Brindabella Night Challenge

Suze helped me get the bikes to the drop off area - just off Shepherdson Place, Isaacs - before dropping me back at HQ (Reconciliation Place) where Jodie & Rachel were busy collecting bibs, maps, instructions etc...

we popped the 3 maps we had in map cases and contacted the control card...we should have done the same to the instructions...

pre-race briefing was at 5:30pm before we were on the buses to take us back to Isaacs...

First leg (run)

the heavens opened minutes before we were due to start...the first leg was orienteering on Farren Ridge...we had to collect 5 of 6 checkpoints in any order before heading back to the Transition Area (TA)...

I was in charge of navigation, Rachel had the control card while Jodie was in charge of the SportIdent stick which was to record the leg splits...

we had a good clear run although we started a little low initially for our third control but it didn't cost us much time...

Second leg (bike)

we had to ride along the back of Isaacs through O'Malley to Garran, picking up 5 more checkpoints along the way...the coolest thing was going through the culvert under Hindmarsh Drive...the bikes just fit as we crouched over and made our way through...

Third leg (mystery)

at this TA we were handed a special piece of equipment - a frisbee!...we had to make our way across Yamba Drive picking up another checkpoint (#14*) before completing 8 "holes" (checkpoints) on the course...you couldn't run with the frisbee and you had to get the frisbee in the basket before punching the control...we ran like mad dogs through this section...

* checkpoints 12 & 13 were removed from the event because they were chalk markings in the drain - the rain was that heavy that organisers decided it wasn't safe...

Fourth leg (bike)

by now we had our headlamps on as we made our way up the back of Hughes & Deakin, alongside Federal Golf Club & Red Hill picking up 5 more checkpoints...

by now the fire trail had at least 2 inches of mud on top so it was quite a challenge to negotiate our way round...Jodie was crazy on her bike while I brought up the rear, being a not so accomplished off road bikie...

we then had a long ride along Stonehaven Cres/Hopetoun Cct to Yarralumla Bay...

Fifth leg (kayak/mystery)

here we were meant to paddle out to Spinnaker Island where we would be handed the map for the next section...we were told it would involve a swim!!

I'd just attached one Glo Stick to our kayak when the paddling leg was cancelled due to the lightning...we were pretty disappointed as we were really keen to have a paddle (but perhaps not swim!)...

turns out after paddling to the island, you got a map and had to swim back to Blue Gum Point to do a rogaine in Stirling Park...

all the maps were on the island except two and we managed to get one so we could still do the rogaine where you had to collect controls totalling at least 175 points (each control was worth a different amount of points)...another team who missed out on paddling linked up with us and with me navigating again (why did they trust me??!), we made collected 7 more checkpoints...we actually didn't find the second control we looked for (I think we were too low) so had to make up a "plan B" to collect another control which we did successfully...

back to the bike/kayak TA and we got back on our bikes to head for the finish...the original finish had a swim back to the island after the rogaine and then paddling to the finish...this meant bikes would have been left at that TA and would have required extra driving to pick up...

Tim's team had done OK - they got to do the paddling and the swim but instead of paddling to the finish were told to return to the TA which meant they at least rode their bikes to the finish...

the coffee cart survived with dad, mum & Sheona in charge although the rain meant people didn't hang around at the finish...there wasn't a presentation so we will have to wait for the results to come out to see how we went...

despite not getting to do the whole course properly we all had great fun and will hopefully get to do another event in the future...

at the end we were covered in mud, certainly on our lower bodies and the bikes were just as messy...

we changed into dry clothes and jumped in Jodie's car to await Suze and Dave (Rachel's husband) to arrive....Dave had a ute so we could just chuck the bikes in the back...they also brought food (pizza) as they had been in the middle of dinner after watching the Caps at Tuggeranong...they weren't expecting us to be finished more than 90mins ahead of time (9:30ishpm)...

we certainly anticipated a good night's sleep!