ADVENTURE RACING

XPD Day 4 - Challenging 'Running River' Trek Delivers The Highs And Lows Of Adventure Racing To Top Teams

By Geocentric Outdoors

As night fell on Day Three of racing, teams continued to navigate through the rocky terrain down the Running River gorge, whilst climbing, scrambling and swimming through rock pools.

Continuing to forge ahead, Peak Adventure, now with a four hour penalty for forgetting a piece of compulsory equipment, completed the trek just before midnight.  This left the other top teams in the rock gorge to battle on, before the dawn fell.

Team Merrell Adventure Addicts endured a cold canyon swim through three rock pools at 2am in the morning.  Grant Ross from the team says "The night navigation was very tricky and the water was very cold."

Despite a two hour navigation error towards the end of the leg, Raidlight succeeded in gaining the most ground during this challenging leg.  A different route selection saw the team stream ahead to finish several hours ahead of Mountain Designs and Bivouac Inov-8, and move into second place.

The team then relinquished their lead to the fifth position, by losing time on the next mountain bike leg. The French team missed a Control Point (CP) on a railway bridge during the 53km ride.  In order to avoid a time penalty incurred for any missed CPs, the team back tracked to collect the CP, resulting in an additional 20km to the next paddle.

Race Director Craig Bycroft says "As the fatigue and sleep deprivation sets in after many days of hard racing, all teams can make simple mistakes."

Arriving at 1:45am to the Kayak Transition Area, Peak Adventure, elected to take a two hour sleep in transition, until the sun comes up.   They are the first kayak on the water, for their 70km paddle along the Burdekin River.

"The low water levels", says Bycroft, "will influence route choices in order to find the deepest water.  This may be more difficult in the dark."
"The second half of the kayak leg is harder than the first, as more portage of the kayaks across sand banks will be required" he says.

As the four top teams launch their kayaks five hours later, the race is still on to chase Peak Adventure and get to Mid Camp.  With time penalties imposed on the leader and three more legs, the racing is still very close.

Once the team finish this kayak leg, they will mountain bike ride 54km to Mid Camp at Charters Towers.

At Mid Camp, teams will enjoy showers, hot meals and a compulsory six hour rest.


Team in Leg 6 Canyon Trek. Photo and caption courtesy of Geocentric Outdoors.


Team Merrell - Outback Paddle. Photo and caption courtesy of Geocentric Outdoors.


Team Bivouac Inov-8 - Outback Paddle. Photo and caption courtesy of Geocentric Outdoors.


Team Raidlight - Outback Paddle. Photo and caption courtesy of Geocentric Outdoors.


Leg 6 - Outback Canyon. Photo and caption courtesy of Geocentric Outdoors.


Team Tiger Adventure. Photo and caption courtesy of Geocentric Outdoors.

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