Finally..the Spring Challenge Multi Sport event in Kaikoura

The Spring Challenge: A grand total of 570 women had gathered in Kaikoura to compete in teams of three, either in the 6 hr or the 12 hr category. Last year, I did the 6 hr event with Berit and Jana in Hanmer, but it wasn't painful enough, so we went for the 12 hr instead. For this year the organizer, Natan Faavae, claimed to organize the world’s largest woman’s multi-sport event. It was a day to remember!

The course was a secret up until the night before the event: we were about to transport ourselves from the Clarence River, north of Kaikoura into the town, using the means of rafts, bikes and the old fashioned legs.

We didn’t have the best team prep time: I finished my antibiotics the day before the big day after a 6 week cough, Clare had showed symptoms of getting Nick’s flue and Berit was still shaking off a sinus infection. We didn’t feel that prepared to say the least. We had a couple of good days of training together since June, which had to do.

On the day, we felt OK, especially when we got going. The event started off at 6 am just north of Kaikoura. We had to start the event with running 2.5 km in wet to the rafts, which took us down the swollen Clarence River. This is not a long distance to run normally, but when wearing a wetsuit it is much harder work. I was boiling when we got down to the river and when the first rapids came over me in front of the raft, I was only delighted. The river was pretty swollen and at one point, Clare and I were almost catapulted out of the raft when we hit a hidden rock. It was all fun though!

Clare had forgot the only strictly compulsory gear, the race bib, in her transition point bag. Great start Clare!
Testing the muscles before the rafting.

The rafting section took almost an hour and offered beautiful views of the surroundings. The sun was rising and I could feel that it would be a very good day. We shared the raft with another team and a guide who did all the steering.

We met our lovely support crew (Charlie, Mikkel and Nick) for about 5 minutes when we changed into running gear. We picked up our backpacks and headed for the hills. This section was a lot hillier than I was expecting and over the 20 km, we covered about 1000 m elevation. It took me quite some time to get into it, but after repeated uphill walking, which I actually really like, my endorphins started flowing.
Busy busy times in the transition area.
Clare still had time to smile to the camera.
Ready again, this time for the running/walking section! Heading for the hills...

Throughout the day we tried to pace ourselves uphill and not go too fast since we had a long day in front of us. Every 30 minutes we made sure to eat something even if we didn’t feel like it. The best part of the walking section was when Berit offered us her moist soft ginger nut loaf (mjuk pepparkaka). It made a perfect landing in the stomach!

There weren’t many opportunities to run since we had committed to only running on flat or downhill parts. For some reason the terrain seemed to offer us mostly uphill. The track mostly ran trough farmland and in some parts off-track following fences and ridges. The navigation was certainly not the most challenging, which was almost a little bit boring. I think I am more used to rogaines when you have to keep an eye on the map pretty much the whole time.

The legs were pretty tired when we arrived to the remote transition area (i.e. no smiley support crews to help us) and we picked up our bikes and commenced the 40 km biking section. It was great to be moving so much faster than walking! After 10 km downhill on gravel road we had to cross some rivers carrying the bikes and push the bike up a few more hills, when they were too steep to ride. It was a pleasure to reach the paved road sections since we also had the sun warming us up. This was the calm before the storm. Across the sky, we could see that a front was approaching us. The weather forecast predicted the southerly to hit later that night, but I should have learnt from my dad to never trust a meteorologist.
Approaching the transition area at the bottom of Mt Fyffe after a 40 km bike section

Mikkel servicing Berit...not a very common sight :-)
Nick organising Clare's life
I was complaining about a sore tummy..too many ginger nuts, lollies, and gels. Charlie looks a bit scared, maybe because I was a bit grumpy and bossy.

The southerly hit us as during the next section as we were walking half way up Mt Fyffe (1602m). It was about 4 pm in the afternoon and the two top teams were just coming down from the top of the mountain (approx 3 hrs ahead of us). Thick clouds came in and rain stated falling, which eventually turned into snow. Clare and Berit had a tough time walking uphill and I took turns to carry their backpacks. Charlie and Nick also came up the hill and cheered us along. Charlie acted paparazzi and took plenty of photos when we felt like it the least. Just keep walking, just keep walking...
The Southerly was approaching...
..and hit us half way up the hill. I guess it made many realise why we had to carry all the compulsory gear.

We worked really well as a team and kept going although the snow fall was increasing and the winds were picking up. The 6 hr teams only had to reach the Mt Fyffe Hut (approx 1300 m) and it was rather annoying to have people saying "You are almost there" when we were approaching the hut. They often didn't understand that when doing the 12 hr we had to walk almost a further 300 m uphil.
I try to convince myself that I WAS a real donkey. It made me feel better when I carried Clare or Berit's backpack.
The last push up to the Check Point.

The summit seemed very very far away for a long time. A few race crew staff were waiting close to the summit and I was a bit rude when I realised that the real checkpoint was even higher up. The check point guy had chocolate for us which made it all worth to walk to the top :-) Finally at the checkpoint!!! I must say I would not like to be standing up there for very long. The weather was certainly not hostile.
Still smiling...we're heading the right way now...down!
Clare's knees were a bit sore so we encouraged her to chew on a few ibuprophen. When we started heading down, Clare was really picking up the pace and was screaming with joy "I love Ibuprophen. We passed heaps of teams running down and made it up and down the mountain in 3.5 hrs which we were very pleased with.

Clare and Berit had all their wet weather gear on, but I used the kiwi hardenup method and kept my shorts and bare legs all through the rain and snow. It was fine as long as we kept on moving. We had a minute stop at the transition area since we thought that the finish line was only about 10 km bike ride and a few kms of walking away.

I should have put on some more clothes, but instead rushed off on the bike section. because of the wind chill, I became seriously cold and could hardly feel my fingers. When we met the guys again at the last transition area where we dumped the bikes to embark on the last walking section up another stupid hill, I was over it. A few swear words left my mouth at this point. Clare and Berit were alot more onto it than me and picked up the pace. My body warmed up slightly once I started walking and it was a slow walking section through muddy farm tracks which finally took us to the Finish!! The whole adventure took us 13 hrs and 38 minutes, which made us 13th from a class of 29 teams. We were super happy with our efforts!!!! Good on ya mates!