Mountain Devils Orienteering Club

2008 6 Hour Enduro Sunny Corner State Forest

By Marcel

Haven ridden a small wheeled geared bike, i am not actually empowered to write a race report but due to popular demand ( well, 2 people is popular...) here it comes:-

Sunny Corner and the campers were mostly set up by 6.00pm, Rik and Margaret were in the hall taking registrations and the hall looked a damn sight cozier than a camp (especially after having an afternoon sleep-in and forgetting my down sleeping bag in the rush) so a hall camp it would be.
Later on that night and Jiri had his third can of beans, Rik provided Primi of pasta with Keith and Kate making freshly smoked trout and salad for Mains. Desert was some fine chocolate all had on a rustic table in the middle of the Sunny Corner Hall. We almost had enough fun that we could have returned in the morning and have been satisfied!

A very cold (for Sydney-siders) night and for the first time that i have experienced or heard about, Sunny Corner lived up to its namesake on Sunday morning.
My team mate Keiran rolled in looking fit and relaxed, quite in contrast to the late arriving Harvesters (Newman and Bragg) with partially destroyed bikes and unprepared bodies. The Harvesters had, in order to reduce expectation on their performance, decided to drive their bikes into a concrete carpark roof allowing them the excuse of not having functioning brakes, mapboards or front suspension!
The favorite team of Darvendorfer were in too looking even fitter and even more relaxed but they had great expectations placed on them to get all the check points on the day.......

All sorted ( sort of ) and at 9.00am the BIG map came out.
Cripes as 1:25000 scale the trails were like a 3 year old's mad scratchings on coloured paper and the tiny checkpoints were hidden amongst it all. Trying to read this thing (and remember where you were on the map) whilst riding was going to be hard !
We, well I - we were "leaders who follow" - decided on a counter clockwise route, gathering 10 pointers on the way to the big 50 and 40 pointers on the BIG Hill.

Easy....NOT.

Within 2 minutes were were already walking the bikes up a hill - crap, hadnt expected it to be this hard.
With this brutal warm up I was already feeling crook - Keiran seemed to revel in it and quickly got into his stride.
I tried to stay with him and managed to to do well right up to the three hour mark where we were up on the BIG hill.
Not too many mistakes so far - just a few sillies.

Keiran monitored our nutrition ensuring we ate and drank regularly and did the bulk of the work up front. More riding, more points and we headed for the drink stop at the bottom of the map to refill. This was the beginning of the end. I had already - as prophesized by Chris Shultz in his defamatory and recent mailout - begun to fade. The left quad was doing that silly cramp thing and the pace had to drop. Keiran pulled out something that i thought was a cramp cure - it was a very tender piece of Steak! - OK downed that but the twinges remained...

Time to get conservative and look for a safe way back home....We decided to abandon the bigger points further south and headed slowly North.
As time wore on, the number of worn and weary bodies that we came across increased.. Everyone was walking the hills and pushing their bikes. It was a very sad and sorry sight! Darvendorfer were the exception - they blasted past with the comment - "going to get them all" - yeh, OK boys, just rub it in !
My final collapse and fade was imminent - I was dragging my sorry arse and Keiran was making even better navigational judgements than I - and he didn’t even have the Map! My lead-in preparation showed my weak and ageing constitution - what? Why can't I party on to 1.00am on a Friday night, freeze all night on a Saturday and not be expected to Perform? WEAK I say ! Both quads cramped and I couldn’t get off the bike. Keiran had the best approach treating it with a sense of humour suggesting that I stop having an orgasm out on the track! - But I'm not, IM NOT!!

Finally got off the bike to lay down as instructed and the cramps became an all body sting - what is going on with me??? - Oh its not me, its those bloody angry ants from the big ant's nest im lying in biting me on my arse, arms and neck ! AAAARGG!! The end was near and The Final Struggle of harvesting a few more 10 pointers and that would be it. 15 minutes in early and quite delighted.

Now - the most important bit - had we beaten the Dark Horse Harvesters?, Had we beaten last year's successfull Polaris combination of Hamish Mackie and Craig Armour, Did we get that wily Prentice, but more tellingly, did we get Angry Chris Shulz and hope to God that the rest of his prophesy - of a huge van Schie fade and first Shulz landslide victory - take place?? It was close - the tally took time, but then the numbers came out...... Newman and Bragg, Beaten. Mackie and Armour (who suffered to get another 10 points to try and ensure a victory over Hogan and van Schie...but also decisively beaten. Now where is that Angry Chris Schulz - OH NO - a huge Victory to them !! Chris, so delighted by his first ever and decsive victory apparently proclaimed to all the masses at the prize giving - I BEAT MARCEL! The joy iof me providing this gift to Chris, is trully profound and special. It really makes me very happy!

For Keiran's sake - as a rider and team mate he was terrific - strong and patient and enthusiastic - for his satisfaction we at least snuck into the top 10 with a 9th place out of 60 teams which, given the performance of yours trully, wasnt too bad at all. Keith and Kate were also out for almost 6 hrs - good on them - they looked the worse for wear too But the best part was that everyone seemed to have had a blast. All were tired but there were plenty of smilling, grubby faces and still enough energy for jokes and laughs.

 

Jiri, Simon and rik put together a beaty - bring it on next year !!