Gibbs Hill Challenge 2015: Using toddlers to break a record

The Gibbs Hill Challenge is an awesome race centred in Takaka. It's a great excuse to visit Golden Bay and temporarily escape life as a townie. We decided to make a weekend of it, hiring a Bach in Pohara. Nothing beats a morning paddle across Wainui Bay followed by an afternoon in front of the fire.

Zack likes me to be well prepared for my races these days so despite a 9am start he was insistent on a 5am wake up. Three year olds can be so thoughtful.



Cutting a long story short we woke to a big freeze. Overnight rain and a frost had made for cool conditions for the first ride. Soon enough Walter started us off onto the first 23km bike to Wainui Bay. My cold legs suffered with the pace but a brisk 41minutes had the first 3 of us in transition. Dismounting the bike I was prepared for a slick transition on the fly hoping to start running on my own. A quick loop of the transition revealed that Rach had not yet arrived. Bugger! So my wish to run out of TA solo was granted albeit in the wrong direction. I now began a search for Rach and my running shoes guided by the noise of two irate toddlers. Transitioning out of the stroller I began the run with an extra dose of aggression and time to make up. Character building one could say.



The 21km run goes out of Wainui bay uphill to a saddle below Gibbs Hill then down to Wharewharangi, undulating its way to Totaranui.  From here it rises steeply to the top of Gibbs Hill before dropping back to the fore mentioned saddle and Wainui Bay then the bikes. Knowing time was lost I ran harder than planned to the saddle hoping to catch a glimpse of those in front. Not seeing a sole I asked a SAR volunteer what the gap was to the next runner. "Oh not too far" he said. Internally disagreeing with his feedback (The gap appeared much more to me) I pushed the same intensity down to Wharewharangi where more volunteers were stationed hoping to make some time up. Feeling considerably worse for wear I again asked the burning question  this time rephrasing "how far  ahead is the leader". "You are the leader" she said. Un f@!kingbelievable I thought to myself. Anyhow, it had set me up for a good run provided I didn't blow.

Which I didn't....but plenty of suffering went down climbing up Gibbs Hill from Totaranui. Soon enough I was back on the bike and feeling as good as can be expected on the ride back to Takaka. With such a beautiful course this was the time I managed to soak some of it in and enjoy feeling warm on the bike.

Finishing strong and without any further mishaps I had managed a win and also managed to take a couple of minutes of the record. This was great news for Rach after our transition whoopsie earlier and shows that a bit of aggression can occasionally help fuel a decent performance! Crewing with Toddlers however is highly "not recommended"!.

Many thanks to Rach & Shirley for organising 3 boys for the race and to my trusty sponsors for helping my race happen. Thermatech, Torpedo7, Rasdex, Legend paddles & Migym Nelson.

3D Rotorua, Queens Birthday 2015

I've now completed four out of the five 3D Rotorua events. Its always been a good weekend to catch up with family, enjoy the Rotorua bike trails and enjoy one of the most relaxed races regarding logitics I've experienced. It really is an easy race to get organised for.

My previous 6 weeks of training had gone really well. Erring on the side of less training to better balance work and kids had paid off. I'd raced well in the Crazyman as well as the St Clair half Marathon. Last weeks defeat to Rich Ussher in our local duathlon had been a timely trip back to earth ahead of 3D. Going into the race I felt strong and confident of a good hard race.

Starting at a leisurely 10:45 the race start was far from leisurely. Dan Busch, Travis Mitchell and Sam Clark set the early pace leaving Rich, myself and Aaron Cox fighting amongst the slop. Setting into a good rhythm we completed the two laps almost 90secs behind Dan and Travis and about a minute behind Sam who had been sliced off the wash on a buoy.

Hitting the beach I shifted my focus to a slick transition and with help from my brother in Law Mark we did just that.The bike course from Blue Lake follows the edge of the road before ducking into the Whakarewarewa Forest trails. Its an uphill 2km section that I've previously experienced cold legs (paddling a ski) and felt fairly rubbish while riding. This time was a different story. The legs felt good so I pushed hard for the first few k's catching my first glimpse of Dan Busch and Sam Clark as I neared the highest point of the ride. Next up was the "corners" trail and so much fun I forgot I was racing for a few moments. On this section I managed to pass Dan Busch and caught another glimpse of Sam who I hadn't made any further progress on. Sticking to the plan I shifted the focus back to my riding and rode alone for another 10minutes. At this stage I caught a glimpse of Rich chasing me down. Nothing like being hunted to fuel the motivation!

A further 10 minutes went by before Rich inevitably caught me and set about hunting down Sam. I concentrated on holding his wheel with Sam now only 15secs ahead. Several minutes ticked by with no change in the gap, until a couple of changes swung the race slightly in my direction. Rich succumbed to an awkward root giving me a chance to get past and seizing the opportunity to reestablish a gap I picked up the pace. The lift in speed dropped the gap to Sam in a matter of minutes. For the next 15 or so minutes I let Sam set the pace and concentrated on staying in touch, riding into transition right on his wheel. This transition can be a little chaotic as duathletes ahead create disturbance to gear, shoes are shifted etc. I had Mark in transition with the sole purpose of ensuring my shoes were where I left them and it paid off. Another slick shoe change and I ran out 1st, Sam trailing by a couple of seconds.

The run was a race of two halves, a short half and a long half. Mentally the short half was more taxing than the long one.
Half One: Out of TA I ran as fast and smooth as possible. I didn't look back, instead listening for breathing. By the top of the hill (quite a grunt for those uninitiated) feeling quite happy with myself I allowed a brief look back. Disappointingly Sam was only 50m back. Ah shit....another one of these races. Its going to hurt. After such disappointing feedback I took the option least tempting for my legs. Increase the pace again for the downhill.

 Compliments, Dscribe Media

Half two: By the bottom of the hill I had a sense there was a gap but was not in the headspace to look back. If I ran as fast as I could looking back was of no benefit. As I ran through for lap 1 feedback confirmed there was indeed a gap but I wasn't taking any chances and pushed right to the end.

Compliments, Dscribe Media

It was a great finish and awesome to finally win 3D after a four year apprenticeship. Stoked!

A big thanks to my loyal family/ support crew for motivating me all the way, and to my awesome sponsors: Topedo7, Thermatech, Rasdex and Legend Paddles. Without amazing support its impossible to have an amazing race!




Nelson Mail report:
Nelson Multisport Dominance reinforced in Rotorua

Hutt City Crazyman, May 3rd 2015

For a couple of reasons I'd been looking forward to this race for a while. The combination of catching up with some good mates in Wellington and several traveling from Nelson made for an attractive draw card. Couple this with a course I hadn't raced before and I was excited about the race.

We woke on Sunday to a cracker day. Stuff all wind, mild temperature and clear skies. With the boys in the van along with Rach and my good mate Simon we headed to the start.

The Race....

The Le Mans start involved a brief 300m run to our boats and comprehensive feedback as to why I haven't pursued sprinting as a sport. Once at the boats though the combination of Simon holding my boat and having a surfski saw me 2nd off the beach. My start couldn't have gone any better. Soon into my rhythm and heading around the bays to the Hutt river mouth I had two kayaks on my wash, one of whom was Glen Muirhead. Slightly ahead was up & coming k1 racer Kurtis Imrie. After a couple of k's Kurtis seemed to be waiting for us so I took the opportunity to get onto his wash. By this time I was a little confused as to where Dan Busch was but chose not to dwell on it for too long. As it happened Dan had rudder trouble on the start and paddled out of his skin (just a normal day for Dan) to catch up about 5km into the paddle. From here the course did an out and back to the Petone wharf before heading up the Hutt river to Sladden park. Kurtis put a decent burst in close to the river mouth separating the group leaving me on my own in 3rd. Shortly after I entered TA 40 seconds back on Dan and a minute behind Kurtis.

I was quickly through TA and onto my bike.....or was I. I'd been having trouble with my gears for the last few days and thought I had them sorted but after 2-3 pedal strokes my chain snapped under not much load. Damn. Running back into TA Rich Ussher had seen my predicament and offered to help. Yes please. With me being too pumped on adrenaline Rich calmly threaded the chain through the rear derailer while I found my quick link. What I found wasn't pretty and a tad embarrassing. In all my multisport days I've never broken a chain and had never been diligent enough to replace the link. It was so rusted that I had to pry the 2 pieces apart. Anyway, we managed to rejoin the chain and carefully then hastily I set off only to arrive at obstacle number 2 for the day. Michael had just released onto the Hutt river trail 100+ duathlon entrants setting the scene for what was to be a 5km overtaking maneuver. I have never shouted "on your right" so many times ever.
By the time I reached the climb up Boulder Hill I was more tired than I wanted to be but with no sign of Busch there was plenty of work to do. The climb went well until shortly before the top when my rusty link gave way. Now I really was up against it. I started running uphill thinking I'd glide the downhills, run the uphills and all would be well. Fuzzy thinking. There was too much undulation and flat riding to get any speed without a chain so I began asking duathletes if they had a link I could have. No one did. After a few of these I stopped asking and settled into a run but was shortly caught bSy a friendly chap (who I've since forgotten his name) who offered me a link. What a legend. So with link in hand I slowly and carefully threaded the chain and connected it. A quick check of the gears without load and I shot off on my way. Luke Osbourne had passed me recently so my new objective was to catch him before the end of the race. The chance of catching Buschy I thought was long gone....until that is at the base of the last climb I looked up and could make out both Buschy and Luke close together. Game on.

With the last km of the mountain bike sharing the same track as the first of the run I got a decent idea of how far behind I was. Simon and Rach confirmed in TA that I was about a minute behind. Onto the run I controlled my pace so I didn't burn out too quickly coming off the bike. The first climb came up quick and looking up I could see the boys up ahead. I figured if I was to catch them at all it would be going up as they are both decent flat/ downhill runners. With a couple of hard bursts I caught them at the top and headed off in the lead. Immediately I felt better and got into a good rhythm for the remaining 45minutes to Petone Wharf for the finish. It had been an eventful day for all and a more than honest course. I was stoked to have turned my mechanical disadvantages around and finish in the right spot.

A big thanks to my mate Simon and wife Rach for awesome work as support crew. Thanks to Rich Ussher for his mechanical help in transition and my unnamed chainlink donor. Without them the day would have been much different.

Thanks also to my loyal sponsors: Thermatech, Torpedo7, Rasdex and Legend Paddles who make my racing possible. 

Coast to Coast 2015

Well....it was only a few months ago! Time has flown and I've been particularly slack on my Blogs due to plenty going on. Given that several people have asked why I haven't written about the race I'll put a quick retrospective report in here. Its brief and to the point.

My build up for this years race was solid. My training weeks were concise but I felt there was enough quality in there for a good race. I'd had some great company on the course with Dan Busch and Nathan Fa'avae recently and hadn't overcooked myself on any given week. Mentally I was pretty relaxed.

Race Day: The start line was more of a comedy festival than the start of a serious race. In the short space of 2 minutes Nath had taken the micky out of several contenders and we were all enjoying a bit of a laugh. Rich Ussher announced "2 minutes to go". Nath quickly corrected "No, there's actually more like 12 hours to go" and more laughter erupted.

Before long Juddy sounded the hooter and we were off. A slightly shorter run than usual saw us at the bikes in a lung bursting 7 minutes and enjoying the bliss of a transition under lights. Onto the bikes a 1st bunch quickly formed including Braden Currie, Sam Clark, Dan Busch, Hamish Flemming, Pete Smallfield and a few others making 11 altogether. No Nathan Fa'avae.......must still be cracking jokes I thought to myself. The ride went well for me but there was always the question of how much sting a cold headwind will take out of you.

Aitkens transition was again much improved and well organised. I was fast through TA and into my stride. I've never felt great on these first few kilometers with today being no exception. Ahead of me were Braden,  Sam Clark and Sam Manson. Close behind was Flavio. Finding my Rhythm I quickly passed Sam Manson and started looking ahead to Sam Clark who was about 30seconds ahead. At the time I thought Sam & I were running the same speed and that with some effort I'd catch him as I've done before on this course. What ensued was the opposite. Sam gradually pulled away and after 30minutes I couldn't see him. I wasn't feeling on form and the head wind was eating away at me. By Doreen Creek I knew I wasn't having my usual run and felt wobbly and off form. Flavio was on my tail with Sam not far back. I stopped worrying about speed and focused more on eating, drinking and keeping smooth. Unfortunately I couldn't manage the latter and stumbled my way to Goat Pass. I had a long run down with Sam and Flavio getting ahead after the pass. They were on a mission....my legs missed the memo! Into Klondyke however fortunes changed yet again. Flavio was limping into TA and Sam had broken his chain getting on the bike.

Onto the bike I had no interest whatsoever in going fast and invested my time in eating solid food and drinking. Hamish Flemming passed me on a mission.

The run down to Mt White bridge was the first time I'd felt hot all day and I made a decision that I believe changed the course of my day. I stripped off my arm warmers opting to paddle in a short sleeve top. We had a great transition onto the water and I set off in 3rd spot. Sam and Braden were 15-20mins ahead with Hamish just behind. Within 10 minutes the Southerly cut deep and I cursed myself about ditching the arm warmers. My arms were cold. Still I paddled well to Gooseberry Stream and felt strong.

After Gooseberry Stream however I started getting cold. Not just the arms but the legs. I knew that if my legs were getting cold that my body temp in general was cooling off. With no one near behind or close in front I drifted into a state of plod. I was paddling at tempo but I certainly wasn't paddling like someone who wanted to tear the river to pieces. The worst thing about this state is that you rarely realise that you are in it...you just are. Valuable seconds dripped by and I didn't realise the paddling potential that I know I have. At the time however though I thought I was doing well......that was until Nath caught me up 25minutes from the end---and passed me. Shit Trev, you're paddling like a f@#king muppet I said to myself. Harden the f#@k up and paddle like a man. So I kind of woke up and padded with conviction for the remaining 25 minutes. Nath was just in front and I used him like a yardstick until at one braid junction we took different chutes. I lost sight of him and figured his chute was faster. Damn. So I paddled faster.

Two corners from the end he caught me again cursing in the process something about gravel rash on his bum. So we entered the Gorge Bridge TA together and ran to the bikes. I knew if I was to have any chance here I'd need to hit the bike first, and that's what I did opening a small gap of 40 seconds.

The final ride was a bit of a blur but the equation was simple. Ride 70km as quickly as possible and you can have a beer. I knew Nath was back there somewhere and was confident of holding my position until the last 10km where the real hurt began. I didn't have the confidence to look back. Like Luke Skywalker I didn't need to look. I could feel his presence. Bastard.

Anyway, cutting to the end I held on and only lost a few seconds in the final 20km. The mind can do cruel things to a tired body. I was stoked to have made the podium. Braden and Sam were miles ahead in a league of their own but given my body's lack of fire that day it was a more than satisfying outcome.

A big thanks to my Support crew: Pete (Dad), Mark, Patrick & Ian. We had a great day. Big thanks also to my loyal sponsors: Torpedo7, Thermatech, Legend Paddles and Rasdex.

Wulong Mountain Quest, 23rd-26th August 2014

I always approach the Wulong Quest with a degree of respect. With elements of weather, altitude and dodgy buffet food having played their parts in previous races being the fittest team isn't all that determines success.

Although my build this year lacked the mileage, I'd done plenty of shorter faster work, an area where I always tend to be weak. I knew Rich & Elina had managed some good training in Europe and Stu was fit as he always is making for us being another solid line up. What follows is a brief account of the race as I saw it.

Prologue: Waking on the morning of the prologue my belly gave an all too familiar rumble. Not a rumble to be proud of. A visit to the toilet revealed an acute intolerance to "chinese grease". Determined not to dig my hole any deeper I swore myself off the hotel food until the race was over.

The prologue itself went much better than the dunny. Consisting of a 1km uphill run, 500m chair carry (bamboo chair, boys carry girl), 4km Biathlon, 6km bike, and a 1km run it lasted all of 42mins. Although not the sharpest team there we worked well as a team coming in 7secs behind Toread and 35secs behind Adventure Sport NZ. Dougal, Braden, Glen and Jess were again in great form and would be the team to beat.


Stage 1: 6km run, 8km kayak, 40km bike (including blow dart challenge), 6km run/abseil.
 
With my belly still not feeling 100% I had no idea how day 1 would pan out. I had my fingers crossed for a good day.

The day started deep in a canyon dwarfed by the 100m cliff tops overhead. A mad start is nothing out of the ordinary in Wulong but when Rich stepped into a thigh deep hole (masked by murky water) and wrenched his knee it wasn't what I had in mind. For us the pace rapidly slowed as Rich got his leg to work again and we established a new rhythm. Entering transition to the boats we could see the lead teams no more than a minute ahead which was good under the circumstances.

With the kayaks being a place where we were all happy it was good to get underway on the reservior. In the safe steering hands of Stu I focussed on paddling hard while allowing some brief moments of amusement at the steering misfortunes of others. I've been there before and its a sure thing method to add distance and time to your day. To complete this section we needed to paddle two return lengths of the reservior to exit where we started giving a couple of opportunities to time check on leading teams. As it happened we stayed the same distance behind ASNZ and Toread and worked our way into third.

Quickly onto the bikes we managed to out transition Peak adventure who had paddled like madmen to stick around giving a vital gap. Peak adventure challenged on the main climb for the day but didn't reach us in time for the rugged downhill that would lead into the blowdart challenge. Our plan for the downhill was simple....ride fast but within ourselves. Let the other teams take risks. Passing Toread with a puncture part way down the hill was not only pleasing but reassuring that we weren't too far off the pace and before long we glided into a carpark for the blowdart challenge. The task - 10 darts, one balloon. Pop it! Rich quickly took control and before I'd opened my food he'd popped the balloon with his second dart. Awesome. Back on the bikes for another 90mins....or so they said. The remainder of the ride went to plan apart from the fact that 90mins became 105. Such is China.

The planned cave section for the day had been cancelled due to high water so we were left with pretty much the same run but without the cave and a 40m abseil at the end. I suffered through this section and by the abseil I was only too happy to dangle off a rope and take a load off even if just for a few seconds. Off the abseil we had a 15minute run down the gorge on slippery Chinese steps. Toread were close behind so we pegged our ears and secured 2nd for the stage and 2nd overall. It had been a solid day and we were happy with 2nd.

Stage 2: 20m abseil, 40km mtb, 9km Gorge run, 16km paddle

Different start today. Two of us needed to abseil and swim off a bridge to meet the others at the mountainbikes. Not being the greatest swimmer I certainly didn't fight for the role so Stu and Rich did the honours.

The boys had a good swim and ran up soon after Braden and Jess. Transitioning smooth again we took off after them sneaking ahead of Toread. Full credit to them, Toread were moving well and had soon overtaken us and had set a new pace. Until Marcel rode off the road dropping 2m into vegetation. Quickly checking he was ok we set about maintaining pace with Black Dirt Adventure, reflecting on how peaceful it was. The organsised this stage as a big 700m climb. Try 1500m! 2/3 of the way up Toread caught us once again and after some impatient moments started easing ahead. I was suffering by this point and just doing enough to stay with the the team. The downhill when it finally arrived was bliss and I managed to recoup some vital evergy.

With Toread only seconds ahead we headed transitioned and headed into the gorge for 9km of rock running, abseiling and swimming. It was great too cool off and do some bombs for a while. It was the type of stage I love the most so spent plenty of time in front route finding and setting pace. Despite moving smoothly through the gorge it was clear that we'd lost time on Toread and ASNZ in front of us. They were all slick runners in the rough.

With Black Dirt Adventure hot in pursuit we transitioned into the boats for the stage's final section. 16km of flatwater reservior paddling. Paving the were truckloads of polystyrene, plastic and and floatable rubbish imaginable. Welcome to China.

Hardly a word was spoken over the next 90minutes. We all set about a rhythm and worked through the distance praying for breeze at times and thanking its arrival at others. Despite the heat and humidity the end came as predicted and we finished the stage 7minutes behind Toread for 3rd. They had been too quick in the gorge. We were now 3rd overall, but only 80secs behind Toread in 2nd. Tomorrow would be another hard fight!


Stage 3: 2km run, 12km downriver paddle, 22km mtb, 24km run.

After 3 days of racing everyone is sore and tired. Everyone knows what needs to be done. With a staggered start on overall ranking we were 3rd to start 30secs behind Toread for the 2km run to the kayaks. Again transitioning smoothly we overtook Toread as they put on their spraydecks. The river was large volume with plenty of big boils and eddy's to spin you off course. With Stu steering well as usual and no problems for Rich and Elina we entered TA with Toread and close behind ASNZ.

Today was to be another big climb on the bikes. In the heat we all suffered initially and having committed a schoolboy error of forgetting my food I took donations from Stu and Rich. Toread stayed close ahead until they had valve problems again and had to change a tube. Although now in 2nd for the stage we maintained pace well aware that blowing up would seal the deal and Toread yet again hunted us down and passed. This time it would be the last. We were running out of gas.

As we cruxed the climb and enterer TA Rich was having a tough time of it. It was going to be a tough run regardless with well over 1000m of thigh crushing descending and 6km of road running to finish. Our run was not great. We got ourselves through, but not podium material against competition like this. After what seemed like a long enough of running we finished 4th, 20minutes behind ASNZ, 18 behind Toread and were 3rd overall.

Ah well, not as good as winning but I'm happy with 3rd and even happier to be sitting down!!   

Rotorua 3D - 2nd June 14

Despite having a few weeks of feeling rather flat after China and the Absolute Wilderness Race in April I was feeling pretty good going into 3D. If anything I was under done with respect to training but I was well recovered, something I don't think I've allowed myself to do in 18months. Last weeks duathlon at Rabbit Island had also provided a vital pre-race sharpen up.

From the gun the race unfolded pretty much as I expected. Those paddling K1's shot off to a healthy lead early on but didn't seem to be be stretching out at all and patches of boat wake shifted the advantage momentarily to me in Flow kayaks recent addition, the Addict. At the close of lap one I was in 7th position until Jared Kohlar took an unexpected swim in front of transition making for great entertainment. Nothing as exciting eventuated in lap 2 as I exited in 6th position.

Onto the bike my legs were cold. Despite a barmy 8 degrees that morning the constant breeze had left my legs unresponsive. Nothing a 2km climb wouldn't fix. Into the heart of the ride I did my own thing, simply going as hard as the legs would allow. After about 30mins I noticed Jared was catching me and soon I allowed him to take the lead. We exchanged lead a couple of times in the remaining 45mins of riding but ultimately Jared was setting a great pace and I aimed to keep pace.

Into transition we saw Sam Clark just leaving meaning there was less than a minute gap. Whilst I left TA first Jared set the early pace on the climb and gradually stretched out a 15sec gap. Ten minutes after leaving TA we passed Sam who was struggling and clearly doing his own thing. It was now down to the two of us. I slowly pulled back Jared's margin and by the end of the lap he was sitting on my heels. Not for long. Into the second climb Jared put another burst on but this time I managed to keep on his heels. Over the top I took the lead back and controlled the pace for the next 10mins or so. Well aware that I was on my limit I needed Jared to falter if I was to win but instead with 1km to go he put in an awesome burst of speed on a small hill leaving me in his wake. I had nothing to respond with and finished as quick as possible but the damage was done and Jared had finished a great race. A well deserved win. Good close racing however and although gutted not to take overall honours it showed I've made some great improvements since this time last year.

A big thanks for Thermatech, Legend Paddles, Rasdex and R&R Sport for their continued and valuable support and my loyal family aka support crew.

Click here for Nelson Mail race report

Rabbit Island Duathlon - Sun 25th May

This series is a great mid winter blow out and served a great purpose as training for next weeks 3D Rotorua. Short, sharp and great conditions made for a fun day out.

Click Here for Nelson Mail wrap