I know it’s not a RTNX Race Report. i promise there are more coming. However i had a different experience this evening i want to share.

Being from NZ, one of the things i here the most, or most often is… “Why are you here in Georgia, when you come from such a beautiful place as NZ” or some sentence similar to that. I usually respond with something that is true, humorous and a little silly.

There are times though when i do feel a long way from home. Christmas is the obvious one. No America not Thanksgiving, because with the exception of Canada, the rest of the world doesn’t do that holiday, believe it or not. Other times when i am somewhere very different (like the Canadian wilderness) or doing something that has a lot of responsibility with it. for some reason those moments make me feel a long way from home.

Anyways… tonight i went to church with Robin where she is the minister. This week is Revival @ Friendship Presbyterian Church. Which for some denominations can mean completely different things. For Presbyterians (or humorously known as the ‘Frozen Chosen’) revival is somewhat subdued. And that’s ok, that’s how we roll. I went last night and tonight to revival.

Tonight however was a little different they had special music from the New Mt Calvary Missionary Baptist Church. This church is 100% African-American or Black. And Friendship PC is 100% white. That it shouldn’t make any difference and it doesn’t, and not that i am trying to make anything of that. Please don’t read into this that way.

Back to the music. The Mt Calvary people lead us in 3 songs. AND THEY SUNG THEIR LUNGS OUT!!!! amazing. But I tell you all this because of 2 reasons

1. This is something you who are from the south need to be proud of. This is a tradition that you as southerners should listen to more, be proud of and embrace.
2. I don’t have many reasons to celebrate America. I not from here, and never will be. And wouldn’t expect Americans to say the same if you lived in my country. But tonight made me proud to be in the south.

As someone not from here, you hear, read and see stories about this rich black musical culture. And tonight i experienced out loud, raw, un-polluted, worshipful and very powerful and moving in a little country church and in a setting that could only have occurred there. An experience i was glad to be there for and for that moment proud the thankful to be in the south but also realizing i am a very long way from home.

As mentioned we swapped running shoes for bikes, not before making sure we ate and drank enough. I should mention at this time that the weather was still really favorable with a few threatening skies earlier in the day.

In adventure racing the longer the race and less sleep you get the more fatigued you become, in addition to this is ones’ susceptibility to feeling the heat and cold weather. Is common for me to get cold really easy in a race even if the temperature is still above freezing i can begin shivering really quickly mostly due to the fatigue that i am already racing. Over the years i have come to realize this about myself but tend to ignore it because i know that as soon as we get moving again and get the blood pumping i will be warm and ‘comfortable’ again. Well at least that’s my theory… more on this later.

We left the TA on foot, with our good friends Team WEDALI and immediately begin biking up a steep road. WEDALI stopped because their female team-mate was having some breathing/asthma problems., we kept going, up & up. Soon more clouds rolled in and this time the rain was for real. Jackets on & riding up this mountain in the rain, but relatively comfortable. Past another CP and eventually to the summit of this mountain by the same road. By now the rain had stopped and sun had come out. WEDALI didn’t catch up but we were joined by a race photographer as we leaped froged each other for the last hours biking to the summit of this mountain. He snapped our pic at the top as you can see here

From here we had sweet descent into the valley by a series of switch backs on the dirt road. We got up to some crazy fast speeds down here and it was very invigorating to be going fast for once and not slogging up hill or even pushing bikes.

At the bottom of the valley we crossed another full creek/river from all the snow melt still happening to ride through this somewhere between weird & creepy old mining town that had been abandoned but had several people (as we were told) trying to resurrect it. While we rode through in like 10 minutes it still wigged me out and maybe because i was very slept deprived i wasnt thinking straight but made me think of some sort of hollywood movie or old Twilight Zone episode.

Upon leaving this town we began yet another climb on our bikes bike Idaho Peak. this took several hours and was somewhere between late afternoon and early evening. As we got to the top of Idaho Peak and the next CP we could see more clouds rolling in. As we pushed our bikes to the summit and the wonderful greetings and cheers from race staff the rain started to fall again. From here we had to descend the (so-called) famous Wakefield Mountain Bike trail. Not sure what makes this trails famous but it is not because you get to go fast. This was prehaps one of the few times i had been scared on a mtb. The trail was single track, with mountain/hillside on one side … AND 1000’s of feet drop on the other. I have no photos to share because i was too scared keeping my eyes on the trail in the fading light and falling rain. But it was scary. i rode most of it with only one foot clipped into my pedal for fear of falling down the mountain.

Then, did i mention the rain. The rain turned into a downpour for like the next 7 hours including the beginning of the next section, paddling on the lake (more on that later). by now we were soaked to the skin, still up high and really cold. no place to go or shelter but just keep riding this really scary trail. We eventually got lower, still raining and easier trails but very cold. Chris & Michelle especially! The road flattened out and we road on a dirt road into a small town around 11pm.

Peter got a flat just before town, but decided to ride on it anyway, not the best thing to do but oh well. When we got to this little town we still had to find the TA, and rode through the streets using the maps to locate it. We did make an error when i rode all of us into someone back yard thinking it was the TA when really it was some locals having a big party with lots of noise and drinking. I had mistaken the noise for the sounds of a TA (and really it was 11pm on a monday night, why wouldn’t you think that) upon realizing our mistake we left to sadness of our ‘new friends’ and quickly found the right TA. Once here we were greeted by an over zealous race staff person who just had to get through his little speech about what we had to do here, & not do and blah blah blah, when all i was interested in was getting off my bike, getting our tents up and getting some hot food in Chris & Michelle. Unfortunately this race volunteer was trying to do his job but lacked a little flexibility and understanding at 11pm. Needless to say he& i didn’t exactly get along right away.

Don’t get me wrong, i love and appreciate race volunteers, I’ve done it myself (don’t like doing it, would much rather race) but they do an amazing job, through all sorts of weather, circumstances and responding to people.

We managed to get tents up, food cooked and eaten and quickly in our tents, albeit wet. Set the alarm for 2 hours and decided to get some rest/sleep. But not before eating our food and getting out of wet clothes in a brick bath house that a french team had taken over and made it difficult to move around in there, much to their dislike. Well shouldnt have claimed the only dry building for yourself and expect privacy then. Were the words i recall saying to them as i stepped over them trying to sleep several times. I mean really… sleeping next to a toilet, have some standards, i know you have a tent!!!

The rain kept falling and every time we were woken by the alarm we collectively decided to set it for “another hour”. Eventually committing to getting up, no matter what at 4pm to get ready to get on the lake to paddle. As the alarm went of that ‘final time’ it was hard to leave the comfort of my sleeping bag, knowing i was about to instantly get wet, but did so to dawn slowly arriving, which would be an encouragement to get going.

Part 3 coming soon,  thanks for taking time to read all this.

So here it comes my reflections and race report from Raid the North Extreme (RTNX) not sure how many parts this report will have but do plan to drop some pics in here for you to see. However in looking at photos they sometimes don’t do it justice to the beauty and insane steepness of some roads we biked (or should i say pushed bikes up) and mountains.

Let me begin by framing this a little. This an adventure race, but also known more correctly as an expedition race. in that its over 3 days long. The goal as you may know or not is to move as a team (3M 1F) through the wilderness either running/trekking, mtn biking or canoeing/kayaking with a few other skills thrown in along the way. In most races there are lots of Checkpoints or CP’s to find and you move to an area to find the CP based on your navigation skills and maps etc.(finding the actual CP in any given area can be the trickiest part of the race) in getting there ones’ team uses few roads(most deemed out-of-bounds or there aren’t any) trails (mostly) and a little bit of bush whacking. Just straight out crashing through the bush, woods, or forest whatever you want to call it.

This race was none of the above. Once you got to the given area the CP was the easiest thing in the world to find. And even more so in this race they were ALL staffed by humans. Looking back now that was probably because of the risk and inherent dangers associated with this race. RTNX was more of a route finding race. which meant the challenge lay in JUST getting to the area where the CP was. As for bush whacking… this was about 80% of the race… which in human terms means

EXHAUSTING!!!!! there were times in this race when all teams were moving at less than 1 mile/hour because the bush/undergrowth etc was so thick. As for going over mountain passes of which we went over at least 3, there were no flagged routes, guides or nice trails to follow.

In short, this race was always meant to be bloody tough. and it was.

Race day dawned blue and clear in Kaslow a small town in BC. We had camper here the night before after being bused from Nelson where all pre race events, checks, test, festivities happened.

We left Kaslow on another bus to drive about an hour to the middle of nowwhere. there we meet our bike, transported the night before. Race started at 10am with a short flat section on a dirt road then a massive 1000m gain over just 15km. or STEEP. We covered this is about 3+ hours and transitioned on the side of the mountain from our bikes (to be transported away by vehicle to meet us at the next TA)

We got onto our feet for our first trekking section. by now we were travelling across the top of a mountain range then discovered a fast nasty descent into a valley below to travel along the valley floor to cross over the river and begin the ascent up another valley. This all sound nice and just flows of the keyboard. But i have to tell you that descent into the valley was some of the worst off camber bushwhacking i have ever done. All that elevation lost to then begin climbing up the previously mentioned valley. Some of these race directors are sick.

We thought we had a good line down the side of the mountain only to be slowed more and more by cliffs we needed to traverse around and thick thick bush. We did finally make it to the bottom and to our surprise we found an old logging road and so run off along it in the direction we needed to go. However thinking the whole time we had descended too early and really blew what had us starting that section in about 8th or 9th place. arrrggghhh. But oh how things can change in adventure racing.

We crossed a log over a raging river (the 1st of probably 100’s in this week) this region had experienced about 150% of its normal snow pack this winter and the snow melt was still in full swing.

We ascended the valley through skills of bushwhacking, crossing streams, rivers and following faint and short-lived animal trails. We were now working with our good South East friends Odyssey AR and WEDALI from Minnesota. The bush was continuing to get thick. And Odyssey decided to climb higher to get above the tree line for easier travel. We had a mini 3 team conference and WEDALI & our team agreed that was a very silly idea as it was snowy, rocky and probably covered with impassable cliffs. So we went our separate ways. Us & WEDALI stuck together. Ultimately Odyssey’s idea was a bad one and they cliffed out and had to come back, being the last team through the next CP.

We continued through the night, however we stopped for about a 1 hour nap around 3am knowing the sunrise is about 4.30am. We pushed up the valley and into dawn and eventually got to the bottom of the pass, and no more trees and bush to stop us moving slowly. We reached CP2 at the top of the pass at 10am

This photo is us approaching CP2. While you cannot see it. it is up to the right and back out of shot.

From here we descended the other side of the mountain range, to some spots of rain and very grey skies. they never materialized and we enjoyed some glissading down the snow to covered the ground in good time. From here we continued to run/trek to the next TA where wer swapped running shoes for our bikes, which had been transported there with our gear bins of welcome food, dry socks etc.

Part 2 soon…

Hey there folks
Currently sitting on a bus on my way back from Canada over to Spokane Wa and ultimately home.

Will write ALOT more in the coming days. The race was amazing definitely the most physical thing I have ever done but also the emotional side of a race like this too

And what makes it even sweeter is that we finished tied for 5th with Wedali who are some of or best friends in AR, and AR puts you through some intense things. Outside of World AR champs later this year if was the strongest field, so that makes this even sweeter

Hope you were able to follow us with Spot tracker, I’m sure it was 100% accurate all the time but when you consider where were are it’s very remote location…

My body is making me pay now and will do for many days. We have some amazing photos too & and will share
Some quicks stats
• started Sunday @ 10am crossed finish line Saturday around 7am
• total hrs slept (before thurs night… More on that later) around 5 hours
• elevation gained & lost cumulatively around 80,000ft

Now making our way back home, sleeping as much as I can and of course EATING like crazy yum yum

Looking forward to being home to see Robin and of course Cora

Hurry and wait is alive and well currently sitting waiting to load ALL our gear bins into a truck to take it somewhere bikes left this morning

Pouring over our 8 maps now looking at route choices etc I know one of the two paddles is 43mikes YIKES

Next we get bused to a remote location do more messing with gear and camp out tonight to start at 10am west coast time tomorrow

This might be the last post I make in a while. While the race doesn’t start for another 36 hrs I will put the phone away in the morning and won’t bust it out until sometime next weekend.

We had pre race meeting this evening and it was like the who’s who of adventure racing from around the world, reminded me of racing in Abu Dhabi or Costa Rica.

We only have 2 paddle sections but they could be epic long too. The briefing told us we were going to see some amazing scenery in parts of Canada that people don’t go to at all. They warned us to watch out for Grizzly bears, yes grizzly!!!

We have some tough climbing sections and apparently a zip line over a waterfall with our bikes. COOL!!!

They promise great race coverage with SPOT trackers so checkout http://www.raidthenorth.com
We are checkpointzero in case you forgot and team #5

Hope YOU have a great week, I promise to take lots of photos

Sitting in Nelson BC, well not sitting really. Lots to do
Getting bikes ready
Packaging food
Getting ready for on average 3hr check in process
….
However this is quite normal for AR

The photo attached is me with 1 of my favorite foods
Raisins and lots of them

Another challenge of AR is this… Waiting in airports for shuttles and team mates to arrive. Between flights being cancelled and computer glitches we are waiting in Spokane airport. We could be here for 4 hours while they catch up to us then drive 3 hours into Canada
Like I said the Challenges of AR