Third time around, this race orgainisng thing seemed a lot easier, all the elements of the plan were all slotting nicely in to place… that was up until one week to go!
We had planned for the possibility that one of us (Tim, Bin or Myself) might get Covid in the build, but for it to happen just 5 days our was a bit of a shock to the system. Lucky for us… and maybe unlucky for us… Tim and his family caught it. So lots of the on the ground bits of the race fell to me, Bin and her team were able to handle all the organizational stuff, while Tim, from isolation was able to manage all the online stuff.
As per our contingency plan we had a large portion of the two Rogaine section checkpoints out two weeks ahead. This gave me a few days up my sleeve to get the rest of them set out. Dad was luckily enough able to come up and helped heaps by doing lots of driving, and then some trekking and mountain biking with me.
Thursday was spent up in the Clarence checking out a few rapids on the packrafting section, and some trek checkpoints.
Friday was about over seeing the map bagging then more Mountain Bike checkpoints/checking for slip damage as well as moving into our new accommodation.
Maps and Race packs
Saturday morning Dad was onto it with bacon and eggs for breakfast, then more checkpoints placed. By 1pm that’s when the complicated timeline came into force… and registration started.
Saturday – 2pm: answering questions and delivering briefings for the 24, 6, and 12 hours races. I’m a reasonably quiet person, probably best described as an introvert and public speaking is something that I tend to avoid as much as possible. Having had a to do it a few times the previous years now so challenging myself, and overcoming the fear has become surprisingly satisfying in a funny sort of way….just like adventure racing I guess!
6pm: it was into town for dinner. Every food outlet in Kaikoura was packed, and there was a long wait for dinner but fuel for the next 24+ hours was required.
8pm: it was back down to the High school for the 1hr bus ride to the start of the 24hour race.
Bus departure
10pm: 24hour race start
11:30pm: Back to Kaikoura for some sleep
Sunday – 5:30am: Up for Breakfast
6:15am: Into town for the 12 hour start setup
Dawn down on the waterfront
7:00am: 12 hour race start – I was able to watch the swim section, which was cool. Then no time to muck around as someone managed to cut themselves so Bin had to deal with that while I had to get to the 6hour race 20mins away ahead of teams arriving around
8:00am: Arrive at the 6 hours start near the Hapuku river for setup. Huge thanks to Mike Blyleven for jumping in to help, ticking off teams prior to the start.
9:00am: 6hr start, and I’ve pretty much lost my voice by now as I can’t yell loud enough for briefings outdoors! I was able to quickly check on the river crossing before it was time to get back to the High school for the 3 hour briefing.
10:15am: down at 3hour Registration and briefing,
11:00am: I was able to sneak to the house quickly for some food and check the tracking of the 24 hours.
11:25am: No rest for the wicked though as it was off to the start of the 3hour race
12:00am: 3hours race start. It was pretty cool to see all the young school team tearing around off the start-line. I couldn’t hang around too long as there was still a number of controls to put out at the high school and oversea the finish line setup
Leaving the 3hour start area
12:45pm: Control placement at the High school.
1:45pm: The first 6 hour team arrives at the finish and then the long wait started! It’s pretty nervous times waiting around, just hoping that no one has hurt or injured themselves and they are having a great time out there.
7:00pm: All the 3 and 6hrs finished and accounted for.
10:00pm: final 12 hour teams arrived home. We expected the first 24 hour teams to arrive about 1am so it was back home to have some dinner and bed for a few hours.
10:30pm: return home via Tim and Stephanie’s Isolation for a drop off of timing tags
Monday – 1:30am: I was back for a couple of hours, but got a bit grumpy….so….
2:30am: decided to go for more sleep.
6:00am: back in time for the actual first teams to finish the 24hour course.
7:00am: I was able to drop back for a tiny bit more sleep then out of the house
9:30am: back to the High school for the prize giving.
10:00am: it was some more public speaking, trying to be a better MC than last year! 11:30am: everything finished up, everything had quietened down and finally I could relax a bit!
Overall it seemed to be a pretty successful race once again, obviously not perfect, as these things never are, but going into next year’s event a number of things to work on Improving to truly make it a race that we would want to do! Thanks so much to everyone that came and helped out! and thanks to all the competitors for coming too.
Tane Cambridge 
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