X-Marathon adventure race

Adventures on the X-Marathon

Thierry Ellena / 21.03.2016

Here I am, finally, at TA5. I’ve just paddled 6h straight down the Snowy River with my three partners from team Peak Adventure in this much longer than expected Adventure Race in Lake Entrance, Victoria.

The race is called the X-Marathon and is run by Serge and Maria from Adventure Junkies. 6h might seem like a long workout time in itself, but it is actually not much compared to the 24h of racing we’ve already been through before starting this leg. However, it’s been the toughest leg for all of us on the team. Not because of its intensity, but because the sleep monster has finally started to catch up with us. It is the middle of the afternoon, the sun is shining, we are sitting comfortably in our kayak chairs and our bodies are trying to tell us that it is enough, it is time to rest. Obviously, no time for such nonsense. You don’t sleep on a 48h adventure race if you want to be competitive!

So, how do you fight the monster? If you are eccentric like Jarad, you yell like an animal in a hope to revive your senses. I think I recognized the sounds of cows, sheep, lions, and a very impressive (and unusual) impersonation of raccoons. If you are a very quiet person like Ian, well, you stay quiet. If you are a girl like Elisabeth, you make jokes; “I broke one of my nails, we need to stop the race”, “What do you call a deer without eyes? NO IDEAR” (I didn’t say there were funny jokes :). And if you are a geek like me, you try to solve mathematical problems in your head or count prime numbers.

However, counting primes is like counting sheep, it makes you sleepier. Eventually, you work as a team and start to do some sprint sessions with the boats to get going. It worked for a while for us until we realised we were heading in the wrong direction (again) to CP31, adding an extra 30min to the trip. No big deal, it has been our racing strategy for this event. Why get the checkpoint in 20min when you can get it in 40? In spite of everything, we are here to enjoy the scenery. Better to make it count (check three of our faux pas below).

So, why was I so excited about this particular transition? After all, we still had one mtb and one running leg to complete before we could call it a day. The reason is simple; during the whole race, I was thinking about Serge’s words at the race briefing two days before: “Once you hit TA5, it’s easy, you are almost finished, only fast rolling flat sections with straightforward navigation. Expected fastest times are 2h30 for leg 7 and 1h30 for leg 8.” Sounded good to me! In 4h, it’ll be 10 pm, just in time for a good dinner and a well-deserved full-night sleep. We might even be able to catch Dynamite Adventure on the way and steal a spot on the podium.

Indeed, despite our desire to stay on the course as long as possible, we were actually moving pretty well, sharing the lead with the three others elite teams (Shotz, Adventure junkies, and Dynamite Adventure) throughout the first day and first night. It was great to pass each other out for so long and feel like we were not the only crazy guys out there in the middle of the bush. We even all met at CP25 at the start of the rogaine section at 7 am on Sunday after 19h on the course.

When I heard the volunteer at TA5 saying “half an hour behind Dynamite”, I was pumped again. It was just a couple of hours before the finish with a team not far in front that we could chase. All I ever wanted. But then it hits me, Jarad was putting our new clothes, bikes were being lubricated, backpacks were being filled with food and liquids, and lights’ batteries were getting replaced. We were going to enter our 2nd night without sleep, and it was not going to be “easy”, as Serge suggested.

In the end, why should we even trust his words, we should know better. For example, in the X-marathon 2013, he said the bike legs would only be slightly undulated. We ended up pushing our bikes in 30%+ climbs for many hours. In this year’s race, he estimated the fastest time of leg 4 to be 4h, but it was actually more than 9. What a tricky man he can be.

So we set off into the dark for this 60km mtb leg. And surprisingly (or not), we arrived at TA6 6h later. The last three kilometres were done in very soft sand. Pretty challenging! I thought to myself, maybe it is time for another bike (always looking for excuses to buy a new bike). A fat bike would do very well in this situation. The lady at TA told us we were 25min behind DA. This was kind of good news, as we thought we were faster runners. We found out later that it was in fact 1h25min. They somehow escaped the sand section at the end by riding on water?!

At TA6, we met a short-coursed team, about to leave for the last leg. They joked with Jarad about the fact that we were only 4th overall. His response was quite disturbing to me. “You don’t do these kind of races for the ranking”.  I thought; “What a joke! Only people that are not ranked will say those kind of things”. I am a very competitive person, not only in sport but also in life. When I enter an event, of any kind, I always think I can win the thing. Even if most times I am just delusional, it pushes me to give my best in all circumstances. I realised later I was wrong.

We finally left TA for our last leg of the race. A short 10k run along the coast. I had learnt that team Shotz had done it in 1h45 and thought that DA would not be faster than that. When we hit the road for the last 6k, I realised we were on a 1h30 time mark and thought we might get them before the finish. We pushed hard and hit a pace close to 4min/k. An incredible speed considering we had been racing continuously for more than 37h. Jarad was pushing hard as well, indicating (to me at least) that ranking was indeed the driver component in this race, like any other running, cycling or triathlon races.

It was 1:30 am on Monday morning. It had taken us 14h more than expected to finish the race. But as we arrived at the finish line and were welcomed by no one - expect Serge snoozing in his sleeping bag - it seemed that the effort was all worth it. I asked: “Have you seen DA yet?” and he replied: “They arrived more than 1h ago. They are probably asleep by now...”

So we were 4th, but I couldn’t care less. I understood what Jarad meant. Of course, we don’t do these kind of races for the ranking. We do it for the experience. We do it because we love pushing our body to its limits and failed to reach them, because we love the friendship with our teammates, the other competitors, volunteers and race organisers, because we love exploring new places and geting lost with just a map and a compass, because we love unexpected encounters with the local wildlife (I heard a team swam with a 1.5m eel in the middle of the night while crossing Bobby’s Creek Canyon. This is fun right?!). All in all, we do it because we love the adventure. And this is why it is called Adventure Racing.

My last race report was for X-marathon 2014 where I wrote at the end: “It is funny how during a good portion of the race I asked myself why I am doing such things? Why do you want to get sick racing? [...] What is wrong with us??” Two years later, I finally got my answers. The only thing I want now is to go deeper into this feeling of surpassing myself, and take part in longer events like Expedition Races (up to one week non-stop). Now, Expedition, I love this word.

As I showed up to work the next day, one of my colleague saw all the scars on my arms and asked: “Thierry!! What have you done again this weekend?” and I replied: “I played outside for 38h non-stop”. “What, 8h straight? That a long day to be playing”. “No, no, 38h.” “Ah Ok, but why???!!!”

I could have told him everything that I have learnt about this force that pushes us to come back time after times event after event, to do things that most people think are impossible or crazy, or both. But I was too tired to talk so I just said “Why not?” and went back to my desk for a well-disguised nap hidden behind my computer screens. Time to rest.

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