Cape to Cape 2017

Back around again after missing last year’s event (due to Freddy’s precarious in utero situation we were unable to go further than 20 mins from the maternity hospital) we were back again with most of the usual rabble to watch the boys beast themselves for 4 days.

Dave, Andy, Tom, Simon and Rhys were the contenders this year and it was Kate’s turn to be pregnant while supporting!

The boys all put in a very good effort but of course Tom came out top of our lot and I think 12th overall which, out of 1500 riders, is rather good going.

It was the C2C 10 year anniversary so it was very well subscribed by weekend warriors and pros alike.

Us girls and kids took up the roll of race support and watched starts and most finishes.

My turn next year!

Dwellingup 60

Off to Dwellingup we go!
This time not only did Rach come too but we camped in the main Dwellingup campsite which boasts flushing loos and showers!

Unfortunately I had a cold so was bad company for the Fords who were spending the weekend with us too. Tom managed a great result with 1st in his category in the 100km and Dave did brilliantly with 4th in his category for the 60km (he did the 100 before and says it is too dull to do the full 100).

We went to visit the old POW camp for the first time and unfortunately there was not too much to see but some interesting info nonetheless.

Of course there was a fire and toasted marshmallows to go with it.

I'm looking forward to giving the 100km a go next year despite the potential boredom.

Nanga Challenge 2017

Inspired by Rich Bannister’s efforts in the UTMB, Dave decided he ought to get off his bottom and do the Nanga Challenge. Rhys was already entered so the Marshalls, Jameses and Smiths headed to Nanga Mill Friday afternoon in time to set up camp before the race on Saturday morning. For some reason Andy was not racing and was team mascot instead.

We camped at Nanga Mill in Dwellingup which is fast becoming a regular spot. There is a creek at the bottom (where the kids love to build dams and get as many clothes wet as possible), Turner Hill is not far for a 10km MTB loop and there is plenty of dirt for the babies to eat.

The race on Saturday morning consisted of a 15km river paddle (7.5 downstream then back up again), 30km MTB and a 12km run. From what the boys said it will probably not be redone as the courses were less than exciting, but at least the Murray has now been paddled.

We had a jaffle contest for dinner Saturday night. Rhys, as usual, went all out and produced a beef Wellington jaffle! It was excellent though I was very happy with my rather less labour intensive Camembert and bacon. Ellis of course went cheeseless and had beans and mushrooms.

There were dessert jaffles too with apples, cinnamon, raisin toast and rhubarb etc. the kids were happy toasting marshmallows over the 2 fires we had going.

Sunday morning Sara and I went for a bike at Turner Hill. Andy and Dave had bets going that we would not find it. What a fuss over nothing; we found it with no difficulty at all and there was only one comedy stack by Sara thanks to some pea gravel and a black boy!

JP and Helen arrived Saturday morning with Roman and Byron to add to the feral kid count. Only one (Paw Patrol) toy lost to the river and only one Freddy brick eaten by Alfie the dog!

Thanks everyone for a great weekend.

Bye Bye Will

Will is sadly leaving us to go back to Blighty for good. As a last bash he organised a mini race for all of us. He found a cool phone App call Loquiz where he set out an orienteering type course with a three hour time limit. Different check points were worth different amounts depending on their difficulty. We had a choice of how we got to them, Running, biking, paddling or however else you wanted.

teams of two, i was paired with Jo. Three hours and the rest you can see below. A very good fun afternoon – some racing competitively others not so much……

after the race we all retired to the pubs and then onto a gig where the night got messy.

: the man of the hour

: everyone trying to get the App to work which had the course on it

: the idiots

: I got drawn to be with Jo as a team mate. lucky we both had the same idea

: and they are off, this was the north side of the river

: Will had designed a swim into the course as well

: which was in the middle of the boating lane

: jo avoiding boats in the Swan river

: the idea we both had

: hard racing, those crisps were heavy!

: this is how Mark and Ackers did the race, inside someones car! they called it initiative, we call it cheating!

: Jo in the green beast checking out the cliff

: Balck Wall reach boat stashing

: Will climbing up the cliffs

: Me jo and Will

: Paddling back to try and make the cut off

: Will arriving Back

: Mak and I about to get stuck into a few post race beers

: at the end and happy

: all the wives and kids popped down and enjoyed post race drinks and BBQ

: The Smiths

A weekend in Dunsborough to support Denise and her team in the Busso half ironman

The Fords invited us down to Dunsborogh for the weekend so we could help out with Evie and Amara and cheer on Denise in her 90 km stint of the Busso half.

It was an ace weekend of activities with the kids and shouting near the transition for Denise. The team put in a sterling effort and Denise could even walk today!

Representing North Coast TC and raising money for muscular dystrophy.

Evie and Ellis holding hands in the car.

Oh look! Dave is a climbing frame, how unusual!
Saturday was spent at a lighthouse, the beach and drawing in a spectacular location by sugarloaf rock. We also got to watch a seal playing around and pod of dolphins frolicking in the ocean surf. Can’t go past a tree without scaling it…

Many attempts to scale the lighthouse walls.

Dave having a short rest in the sunshine.

Ellis and Amara hunted for shells.

Hunting for beasties in Rockpools was fruitless but fun.

Great friends.

Colouring with a view.

Off to climb.

Ellis and Dave at the top.

We also learned a valuable lesson on beer storage at Occy’s while enjoying lunch!

Ellis still goes in for a kiss with a cracking pout!
Tom still sporting his shiner after using his face as a brake last week on Whore no More.

And we went to feed the farm animals in the rain. Evie was petrified at first but by the time she had been round the bunnies, Guinea pigs and parrots was less fearful of the llamas, goats and sheep!

This parrot never goes near women… So spent most of its time on Dave’s shoulders.

The llama in the background shortly after this was taken barged past the other animals and stole Ellis’ bucket of carrots. We were in fits, she was less impressed!!

Perhaps this sheep had a heavy night.

A great family weekend away.

Longest ocean swim!

Denise persuaded me to take part in the Sorrento OWS for Australia Day. It was 1.25km which was short compared with the 2.5, 5 and 10km options! We both survived despite a lack of sighting buoys; we both went a little too far out but I think Denise won the off course comp after being repeatedly asked by the boats to “head back towards shore”!

I am very pleased to have made it and not panicked too much (even when tickled by a stinger) and am actually looking forward to this weekend’s Olympic distance in Busso.

The Avon Descent 2014

So the time had come, the time to put my training to the test and actually do the race. My team-mate Rhys, Will and I set off after work on Friday to head up to Northam where the race starts to have our gear scrutineered. Once we had collected the registration packs we dropped off our skis in the start zone for them to be ready in the morning.

There was a few there!!!!!! It was still pretty early so we thought we might as well go and see what goes off in Northam on a Friday night…. The answer – not much!!!!

We ended up in pub which I thought had karaoke on the go, turns out it was a band……. after a few pint it was time to head back, as we walked out the pub next door had three blokes escorted out with handcuffs on by the local plod. Northam is a great place to have go on a Friday night.

Waking up on saturday was fun. I am still pretty resilient from the cold from living in Scotland, but the others I was with could not stop going on and on and on about how cold it was.

Yes it was icy but you would have thought it was the start of the next ice age the way they were all wearing everything they owned. Once the sun had burnt through the fog it warmed up quick. Off to the start line we went

people were set off in groups of 10 in 30 second intervals. I was doing the next leg so got to watch them all go. The first obstacle was Northam weir. A 10m concrete chute that turned a lot of people sideways and caused a lot of pile ups

Will above in the green ski. He managed to keep it straight and got away clean. Rhys ended in a bit more of a pile up! (red helmet and blue tshirt)

Once they had all gone through it was time for me to jump in the car and get down the road to get ready for the change over with Rhys. He had 25km odd of paddling so I had a few hours so wasn’t in a rush. I go there on time and soaked up the atmosphere. I never realised how big an event it was as there where literally hundreds of folk out cheering and watching all the racers.

Once I had changed over with Rhys I had about another 25km for my leg. This past fairly eventless as the first day is fairly flat water, I just had the tea trees to contend with. As people were so spread out by this point it was no hassle. I was definitely glad that I had practised them as otherwise navigation would have been interesting! Day 1 done. 50km down, 75 to go.

It was time to build a fire, try to dry the clothes out as much as possible and sink a few cold ones……

A great evening was passed just sharing stories of the day and meeting other racers around a fire. To bed early, the fun day was on sunday so didn’t want to get too carried away with over indulging. Another clear night.

I woke up to sounds of more thin blooded locals ” Jeez how bloody cold is it?!!?!?” and ” streuth I am freezing my balls off” etc…. where commonly heard phrases. I must admit it wasn’t pleasant getting out of my snuggly warm sleeping bag into my wet paddling clothes from the day before when it was 1C outside.

Once up and ready to rock – Will and I went down to the start.

6:30 am and ready to go!!!!! Today was the fun day, the rapids! excitement and nerves in equal measurements. We all lined up in our heats from the previous day seedings and quickly we were off. The only real cold part now was numb hands but that was soon forgotten going into the last section of tea trees elbows out ready for battle!

And battle it was, there were people rammed into the sides and then swinging out and blocking the river, people trying to paddle of the top of them, people up trees, massive pile ups and other trying to avoid it all dragging their boats along the shore.

I got through with a moderate amount of success, I didn’t ram any one too hard, wasn’t rammed my self too hard and didn’t have to do any swimming so a success.

It took a while for the sun to burn off the fog, the picture above is just after existing the tea trees, and it is actually a colour picture! Was pretty surreal. Soon the sun was burning off the fog and warmth started to return through the body, with this, energy and a determined spirit to get a move on!

The rapids were great fun, people all over the place, a good high level of water than my previous attempts made them a little less of a rock banging episode. I got to the Big rapids called ‘Emu’s’ and had to wait there for 5 minutes for a red flag (safety teams red flag when there is a rescue in process), others got out their boats and ran around which was probably faster, but I wanted to paddle these rapids.

I got through the first section fine,no problems, then it all went a bit pear-shaped and I went for a swim!

Once spat out the other end and resurfacing, paddle check, yes! I held onto it, Surf ski check – oh bugger where was it!?!?!?!?! looked back up the rapids and there is was stuck on a rock getting smashed around by the current. The safety crew were on it quickly and pushed it off the rock and it leisurely floated back down the river and I was reunited with it. Remount and head off!!!

It was great fun, I was nailing most of the rapids, then all of a sudden a women in front of me some how start to turn sideways, a bit of vigorous paddle stroking and I was on a path to avoid her, but something felt weird. My brain registered a loud noise and then I noticed it.

Bugger! I didn’t have the spare as was recommended as I couldn’t find one cheap enough and I thought it would never happen to me. Lesson learnt!

I had 6 kms to my change over with Rhys. In a strange way it was fun going into the rapids with a one-sided paddle, if they were straight or left-handed I was ok as I still had my left paddle to brace with. Right handers I was back in swimming!

I got to Rhys no worries, albeit a little slower, swapped out and he was off. I then ate some food, chucked my ski onto the roof and set off to meet him at the next change over. Rhys had the second half of the rapids to do and appeared with a huge grin on his face having the same level of enjoyment as I got. we swapped over and I set off on the mind numbing flat water paddle for 20km to finish my part of the race.

It was boring! I managed to get tucked in behind a bit double kayak that was setting a good pace and wash rode them for a good while. The 20km I did finally came to an end and that was my race completed. Rhys just had to suffer his portion of the flat water paddle to Bayswater and the race end.

I drove down there to meet his and Lara and Ellis and 5 or 6 other friends all down there waiting for us on the river banks. Pleased it was over, a great race, and I have a horrible feeling I will give it a go solo next year….

Dunsborough for the X adventure

The bug has well and truly bitten. I had entered the Dunsborough X adventure race a few months ago. With Lara’s new found love of this multisport stupidity – she entered the mid length course as well. So the weekend turned into a family affair. The Prudens where our weekends camping companions with Amanda racing with Lara on the Saturday.

We spent a lovely weekend down in Dunsborough which is a stunning place. The beaches, coastline and national forest are all stunning and a place I want to explore more of!

Once again Lara shone, she finished fourth! This is after overcoming a pretty chopping open water swim, then a coastal run and a mtb ride. A stunning effort and she now wants to concentrate on getting her swimming better over the winter to start causing some real damage next season!

I am happy with my result, I came 23rd out of 160 odd and beat my target time by 20 minutes so happy there. Other than racing there was a lot of time with the children running around the campsite on their balance bikes and playing on beaches. a lovely weekend. See pictures below.

How can you do a triathlon when you can’t swim….?!?!?!?!

Up until about two weeks ago – Lara couldn’t swim, let alone put her head under water. Not sure what happened, but she suddenly decided that she wanted to do a triathlon and somehow magically found the powers to swim and even put her head under the water. Honestly extremely impressed and proud of her, to go and do a 750m open water swim in the ocean is such an achievement for her it is amazing. She finished the Sprint Length triathlon (750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run) in 1hr 22minutes coming 13th out of her field of 80 odd. She came out of the water 5th last….. I think she would be dangerous when she practises her swim a little more. She said she loved it and was keen for more – i think we have created a monster!