Working in Antarctica, Shopping, Cornettos and the chance of some sun.

As the partner of AROC’s Kris Clauson I have followed the adventure racing scene from afar for the last 2-3 years. For much of this time I have been working as a biologist in Antarctica and have kept an eye on Kris’s races via the internet and email. Naturally I have been very proud at his successes, although at times a little bemused at the images I downloaded of grown men and women clinging to water buffalos or riding giant inner tubes, and somewhat bewildered at the tales of sleep deprivation, ripped toenails and blisters the sizes of golf balls – but from the excessively large grin on the faces in the photos, I was pretty confident it must be a world of fun!

My chance to give adventure racing a go arose when Kris asked myself and one of our friend Alexis Bull (Lex) to race at the 2006 AROC sprint champs. I have competed in multisport events in our home state of Tassie, and Lex is a seasoned multisporter and raced geoquest and the recent XPD. However, having only just returned from 72 days at sea working 16 hour days on a marine science voyage I was initially a little hesitant, my only exercise for this period being on a treadmill (tho I have to say attempting to stay vertical on a treadmill in 10m seas is no easy feat!). In the end I decided I was keen to give it a go and hopefully get in a little shopping in Sydney on the way!