Geoquest Adventure Race

Last weekend I spent being support crew for the team Out of Range in the Geoquest Adventure Race. My aims in order of importance were to help the team, have lots of fun and learn a bit about adventure racing.

Unfortunately one team member had to withdraw on the first night with a back injury, but the rest of team went on unranked and completed 3 out of the 4 legs. I know they were all disappointed not to finish, it is a race that requires a big investment of time, money and emotion. But I thought what they did was amazing nonetheless.

The highlights for me were:
- Watching the team do their planning with the maps the night before the race.
- Seeing our team get safely out and back through the waves on the scary ocean kayak leg.
- Being told in the local bakery that they did not sell anything vegetarian because: "we don't get many vegetarians around here." :)
- Meeting my support crew buddies James and Jane.
- Eating yummy gelato in lovely Bellingen

The lowlights were:
- The horrible pizza we ordered for the team from Sawtell on Friday night
- Waiting for our team to call us for a pick-up during the race from 9.30pm until 1AM, literally thinking they were going to call any minute. That was excruciating.

I am still undecided if this race is something I would like to do. It looked like fun, but like very, very hard fun. I think I would like the paddling and the mtb and the team aspect. I think I would struggle with the sleep deprivation. I would have to improve my navigation skills which are currently non-existant.

In adventure racing the 'premier' category is Mixed. Mostly the mixed teams are 1 woman and 3 men and that means in most teams the woman is the slowest, and might get towed on the mtb and helped along by the boys in other ways. This year the woman in the winning team explained that last year she raced in all-female team and they came last! That seemed to sum up the situation rather well. Interesting.

Anyway, I had a really enjoyable weekend and got heaps of insight into 'what it takes'.