A serious hurt fest

The ARC 8 hour adventure race.

I knew it was going to hurt!

What a great event though!

I arrived at our bach in Whitianga late Friday afternoon. I unpacked everything, caught up with my sister and her husband, who were staying at our bach, then headed down to register with Janie in town. A pair of socks - I actually need some!

Helen made us some of her great vegetarian pizza, then off to the race briefing.

At the race briefing, we found out that we were making rafts - we were allowed two inner tubes, 4 pieces of manuka, a 10m piece of rope, plus we could use our 4m compulsory rope.

We also found out we had some diving to do, and paint balling. (The idea was to get some Helium 3 before the Russians did!) www.arcevents.co.nz

We were given the race book, but no maps!

Headed back and thought about the raft - decided to ring a very accommodating local, who came down and made us one - thanks Alastair!!!

Went to bed, and didn't really sleep much.

Down to register at 7 am and got our maps and checkpoints. Great - a raft of about 1 km, then a heap of mountain biking through forestry tracks.

We started at 8 am. We carried the raft about 300 m, then rafted around an IRB, and carried the raft back to the start. We actually did quite well at this!

Then onto the bike, and up hills. It didn't take long for my heart rate to max out, and I was pushing my bike!!!

The bike was hard work, I doubt whether many people would have ridden the whole way. We grabbed and optional checkpoint along the way.

The scenery was great, at the top we could see the top of the Coromandel and Whangapoua Harbour.

Then a FAST decent! We ended up back on the main road, and biked out to Kaimarama Road where the paintballing was. This was great fun. Janie managed to get some Helium 3, and shoot a sniper, but I got hit by the sniper.

Back on our bikes, and off to the 309 Road, where we did rifle shooting. I got all my 5 targets. We had to walk up a steep hill with our bikes, so enjoyed hurtling down the hill - until I realised I'd forgotten my pack. I swore really badly! I walked back up the hill to get my pack - bugger 10 minutes lost!

We got to Transition at Egon Park quite well. We had made good time (for us). I had to dive into a COLD rock pool and dive down to get a disk out of a crayfish pot. Apparently there were lots of eels there, but I didn't see any!

Grabbed something to eat, and our next maps. We needed to get 3 checkpoints. We got the first one, but didn't realise we needed to go further to get the next one (first navigational blunder by me).

The next checkpoint involved walking upstream about a km, diving into a waterfall and getting another clue. We came to a small waterfall and couldn't see anything. We made the call to go further up. We came across another team who said the waterfall was THE waterfall, but the clue was in the top part. BUGGER about an hour lost!

The spirits start to fade a bit when you make mistake like this - but we kept going. Back to the bikes, and into Whitianga. We crossed the waterways canal with our bikes on tubes, got a couple of clues and headed back to base. Our last map was of Simpsons beach. We biked over there, then hiked around the coast to pick up more checkpoints. Another misinterpretation of the map by me meant that we ended up doing lots of rock hopping, swimming in the sea (and two fish jumped beside us!), and rock climbing on the cliffs. It was a little scary. Janie was starting to have had enough. It was taking us a lot longer than it should have. We climbed up a steep hill, got the last two clues, then got back down, back on our bikes and back to base. We finished in under 12 hours, and only missed one check point.

It was great fun, but I am feeling hacked off about my navigational skills, and my lack of fitness. It is embarrassing when your team mate is a lot fitter than you - I let the team down. BUT I know now that I have to do something every day to keep fit, and am looking forward to my next challenge, which will be the Spring Challenge in Motueka.

No photos yet sorry - didn't take the camera - it would have got too wet!

Fishing

Brian's marlin went under weight - In game fishing competitions there is a minimum weight fish should be, before they are eligible for prizes. It is meant to help promote tag and release. Brian used a tape measure which is calibrated and thought the fish weighed about 95 kg, before boating it. Unfortunately is was under 90kg. But we've got smoked marlin for tea!!!!

They won first prize with a 10.1 kg albacore, which was pretty good!

Just as I posted - Brian rang - he's just landed a striped marlin! They're in the trailer boat competition in Mercury Bay, so they might get a nice prize for it, as well as some smoked marlin next week. Yum!

A week to go!

The ARC Operation Blue Moon adventure race is a week away, I have not lost 15 kg, and I haven't done enough training. I will get my butt seriously kicked.

Time for some new goals, and major motivation. I have been going for short jog/walks, and although my knee hurts, I can live with it.

I'd like to do the Autumn Challenge in Palmerston North, and train through the winter, and either do the K1 or quarter K in late October, or enter a trail run somewhere.

The farm is very dry again - three years of dry autumns in a row, is not great! The El Nino pattern has not been great for fishing either, so a double bogey!!

Will try and keep my blog up to date from now on!

All I want for Christmas

While Brian shouted himself (well officially us) 3 top of the range fishing rods, I got this:

It is a genuine McGregor's weed grubber. Yah! I was so excited I went out tonight and spent 90 minutes getting rid of weeds on the run off.

It actually proved to be a good workout, and I've got a blister to prove it.

I might actually suggest to McGregor's that they re-market the grubber as the ultimate workout for athletes. Not only do you work out the legs walking between weeds, but exercise the core (lifting the grubber), the upper body (cutting the weeds down to size).

Thanks very much Brian, such a thoughtful gift!

Next event!

This is my next event.

HELP I need to lose 15 kg by then, otherwise my butt is going to get seriously kicked:

By my team mate Janie.

By the big hills!

I'm pleased it's at Whitianga, we can stay at our bach - downside - the 'boys' will be doing their fishing tournament - upside - we can go to the party after the fishing tournament.

Hi Folks

We are pleased to announce that the tenth anniversary ARC Adventure Race "Operation Blue Moon" will be based somewhere close toWhitianga, on the Coromandel peninsula.

The event, which takes place on the weekend of the 20th / 21st March, includes a 24 hour, 12hour and 8 hour race. The event is open to teams of 2 or 4 people (the 8 hour is alos open to teams of 3) and there are some special categories for school teams and teams from the forces.

Around 20 teams have entered to date and we can tell you that this years event is going to have some interesting high adrenaline activities, some of which haave never been tried before in an Adventure Race !

For more information and online entry - visit the websiteb - www.arecevents.co.nz/arc2412

The early entry fees are open until 31st December 2009 and entries are limited to 100 teams.

Hope you all have a great Christmas

Andy, Keith and Rita

Hay making time

A highlight of my younger days was haymaking time.

When I was old enough I got to 'turn' the hay with the tractor and conditioner. It was a good way to get a tan!

It was fun rowing up the bales behind the baler, ready for the hay gang to pick up. The hay gang was usually the local rugby or young farmers club, who for an amount per bale, and a few beers afterwards, picked up the hay, stacked it on the trailer, then took it to the shed to stack in the barn. It was great fun. I got to drive the tractor for picking up the bales.

We used to line up for a 'sip' of beer. DB Draught in those days in the big 750 ml bottles!

Brian and I haven't made hay for years. Now it is all pretty mechanical, we use big gear, and get it made into big bales, which are moved by tractor and front end loader. We haven't needed hay in our system up to now, due to good pasture growth rates and good soil conditions here on the peat soils.

But with the run off, and it's poor draining soils, hay will be a good option. It seems to keep animals satisfied in the cold and wet, which makes them more settled, and hopefully they won't do too much pasture damage.

The grass gets cut for hay tomorrow night. The weather is looking good - fine right through, (good for the Rotorua HIM). Most of the hay will be in big bales, but a couple of paddocks will be in the smaller, conventional bales - so I can feed them out in July/August in the wetter months.

I'll be driving the tractor to turn the hay - we went down and 'borrowed' Dad's hay conditioner today.

Ok, not related to exercise, but thought you might be interested!

Heifers

These are the heifers (last years calves). They have been grazing chicory. The Coromandel ranges are in the background.

Working at the runoff

These are my calves. There are 140 of them. I have reared these calves from one day old.

Mac's adventures

This is my dog Mac. He is a bearded collie, and is meant to be a farm dog. He had an adventure the other day, and we're just starting to unravel it.

He has a broken leg, and has just come out of a cast. I bought him a flash new kennel, so he could recover in it.

I felt a bit sorry for him the other day, so let him off, but didn't put him back in his kennel, and I went out.

We had a thunder storm. Well, Mac doesn't like thunder, so when I came back, he was inside - this photo is of him inside, looking a me - outside!

That's not the end of the story. Our insurance agent, Nigel, came around today, and explained that on the same day he stopped outside our place, and opened the car door. In went a terrified Mac. Horrified at having a hairy, dirty, big scared dog in his car, Nigel tried to get him out. Mac did not oblidge! It would have been absolutely hilarious to see, if I was not feeling slightly embarrassed about it all!

Nigel obviously got Mac out eventually, after Mac made a mess of his car, thereafter Mac managed to get inside our house to escape the thunder!

Poor Mac!