Well, the 2009 Kokoda Challenge has been run and won … not by us, but then we weren’t trying to win.  We might be crazy, but we still claim to be human (unlike those to can run 96kms in half a day).  We set ourselves the more realistic goal of finishing in under 24 hours.  After 4 months of serious training we all went in feeling confident that we’d put in the required hard yards and should give our target a good shake.

The team tackling the challenge this year were, in official Fibonacci sequence:
0 – Stuart McFarland – Rocking up for his first Kokoda Challenge, like the energizer bunny, he just keeps going
1 – Brock Janiczak – Needs to be chained down to stop him running, we just couldn’t stop him coming back for a second dig
1 – Shane Hollaway – Also back for a second time – mainly because I just love doing these write ups!
2 – Nicole Keegan – Our incredible team leader.  This is her third time round, she claims she’ll stop after beating 24hrs, but we don’t believe a word of it…

But you need more that just a handful of crazies to compete in something like the Kokoda Challenge.  You need people to monitor the craziness, people who are willing to jump at the requests of tired, sore and grumpy idiots, people who will see you’re hurting, help you up, shove you in the right direction and tell you to keep going.  We found three people willing to take on the job, and as they’d got us through last year’s challenge, we knew they could do the job and do it well.  As expected, they didn’t disappoint.  Dennis, Jenesse and Matt, thanks for another stellar performance, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Zero – The pre-race story

Most of the team were up sometime between 3 and 3:30 in the morning.  Matt collected Shane and Stuart and headed to Nicole’s to meet the rest of the crew.  Dennis and Jenesse were already there packing Brock and Nicole’s gear into the Mystery Machine.  Nicole greeted us with, “Funniest story ever!”  After some prompting we figured out that she was talking about Matt’s write up about the flat battery in Shane’s car the night before.  Everyone was in high spirits and ready to go, so shortly after we jumped in the cars and headed for the start line.

We arrived in Mudgeeraba at around 5:30am and proceeded to shuffle Shane and Stuart’s gear into the Mystery Machine.  Dennis was stunned with Stuarts super organised kit.  At the other end of the scale, Shane, much to the amusement of the support crew, rocked up with many many bags and announced, rather accurately, that there is probably a lot of stuff in there that won’t be needed.

After that we headed off to check in.  The process was very smooth and we had our timing chips and race numbers in next to no time.  We meet up with the support crew at a coffee shop and discovered they had found Dyllan and Maz.  Dyllan was also competing and Maz was playing support crew for his team.  We wished each other luck and then got on with the last minute preparations.

At about 6:40 we handed over our nice warm jackets and headed for the start line.  We were able to get pretty close to the front of the 21 to 25 hour section.  After a few speeches and the last post, gun shots rang out and the under 21 hour teams took off.  Two minutes later it was our turn…

One – And they’re off
Section One – Mudgeeraba to Hinterland Leisure Trail
Distance: 4.6kms (4.6kms total)
Time: 7:02am to 7:46 (44mins)

After walking over the first little rise the crowd thinned a little and we settled into a slow jog to try to clear the bulk of the field.  Our plan for the day was to jog the down hills and walk the rest, but we made an exception at the start and jogged the flats as well.  The year before we’d been caught up in a number of bottle necks as the track narrowed to single file and crossed some small creeks.  The plan worked well, we were clear of the pack at the first choke point and didn’t even have to pause.  Along the way we past Doug and his team who had a similar plan to ours.  We traded places with them several times during the section as each team decided to jog different sections.  However we managed to surge ahead and beat them to the first check point.

There was one very sad moment in this section.  Stuart realised that his very carefully prepared list of quotes, jokes and logic puzzles had fallen out of his pocket.  Luckily he could remember a couple of the jokes, but we’d have to wait until checkpoint 5 before he would collect the next list.

One – The first trail
Section Two: Hinterland Leisure Trail to Mt Nimmel Lodge
Distance: 7.9kms (12.5kms total)
Time: 7:46 to 8:45 (1hr 43mins)

After zipping through the checkpoint we took our first steps of the day on a dirt trail.  We entered the Leisure trail via a steep slippery downhill track.  We made it down safely and dropped in behind a school team to wander along the single file track.  After a short while the track widened and we got into our rhythm of walking up and jogging down.  We did manage to pass a large number of teams in this section.  One team we passed insisted that we were on a 15 hour finishing pace.  They were surprised when we said that we were aiming for 24 hours, so we explained our game plan of jogging down hills until it got dark then walking the rest, but they insisted that we’d do 18 hours at least … obviously first timers, I wonder what they were aiming for and how close they got?

In the end we cruised into the checkpoint a bit ahead of schedule, to find the support crew MIA.  After a quick phone call we found out they had set up camp up the hill and were surprised that we had already arrived.  We took a 13 minute break to change shoes and socks, fill up the water and grab some food for lunch, then we were off again.  The only minor hiccup was Shane’s water bladder which didn’t want to open.  After much persuasion and a little swearing the lid came undone and the water was replenished, but we made sure we didn’t do it up too tightly.

Two – A tail of two hills
Section Three: Mt Nimmel Lodge to End Austinville Road
Distance: 13.9kms (26.4kms total)
Time: 8:58 to 11:31 (4hrs 29mins)

We started this section with a bit of a walk, not because we were tired, but to give the food we’d eaten some time to settle.  Speaking of tired, we passed one team on the hill that had a young girl who was doubled over, hands on the knees, slowly trudging up the hill.  We all looked at each other thinking the same thing, “what hope do you have of finishing if you’re stuffed already?”  We on the other hand were feeling great, we jogged down one hill before heading up the first big hill of the day.  After a nice little 20 minute hit out and proving that all our sweat glands were working as advertised, we reached the top of the ridge.

As we made our way along the ridge, Brock spotted a team ahead of us and said, “Hey, that guy looks like Doug.”  In fact, he did a very good Doug impersonation indeed, he looked like Doug, spoke like Doug, but no one was willing to see if he tasted or smelled like Doug.  But, he seemed to know who we were, so it’s possible it actually was Doug.  So we joined Doug’s team for a while, caught up on some gossip and compared race plans.  Apparently they were very organised and had spent under 10 minutes at the checkpoint.  As the track took on a downward tilt, we started jogging again and told Doug that we’d no doubt see them later in the day, but we never did.  But they couldn’t have been far away, as they finished about an hour after us.

After the ridge line we headed down the steep track to the bottom of the valley and along a road that follows a little stream. It’s a very relaxing section of the course.  It’s nice and flat, and almost tempting to run, at least it would be if Fairview Mountain wasn’t at the other end.  Fairview is probably the steepest of the big hills and doesn’t have any flat spots that could be considered suitable for a rest.  But before the mountain we encountered a group of elderly people who offered us some lollies and asked us about our team name.  Nicole spent a while explaining who Fibonacci was, and why he has a sequence of his very own … actually I think this was one of Nicole’s favourite topics when chatting to other teams – not that she thinks she’s better than them, she just likes to prove that she is superior (at least in the realm of nerdy mathematical trivia)

Part way up Fairview Mountain we came across Dyllan who was suffering from cramps in his quads.  He didn’t look comfortable, but was hoping it would go away.  We left him in the hands of his team mates and headed up the hill.  There were a few very tired teams at the top of the hill and we started a game of team leap frog … we’d pass them, they’d pass us, we’d pass them.  In the end most of them passed us when we stopped for a lunch break at check point 4.  Stuart took advantage of the break to fill up his water supplies, while Shane sent a message to the support crew telling them where we were and requesting some scissors and sticky tape at the next major check point.   After a 14 minute break, the alarm on Nicole’s phone told us it was time to get moving, so like good little children, we got up and filed out.

Three – That’s outrageous
Section Four: End Austinville Rd to Hinze Dam Ridge
Distance: 7.9kms (33.5kms total)
Time: 11:45 to 12:45 (5hrs 43mins)

This section starts with a nice gentle down hill road section, so we took advantage of this and jogged most of the way down.  Nicole’s knee was starting to play up a little, but she claimed it was ok for a slow jog.  We also managed to leap frog a couple of teams again.  After veering off onto a dirt track we caught up to another team we’d been playing leap frog with and started chatting.  Shane found out that one of the team members had been to the world championships for the 100km run.  She claimed that it was easier than the Kokoda Challenge because there aren’t any hills on the 100km course.  Shane didn’t think that running 100kms could be easy regardless of the terrain, walking that far hurt plenty.  Shane was even more impresed to find out that her best time for the 100kms was 9 hours and 6 minutes.  All in all it helped our moral when we pulled away from them.  But it was short lived as they leap frogged us into the next check point.

Brock broke out the Gu on this stage and kicked off proceedings with the Outrageous Chocolate flavour.  Brock claimed it was the best tasting Gu ever and that outrageously it even tasted like chocolate. ”That’s outrageous” we all replied in our most outrageous voices.

Five – Short and sweet
Section Five: Hinze Dam Ridge to Polly’s Creekside Cafe
Distance: 3kms (36.5kms total)
Time: 12:45 to 13:14 (6hrs 12mins)

This has to be one of the shortest sections on the course and it’s pretty much all down hill.  As our knees were still holding up, we jogged down most of the hills and managed to leap frog the 100kms world champ team yet again.  Like with Doug’s team earlier in the day we told them we’d probably see them later.

We made it down to the creek crossing fairly quickly, although not as quickly as Nicole would have liked, as she declared she could hear the creek about 10mins before we got there.  Either she was hearing things, or she has super human hearing … and just in case it’s the second one, there’s to be no more whispering behind her back.  The creek crossing was pretty uneventful, there was only a couple of people to wait behind before we could make our way across the fallen tree.  Nicole couldn’t be bothered waiting and just took her shoes off and wandered through.

The 100km team caught us at the creek and charged though shoes and all.  So we pretty much followed them though some fields we before we came to a little creek that was over the bridge.  The 100km team walked straight through, while we removed shoes and socks before wandering though the cold water.  It felt great on our feet and Stuart suggested a whole leg dunking in the creek at Numinbah Hall.

After reshoeing our feet we headed for the check point.  For some reason Nicole and Brock decided we should jog past all the support crews.  So we jogged and were rewarded with lots of clapping and encouragement.

We once again surprised our support crew with our arrival.  This time we were thwarted by technology, Dennis never received Nicole’s 30 minute warning text, and we never received the messages from the support crew telling us to message all of them as coverage was very patchy.  But to their credit they swung into action and got us feed and resupplied for the next leg.  Shane and Stu used the break to do some serious stretching, while Brock broke out his 5 litre jug of super juice … or poweraide, if you prefer a more accurate description.  Between trying to take photo’s of Brock and his ridiculously large jug, Nicole upgraded her knee bandages.  28 minutes later Stuart and Shane grabbed their hiking poles for the first time and we were on our way, promising to message every man and his dog with updates about when we’d be arriving at Numinbah Hall.

Eight – Deja vu
Section Six: Polly’s Creekside Cafe to Numinbah Environmental Centre
Distance: 7kms (43.5kms total)
Time: 13:43 to 15:22 (8hrs 20mins)

After leaving Polly’s Kitchen we were surprised to find a group of SES people telling us we could walk across the bridge in stead of going through the creek.  We were very grateful and wandered across the bridge happily and came to the bottom of the ever popular Polly’s hill.  It’s the biggest and most trained on hill on the course, so we knew exactly what to expect.  Nicole and Shane adjusted their shoes before the ascent (neither had bothered putting them on properly as they were expecting to take them off to cross the creek.)  As we headed up the hill, Stuart started to drop behind.  We stopped and waited for him to catch up and see how he was doing.  He said he was fine, just taking it slowly up the hill.  So we kept plodding and made it to the top were we took a short break before heading down the other side.

Deja vu for Shane, it was just like last year: Polly’s hill, check; no running, check; hiking poles, check; hat, check; compression tights, check; hiking boots, no; knee pain, check, Shane bringing up the rear on the down hills, check.  Well almost like last year, this year there were trail shoes instead of hiking boots, but it was definitely the same knee.  It started as a slight niggle, but by half way down it was starting to hurt, so Shane called a halt to the proceedings and broke out a knee support.

As we hit the bottom of the hill Stuart broke out his sheet of joke, quotes and logic puzzles and started to entertain us.  The puzzle had us scratching our heads for quite a while.  Something about a man who lives on the 10th floor and catches the lift to the 10th floor on rainy days and when other people are in the lift, but gets off on the 7th floor and walks up the stairs to the 10th when it’s a sunny and he’s alone.  Why does he do this?

We had a short 5 minute break at the enviro centre and Shane succumbed to his knee pain and took the first nurofen of the day.  Nicole however was doing remarkably well with her sore knee and was getting by with just panadol.

Thirteen – Maximum speed reached
Section Seven: Environment Centre to Numinbah Hall
Distance: 7.2kms (50.7kms total)
Time: 15:27 to 17:05 (10hrs 3mins)

As we set off around the waterfall loop we were handed a hi vis jacket for the last person in the team to wear so that cars could see us in case it got dark.  We took it and then looked at each other.  There aren’t any road sections on the waterfall loop, we should only need the jacket for section 9, and we were on section 7.  We debated giving it back, but in the end Brock crammed it in his back pack and we set off.  As we were heading into the start of the loop we passed a team coming the other way who were just about to finish the loop.  We all agreed it was an impressive effort to finish the loop and possibly section 9 before sundown.  For our part we were chuffed that we looked like hitting Numinbah Hall in daylight.

As we trudged along and negotiated the many creek crossings, Stuart dropped to the back.  He was starting to slow down.  He didn’t need to stop, he just couldn’t go any faster and was happy just settling into the new rhythm.  Shane sympathised with him as he’d been through exactly the same stage in the mini Kokoda a few weeks earlier.  So we settled in and had a chat while the going was flat.

We took a short break at the bottom of the only serious bit of hill on this section and were joined by another team as we started up.  We compared notes on how we were going and how much we were looking forward to a break.  By the time we got to the top there were about 3 other teams with us.  All of them seemed to be heading down hill faster than us, so we let them go.

After what seemed like an age, we finally spotted the hall through the trees.  This inspired a short jog down the last bit of hill and to the check point.  The support crew had once again failed to get our updates, this time Shane’s phone had lost signal at the crucial moment failed to send the message.  But we don’t call our support crew wonderful for no reason.  Jenesse had decided we must be due to arrive and heated up our meals minutes before we arrived.  We were also surprised to find Maz and Dyllan with our support crew.  Dyllan hadn’t been able to overcome his cramps and by the time he hit Polly’s hill they were occurring every 10 mins, making it impossible to continue.

Twenty one – Cause drugs are good, M’kay
Section Eight: Numinbah Hall to Environment Centre
Distance: 5.8kms (56.5kms total)
Time: 17:47 to 19:03 (12hrs 1min)

The sun had set while we were at the hall, but we left full of food and feeling refreshed.  Shane started doing motor-cross impersonations as he walked over jump like bumps in the trail.  Nicole shrewdly asked, “You took more drugs at that check point, didn’t you?”  Shane replied, “yep, nurofen is good” then in his best Mr Mackey voice added “cause, drugs are good, M’kay.”  Brock was in a positive mood, he was talking about the odds of getting a full team home two years in a row, and how good it was that we where looking good to do just that.  No one argued with him, we were all feeling pretty good about our chances.

We matched on up and over the long hill without too many problems, although we were all glad when we reached the top.  On the way down Nicole regaled us with a story about her trip to see The Hangover the weekend before, which she claimed was the funniest movie ever.  We got a run down on the funniest parts of the movie … which took a while, because this was the funniest movie every, so you can’t leave much out.  But it kept us entertained until we got to the bottom of the hill and joined the trail that lead back to the enviro centre.

This track was packed.  Almost non stop people coming the other way.  We past a couple of the Kokoda Kids groups and they all seemed to be in high spirits and were giving encouragement to everyone who wandered by.

When we arrived at the enviro centre Shane announced that he wasn’t feeling very well.  But given where wasn’t much to do for an upset stomach, he got up and kept going.

Thirty four – Why?
Section Nine: Environment Centre to Black Shoot
Distance: 5.5kms (62kms total)
Time: 19:03 to 21:03 (14hrs 1min)

We set off over the bridge and along the edge of the Hinze dam.  Brock piped up that it must be time for a musical interlude, but Shane wasn’t feeling up for singing or dancing, so we plodded on without a backing tune.  All too soon we’d finished the nice wander along the end of the dam and were confronted with the cow pad trail.  We’d done this a couple of times in training without any issues, but it’s a different prospect with 60+ kms under your feet.  Four fun filled hills awaited us, each one slightly bigger than the last, with a slightly crappier trail.  The first hill was ok, the second was starting to slow us down and by the third Shane was starting to struggle.  At the bottom of the third hill we were passed by a school team who had a member with an arm in a sling.  Can’t image it would be fun walking this trail with a sore arm bouncing in a sling, but full credit to him, he seemed to be travelling well.

Shane wasn’t.  He hardly noticed the bush walking club at the bottom of the last big hill, and was moving very slowly up hill and stumbling on every rock that jutted out of the track … and there was no shortage of those.  Little questions start running around his head, “what am I doing?”, “is it worth it?”, “how much longer can I go on?”, “could I be bothered”.  Around this time to rest of the team had stopped to wait, and Nicole asked, “Are you feeling ok?”  Shane replied, “No, I feel very slow”.  Nicole just nodded and said, “You’re even talking slow”.  Nicole and Brock decided Shane needed sugar to fix up his energy levels and made sure he ate something each time he caught up to them.  It was annoying, but it worked.  By the time we finished the worst of the hill, the sugar had started to work, the incline decreased a little and Shane was able to pick up the pace a little.  Brock dropped in beside Shane for the walk up to the check point, which for some reason was very wet and muddy.  By the time we reached the checkpoint, thanks to his team, Shane was back up to speed.

Fifty five – Twinkle, twinkle little Gold Coast
Section Ten: Black Shoot to Syd Duncan Park
Distance: 4kms (66kms total)
Time: 21:03 to 21:46 (14hrs 44mins)

A short little section along a ridge line with pretty views of the Gold Coast was welcomed by all, well almost.  It was slightly down hill most of the way and Nicole’s knee was starting to act up.  But Nicole refused to take anything for the pain until Syd Duncan Park, so she settled on swearing like a sailor, apologising, then swearing again.  Fortunately we’d all done our fair share of swearing at section nine, so we were in no position to take offence.  Nicole’s other outlet was thinking about the wonderful caramel cake we got during this section last year.  Unfortunately, the friendly people with the cake were nowhere to be found this year.

We marched up the last little hill into Syd Duncan Park, checked in and meet up with the support crew for a well earned half hour break.  Shane and Nicole dosed up on nurofen to get the knees through the up coming hell fire pass.

Eighty nine – Welcome to Hell … Fire Pass
Section Eleven: Syd Duncan Park to Belliss Rd
Distance: 7.5kms (73.5kms total)
Time: 22:19 to 23:56 (16hrs 54mins)

Stuart and Nicole were struggling as we left the check point.  Stu had a straight legged waddle going on while he waited for his muscles to warm up again and Nicole was still waiting for the nurofen to kick in.  Unfortunately for Nicole the pain killers still hadn’t kicked in properly by the time we hit Hell Fire Pass, but she soldiered on and improvised a sideways skip down the hill.  It looked very awkward, but it was very effective and she beat the rest of us down the hill.  We rocked into the checkpoint very glad to have the last big down hill behind us.  After a short toilet break and a chat with the friendly folk at the checkpoint, we head off to confront our favourite mountain.

One hundred and forty four – Damn you Nathan!
Section Twelve: Belliss Rd to Beaudesert Rd
Distance: 5.8kms (79.3kms total)
Time: 23:59 to 1:17 (18hrs 15mins)

No matter how many times we do Mt Nathan, it just doesn’t get any better.  It’s a steep and rutted trail, and just as you think you’ve reached the top and found a nice flat trail, it gets steeper and rockier.  Add 74 odd clicks into the equation, and it’s not a recipe for fun.  Slow plodding is the one and only option, so it was heads down, trudge up.  Although there might be another way, we were passed by a couple of guys who seemed to be doing it far too easily as they bounced past us up the hill.  But seeing it was possible still didn’t make bounding up the mountain seem like a good, or possible, option for us.

Eventually we reached the top and started on the steady down hill run.  We were glad to drop back into autopilot and cruse down the hill.  As we joined the road for the last couple of kilometres to the checkpoint, we came across a girl lying on the ground with her team putting jackets over her to keep her warm.  Nicole asked if we could help, but they said help was already on the way.  About halfway down the hill we past an ambulance heading up to treat the girl.  Just one more reason to dislike that mountain.

Unfortunately the support crew are about 800m from the checkpoint, so we still had a bit of a walk before we could find our chairs.  The support crew welcomed us into the last major checkpoint and quickly grabbed everything we needed.

Two hundred and thirty three – Cause drugs are bad, M’kay
Section Twelve: Beaudesert Rd to Nerang State Forest
Distance: 6.3kms (85.6kms total)
Time: 1:42 to 2:48 (19hrs 46mins)

Beep, beep, beep … Nicole’s alarm went off letting us know it was time to get moving.  Unfortunately Shane had taken another nurofen without eating much food first, and those tablets don’t like being alone in the dark.  No sooner had it landed than it started throwing a tantrum in Shane’s stomach.  3.4 seconds later Shane was very busy introducing the tablet and the rest of his stomach to a conveniently located garden.  After taking the obligatory embarrassing photo, Dennis presented Shane with a cup of water to rinse his mouth out with.  After a few sips of water, a bit of poweraide and a few moments to recover, Shane was right to go again.  With true team spirit, not a negative word was said and everyone seemed confident that we would still all finish.

The trek through Nerang forest in the dark was a new experience for the team.  We’d only ever trained it during the day, and last year the sun was rising as we set off.  Nicole was taking the darkness as a good thing because it meant that we couldn’t see the boring forest.  But the lack of light also meant we couldn’t see any of the landmarks that let us know we were getting close to the final checkpoint.  While we were wandering along wondering where we were, a team of three caught up to us.  It turned out they were the team that contained the girl who had passed out coming down Mt Nathan.  They told us that she was suffering from exhaustion, but was going to be fine.

After they left us the team gave us some more good news, we saw their head torches going up a very steep incline and realised we were approaching the final hill in this section.  It’s short and sharp and great to put behind you.  As we approached the top one of the volunteers was there to encourage us up the last little bit and welcome us to the checkpoint.  They told us that there had been a steady stream of teams coming through, but a lot of them were teams of 2 or 3.  We help ourselves to some of their lollies and set out for the finish line.

Three hundred and seventy seven – Just let it end
Nerang State Forest to Finish Line
Distance: 10.4kms (96kms total)
Time: 2:48 to 5:02 (22hrs exactly)

I hate count downs!  Don’t get me wrong, they are great at the football when the crowd is counting down the final 10 seconds.  But they suck big some when you’ve walked 86kms and you are staring at a sign that says 10kms to go.  It’s just too far out.  After walking for what seemed like an age we found the 8km sign, and the first reaction is, no, that felt like a lot more than 2kms.  So we plodded on, up long slow inclines and down the other side.  All in all we were doing rather well.  Sure, everything was hurting and every footstep was registering loud and clear, but we were all walking pretty close to normal.  The few slight limps didn’t stop us moving at a decent pace and eventually we even passed the 6km sign.

We started wondering how fast we were travelling.  Shane guessed around 5km/hr, but Nicole thought we were probably closer to 13 or 14 minutes per kilometre.  However fast we where going, we still managed to pass a couple of teams, so we were doing much better than last year.  Stuart thought he had a good bearing on our pace and announced that we should be seeing the 4km sign in the next 5 to 10 minutes.  5 minutes came and went, no sign.  10 minutes, then 15 minutes passed, still no sign.  Maybe we missed it, or maybe, like last year, they were screwing with us and some signs were missing.  We continued on and started trying to work out when we should let the support crew know we were getting close.  Part way through the discussion we came across a sign … 1km to go!  Did I mention I hate count downs?  Who ever heard of a count down that goes, 10, 8, 6, 1 … Fibonacci would roll over in his grave if he heard that sequence!

So 1km to go.  A quick watch check shows we are on target to finish just before 5, Brock checks his and says it’ll be right on 5, Stuarts watch says just after 5.  Stuart floats the idea of running to the end to break 22 hours.  The answer is a unanimous no.  We leave the forest and are pointed in the general direction of the finish line.  We round the corner to see a couple of big guns for us to walk under and a crowd of people cheering us on.  Arm in arm we crossed the finish line and swiped our timing chips one last time knowing we were damn close to 22 hours …

Six hundred and ten – Shear relief

No sooner had we crossed the line than we were asked to wander up on stage to receive our Kokoda Challenge dog tags and certificates.  After collecting our goodies and posing for the photo op, we followed our support crew to our chairs for the last time.  When we looked at the certificate we discovered that it said we’d finished in 22 hours and 2 minutes.  Then phones started beeping, texts from the time tracking program saying 22 hours, 0 minutes and 27 seconds.  We all agreed that the people filling out the certificates hadn’t taken our start time of 7:02 into account and the certificates should say 22 hours.  That’s a whole 2 hours under our target time!  What’s more is was a real team effort.  If someone was struggling the team would slow down offer support, no one ever complained that we should be going faster, it was just a quiet confidence that together we could pull through.

To our support crew, well, you’ve probably figured out by now that we love your work.  We couldn’t of done it without you organising our chaos at each major checkpoint … well maybe Stuart could, you’d swear he had a secretary in that bag it was so organised!  And thanks also for getting us to the start line and home again safely.

In the final wash up we did much better than expected.  We were the 10th mixed team to cross the line and the 36th team over all.  But more impressive is the fact that the official results only count whole teams that finish, and in those standings we were the 8th mixed team and 22nd team over all!  Not bad at all for an event that boasted 300 teams.