ADVENTURE RACING: Full Moon Adventure Race

RUNNING

Words: Ico Schutte ǀ Photos: Con Loubser

Full Moon Adventure Race Eager for a change of scenery, I jumped at the invitation to compete in the 120 km Kinetic Full Moon Adventure Race, in Bela-Bela (Warmbaths), from 24 to 25 August. Kinetic Gear, well

known as the organisers for the gruelling 500 km Expedition Africa adventure race, hosts this multidisciplined event. Aimed at adventurers of all levels that want to get a taste for true adventure racing, it includes the many elements of an expedition style race, testing competitors in trekking, mountain biking, paddling, abseiling, and navigating. The challenges continue well into the night as the majestic full moon keeps all company. Teaming up with Izaan de Jager, a lady I met at this year's Expedition Africa and who had to abandon due to injury, I knew she wanted to redeem herself and the experience was bound to be a good one.

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Perusing the race maps to find any sneaky shortcut to give my team an edge out on the course.

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The sun was shining on Saturday morning as 38 teams and their family and friends converged on the Warmbaths Boat Club.

Even at registration, the passion and experience of Heidi and Stephan, owners of Kinetic Gear, could be seen. They provide a live tracking website, powered

by GPS, with over 4,000 hits worldwide. The race briefing commenced at 9:00 a.m., where we received our race booklets and maps. As with most types of

adventure racing, athletes receive little information about the route prior to race day, other than what disciplines will be included.

Distances, locations, and types of terrain are only revealed upon race day. This makes proper planning an absolutely critical part of any adventure race, often thought of as the race before the race! Within just two hours, many strategic decisions must be made.

For one, teams are provided with two hefty re-supply boxes, labelled A and B, to store all gear needed for the race. As you see only one of them at transitions, as specified in the race booklet, teams must decide what equipment to pack into which re-supply box. In addition, the navigator on the team focuses on plotting the desired route to collect all the checkpoints. Each checkpoint must be passed through in order to complete the course. Route choice often becomes a compromise between the shortest distance and easiest terrain between checkpoints.

As you can imagine, a race is often won or lost not on sporting strength alone, but on a team's navigational ability.

I eagerly took on the role as navigator for our team. It's a new skill for me and what better way to develop it than to be tested in action. The hike and cycle sections were my main focus pre-race. Looking at the map I decided on a very direct approach on the first two hike legs, as the map showed no big mountains and what appeared to be easy-going terrain. However, I opted for a longer and flatter route for the mountain bike section, by staying on the main roads, and hoping that we could make up time as we are strong riders. What also made the planning interesting is that teams were required to complete the first five legs of the race before having access to a re-supply box.

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Teams made the most of a tail-wind on the second paddle leg that ended at T2 at the dam wall.

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The abseil off the dam wall was an interesting introduction for a few novice teams to this stalwart AR discipline.

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At 11:00 a.m., we set off on the first half of the race. Legs one to five included two hikes of around 8 km each, intersected with a short 2km paddle leg inbetween. This was a very nice touch by Stephan, as the shorter legs kept it interesting. The terrain, very

different to what I am used to in the Garden Route, was very rocky and sandy. Not surprisingly, reaching every checkpoint required that we traverse up and over every koppie in the area. All the athletes were having a blast and enjoying the bush, as curious steenbokkies roamed around.

Chatting to teams, it was clear that there were a lot of newcomers to the adventure racing scene, a good sign for the future of the sport.

The rough terrain made for slower going than first anticipated, and with the dry, dusty air, we soon discovered that we were running short of water. Passing by the start/ finish venue, we were tempted to stop for refreshments between the two hike legs, but decided to rather save time and brave it out, paddling our boat across the dam to start the second hike. The hike started with a bit of confusion, as Izaan had left her helmet in the kayak, so we turned back to retrieve it, as it would be required later in the hike for the abseil (The controlled descent down a rock face using a rope.

Adventurers use this technique when a cliff or slope is too steep and/or dangerous to descend without protection.).

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Once we got going again, I had a look at my initial route plan, but decided to alter this as the terrain looked much harder than anticipated.

This decision paid off and we leapfrogged a couple of teams. This was a great hike and we were presented with the option of a swim or hike around the dam. It was a no-brainer really. We were hot and bothered and welcomed the smooth swim across.

Lucky for us, we found the checkpoint with refreshments included, something not often found in adventure racing. I graciously gulped down a massive amount of USN before setting off towards the abseil. Feeling refreshed and excited after the amusing hike, we paddled our boat into the sunset and back towards the start/ finish venue for the start of the mountain bike legs.

At transition, some athletes were lazing around eating everything they could find, while others were in a rush to get going again. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, changed into our cycling kit, packed our lights, as night was quickly approaching, and off we went for a 90 km cycle, with a 3 km paddle, and 8 km hike somewhere in the middle. Here we finally found our groove and soon started catching teams again. The cycle proved to be tougher than expected due to the state of the roads. We crossed all over looking for a patch of smooth road, but all we found was sand and corrugations, which together became physically and mentally challenging to endure.

Later on I saw discomfort on Izaan's face and the only words of wisdom that came to mind were, "Pain is a good thing, it lets you know that you are still alive!" At 10:00 p.m., the full moon rose and kept us company all through the night.

This was a great help with navigation, as the silhouettes of the surrounding hills became more clearly defined and gave us a more precise idea of our location.

Surprise, surprise. In an adventure race there is always a surprise, and this came about because the road I'd chosen to take us to the dam seemed missing and in its place was a big fence. Improvising, we followed a power line and climbed some fences here and there, finally finding ourselves within eyesight of the dam, behind another big fence. Looking around to find a way through, we were soon joined by more confused teams, followed by a very confused farmer who soon joined the party. After some explanation of how we found our way onto his land, he gave us directions, the rugby score, and the security code for his gate.

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Reaching CP7 made for some interesting route choices. We opted for the 200 m swim across the old Warmbaths dam instead of a longer walk around.

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Arriving at the last paddle leg, we donned our waterproof gear and set off for a chilly midnight paddle. The paddle was a welcome break from the sand pit of a cycle leg. As a kid, I really enjoyed playing in it, but it sucks on a bicycle. Dreading the next 20 km continuation of sand and corrugations, we reluctantly got on the bicycles and set off towards the last hike. At 2:30 a.m., we started the last hike with a nice big climb to the top of the koppie and then made our way around the game lodge. Once again, near perfect navigation helped us to get down in a very respectable time.

It was clear that some of the teams were taking strain, as they slept on couches at the last transition area. This was not the case for our tireless race organiser, Stephan, who was busy transporting the re-supply boxes back to the start. With a sinister smile and a kind word of inspiration, he indicated the last checkpoint on top of a big climb! Only a short but nasty cycle stood between us and the finish line! We dug deep and pedalled on.

Shortly after sunrise and with a smile, we completed the Full Moon Adventure Race. A satisfying feeling only made better when informed that we had won the Mixed Pair category!

Aah, the sweet taste of victory and champagne at 7 a.m.!

This was another superb event by Kinetic Gear, so if you want to taste adventure, then check out their website for results and upcoming races.

Visit Kinetic Gear's website www.kineticgear.co.za for the full results and upcoming events.

Pierre Carter of team Warriors finding some humor in the endless corrugations and deep sand the teams had to contend with on the Limpopo district roads.

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