Team Southern Cross consisted of two Australians, a South African and an Englishman and as a four man team we had never done an adventure race before, let alone a 75 hour unsupported expedition style race! There was definitely an element of here’s the deep end, welcome!
Team Southern Cross consisted of two Australians, a South African and an Englishman and as a four man team we had never done an adventure race before, let alone a 75 hour unsupported expedition style race! There was definitely an element of here’s the deep end, welcome!
We arrived at rainy Prague airport to be greeted by Miroslav, one of the course organisers, who was our designated driver and our first glimpse of the friendly, helpful nature of this event. Then on arriving at the van we had our first challenge of the race before it had even started - fitting four bike bags, four 100ltr boxes and 5 rucksacks into a four-seater mini-van with a relatively small boot!
The race venue Dobronice was 120km south of Prague in South Bohemia and 2hrs later we arrived to be greeted by race director and one of the Czech Republic’s top AR racers Thomas Vanek. Race base was an outdoor extreme sport centre with each team having a hut as their base of operations. Straight to bed for us then like a bunch of naughty school kids with a day of briefings, kit organising and general orientation to look forward to.
The next day dawned, minus the rain thankfully. We had a quick brekkie and the rest of the day seemed to breeze past in the blink of an eye with briefings on race rules and route, kit checks, team orientation, general introductions and dinner.
Down The River
Race day dawned and contrary to the organiser’s forecasts it’s not raining. This was the only one of a few porky pies we were told and the rest were not so much to our liking, but more on that later! We were shuttled to Bechyne, 20mins away, for the start and we were off! The town orienteering was a great warm up and with blood pumping we set off on the first challenging stage, the 35km trek along the banks of the river Luznice. The final destination was Tabor, passing base camp, and 9 (!) weirs that we were to find out we would be coming down later. Holy cow!
So 5hrs later we arrived in Tabor still feeling pretty good and only 45mins behind the leaders. It was nice to dib in and get CP1 out of the way and we were quickly dashing along underground tunnels and soon had 4 out of 5 checkpoints when ... stumped on the last one! After a frustrating waste of 20 minutes we realise it was at the start and we’d missed it because a local photographer distracted us with a photo opportunity and blah blah. Lesson 1 learnt!
Next stop kayaking down the Luznice all the way back to Bechyne past base camp (big tease) via weirs and challenges. Unsurprisingly we were VERY wet and glad to reach the orienteering and slalom section. Some white water training is definitely required! The slalom was challenging to put it mildly but Mike, along with our super chick Alida, shocked us all by clearing it, and in twilight too. One of many highlights but quite astounding considering he had never done it before! We had a penalty, a 1 km penalty lap for failing this challenge and then went off on what was now night navigation.
Slowly but surely we got through this however the fast teams had had the luxury of daylight and in the slalom section team Old Spice had actually tied one inexperienced member onto the back of another’s kayak, who just happened to be world champion, and he took them both through the slalom! Unbelievable.
Out of Breath
We were all in new territory now and as the early morning approached we were looking forward to the unknown. So goal number one was not to fall in anymore, as being wet and cold whilst paddling at night was something we weren’t looking forward to and we decided to portage around the 3 remaining weirs. Now we were on the last leg of the kayak and made our way downstream enjoying a great abseil where 2 members had to abseil into the kayaks waiting below and climbing/ascending at the next checkpoint where I had a moment (6ft fall) at the top of the ascent.
Finally at 7pm we reached the end of the kayak and embarked on the 10km Trek 2 where we heard we had dropped 10hrs behind Old Spice the race leaders. Did I fail to mention another of their team members came 2nd in the European Championships? No? Oops!
Off we trundled and next stop was a 5km orienteering section in the fields and forest around Na Pradle, a large old farmhouse. The sun was out and this was a great section popping in and out of small ravines knowing that transition was not far away! 26hrs and 1 power nap later we reached transition. And found out 3 teams had already pulled out. We huffed and puffed as quickly as we could and set out on the 25km mountain bike orienteering section. Bliss to be off our feet and this relatively short section whizzed by. One highlight was the Dusman Cross, which we thought was some kind of traverse before we arrived, but in fact Dusman is Czech for ‘out of breath’ and it was a sprint around an exceptionally steep 1km course.
Back to an even quicker transition 2 and news of 3 more withdrawals. It was 18.00 and we had been going for 32hrs. A fairly daunting 70km trek lay ahead! But 1st the small matter of the castle cross and descend. A quick dash to and around the local castle with a great view and a25m abseil from the top off the castle’s tower and we were off again.
The SleepMonsters
Day 2 slowly unwound and night descended and with it the 1st onset off the infamous SleepMonsters! People walking towards us, a car park in the trees and my 2nd favourite a large white arrow at the side of the road that I thought was a member of the KKK! Time to catch another power nap for us all, but it was not to be as one member snored like a freight train and was subsequently told he would be sleeping in the next valley on future sleep stops! After what seemed like ages and having negotiated a town of dogs (don’t ask) we made it to the CP and decided it was time for a proper nap. 1.5 hrs later (it felt like 1.5 mins) and decidedly chillier we set off.
We slogged our way through various checkpoints, confusing a large pond for a river. (Always trust your compass. This ‘river’ was pointing in the wrong direction for the whole wasted 40 mins!) Then well after sunrise we made it to the swim/bladeing checkpoint and embarked on a chilly swim and really painful bladeing section. The road was rutted and to finish the misery off my blades broke. Lesson 2: do not borrow crap blades off your mate. (Damo was ace here especially trying to drag me round on my slow, broken blades.) So 5km later I made it back to base at the same time as the rest of the crew having suffered even more bizarre daytime SleepMonsters and narrowly avoided sleepwalking into a ditch!!
By now we were not happy campers, but a cool lake soaked our weary feet and there was more trekking to get stuck into. A friendly farmer watered us and we charged off … well actually we stumbled off as my feet needed more blister attention. A few more checkpoints passed and we finally reached, what we were later to find out was, the dreaded CP17. Here we made probably our one BIG mistake. We faffed around trying to be clever with route choice and ended up re-tracing our steps. By the time we made the correct choice the sun had gone down and our last power nap 2hrs previously was starting to wear off.
What can I say? We nearly found it but we got lost. At least we gave it a go. 3 teams gave up without trying so that’s something. Anyways we were starting to seriously exhibit signs of zombie ness. Pro plus ... Yep you guessed, it was still in the transition box! So we decided a quick 45mins snooze was in order but this soon became 1.5hrs.and we were frozen.
It was by far the coldest night and unanimously we decided enough was enough. We still had 15km to camp and this was quite possibly the hardest section. Is this because we had given in and subconsciously our minds shut down? I’m sure sports psychologists would have something to say but the body is capable of so much more than we credit it for and it’s the mind that needs to be whipped into shape in these situations.
So in we staggered at 3am having had one final moment of hilarity as Mike leapt 3ft in the air at the sight of an imaginary snake. Priceless! We were glad to be back but disappointed to have got close ...ish. 65hrs was a good effort but we were slightly frustrated that we missed the final ride as once we had gotten off our weary feet we reckon we might have managed it. Maybe not all 110km of it in the time left but a bit more riding would have been nice.
Ahh sleep ...great! All too soon morning came and the last few teams dragged themselves through the finish line. A few were familiar faces whose paths we had crossed many times throughout the 75hrs with always a friendly smile or word. It’s one of the main reasons I think we all love this mad sport.
The winning team was Sk Kp Kylesovice/Opava Net in a fantastic time of 54hrs 45mins. Amazing! And there were some great prizes for the winners including a brand new bike and watch. Also in passing out of 24 teams only 7 finished.
The race was absolutely awesome and we would highly recommend it to anyone. The price is amazing and even with flights it’s probably cheaper than doing the equivalent race over here. We will definitely be returning next year and I want to thank my new team-mates who have gone from strangers on SleepMonsters to mates and great race partners!
One final note ... the porky pies:
PP1 - It’s going to rain
PP2 - The river’s not flowing too much faster than usual
PP3 - You’ll be fine on the weirs
PP4 - The bladeing section is nice flat tarmac
PP5 - The climbing’s easy
PP6 - The race was 300km. No ... 345km!
Anyways see you out there somewhere!
By Ryan Elliott (courtesy of www.sleepmonsters.com)
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