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Wellington, New Zealand
welcome to my corner of the blog world! i love step, boxing, zumba, scrapbooking, photography, watching movies, walking the hills of my suburb, my family, and life in wellington. take some time to have a look around and be sure to say hi!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

photostory friday - mountain bike madness

karapoti is the southern hemisphere's longest running mountain bike race. it's practically all off-road through a mountain range, including unbikeable hills, river crossings and pine forests. riders cross the finish line caked in mud and barely recognisable.

there's the 50k (kilometre) classic and the 20k challenge.

i've been involved for 4 years, mostly volunteering. this is the registration desk, where i would usually be (at 6.45am!) but i was taking the photo, so try to imagine me there handing out race numbers and registration packs
these are the finishers medals.
we had to unwrap (from bubble wrap) over 1000 of the suckers...
one happy volunteer!
it rained HEAVILY all through the night before and the morning of the race. the conditions were ATROCIOUS to say the least. i've left the photos large so you can see the detail - it's raining in this pic where a UNICYCLIST is being interviewed.

YES - this crazy man does rides the ENTIRE race on ONE WHEEL!!!
the starts are staggered over an hour and every vantage point is taken to watch. the bikers in the foreground are queued up waiting to start
oh yeah - did i tell you, you start AND finish this race by carrying your bike through the river???

so, as i said before - it rained HEAVILY all throughout the night, so the river was SWOLLEN to say the least; ie the SHORTEST distance across the water wasn't always going to be the EASIEST

and because the starts were staggered, you would have to be an IDIOT not to have seen others go before you and end up NECK-deep in water trying to take a short-cut!

click on the photo!
but then the sun came out...this is the first woman home being interviewed.
check out the MUD on her. this is standard, heavy rain or not
this is the kennet brothers coming home, on their THRANDEM (that's a word)
the kennett brothers STARTED karapoti 24 years ago
oh yeah - did i tell you i did karapoti a couple of years back...
I. AM. LEGEND.

PhotoStory Friday
Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

22 comments:

Wayne said...

wow mountin biking looks so cool I would love a go, thankyou for visiting my blog and your comment.

Jaina said...

Wow. I'm seriously impressed by those people. A friend of mine recently did a triathlon and raised over $4000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I'm seriously impressed by stuff like this.

Michelle said...

Wow, that sounds like an incredible race. I love the scrapbook page. Such a cool picture.

Wayne said...

well done on the trick question

Chris said...

You.Are.Legend.

Who would do that on a unicycle? I need to meet that person.

lsnellings said...

Those are some committed bikers to carry their bikes through the river twice! Great story!

Anonymous said...

Now that is some kind of dedication! :) Enjoyed the walk through the entire story!

Roxane said...

OMG How awesome! You totally rock! I'll have to show Mr. H your post, he loves to cycle :)

tiarastantrums said...

WOW - and HOLY CRAP!! and you did that !!! Good for you!! Before I had kids, my hubs and I were AVID cyclists!!! Like 50 miles at a time! I miss it so much

Anonymous said...

***clap clap** for doing it and for volunteering still!!!! you go girl!!

latree said...

wow that was a long and hard track!
my best (worst?) was 10 k with a little hilly track.

Cecily R said...

You ARE legend!!!!

That shot of the shotcutters in the water is AWESOME!!!

Lisa @ Boondock Ramblings said...

I could totally not do that but awesome photos and PSF. That would be an awesome thing to see!

ELK said...

great job! happy pedaling!

Melinda said...

Begeezus Sue I am impressed that you did that! You are so involved in your community and volunteering...amazing...go you! You are totally legend!
Oh and the unicycle dude...wow!

MDtripmom said...

WOW! What a trip that must be! And you did it in 2007? You go, girl! I don't think that I could...totally awesome!

Susie said...

WOW, you.are.legend! How inspiring to want to go for something like that--it looks fantastic!

Unknown said...

Oh man, looks like you have be in darn good shape to do that! And congrats on completing it yourself, I'm impressed!

Love the guys on the tandem bike...

Leah said...

Something I'll never be, sure looks exciting and fun.

Anonymous said...

Legend, indeed. You rock!

Supercool Hotmama said...

Oh my goodness! That looks like one heck of a bike race!

said...

You are indeed Legend!