May 13th & 14th 2006 – Red Yeti 36 Hour – Portland, VIC

Tali Karng Trackers headed to Portland for the first ever Red Yeti event held in Victoria.

The team comprised of Michael Kolody, Ben Criddle, Chris Stevens and Glenn Richardson. We met up early Friday on the road, and ventured along the coast past Colac and Wanambool, a lot longer drive than anticipated, almost half way to Adelaide. The weekend weather had forecast cold, with light intermittent showers.

Pre-race maps and check-in showed the course to be approx 180km long, quite a slug fest with approx 32km paddle, 50km trekking, and 100km mountain biking, all in 36 hours.

It was a midnight remote location start, 45 minutes north-west of Portland, with a 10km trek/run hugging the Glenelg River. Although we had a fairly tight race plan, this soon blew apart after 15 minutes with the initial frantic rush to find the first checkpoint resulting in us following other teams and deviating from our planned route. With all that adrenaline flowing we were running hard, but in the wrong direction. In the end what should have been a fairly simple trek, turned out to be a 20km hard run, after which we were flatly in last position.

Lesson one…stick to your race plan.

We reached the first transition point on the Glenelg River at Forest Camp at 2.13am, already an hour behind the leaders, and boarded our two vessels, one Canadian Canoe and one two man kayak. Mick and Glenn took the faster kayak and lead most of the way doing the navigation, while Ben and Chris paddled tough behind in the canoe. It was a marathon 32 km 5 hour paddle, right through till dawn. The team was frustrated early in the paddle, missing what should have been an easy checkpoint. It turns out later, that an overzealous fisherman removed the cp, maybe thinking he had snagged a rare Glenelg floating jellyfish. With some members battling through the first bout of drowsiness owing to a full and busy Friday without sleep. we persisted and eventually passed another team on the water. This boosted morale, particularly when told that other teams could also not find the first checkpoint.

Lesson two…never give up, even when things seem hopeless.

At the dawn transition at Nelson beach, we finally caught the main body of the field, and after a fairly fast transition we were able to make up some ground on the field, moving from twelfth to ninth position. We were fast in the morning 35 km mountain bike leg, but again had problems navigating, finding it difficult to locate a few checkpoints, mainly due to older or inaccurate maps (or so we believe). However, many other teams also faced the same situation and had greater difficulty than us, so by the next transition we had moved up to seventh position.

Lesson three…other teams may also be struggling a lot harder than yourselves.

We worked hard on the next 25 km trek leg, from Moleside to Jackass camping ground, running part of it, trying to catch the next team in front. Our hard work paid off, and after another fast transition to bike again, we had moved to sixth position. The next 40km bike leg was at dusk and took us approx 3 hours, clearly the longest and hardest bike leg of the course. By this stage we had been going approx 18 hours non-stop, with fairly quick transitions, but had worked a lot harder than most teams due to the navigation errors. It eventually took its toll, and after one team member hitting the wall, followed by a puncture, then a long slow climb up Mt Richmond, we hit the cut off point for the advanced section in equal position with the team we had earlier passed. We had a choice to make: the advanced section on offer involved trading two bikes for a mobile phone, so the team could then pair up, two on foot, two on bike, and locate six check points on the mountain (the phone was to allow the team mates to communicate while looking for the markers). Many factors influenced our decision: we knew our night time navigation was suspect; the team not at full strength; and there was no rewards for partially completing the advanced section. In other words: it was all or nothing.

In the end it was a team decision and we opted not to do the advanced section. It was back on the bike and we made our way to the next transition point at Bridgewater Lakes for an 18 km beach trek along the coast. The first half of the trek was great with the thundering surf crashing in on the beach at night. The second half however took its toll, as the sleepmonsters attacked in the wee hours of the morning; bushes morphing into animals and goats distracting us in our early morning need for sleep. The trek was eventually over, culminating in a night abseil down the cliff face just near Portland Lifesaving Club. We were all too tired to really enjoy it, and could honestly have done without it. It was back on the bike for a short 9km ride to Bat Ridge Caves to locate checkpoints fifteen and sixteen. The caving was the really cool part of the whole adventure. It took approx one hour to locate the two checkpoints within the cave, which involved a lot of crawling, rolling, scraped knees and a lot of dirt, but a lot of fun. An awesome experience.

Back on the bike for the final 17km ride home to Portland and Centenary Caravan Park where we crossed the finish at 4.28am, in a total time of 28.28 hrs, putting us in seventh position overall, with all checkpoints complete. We slept well in a cabin at the Caravan Park, a very worthwhile investment.

Lesson four…invest in proper sleeping quarters, particularly before and after an endurance event.

Overall the course was long, and I am sorry to say a little un-inspiring. We seemed to hit all the picturesque bits at night, and really didn’t get to appreciate the countryside. When it was daylight we were in forest and seemed to spend a lot of time on long straight fire roads, which was a little mind numbing. The abseil was at a time when no one really wanted to do it, particularly after a 18km trek at 2.00am in the morning, and the cave experience was perhaps the only highlight but again late in the piece, perhaps saving the best for last. The choice in the advanced section splitting up the teams, and some navigational challenges kept things interesting.

The Red Yeti events have all been extremely well organized, so congrats to Angus & staff, with all maps, free gift pack, including t-shirt and carbo shotz included. Sponsors also present ‘Vicious Lighting’ demonstrating their wares, which helps create an exciting race atmosphere. Our team bonded well as it was the first time a few of us had raced together, and overall we felt strong and performed well. Chris’s Dad Bill supported and did a fantastic job driving the Scooby Doo-mobile around the countryside at crazy hours of the morning, packing & unpacking the van at transitions, and was just as tired as us at the end of the race, but still managed to smile.

Thanks to Ben, Chris, Glen and Bill for the company and support, making the race that much more enjoyable.

Hope to race with you all again.

Regards, Mick -  ‘Stay Strong, stay on target’