We started out with an hour bus ride at 5:55 am, which was not good for my nerves. I woke up nervous and couldn’t eat so I waited until I got on the bus. I finally had a few bites of egg and bacon but couldn’t eat much. I was nervous up until we started and then I felt a little better. After a while, I was just so focused, I couldn’t feel much else – wet, in need of food and water - never actually hungry or thirsty, just weakening. It’s weird when you’re exerting that much energy for so long, your body feels different and it’s interesting how you instinctively know what it needs, if you’re paying attention.

Anyway, we started off with a brief orienteering exercise – like a treasure hunt for letters to finish the words, “trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results” the themes for each of the days this week. It felt a little juvenile but I think the purpose was to stagger our start, which it did. We had a little trouble finding one of the letters, which slowed us down, but we worked through the issue and eventually got it, without any real stress amongst ourselves.

Then, we got on our bikes and started riding – up hill – my biggest weakness. And, while the mountain bike training was fun, this was just work and hard! But, my training paid off and I was able to survive. We did have to stop and walk our bikes a couple of times up really high hills but we passed several teams. Unfortunately, including our favorite other team, eXimiusIwi– the X-team as we called them, #37. Since we are team #41, through the week we’ve been calling ourselves together, Team 78! We knew they would be much stronger than us but when I saw David walking back along the trail without his bike, my heart sank and I knew they had trouble – bike trouble. But, we moved on knowing they could handle it because of how strong they were.

Up and down hills and then we had to cross a river, carrying our bikes. They gave us a choice – put the bikes in a raft and float them over the river, have a stronger team member take his bike and then come back for a weaker team member’s – both of which would take longer – or, just carry the bikes over ourselves, which is what we did. It had been rainy and our feet were already wet but putting my feet in the river, shoes and all was still shocking. I held on to Joel as we went across. He was always my rock and, in my opinion, the backbone of our team. We got across and kept riding over rocks and then on a trail, which led to a road across a wide-open field. We weren’t dry again until after the race.

By this time, I was already giving out. I was pushing too hard so when Joel asked if I needed to slow down – I said “yes.” I’m so glad he encouraged me to rest because I couldn’t have kept up that pace.
We did slow down and even stopped for a minute. I had to start eating a little something so I got out one of my power protein bars and took a bite or two.

During this time, the guys decided it was time for a “bio–break”. I’ll remind you that we were in the middle of an open field – no trees, shrubs or anything to hide behind – just some tall grass, and not nearly tall enough! Well, I needed a “bio-break” too but 2 of the guys took off first, each to the opposite side of the road so I had to wait, trying not to look at them. No way was I going to follow either one of them in either direction. When Torsten came back, it was my turn. Instinctively, I turned my back to them just as they did but then realized that would not be a good idea. I would have ended up mooning them. So, I turned around and hid myself as much as possible in the grass. The guys weren’t looking at me but they weren’t exactly looking away, either so at first I was feeling awkward but then got over it, realizing – we’re in the thick of it, now – brute humans with a significant loss of all kinds of pleasantries. Having forgotten to bring my tissue the race directors gave us for just such an occasion, I opted for the quick drip-dry method and moved on. I didn’t think about it again all day.

Onward, we got to a check point where we got some instructions to find some more letters – T E A and M, this time along the upcoming trail. Torsten and I went to copy points on the map and get the paper to stamp the letters while Joel, Tommy and Shariff studied our course. As we got to the top of the next hill to the first letter’s stamp, we realized we didn’t have the TEAM paper. Torsten and I hadn’t FOCUSED! I don’t think they ever actually handed it to us but we did see it and neither of us actually took it, either. My bad, I should have FOCUSED more! Either way, I went half-way down the hill sending Torsten the rest of the way so we could keep our team the minimum distance apart. In quick measure, we had the paper and got back up the hill where the first stamp was.

Joel had gotten a little frustrated and rightly so but once we got the first letter, he said he was sorry for getting angry. That’s just how cool our team is. He’s awesome and never got angry again the rest of the day. He yelled a lot but it was good yelling “Push it! Push it! – Dig deeper guys! – Get up on Torsten’s butt! I want you to pinch it!” We all appreciate him doing that. It kept us motivated.

The hills were still hard and by this time I knew I had to start eating or I would “bonk” as Joel said. So, I ate one or two more bites of a bar with lots of water. This was essential and I learned to read my body for signs that I was starting to get weak. Tommy and I both struggled with the hills and I was glad to not be the only one. He has great upper body strength but doesn’t do as much biking as Shariff, Torsten or Joel – all of whom could get up the hills with no problem. So, Tommy and I stuck together for a while.

The next checkpoint had a choice for us to make – go a longer route or pay 25 tokens to go a shorter route. Well, we had caught up to the Sea Wis team, another very strong team that could easily beat us. Knowing that we would have to have another team to do the tribal challenge, we decided to stick together and pay the 25 tokens each for the short route. We knew we'd save a bundle of tokens at the challenge because we were together.

We kept with the Sea Wis and gathered more stamps and were getting close to the first transition area. The lady on the Sea Wis team fell over on her bike into a hole beside the road. It was heartening to see people rush to her aide, even some from another tribe – the Patekes. After a minute to compose herself, she got back on her bike and we were off again. The transition area was a welcome relief because we gave back our bikes – yay! Then it was time to trek.

Team 49- The Sea Wis and ToaWairua

With the Sea Wis, we hiked up and down hills until we got to a very thick brush that covered a hill that stretched below us on our right. At the bottom of the hill was a lake. A narrow path had been beaten back in the brush and the path marked with blue plastic packing tape and it was clear that it was time to go bush-whacking. For at least a half hour or more, we tramped through the narrow path, getting our feet tangled in the thick plant reeds, slipping on steep slopes and catching ourselves falling occasionally by holding the blue tape, even though Joel kept reminding us not to. I’m glad I was wearing long pants, though because the next day I saw lots of people with scraped up legs from this part of the race.

Finally, we got down to the bottom of the hill by the lake where we were faced with the Tribal Challenge. We were to work together to row a raft across the lake. Together, our two teams, now dubbed Team 49 (they were team 8) made easy work of that raft ride.

On the other side, we were to cross a big space filled with shallow spots of water and rocks. We decided to pick up the pace a bit. The Sea Wis didn’t feel they could run at that point so they sent us ahead. Half-way across, Tommy’s thighs both cramped up – due to the tough biking. He tried to keep moving but fell to his knees rubbing his legs. We went to help him with some water and power gels and with whatever we could.
The Sea Wis team caught up and began to pass when Randy Lee from their team yelled “What do you want us to do?”. We told them to go on ahead. In fact, remember the tribe key? Each tribe was given one key that would open a chest that had something that would help the whole tribe in it. So, the goal was to have the key with the first team in each tribe to reach the chest so that everyone behind them could benefit from the information in the chest. The key had been passed to us by the X-team as we passed. So, when Randy’s team passed us, we handed it off to them.

After a few minutes, Tommy was able to walk again slowly. On the other side of the field was the tribal chest, which the Sea Wis team opened for us and the rest of the tribe. We were able to catch up with them and learned that the chest contained some directions and a stamp that if all the teams on a tribe got to stamp it on their paper we’d get extra time or something for our tribe for the tribal award which is the best one to get.

The weather was perfect, not too hot, a bit overcast. We were constantly wet and muddy but it just didn’t matter. I usually had some power bar in my pants pocket that I would take bites of.

We hiked with the Sea Wis a bit but decided to try to run ahead again. This time, we were ahead and going through dense woods with soft ground and lots of mud and roots, when we came to a fork in the trail. We were always told to follow the orange markers – either triangles or ribbons attached to trees. So, we followed the path with the markers – at least Shariff and I did. We were sure we were on the right trail until Joel brought us back saying we needed to check our heading. Shariff kept going a bit and found a sign that said it was the wrong way. So, we doubled back to Joel, Tommy and Torsten while they checked the compass and map.

By this time, the Sea Wis had caught up again and we realized as their orienteer Pete, who was an excellent orienteer, went the right way the first time that it might be better just to stick with them a bit. We were good orienteers but Pete was an expert. So, we stuck right behind them through the rest of the woods. We were in there a good 2 more hours, at least.

During this time, we traversed rocks, roots, mud up above our shoes, sometimes to our knees and slippery steps up and down. The focus for me now was on my feet and what they were going to step on. I barely looked up. Torsten and Joel helped a lot by carrying Tommy’s and my pack a lot. This was great and helped us to go faster. As usual, Shariff was just a machine, never needing to stop and always able to help by calling out rocks, hills or whatever we needed. Joel continued to yell at us from behind – “Let’s push it!”, “Keep up with those Sea Wis!” Torsten kept looking for magic mushrooms. We would stop sometimes, ever-so-briefly to check the map, refuel and for those of us who needed it, to sit down for a few seconds. We never stopped for longer than this.

We arrived eventually at a huge ravine – at least I assumed there was a ravine since all I could see (as I was so focused) was a bunch of ropes going across and people helping us with putting harnesses on. Time for tyrolean or repelling as we call it. We got our harnesses on with carabineers and then hooked the carabineers to the ropes and pulled ourselves across the ravine on our backs hanging from the ropes.

I think my mom would’ve had a heart attack had she seen me. I was the first one across and wasted no time. In fact, one of the guides asked me if I had looked down and I hadn’t. I was too focused on just getting across fast so as not to slow the others down. It was fun though and not too hard. From there, it was another short trek down a hill to the river.

Finally, we emerged from the forest near the river where we found kayaks and life jackets. Paddling time! And, here’s where Tommy’s strengths really shined. He was the power stroker and even kept us all on track – “Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!” We paddled what we later learned was 7km down the river with a guide steering and helping us a bit. We all poured our hearts into this part and paddled with all our might! My shoulders were burning but we had to keep going. Unfortunately, the Sea Wis who were right behind us in their kayaks got hung up a bit on rocks so they got behind a bit. Joel handed me the latest map that he just received before getting into the kayak and I saw a wonderful word, kind of scribbled on it in red – “finish”. I asked “Does this say finish?!” That was a magical moment!

When we reached the next stop it was time to run again. But, we had been almost waist deep in water in the kayaks – water that had come from a glacier so when it came time to get out, I couldn’t feel by legs. We all seemed to have a bit of trouble running or walking. We reached a red tent roof where a person told us we could either pay 45 tokens or wait in the holding pen. Each token bought some time. We had 46 tokens, so before we “checked in” we ran one token back to the Sea Wis who were coming right up behind us. They didn’t have quite enough to go right through. With our token, they only had to wait three minutes.

Once we went through, we could see the white tents where the finish line was – way to the right on top of a big hill. The guy at the check-in told us to head toward a white van on the shore and then go right. When we got to the van, we saw a road going up and to the right. We assumed that was it since we didn’t think they wanted us to go through farm land. But, when we got a way up, Shariff insisted we were going the wrong way. We were tempted to keep going but Joel looked at the map and saw that the road eventually went the wrong way. Thanks to Shariff, we got back on track, walked/ran cross-country toward the white tents. We jogged as much as we could.

The Sea Wis were just getting out of the waiting area so we thought about waiting for them We really wanted to cross the finish line with them as they were such a big help to us. But, when we got close, the people by the finish line who were cheering us on said we needed to cross the finish line to save time for our tribe. So, as a team we decided that’s what we had to do.

It was really an emotional thing, more than I thought it would be. I cried like a baby and hugged everyone on the team and everyone at the finish line that would let me. I just couldn’t believe we had come in first! I was shocked! Our team was never the most fit or the most competitive but we had some help, luck and really great teamwork with each other. I am sure our success was mainly due to the trust and commitment we had to each other. I am even more of a believer in teamwork than I ever was.

After we finished, the Sea Wis crossed the finish just a few minutes after us. We waited for the next Tui tribe team, the X-team to cross, too. They came in fifth place. They would have beaten us except for the bike problems and they would have been 3rd place except for having to wait at the check-in for a while. Celebrating these two teams coming in was almost as much fun as our finish was.

Then, it was time to clean up and get some pampering. They had showers for us, our clean dry clothes that we sent ahead and even several massage therapists on hand to help relieve the tense muscles. I took advantage of all of this, having my calves and lower back massaged. Deb Berard from the X-team layed beside me for her massage. It was the best massage I have ever had! After that, I was ready to dance. But first, they had some great BBQ for us. I had two huge plates of food – mainly meat. My stomach wasn’t upset anymore and I enjoyed every bite!

For the next few hours we waited by the finish line cheering the Tui teams that came in. It was a great time – the sense of accomplishment in the air, the celebration and camaraderie were awesome. Later, we did some dancing to the music played by the band “Afterglow”. Randy Lee and Tao from his team were dancing and Torsten asked if I wanted to – of course! I was just waiting for someone to ask! Soon we had Tommy and Shariff dancing with us along with a bunch of others. That for me was the best part of the whole day! I could have danced all night.

But, then we gladly stopped because the last team was coming back – a Pateke tribe team that had gotten seriously lost. So lost that they had to be helicoptered in. But, the helicopter landed just at the bottom of the hill so that the team could run up, cross the finish line and collect their medals and accolades from everyone who was there, waiting for them. Everyone was finally back and safe.

Shortly thereafter, it was dinner-time. I’d eaten so much that I wasn’t hungry but we sat together as a team for the last time, watched video and photos from the day and just enjoyed the accomplishment. They also showed us the length of the race and the different parts. Later was the award ceremony. I had the great privelege of going up with my team and acknowledging them and the other teams that we felt really kicked our butts – the Sea Wis and the X-team. It was so awesome and the team and I were so excited.

The bus ride home was quiet as we were all tired and sleeping from the day. Cath, our awesome tribe leader, came by to each of us individually on the bus to thank us and tell us how proud she was. This really will be a day I’ll always remember as one of the best days of my life!

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