Secret Training :-)

While the others were sweating it out in the hot sands of the Abu Dhabi deserts, Josh and I were doing some secret training in the Dandenongs with the Tuesday Night Ride and Pizza Crew. Conditions were a little slippery but we managed to keep the thing upright despite a few nervous moments. Here are a few photos of the evening .....

OUT OF THE DESERT

Photo courtesy of www.abudhabi-adventure.com

Team Blackheart have now had a full nights sleep after finishing the desert trek around 3pm local time yesterday and are gearing up for two days of paddling. Conditions were said to be tougher than in previous years throughout the 116km of desert trekking with higher temperatures and softer sand. Team Thule from NZ who continue to lead took 28 hours to complete the stage (including their compulsory 8hr rest time). Team Blackheart finished about an hour later however had had to skip the last CP as teams were taking longer than the race organisation had anticipated. It was unfortunate to miss the last CP, which only the first 8 teams made, however they are still hopeful and well within striking distance of the top 10 overall.

Despite missing the last CP Team Blackheart still had a great trek moving up several places in the overall. Following their GPS tracker they appeared to have a great 2nd half of the stage and have consequently moved up to 12th overall. Here are Rob's comments from the trek,

"Desert trek was tough as expected, big big dunes and very hot on 2nd day. We never moved as fast as we would have liked but still moved up a few spots. 10th place still in reach".

Photo courtesy of www.abudhabi-adventure.com

Teams are now congregated on the shore ready for the next two days of paddling where they will cover 128kms if they get all checkpoints. Teams have until 6pm local time today before they must have reached one of the many islands within the course where they must camp the night. They may then continue from 6am the following morning all the way to the finish line. This paddling leg was scheduled to begin at 6.30am local time (which was over an hour ago), however there has apparently been a strong wind change and teams are waiting to hear further about the start. [Edit: I've just read that the strong winds and big seas have forced the cancellation of the first day of paddling - teams are being transferred to Abu Dhabi].

In other Australian news, Jarad from Thule Europe is still racing strongly in 2nd overall. Giddiup are in 21st having missed a couple of CPs in the desert, and Rogue / Sleepmonsters are in 42nd place (watching their tracker they possibly didn't complete the desert trek however look to be lined up ready for today's paddling stage).

The GPS trackers have been working really well - follow the link here.

Through The Liwa Desert

Teams are currently still trekking through the soft sands of the Liwa Dersert, which is also commonly known as the 'Empty Quarter' with dunes as far as the eye can see. Prior to reaching here they spent about 5 hours riding over desert roads which ranged from fast asphalt surfaces to unridable sandy sections. As teams were riding they had Saudi Arabia to their left, and never ending sand dunes to their right. Team Blackheart rode solidly to finish in around 15th position before arriving at the 5 star Hotel for a quick 30 minute mandatory rest stop to prepare and refuel for the next leg - the 121km trek. Team Giddiup was only one position behind having also ridden well, and Team Rogue / Sleepmonsters arrived not too long afterwards.

(Photo courtesy of sleepmonsters.com.au)

As I went to bed last night all teams had started the epic trek where the heat was picking up to about 38 degrees. During this stage teams are required to take a minimum of 8 hours rest at two of the CPs along the way so strategy with the heat could play a big part of finishing this stage strongly. Team Thule, from NZ, who have been leading for the majority of the race decided to keep pushing on from CP H3, 17.5kms into the trek. The majority of other teams chose to take some of their mandatory rest time here to sit out some of the most intense heat of the day, including Team Blackheart. Giddiup was one of the only other teams not to rest here probbly wondering why people were complaining about the heat, however decided to bypass at least the next optional CP and short-cut to the next one.

(Photo courtesy of sleepmonsters.com.au)

Overnight, Australian time, Team Blackheart (according to Orion's Blog - thanks - but who is Blackwater????!!) left CP H3 together with Team Orion and appeared to be moving well. Currently (now just after 2am local time), they are about 3kms south of CP H4, where they appeared to spend some more of their compulsory rest time. Team Giddiup are moving well up near the front of the field, having missed some CPs, while Team Rogue / Sleepmonsters have also recently left CP H4 and appear to be short-cutting straight to CP H5.

Team Thule (NZ) leading the way.

(Photo courtesy of sleepmonsters.com.au)

There is still a lot of sand trekking to go, but at least conditions should be a bit more manageable during the cooler temperatures of the night.

Two Days of Intense Racing.......

Team Blackheart Adventure have now completed 2 days of super fast paced racing and are sitting in 15th position overall, and are slowly moving their way up the leaderboard. Day 1 saw them complete the 2.5hr Prologue consisting of paddling inflatable canoes (which seemed to cause many teams some steering problems!), running and swimming. The team finished mid-field in this section and as Rob put it - "we went okay, but sucked at canoeing". I'm assuming from that that they were one of the teams that struggled with the steering!!! A few hours after the Prologue, racing continued with a 30km flat mountain bike ride and then a 6.3km running section. Again the team hit problems on the riding section with Rob being "taken out on the second corner". I assume with the tight bunch start that Rob must have had his wheel cut off and came off second best. To make matters worse he also broke a spoke and punctured during the same incident so they spent the rest of the stage playing catch up. After Day 1 they were placed 30th overall, with plenty of work to do.

(Photo courtesy of Sleepmonster.com.au)

Day 2 had teams starting the day's racing before sunrise. They began with 5.5 kms of adventure running, before picking up their bikes for a 13.8km ride on the tarmac, up hill to the top of the highest point of the race, the Jebel Hafeet. They had to carry all their climbing gear with them, making this an even tougher climb. Teams then had to complete an 11km mountaineering stage which included about a 2km fixed rope section. The stage times of this section are yet to be updated on the event Website, however Team Blackheart Adventure must have had a good day as they have moved up to 15th position overall, and time's are still very tight with plenty of racing to go. In Rob's words, "Today was a great course. Real mountain with 2km of fixed rope. We had okay day but still have a long way to go. The sand dunes look big!".

(Photo courtesy of abudhabi-adventure.com)

Rob's last comment is referring to the stage which they will tackle later on today. In about an hour they will complete a 94km mountain bike section, followed by the huge 121km desert orienteering section. The team must have caught sight of the sand dunes in the distance they will be crossing so at least they have an idea of the huge task ahead!

In other Australian news, Jarad is racing right up near the front of the field and still holding onto his 2nd place overall with the fast Thule Europe team. The Cairns based team of Giddiup started the Prologue in very impressive fashion finishing the canoeing section in 3rd place, before holding onto a 5th place finish for that section. They've continued to race strongly and are currently in 19th position. The Brisbane based team of Rogue / Sleepmonsters have been racing very consistency and are in 35th position.

I'll try and post another update after this next stage which will take teams the next couple of days to complete. It's hard to get much on the team's progress other than their overall position, but hopefully they'll have a great next stage and we'll hear from them once they're done and are resting up for the next stage.

Good luck to all teams in keeping the desert sands from migrating into their shoes!!!

AUSSIES AT ABU DHABI ADVENTURE CHALLENGE

Team Blackheart are heading to Abu Dhabi (one of the seven United Arab Emirates) in the Middle East to compete in the World's premier Adventure Race - the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge. Now in its 4th year, the race draws 60 teams from around the world to compete over 5 days of sun and sand dunes. The race involves two epic legs - including a 110km desert run, and a 130km ocean kayak leg that spans over two days and involves a camp on a desert island.

The race is Team Blackheart's first international race since winning their 2nd XPD Australia title in May this year. However various members have been very active locally, winning both the Geoquest 48hr, and the Darkside 12hr Adventure Races. For this race regular team members Rob Preston and Damon Goerke are being joined by Kathryn Ewels and Luke Haines. Luke joined the team at late notice, but has been doing very well on the Australian multisport circuit for the last few years including wins at the Upper Murray Challenge and Freycinet Challenge in 2009. Rob and Kathryn raced the World Orienteering Championships and Wulong Mountain Quest (in Team Peak Adventure). Ewels also took home 2 gold medals at the Australian Orienteering Championships, and 2nd place in the World Rogaining Championships in New Zealand a few weeks ago. Damon also clocked up a win in the Great Ocean Walk 100km Ultra run last month, then 6th place in the World Rogaining Champs with Rob.

None of the team members have raced the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge previously, so they will have a very tough challenge against more experienced teams like Thule Adventure Team, and Team Orion (both from New Zealand).

Two other Australian teams will be racing, both from Queensland. Brisbane based Team Rogue-Sleepmonsters were fortunate to win a free entry courtesy of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Association and Sleepmonsters website. Rogue have raced together extensively on the local AR scene, however this is their first overseas race. Team Giddiup are based in Cairns and also have a lot of experience on the local scene. Other Aussies competing are Jarad Kohlar who will join the very strong Thule Adventure Europe team, and Cath Todd in 2XU Blackberry.

The race starts on Friday 10th December and will be covered on the race Website - http://www.abudhabi-adventure.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/teamblackheart

Thank you to our sponsors who help our team race in Australia and abroad.

Blackheart Outdoor Store www.blackheart.com.au

Shotz Sports Nutrition www.shotz1.com

Silva Compasses www.silva.se

Salomon www.salomonsports.com

Aussie Butt Cream www.aussiebuttcream.com

Trigger Point Therapies Australia www.tptherapy.com.au

Rob Preston

Team Blackheart Adventure Racing

Team Blackheart welcomes the support from Trigger Point Therapy

Team Blackheart is very happy to be getting some new support from Kristian from Trigger Point Performance Therapy Australia.

As you can imagine competing is adventure races puts a huge toll on the body. I was searching the internet a couple of months ago with the aim of learning about different options to overcome and prevent the inevitable niggles and strains which come from the training and racing demands, when I came across the tptherapy.com.au website. I was really excited to read about the different products and how they could help me and become part of my training and preparation. I'm particularly looking forward to targeting my troublesome achilles with these innovative products which are designed to mirror the feeling of the human hand.

Jump on their Website and have a look around at the products. As stated on their website: "Trigger Point Performance Therapy is a remedy and treatment for common ailments such as plantar fasclitis, achilles tendonitis, IT band pain, general knee pain, foot pain, lower back pain and more".

www.tptherapy.com.au

Team Mexicans / Blackheart Win the ARA 12hr Darkside Champs.

Two Fridays ago on September the 10th, Dave Provan, Luke Haines and I packed up the car and headed south from Brisbane to the Tweed Valley, just south of the Qld / NSW border. The event was the ARA Darkside 12hr Champs which was to begin at Midnight. We arrived at about 8pm where we were given our maps and course description, and settled into the dinner provided which definitely didn't disappoint (especially the chocolate pudding!). Having the race start at midnight was a novel idea, as we had to decide what to eat when we'd normally be tucked into bed, and whether or not to try and get an hour or two of sleep. We decided we shouldn't need a quick nap, so downed a bowl of cereal and lined up on the start line just prior to Midnight.

The race started with a 12km rogaine where we were to collect the CPs in any order. There were a few bolters who took off into the darkness but clearly hadn't adjusted too well to the night time navigation and came passed us again shortly after..... We seemed to be on the popular route and got to the first CP in first place, however 5 - 6 teams arrived just behind us. Luke continued to navigate us around the course very efficiently and we arrived at the TA in equal third place with the all male team Rogue, having taken 2hrs 10mins. The two lead team of MDs and all male SCAR were leaving on their bikes as we arrived.

We quickly jumped on our bikes and headed out onto what would be a 42km bike ride with a short 2km run down into a creek. We chose a route which took us a lot further than the shortest route, even passing our next stop for the river run, however we hoped we could move faster on what looked like far better roads on the map. This ride included heaps of fun 2WD roads, fire trails and even little bits of single / walking track. We arrived at the river run section in third place, now 20 minutes down on the leaders. We quickly found the two CPs down in the river and got back to our bikes now in second place and only about 10 minutes off the lead. We continued on bikes down towards a large lake making good time on the now mainly sealed roads arriving at the next TA just as the sun rose.

This next leg involved a short run to the edge of the lake followed by a 'surprise' tubing leg across to the other side of the lake where our boats were waiting. Luke and I not really being 'water people' were helped along a little by subtle pushes from Dave! Once in the boats we felt more at home with Dave on his single ski and Luke and I on our double ski. This leg took about 1hr 25min where MDs maintained their 10 minute lead over us. We could see that SCAR were about 25mins behind as we paddled passed them on an out and back section of the paddle.

Once off the boats we 'tubed' back across the lake and ran back to where we'd left our bikes via a couple of CPs. MDs gained a couple of minutes on us here as we struggled to locate one of the CPs in a saddle down near the shore of the lake. Their lead was now out to 14 minutes with a bike ride and a mystery leg left before the finish.

This next bike ride was only a short 16kms however included a difficult 'bike push' up to the top of a ridge. What made in more difficult was that there was no specific track - just a slashed path which left it very lumpy and uneven underfoot. We quickly spoke to the landowner before we started the climb - he was very proud to have us use his land and had slashed the path up just for us. We thanked him and started the climb. We were very hot by the top but got to enjoy some great descents all the way back to the final TA back at race HQ.

To our surprise we were informed that we had taken the race lead and were now in first place. We were also informed that this final mystery leg was to be an 'Aquagaine'. We had to gain 4 CPs which were located mainly on buoys in the surrounding dams. We also had to wear / carry our PFDs. As soon as we left for this leg we saw team MDs entering the TA. They had broken a derailleur and one of their team members had to ride his bike like a scooter. That would have been fun! We headed out and to our surprise MDs caught us at the 2nd CP. We noticed that they weren't wearing their PFDs so thought they may receive a time penalty upon finishing. We ran with them to the 3rd CP and stayed in contact to the 4th but they were too quick for us and ran away heading towards the finish.

They finished 7 minutes ahead of us, however received a 30 minute penalty for forgetting their PFDs. This penalty meant that we were bumped up into first place and were the winners of the inaugural AR Darkside 12hr Championships!!! Thanks to Dave and Luke for a great race, and to the race organisers for setting a really interesting and challenging course :-)

You can check out full results and photos here: http://www.adventureraceaustralia.com.au/results.php#DARKSIDE

GEOQUEST RACE REPORT

Kayak 1:17:00 12.0 km: I was racing Geoquest this year at Port Macquarie with Dave, Damon and Wol as team Mexicans. We had 2 double Red 7s so started the race with a 12km ocean paddle with a slight head wind from Crescent Head to Limeburners. We came in in about 5th place having been beaten by a team in double Mirages.....

Run 1:31:00 13.0 km: We headed straight out on foot for a flat 13km of swampy trails picking up a couple of CPs. We caught a couple of teams on the trail and a couple must have taken a wrong turn as we came in to the next TA in equal 2nd place with the Instant Humans and in sight of the Rock Wallabies.

Kayak 1:22:00 12.0 km: We jumped back in to the boats and headed off up the Maria River with CBD Cycles. We paddled with them for about 6kms before the Instant Human paddling machines caught up. We jumped on the side wash of their front boat who had obviously paddled before. Iwas working probably a bit hard to stay there but we were gapping CBD and other teams so stayed there. They then upped the pace and dropped their other boat. We stayed there thinking they'd realise and slow down but they never did. With about 2kms to go I blew a poofer valve and couldn't even straighten my arms, so floated into the TA with their other boat about 90m behind the lead boat. We'd caught the Rock Wallabies on the portage up to the TA at Kundabung so came in to the TA in first place.

Ride 2:53:00 40.0 km: We headed off in first place into the Kumbatine National Park where

we hit a few hills on the way to the first CP. We had a little trouble finding this one and were caught by CBD who then corrected their position before we did. We then had a big climb out of the National Park followed by a big descent onto farming roads and into the TA. We were 8 minutes down on CBD into this TA.

Trek 1:10:00 2.0 km: This next leg was a trek/canyon/swim/scramble where we followed a river bed down looking for suberged bottles with letters on the bottom in the 7 large pools of water along the way. We caught CBD in the first pool where neither of us found the bottle. We had to find 6 bottles out of the 7 so the pressure was now on. We travelled down the river together and found the next 6. The water was approx 11 degrees so our wetsuits / shark skins were well worth it.

Run 7:19:00 22.0 km: After a quick change we headed out a couple of minutes before CBD so we could get on the flying fox before them. It was a heap of fun, but a bit of a lame jump out across the river to the other side. We then headed straight up about 300m vertical to the next CP on the summit, where the next tricky bit was down at a creek junction. We'd split with CBD here however met them again in the river junction where Damon led us pretty much straight on to the CP. I think CBD would still be there had we not come along We saw SCAR on the other side who were attacking it from the opposite angle, interesting move! From here things went a little pear shaped as dropped onto a spur one too early (us and CBD) and headed down a 300m descent down super think lantana. Damon, Wol and Dave shared the work breaking the trail as going was very slow. CBD tried to help but kept getting sucked into areas where FNQ’s Stinging Tree’s fairer cousin was in full force. Damon got stung and had the same symptoms as at XPD, however the affects only lasted for an hour as opposed to several months!We finally made it down onto the road and into the TA however SCAR and iAdventure had made up over an hour on us on this section and we were all in TA together.

Ride 4:44:00 40.0 km: We headed out on this MTB 'Adventuregaine' with CBD however we soon went our own ways. We had to get all but one CP so we left the obvious one to the west up a big climb. Damon's night nav proved as good as his day nav as we rolled around getting the CPs until we arrived at a location looking for the punch in a ‘thickett. It had clearly been misplaced so we searched the track junction and nearby junctions for about 30 - 45minutes before locating it in a ‘thickett’ in the wrong junction. This was changed after the first 5 teams went through, but only 2 of us found it, the others got a small penalty. It was getting VERY cold by now - apparently to 0 degrees and a number of teams withdrew with hyperthermia including CBD who never warmed up after sleeping for 20 minutes. They were close to the TA when they slept so I think in hindsight they should have pushed on no matter how tired they were to sleep in some warmth. Damon and Dave were still wearing only bike jerseys and arm warmers! We pushed on to the TA down a couple of cool purpose built single tracks coming into the TA in the wee hours of the night in first place.

Kayak 4:51:00 29.0 km: We headed off on the paddle at the coldest point of the night with frost on the ground. Heading off the boat ramp at the start Damon decided he'd do some fancy draw stroke to protect our rudder. His draw stroke went very badly and he tipped us in. Good one Damon.... AMATEURS! I am taking absolutely none of the blame for this incident, and fault has been proved as it was captured on video! Damon went completely in, and I went in only to my waist - luckily - it was cold! This washow the conversation went as we're both in the water:

Kim: "What the hell was that?"
Damon: "Just get back in the boat".
............we get back in silence and paddle off....................
Dave: "So, can you let us know when we can start making fun of you".
Kim: "Not yet"
............more silence...................
Wol: "You guys better paddle closer to the shore".

Anyway, it was a very cold paddle, and head torches were useless with the fog coming off the water. We paddled incident free after our less than average start. We portaged for about 1km to cut out about 5km. Dave and Wol were falling asleep as the sun rose however some how kept up despite not lifting their hands above waist level.

Ride 4:47:00 30.0 km: We paddled in and found out that CBD had withdrawn so we took this TA a little easy (~1hr!). We headed off on bikes and soon came to the split leg. Damon and Wol were to get the two CPs in the steep section and Dave and I were to get the two at the bottom of the hill. We both then had to re-group up a massive bike push at the top of a lookout. Dave and I headed off to find the trail head of the first single track. We looked around for about 10 to 15minutes but couldn't find even a sign of a slight trail so decided to ride around a few kms and come in from the other end. The rest was incident free as we carefully nav'ed our way around to the base of the climb. We were a little cautious as our track record with split legs is very very average! We started the bike push and it proved very tough to get traction even while pushing as the trail went straight up. About 2/3's of the way up Damon and Wol met us walking down the hill and helped us push up. We were surprised to hear that they'd been waiting about 30minutes, however were relieved when speaking to the Rock Wallabies afterwards that they'd waited a similar time for their two who'd done the same as us. We then descended down and got a couple of tricky ones on the way to the last TA.

Run 3:16:00 18.0 km: We were still in first place so headed out onto the final beach trek / coasteer to the finish line at Port Macquarie. We were walking the majority of the first half with a couple of short trots on the soft sand. About half way we heard (wrongly!) from a few photographers that the leading all male team were to our surprise only about 1km behind so we lifted the pace a fair bit for the final half. We finished in first place about 40 minutes in front of the next team who had also received a 2 hour penalty for missing compulsory gear somewhere along the way. It was good to finish in day light for the first time in a few years, and very very good to finally win another one after an 8 year drought!

Wol's dad Noel, and my parents did a fantastic job as support crew, despite none of them ever having been to a race like this before. I also think that it's been a while since any of them have pulled an all-nighter Thank you!!!

The Mexicans aka Team Blackheart win 2010 Geoquest Adventure Race

From left: Andrew (Wol), Damon, Kim, Dave

The Mexicans- containing two Blackheart Team members Damon and Kim, along with Dave Provan and Andrew Wolstencroft have won the 2010 Mountain Designs Geoquest Adventure race. Some might say persistence had paid off, after winning the inaugural race in 2002, Damon and Kim have returned every year since try and reclaim the title. Now with 9 races under their belt they have a 2^nd victory.

2^nd in the Premier Mixed team were Rock Wallabies, and 3rd New Zealand team Cantera maps.

Geocentric new report here

Full results here. 

Kim and Damon looking super focused in the Red7 surfski

Kim leading the way, and Damon doing a great job with the map. Perhaps Rob should have more confidence in his abilities?

Damon getting a tow from Kim?

photos courtesy Geocentric Outdoors

The Mexicans return to Geoquest Adventure Race for the 9th time

Damon and Kim return to the start line of Geoquest for the 9th time. This year they are joined by Big Dave Provan and Andrew "Wol" Wolstencraft. Kim and Dave recently moved from the famous CIS training facility in Carrum Victoria to the warmer training grounds in Brisbane. Geoquest will be the first opportunity to test the effects of the new training environment.
The race coverage can be found here, and again includes GPS tracking and the popular Trail Mail message board.

Meanwhile Rob and Kathryn have been in Norway for the World Orienteering Championships. If you missed all the action there is plenty of good entertaining reading on the Aussie team blog. I raced the Sprint Distance and Long Distance Qualification races finishing 25th and 27th in heats which wasn't good enough to qualify for the finals. But with only 2months to prepare since XPD in Cairns this wasn't a bad effort and up toying with the idea of a better focused attempt at the 2011 WOC in France.

And another race of interest on this weekend is the Inaugural Vanuatu Adventure Race. Several friends and family are racing, with Peter Preston and Ben "What injury will it be this week" Rattray racing as NSW Stingers. Also Steve Todkill and Dave Meyer are racing as Team Stingers. Vanuatu looks like a fantastic location for an Adventure Race even better place for a holiday so I'm sure they will have a great time. The "Supercrew" Julia and Robert Preston have also jumped Geoquest support duties in favour or a pacific holiday. Checkout the race at http://www.racevanuatu.com

Blackheart in 1st place running for the finish!

It has been a frustrating day in the absence of any meaningful gps tracking updates ... but also very eventful. Craig and Louise (Geocentric) were not allowing teams an easy stroll to the finish and instead the race finished with and arduous 24 hour, 60km Trek over the Lamb Ranges to 1200m altitude. It was slow going for all teams last night and the intermittant updates showed teams progresssing as slow as <1km/h. From the satellite it looks very steep and very thick.

We learned this morning that Team Orion were forced to withdraw. As much as we want Blackheart to win the Orion team put on one hell of a show and all the top 6 teams should be congratulated for making it such an exciting race.

Ok, so now to put everyone out of their suspense. I just got a call from Ben who was waiting to take photos of the leading teams at Lake Morris before the final push into Cairns. Blackheart appeared out of the bush about 30min ago after taking 8 hours to bash their way 5km off the 1200m summit and down to the road. They are in great spirits and even started running across the Dam wall to put on a show for the crowd. Between them and crossing the finish line in 1st place they have a 45min walking track descent and about 15km of roads through Cairns to the finishers couch.

It's not over, till it's over but things are looking great for the team ... GO BLACKHEART!

Blackheart first out on the penultimate leg

It looked like a very frustrating night riding (or maybe pushing) the mountain bikes towards Lake Tinaroo. It appears that all teams so far have had trouble in the same area including Orion so I can only assume what's on the ground doesn't quite add up to what's on the map.

But the team continues strong into Day 6 of the race with a 20 min over Orion into the final paddle. Given the last 3 legs, nothing can be taken for granted but this should be a relatively straight forward 15km paddle across the dam in daylight. From there it's "only" one stage to go - 60km trek to the Cairns waterfront.

Ben confirmed a few minutes ago from the transition that Blackheart had spent about 3 hours "going around in circles" in the middle of the MTB leg before getting a couple of hours sleep. Apparently the team is going well ... no real issues other than what you would expect after 120 hours of racing. Hear about it yourself on the latest video update.

XPD Day 5 Photos

Rob's navigation on that trek leg must surely put him amongst the best AR navigators going around.

Josh and Rob ... I'm guessing lots of empty food wrappers NOT lots of food left after another 24 hour stage.

Yes Geary ... another smiling photo ... be thankful you not getting the one of Josh's ass.

Kim getting an infected sore drained, cleaned and patched.

Damon and Rob leading the way.

The Donkey all loaded up for the final time - Josh looks like he's having way too much fun.

Kim all patched up out on the bike and back in 1st place. Go Blackheart!

Unofficial but reliable update

I just spoke with Ben as he was making his way back to their accommodation for the last few days, in the town where mid camp was. Following is some info:

• Orion did arrive into transition at the end of the trek first by about 5-10min.
• Blackheart arrived soon after and immediately started putting bikes together and getting organised for the next leg (I know how much Damon and Josh hate wasting time stationary in transition)
• Blackheart were looking good considering the severity of the leg they had just completed although apparently Kim has a nasty infection on her leg that need some attention.
• They left the TA about 10-15min before Orion, therefore taking back the race lead.
• Although the Blackheart tracker wasn't working for a couple of hours teams do have to head a couple of km's north of the TA to a CP at the local cemetery before heading south back past the TA on the rest of the leg.
• It is really hot out there on course, 25 degrees overnight and this is taking it's toll on the teams, as well as the magnitude of the stages and the race itself.

And from looking at the gps trackers, Orion have stopped after the first CP for a couple of hours sleep and Blackheart have pushed on. The trackers for the teams placed 3-6 are all working and they have still a considerable distance left to trek (3-5 hours). The race is a long way from over but it seems the Blackheart vs Orion rivalry will go down to the final leg again to decide this one. No sleep for me tonight and I'll post some photos later.

Monster Trek ... and confusion

While there has not been any official confirmation I have been closely watching the gps trackers for most of the day and I'll be the first to speculate that Blackheart have regained the lead. They had a super trek and were completing the final section of the stage about 15 min behind the leading team Orion after making up more than 2 hours earlier on. This was the 2nd 24+ hour leg for the team in a row and I bet they love the look of their bikes after not seeing them since before mid camp at 6:55am on Friday morning!

They are now about an hour into the final bike leg of the race. In a strange situation it seems Orion have gone North and Blackheart South on leaving the transition area. This post is only speculation and there still a very long way to go (my guess 24-36 hours). Hopefully I'll get an update soon but the transition area doesn't seem to have any phone reception. GO TEAM!

Day 4 Photos

Some more great photos from Ben Wolstencroft from the end of the 'paddle', Transition at CP 15, and leaving for the start of the Trek.

Rob and Josh

Kim and Damon

All jokes and smiles in transition - must have enjoyed the 24 hours of 'paddle - dragging'.

Foot care before the trek. I reckon the feet would be a bit second hand after being wet for the last 24 hrs.

Going to be an easy trek for Kim if she get carried the whole way ... just a good bit of teamwork to keep the feet dry.

Rob will have his work cut-out navigating the next Trek and by the look of the gps tracker he's had a cracker start.

24 hrs of Paddling

Team Blackheart have left on the remote 60km trek in 4th position. Overnight on the Walsh River they dropped from 1st to 5th place. I haven't been able to find out the reason for this but from the tracker it appeared that they missed a bend in the river and did a couple of hundred metres extra portaging. After which the tracker was stationary for a couple of hours so hopefully they might have had a sleep. I'm trying to get in touch with Ben when there's some phone reception.

After more than 75 hours of racing there is only 2.5 hours separating the top 5 teams and there must still be at least 48 hours of racing to go. Sleep strategy and navigation will be the keys to the race from here.

During the current trek I think they have to get one checkpoint (#16) and if you are looking at the course map I assume it is located where the course line changes direction just north of a knoll. Already straight out of transition we can see very different route choices with Orion and McCain heading south around the first ridge and Blackheart taking a more direct route. This leg will be fascinating to watch for those armchair navigators - hopefully the trackers don't lose signal.

Blackheart lead the race through Midcamp

After the infamous "stinging tree trek" yesterday teams had to complete a 130km mountain bike with a 10km orienteering course toward the end. Teams had to get 5 out of 6 cp's before continuing on to midcamp. I spoke with Ben earlier and he said Blackheart blitzed the orienteering section in about 3.5hrs which was apparently the fastest out of the lead group.

At 6:55am Blackheart arrived at the compulsory 6hr stop at midcamp where they decided to have the stinging tree treatment. I have to quote Kim's race blog entry here along with a photo of Damon's partially waxed legs ... sexy.

CP – 11

Kim here again. I just saw the funniest thing EVER in adventure racing. After spending the night out with our stinging tree injuries we changed our minds and decided to get them treated at mid camp = hydrochloric acid on the wound, and then a wax. The hydrochloric acid stung a bit but no big deal. Damon, Rob and Josh then proceeded to scream like little girls whilst getting their legs waxed. I wish I had a camera …. Anyway, last nights ride was good, particularly the descent down from the orienteer. Now for some sleep

After exactly 6 hrs Blackheart departed with their 2 deflated kayaks, paddles, pfd's, mandatory gear loaded into the compulsory "wheelbarrow" for a 20km push to the start of the paddle leg. Check out Rob's cannons in the photo above - making light work of it! Orion have made up a bit of time during this leg and as I post this the lead look to be about 1hr 15min. More photos coming soon.

Here's a great report on Team Blackheart from Adventure World Magazine.

Photos

Some Team Blackheart action from Day 1 courtesy of Ben Wolstencroft.

News from the Course

I just received news that Team #1 Blackheart has left on the leg 6 MTB in 1st place! How did I hear this ... well ... Rob Preston Snr is volunteering driving trucks at the event and he is phoning updates back to Rob's Mum Julia who passes them onto me. It does kind of feel like de ja vu from the late night phones calls to the same "Supercrew" in Portugal last year.

Anyway, apparently the team looked great last night and were all smiles after the rafting this morning. They were maybe a little over the trek but had a great transition and is now making all the other teams chase them.

I also just got off the phone to Ben who had witnessed the Ravenshoe Transition described in the latest report from Sleepmonsters.

The front 4-5 teams all arrived into transition together and most members of all teams had encountered the stinging trees. It was interesting to see how the different teams coped with the issue. Team Blackheart decided that the worst was probably over and that they would just deal with it and keep going, so headed straight out on the bike. Others went off to the 1st aid for the acid and wax strips treatment and apparently some just rolled around on the ground screaming.

Rafting & the Misty Mountains

The 100km MTB leg didn't do much to separate the field due to the Dark Zone before the White Water Rafting. Blackheart arrived at the end of the MTB at 7:50pm yesterday evening in equal 2nd place at the same time as 2 other teams - being Mounty's as well as McCain from South Africa - appears as though there was a Bull of Africa 2008 reunion.

Teams then had to trek 10km to the start of the rafting section where it seems they were able to get about 4 hours sleep before the 6am Refting briefing. I would expect the Grade 4 Tully River rapids to have been a highlight of the race. Once the fun was finished the real race began at about 8am with the start of the 47km Misty Mountains Trek. Damon, Kim and Josh have an advantage of having done about half this trek in the 2004 Quoll Adventure Race. During that race the ground actually looked like it was moving due to the millions of leeches - so I expect there will be big incentive not to stop on this leg. And just because it is a 'marked trail' won't make it much easier as this just means there's an arrow nailed to a tree every 20-50m.

There's an update on the website and we can see by the trackers that 4-5 teams (including #1 Blackheart) have now finished the trek and will be starting the 130km MTB to mid-camp. Along the way teams have to complete a short orienteering section where they collect 5 out of 6 CP's before continuing on their bikes. Given teams at the front got a sleep last night they should all race through as long as it takes to finish the MTB leg because at mid-camp they have a compulsory 6hr stop.

A friend of Team Blackheart - Ben Wolstencroft is covering the race as a photographer so I will be able to post some great photos soon.

There's also an updated report on Sleepmonsters.

XPD Cairns - Day 1

Team Blackheart.com.au is off and racing in the 5th edition of XPD - Australia's Expedition Adventure Race. Day 1 seemed to start rather eventfully with the arranged boat transport to the start at Dunk Island breaking down and alternative arrangements had to be made. The race started at 11:36am with a 25 km Trek / Paddle / Snorkel leg around the Island.

There appears to be about 6 strong teams at this years race and after the first 4 hours of racing only 10 minutes separated these teams with Blackheart in 4th place. From Dunk Island teams had to paddle back to the mainland at Mission Beach to start a 100km MTB leg to the Tully River. Once there teams will be able to have a good first nights sleep during the Dark Zone and await an early morning restart for the 10km whitewater rafting leg. From the GPS Trackers it appears that the teams arrived well before midnight. The website is not updated but I assume the explanation for this is the quoted lack of phone reception in the Tully River and no race updates are expected until late tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon after the raft and 47km Trek through the Misty Mountains to Ravenshoe. The race coverage is excellent on the website.

Team Blackheart ready for XPD Cairns

Team Blackheart has returned with the same line-up as 2008 with the aim of defending our XPD Australia title. It is often said that getting to the start line is half the battle, and this is particularly true for expedition Adventure Racing. After a few hectic days in Cairns, we are ready for the 6.30am bus and boat ride to the start at Dunk Island to the south of Cairns. Kim and Josh are tucked into bed, while Rob and Damon catch up on a little Survivor and Two and a Half Men.

The course is looking very tough, with many legs expected to take over 12 hours. We envisage the crux legs to be the 70km paddle followed by a 60km trek (dubbed the Speargrass Trek), both through very remote outback regions. The race will likely just be getting interesting as the top teams leave the mid race camp, with a wheelbarrow to help transport the inflatable kayaks 20km to the river. Luckily Josh has had plenty of practice pushing a barrow up his steep driveway, so the rest of the team is hoping for a little rest on this leg.

There is a strong overseas contingent for the race, with 2008 World Champions Team Orion returning, but with Brent Edwards to only surviving team member. Team Merrell/Akali and McCains from South Africa are the other strong teams looking to win a qualifying spot to the 2010 ARWC in Spain. We expect the strongest Australian competition to come from our good friends in Team City Bike Depot.

Hopefully the race coverage will live up to expectations, with live GPS tracking you should be able to keep up our progress. Updates from the course will be posted on our XPD Team page.

Rob Preston and Damon Goerke Australian 24hr Rogaining Champions

Rob and Damon have teamed up to win the 2010 Australian 24hr Rogaining Championships. The event was held at Providence, near Adaminaby in the northern part of the Snowy Mountains. Rogaining is similar to Orienteering, but competitors chose their own route and have to return to the finish within a set time frame- in this case 24hrs.
The course was set by experienced rogainers and ARers David Baldwin and Julie Quinn, who presented the competitors with a course full of choices and navigational challenges. The intricate contour detail made the control sites very challenging, especially at night. The terrain consisted of alpine ash forests, through snow gum woodlands and granite boulderfields, to open plains and ranged over an altitude of 1100 to nearly 1700m. The course covered by the team was about 90km, and collected 56 out of the possible 74 controls for a total score of 3510points. Western Australian team of Ben Corry and Paul Williams followed closely behind with 3460 points and Victorian Mixed team of Kevin Humphry and Kath Copeland were 3rd with 2890 points.
The guys used the event as training for the upcoming XPD Adventure race in May, and will also head to New Zealand for the World Rogaining Championships in November to try and improve on their 2nd place at the 2006 WRC.

Thanks to our sponsors who helped achieve this result.
Shotz Sports Nutrition for the truckload of gels, bars and electrolyte tablets we consumed during the 24hrs.
SILVA- Rob and Damon used SILVA Jet 5 baseplate, Spectra OMC Wrist compass and Jet 6 Spectra Compasses throughout the race, and the Alpha Headlamp turned night into day.
Salomon- the XA Pro 3D is still the best offroad shoe for a race this long