Geo-riffic!
Army teams excel in South Coast endurance race

The joy of completing Geoquest 2003 isn’t easy to hide! Photos courtesy of Mark Watson, www.mwphotography.com.au

The mountain biking leg of the 48-hour endurance race saw competitors riding through the night.

A sea of kayaks sets the scene for the event in which three Army teams participated.

Choppy seas on Jervis Bay didn’t stop competitors giving their all as they fought for placings.

An early morning sunrise greets two Geoquest competitiors as they head out on the kayaking leg.

THREE Army teams who entered the 48-hour Geoquest endurance race, achieved impressive results in what one described as “the toughest race”.

The best-placed Army team, Mates, managed 6th and comprised Capt Adrian Keough, Maj Dennis Malone, Maj Fleur Keough and Greg Mason.

The team said they felt a considerable degree of satisfaction just making it to the start line.

“Months of planning and training almost came undone when our primary transport vehicle blew a head gasket the week before,” they said.

“The final leg was a 50km mountain bike ride along mostly smooth trails, and being fairly flat terrain we put on the pace with the aim of finishing most of the leg before dark.

“A couple of the checkpoints proved hard to find; however, with all of us searching the area with our high beam headlights, we punched them all and raced to the finish.”

Despite this rocky start, the team crossed the finish line in one piece after 37 hours of racing.

Another Army team, The Fitness Generation, comprised WO2 Andy Cutts, Sgt Pat Thomas, Cpl Bruce Hem and Cpl Mat Skate.

They managed 13th overall and said they went into the race well underdone with expectations of completing the course in the required time and to finish in the top half of the field.

“The team could not find the last marker, which we must have walked past 10 times,” they said.

“This cost us a huge time penalty in the end – we were happy just to finish.” Maj Adam Boyd, Maj Jason Selman, Capt Amanda Gibbs and Capt Roger Dudziak formed team K9 and, although unranked in the final placings, put in a top effort to cross the finish line two hours before the race cut-off time.

“As inexperienced adventure racers, our goal wasn’t necessarily to finish but rather to compete at a pace that would enable us to keep going for the entire duration,” they said.

“We all came into the race with a pretty decent level of fitness across the three disciplines – nothing flash, but enough to convince us that we should be able to give it a crack.

“The big question was how we would react to the constant physical grind and sleep depravation.” Team K9 said adventure racing lends itself to exposing participants to an environment not dissimilar to that sought for the purpose of Army training.

“One thing is for sure – adventure racing is a form of retrospective enjoyment and is something that requires more than one attempt.”

For more on Geoquest check out inside sports papges. For more information go to www.geoquest.com.au.

2003 Course Outline
Leg 1	Leg 3
27km Sea kayak on Jervis Bay, Callala, Long Beach, Moonie Moonie Ck, Iluka. 8km MTB from Iluka to Cave Beach. 18km Beach trek Cave beach, swim across Sussex Inlet to Bendalong.	35-40km trek, adventuregaine. 9km kayak Murrays Rd back to Lake Berringer. km Mountain bike back to Bendalong.
Leg 2	Leg 4
5km Mountain bike to Lake Berringer. 9km Kayak to Murrays Rd bridge. 45km Mountain bike, Pointers gap, abseil off Florence Head, Jindelarra Trail.	52km Mountain bike through Conjola National Park.

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