X-Raid 2006
My first ever adventure race…
Team Western Australia: Ian, Ian, Wil and me race for 36 hours in the south west of WA. This race is done with a team of 4, but only 3 people at a time are racing which means the 4th can have a rest.
We start the race with 2 kayak legs done by Ian, Ian and me. After that we continue on foot and the crazy Canadian gets some rest. After this leg it is my turn to rest when Ian, Ian and Wil continue on foot again with an abseil and some climbing half way at Willyabrup – I am sad I have to miss that bit as it looks awesome. It is hot and many teams suffer dehydration and exhaustion, especially on this leg.
After they arrive we have a short break to allow the guys to eat something before the crazy Canadian, Wil and I continue on the bikes. We arrive late so we don’t get much sleep, but we do find yummie hot chocolate when we arrive at the TA.
Early in the morning (it is still dark!) we get up for another paddle. This time on the river. We (Ian, Ian and I) are quite slow on this section which means we don’t have much time to get ready for the next hiking section along the Cape to Cape track and on the beach.
Ian, Wil and I set off for the walk and by pushing the pace a bit we manage to get to the next TA just in time and before everybody expects us! Ian is still pretty much asleep and we also seem to come in from a strange direction as nobody sees us come in until we are at the TA.
We have a quick transition and jump on the bikes – two more bike sections to the finish. The first one is my break and then we race it to the finish whilst Wil is resting. Again we only just make the cut-off, but we made it and that’s the most important bit. At the finish line it is just big smiles and one big high – we did it!!
9 stages, 36 hours:
- kayak – 30km
- run, abseil and climb – 71km
- mountainbike – 145km