Expedition Africa
Tecnu Adventure Racing in Africa
Garret Bean / 21.05.2013
Drakensburg, the origins of the name alone brings to mind a treacherous, dangerous, and hostile environment. In Zulu the area is known as the “Barrier of Spears” and in Afrikaans the translation is “Dragon Mountains”. The landscape is vast and was formed from the vicious lava eruptions over 200 million years ago that created the second highest waterfall in the world and the second highest mountains and plateaus in Africa. While beautiful and picturesque, the race directors Heidi and Stephen brought over 31 teams here because they knew that this would be a foreboding area that would take the most seasoned adventure racing teams and best navigators in the world to their limits.
Our team was comprised of some of the most experienced racers in the sport including Karen Lundgren, Bob Miller, Kyle Peter and me (Garret Bean).
Kyle Peter – Kyle serves as the team captain and backup navigator and his job is to keep the team moving with the big picture in mind. Kyle takes pride in this role and has trimmed his beard accordingly to mirror that of the Dos Equis, most interesting man in the world. There may or may not be wisdom contained in that beard, but during this race it definitely contained an assemblage of bugs, dirt, sweat, and at the end champagne.
Bob Miller – Bob’s has over 30+ expedition races under his belt and in is known as one of the sport’s best navigators. Don’t let his skinny legs and arms fool you, this guy is one of the best technical off trail runners and has amazing balance as he runs off trail down and up mountains. I thought when I delivered his 2XU compression gear to him he must have put in an order for his fiancé Shannon, but then I watched as he threw them on pre-race, and the XS’s fit just fine.
Karen Lundgren – Karen has well over 30 expedition races under her belt. She brings a voice of reason to the team, is a master at logistics and makes our team efficient and quick in TAs by keeping track of everyone. She manages the details that are easy to miss and makes sure we are efficient on the trail and in the transition areas. She is truly the Queen of our Machine.
Garret Bean - Yours truly only has 2 expedition races under his belt, so experience is not my strong suit. My job on the team is to move the team faster. Everyone calls me a mule, but I think Cabillo (horse) is a more appropriate and complimentary description. My role on this team was to tow teammates, take weight when possible and push the limits of endurance.
Since none of us have raced as teammates together except Bob and Kyle, this was going to be an educational experience. We would have to learn about how each other functions on no sleep and how we can help each other move faster. Contrary to popular belief making fun of Bob’s skinny legs doesn’t make him faster, but if you dangle raisin bread, a highlighter, or a picture of a clean and organized gear bag in front of Bob you will get his attention and he’ll move faster. This race was learning about team dynamics and how to move efficiently together.
Pre-Race
Prior to the race, and after a warm African reception and charity event where we donated trees and planted them with children at a local school, we received a briefing from the race directors identifying the legs of the race. It only totaled 350K, and most elite teams figured the race would take about 3 days and up to 5 days for some of the slower teams. As we sat there with over 125 experienced racers, no one knew that only 16 racers (4 teams) would be able to complete the full course and that each team would not come close to meeting time predictions that they set that night.
We received the first map Sunday night and we began plotting up the course immediately. We already had a big decision to make, would we take the Ifidi Pass from the top of the berg down to the first TA, or would we take a much longer and well known route behind the Barrier of Spears and down to the first transition area (TA). Local teams had an advantage here so we immediately contacted local guides who said this was impossible to do just a one way trip in a day. We did not inform them that we intended to do a roundtrip in less than 14 hours, this would have blown their minds. As I struggled to get off the phone with a guide, he implored me to be careful and his last words that settled into my conscious and would re-appear throughout the race were “DO NOT UNDERSTIMATE THER DRAKENSBERG!”
We went to bed not knowing a definitive approach but rather that we would figure it out on the course.
Race Day – TA 1 (Trek 50 miles)
It was calm, cool, and sunny, all teams were very excited. We hoped that Kyle’s head cold that he acquired 3 days before the race would magically clear prior to the race. As teams danced to Madonna in full gear and 30 pound packs at the start line, everyone wished the best to each other. Then boom! The race began.
It was all serious now and everyone was focused as we ran down through a campsite and then up through a river valley to the first summit and second checkpoint (CP). Locals already had some secret paths but the elite teams ran together and quickly broke away from the pack. Tecnu, SWECO, Raidlight, and Silva were among them and pushing hard. As we moved through the confines of a national park we stayed on the trails and watched baboons run down the hillsides. The teams running together were starting the trek that would total over 12,000 feet of ascent.
We quickly had Kyle and Karen on tow and were moving up the hills. Kyle was struggling with his cold and as we pushed to keep up on the ascent we had to let some teams slip by to not kill ourselves on the first day of the race. At altitudes near 12,000 feet Kyle’s head cold was spreading to his respiratory system on hour 6 already. Kyle battled every step to get a breath and we took his gear from him and pushed on. He continued with the Drakensburg shuffle: shuffle shuffle, cough, breathe, cough, shuffle, shuffle. We reached the top of the plateau after 4 hours, we climbed up precarious ladders and then looked over at the second tallest waterfall in the world and knew that we had quite a journey in front of us.
Our team decided not to head to the shorter Infidi pass in case it was not possible and followed other elite teams through the basalt highlands to a place called Rockeries Pass. It was nightfall when we arrived here, and we were nearly 12 hours into the course when all you could see were stars for miles and an occasional flickering head lamp of another team several miles in the distance. We were glad to begin our descent into the valley, and Kyle began to regain control of his respiratory system. However, stresses induced by altitude and carrying and towing Kyle’s pack started weighing on me. Or maybe it was the food, but regardless it was making it difficult for me to swallow and eat solid food. I was forced to get all my nutrition from our Endurox R4 recovery drinks. These things were amazing and got us to the next TA.
When we arrived at the TA we found we were in 7th place and that several teams took Infidi pass and were now in first. This paid off big for the locals but we knew there was a lot of race left. I could already imagine the disappointment of some of our followers faces back in the states, but we knew we had some medical issues and were comfortable in the spot that we found ourselves in. It could have been a lot worse.
We quickly prepped the maps and were anxious to go. I tried getting real food down my throat but my body disagreed and I ran outside and started vomiting. Medical illness number 2 was affecting our team and we were only about 15 hours in at this point.
TA1 – TA2 (Bike – 20 Miles)
We jumped onto the bikes and turned night into day with our Light and Motion headlamps. This was instrumental as we were heading down dark twists and turns on our way to the next TA where we would kayak. It was evident we hadn’t raced much together as a team because we were struggling a bit to find out how to help Bob navigate, when it was appropriate to tow teammates on the bike, and when to push. Luckily we do have one of the stronger biking teams and we still made decent time. This bike took us just over an hour to complete. We didn’t cross paths with too many teams here because it was so short, but we did manage to pass a couple and SWECO was right on our tails.
TA2 – TA3 (Swim and Kayak – 50 miles)
Some curse words came flying out at this TA, the Race Directors had decided to make us swim across a 400 foot cove on the lake to a point where we could get our kayaks to start a 75 mile paddle. They seriously wanted us to get in the water at 2AM when it was below 40 degrees outside. We contemplated walking an extra 4 miles not to get wet, but when we saw SWECO close behind we didn’t have much of a choice.
We ran down to the shore and dimmed down our headlamps. Everyone quickly ditched all their clothes in a dry bag and we prepared to swim across the lake naked. Everyone promised judgments would not be made and that it was the weather’s fault and very cold. Although our lights could illuminate the shore on the other side, nothing seemed to be brighter than the Swedish SWECO butts that were bobbing through the water beside us. That was the only part of the course with a full moon.
We got across the channel to our plastic kayaks and threw on our dry clothes; these wouldn’t stay dry for long. We jumped in and started our paddle at 3 AM from Woodstock Dam to Spioenkop Dam via the Tugela River. Our Epic carbon fiber paddles were light and efficient and propelled us to the first CP at the dam on the lake by sunrise. This first distance of 20 miles took us about 3 hours, while it took other teams behind us about 4 to 6 hours. We were paddling hard and couldn’t shake SWECO though. After we got to the dam we portaged our boats to the Tegula River and began this section shortly. For the majority of the time it was Class 1 and 2 rapids that could lull you to sleep after 24 hours of racing.
Suddenly at mile 30 rapids were lifting our boats into the air and we were balancing the boats more than paddling. Bob often led this charge by pointing our boat into a direction where we could avoid a few obstacles, stay upright, and charge down the river. This was a rush! On about the 4th large set of rapids there were about 4 rocks that demanded the boat turn at right angles every 5 feet, our boats were about 8 feet. With the low water levels we couldn’t float over it and our boat was thrust into a rock sending me catapulting forward into a washing machine.
As I held onto my paddle the boat was gone, I popped up for two seconds before being swept under again. I briefly saw Bob and our boat 30 feet downstream together and we were trying to get our feet in front of us to protect the rest of our body from collisions with rocks. I got sucked under again and when I was able to reach the surface I was bludgeoned in the head and red was all around me. Luckily it wasn’t blood but Kyle’s and Karen’s boat on top of my head, I grabbed it with my free hand and held on for dear life. I looked back and saw Karen and Kyle being tossed down whitewater shoots with their paddles. Everyone was trying to get to the shore and we wedged ourselves into some rocks. Everyone was alive and only slightly bruised. Kyle took a good knock to his knee and I took a knock to my head but my helmet protected me.
After adjusting ourselves we got back at it, we had to portage one rapids section and rode the rest out. It was an awesome whitewater experience, one that would have been impossible in the dark. SWECO was nowhere near us and we wondered how they had faired. Later we learned they had similar problems. Now it was about getting to that next TA to get on our bikes. As we rounded out the last 10 miles on the paddle we kayaked a lake within a game preserve. As we approached our take out we could see the stray animals on the ridges.
TA 3 – TA 4 (Bike 60 Miles)
The team was exhausted but the whitewater had woken us up, and we prepared our bikes for some singletrack , fire roads, and train track trails. As we entered onto the bike it was hard to focus on the task at hand. We had 30 foot tall giraffes that were flanking us as we rode from CP to CP. These docile creatures let us pass, as did the zebras, and we rode into a sunset in the Spioenkop National Park game preserve. We knew the other “Big 5” animals were out there but we couldn’t see the lions and cheetahs that stalked us or their prey. The goal of this section was not to be last, that would be viewed as the weak link and the first to be picked off. Kyle took the GPS tracker so he could be found if he was the one plucked from the group. We rode through the night and had moved from 5th to 4th place.
As night closed in Bob’s nav was spot on with only a minor out and back glitch that took us about half a mile out of our way. Other teams had surely trekked and rode over 10-15 miles making various navigational errors by this point. To Bob’s credit this saved us a lot of energy and towards the end of the night we had set our sights on the previous first place and local team (Cyanosis) to edge them out as we rode into the mid-camp TA 4.
Mid-camp – TA 4
Mid-camp was a compulsory 6 hour stop, do what you must here. Our somewhat haggard team decided our plan of attack would be ditch the gear, get food in us, and get to sleep as quick as possible. Mid-camp came with some food prepared by the race marshals but it was some meat pasta and salad and it didn’t seem like they were quite expecting us to come in when did. I passed on the pasta, had some Endurox R4 Recovery drinks, and went to bed. The rest of the team stomached a bit, and then hit the hay. Karen and I slept for 4.5 hours and Bob and Kyle only slept for 4.0 hours before getting up to prepare maps. I could hear Kyle saying something in the distance, and then I heard Karen, he was upset that we weren’t ready to go as the 6 hour mark approached.
Fortunately, he was mistaken and went into someone else’s room to see it in disarray not knowing that ours had been cleaned already and Karen and I were both in our 2XU compression tights and bushwhacking gear ready for a long trek. I scarfed some more food down as we waited 5 minutes before we were allowed to leave. Kyle focused himself and the team, and we all waited patiently to charge up the mountain in pursuit of the Merrell Adventure Addicts in front of us.
Mid-camp to TA 5 (Trek 30 Miles)
As we set off from mid-camp, the elite teams were already 4-6 hours behind schedule with about 40 hours of racing under our belts. Tecnu was a couple hours behind Silva and half hour behind Merrell. Slightly slower teams were still on the water and one team had not made it out of the first trek. Tecnu was well rested and in good spirits now and set off up the mountain at a torrid pace.
We set our sights on Merrell first, and in this long trekking leg we could see them about 3 ridges over, around 1-2 miles. As we closed in we went to a checkpoint that was an out and back. We skirted around ridges and looked up to find a monumental arch on the mountain above us. The arch looked as if it was the eye on the top of the mountain, and it followed us around as we ran amongst its sinuous and jagged legged ridges and drainages. Water poured down from the top of the mountains and we constantly dipped our heads and hats to keep cool in the blistering sun.
As we ran to the first checkpoint, the French Team Raidlight, ran past us. By our estimates they were about 1.5 hours before us at the start and we had cut into their lead by about 10 minutes thus far. We would worry about them later, right now it was about catching Merrell. Bob took us down a route and Karen led the running charge the whole time. We knew Raidlight and Merrell were both walking so we were bound to catch up with them at some point. After grabbing the CP that would later be removed from the course due to its difficulty, we ran rocky trails back out to catch up with Merrell. They could see us coming from behind them but they looked out of gas. We pushed on and took a little break before we passed them at a good pace. There were cordial hellos and we were off. The USA flagged race bibs and one Canada bib just passed the defending South African champions.
Apparently the mountains didn’t approve and struck down at Kyle. As we pushed on something wasn’t right and his stomach was in a knot. He threw me his pack and said he would catch up momentarily. Montezuma’s revenge had struck and the trail and Kyle had some intimate moments. Soon enough the entire team had it except for me. I was the only one who didn’t have mid-camp food. We pushed on trying to maintain our lead and only slightly.
As we pushed on, slightly distracted by upset stomachs we made a wrong turn down a ridge. Bob, the expert navigator quickly identified the mistake and set us back on the correct path. We now had to pass Merrell again. As we bolted down the mountain to catch up, we passed Merrell when they couldn’t find a trail shooting down a canyon. They followed us but we picked up the pace and lost them.
As we shot down the canyon, night began to close in. We knew we had to go 1,500 feet down and then 1,500 feet back up the other side of the canyon approximately 2 miles away before nightfall, in a little over an hour. If we didn’t, we may miss what we expected to be a hard to find trail up a crag on the side of a plateau. Furthermore, if we didn’t find the trail it would mean a longer 4 mile hike. We rocketed ourselves up the other side of the Canyon with our Leki Microstick trekking poles and Karen quickly found an indistinct path that led to a ladder and ropes that would help us ascend up this fissure. We made it to the top and donned our Light and Motion headlamps for the remainder of the trek. Merrell wouldn’t make it, and couldn’t find the path, we had lost them and our hustle had paid off.
As we picked up the pace, Raidlight was now on our mind. Where could that French team be? We started off on our trek and saw lights off in the distance near our next CP. We were sure it was them but the lights were scattered and it appeared as if they had split up to find the checkpoint. This is not allowed and we were a little bit angry at the possibility a team wasn’t playing by the rules. As we ran up to the CP Bob sought the light out to confront them. However, to Bob’s surprise it wasn’t Raidlight but two men with an ASSAULT RIFLE! Bob quickly shook their hands as any Canadian would do and said we were racing and asked for the nearest trail out of their growing operation. We were quick to leave.
After a couple more bouts of Montezuma’s revenge the systems had cleared and we were on top of a large hill ready to head to down to the abseil (rappel). Although, difficult to find, we located flashing lights that indicated we were close to the top of the abseil. We ran down the mountain and could see Raidlight at the bottom of the abseil. We received brief directions and then at 1 AM we prepared for our descent. We spent all morning wanting to jump in a river and only being able to douse ourselves with water from creeks. Now it was freezing cold outside and we were about to lower ourselves down a waterfall into even colder pools of water. At least the lights of Raidlight provided some motivation.
The abseil consisted of 5 rappels ranging between 75 to 15 feet. It was brilliant watching the water as it cascaded off the rocks and blasted off the bodies of the teammates. A halo of light was illuminated in the mist around our headlamps; it was as if each team member has a protective shield around them as they descended the ropes. That was of course until we came colliding into the face of the cliff and reality; our shoes couldn’t hold the slippery rock face. But we made it down, wet and slightly bloody for me.
When we got to the bottom we removed our climbing harnesses and ran to the next CP, again Bob’s navigation was spot on and we were following bearings on a laser line. We descended down to a creek where we ran in to Raidlight only 10 minutes in front of us now. I identified the CP and told Kyle a fictitious letter F that was supposed to match 1 out of 4 options on his passport. He looked at me in rage and bewilderment because the CP identifier (actually letter A) did not match the possible punches on the passport. I burst into laughter and gave him the correct letter; that was the image of a very focused and driven leader.
We made our way back to a road and ran to the next transition area at a local school were the Raidlight team was sprawled across the tent. It was cold again and we struggled to find some light and get some much needed food in the bodies. As we watched Raidlight start to doze off, we decided to seize the opportunity, put off sleep at 3:45 in the morning, and mount our mountain bikes for over a 100 mile ride.
TA 5 – TA 6 (Bike 100 Miles)
The transition happened quickly and we were off into the early morning. We talked about jobs, friends, supporters, family, AR experiences and everything to keep ourselves awake. We got to the first TA and
Bob could barely find a road that he just took 2 minutes before to cross a field. We were not in the best mental state and were pretty loopy and losing focus. That was until we saw Raidlight come flying across in front of us. We tried to follow for two seconds as we looked for a checkpoint but they disappeared into the night and cornfields. Bob exclaimed, “What the hell, those guys are ninjas!” We woke up quickly and got back on track.
After acquiring a couple CPs we were on some roads for a long haul. Sun was creeping up and we were waking up. We aligned ourselves in a 4 person pace line and put the hammer down in pursuit of the French team. We didn’t know where the teams were in front of us but we knew this was our chance to make up a lot of time. As we towed and pulled each other up the hill, the bikes were moving fast. We rode along farm fields and river terraces for 40 miles, a lot of clothes came off as the thermometer inched upwards. We quickly applied sunscreen out of our small Kinesys bottles and never had to stop. At around halfway through we spotted Raidlight. We were going to go for a pass but decided that we could help each other out with a big pace line for a while. Tecnu took the lead and after pulling for several minutes I went to slide to the back of the pack. Raidlight wouldn’t let me in and their captain opened up a hole for me to slide in front of him. The French weren’t going to be team players and the gauntlet was thrown.
I rode back up and let Kyle know the situation and Bob and Karen got on our wheels and we made a move to pull away. Raidlight wasn’t able to keep up and we were out of there. After putting on a solid 5 minutes on the competition, Raidlight was looking tired. Unfortunately a sharp crippling pain shot up Karen’s back. She didn’t know what it was but she couldn’t hold onto her handlebars. We had to dismount the bikes in the shade and lay her down. Kyle moved in to massage her shoulders but looked like a kindergartener trying to knead his first pizza dough. I had to kick him off to put my highly trained masseuse hands to work. I jumped in and we got a couple kinks out of Karen’s back to get her back on the bike. We rode on but Raidlight was in our rearview mirror.
The next two hours of riding was into a massive headwind no matter which direction we went, and to top it off there wasn’t water to be found anywhere. We had been running dry for nearly an hour before we were able to find a spigot in a small town at a CP. This was the most grueling segment of the race, we were head to head with Raidlight and exchanged positions only twice for nearly 40 miles. Tecnu was committed to holding the lead; it wasn’t clear if we were holding the lead strategically, for mental intimidation, or if it was just ego that propelled us in front. Regardless we were all in beast mode, putting ourselves in the pain cave, towing each other, and letting out grunts. Karen was in so much pain from her shoulders she was constantly yelling whenever not in the presence of Raidlight. Kyle couldn’t say anything because he was exhausted and his throat was so sore he couldn’t speak. We pushed on for hours and ended up after 100 miles at the kayak TA with no place to put our bikes.
We would like to think we beat the truck there from our blistering pace, but rumor has it the truck may have temporarily broken down. This was precious for Karen and I as we caught a quick nap as Kyle and Bob addressed the maps. After we left this last TA we would be home after a short kayak and trek in about 5 hours.
T6 - T7 (Kayak 6 miles)
Once the team got the bike boxes they were loaded up in a matter of seconds and we approached the boats to paddle at sunset. This was easy to navigate and we shot across the lake and arrived 30 minutes after the sunset. I went to step of the kayak and lost my balance flying back into the lake. I emerged soaking wet underneath my waterproof attire and I would remain wet for the rest of the race. The rest of the team managed to stay dry with proper dismounts, but they soon would be wet and cold on a long last trek.
T7- Finish (Trek 20 Miles)
After we transitioned to the run we were intent on holding onto our lead over Raidlight for what we estimated to be the last 4 to 5 hours. As we pushed on and fog started rolling in we had to take a quick nap since the sleepmonsters were attacking Bob. I was more than happy to take another short nap. Kyle opted for no sleep and served as our alarm clock. After only 10 minutes of sleep we pushed on and we soon saw Raidlight coming up from behind us in a glow of fog. Soon enough we were in a head to head matchup with Raidlight. Silva to our knowledge should have been completing the course in the next hour with a 2 to 3 hour lead.
This is when it got crazy, we took one bearing and went down a creek in the wrong direction for about 5 minutes. We lost our advantage over Raidlight and to our knowledge could have lost the race. As we corrected ourselves we headed in reverse but could not accurately locate ourselves. The fog rolled in thicker than before and soon we could only see about 10 feet in front of us, every direction we turned was a creek that would meander within 20 feet and was nearly impossible to identify on the map. Bob systematically attacked different channels for over 4 hours with the rest of the team following close behind. The trek turned into a stagger as the night wore on. Although frustrated there were no complaints, although Kyle started calling out for Nemo. (Nemo was the name of our tent and thankfully he wasn’t hallucinating.) The team refused to get in a tent and thought we would be too cold if we stopped moving. After about the 75th creek we went up, we found the trail to the CP. We were ecstatic to find it, although at this time we figured there was a good chance we had fallen off the podium. We had no idea other teams would be having similar problems with the fog. We were wet and cold and now we just needed to get back to the lodge.
We trekked out of the canyon near the dam, circumnavigated the lake and approached a ridge. However, when we got to the top we couldn’t tell which pass we should go down. We knew if we chose wrong we could be walking through the fog and off a cliff. Since we couldn’t be sure of the correct pass after our first ascent up the cliff we knew we must relocate ourselves down at the lake. At this point it was more about self-preservation than winning the race. After- all if we had chosen wrong it could have taken twice as long and meant our demise.
We descended and had to warm up since we were all shivering and soaking wet. We wrapped ourselves in our SOL breathable Escape Bivvies and made our second ascent up the ridge meticulously until we could identify the pass down. We had to trust our instincts and map here because the howling winds, rain and fog wouldn’t allow us to see where we were going. We put our faith in Bob and Kyle’s navigation and descended down the steep pass and canyon. Eventually we were able to descend about 800 feet and the gradient turned from cliffs to hills.
Altogether the last trek leg had taken us around 14 hours and we weren’t done yet, but we were off the mountain and in a more familiar place. As we passed a lodge and traveled down a road we quickly brought ourselves onto single track that Karen and I had explored pre-race on our mountain bikes. We were home free as we started to see a couple media personnel. We ran it in to the finish figuring we would have a 5th or 6th place finish after our disaster of a night. We had already mentally put it in the bank as a learning team experience. It took what seemed like forever before Kyle’s mom Tommy announced our placing in 2nd! We couldn’t believe it and the champagne popped!
It was an amazing adventure brought to us by Tecnu and Tec Labs makers of Poison Oak and Ivy wash as well as Tecnu First Aid Gel used multiple times throughout the course. Adventure Medical Kits also helps us to get to the starting lines and we put to use their adventure medical kit multiple times and their SOL Escape Busy kept us from going into hypothermia.
Special thanks to our other sponsors, PHL who powered us with Accel gels, recovery bars, Second Surge gels, and Endurox R4 recovery drink throughout the race. Light and Motion turned night into day, Brooks Cascadia 8 trail shoes were on our feet the entire time, LEKI Microstick trekking poles, Julbo Pipeline, Trails and Dust sunnies, Darn tough socks, Headweats performance hats, Kinesys sunscreen, and comfortable Champion Systems and 2XU compression clothing were with us till the end.
A huge thank you to all our fans, we had over 117,000 unique visits to our facebook page that was brought to you by our tireless team manager Earring Doug Judson who slept about as much as we did.
Thank you to Stephan and Heidi for putting on a truly epic, arduous week of world class adventure. We hope to be back again someday, but till then, we take with us a lifetime of memories from South Africa.
Thank you for the support!
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