Southern Traverse
Miles of Smiles
Derek Paterson / 10.11.2003
Under a sunny blue sky, as the Town Hall bells rang out 0830, Monday morning, 10 November, 124 athletes ran from the Octagon, the heart of Dunedin, down towards the classic Victorian architecture of the Dunedin Railway Station and on to the local marina.
With the tide running out, the 31 teams from as far away as France and the UK, paddled the 22 km to TA1. There they changed into wet suits, grabbed flippers and set off on the 16km coasteering section to Warrington Beach. They swam and scrambled round four headlands and ran along the wide sandy beaches.
“This is just a weight loss programme,� said Murray Thomas of team Icebreaker Bridgedale as he teetered over the rocks lining the point running out from Murdering Beach. “I’m really hot in here.� Not surprising since he was wearing a 3mm full wet suit with a 3mm vest underneath.
Most of the competitors were wearing big grins, though, despite the discomfort of their wet suits. They had been entertained by wheeling sea birds and circumnavigated by curious seals (although one competitor reported an inquisitive nip). There was a lot of slipping and sliding on the kelp covered rocks and a few cuts and abrasions were reported.
Rachel Barton, Team Omni Graphics, a local favourite and current race leaders, had a more severe injury. As she ran out of TA3 at the start of the 27km trek to Whare Flat, she brandished a badly bruised hand, ring and little fingers taped together. “Yeah, I think it might be broken. I’m not sure, maybe just sprained or something.� It was certainly starting to turn a pretty shade of blue.
Omni Graphics is led by Barton but team mate Jim Cotter is directing the scientific programme that is the focus of so much attention. A multi-disciplinary team of experts from Otago University is checking three complete teams – physically, mentally and emotionally – for the duration of the race with other tests having been prior to the start.
“It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes to carry out the tests in each TA,� said Cotter before the race. In TA3, however, the lost at least five minutes, mostly to insert a needle in Cotter’s stomach to monitor his glucose use. They still made the turn around in 17 minutes and ran out on the trek nearly half an hour ahead of second placed Southern Landrover, from Queenstown.
The Kiwis weren’t having it all their own way, however, with Aussie team Cycle Surgery (which includes Kiwi hired gun Richard Anderson) breathing down their necks. This team has a secret weapon, in fact, in Phil Woods, former New Zealand orienteering champion and current NZ mountain bike orienteering champion, along in the support crew. He has the leisure to check the maps thoroughly and mark the best course for the team.
The first trekking leg was forecast to take at least nine hours. Local athletes who know the area suggest it may take just six hours, perhaps even less. And they were already more than two hours ahead of schedule leaving TA2.
But this is less than 12 hours into the race. All the teams agree the really challenging navigation lies ahead in the rolling tussock lands of the Lammerlaw Range. And it looks like wind and rain.
Derek Paterson has been involved with adventure racing from the sport's infancy. He is also the author and publisher of the world's first book on the sport, 'Adventure Racing, Guide to Survival'. Derek has covered adventure racing all over the globe and now returns to his roots, Dunedin, the town he grew up in, for the 2003 Southern Traverse.
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