Mighty Performances in the Mini Race at Augusta

Rob Howard / 05.11.2016

There were blue skies and sunshine for the first day of the Act-Commit-Belong Augusta Adventure Festival.  As the racers and supporters gathered at the festival centre along the riverside Albany Road it was a perfect late spring day, though not quite as hot as nearby Perth which had a forecast temperature of 37C.

From early in the morning families were staking out their places along the grassy riverside banks, setting up sunshades and tents to keep younger children in the shade.  There were a lot of families here for the weekend, either racing together or supporting each other, and the Expo area around the finish line was busy all day as were all the waterfront cafes.

As the 11.00 start for the race approached the bank gradually filled up with kayaks of every description, a multi-coloured line of them stretching several hundred metres.  There was a briefing to run through the course, which is marked throughout and the 4 stages all used the same transition.  The start was just along the river bank by a small slipway and over 600 racers gathered here ready for the opening swim, some choosing to wear wetsuits, others not.

The start line was 100m out in the sandy shallows and the race began promptly with a splashing run through the knee deep water to get into the river channel and around the first marker buoy. Some dived straight into the channel while others remained upright for longer, putting off swimming into the strong current, and keeping out of the melee of swimmers.

The strong current made the opening part of the swim tough going, and tiring in this early stage, quickly spreading out the field over the 750m distance, before they entered the transition area for the first time to pick up their mountain bikes for a 15km course. This headed out into the local woodland, bush and fields, mostly on dirt roads and 4x4 tracks, and passed a couple of sections of flooded and boggy track. One of these was too deep and long to attempt to ride and required a push or carry to get through, a refreshing break from riding, but a tiring one.

Like the kayaks, the bikes too were varied, and so was the race field, with a wide age range and lots of junior racers taking part, many of them doing well and racing near the front.  Some quite small children were competing on equal terms with the adult racers, often twice their height.

After the second transition came a 6km trail run, returning to the area around the local airstrip which the bike ride also passed.  Weary riders at the back of the field were now passed by faster runners already on the next stage of the race.

The run finished along the coast, following the beach into transition, where there was a big crowd and lots of children on the sand, paddling, digging and happily giving high fives to the passing racers, who now had a more arduous form of paddling ahead themselves, a 6km circuit in the river.

Like the swim this began with an upstream section before circling back and then heading out and back into the ‘deadwater’ channel, which is out of the current and protected from the ocean by a sand spit.  To get into the channel there was a tactical choice to be made – to get out and pull the kayak a short section across a sandbank, or stay in the channel and go the longer way around the sand bars. It was hard to see which was quicker watching from the shore.

 The first across the line was a solo racer, beating all the teams, and he is a junior as well. Fifteen year old Adam White had lead for the whole course and was a clear and impressive winner in 2.2.20. On the finish he spoke in a very composed way for young racer, and didn’t seem too out of breath either!

 “The start of the swim was hard, and going round that first marker was mayhem, with people swimming over each other to get ahead, “ he said. “On the kayak I sit quite high and didn’t think I had the strength to pull across the sands so tried to avoid that as much as I could.” 

He told me he mostly competed in triathlon but had done a bit more mountain bike and kayak training recently and had raced at the mini at the Adventure Festival 4 times, 3 solo and once in a team with his father.  The race commentator said he was, “The future of triathlon and adventure racing in WA” and asked if he’d like to race professionally one day. “Yes, I’d love to,” was the reply. On this performance, maybe he could.

The first female finisher was Hayley McKee in 2.20.20 and she said she raced to keep fit for the netball season, saying, “It keeps me fit and its fun!”

You can see the full results on the Adventure Fest website or app – see http://rapidascent.com.au/AugustaAdventureFest/

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