Karina's Red Bull Defiance

Redbull Defiance conquered, 2 days and a total of 18+ hrs of racing over the massive mountains at Wanaka! That was damn tough, especially the hiking.
Day 1 started early with a bus and barge to the start line. 43km Mtb to begin, flat gravel road to start which then delivered some sharp pinches, creek crossings, sand riding, goat track hike a bike, nasty loose gravel speedy decents and some singletrack. 11km run to follow with a flat start we then headed up up and up to our abseil, lots of hiking and I wasn't feeling great. Abseil was amazing.
5km paddle across Glendhu Bay should have been easy but with our steering not working it was hard going.
14km run along an undulating beautiful gravel path back to Wanaka to finish the day.
4th team at end of Day 1 and seriously wondering how we are going to back up another similar but longer day!

Day 2 started on the banks in Wanaka for our 20km lake then whitewater paddle down the Clutha. With our steering fixed we had a great paddle, the 2.5km run up to the clay bird shooting was an unwelcome surprise leg, in booties! Lou hit the clay bird 1st shot which was great as I wasn't overly keen.
28km ride up the Criffel Range followed, having done all of this climb within Godzone I was excited for the long hard upward 1200m slog. Lou had a mechanical and a spectacular crash into a massive puddle at the start of this leg. We dug deep and got ourselves back in the mix with the girls teams. The decent down was awesome, definitely my highlight of the race was this ride, I felt strong and enjoyed every pinch of vertical it delivered!
Finding ourselves surprisingly in 3rd position after the ride with 3 young NZ teams hot on our tail, we decided to stick to our own game plan as to get through this 29km run leg with 1848 metres of vertical was going to be tough going. With my weakness being vertical hiking and Lou carrying a dodgy knee from day 1 it was going to be epic and painful. Teamwork up the never ending winding, switchback road to the top came into play, both of us having a go at towing each other in our darker spots. 2 of the girls teams passed us up this climb, finally reaching Mt Alpha then the rocky sketchy decent before climbing again to Roys Peak. Now for the decent, 8km of decending along a grassy zig zag track was taxing on the body but we managed to run down with Lou's knee surviving surprisingly ok. The very young NZ girls team (they were 22), flew past us near the start of decent, we didn't think we would see them again but knee troubles kicked in for them and passed them 1/2 way down. Arriving at bottom of hill we are surprised to see a sign that says 20km, ouch we still have 9km of flat running to go, surely not! We soldiered on trying to run, was more like a shuffle. Crossing the line after 11+ hrs on day 2 was the best feeling, we did it! 5th position for today's epic journey!
Thanks Lou Carrington for being a great teammate, we worked together and achieved our goal of finishing! 5th overall in women's and didn't get short coursed which was fab! ‪

Winter Challenge Grampians

During September's blue sky and sunshine, a group of adventure seekers ran, kayaked, abseiled and mountain biked across the northern Grampians over two days. The event was an adventure race known as The Winter Challenge, however the weather that they got meant the race was nothing like the name suggests. Competitors travelled to the area from as far as South Australia and New South Wales.



The team was very excited about Tim Boote joining us for the first time. He brings a great amount of experience and power to the team, especially in the stage racing format.

Saturday saw the race start from Zumstein Picnic Ground with competitors running along the MacKenzie Creek up to MacKenzie Falls and ending up at Wartook Reservoir where they then had to paddle the length of the lake to reach more checkpoints. The sun broke through the clouds as competitors rode their bikes north along the Mt Difficult Range using fire trails and dirt roads. When they found their way to Mt Stapylton car park, teams made their way up the rocks to an abseiling location. Once all of the teams had safely descended, they then faced a climb up to the Mount Stapylton summit. The final mountain bike involved making their way to Laharum Grove where they enjoyed a much deserved meal. 


With only one day complete, racers gathered at Zumstein Picnic Ground again on Sunday morning, now joined by a large contingent of one day racers who had entered the lite course. It was a busy start line, and we managed to get clear with the other two top teams by getting KV on the tow rope early. We nailed the general location of the first checkpoint while the others rode past, but failed to find it hidden in some bushes and lost any advantage we could have obtained unfortunately.

Biking through dirt tracks and attempting to find checkpoints hidden in trees, wood piles and next to dams we again ended up at Lake Wartook. With conditions windier than the previous day the paddle was slightly more challenging, but there were many smiling faces all the same. With a "downhill" ride to get to the Asses Ears, they were then faced with a lung busting climb up to the top, but rewarded with magnificent views in every direction. With only a relatively short ride left to go, teams raced (or coasted) back to the Wander Inn where they enjoyed another great meal and some glorious sunshine.

Dynamite Adventure captain Paul Gruber said at the finish line "we just loved the course and it has really opened my eyes to some of the lesser known treasures the Northern Grampians has tucked away. We were amazed to see how the bush has recovered so far from the devastating fires and are sure it will look a lot different when hopefully we come back next year."



We were really happy with our two days of racing. We kept  in touch with ThoughtSportzs really until the final trek on each of the days and had no major nav issues. Tim did a great job keeping our pace high on the bike and our paddling was also solid on the lake which is a discipline we've tended to struggle with in the past.

Team ThoughtSports/Shotz nutrition won the two day pro course with Lisa and Blair Brydon taking out the single day Lite course.