The overall winners have written an account of their race experience. Thanks Team Explore Teamexplore race report Culminator 2013 A quick dash to the front of the pack I was lucky to hit the single track first and clear the bog hole that I’m sure turned into a festering pit of slop if you were unlucky to be at the back. We were off with my first time partner Alan close behind we hit the first control with no problems and followed the Nerang forest in an anticlockwise direction. There were a few teams with us heading to the 2nd Cp as Leaping Leo and Kim kept climbing we traversed a single track to pick up the CP. Back up on the main ridgeline we picked up the rest of the Cps with a hike a bike hill thrown in for good measure. Note: never ride near Paddy if you want to be going stealth mode. We hit the trek leg running down a perfect spur into CP 70 and then to CP 25. Keeping out of the creek earnt us a bonus of passing Steven and John who were following the creek line. From CP 54 to 53 I decided to traverse around to save Alan’s legs a little and unfortunately hit a wall of wait a while pushing us down but not too far off course. Final trek Cp done and back to the bikes. We knew time was tight but as Alan says “it’s a challenge”. With that thought we pushed hard to pick up the rest of the Cps. After a small get off on the single trail we followed an awesome downhill track pulling a few cross ups, a couple of nak naks and one back flip for good measure we hit the main trail with about 6 minutes to spare. I rode straight past CP 20 opting not to lose the HQ 100 point bonus for the sake of 20 points. We arrived at HQ with 2 minutes to spare. PHEW!. Looking at the line up for the challenge we headed straight for the next trek leg picking up 2 of the CPs before hitting the Bat tunnels which was really cool. I wonder who first investigated the tunnels! Alan and I hit the kayak leg just behind Howy and Justin, once we hit the southernmost Cp we decided to push hard trying to drop the other teams that were close behind us, which payed off yet will still weren’t going to gamble our good fortune and dropped the last eastern most Cp. Then it was back on foot with just enough time bearing no mistakes to pick up CP 56 and head to HQ for the 2 challenges arriving 5 minutes before the 100 point bonus cut off Thank fully our timing payed off as most of the teams had decide to complete the challenges at HQ early in the day and there was no one on them. My polo playing days are short as Alan showed some style with a MTB, a tennis ball and a golf club slicing and dicing the ball around the paddock. The hooter went for the final trek leg and noodle challenge. As I dropped into the 2nd control which was a clue I turned to Alan for the pen but he had disappeared, so with some quiet yelling I finally heard him about 50 meters away going in another direction. I must have had my head in the map and not kept an eye on him. With no other issues and just a couple of Cps to go I made a bold decision to cut through the green (green is never to be seen in orienteering terms). Thank fully it paid off with only a small amount of lantana to go through. With the Trek leg swept we headed for HQ and the noodle. The noodle is a course made of rope which intertwines around trees logs and a car tube. It was a long wait before we got our turn. We made it through with just 19 seconds to spare before the 3.30pm cut off time. With a quick sprint up the hill what had be a great day was now all but over except for the cleanup. Thanks to Gary, Ray and all the Ridgeline crew for a memorable race. Thanks to all who we raced with and met throughout the day, it was great racing next to you. PS: The nak nak and back flip is BS Paul Elby – team explore
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 10:25:24 +0000