GeoQuest Half 2014 - The cowgirls ride again

The Cowgirls ride again

The 2014 Queens Birthday weekend saw the Mountain Designs GeoQuest being held at beautiful Crescent Head and what better way to spend the holiday weekend than with 200 other Adventure Racers running, swimming, riding and paddling around the beautiful Macleay Valley Coast. The TriAdventure Cowgirls team this year was made up of Jan ( Team Captain and super navigator ), Gina, Michele and myself with our support crew made up of Mandy and Kelsey ( both unable to race due to injury ) and our one and only Cowboy Andy. I had a months’ notice before the race so had plenty of time to train but Michele had less than 7 days’ notice and we were very lucky to have her join the team at such short notice. Mike and Greg ( Mandy and Michele’s partners respectively ) were volunteering at the event so everyone had a busy weekend.

We all arrived at the lovely Lorikeet Retreat throughout the late afternoon and evening on Thursday and had a quiet night getting to bed early as it was a long drive from south East Qld

Crescent Head

Lorikeet Retreat

Friday morning was when everything kicked off with team registration, photos and competencies, these involved a first aid and navigation quiz, a swim across the Killick Creek in shoes and PFD and then we had to capsize our kayak and demonstrate that we could get back in. This all went well but we had to wait till evening to have a hot shower as the hot water system at our accommodation had sprung a leak and was being replaced while we were splashing around in the creek so it was a cold shower at the creek side for us.

After lunch it was time to head down to HQ for the all-important course reveal and map hand out, so with the maps in our hot little hands we headed back to study the maps and have a bit of red to settle the nerves and help getting to sleep

TriAdventure Cowgirls

First Aid and Nav competencies

The Cowgirls and our all important Support Crew

Looking through the maps and course description

The Course Overview showed we would be doing, a short swim, 32km of treking, 69km of Mountain biking, 15km of kayaking, pack rafting and a car move

Ginas experience as an adventure racer became apparent as we hit each TA within approx 30mins of Ginas estimates

Michele calming her nerves

Click Older Posts below to go to the next page

Ready Set Go

After a good nights sleep ( I'm sure the red helped alot with that ) a 45min drive in the morning got us to Hat Head for the 8am start under a brooding sky which looked to be promising rain.

Gina and Michelle test the water before the swim

The Cowgirls looking relaxed before the start

I must be telling stories about Andy - they are always entertaining!

There were 18 teams in the Geo Half this year

And go - Gina and Michelle head out to collect 2 checkpoints on a swim leg and 1 on a the rogaine and Jan and I set off on the rogaine to collect 4 checkpoints

Gina and Michelle back from the swim being cheered on by Kelsey

Jan and I got some lovely views on our run around Hat Head. The day quickly turned from threatening rain to beautiful blue skies.

Jan and I decided to head up to the high point on Hat Head on what initially seemed like a path but disappeared and turned into a bush bash and we popped out at the top within 2 m of the checkpoint with Jan covered in scratches and leaving a blood trail, but we hadn't lost any time.

Kelsey spent some time spying on Team Mountain Designs transition to see if she could pick up a few pointers on how to get us through our TAs as quickly as possible. Turns out we can't chug baked beans like Gary!

Click Older Posts below to go to the next page

On Ya Bike

We got out of the TA in good time despite not being able to chug baked beans but I did manage to scull a latte. The next leg was a 22km Mountain Bike taking us through the lovely Hat Head National Park to the lighthouse at Smokey Cape along some nice but sandy bush tracks. Along the way a team caught up with us at a checkpoint and started having the age old adventure race discussion, " You have the control card" "No I gave it to you" " No you didn't" They must have found who had it as they got moving again shortly.

A few big sand hills towards the end, some of the front runners in the Full Geo can past us on this section

Then we went past one of the front running teams after lending them a bike tool

Always good to see the smiling faces of our fab support crew

Click Older Posts below to go to the next page

Coastal Trekking

Time to set out on our feet again for a 11km Trek along the coast from Smokey Cape to South West Rocks via Monument Hill and Trial Bay Gaol, we managed a bit of running in the leg and enjoyed some very beautiful scenery and collected all the CPs easily.