Anaconda Adventure Race - Gold Coast, August 26, 2006

Interview with the Ginger Ninjas

Swimmers launching into the 2XU swim leg at Tugun SLSC. Photo, Jon Barter
Breaking a knee cap one week before last December’s Anaconda race at Lorne, Christie Sym had a long time to prepare her body and mind for this race. Already a very accomplished land-based athlete with national level MTB credentials and a strong run, Christie realised that the key to her challenging for a win at Anaconda Gold Coast would be to become a “water babe”. With some kayak technique coaching from Guy Andrews and some hard training sessions with Dean Gardiner’s Sydney-based surf paddling group in the last month leading into the race, Christie managed to lift her paddle skills to another level.

Arriving on the Gold Coast ready to race, Christie was struck down with a chest infection 3 days out from the race and antibiotics would be the only chance of getting her to the start line. With a very nasty cough on the morning before the race, it looked like Christie would have a hell of a battle trying to do justice to her number one seeding.

But then Anaconda man appeared high above the crowd, the flag was raised, and it was “game on” for Christie and the other 7 or 8 females who were in with a genuine chance of winning this race.

Says Christie, “Several of the girls I knew would be tough to beat, including world champion Emily Miazga from NZ and Australian sprint champion End Whiley Wilson from Victoria, but I had no idea about Karla Gilbert because she had never done an Adventure Race before. I knew about her reputation as a fearsome competitor from her surf ironwoman days, and probably not many people realise she was also a champion cross country runner, so she was very much the x factor.

“I didn’t really enjoy the swim, but seeing a 6-foot shark swim directly underneath me rounding the rocks at Currumbin Alley, I certainly finished the swim off in a hurry!

Heading into the ocean at Currumbin Alley on the 14km Enervit Paddle Leg. Photo, Wen Lim
“Coming into the beach I was hurting, then I was told that Karla was 10 minutes ahead. Not good. I jumped onto my new Fenn Mako 6 and instantly got into a nice rhythm, reeling in Kim Beckinsale shortly after the start. Towards the end of the paddle I felt like I was having to paddle harder to keep the same speed. A team paddler came up behind me and removed a bunch of weeds from my rudder, that was such a relief, I felt like I had rockets on after that.

“At the start of the run I was told that I was now 15 minutes down on Karla, but I didn’t panic because I was confident in my biking ability and knew I could catch her.

New Zealand's #1 ranked multisporter Gordon Walker making up some ground on the Enervit paddle leg after a relatively slow swim. Photo, Richard Rossiter
I was pumped at the start of my favourite leg and charged off. Full of adrenaline, I somehow managed to crash, hurtling over the bars and landing on my back. In one of those slow-motion moments, I saw the bike catapulted through the air and it hit a tree, which then ejected my drink bottle into the creek! I now had no nutrition left for the ride. At this point I felt like the race had escaped me but then I told myself, “No way am I going to quit, this is an Adventure Race, get over it girl”. I went to clip in and continue the ride (fortunately my bike wasn’t damaged) and somehow couldn’t clip in with my left shoe. After trying a few more times to clip in, I lifted my left leg to check on the cleat and to my horror the cleat together with half of the sole of my shoe had been ripped off!! I remember that Guy had told me he had a similar problem and managed to ride 70km without a cleat, so I just told myself that riding 17km without a cleat was no big deal.

Guy Andrews powers to the 2nd fastest run split overall (including teams !!) on the 12km Keen Creek & Mountain run. Photo, Judy Scanlon
“I passed End Whiley Wilson about 5km into the ride and now knew that only one woman was left in front of me. On the second last climb of the day, I saw what I thought was bib number 80 in the distance in front of me, but when I got closer I got very excited when I realized that the 0 was actually a 6 and sure enough it was Karla Gilbert #86. Karla had her head-down and I tried to turn my head away from her as I went past, thinking that she might think I was a male competitor.

When I got into the final transition, I couldn’t find my shoes. I think people may have thought I was insane as I was walking around disoriented screaming “Has anyone seen any bright yellow and blue shoes”.

End Whiley Wilson still in the lead half way through the Keen run leg. Photo, Judy Scanlon
“As I entered Currumbin Sanctuary, I made a poor decision and went in the wrong direction and I knew it, I was horrified to think that this could mean losing the race, but I settled down and got back on track fortunately. When I exited Currumbin Sanctuary I could see that Karla was right behind me and I realised that I needed to gap her now or risk having her outsprint me in the final sprint down the beach, so I surged and then flicked my shoes off right after exiting the tunnel. This wasn’t a great move because as it turned out I had a few more rocks to run over before hitting the beach. But I just put my head down and drew on everything I had. Running down the finish chute first was just amazing, I had tears in my eyes.”

Christie had managed to overcome all obstacles (illness, crash, mechanical and the course itself!) to emerge victorious against a truly class field.

Karla appeared little more than 30 seconds later, in a debut performance that can only be described as amazing. Undoubtedly Karla has a lot of room for improvement in the bike leg, so Christie and all the other girls will surely be looking over their shoulder in future.

In the men’s race, it looked to be a 3-horse race between Jody Zerbst (winner of Anaconda Lorne last December), Guy Andrews and Gordon Walker (NZ’s top ranked athlete). We spoke to Guy to get the lowdown on his race.

Christie Sym makes inroads into the lead of Karla Gilbert and End Whiley Wilson on the Keen run leg. Photo, Judy Scanlon
“Early in July I got a big wake up call when Jody was smashing me in training, it was clear that he was an exceptional athlete at EVERY leg and that if I wanted to beat him, I had to do something drastic. I worked on my speed and anaerobic conditioning (speed endurance) a lot. I also had to tackle my biggest weakness, the run leg. Due to my body shape {Editor’s note – Guy has tree-trunk thighs that are not exactly runners legs!}, it was a real challenge to be able to improve my run speed but also not compromise my speed in the other legs {Editor’s note – those same tree-trunk thighs come in very handy during the MTB leg!}

“Coming into the race, Jody was always going to be the main threat, but I also knew I’d have to keep an eye out for Jarad Kohlar who is capable of anything but just hasn’t put it together yet. I had heard that Gordon couldn’t swim which was a relief because he has beaten me at Coast to Coast in NZ and is all class. The dark horse I knew would be Wes Berg, a brilliant swimmer, strong paddler and strong runner, the only question was whether he could ride a bike.

“The unfavourable swim probably did the stronger swimmers a big favour during the race. Normally I would have swum 25 minutes for that course but my race time was much slower than that. About 1km into the swim, there were only 3 swimmers (including myself) left in the lead pack. Coming into Currumbin Alley and the beach, I wasn’t sure whether to stay right and try to surf a wave in, or come straight into the beach. Wes made the right decision and cut a sharp left into the beach and managed to take the swim prime, but I was feeling good. I set off on the ski about 20 seconds behind Wes and found a nice rhythm. Nathan Meyers
Guy Andrews means business - extending his lead on the way to the fastest individual split on the 17km Jamis MTB leg. Photo, Jon Barter
was closing from behind and so I jumped on and we worked together to quickly catch Wes. Paddling with these surf ironman guys felt like the old Uncle Tobys days and we soon started chatting. After a while I snapped out of it and just said “Come on boys we’re obviously not going hard enough if we’re talking” and so we pushed the pace for the remainder of the paddle.

“During the run leg I started to get some tightness in the left quad (a recurring problem for me) but fortunately my run fitness pulled me through. I ran the hill, knowing that if I could get to the top of the hill first, it would be a huge psychological boost and that I could also clear off down the other side and establish a nice lead.

“Early in the bike leg I was told that Jody was just behind and that fired me up because he had obviously had a great paddle and run. I saw that 2 team MTB’ers were close behind and the first caught me at about the half way point. By the last hike-a-bike section all 3 of us were together and I thought to myself “If I’m able to stay with these team riders, I must be going OK”. Towards the end of the bike leg, I had a minor altercation with a vine and was thrown from the bike. A vine as thick as my pinky had managed to entangle itself in my chain ring, and I had to use the chain ring as a saw to saw it off! I got going pretty quickly and managed to drop one guy in the technical section, then when I got to the park I passed the lead cyclist with his derailleur wrapped in his spokes (poor bugger).

Christie Sym smashes the bike course - nearly recording a faster split than Olympic Gold medallist Sara Carrigan despite pulling her bike cleat through the base of her shoe !!. Photo, Richard Rossiter
“When I got off the bike I felt fantastic. When I got the Currumbin Sanctuary map information, I just took my time, being careful to not make hasty decisions. I was caught from behind by Dean Gardiner’s team in the Sanctuary and we ended up running through the Sanctuary together. I then realised that if I wanted to cross the line first outright, I needed to drop these guys before the tunnel so I powered in front and opened up a lead onto the beach. Running up the last few hundred metres and down the finish chute and under the big arch right in front of my own Tugun Surf Club, I had a big time déjà vu experience. It really did feel like the old Uncle Tobys days and I can honestly say it was one of the best feelings I’ve had in a long time, knowing that all the work had paid off.”

Guy Andrews with race director John Jacoby and the coveted winner's trophy. Photo, Andrew Connolly
Guy’s effort to cross the line before the first team is truly stunning. Dean Gardiner (first team) is a multiple world Molokai ski champion and his team-mates are champion athletes at their respective legs. They only had to suffer for one hour each, Guy put it to himself for 4 hours straight and still came out in front.

In a gutsy performance that has underlined his ability, Jody Zerbst crossed the line less than 3 minutes later. The rematch between Jody and Guy at Geographe Bay (WA) in 4 weeks is shaping as a classic confrontation. Gordon Walker of NZ suffered badly during the swim leg and became very sea sick, taking over an hour after the end of the swim to stop feeling nauseous.

Winners in the Veteran category were Tim Ellison of Northern Territory and Jan Leverton of Brisbane. The winner in the Vintage category was Garry McKenzie and in the Junior female category was Kylie Maduna.

First Pair across the line was Garry Sutherland and Darren Wood, who were in a close tussle with Simon Knowles and David Crawford all day. Garry and Darren walk away with a free entry to the Keen Adventure Race, Great Ocean Road in Victoria next March.

Anaconda man leads out the field in the Anaconda Junior Survivor
For full results from the Anaconda Adventure Race Gold Coast, click here.

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