. Aaaah – wonderful open water swimming!
My transition to the MTB leg was slow but I left just after Nando and Adri. Mountain Sanctuary Park was beautiful and interesting, with good technical sections and the challenge of mud riding and river crossings. My poor bike eventually sounded like a pepper grinder and had no brakes. Into Transition I again saw Adri, but she soon left me behind. The best part on the run was when we ran down behind the Buffelspoort dam wall and across the flooded river at the bottom and could look up to where the water cascaded down in a massive waterfall over the weir, leaving the whole area in spray mist. The climb up the other side was fun too, climbing up the huge steps of concrete blocks and a steel ladder to get back onto the path which ran back down across the river again. Not even a Lara Craft look alike who passed me on the path could inspire me to pick up my pace and run up that hill. Nor could Nando as he passed me on his second lap of the two loop run. I rather took the river crossing opportunities to lie in the river, hanging onto the flooded causeway, to let the flood waters rush over me, pulling me this way and that. I guess if I’d wanted to beat Nando badly enough I should rather have been running. That would have been a better plan.

Team Lickety Split does Xterra - Buffelspoort

2010-01-31T15:41:00.003+02:00

Mike, Nando, Sue and Adri.
Wet, muddy and exciting! The event was well organized, though by the time we got through to the dam at Buffelspoort and added ourselves to the registration queue, there was only 10 minutes to go to the start of the race! Needless to say, the start of the lite race was delayed: add to this the huge downpour which they had endured the previous night, which meant several MTB bridges over the river had been washed away. 40 minutes late, we were off on a 400M swim in water advertised as being the 'freshest in SA'. It looked muddy and felt warm to me! 400M is a comfortable distance, though I was quite happy to not be doing the 1.5km!
The transition to the bike leg was quick, but I then joined some 30 ladies who found riding over rocks uphill in the wet impossible, so we all walked/biked the single-track for the first 2km. Thereafter, I managed to join some queue-jumpers using an off-road route (grass and pot-luck next to the track), which lead to a dirt road where we could finally get on and pass the unfit. The mud was challenging, but the diagnosis bandied around after the race was "....but we have done Bonamanzi" meaning - not much could be worse than that! Sometimes the twin chocolate donuts maskerading as my tyres looked just as bad, but we took every opportunity of using the river crossings to wash some of it off. Being determined to pass some more walkers in a particularly muddy patch, I found myself joining Nando in the Superman Club, by doing an 'endo' but still managed to retain my dignity by landing on my feet at 15km/h!
The hastily remade bridges held in the floodwaters and soon it was time to change wet, muddy socks for dry ones for the 6km run. Somehow this passed much too soon and I found myself entering the Dam gates sooner than I thought. The rain was still a light drizzle and very welcome throughout!
The organisers made sure that each finalist felt like a winner, by funneling us onto the stage for a photo by the race photographer, (which I have yet to find on the promised site - Facebook) but I managed to get this one of a tired Nando as witnessed by the upside down number!
Sue - reporting on the 'lite'.

Stef 2.08 - 96th out of 237 men (lite)
Sue 2.35 - 25th out of 57 women (lite)
Nando 3.32 - 70th (wow!) out of 186 men (full)
Adri 4.21 - 17 out of 23 ladies listed? (Found you in the men's list)
Mike 4.45 - 166 out of 186 men (full)
Con - M.I.A ?

It occurred to me that Stef, Con and I could have entered as a team for the Full, but I guess - next time?

2010-01-29T14:06:00.011+02:00

So dinner at my house consisted of 6 Lickety Split team members, their spouses, 6 kids and my parents. Why dinner? To celebrate everyone in the team, their individuality and great team spirit. And how much I learn from everyone. And the spouses add their fair share of time, commitment and flavour to the bunch of crazies! Here are some pics of the evening, unfortunately only taken after dinner. Food was enough, and so were the dishes. My housemate Nicolien and I bravely took on the washing & tidying up after everyone left. Every drop of Sunlight worth a great evening!

Dessert: Pear & chocolate tart with cream/ice cream

The aftermath:

The feeling

2010-01-22T06:21:00.001+02:00

So this is morning time after DnD. I did not 'earn' the report writing
privilege, but had to write about a feeling I get… And also had to
write about it before the day turns as I might forget about the
feeling.

After 2 days of rain, I spent at least 2 office hours on Thursday
afternoon conversing with a few colleagues whether it would be raining
Thu eve in Centurion or not. Everyone said yes, and the nifty hourly
weather man on HTC said yes for 16h, 19h and 23h. But working in
Fourways gives a better forecast than all of the above. Our weather
generally moves North, so Joburg gets the handout about an hour or so
before Pretoria. At 3h30 it stopped raining and from the office back
door the rolling green hills and back yard of the Northern Suburbs
opened up and there was it again… the horizon. Earlier on Thursday I
was going to see what the weather looked like at 15h before confirming
with the others if I was going to do the ride or not. At 16h55 my dog
was getting a walk, at 16h57 I opted to go see Avatar, but at 17h02, I
stepped out the office and as I walked under the cloudy skies that has
been crying its heart out for the past 2 days, I had a feeling. I have
the same feeling when I pack my bike & gear for DnD on a Thursday
morning. I have the same feeling when we ride through the MooMall boom
gate on our way out every week. I have the same feeling when I run. I
have the same feeling with Ciro Dinner Date coffee, home made pesto
and the music of Bon Iver at the moment. And I wanted more.

My car left the office and drove down Cedar Rd towards Lanseria to get
more of the feeling. Skies didn't open up completely, but the clouds
lifted. There was a window of opportunity, and I had a feeling that
it's gonna be a good night. Down the N14 a combination of Parlotones,
Die Heuwels Fantasties, Viva La Vida and Bon Iver set the mood for a
perfect ride. Get to the MooMall and the cars trickle in very slowly.
Everyone probably hosting the last feelings of should I or should I
not. But we did it again: talk about the weather of course, but also,
we did a Mild-to-Wild again. Donald as trailmeister, Eric as his
advisor and Oupa Gert wearing the green light at the back. Counting 17
riders and no new-comers we set off round the corner through the
veldt, breathing in the fresh smells of luscious green bossies. Half
way up left, to the tar road and to a greeting face of a former rider
parked next to the road. The oldies greet him, talk about riding and
Oupa Gert tells me he's good on the down hills. We go left down
Cornwall and right up the tar road for speed. Left up past the shebeen
for some speed and status of the queen. Slippery slide to Blair Witch
and first low speed collision and fall just before the road.

A few conversations later we came round the back of Quad Busta and
easy to the top. What a great feeling. It was Eric(Gadget)'s birthday
in the week and after our hiep-hieps and whoop-whoops, the "blanc de
noir" JC Le Roux made a quick pop on top of the hill. Everyone
complimenting the evening for treating us well and the view a treat as
always. Big boeing with "Happy Birthday Eric" and "Go Bokke" flags
cross us whilst the white caramel cupcakes lace our throats for the
Busta, backwards. From Smuts the tar road down to the green light for
another speed zone along the railway. Last part heading home: a tight
single track with a thorn bush on the right, couple stops and some
explaining they're not good on single track, even not when in front.
Couple rocky sections, last portions of kakiebos, something lemony,
something tropical in Nando's water bottle, something herbish and at
the fence we count 17 again and head back. Window of opportunity well
used. We didn't clock 35kms or even 25 I think, but we did it; despite
the weather forecasts. We used the opportunity. See, they come and go
and you can feel for it, or not. But act upon it, whilst it's around.
You can get this feeling when holding your guitar, your wife, your
kid. Perhaps whilst traveling or buying a new gadget. But act upon it,
use the opportunity to tell others what you feel, write about it, so
that those who were there can live in the feeling a while longer… And
those that were not, can maybe at least smell or experience a couple
minutes of it when listening us.

Life happens now.
Shalom

Boetie helping with new bike.

2010-01-16T01:02:00.000+02:00

Kudus 15km - 2010-01-10

2010-01-10T16:48:00.002+02:00

Con and I ran the Varsity Kudus 15km race this morning. Remembering that I have only done a max of 6km at a time over the last 6 months or so a 15km race was a bit daugnting - but if I want to do a 42km race on the 30th at least it showed me what I was capable of.

After about 9kms I could no longer keep up with Con - my legs just didnot want to run up the hills anymore. But on a nice long downhill I caught him up again when he started to complain about a sore ankle he has been having for the last year or two.

We ran together to the end of the race. The last long uphill seemed to last for ever but we managed. We finished together in a time of about 1:36 - which achieved my goal of running a little slower than 6mins per km.

FROG OR GIRLFRIEND?

2010-01-06T07:16:00.002+02:00

A man was jogging in the forest one day, when a frog called out to him and said, “If you kiss me I’ll turn into a beautiful princess.”

He bent over, picked up the frog and put it into his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said “If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will tell everyone how smart and brave you are and how you are my hero.”

The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said “ If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I’ll stay with you for a year and do anything you want.”
Again the man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally the frog asked, “What’s the matter? I’ve told you I’m a beautiful princess that I’ll stay with you for a year and do anything you want. Why won’t you kiss me?”

The man replied, “Look, I do adventure racing. I don’t have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool!”

GoMulti Jan 2010

I did 74 km.h down that hill :)

2010-01-04T11:22:00.000+02:00

Anyone remember midmar?

2009-12-31T14:55:00.000+02:00

A tale of Franschoek & wine

2009-12-28T11:48:00.003+02:00

Since the images coming back from the Cape were so inviting, I was eager to join the 'travelling' half of team lickety split in Cape Town. So far the exercise which I have been getting, comprises digesting Christmas lunch and then subsequent masses of leftovers, with frequent forays on foot up the mountain, behind Somerset West. A trip to Franschoek led over the mountain pass to Betty's Bay, with a long walk in the Fynbos along the coast. Franschoek wine route and free wine tastings are to be recommended!
Sue.

The Annual Orienteering Sprint Cup

2009-12-28T08:09:00.000+02:00

For the past few years, whenever we have been in Gauteng for Christmas my family has made the effort to attend the Annual Sprint Cup. The vent has normally been held at the Witwatersrand Botanical Gardens but this year was held at the Kloofendal Nature Reserve.

This year my family, parents and one brother attended the event. None of us had previously been to the Kloofendal Nature Reserve so the terrain was new to everone. Our family entered myself on the mens course, my wife (Yolande) and daughter (Loreley) on the womens course and the reset formed into two teams.

I took the first leg very easily, unsure of my true level of fitness I walked as much as possible, and ran only when the paths were clear and easy. A lot of the route required trips accross country off the paths and in some sections the undergrowth was too thick to get through. I twice stopped and helped Loreley work out where she was, and Yolande also had to backtrack and assist Loreley with 2 points. Other than that she did quite well.

I finished the first leg in 50 minutes. It didn't feel that long but it had been a long time since I last did an Orienteering event.

The second leg of the event was started as a chasing start - so whoever finished first was the actual winner. I would have started some 30minutes behind the leader but the lower starts were changed to 1 minute apart. Coming to the second checkpoint I saw the two people who had started just before me, the had gone off the path too soon and I was able to catch up to them. The 3rd checkpoint was well hidden and I was able to get ahead of another 2 competitors, the 4th and 5th checkpoints seemed to be well of their actual plotted points but I was lucky to find them early and get ahead of yet another 2 or 3 competitors. Unfortuntly I overshot point 7 by quite a bit and lost most of the places I had taken.

The race got quite fierce with 3 of us (Craig Ogilve, David Pilling and myself) racing each other for the rest of the course. Slowly Craig and I dropped David and were purely racing each other to the end. On one of the very last points Craig made a navigational error and dropped back from me - needless to say I was looking over my shoulder for him right to the end anyway.

At the end of the second leg which took me 54 minutes, I had moved ahead David Pillign having caught up 6 minutes on him, and was just behind Craig having caught up 7 or the required 8 minutes on his time.

Merry Christmas all crazy Adventurers!

2009-12-24T12:57:00.000+02:00

Let us savour every bite taken in the next 48hrs! This trifle is tradition and serves up to 20 people. Luckily only 7 of us this year! Looking forward to an eventful 2010 to burn off the wonderful festive foods! Merry Christmas Lickety Split! Shalom

Dark n Dirty - Thursday 17 December

2009-12-21T07:37:00.000+02:00

I don't mind falling, well not that much. I dont even mind getting hurt (I have walked 8kms on a broken ankle before). But tearing my cycling pants I really really dislike!

On thursday night 7 of us got together to do a Dark n Dirty ride. With a brave trail meister, a sweeper, 2 newbies, 1 nearly newbie we had a Dark n Dirty group. I left my light at home and had to buy a super cheap Pic n Pay special headlamp. The usual warning was given about first one to climb off their bike without meaning to gets to write the report.

Off we went into the dark... and the brave trail meister got lost, with a sudden stop he started looking around for the path. While everyone was trying to help find the path nobody saw me half fall off onto my knee.

So once the path was found we went peddalling off into the dark. But on the wrong path. This time I was seen to land on my knee. It wasn't so obvious as nobody really suggested I write the report. The brave trail meister realised he had the wrong route, and stopped to find the right route - over I went onto my knee again - my knee by now was sore from three gentle falls onto it - even the blood streaming down my leg didn't really let onto anyone that I had fallen.

So off the brave trail meister went - on the route he was originally looking for - and he fell badly, upended the bike, feet in the air, bike light disconnected and everything. "Oops" he says.

Down past cornwall hill we went. My not-so-super-bright light made it a ride of note - 30km (yeah brakes on) down a vertical slope when you cannot see the angles makes it a lot of fun!

Our super trail meister gave us a running commentary of what each hill was called (but I have forgotten most of them) so I sort of got to know which hill was which. With 3 pretty much newbies in the group we had to do the 'sprint to the light - it is only about 200m away' which is actually a 2km sprint but catches the newbies every time!

I now know which hill is the mine shaft - not nearly as bad as it sounds, the python - which we did as fast as we could, Look Ma no Brakaes - where I went straight over the handle bars, bike following until my foot slipped out of the shoe - by now I was getting tired of falling.

Then on the last simple little single track back to Moo Mall I fell again, smashed onto my elbow and shoulder BUT my shorts caught onto the sadle and ripped a hole the size and shape of Zimbabwe in my shorts. (Carine took a rude photo of my bum as proof - and there is far too much bum showing for a civilized race report).

So let me repeat, I dont mind falling (though 5 times in one night was a bit much), I dont mind getting hurt (blood running down my leg is fine), but I really object to getting my cycling shorts torn!

Morning run Hartenbos to KleinBrak

2009-12-20T08:47:00.000+02:00

Scouting the winelands.

2009-12-17T12:21:00.000+02:00

Must add that i miss team. Know they would've loved the hills & sandy roads.

Greetings from the Weskus

2009-12-16T16:27:00.000+02:00

Merry christmas

2009-12-10T20:34:00.001+02:00

William is behind Adri, as usual!

24 Hours of Rietvlei - Official Race Report

2009-12-09T14:56:00.019+02:00

So, team Lickety Split decided to do "24 Hours of Rietvlei Farm". It was to be last team event of 2009 and everyone rocked up with varying expectations. Emails flew around during the preceding week detailing plans and strategy. Key phrases in said correspondence ranged from ‘social’ and ‘taking it easy’ to ‘military precision’ and ‘tactical advantage’. Mostly, though, catering and gazebo decorations were discussed in the finest detail.

The racing team consisted of Mike, Nando, Adri and myself with William, Sue and Trish in support. Mike volunteered to arrive early and secure real estate for our camping effort. He did a sterling job of getting a prime spot with a massive front lawn thrown in to sweeten the deal, and only a stones chuck from the transition area. It sure beat camping out in the windswept sticks as many latecomers had to endure. As the team started to arrive our camp soon resembled a medium sized Bedouin village rounded off with Christmas lights.

Soon enough, thoughts turned to the task at hand and I went for a quick warm-up ride before the race briefing. I got tangled up in the twisty track purpose cut across a dry (for now) vlei and, when I finally found my way out, missed most of the briefing.

The start was of the Le Mans variety and bikes were positioned about 200 meters from the line. I positioned myself near the front of the bunch thinking the sooner I get to my bike the better to avoid the consternation and chaos that’s bound to happen. It worked well. I picked up my bike in the first group but was so winded from the flat out sprint that it took me half a lap to recover.

The course was nice and varied. After the somewhat pointless meander across the dry vlei the track headed up a short, easy (for a while) climb to the first bit of twisty single track. I never tired of this section and it was nice to try and negotiate the sweeping turns and energy sapping bumps faster and smoother every time. A fast, technical section followed that took the course behind the original farm building and down some fast and rocky single track into the first forest section. This section was perfect to catch ones breath as you could only go so fast between the trees. A short, brutal climb out of the forest lead to a nice, smooth road that delivered you to the crux of the course, an uphill section that just kept coming at you. In the heat of the day it was highly unpleasant as there was no tree cover. Soon enough, though, the course turned and started heading for home with a blistering downhill that put a smile on my face every time. Fast flowing single track lead to some more twisty forest sections. When you eventually popped out of the forest the camp and transition area seemed tantalizingly close but a ‘sting in the tail’ style climb and meander had to be dispatched of first before the super fast descent into transition. All in all it was a course I didn’t mind riding repeatedly and it was one that the solo competitors would feel in their legs for days afterwards.

After handing the baton over to Nando, I sat down for a well earned rest and discussed tactics with William. We agreed to best course of action would be to rotate on a single lap basis and only switch to double laps during the late night and early morning to give everyone a chance to get a bit of sleep under their belts. After Nando, Mike went out on a super fast lap and bettered my first lap time. This inevitably sparked an internal fastest lap contest that simmered all the way to the end. William, in his new role as cycling team manager, wandered around with a stopwatch, scribbled notes and muttered to himself while planning the demise of all other mixed teams on the roster. He predicted that our individual fastest laps would only come on Sunday morning. I disagreed stating there’s no way I can go any faster and that fatigue will surely slow us down steadily during the course of 24 hours. Sure as not, the whole teams’ final laps proved to be their fastest. The human body continues to marvel!

The rest of Saturday afternoon disappeared in a blur of riding, eating, resting, eating, lying down, eating, resting a bit more and doing the odd lap trying to better our personal best times. We’ve been eyeing a band of thunder clouds and for a while I thought it would bypass us to the south but by about 17h30 it was clear that we would be receiving some form of precipitative offering! And offer it did! I was on my third lap when the heavens opened and a storm of epic proportions presented itself. Lightning crashed all around and contemplated the isolating properties, or lack thereof, of rubber bicycle tires. Luckily, I avoided in-depth empirical research on the subject and found myself in transition where race organizer Dimitri told me the race has been suspended until the lightning subsided.

Back at camp the rest of the team also had epic tales of saving our encampment from blowing to downtown Alberton. We decided to make the most of the lull in racing by exchanging Christmas gifts and singing some carols before getting busy with the most important part of the day: Dinner! William, cycle manager and chef extraordinaire, prepared perfect roast chicken and vegetables on the Weber. Before it was 100% done, though, the race was restarted and Nando had to go ride on an empty stomach. We sent him off and tucked in only to be surprised twenty minutes later by a returning Nando dragging something that resembled a bicycle behind him. Apparently the (used to be dry) vlei had turned into a quagmire that severely impeded forward progress with the stickiest mud imaginable adhering to all moving parts of the bike. Some people apparently took half an hour to do the 1.5 km vlei section. Nando gave up the good fight and returned in order to save his bike from certain demise. As Nando sauntered off to find a tap to clean his bike, we stood around looking at each other sheepishly, wandering what to do next. I sat down and opened a beer while contemplating the situation. No one wanted to go out and wreck their bike. An announcement that the offending section of the course was to be cut out didn’t spur us into action either. We all knew those forest sections would be as bad as it gets. I opened a second beer after dinner and severe nafi-ness kicked in big time. Members of the team that hoped for a more social event had their wish granted for the next hour or so while we sat around goofing off and chewing the fat. Mike worked his way through a few Savannahs, secretly building courage. At some stage Adri realized that the course was actually open and rideable and confronted us with the inevitable question: “Why are we not out there…riding?” This simple yet eloquent question had the desired effect on Mike. He finished his ‘how-many-th’ Savannah with a deep swig and loped off in the direction of his bike, thus ushering in the late night part of our race……

As our esteemed manager and fearless leader William rightly noted, 24 hour races are won or lost during the night. The ability to efficiently circulate at a consistent pace and smoothly rotate in the dark quickly separates the experienced teams from the wannabees. We did OK during the night, doing 2 laps each before handing over and going for a well earned hour or two of sleep. The amount of mud on the course, and the sections in the forest especially, slowed us down considerably. Soon enough it was getting light and I had the pleasure to do the sunrise lap. I’m sure it would have been more pleasurable if I had actually been awake. That only happened after Sue handed me a cup of steaming moerkoffie and I could dunk a few of Francina Kruger’s finest.

The stage was set for a showdown of OK Corral-like proportions. We were lying in sixth position and realized we could make up some positions if we put our heads down. Adri passed Team Bravo soon after breakfast to move us up to fifth. We decided to set our sights on fourth place as our goal for the morning. If nothing else it would keep us out of mischief. We started chasing and raced hard all morning, bettering our lap times all the time as the course was drying out nicely by now. Fearless manager William devised a strategy for us to get the maximum amount of laps by allowing me to ride a fast lap after Mike and coming through the timing tent with about 2 minutes to spare. This allowed Adri to do a leisurely final lap as this would still count towards our final total. Well, no-one told Adri that and she proceeded to better her best lap by almost 2 minutes. We still ended a lap and a half behind fourth place but this also meant that we had gained a lap and a half since early that morning. A job well done, even if I had to say so myself.

We spent a full day riding in circles, created nothing of any worth, spent calories unnecessarily, our productivity index hovering around zero. To most people on the sidelines what we did must have seemed like a complete waste of time and they would surely ask: “but.… why?” My philosophical answer to this would be simple: “If you have to ask, you’ll never know!” Of course there is a more practical answer: “Because it feels so good when you stop!” In the end it is all about hanging out with good friends and celebrating with some not-cake! Thanks to the team and supporting cast for a great weekend!

Team Results:

Pos Laps Time Team

1 39 2009-12-06 12:12:22 Team Teen

2 38 2009-12-06 12:24:48 Goldfish and the Bowls

3 33 2009-12-06 12:19:15 Full-of-Beanz

4 32 2009-12-06 12:03:40 The Good The Bad The Old And The Ugly

5 31 2009-12-06 12:35:04 Lickety Split

6 28 2009-12-06 11:17:21 Team Bravo

7 24 2009-12-06 12:16:34 JMBC Blue

8 20 2009-12-06 11:21:06 Rhino-Soreass

9 20 2009-12-06 11:45:13 4 of a Kind

10 16 2009-12-06 12:26:06 Glen Fowler and Team

11 15 2009-12-06 11:19:47 JMBC Virgin Shock

12 13 2009-12-06 11:51:59 N.O.W (NIGHTMARE ON WHEELS)

24 Hours (Race Report) - Nando

2009-12-08T10:04:00.003+02:00

Hi all,

It’s been a hectic Monday for me hence the non response.

I was so overwhelmed from our wonderful weekend together that to come back to the “real” world always comes as a big bang for me, and today was no exception. From a leaking pipe at home to the horrid traffic trip to JHB. Anyway enough said about my start of what will be my last week at the office for 2009.

To our weekend. Let me start with a big thank you to :

Sue and William for looking after our needs. I kept thinking how difficult it must have been for you to be there and not be participating with us. You actually showed no regret and only received so much positive support from both of you. You both deserve a medal for spoiling us with your time and efforts in looking after us.

Trish, I did not know you that well until this weekend. Mike has always mentioned you and I am very pleased that I got to know you a bit more and that you were able to join us on our “crazy” weekend. Thank you for your support and contribution to the team spirit and especially looking after Mike’s needs as he can be a handful. Oh, how can I forget, thanks for giving up your 5-man tent. I did not want to question how of you both fitted inside the “hankerchief “ but it must have been snuggly. Although I did notice Mike having difficulty getting out of the tent at 02h30 in the morning!

To my fellow teammates (Mike, Con, Adri), you were just awesome and am proud to have shared this experience with you. I will definitely not forget this experience we had together….as mentioned afterwards, please warn me if you want to race a race and not just go for a finish. I was pleasantly surprised by all your abilities although I knew inside all of you, you have this “killer” instinct. Adri, you constantly surprise me in your abilities and growth in MTB. I am also pleased that I was able to see you grow from a very weary rider to a now gutsy one. Well done and may you continue to inspire others around you. Con and Mike you have proved your point as strong MTB’s and will sit back and wait for the right moment to surprise you again…just joking!

Con, there must be so much “pressure” on you to write a report. With the photo’s that have already been sent already and others still to come, I can’t wait to hear your side of the story. Some of my memories were:

· Setting up camp and especially my gazebo which took a brain storm to get it up.
· The storm that came and almost blew my gazebo away and getting wet holding it down.
· Con being out there in the storm and wondering how he was doing under those conditions.
· The long wait for the race to re-start after the storm.
· Me being the first rider after the storm and riding in thick slosh of mud bringing back memories of Bonamanzi only worse. The worst was to have to resign from riding further to save the bike from destruction. However was pleased that the organizer decided to cut out this 1.4k section as it was actually a boring section.
· Sharing a Christmas song and gifts to add to the occasion.
· All the wonderful food that was available however my appetite was somehow missing!
· My last of the 2 laps at night with my headlamp power diminishing rapidly.
· The sunrise lap after having a cup of coffee which gave me lots of energy.
· Attempts at beating Con’s and Mikes lap times and having to resort to excuses that I had "heavy” traffic…actually it was partly true but honestly could not match their performances.
· 4 of us sleeping in the tent of which some had snoring competitions…no jokes!
· Trying to sleep and always thinking of the time factor. Need to practice more on those power naps.
· Driving home afterwards that took forever as my sleep factor was catching up to me and resorting to opening car windows and loud music to keep awake….scary moment.
· Arriving home unloading bike (only) seeing the family for 5 minutes, promising to take them for a waffle at 6 to make up for last time as I needed to sleep…which I did and actually worked!

Thank you all for another memorable event. I am truly pleased and honored to have shared this experience with you and mostly for the great teamwork we had together. I have always wondered how a team can get together and just work out as well as we do. It feels like I am in a dream world but actually I can pinch myself and know that its real and hope that whatever happens in the future, we will always remember what we shared and gained from our experience together.

On a final note, I left my ARKZN white bandana on a chair after my night ride which was wet with sweat. If any of you would be so kind as to check if by mistake got into your baggage would you be so kind as wash it and let me know so I can thank you for it.

I am away for the day to Durbs tomorrow…again so chat to you when I get back.

Boa noite, goeie nag, good night,

Via con Deus,

Nando

A few thoughts re the past weekend's 24hr MTB

2009-12-07T16:37:00.011+02:00

few thoughts re the past weekend's 24hr MTB:

I was still doing rolling hills and muddy corners until I eventually fell asleep last night
I feel like I made my own "This Is It" movie
My mind is willing, but body very weak today
Appetite is completely out of sync
Appreciating everyone in the team's hard work
Happy to have no bruises, although it could've served as proof for my "condition" today
Race box never made it upstairs yesterday
Off naartjie flavour for a while
Laughing as thoughts about every team member randomly pops up
Missed sunrise completely this morning
Like the team photo
Looking forward to our report & pics
Thankyou again, my life is richer knowing everyone of you
Cant seem to change the font on this post (William Edit - I can :) )
Mike: I suggest we save the 3-bean salad till after the race next time
Thankyou William for pushing our bikes to & from transition everytime

24 Hour - Christmas Team Photo

2009-12-07T10:58:00.006+02:00

The team photo from the 24 hour. Only Mike is wearing 'official' team gear. The 24 hour was the team's Christmas event and some of us still have our Christmas hats on.

13:30 - Christmas not cake

2009-12-06T12:51:00.002+02:00

The team's traditional Desert - not-cake (look on this blog for the recipe)

07:00 - Early morning

2009-12-06T06:06:00.003+02:00

Mike looking good after a good nights sleep.

02:00 - 2am

2009-12-06T02:08:00.004+02:00

Mike on his way out

22:15 - William killing time at 24hr MTB.

2009-12-05T23:15:00.002+02:00

So we each did about 2 laps at Rietvlei farm and then the heavens opened on us. Now waiting for officials to open altered course. Dinner was super. Exchanged Christmas gifts with the team, even mince pies.

20:00 - 24 hours in the rain

2009-12-05T20:08:00.001+02:00

Con got caught out on the course in the pouring rain!

13:54 - 1 lap each

2009-12-05T13:54:00.002+02:00

11:45: Team Lickety split is at it again.

2009-12-05T11:45:00.002+02:00

Doing laps.

09:00 Its busy and getting crowded quickly

2009-12-05T09:07:00.002+02:00

Narrow muddy beachhead established.