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Our day started very early with us meeting at Nicole’s place at about 5am. We were all in high spirits on the way down the coast thinking that 30kms should be pretty easy after we’d knocked over 40kms without too much trouble last month. Little did we know that the pirate code was going to be in put into practice for this outing … The Mini Kokoda as an official training event for the actual Kokoda Challenge. It’s a fun little 30km hit out that is held over stages 6, 7 and 8 of the Kokoda Challenge course … you start at Numinbah Hall and make your way to the Environmental Centre, then head over Paige’s Pinnacle (or Polly’s Hill as most people call it) to Polly’s Kitchen. You then get to turn around and go back over Paige’s Pinnacle before following the waterfall loop across a number of creek crossings back to Numinbah Hall. Easy … Due to a bit of a mix up when we registered we ended up being a team of 3 named Fibonacci minus 1 (Shane, Stuart & Nicole) and a team of 1 (Brock). Basically Brock thought we were all signing up separately and registered a week or so before the rest of us got organised. To add to the fun, teams got to start the event 20mins before the individual competitors. Brock declined our offer to just start with us, and told us he’d probably catch us around half way. At the start we ended up near the front and decided to jog to the first major trail so that we wouldn’t be holding up the teams behind us. This sort of worked, Stuart took off like a hare and Nicole and Shane got stuck behind a group who gave up running shortly after the track narrowed down to single file. We then proceeded up a dirt road, jogging bits that weren’t too steep, or covered in fallen trees and branches. We slowed to a walk when we hit the main hill, but as soon as we hit the top Stuart set off again and we followed. Not far from the Environmental Centre Stuart turned right at an intersection. We asked him what the hell he was doing, and he said that he was following the team in front of us – he’d caught a glimpse of them heading that way as we were coming down the hill. As the other team was out of sight, we headed the other way and wondered how far they’d go before realising they’d gone the wrong way? We took it fairly easy from the Environmental Centre to the bottom of Paige’s Pinnacle to save our legs for the climb. We didn’t have too much trouble going up the "easy" side of the hill. However the first of the individual runners did start to pass us … so much for the 20 min lead. We were still pretty confident that Brock would have trouble catching us as we’d been moving a lot faster than any of our previous training runs. Nicole declared that the pirate code was in affect and it was every man for himself and it was Brock’s own fault for not joining us. After 40 odd minutes of up hill we reached the summit and headed straight down the other side. Every now and then there would be footsteps behind and someone would run past. About 2/3 of the way down we heard some footsteps and all shuffled out the way. We were stunned when we looked up and realised it was Brock! He just smiled and said "and now the sequence is complete". So as a full team we made our way to the bottom of the hill and confronted the river crossing. Shane and Stuart went for the shoes off approach as there was no way to keep the feet dry, while Nicole and Brock just wandered straight through. As Shane and Nicole headed for the check point at Polly’s Kitchen, Brock ran back the other way saying "I’ll see you at the end". So back to a team of three. We made our way back across the river and stopped for a quick sock change before heading back up the hill. The pace had definitely started to drop off by this stage. We had a short break at the top of the hill and then started on the way down. Nicole’s knee was starting to play up a little. On the first trip up the big hill she introduced here knee to a fallen tree, and now it was paying her back. We still made decent time down the hill, but at the bottom Nicole spotted some people from her work in very conspicuous yellow shirts and picked up the pace to beat them to the next checkpoint. She won the sprint up the last incline and looked very pleased with herself. On the way out of the Environmental Centre, Stuart and Nicole put a bit of a lead on Shane while he was eating an apple. He wasn’t running down the hills while eating … that and his legs were starting to complain about the pace. After a couple creek crossings, Shane caught up to Stuart and Nicole. Shortly after Shane caught up, Stuart and Nicole started running. Shane couldn’t convince his legs it was a good idea to move any faster and watched the others disappeared out of sight. The pirate code had struck again. After an hour or so of slow plodding and slow downhill jogging, Shane reached the finish line and found Stuart and Nicole waiting under a tree. After collapsing on the ground, Shane found out that despite the running, they’d only arrived about 10mins earlier. Stuart and Nicole also apologised for instituting the pirate code, but just as they were about to stop and wait, they spotted Nicole’s yellow shirted friends and decided they could beat them. Somehow they found the energy to surge up the last big hill and managed to secure the office bragging rights for the IT department. In all of this none of us had spotted Brock. On the way back to the car, Stuart and Shane took a detour to sit in a very cold creek to help the legs recover. Despite their best efforts they couldn’t convince Nicole it was a good idea. After getting dry and changed, free food was high on the list of priorities. After collecting their burgers and drinks they went looking for a somewhere to sit. Nicole walked straight past Brock, who was lying on the ground, while stating, "Where the hell has Brock gotten to?" Brock was rather surprised that we’d all changed. He hadn’t seen us finish, but he had seen someone who looked like Shane, but figured, since he was on his own, it couldn’t be … damn pirates! So in the final wash up we’d covered the 30kms a lot faster than we thought we could. Brock finished 26th in 4:17:55, while Fibonacci minus 1 finished in 41st place in 5:03:57. Luckily for Shane the event organisers don’t recognise the pirate code and based the team time on his finish, so the fact Stuart and Nicole finished in 4:47:04 gained them nothing … other than those all important bragging rights! Welcome to the Team Fibonacci training blog. Team Fibonacci is competing in the Kokoda Challenge in July 2009. The Kokoda Challenge is a 96km charity bush walk around the Gold Coast hinterland with a 39 hour time limit. It is done in teams of 4 who can have a support crew that will meet them at 5 checkpoints along the way for food, water and encouragement. Team Fibonacci’s vague plan is to jog the down hill sections during the day, walk through the night and hopefully break the 24 hour barrier. Team Fibonacci is made up of a group of friends who meet at work a little over 8 years ago. Back then we were all much more interested in drinking and fun than exercise and endurance events … ah, how times change … Three of us completed the challenge last year as part of Team Insanity in a time of 26.5 hours, while our fearless leader finished in 30 hours the year before as part of Team Vodka with a couple of members of our support crew. So who are the individuals…
Our support crew is backing up from doing a stellar job last year supporting Team Insanity last year and is composed of Dennis Mellican, Jenesse Valentine and Matthew Moores. So it may have occurred to you that you need to be rather fit to cover 96kms on foot in under 24 hours. You might also think that you’d probably need to start training more that 7 weeks out from the event. Well, you’d be right. In fact we’ve been training for the last 3 months – we’ve just been really slack when it comes to writing it up. As a team we’ve done various sections of the actual course and wandered around Mt Coot-tha too many times. On top of this we’ve all been running at lunch times, rock climbing and several other things to get the general fitness up. Below is a brief summary of our team training sessions so far: 15th February – Nerang State Forest Our first training session was a loop through the Nerang State Forest. It’s about a 25km wander and it’s fairly flat. There is only one serious hill, but it’s not very long. All in all, a nice gentle (but fairly long) introduction to training. 22th February – Mt Coot-tha Our first of many wanders around Mt Coot-tha. We did a loop from Channel 9 out to Brisbane Forest Park, down to the Gap Creek Reserve and back to the cars via the Kokoda trail (which is the steepest hill on the mountain). 8th March – Mt Coot-tha We skipped last weekend because Shane and Nicoles knees were playing up. As it turned out Nicole was still out of action this weekend, so Stuart, Brock and Shane meet at the Silky Oak car park and wandered up Mt Coot-tha and then decided to follow the trails out to the Gap. It was a fairly cruisy walk as there weren’t any steep hills to wander up. 15th & 22nd March – No Training Not sure why we skipped these weekends … but for the sake of it we’ll call it general laziness. 29th March – Mt Nimmel Lodge to Pollys Kitchen After a couple of lazy weekends we jumped back into training with a big weekend. We introduced Stuart to a couple of the courses big hills by walking from checkpoint 2 (Mt Nimmel Lodge) to checkpoint 5 (Pollys Kitchen). This was also the first time we’d started doing any running in training. We discovered that there were some parts of the track that were just too steep or slippery to run down. After both Shane and Nicole had almost fallen over on the same patch of ground Nicole suggested that we wait for Brock and Stuart to catch up, adding "I bet you any money they lose their footing there too". They did, Shane and Nicole laughed, and Brock and Stuart "thanked" them for their concern. Most of the walk was uneventful apart from some confusion about which way to go at a couple of intersections. As none of us had brought maps and there were lots of "this doesn’t look right" comments, but in the end we stumbled apon the right track. When we finally go to the road that has Pollys Kitchen on it, Nicole decided we should jog to the end. It was a very slow and painful run … but that didn’t stop Shane and Brock going for the sprint finish. We rewarded ourselves with lunch a Pollys Kitchen. The all day breakfast went down very well. 5th April – Mt Coot-tha Stuart was out this weekend. Not much to report, it was just a 3hr wander around the mountain. 12th April – Easter Surprisingly enough we had the weekend off. Much more fun to go camping in the rain and get caught in flood waters … 19th April – Brisbane Forest Park We had a 30km hit out into Brisbane Forest Park this week. We left from Channel 9 bright and early as the sun was starting to rise. We wandered through Brisbane Forest Park until we hit Mount Nebo Road around a loop and back again. It didn’t go quite to plan. We ended up on the wrong trail and took a little short cut. Although, this was probably a good thing as Brock wasn’t feeling very well and was very quiet for the whole walk. There were a couple of interesting creek crossings, but we all made it round without too much trouble. 26th April -Environment Centre to Finish Someone let Stuart plan this training session – crazy idea. Basically we walked the last 40kms of the course from section 9 onwards. We started before sun up, which wouldn’t have been an issue, except that Shane forgot his head torch. So we were walking along the edge of the Hinze dam and for some reason Shane ended up in the lead, blindly leading those with the torches when Nicole screams. One of the many toads had jumped menacingly towards her. So Brock and Shane start kicking the toads out the way, but each toad tries to escape by jump straight at Nicole, which brings more screaming and encourages Brock and Shane to give a few more toads a nudge. But soon enough we leave the edge of the dam and head up the cow trail. The cow trail was not fun last year. It’s a single file track that goes up, and down, and up, and down, and up again. It’s probably the most uneven section of track on the whole course. It wasn’t too bad with fresh legs, but we could tell why it hurt so much last year after walking 50 odd kms. We stopped from a break at Syd Duncan Park and admired the view before heading off to tackle the Hell Fire Pass and Mt Nathan. We had some fun crawling under a rickety old gate at the end of one of the trails, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. We stopped for another break at the start of Nerang State Forest. During this time Shane mentioned he wasn’t sure about the girly running socks he was wearing. Brock said he was a fan of the girly socks but thought they’d work better with Stuart’s bright girly trail shoes. Stuart replied he needed them to go with his girly compression tights. And Nicole, well, she was the only one who didn’t seem offended at being called a girl! The trek though Nerang State Forest was pretty boring. Although towards the end Stuart and Brock decided to run back to the car. Shane and Nicole jogged bits and pieces but just couldn’t be bothered trying to keep up with the other two. When we reached the end we’d covered 40kms in 7.5 hours. Looks like the training is well on track. 3rd to 17th May – No Training After the long hit out we decided to have a weekend off. Then due to Stuart being on holidays and a couple of injuries, we had the next couple of weekends off as well. 24th May – Mt Coot-tha We got back into training with a 4.5 hour wander around Mt Coot-tha. Our original plan was to go down the coast and do Pollys hill, the waterfall loop and back again, however after torrential rain all week we decided it wasn’t worth risking coming across an impassable creek on the waterfall loop. We pretty much did our standard loop backwards with a couple of little detours. We walked the majority of it just to get used to being on our feet for a long period of time. Given the amount of rain the tracks were actually in very good condition, with the exception of a couple of creek crossings. Brock struggled around with a knee that was very unhappy, and had to put up with the rest of us lecturing him about going to see a physio. 31st May – Mt Coot-tha Brock succumbed to his dodgy knee and missed this week, so Stuart, Nicole and Shane meet at the Silky Oak car park just before sunrise. We noticed a sign saying parking was $5 – no doubt for the Mt Coot-tha hill climb event, but we figured we probably be back pretty early so we headed off. It was also the first morning we’ve needed jumpers on the first part of the walk. We ended up walking almost all the way to Mount Nebo Road before Nicole noticed that she’d lost her head torch somewhere on the jog down the previous hill, so we turned around and headed back. As it turns out the head torch was almost at the top of hill – it must have fallen off in the first few steps of the run. Somewhere around this time Stuart started going on about how poorly made little girls nickers are and how they just aren’t up to the job like little boys undies. Nicole came out with the line of the day by saying, "You know Stuart, you aren’t suppose to wear them!" We trundled back via the Gap Creek reserve car park, up the Kokoda Track and finally back to the cars. All in all it was a 4hr 45min hit out where we jogged down most of the hills, which is pretty much our plan for the big day. So that’s it for now. We are finally up to date. It looks like next weekend will be another rest weekend as people are away for the long weekend, but the weekend after that is the mini kokoda, so check back for another update on that. Continue reading Girly Tights, Girly Socks, Girly Shoes and a Girl Last night (25th September, 2008), a top rope climber on XXXX (grade 25) at Kangaroo Point cliffs fell about 15 metres after their anchor failed. The climber is currently in a critical condition. Although not confirmed officially, the anchor failure may be due to having no redundancy (single setup) and using a sling (or webbing) which has no core like a static rope. The multiple falls on the dyno crux may have caused the sling to be sawn off against the sharp rock edge at the top of the cliffs. This type of failure has been reported twice, initially by me way back in 2003. Suhail and I were top roping on the Olos slab (grade 26). We were using slings with no rope protectors but had redundancy in the top rope anchor system. One of the slings snapped but the other held. We reported this to the local climbing forum, where for many years people have taken heed and used rope protectors and static rope as opposed to slings or webbing. Before this it was commonplace to see slings used. The next reported anchor failure was the same as last nights incident: no redundancy and using slings in the top rope anchor system. The climber also was left in a critical state. The moral of the story: NEVER USE SLINGS and HAVE REDUNDANCY in your top rope anchor system. Urban Crag also recommends using ROPE PROTECTORS when top roping at Kangaroo Point cliffs. Our best wishes go to the climber who fell and we hope this never happens again. Climb safe! –Dennis Continue reading Climber falls at Kangaroo Point Cliffs
Planning for Insanity Although capable of doing all the tasks required, the Support Crew found each had fell into a primary task: Dennis was the driver, Matt the navigator and Jenesse the organiser. Matt’s prior experience with being part of a Support Crew for Team Vodka in the 2007 Kokoda Challenge was a valuable part of this years Support Crew, especially his advice on timings, checkpoint locations and setups. Jenesse and Dennis were part of Team Vodka last year and drew upon their experience of the event to empathise with what a competitor will require when they descend upon a Support Crew checkpoint. As the Support Crew our goal was to give to them everything the team required and to provide moral support in ensuring the whole team makes it to the end. A detailed Team Insanity Kokoda Challenge plan was documented by both the team and the support crew to plan and cater for each checkpoint. Transport in the form of a Toyota Tarago was hired for the weekend. One week prior to the event, both the Team and the Support Crew met after work one Friday night to discuss the plan, logistics and any requirements each group had from the other. There was probably more drinking than thinking though. Rendezvous with InsanityAround 2:30am, the Support Crew were in various parts of Brisbane picking up members of Team Insanity. At one point outside of Brisbane – Brock lives on the other side of a worm hole. Despite the size of the Tarago we were still at capacity: bags, esky, pillows, doona, boxes and people all crammed into this so called people mover. But it was much better than last years when we all crammed in Matt’s Lancer. The handling of the Tarago was quite impressive, it had the power to accelerate fast enough, had great handling and was very comfortable inside. Dennis and Jenesse were running 15 minutes behind schedule but were glad it took less than 10 minutes at each pick up point to load the car. The Support Crew found that using Google Maps was not as good as other online travel trip planners. The print outs for directions do not display the destination’s actual address! A simple phone or text message to others resolved the problem on the fly. This was our first beef with Google Maps, later on in the day we were to discover another problem. The Start The Team Insanity Tarago arrived at the Mudgeerba Village about 5:30am with ample time to prepare for the 7 o’clock start and sit down for a coffee in a cafe. I bumped into Whytey near the shops and wished him and his team well. Whytey told me he had done almost no training or preparation for this years event. I was astounded by this, and had to wish him even more luck! It wasn’t as cold as last year, but still cold enough. The Last Post was played on the trumpet and guns were fired into the air from the army to officially mark the start of the Kokoda Challenge for 2008. At 7am, the first group left and shortly after two more big groups left respectively. The organisers staggered the start because this years event had attracted over 1200 competitors! We saw the formidable Nike Hammer team jog past and a team carrying a 60kg dummy in a stretcher! The crowd was too thick to spot Team Insanity, but we got a glimpse of what we thought was Shane amongst the sea of heads. Hence why Shane is called the Crane when he is out climbing. The supporters dispersed quickly as the competitors left the scene. We had plenty of time to eat the hearty big breakfast at the nearby Woodchoppers Inn before proceeding to the first major checkpoint for the Support Crew. Matt’s decides to call Nicole for an update, no service. Not an issue, we have all the team member contact details and they are all on different networks. Shane answers and informs Matt of their progress in a breathless manner. "Geez, Shane sounds like he is doing it tough already!" A short time later at 9:16am, Nicole texts us "About 20 mins out from CP 2. Wayne would like his hat!". Red Snakes Gives You Wings There was limited parking at Mt Nimmel and we had to park on the shoulder of the road near the entrance. This meant a few hundred metres of walking to the checkpoint area carrying chairs, bags and other supplies. We managed this in one trip without having to ferry goods to the spot in multiple trips. But I then remembered the earlier text message, "…Wayne would like his hat!". Bugger, I forgot the hat. I asked Jenesse and Matt which bag was Wayne’s, "Blue I think". I hurried back to the car, there were two blue coloured bags. I just rummaged through them until I found the first cap. Upon returning to the checkpoint spot, Matt says "That’s my red cap". Bugger! "Fuck it, he can wear mine. Same. Same. But different." We had a good view of the track that approaches the checkpoint and soon spotted our team bouncing their way in. There was the unmistakable aeroplane arms as Nicole negotiated a small but steep dirt terraced area between two trees. Could be a weird balance thing or too many red snake lollies. They all walked strongly and smiled as they saw the checkpoint and their support crew waiting. Shane explains his earlier "breathless" message to Matt, "I was trying to get a bite from you when we last spoke". Matt did bite, but didn’t want to tell Shane that he sounded like shit already! Instead, Matt kept it to just the Support Crew. Everyone seemed to be high spirits. Brock noticed a blister forming but he bandaged the area and changed socks which should help slow the inevitable. Shane’s knee was holding up okay, but requested an extra knee brace at the next Support Crew checkpoint. The Support Crew had two spare in our first aid kit, and offered them to Shane but he was adamant he would only require it at CP5. Wayne was hesitant in wearing my cap because of his sweat factor. He explained that his hat was in a David Jones plastic bag. Jenesse and Matt both made separate trips back to the car to fetch additional supplies the team was requesting. We eventually got Wayne’s hat. Nicole was pleased with the schedule so far, they were on time. Extract from the Team Insanity’s Kokoda Challenge support document:
The team left shortly after 9:30am. The next checkpoint’s estimated time of arrival for the Team was at 3:46pm. We decided to watch the 12:50am movie Hancock at the Robina shopping centre. About an hour later into the movie, Nicole texts "We think we’re about 1 hr from Polly’s. Will let you know when we’re about 20 mins out". We decided this was a gross under estimation. Matt concurred and recalled this happened the last time he too was the Support Crew for Team Vodka while watching a movie. The movie finished just before 3pm and we drove straight to Polly’s Country Kitchen. Team Insanity Sizzles! Parking spots at Polly’s Country Kitchen was also scarce despite the big parking fields. The Support Crew had to queue up and wait for other vehicles to leave the parking area before another could enter. We weren’t in a rush and waited patiently for our turn. We were soon directed to a park and proceed to setup our first Support Crew camp. Out came the chairs, each persons Checkpoint bag of goodies and we rearrange things for easy access when any of Team Insanity requested something. It was interesting seeing other setups. Next to us a friendly support crew had their own generator which was powering a microwave! They offered power to me when they saw me fiddling around with the car battery to attach the 300W inverter for the laptop. Jenesse and Matt headed towards the lodge and purchased coffees and a sausage sizzle for the team. Meanwhile as I was still fiddling around with the inverter and laptop, Team Insanity had arrived and walked past me heading towards the Checkpoint 5 check in. In this year’s event, each competitor is being tracked electronically by RFID which is used to check in and out of checkpoints. Online at kmltracks.com the public can visually see the teams progress through the checkpoints and an approximation of their position on the course track. This was a helpful tool but doesn’t beat the team announcing their arrival 20 minutes out from the next major checkpoint. Luckily, Shane spotted me and knew where to go once their check in was complete. I got a nice surprise when they rocked up almost unannounced. Almost caught off guard, I greeted them "Hey guys!" "Hey I’m not a guy!", Nicole retorts jokingly. I got the Team seated and handed out their checkpoint bags. Soon after, Jenesse and Matt were back with the coffees and sausages. We all started to prepare them for the course ahead by refilling water containers (packs and bottles), fetching warmer clothing and catering for other needs. We have supplied them with coffees from the Polly’s Kitchen cafe and fed them a sausage sizzle. Soon they will be off again after a change of socks, shoes and some warmer clothes. Brock has yet to have his GU Hammer and therefore go nuts, but he is holding off. Shane is doing well and now has two knee guards to protect the knees from injury. Nicole has her head torch in anticipation for sunset. Wayne has replenished his Gatorade and is still going strong. Extract from the Team Insanity’s Kokoda Challenge support document:
Before Team Insanity went on their merry way, the Support Crew took any orders for Hungry Jacks. A special treat for anyone doing the Kokoda Challenge! Nicole and Wayne were the only takers though: one Cheeseburger and a Whopper junior. The Support Crew took a leisurely drive back to Robina, ordered Hungry Jacks and generally hung around for a bit before heading back out into the Gold Coast Hinterlands towards Numinbah. Nose of Noodles At 7:23pm, the Support Crew receives a text from Nicole, "Will be maybe a half hour" We had already parked and setup the checkpoint camp. Matt went to the hall to greet the team while Jenesse was boiling water for any hot drinks they wanted, cooking their meals over the gas stove, and even the thinking about how to warm up the Hungry Jack’s burgers. Unfortunately, we had the displeasure of cooking Brock’s meal: some concoction of soup he had whipped up. Geez, it was smelly! While waiting, we witnessed a very irate driver who was attempting to leave the car park. The path in to the section of the car park we were in was now blocked by other Support Crew vehicles. She got out of her car and starting abusing a person in another car. This person just got out and walked away. She then hops back in the car screaming blue murder and debating with her friend on what should be happening. I walked up to her and calmly told her I would fetch a traffic marshal to assist her. Unfortunately, the traffic marshal then copped an earful. The poor guy who is volunteering his time is trying to help this maniac of a woman. To his credit, he too remained calmed and told her to do a U-turn and follow him down the opposite path. This person obviously requires anger management counselling and how to resolve conflicts in a more positive away. Her approach was totally unsuccessful, the driver she yelled at simply walked away. Maybe I should have left her to work it out herself, would’ve been entertaining. But entertainment was provided later by Nicole when the Team arrived. While eating her noodles, someone said a funny joke (which I can’t recall). Nicole gasps trying not to spit out a mouthful of noodles. She covers her mouth but starts to giggle uncontrollably. Suddenly a noodle is expelled through her nose! Extract from the Team Insanity’s Kokoda Challenge support document:
It was good to see their spirits high. The next major checkpoint will be a seemingly unrelenting uphill battle. Google Maps was used to navigate the Crew to Syd Duncan Park. Matt compared the trip planner against the UBD map and it looked sound initially. Untill we took the turn off suggested by Google and found ourselves at a dead end. That was the last time we trusted Google Maps. I was glad we packed the UBD as a backup. Zombie Hill CP10 – Syd Duncan Park Syd Duncan Park was nearly at capacity and twice the Tarago had to do U-turns to find a better parking spot to set up the Support Crew camp. Both times it was dodgy. The first attempt was on a narrow dirt road with a sloping shoulder. Matt and Jenesse guided me into doing an 8 point turn. The second time I had the Tarago on the grassy hill which the competitors were using as they entered the Park. Unbeknown to us, the green grassy field was very soft and boggy. The Tarago had wheels spinning as it tried to ascend the slope. With careful manoeuvring I managed to find traction and park the car on much firmer ground. The course had changed dramatically up to the Syd Duncan Park. The Support Crew watched everyone who approached the checkpoint drained of energy. This brought back some memories of 2007 and Jenesse empathised with a competitor as he dragged his walking poles behind him as he stumbled forwards deliriously. "That was exactly me last year at this same spot!" Jenesse received an unfriendly and grumpy Nicole as she walked up the hill, "Where’s the checkpoint?" Nicole barks. Luckily Jenesse had empathy and withheld the bitch slapping We seated the team down and brought them their bags, food and drinks. All were not in a happy state but we had empathy and the experience of what its like getting to Sid’s despite any course change. We congratulated them on their progress. I think because it was in the wee hours of the morning (like around 1am) the Support Crew were also tired and just did our jobs quietly and patiently. It was Jenesse doing most of the running around while Matt and I stepped back a bit and tried to keep warm on this cold exposed hill. Jenesse knew by keeping busy it kept her warm. Matt’s beard was failing him miserably. Extract from the Team Insanity’s Kokoda Challenge support document:
The team had hit the wall at Syd’s and now were just in a zombie state. Sore and limping their way off into the darkness. The Support Crew tried to lift their spirits and give them the moral support they needed. Not long to go! Battle Stations Since none of us had any sleep at Syd Duncan’s we knew we had at least 4 to 5 hours before seeing Team Insanity again so we went straight to Checkpoint 12 from Syd Duncan’s Park (Checkpoint 10). Our plan was to sleep in the Tarago until we got the phone call from the team. Checkpoint 12 is actually 800m away from where the Support Crew could park. As usual, parking spots were hard to find. We ended up mounting the curb and parking on a footpath in front of an estate. Inside the Tarago we were all asleep. Then Jenesse’s phone rang. She woke up in a groggy state and hit the answer button, "Hello?" "Oh no! Your not outside the car already?" Jenesse says in a panic. The windows inside the car were all foggy and it was still dark outside. "No, No! We are about 40 minutes away", Nicole responds. By now both Matt and I were awake, "Battle stations!" Matt declares. Jenesse and I started to unpack the car. We setup the mat, chairs, started the gas cooker and organised their checkpoint bags. Meanwhile, Matt made his way towards the Checkpoint 12 Support Crew entrance to meet and greet our team as they arrived. We fed them their food and drinks, they changed socks and we’re on their way again. This time they picked up a hitchhiker – a lone person who had lost all his team mates. I tried to convince one of them to keep going, but he didn’t want to be the one to call the SES in the middle of nowhere on the side of a track. I told him not to be disappointed, just partipating and getting this far is a fantastic effort and achievement. As the team left we noticed Brock shuffling and limping in a bad state. Extract from the Team Insanity’s Kokoda Challenge support document:
The End The best park we got for the entire event was here at the Velodrome, right in front of the finish line. We setup the mat and chairs on the hill next to the Tarago. Various organiser tents were set up: A projection tent showing current competitor team positions on Google Earth, a coffee tent, a food tent, a massage tent, a first aid tent and then the stage and checkpoint tent. We headed straight to the coffee tent! The sun finally rose and we welcomed the warmth. During the day, the MC had trouble with directing teams to check in first, before greeting their supporters, this was especially true for those teams that wanted to finish under 24 hours with only minutes to go. We were waiting directly in front of the finish line where the army cannons were. The team walked straight past us, towards the Checkpoint tent. Only Wayne saw and acknowledged us. The photos shows their state of mind as they approached the finish line, all eyes are looking straight at the Checkpoint tent. "Where is our support team? I can’t see them anywhere", Nicole asks standing in front of the Checkpoint tent. The first thing they now wanted to do was sit down at our support crew area, but we were told by the organisers to wait for 2 minutes for their presentation of the dog tags. They proudly received their medals and then we ushered them to our support crew area. Everyone immediately sat down on the chairs, except for Nicole who crashed to the ground. Shane spied the massage tent and decided to pamper his sore muscles with the free physio and massage service that was being offered. Wayne wasn’t keen on stripping in the open tent to take up the offer. We don’t think his crusty feet were eligible for a foot massage anyway. Brock was nursing his blistered feet but otherwise enjoyed the rest in the hot sun. Nicole lay on her stomach too sore to move despite the sun’s hot rays. Extract from the Team Insanity’s Kokoda Challenge support document:
At this stage, the Support Crew did not have to do much to pamper our team but just let Team Insanity have a well earned rest. Nicey started to repack the Tarago which was in a bad state with bags and gear everywhere. She did the best she could to put things in their rightful bags. Matt who had the most sleep (he had a quick kip at this checkpoint), agreed to drive the Tarago back to Brisbane. The Support Crew congratulates Team Insanity on completing the Kokoda Challenge 2008. An awesome effort! Continue reading Supporting Team Insanity Congratulations to Team Insanity for completing the 96 kms of the Kokoda Challenge in 26 hours 29 minutes 46 seconds and were the 16th complete mixed team to reach the finish line. A fantastic effort. There are now two trip reports, each from a different perspective on how the event progressed:
Continue reading Kokoda Challenge 2008 Trip Reports |
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The Support Crew for 
CP0 – Mugeerba Village Green
CP2 – Mt Nimmel Lodge
CP5 – Polly’s Country Kitchen
CP7 – Numinbah Hall
CP12 – Nerang Beaudesert Rd
CP14 – Nerang Velodrome
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