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Adventure Junkie Sprint Adventure Race - Lysterfield

4/27/2015

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by Richelle Olsen - She Science Ambassador
Images:  The amazing ones were taken by Bill Robson.  I'll take credit for the happy snaps!

If you have read some of my previous event blogs, you will find a bit of a common theme....enter an event, biting off more than I can chew, fight off inevitable demons of self induced lows during the race, only to come out at the end of the race victorious in my own head, even if I had come last, or close enough to...but well and truly armed with some life lessons.

Sorry to disappoint, but I loved this race from start to finish, and I didn’t come last!!
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I’d been following Adventure Junkie events for a few years now.  Maria and Serge have always had some amazing sounding events on the calendar, but for some reason or another, I’ve never been able to make one.  But I saw this Lysterfield Sprint Adventure Race on one of my free weekends, and promptly convinced one of my best MTB buddies, Lyndal to join me, and we became Team She Science.
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The event was made up of a 4.5km run/hike, a 8k ish MTB, a 3km kayak, a 1.5km run and finally another 8k MTB.  There was around 60 teams of 2 and everyone is given a map for each of the legs, with checkpoints marked, and you need to work out how to get to them, using tracks, or simply bush-bashing your way through.   
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We were pretty slow on the runs (thanks to me who has run twice in about 5 months!), our bike was pretty good (both Lyndal and I have spent a bit of time on the bike of late), and I’ll tell you bout our paddle a bit later, but our local knowledge of the park well and truly contributed to our success with navigation.  Oh and some assistance up and down a steep and muddy mini-ravine by a burly male team certainly helped our cause – thanks guys!  We convinced ourselves we could have done it alone, but we would have taken 10 times as long, and we would have come out looking like we had a mud bath!
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The paddle was a bit of a task, definitely the hardest leg for 2 girls who don’t paddle!  Who knew that Lysterfield had current and got choppy!  Visions of capsizing in the middle of the lake and not being able to get back on were pushed to the back of our minds most of the time, but our arms were ready to fall off after about 3 minutes!  But a mid lake break for some salted caramel banana lollies did the trick and sent us back on our way.  Quote of the day -  Lyndal: “The girls in that boat look really uncomfortable, and they both have their paddles upside down”  Me:  “But they are beating us...hmmm”  Followed by fits of laughter!  We were well and truly glad to be back under foot power after that!
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After about 4 hours we rode through the big black Adventure Junkie finishers arch, super proud of ourselves, and still smiling like we had been all day!  The smile being even more the wider knowing that there were still a few teams to come in after us!  Wooooo not last!!

This was a super organised event, which was a credit to Maria and Serge and their team of volunteers.  Checkpoints were close enough to where they were meant to be (even if some of them were in sneaky little places like down a ditch!!), and not too difficult for novices like us!  The hamburgers, salad rolls and fruit after the event were definitely a winner for hungry adventure racers!  And what I loved about this event was the range of racers, from the super quick athletes, to the couples where the wife doesn’t even ride a bike, but had been talked into it by her hubby!  And everything inbetween!
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Thanks again to Adventure Junkie, and kudos to their sponsors for helping make it happen:  Shotz Sports Nutrition, SoulRider - Spin Studio, Trailmix Lysterfield Park,360 wellness, Peak Adventure.

We will be back next year!!!

PS.  I just saw the results, and not only did we not come last, we actually came 39th out of 53 teams!!  Much to do with the fact its more important to get checkpoints and be a little slower, rather than miss some, and be fast!  Seems having half a brain helps in these kind of races!!  Wooo!  Over the moon!!

Fitness Clothing Garage Sale

For those of you that are interested, I am organising a Fitness Clothing and Shoes Garage Sale to raise money for White Ribbon.  

We would be grateful to anyone who is keen to have a wardrobe cleanout to donate some of your pre-loved gear!

You can get full details here
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4 Days Bikepacking Buller

4/8/2015

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by Richelle Olsen, She Science Ambassador
What could we do over Easter in Victoria, that is low cost, close to home, and avoids the crowds?

Packing up the bikes and bikepacking through the Mt Buller region of course! Basically circumnavigating the mountain, using 4x4 trails, a Hut to Hut adventure of sorts.  130+kms with over 3,000m of ascent.

  • Starting at our house block at Sawmill Settlement, we climbed up Circuit Rd to TBJ (with a well deserved pit stop at the awesome Epicentre for coffee, coke and cookies!), then down to Pineapple Flat for the night.  32kms.  


  • Day 2 saw plenty of river crossings as we made the climb up Speculation Rd, back on the Circuit Rd for a bit, then down Bindaree Rd with a brief stopover at the Falls, before finishing at Bindaree Hut.   34kms.


  • A visit from the Easter bunny on Day 3 made for an amazing start to an enormous climb up and over Refrigerator Gap, resulting in a dropped lip or 2 from me, and an amazing descent (with some hills thrown in) to Sheepyard Flat and the hoardes of people.  42kms.


  • And the 4th and final day took us climbing up the absolutely deserted Doughtys Rd, with spectacular views back over the West Ridge of Mt Buller, and the peacefulness of having the whole road to ourselves without being dusted out!  After a sharp, abrupt descent, we found ourselves back on the bitumen, with only a short rather sharp hill between us and home.  26kms.

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Sawmill Settlement to Pineapple Flat
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Pineapple Flat to Bindaree Hut
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Bindaree Hut to Sheepyard Flat
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Sheepyard Flat to Sawmill Settlement
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Why?

Do we need a reason?  Haha!  Well aside from cause its fun, and cause we can.....  With our upcoming mammoth ride along the Great Dividing Mountain Bike Route from Canada to Mexico, we figured we had better test our gear to see what works and what doesn’t.  And we had also better test my mind and body as well, as its waaaaaay beyond anything I have ever done before, unlike Shane, who eats 29hr endurance events for breakfast!

Less than ideal bits:

  • The 4x4 traffic – by and large the most annoying thing was getting dusted out as 4x4’s passed us on the roads, with most of them offering a friendly wave, or a few words of support, or stopping on the side for a chat.  It was Easter weekend, so traffic was to be expected!  But there were definitely a few hairy moments of a few morons flying around corners on the wrong side of the road, or passing way too close and fast, but hey there are crazies on all our roads.  Shane was definitely my road guardian, riding in the middle of the road so that the crazy ones would have to slow right down before they got to me!  He’s just lucky he didn’t get squished-ed! 


  • Tent condensation!  No matter what we tried, we still woke with a dripping fly every morning!  Need to work on that one!


  • Coming to the realisation that I am unbelievable uncoordinated!  My feet are covered in cuts and bruises just from walking around the campsite.  And I am still waiting to master the art of getting on the bike on a hill, and well, getting off the bike has ended too many times with a head stem to the pubic bone.  But to my credit – no stacks!  Shane just thinks that I approach most tasks in an unco way – and I now admit he is right!  Oh and I can’t squat with my heels on the ground....  


  • Trying to go back to work after this kind of blissful weekend

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Best Bits:

  • How long have you got!  The absolute feeling of freedom knowing that you are free to go anywhere, and sleep where you can find a flat spot – being absolutely self reliant, with the only proviso being that we needed to access a river every day or so.  The feeling of rolling into a campsite on just your bike is such a liberating thing!


  • The deserted bush tracks – for some reason some of the tracks we chose had almost no traffic – it felt like we had the world to ourselves!  I cannot count the amount of times I exclaimed “This is so beautiful!”


  • The feeling of knowing that at the end of the day, I’d gotten over that mountain entirely under my own steam.


  • The amazing encouragement and support I got from Shane all weekend.  From luring me up hills with offerings of food, riding alongside me at my very slow pace, and riding to the top of the 2km steep grind up to Refrigerator Gap, so he could park his bike and come back down and take mine (which I was pushing) off me just to make it easier.  Oh and what he called his strength training.....riding alongside me, and keeping his bike heading straight as he pushed me with one hand up some of the hills (even while recovering from a nasty shoulder injury from his own bike stack a week ago!).  And bless him, when I did throw the toys out of the pram towards the end of a very long day 3, he promised me that he would put them all back in the pram when I was sleeping that night......I’m a very lucky girl!
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  • Making friends with fellow campers with campfires!  As theres little room on the bikes for firewood or a chainsaw on the bike, the generosity of strangers was very welcome, especially when they take our rubbish, and provide us with a warm bucket of water for washing dishes...its the little things!


  • Camp food no matter how basic, tastes AMAZING after a big day on the bike!


  • The weather – it was amazing!  The first night was pretty chilly, but otherwise, mild and sunny/overcast all weekend – perfect cycling and camping conditions!


  • Wearing 1 set of riding clothes and socks for 4 days, just cause we could!  And we didn’t even really smell that bad.  Maybe we were just used to it!


  • Knowing that this was just a tiny taste of the freedom we are about to experience once we hit Canada in 3 months time!

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Gear List

Bikes/racks and bags:

Shane – Giant Anthem 29er dual suspension, with a Bike Bag Dude Large Handlebar roll, a Thule Pack ‘n Pedal Tour rack  and 2 hot pink Ortlieb back roller panniers (he's telling everyone they are mine!).  He was carrying around 22kg of extra gear, including water.

Richelle – Trek Fuel eX 8 dual suspension, with an Oveja Negra Seatpost Bag, and a dry bag attached to the handlebars with and occy strap.  She also carried a small Salomon backpack with 3L water.  Mine was around 7kgs of extra gear.
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Sleeping Gear – all packed into Shane’s Bike Bag Dude Handlebar roll:

Mont Moondance EX 3 tent 
Mont Prolite 250 sleeping bag (half bag – no down on the bottom) 
Western Mountaineering Ultralite sleeping bag
2 x Exped Synmat UL inflatable sleeping mat 
Exped Airpillow 
Other gear:

2 spare tubes, chain lube, bike tools,  Jetboil stove + gas, Sea to Summit collapsible bowls and cups, Sporks, cleansing wipes, Ay Up lights, Body Glide. 

Shane’s clothes:

1 x cycling knicks and shirt
OR Helium Jacket 
Patagonia Ultralight Down jacket
La Sportiva lightweight windproof layer
Thermal top and bottoms
Boardies
Thongs
Buff


Richelle’s clothes:

1 x cycling knicks and shirt
Patagonia Torrentshell jacket
Patagonia Nano-puff hoodie
Snowgum lightweight hiking trousers
Thermal bottoms
Nike baselayer top
Feetures Elite light no-show socks 
Shock Absorber Ultimate Run Bra 
Buff
Thongs
4 Days worth of food

Dinners:
Backcountry freeze dried meals 
Deb dried mash potato, with olive oil and milk powder
Safcol Salmon Pouches (Mild Red Chili) with 2 minute noodles
Cookies
Weight Watchers instant choc pudding

Breakfasts:
Uncle Toby’s plain porridge sachets with sultanas, tea and coffee with powdered milk

Lunches:
Air dried salami, Laughing Cow cheese, Babybel cheese, Tortillas

Snacks:
Ginger nut biscuits, Nuts, seeds, sultanas and choc chip scroggin mix, Snakes, Museli bars, bag of small easter eggs
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    Shane 

    Hutton  

    Shane's an ultra runner and La Sportiva Ambassador, with a taste for adventure, always up for a new and different challenge.  


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  • Home
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