Michael Kolody, TKT Founder & Event Captain joined Team Odd Bods for his first 36 Hour AR Enduro in the Red Yeti Midnight Assault.

Red Yeti organises some of the best multistage expedition Adventure Racing events in the country, with events in S.A. & VIC. Events include the well known Midnight Assault, Impulse and Urban Impulse race series.

The below summary was written by Greg Bacon of Team Odd Bods. The original article can be viewed here on the Red Yeti website.

November 4th, 5th & 6th, 2005
36 Hour Red Yeti Enduro AR, Victor Harbour , S.A.
The lone bagpiper lead the 11 teams of four to the start line in the hills above Victor Harbour, for the midnight start in the first Red Yeti 36 hour race. The first 22k bike leg was fast and furious through the rolling hills and down to the ocean as the teams tried to keep pace with the leaders. The last downhill to the first TA was rough and steep and luckily no one came to grief. Our team, Odd Bods, were in fourth place to the trek TA and after a quick change into hiking gear it was off on the 21k trek along the Heyson Trail. It was a great trek leg, steep downhill on the slippery grass to the beach, a fast pace along the flat tracks then a great climb back up the peninsula. We followed the trail markers most of the way and with the open rolling hills you could see the teams in front and behind as their lights continually came into view. We were still trekking as dawn broke and with the heavy dew we were all saturated by now. We arrived at the next TA and after pancakes and eggs supplied by the organizers, we were off on a 14k bike leg to the abseil and rogaine area.

It was a short jog around Rosetta Head answering questions on points of interest then a short abseil off the bluff. By now there were six teams close together with Aussie Bodies making a break in the lead.

From the abseil it was a 36k bike ride along cycle tracks on the beach front with a 5km climb on a bitumen road to Crows Nest lookout. It was a great view after a long grind up the mountain. We had a rest and a bite to eat as I was doing it tough peddling into the head wind. We were joined by two other teams and we got back into the spirit of things with a great downhill off road, then onto some twisting single track, more gravel road back to the beach then onto the cycle ways again to Goolwa.

At Goolwa we re- supplied as our transit tubs were waiting for us, then headed off on a 11k beach trek.
It was very hot and we were covered in flies the whole way, we took a little time to find one check point in the sand dunes and eventually made it to the mouth of the Murray River for our swim across. We were just about to cross in the narrowest area when the Maritime Services boat blew it’s horn and told us to move on as we were in the out of limits dredging area. The wade in gooey black stuff and the 400m swim took a while as the wind and current made it tough going. On the river bank the first kayak leg awaited us.

Being an unsupported team we had to make sure that our tubs were packed correctly as different tubs went to different TA’s. Needless to say we did not get every tub right and I had no dry clothes at this stage. We left the TA with another team and decided to portage around 400m to keep in the narrow channels and out of the wind. We took a wrong option when we decided to do another short portage as some electric fences got in the way. We had another portage around a barrage which is used to control the river levels. After 18k of paddling directly into the wind towards a huge headland that never seemed to get closer we finally made it to the next TA before dark.

At this TA teams could nominate to do the advanced course. As we were there before the 10pm cut off we elected to do the extra course. To our amazement we found that only Aussie Bodies had elected to do the full course so we took a punt which if it worked out would put us up from 5th to 2nd place outright. Little did we know!. We spent around an hour at the TA as we were exhausted from the hours bashing into the headwind. I felt sorry for the teams behind us as the wind was picking up and it was getting dark.

Some of the teams behind us got off the water for the night and had a camp fire, a wise decision as the open lake would not have been pleasant by now.

Another 14k trek along gravel roads took us to the next kayak leg. On the way we met another team with an injured team mate, nothing serious but they withdrew at that stage. We made it to the kayaks around 11.00pm and decided to have a short sleep inside the kayaks before we started, this was now our second night without sleep and it was starting to catch up to us. We entered the water with another team that had decided to head back to the finish which was around 10k away.

We were now on our own, after around 1hrs paddling we ran into Aussie Bodies who were on their way back from the kayak CP, their only advise on how to get there was stick to the banks. We stuck to the banks for a while then took a compass bearing north as we crossed some large open areas of water, the wind was still up and we were ploughing into it. We again hit land but we had gone too far north and had missed the main channel, we searched for around an hour then all agreed that we should get out of the boats, have a sleep and wait till dawn. We found a perfect spot on someones front lawn and wrapped ourselves in our space blankets, Brett woke us at dawn, it only took a few minutes to work out what we had done then came decision time. By getting lost on the advance course we had given up a few places but if we could just make it to the advanced kayak CP we knew that we could turn things around. We had 9k to the CP and once again the wind was picking up. Brett had no troubles getting us to the CP after two hours of paddling. Once at the CP we decided not to do any of the next bike leg as we were running out of time. It was near 8.00am when we set off for the finish line with 17 k of water in
front of us.

By now the wind was up to around 15 knots and we could not paddle across the wind as we were continually being turned, it was torture but we were making progress. When we got to the main navigation channel we had the wind to our backs and a big swell to move us along. We did the 17k in under 3hrs and it got us back with time to spare. The veins in my arm stuck out like the Incredible Hulk.

Summing up it was a great event, a great location and course, we had traveled around 170k in the race and each leg was a challenge in itself. The organization was faultless and everyone was helpful.

It was great training for XPD especially the kayak sections. I would like to thank my Odd Bod team mates Brett Sparks the captain and navigator, Tim Bates and Michael Kolody who had only done around an hours paddling before this event. We had a great time, a great result and came away fit and healthy.

When the Red Yeti goes to Victoria next year don’t miss out.

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