The remarkable Spring Challenge, an all-female adventure racing competition took place on the 23 September in Kurow. The three-hour race, which included an 8km run/walk, a 25km bike ride, and a 7km hike whilst navigating an unfamiliar course was completed by the team of Emma Grey, Jessica Lynch, and Macy Woodason. The race began at 11 am on Saturday just above the Waitaki dam. At “GO” we ran 1km in our wetsuits to reach the raft area. We were given life jackets and got paired up with another team. The river was very tame so our arms got really tired quickly during the paddle. After we finished the raft we ran to the transition point, where we met up with our parents and changed out of our wetsuits. From there we began our bike ride. The bike was undoubtedly the most challenging component of this race because the tracks were quite muddy and washed out. But that didn't stop us from moving forward. We were all quite glad when we arrived at the final transition point. We quickly removed our helmets, left our bikes with our parents, and sped towards the start of the hike. The majority of the hike was up a steep slope but this is where we made our comeback passing loads of other teams. We gathered the remaining checkpoints, then ran down the mountain and along to the finish line.

This was such a memorable experience that we’ll be competing in it again next year.