The Spirited Women Adventure Race finally happened!
After months of prep, COVID level changes, postponements, and not a lot of training, we did it…we finished. We were never going to be the fastest team, but we did it and I am happy!
James and I drove up on the Thursday and spent time when we got there just walking around Napier and sightseeing and taking photos. It was really nice to get away with him and not have anything scheduled to do. We found a lovely bar tucked away down and alley, and good Mexican food too!
One the Friday we had to go collect the important box of goodies and instructions. In it were some freebies, as well as the instructional documentation needed to actually do the race. The team met that evening for dinner and talked about our plan of action – this mainly consisted of me map reading and everyone sharing the checkpoint punching. The only thing left to do was actually do the race!
The morning of the race I could not have been less up for it; I was tired and hungry and needed the loo!
It should have been a multi-leg adventure race consisting of a canoe section, some hiking and orienteering, and then mountain biking.
It’s normally supposed to be a case of doing the checkpoints in a particular order and then any that you have missed out you receive a penalty for…however, as the weather had been so bad, they decided to remove the mountain bike section. The course was knee deep in puddles and mud!
So, without the mountain biking section they made it a two-part race instead. The canoe section was as normal, and then without the mountain biking it went straight into the rest of the race being on foot. They gave us a time limit of 5 hours to get as many checkpoints as we could.
Overall it was hard! Mentally rather than physically I mean. 5 hours is quite a long time to be trying to find checkpoints! I think we did fairly well though, having completed next to no training together and with no sense of direction between us.
After the race we went for a very well earned dinner at Portofino. Perfection.
Overall, the general consensus was that we probably won’t be doing this again. I would but I think it needs a bit more planning, and definitely some training together. At the very least!
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