It was a day of high humidity, high temperatures, high hills and high expectations as plenty of new adventure racers lined up shoulder to shoulder with some of the best teams from the sunny state.

Perennial favourites Gu (Brett Stevens & Nick Moore), Mountain Designs (Gary Sutherland & Michael Page), Efficiency Works/Rogue and two teams from Cycle Zone Mooloolaba were all entered into the event, while unknown quantities Team Poulsen, from Christchurch NZ, had everyone anticipating a Kiwi upset, along with a few teams from afar afield as Coffs Harbour, Tamworth and Toowoomba.  Racing was set to be fast and furious.

Leg 1 consisted of a rogaine style run where only the first checkpoint was revealed before the start of the race.  Once at that checkpoint, teams would follow a series of maps revealing one checkpoint at a time until they eventually found the location of CP1 and a phrase that they had to recite at the first transition onto bikes.  The "complexity" (said perhaps with a tone of sarcasm) of the start caught a lot of the top teams out.  Having run hard to be first back to the transition area, only a handful of the first teams could recite the phrase ('Everyday Life Fitness') back to the TA officials.

Teams then rode into the Bluestone Creek area where another foot rogaine awaited, which required teams to collect atleast 5 CP's, with bonus time credited to them if they collected between 7 and 9 of the checkpoints.  The day was starting to heat up by this stage and it was between CP's 8 & 9 where teams found solace in the refreshing knee deep waters of Bluestone Creek.

For the leaders, things were set to become a lot tougher.  On the completion of the rogaine, it was decision time as teams were lured into the decision to tackle some serious hills on the bike (read:  push bike hills), in order to complete a rogaine, with the potential of picking up over 2 hours in time credits.  Would they survive the hill climb in this heat?, would they be able to clear the rogaine leg within 2 hours to make the excursion up the mountain worthwhile?  16 teams rolled the dice and found themselves pushing, carrying and cursing their way up the mountain, and most came away with a significant amount of time credits along with a wicked down hill ride to get home.

A short  ride back to TA4 saw teams portaging kayaks down below the weir for a short paddle down the Brisbane River.  The paddle back up the river proved to be a little tougher than going the other way, as recent rains had significantly increased the flow of the river.

Team Gu smashed the course to pieces, reducing their race time from 4:14 down to a mere 54 minutes with their time credit adjustments.  Following closely behind were teams Mountain Designs and Cycle Zone Mooloolaba Team B.  In the Mixed, Team Cycle Zone Mooloolaba out-maneuvered the Ugly Rangers to run out winners by just 1 minute, after finishing more than 30 minutes ahead but opting to collect fewer bonus checkpoints.  'Are we there yet?' finally got there to take 3 place in the mixed.  In the Ladies, it was the girls of Team Blondie from Coffs Harbour who prevailed, knocking off regulars Tri Adventure Vintage with the Mature Middle Aged Ladies rounding out the field.

Results are now up, and the photos, courtesy of Sportspix, are now up on the Sportspix website.

Do you have a race report from the day.  Submit it for your chance to win a $50 voucher towards a future iAdventure event.