Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Lactic Turkey Adventure Race!
I finished my first adventure race on Saturday with the help of three experienced team mates. It was a six hour race with lots of optional objectives for points: the team with the most points that finishes within six hours wins. We mountain biked up and down steep hills, through narrow tracks, hiked through wilderness trails, inner-tubed down a small creek and crawled through a drain pipe (my least favourite part). I had a blast but next day discovered sixty sand fly bites up and down my legs and clustered painfully around my ankles. Before I race again I must discover the ultimate sand fly repellent as they've always had a taste for my flesh. I'd post a picture of the many nickel-sized red welts on my legs but it's too disgusting.
Here's what's fun about adventure racing:
(1) navigating through overgrown trails and whispering to keep other teams from following you
(2) my first egg and spoon event since seventh grade
(3) jumping over creeks and getting your shoe stuck in the mud
(4) running around with an inner tube strapped to your backpack
(5) relying on other people to read the map
I finished my first adventure race on Saturday with the help of three experienced team mates. It was a six hour race with lots of optional objectives for points: the team with the most points that finishes within six hours wins. We mountain biked up and down steep hills, through narrow tracks, hiked through wilderness trails, inner-tubed down a small creek and crawled through a drain pipe (my least favourite part). I had a blast but next day discovered sixty sand fly bites up and down my legs and clustered painfully around my ankles. Before I race again I must discover the ultimate sand fly repellent as they've always had a taste for my flesh. I'd post a picture of the many nickel-sized red welts on my legs but it's too disgusting.
Here's what's fun about adventure racing:
(1) navigating through overgrown trails and whispering to keep other teams from following you
(2) my first egg and spoon event since seventh grade
(3) jumping over creeks and getting your shoe stuck in the mud
(4) running around with an inner tube strapped to your backpack
(5) relying on other people to read the map
Monday, November 06, 2006
This morning I cycled into work along the waterfront. It's great to pass the cars as they hit congestion around Orakei. The ride home was very wet and windy but I passed about twenty joggers, four kayakers, three windsurfers, two wakeboarders etc and several cyclists passed me. Everyone just copes with the rain here and gets on with whatever they planned to do.
Last night I got together with my fellow team members to practice for a six hour adventure race on Saturday morning. Sarah picked me up from work (very nice) and we drove an hour north of Auckland to a forest with some mountain bike tracks. We cycled for an hour or so and then ran a little bit. I haven't done much mountain biking in the past and I get really nervous on the downhills in case I take a tumble. I prefer going uphill over downhill when I'm running, road cycling and DEFINITELY when mountain biking. I should probably practice ditching just to convince myself I won't die if I fall.
Compulsory equipment for the race includes an inflatable tire/boogie board and a lifejacket. We're scratching our heads wondering what we're going to have to do. I'll let you know how it turned out and there should be some photos.
Last night I got together with my fellow team members to practice for a six hour adventure race on Saturday morning. Sarah picked me up from work (very nice) and we drove an hour north of Auckland to a forest with some mountain bike tracks. We cycled for an hour or so and then ran a little bit. I haven't done much mountain biking in the past and I get really nervous on the downhills in case I take a tumble. I prefer going uphill over downhill when I'm running, road cycling and DEFINITELY when mountain biking. I should probably practice ditching just to convince myself I won't die if I fall.
Compulsory equipment for the race includes an inflatable tire/boogie board and a lifejacket. We're scratching our heads wondering what we're going to have to do. I'll let you know how it turned out and there should be some photos.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
 | We moved into our new permanent place in St Heliers on Thursday. The most astounding series of events occurred: our sea container arrived on time in Auckland and it arrived at our new place when the movers said it would. I really hadn't expected this punctuality based on other peoples' horror stories and my own experience with our air freight which arrived two weeks later than scheduled. |
 | The container driver turned out to be a Dutch transvestite wearing his work uniform. It took me awhile to put this together because his nail polish was very chipped from his work and the other packer was commenting on it in a very low talker voice so I only caught every third word. |
| This weekend has been exhausting with lots of running around moving our stuff from our temporary pad to our permanent place and unpacking the 129 boxes from the sea freight into the house. I ache in many places and I have bruises all over. Tomorrow should be exciting as after work I'm joining a few other women to prepare for an adventure race on Sat Nov 11th. It should involve getting wet several times. More news about that later. It's Guy Fawkes Fireworks Extravaganza Night Two tonight. Everyone goes crazy in their backyards. Last night Adam went to the speedway with my relative Kerry & his son Andrew and I stayed back with my cousin Liz. We climbed Mt Eden (a small inactive volcano - there are like 14 of them scattered throughout the city) and watched the big fireworks from the top. | |
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