Anaconda Adventure Race - Dunsborough
Anaconda AR Series, Dunsborough
Richard Ussher / 05.11.2008
This time minus Elina who had decided she had suffered through enough travelling in the past 3 weeks and would relax at home while I headed for the West Coast of Australia and the third round of the Anaconda series held 3 hours south of Perth in Dunnsborough.
After a quick check of the air points account I managed to secure an upgrade into business class which eased the discomfort considerably and after a couple of nice NZ wines, a 3 course meal and quick kip we were there – it would be easy to get use to travelling business class that’s for sure. The trip to Dunsborough I thought was 2 hours of driving but after almost 4 hours I finally arrived just after midnight after an almost 24 hour day thanks to the time difference. Luckily I’d met up with Australian Multisporter Christie Sym in Perth and the company definitely helped keep the eyes from closing.
The following days were spent checking out the various sections of the course, a few visits to the local schools in conjunction with the race and some tentative swims in the crystal clear waters on the Western Australian Coast. Normally I worry about the snakes, creepy crawlies and especially the sharks in Australia but it is especially disconcerting when the Aussies are also packing themselves about the creatures lurking in the waters. The area just south of the start where we kayak to is apparently an area frequented by Great White sharks, not this time of the year I’m assured, but enough to make swimming solo out of the question – better percentages of not getting eaten if there is more than one option to cater for the sharks tastes I reckon. I also managed to lose a bit of skin when I went down on the MTB course. For many of the single track sections it is covered in pea gravel which creates a surface similar to the track being covered in marbles. It is also highly abrasive and subsequently my bed looked like someone had been butchered in there as the wounds kept weeping during the night.
Race morning was fine and clear for the record crowd of just under 1600 athletes, by all calculations a world record for this type of race. The race course in WA consists of an 1800 metre swim, followed by a 13 km ski paddle, a 15km run, a 22 km MTB and finished off with a 1800 metre run to the finish which the teams have to complete together.
The start was absolute chaos as everyone raced for the first buoy a few hundred metres off shore. I thought I was starting from a reasonable position but was quickly swamped by people on either side, and quickly lost the front group of swimmers. Round the buoy it spread out somewhat but given I was swimming past people for a change I knew I’d probably lost the chance to get a draft off any of the quicker swimmers. The highlight of the swim, besides finishing it, was swimming straight over the top of a Wobbegong shark which didn’t seem the least perturbed by the chaos above.
Onto the ski leg and two of my main competitors had fared much better in the swim. Sean O’Neil was out of sight and although paddling is his weakest leg it took a while before I was able to make out his ski, it took longer still for me to finally reel him in. Only a couple of months ago I was able to paddle straight past Sean but he’s been focusing on improving his paddling and so when I went past he jumped on my wash and it was with great effort I was finally able to drop him. Jarad Kohlar was the real surprise though coming in just 30 sec behind me. With the calm weather there was very little chance to catch any good runs on the waves so it was great to hit the beach after paddling frantically for just over an hour and exhausting the upper body completely. Oh well, it was all up to the legs now anyway.
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