Capital Teams in It for the Long Haul

By WOODCOCK, Fred

Big adventure

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MONDAY will see the culmination of nine months of hard slog for two Wellington teams when they start in the adventure racing world championship event in the Buller region.

Having trained relentlessly for the race, which is this year’s equivalent to the famous Southern Traverse and is expected to take up to six days, Team Norsewear and Team Terralink-Capriccio are confident of a good showing.

“We’re realistic. We really want to see how we stack up against the best in the world but in the back of our minds, we’re backing ourselves to do well,” said Team Norsewear’s Rob Harrow.

Harrow, Al Cross, Jerome Sheppard and Jo Forbes are looking to maintaining or improving on their fourth placing in last year’s Southern Traverse, but they realise the competition will be tougher in the world championship event. While admitting it might seem “wimpy” just to aim to finish, Team Terralink-Capriccio’s Dave Hicks said it would be a good result.

“Typically only 30 per cent of teams finish a race like this. A lot go out fast on the first day and can’t maintain that speed, so it may be a case of the tortoise and the hare for us.”

Hicks will be joined by Jason Hart, Barryn Westfield and Fanny Lariviere, a former international triathlete and world cup cyclist.

“We’ve got a good mix in our team and we’ve prepared well,” Hicks said.

Part of that preparation had been with Team Norsewear; both teams having trained together in the leadup to the race. And, somewhat surprisingly, training for an event like this was fun, Hicks said.

“You have to enjoy training for events like this because there’s a lot of it. We go on big tramps and flog ourselves all day, but we take lots of food and a couple of bottles of wine and we have a good time.

“Cooperation is the key really. You’ve got to look after yourself and your teammates and you can’t be selfish.”

Underlying this is the rule requiring team members to be no more than 100m apart at any stage in the race.

Navigation and sleep patterns were two factors both teams said would be crucial to success, and it paid to have plans in place before the race despite not knowing the exact nature of the course till tomorrow night.

“We’ve been staring at maps for the last few months,” said Harrow.

“There are some obvious areas we know we are going to use and we’ve got a general idea of where we’ll be going.”

He said speculation and rumours had been rife among the 46 teams about what shape the course would take, but no one would know for certain till tomorrow.

Choosing when and when not to sleep will also be a major factor in the non-stop race.

That will largely come down to how the teams were feeling at the time, but it was something in the back of Hicks’ mind.

“A lot of it depends on the course but we’ll probably try and go the first night without sleep.”

Micro-naps, he said, were useful and surprisingly effective.

Most of the teams were internationally-based, but many have included New Zealanders, not only for local knowledge but also because Kiwis have a great reputation for adventure racing, Hicks said.

Harrow believes 10 teams are capable of winning the $50,000 on offer for the first team across the line. They include last year’s Southern Traverse champions Team Kathmandu, which boasts Wellington’s four-time Coast to Coast champion Jill Westenra.

The race will be made up of hiking, mountain-biking, kayaking, rafting, caving, abseiling, tubing, mountain running, orienteering and general navigation.

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