I had really been looking forward to the Kinetic Adventure sprint race held on 25 July 2010 at Paddle Power in Hartebeespoort. For one, my fitness was good and I had no injuries, which has been a problem this year. But mostly I was looking forward to the zip line that Stephan was going to include in the race. Apparently I was not alone as this race saw one of the biggest turn-outs I’ve ever seen at a race.
The morning didn’t start to well. Barry sent Steve and I a message just before 6am saying that sickness had the better of him and he wasn’t going to make it so we were down to a 2-man team for a 3-man race. Oh well, let’s just go win it.
We arrived and while I was helping the Senseless Ladies team (Caro, Laura and Julia) to get prepared, Steve went to register us. Steve came running back shouting “BLACK, they BLACK”. I felt a little lost and started looking around to see if he was shouting at somebody else. “The shirts are black”. Oh… yes, we had been debating what colour this races shirts would be. He was definitely a little more excited than I was.
We chose our spot in the transition area with the Senseless Ladies and did final prep before the race briefing, which had more than a couple instructions. The big difference between this Kinetic race and the other Kinetic races we had been at this year is that today there were no options on the order in which you could do the legs. It was a straight race were the team in front of you on course was the team in front of you in the race.
Leg 1 – Run/Hike (about 2km)
The pace as expected on such a short leg was frantic which suited us as we could sprint away from most of the field and not get court in between the masses and have others dictate our pace. We 1st headed uphill and got the Southern CP then raced back down to the Northern CP. We came into transition in the top couple of places and while Steve got our Passport scanned I went to collect the map for the 2nd leg.
Leg 2 – Bike (about 6km)
A couple of teams had left the transition ahead of us but biking is our strength so we weren’t at all worried. We headed up the hill and left toward the bridge where already two teams were looking at their maps, one of which changed direction. We crossed the bridge and took a left onto a single track, then down a steep hill back towards the river. At the bottom we had to get off our bikes to get through the overgrown path but according to the map we were about 50m from our 1st CP. We saw Stephan in a boat shouting to us that we had gone the wrong way and we should have stayed on the road but this definitely was a good route to the CP. We then realised that we had been given the wrong map and were in fact on the 2nd hiking leg.
Steve and I turned around and raced back to the transition area, almost crashing into the photographer Eric from The Big Baboon when he tried to get a shot of us speeding around a corner. Back at the transition we got the correct map and headed out on the bike leg with the correct map. By this stage the transition was empty and we were in last position. We put our head down and pushed as hard as we could. The 1st bike leg was great in that it was all on road or jeep track so it was easy to pass slower teams and not get held up at any points on the trail.
Leg 3 – Hike/Paddle (about 5km)
The 3rd leg stared with a paddle across the river to the point we had been trying to get when we had the wrong map. It was certainly easier to get to this way! Once out the boats we had a circular run to pick up 4 CP’s. We headed off up the hill with a couple of friends, Mark and Gareth from Team Assitport Ultra and had a little chat with them before charging off. Towards the end of the run Steve managed to aggravate a hamstring injury he has had so that last kilometre or so was a little slower than we had been going at. We got back to our boat and paddled across the river to the transition for the last bike stage.
Leg 4 – Bike with Zip Line (about 10km)
At the transition Stephan shouted to us that we were catching up. Personally, I thought he was joking around. We headed North down the dirt road running alongside the river to the 1st CP on the leg. From there we had a long ride westwards to the 2nd CP. Along the route we passed Team Killers whom Steve and I are racing the Swazi Xtreme with in August. Rob’s brother Murray was racing with them in his 1st adventure race. He’s coming to Swazi to 2nd for us. The next couple of points took us South towards the zip line and we could see it as we collected the points around it. By this stage we were close to a couple teams and had been told that you will most probably finish the race in the order that you got to the zip line so Steve and I were giving these last couple kilometres all we had.
We arrived at the zip line just behind the leading woman’s team and watched them sail away down the line. Finally it was my turn and it was definitely worth the wait. I was clipped on by the zip line staff and then given instructions before flying down it. Steve and I had agreed, NO BREAKING, until the end. Once we finished the zip line we had to hike back to our bikes still in harness. Back at the zip line there was now a queue with about 4 teams waiting to do it. We got back onto our bikes with the leading woman’s team and had very soon passed them as we all had a little confusion trying to find the next CP. From here it was a fast downhill back to main road and onto the transition a Paddle Power.
Leg 5 – Paddle/Obstacle course (less than 1km)
For the final leg we were back on the boats and had to paddle about 200 meters up river to drop off our CP punch before heading back to the transition area for the obstacle course. Team USN were ahead of us by about 100 meters and passed us on their way back to the transition. On our way back we went past The Killers who were about 100 meters behind us. We got off the boat and over the obstacle before crossing the finish line.
Stephan was right at the start of Leg 4, we were catching up and had managed to finished 4th by pass all the teams but for Team Buff, Numa Optics and Team USN.
All in all it had been a great race. There were some really fun elements and along with the usual great organisation, I’m sure, will have everybody coming back for more. Senseless had had a very good day with Team Senseless Linebreak ending 1st in the Men’s pair and 4th overall and the novice team of the Senseless Ladies finishing 3rd in the Woman’s teams and 21st overall.
Thanks Stephan, Heidi, all the Kinetic staff, helpers and sponsors. See you all at the next event.
Author: Andrew Wiggett | Team Senseless Linebreak, Kinetic Adventure Sprint, Paddle Power, 25 July 2010
Image from The Big Baboon