Team NAB Financial Planning wins the Kokoda Challenge
Report by Daniel Rake
I work at NAB and one of the great benefits NAB offer is volunteer days – you can take two days off each year paid to volunteer to a charity – this includes going to work with a charity...
... raise money for a charity or some other way benefiting a charity / the community. NAB Financial Planning for the past 6 years have been strong supporters of the Kokoda Challenge, one of Australia’s toughest off-road running events. So for the past 3 years I have used my volunteer days to raise money for the Kokoda Children’s foundation, culminating in participating in the Kokoda Challenge.
The Kokoda Challenge is held on the Gold Coast Hinterland and features at least 12 category climbs of which at least 8 would be Hors Category – in fact they are too steep and rough to ride up at all!
The team consists of 4 runners who must run together and pass through the 12 checkpoints along the course as a team of four – you must finish with 4 runners to get an official finish. In our last 2 attempts we have not finished with 4 runners due to injury, dehydration and total melt-down of one or more of us. In fact only two thirds of the 2000 starters will finish the race. You have 39 hours to finish.
The most common questions I get asked is why don’t they just add another 4km and make it 100km – why 96km? Well the 96km reflects the length of the Kokoda Track. The cut-off time of 39 hours reflects the 39th Militia who fought on the Kokoda Track.
So how did the race go – I turned up to the airport 45 mins before my flight – I might add I fly almost every week and this is the earliest I’ve ever turned up before a flight – only to be told I was too late and had missed check-in – I only had carry on luggage! I was flying QANTAS and I was there way before the 2:45pm check-in printed on my itinerary – when I waived that in front of the faces if the QANTAS staff – with extreme confidence and I told you so attitude – their stern “you’re not getting on this plane if it kills me” look soon turned to laughter – it turned out I had gone into my email – look up Melbourne to Gold Coast flight for July and printed out the itinerary for the same weekend / race last year – I in fact had last years itinerary and had indeed missed my flight. A quick change and I was on the next flight – hopefully things get better from here.
Our team has a fabulous support crew of the 4 wives of the team members – they follow us to the 6 major checkpoints – there are 12 checkpoints – 6 major and 6 minor – along the way. At each major checkpoint – about 3hrs apart you can refill camelbacks, grab some nutrition and get on your way. The first major checkpoint is 12km and 2 climbs into the event – after a 7am start we hit checkpoint 1 at about 8:20am – 5 minutes ahead of schedule, a 2 minute transition to change bladders in camelback and refill gels and bars and we were off again – straight into one of the 4 steepest climbs of the day 3km long and approx 200-300m of climbing – an average gradient of approx 10% - we still had another climb over 4km and up 400m before descending and running into checkpoint 2 which was at 35km. The day was heating up, going from the chills of Melbourne into low 20’s in perfect sunlight in Gold Coast meant the sweat rate was very high – with 1-2 hours between checkpoints getting enough fluid is always a problem – remembering the camelback holds 2litres and my sweat rate test conducted last year shows a peak sweat rate of 2 litres per hour – and I was definitely in peak sweat rate going upwards!
At checkpoint 3 at 52km the heat, sweat and effort was taking it’s toll – I was starting to question whether I’d make it to the end – I was slurring speech, stumbling through the bush, light-headed and seriously dehydrated and lacking nutrition. A quick stop, take in some fluid, lollies, gels, mini Cheezels (if you’ve ever seen how kids react – hyperactive - to the orange on Cheezels they can only be a good thing) 4 minutes later we were on our way again – it took some time but slowly the nutrition started to kick in, got some more fluid in and I was coming good, only for the other team members to start to go through their own battles.
The track we run on is a combination of fire trails and thick bush tracks, in particular the section between major checkpoint 3 & 4 is tough – this is the first year we’ve actually hit this point in daylight – it is much easier negotiating the track under sunlight than trying to run with a headlamp through the pitch black bush. At the 4th major checkpoint (67km and 10hrs into the race) we have a scheduled meal break – 10mins break to chow down on a beef and rice dish to try and fuel up for the run home, temps had now dropped and whilst the rest of the team, who all come from Qld started to layer up I was only just coming into my element. Our fierce competitors – the ANZ sponsored team ran into the checkpoint just as we were preparing to leave – at this stage we had about 10mins lead.
Ahead of us was a mixed team and team of women – both sponsored by Nike, we ran along-side the women’s team for the earlier part of the race and confidently told each other that we wouldn’t pass them yet – preferring to sit behind and keep the pressure on, hoping they’d over-cook it and drop back in the pack – as they had done in previous years. That strategy went out the window as they got stronger and stronger and ran away from us.
Night started to fall at the 4th major checkpoint and it was time to switch on the headlamps and start the dangerous run through the pitch black bush with only a small headlight to shine the way. Going up hill and along the ridges is OK, going down-hill on the slippery rocks was challenging.
We had set a target of 15hrs and more importantly the pizza shop who were shouting us pizza’s if we finished before they closed – at 11pm; the 16hr mark. Our previous best time was just under 17 hours and even then we couldn’t get all four of us across the line. We weren’t helped by a 20min delay to the start time so we had 15:40 mins to finish the event, get presented on stage, changed & in the cars for a 15min car drive to the pizza shop.
14:50:00 and 2km still to go – 1km up and 1 km down. We were sprinting down-hill to the finish – well as sprinting as you can at the end of 96km, onto the velodrome and through the finish line – two Army Cannons with their turrets forming the finish arch. We had to sprint on to the final swipe point where the girl proceeded to tell us that we had to remove our tags and hand them to her – SHE will scan them in!
Official times – 14:59:30, 14:59:36, 14:59:50 and 15:00:09 – we’d missed the team finish of 15hrs by 9seconds! BTW my time was the 14:59:36 so I’ll take that. The frustration of missing by 9 seconds was quickly overcome when we found out we had won not only the first business team but also the first men’s team across the line. We had finished just after 10:20pm. And after presentations where we sprayed the media cameras with champagne (don’t worry it was only cheap for spraying – I don’t waste the good stuff) … we made it to the pizza shop to claim our bounty.
Official presentations were to be held at 3pm the following day (17hours after we finished) – unbelievable when we turned up and teams were still coming across the finish line thick and fast and would continue to do so for the next 7 hours to the 10pm (39 hour) cut-off – by then we’d enjoyed some beers and magnificent fresh QLD seafood platter and a bottle of wine. We received our awards from Veterans of the 39th Militia who had fought on the Kokoda track in 1942 – a real honour.
The legs pulled up ok – probably will lose another toe-nail – they are only just recovering from Port Mac –the ITB’s were incredibly tight but all in all the body pulled up really well. The Qld weather made some active recovery stretches / exercise in the pool and beach easier so that always helps.
A few days off before cranking up the mountain bike – I’ve got 8 weeks before we leave for the Tour of Timor – a 5 day mountain bike race across East Timor in mid September.
A Big thanks to NAB FP for their support and special mention to the ongoing excellence of the Fluid Movements training program and Coach Foz – Kokoda Challenge team members look forward to some great rides and a few beers Nick and Dan will be at the winter training camp in Lorne at end of July.
Smiling but hurting inside
Team NAB FP presented as winners of their categories at the finish line 15 hours after starting
