Team Blackheart- What have we been up to over summer?

With the impending Orion Health Godzone Adventure starting next week, you may have been wondering what we have been up since the ARWC last November.

The Adventure Junkies X-marathon race held in late December was a great race for the team(s) with the pairs format enabling a rearrangement into 3 teams. Rob and Kathryn, Damon and Fleur and Josh and Chris Mucha teamed up to take on a small but quality field including Peak Adventure (Jarad Kohlar and James Pretto) and Thule Adventure (Jacky and Mimi) the recently crowned world champions. The course centred around Lake Nillahcootie in Central Victoria was picturesque and challenging, and the low 30’s temps made it ever tougher. Peak Adventure took the overall win in 15hrs 10mins, with Rob and Kathryn coming in just 30mins behind and 1hrs in front of 3rd place Team Thule. Josh and Chris finish 4th, and Damon and Fleur 5th (2nd mixed). Full results

Rob and Kathryn’s Wedding

On New Years Eve, the social event of the millennium took place at Mt Baw Baw in Victoria- Rob and Kathryn’s Wedding. A perfect weekend in the beautiful Victorian Alps was enjoyed by the cream of Australia’s Adventure racers and orienteers.

Damon’s running adventures

Damon continues to add to his already impressive Ultra-running resume. At the Bogong to Hotham race in the first week of January, poor weather caused the cancellation of the race at half way. Damon was leading the race at this point, 9 mins faster than his previous best time, but he didn’t feel right about keeping the winners trophy so will return next year for another go.

Then Damon headed overseas for the The Coastal Challenge, an annual 6 day, 225km adventure run through Costa Rica. After a very tough battle with a local athlete, Damon won the race. Damon's Coastal Challenge race report

Orienteering season begins

Rob, Kathryn and Josh have been keeping busy with orienteering races, both on foot and mountain bike. The first round of the SILVA National Orienteering League was held in Ballarat on the Labour Day long weekend. With 3 races over two days, and some very close and fast racing, it was great start to the season.

The following weekend was the SILVA Duo at Silvan in the Dandenong Ranges. This race involved a short scatter-o on foot (choose your own order), then MTB, then again on foot. Aaron Dodd (Melbourne Forest Racers) had a great race to defeat Rob in his first Du-O from 5 starts by about 30secs. Josh continues to improve his nav skills and was satisfied with 3rd place.

And not to be forgotten, Kim and Dave Provan teamed up with Rob Davis to win the Melton Meanders 5hr MTB rogaine.

For the first time in many years Rob and Kathryn will miss the next round of the SILVA National League, the Easter Carnival in Queensland to compete in the Orion Health Godzone Adventure.

Godzone Adventure starts in 2 weeks

Expedition Adventure Racing returns to the home of adventure- Queenstown New Zealand.

In just two weeks Team Blackheart will again toe the start line of a World Series Adventure Race, the new Godzone Adventure in New Zealand. Queenstown has been chosen to host the inaugural GODZone Adventure. Internationally renowned, it is the Southern Hemisphere’s premier four seasons lake and alpine resort. Surrounded by majestic mountains and nestled on the shores of crystal clear Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown’s stunning scenery is challenging, yet inspiring, and offers unparalleled scope in terms of wilderness and the very best of what nature has to offer.

Check out this video preview from what we can expect to encounter. While snow topped mountains always look nice in photos, cold weather racing can be unpleasant at times so hopefully winter stays away for a bit longer.


Orion Health GODZone Adventure 2012 Promo from GODZone Adventure on Vimeo.

Our team has undergone some changes for Godzone. Rob and Josh are being joined by Rob's new wife Kathryn and NZ multisport talent Glen Currie. Kathryn has raced with Rob in Wulong Mountain Quest and Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge and represented Australia at 6 World Orienteering Championships so is no stranger to AR or international racing. Kathryn and Rob teamed up to win the Adventure Junkie X-Marathon race in December beating Team Thule's World Champs Jackie and Mimi on the way. Kathryn also raced the 2011 AR World Champs, finishing 10th with City Bike Depot, and has been poached from that CBD who are also racing in Queenstown.

Glen has been recruited for his local knowledge and multisport pedigree, having finished 3rd in last years Coast to Coast World Multisport Championships. He also won the Goldrush Multisport race and was 4th in the Oceania Multisport Champs. As an outdoor education teacher Glen has all the right skills to become a great Adventure racer and will be a huge asset to the team.

More news and pre-race discussions to follow. 

Damon's Coastal Challenge race report

The Coastal Challenge is an annual 6 day, 225km adventure run through Costa Rica. The location alternates each year between the rainforest in the south and the volcanoes in the north. In 2012 I went to compete in the north, along what they call “The Route of Fire”  with about 50 other competitors  mainly from North and Central America. The race organisers moved our kit around and set up a camp for us each day, allowing us to run with only the minimal equipment. Each night a feast was also laid on for us, with more than enough food (provided you liked rice and beans). 

The race start was in La Fortuna, next to Volcan Arenal, a classic cone shaped volcano towering 1500m above and would finish on the Pacific Coast within sight of Nicaragua. I ran most of the 25km of Day 1 which included 1500m of steep climbing, with Canadian Chris, until he dropped me on the final descent into Rancho Margot, our first camp for the race.  I felt comfortable though and knew I had kept plenty in the tank for Day 2, which was to be the toughest stage - 63km and 4200m of ascent. 

Day 2 started off fun with a few tricky river crossings before a steep and often muddy 900m climb. I got to the front early in the climb and I was with Chris again until he dropped off, only to be replaced by Roiny, a local who I was to have a great race with for the rest of the week. It took me about 40km to finally shake him as we ascended a ridge covered with wind turbines, before reaching the finish line in a local village. I must have pissed Roiny off, because he came out hard on the relatively easy 33km 

Day 3, with another 1500m climb. We ran together until he got away from me in a neat little singletrack section and disappeared and I was unable to catch him again. 

Day 4 was a little tougher, 47km and 1500m of climbing and I loaded up with Shotz gels, determined not to let him get away again. After about 15km I made the first break on a long climb and managed to get out of sight for about 30 mins until Roiny came charging past on a steep downhill. The final km was up an awesome river canyon with several crossings and swims before finishing at a waterfall. This is what I had come to Costa Rica for and was one of the highlights of the race. The heat and humidity had been intense so it was refreshing to have a swim, and it was a good chance for me to wash as I’d forgotten to pack any spare clothes for the week and it was starting to be noticed.  Later at camp I was told that after the 4 stages and 165km of running, Roiny had taken the overall lead by 7 seconds! 3^rd place was several hours behind so it was a 2 horse race. The remaining 2 days would be relatively easy, however it was promised to get even hotter in the areas we were to enter and I knew that would advantage the locals. 

The final stages consisted of a 11.5km time trial and then 20km run on Day 5 and a 22km run to the finish on Day 6. Starting in reverse finishing order at 1 minute intervals, I set off and slowly caught all the runners ahead except for a few before finishing and turning to see how Roiny went. The minutes ticked by until it became apparent that something had gone wrong. He had missed a turn and ran an additional 5 kms before realising his mistake. He finally arrived just over an hour later, obviously devastated. Knowing I now had a pretty handy lead, and with a fresh shirt donated by my suffering race mates, I could relax a bit and enjoy it (provided I didn’t get lost). To his credit, Roiny, the tenacious little bastard (the Americans loved me saying this), came good after his mistake and got back some time in the next 2 stages but I still managed to get the overall win by 1 hour in a total time of 20hr38min. Roiny Villegas from Costa Rica was second and Chris “Turets” Barth from Canada was third. It was a sensational week of running in a real paradise, supported by a helpful crew of locals and volunteers, I can definitely recommend it.

cheers

Damon