April 2010: Cape Kidnappers Team Challenge Dec 2009
By Robyn Coddington / Bruce Allen / Blue Dorward
Blue, Robyn and Bruce
The first leg (Robyn Coddington)
At the Hastings Run Walk headquarters the previous Saturday, a group of us in a rash moment decided to enter a team of walkers in the 28 kms race on Saturday 12th December.
As I walked the first leg along the beach, I reflected on how lucky I was to have the opportunity to participate in such a picturesque event. I guess I should have studied the map beforehand, because I expected to see Bruce’s smiling faced at the top of the steep climb up from the beach.
However, it appeared quite a way inland, and at the top of another steep hill! At this stage I was beginning to think I should have done some serious hill training beforehand.
The second leg (Bruce Allen)
My second leg started with Robyn appearing over the hill in 1hr 25 mins, about 10 minutes better than I had estimated, so well done!
The first part of my leg was a gradual walk over undulation and then downhill to the beach. Along the sand dunes, where we saw an aircraft land on the beach by Flat Rock. After 2 kms we reach Rangaiika, and then it was all on for a steep climb of 246 metres. The climb seemed to go on and on, and not always a track to walk on. This leg was a lot harder than I thought it would be, and one needs to do lot of uphill conditioning before they tackle the walk.
Blue was waiting by the predator fence, and after 1 hr 40 mins I was pleased to hand over to him.
I really enjoyed the walk, and our total time of 5 hrs 06 mins earned us a Bronze Medal in the Combined Team section.
The Third Leg (Blue Dorward)
The Third Leg started at about mid-morning, on a cold cloudy summer’s morning. Bruce strode into the changeover pen at the end of Leg Two. I shook his hand and checked his wellbeing, and took off on my part of the Challenge. This went through the security gate and turned right to follow the predator fence. All was easy with only a few minor ups and downs. Then we turned left along a ridge which soon disappeared into a steep downhill slope. So down I went, pushing past the cautious types. I had given up being polite by now as I had been losing ground to other pushy types.
At the bottom I was confronted by a humungous high and steep hill. The people at the top looked like ants they were so far away. Off I went and got to the top thinking this is it for the hills. Next stop should be the Maraetotara Stream. How wrong I was! There were at least three more of the lung-destroying monsters. At least I made good ground on some other participants, for they were strewn up these hills and I passed them accordingly.
Next thing flat land appeared below as I looked ahead from my perch high up on a ridge. Ah, now is the easy going. Wrong again! I screamed down the ridge onto the river flats. How easy is this? No, for next we crashed into the Stream for the first of about ten river crossings. Walking fast in knee-deep cold water is no easy task, followed by trying to clamber out up a wet and slippery back. When all could not get any worse, it did. We had to scramble along the side of a slippery vertical bank where a woman had frozen to the spot with fear, or something else equally time-wasting. Then a big plunge into a chest-deep part of the Stream. (Bad luck for the shorties of this leg.) This was followed by a very wet slippery four metre climb - like one step forward and two back.
These crossing continued for the next 3-4 kms. Plus we had to climb tin fences and the like. I upset the photographer in one crossing. He was standing in the middle of the water with his back to me. I crashed past him showering him with cold water. He was not impressed... I was on the racing line. Further down, I stirred up Angus Gordon, owner of Clifton Station, who was sitting on his quad bike on the riverbed dozing whilst waiting for the photographer. I hurled a bit of abuse at him, and at first he wondered who it was – it’s OK, we are friends.
The last part was on private and public roads. Here I put the hammer down to make up time lost on the stream section, and especially the flats just prior to that, where I had allowed my pace to slow somewhat. Why I don’t know. This final part was uneventful, and I crossed the line in just on 2 hrs. The clapping of the crowd helped a lot in this last part, where your body is about to reject you. This time helped our team into medal position, and Bruce got a special mention as one of the older participants.
