What an absolutely amazing venue. There is something to be said for having the privilege of participating in a race in a game reserve. Europeans and Americans – eat your heart out.
During our race we encountered multitudes of game including wildebeest, ostriches and a ‘stray’ sable that raced across our path on bike leg 2, and a largely pristine African bushveld, which the competitors managed to keep that way by not discarding their used supplement packaging.
The start of the race heralded an interesting quandary, listen to mommy and ‘not be like sheep’, or follow the 95% of competitors running in a specific direction. This time, the group won out, and the few that decided their route to the maps was going to be faster soon realised the error of their ways, and succumbed to peer pressure.
After a relatively un-eventful running leg 1 to get the subsequent maps, we decided to do bike leg 2 first, which worked like an absolute charm as we only encountered 2 other teams on the route and had the wildlife mostly to ourselves, which meant that we were able to come right up close and personal with a rather large wildebeest male, much to Melissa’s horror. We kept the OP’s on the leg to a minimum planning to tackle them on the later routes depending on relative perceived strength, and time.
Our return to transition from bike 2, the special OP of tubing and zip lining was open, which meant that we didn’t have to wait at all to get this great OP under our belts, and get off on the 2nd run, the inclusion of the tubing was a real win with most of the competitors, and is quickly becoming a Senseless differentiator. We can pretty much guarantee there will be tubing, and something “fun”. The zipline definitely counts as “something fun”.
The 2nd run left Marcos with a damaged right ankle after an overly zealous attempt at a large rock dismount.
Style – 7
Degree of Difficulty – 7
Landing – 2
Maybe next time.
Time to tackle bike leg 1. In reverse. Isn’t that what adventure races are about?
Our navigator decided that the logical succession of CPs, and OPs on this leg was in fact CP1, CP5, OP4, CP4 … not sure where he learnt to count, but it *again* seemed to work, so no complaints from me.
There was a massively deceiving “puddle” between CP3 and CP2 that ended up being approximately 1m deep, which I found by deciding to “RIDE IT”. Wet to chest height again, but hey, my bike got a good rinse!
Successful completion of yet another well organised well attended Senseless event, and this time, warm showers. Man, how awesome were the showers?
One of the main prizes at this event was a full set of custom race kit sponsored by Steve Brookstein from Titanium Designs. Titanium is Steve’s brain child providing adrenalin specific race gear, and they are all about producing once offs. Awesome prize, thanks Steve. See the web site for contact details for Titanium Designs.
Finally Thanks to Wigs, Steve and Barry (and the sponsors) for the effort in preparing this awesome event. There were plenty of happy racers. Me included!
Author: Matthew Cook | Team Gusto Racing | Senseless Summer AR, 5 Feb 2011