Kinetic Gear Series #4: Through the Lens

 

Held at Emmerentia, in Johannesburg, on Sunday, 23 June 2013, the team formats consisted of male pairs, female pairs, mixed pairs, and school pairs. The race consisted of 25% trail/road running, 65% on/off road cycling, 10% paddling, and an obstacle course, all of which challenged the physical and mental capacity and teamwork of the participants. Basic navigation skills were important, as participants raced on an unmarked route from start to finish, and getting lost was not an option if you wanted to be in contention for the fantastic prizes to be awarded to the teams first on the log in each category, after the five races in the 25 km Kinetic Adventure Race Series.

 

 

Registration

Arriving early at Emmerentia on Sunday, the 109 teams competing were required to register themselves and then received a pack containing the rules, instructions, a punch, and bibs, as well as goodies from various brands.

 

 

Finding your way

Once the teams had been briefed, they received a map for the first leg of the race, the 4 km trail run. After discussing the route, teams raced to various checkpoints set up along the route, where they had to punch the letter displayed onto their checkpoint list. Some teams got lost during the trail run because instead of following the maps they received at the start of the race, they followed other teams. This stage was quite difficult on the ankles and knees because there were a lot of loose rocks on the track, so you needed to keep focused to remain sure footed. The track also had various inclines that looked tiring, but this didn't stop the teams from giving it their all.

 

 

Into transition

Before the start of the race, participants had to put their bikes, helmets, and anything else they would need to complete the race, into the transition zone. The reason for this was that each stage finished at this point and participants could then move onto the next stage, which in this case was the mountain biking stage. This stage included a varied range of single track, steep hills, gravel roads, and sealed roads.

 

 

Feeling lucky?

Every team was given a checkpoint list, which listed all the checkpoints, a clue, and four random letters of the alphabet. Of the four letters displayed at each checkpoint, only one was correct one. Only once the teams had punched in the correct letter, could they move on to the next checkpoint. This photograph shows a participant punching the letter 'J' on his checkpoint list during the mountain biking stage of the race.

 

 

Aqua action

Once participants had completed the second part of the run from the mountain bike transition zone to the dam, they were given another map for the kayaking stage, which showed where the two checkpoints were on the dam. Many of the participants struggled here because the wind had picked up and created a strong current that teams had to paddle against. Pictured here is Team 'Shirts and Giggles' paddling back to shore after retrieving the two checkpoint letters and having completed the 2 km loop around the dam.