XPD Australia
Watching the Race Go By
Geoff Hunt (AR World Series Director) / 22.05.2010
Sitting as a official at Checkpoint 10 in the Stannary Hills allowed a different perspective on the race. Instead of pushing hard to follow the racers they all come to your back door.The first night the CP with its fire blazing and music humming gently in the background, was at times an almost irresistible draw for the racers - but this group at the front have focus and don't stay long. Typical in and out times for the front teams is 13-25mins while those in the rear echelon typically take mush longer (there are some exceptions).
The laed teams have mixed success during the dark hours - at the front of the field Blackheart and Orion get through the orienteering without problems in 3.27 and 3.38 mins. Some of the other teams struggle at up to 6hrs. When they left it was Blackheart at 03.28 from the rookies alpineepic.co.nz, followed by Orion Adventure, McCain and Merrell/Akali.
During the day the orienteering progresses much more smoothly and it is team 33, "It's all good", who show how it is done with a 3hr 5 mins blitz through the course. Their route through the course seems to be the optimal with no real cross country travel. A road up a ridge provides easy access for the rest of the course.
As the back end of the field arrives some teams struggle, even in the daylight, to get checkpoints. Then during the next night-time period the later teams find the task almost impossible with several coming back into camp, recovering and going out again with the light of day. About 5 teams opt for the option of getting only two or three cp's and taking a time penalty (which will be add onto their time later) and continuing on the course to enable them to get on the river by the latest Sunday morning.
All these teams report stopping at the Irvinebank pub for 'beer', chips and gravy, or pies etc etc. (The proprietors of this typical backcountry pub think that it is Xmas.)See All Event Posts
