Practising what she preaches

Outdoor instructor Rachel Baker was busy running her first junior adventure racing camp last week and then promptly went out and backed that up by winning the inaugural 12-hour Gearshop Tasman Adventure Race organised by Motueka High School.

She is no weekend warrior though, rather an elite adventure racer. Richmond-based Rachel and her Team Gearshop teammate Dave Quested had only recently returned from finishing second in a five day race in the Victorian Alps.

“I had my eye on this race and just wanted to see how I recovered from Australia. I had a couple of weeks off and then started training for the Coast to Coast,” says Rachel, who has been adventure racing for the past 10 years.

She readily agrees the Kaiteriteri race was like a sprint for her.

“It was quite a change for us. The conditions were pretty good but it was definitely hot, but we have raced in hotter,” confirms the Whenua Iti Outdoors instructor.

While it was billed as a 12-hour race, organisers expected the winning team to probably only need about nine hours.

Try eight and a half as Team Gearshop fought it out with another top local team, Mixed Nuts.

“We were second off the water after the opening kayak leg and then toed-and-froed with Mixed Nuts before pulling away for the final stage back to Kaiteriteri Beach.”

Dave, a software engineer from Stoke, admitted he was “pretty cooked”.

“Fortunately, it was a pretty short and punchy race for us. I enjoyed the little gnarly downhill bike section,” says the 45-year-old who rates the Nelson and Tasman districts as perfectly set up for adventure racing.

Rachel and Dave were the first mixed-team home in the two-day Coast to Coast event in February this year. Rachel already belongs to what is termed the Coast to Coast Executive Club, having done the gut-buster five times.

The 30-year-old is eyeing the one day version next February.

The Motueka High School boys’ team took out the junior section and was fourth overall.

“It was awesome for them to be able to measure themselves against the best teams,” says race organiser Wendy van den Berg.

The girls’ team had to revert to the shorter eight hour race after two of their members felt unwell.

The school was hoping for up to 300 competitors but ended up with 440 for the kayak, mountainbike and running stages.

“We could have handled more and we are definitely keen to stage the event next year. It is paradise here,” declares Wendy.