Team BMD/Vaude - Michael Weir, 34, cousin Simon Buchanan, 35 and friends Adam Power, 35, and Duncan Macmillan, 28 - was packed into a car on a frosty morning and it was a giant kangaroo that almost stopped the team making the start line of the XPD adventure race, alongside 40 other teams of four, in November 2008.

 

“We had to be there at 5.15am and we hit this giant kangaroo – it trashed the front of my car and we almost didn’t make the start line,” Weir laughs.

 

“Then at the meeting area there was a glass wall and Duncan walked straight into it - really hurrying to get to the bus - and nearly knocked himself out. He shattered the glass door and had a massive egg on his head. We weren’t nervous, but everything was conspiring against us.”

 

Weir said Buchanan had competed in an XPD before, as a mule, at the Whitsundays, which planted the seed to undertake the challenge himself. The cousins recruited a friend each and Team BMD/Vaude was ready for action.

 

The daunting task of organising their first race was attacked and they began to organise gear they’d need to handle the rugged terrain of Australia’s highlands. They were kitted out in Vaude race gloves, Stretched Reality jackets, arm and leg warmers, ¾ Spray pants, Asymmetric 50 and Tour 50 backpacks and their new home – a Space II tent. To help them tackle the mountain trails, they took Masters Nature Trek 135 walking poles and a Silva Expedition 54 compass helped them to navigate their race course.

 

Training was a relaxed affair – armed with high fitness levels, and with some experience in outdoor sports, Weir and Macmillan bought their first mountain bikes … just 10 months before the race.

 

“We did a bit of training as a team, but we didn’t do much navigation and we struggled with that part of the race,” Weir says.

 

“We did lots of pack riding and climbed a few mountains to get our up and down legs going. We also did a lot of paddling. Every week we did something.”

 

With race day looming and the team made the final preparations for their adventure, including organizing their race kit. The team competed in the new, durable clothes range from Vaude and Weir says they stood up to the beating of an endurance race in the Australian wilderness.

 

“The jackets were probably the most useful piece of kit we had, given the conditions. The stretch was awesome and we had them on for most of the race,” Weir says.

 

“Simon claimed the pants to be the find of the whole race. The material is awesome and the functionality was excellent. There was no problems with them getting caught.

 

“The comfort and strength of the jacket and pants was a surprise to all of us. We gave them an absolute hiding through scrub, rain and snow and they really held together for us. No one was scratched or torn.”

 

With hundred of kilometers to travel, the team wore Vaude race gloves, which they said were super comfortable and were also used to double as paddling gloves to protect against painful blisters.

 

With their kits packed, and Power’s physiotherapist giving him the green light to compete after discovering bursas in his knee, Team BMD/Vaude was feeling great on race day.

 

“We didn’t really have a plan – we had the rule that everyone gets to play. Everyone gets to make decisions and navigate,” he says.

 

“We knew we were going to make mistakes, but everyone was going to get a go, and when race day came we were jumping out of our skins we were so excited.”

 

Weir says experienced competitors were gob-smacked a group of adventure race first-timers had chosen the grueling 800km, 10-day challenge as their first attempt.

 

“Most people we spoke to were pretty amazed we chose it as our first because it was never going to be easy – they nearly fell off their chairs,” he laughs. “We started with the biggest and baddest.”

 

But the four men had plenty of testing moments ahead – they faced blizzards, blisters, sleep deprivation and a few wrong turns.

 

“You certainly find out those old little injuries come back to haunt you,” Weir says.

 

“The bursas end up playing up to a point Adam had to pull out – just after half way he couldn’t walk any further. He had even been using one of the Masters Nature Trek 135 walking poles as a crutch. He was pretty shattered about that. Everyone found out they had a troublesome something. There were moments, when you have to bang down a few pain killers and just keep going.

 

“You operate on two or three hours of sleep. But no showers for days and the stink – you just can’t deal with it. One night it was too cold and we had to put the tent up. Three bodies. It was the last night and we just couldn’t go any further at about 3am. It was a cold night and everything was wet – boots, helmet straps.”

 

Weir says a slight navigating miscalculation led them into a blizzard and they were stuck on top of Mt Feathertop in buffeting winds, snow and freezing temperatures. The blizzard eventually forced the race to close down for 36 hours as organisers scrambled to get people off the course.

 

“We tried to get over Mt Feathertop in the evening and couldn’t navigate our way over. One of the tracks we were looking for didn’t exist anymore,” Weir recounts.

 

The lads quickly got used to living in close quarters, shacking up together to keep warm.

 

“We had a Vaude Space II tent which was awesome, it was perfect, so quick and easy to erect. It housed all of us – it was a bit tight but it was warm and weatherproof,” Weir says. “The ability to erect the fly only is fantastic in the heat, it was a great piece of kit.”

 

The tortuous race wasn’t all blood and sweat – the lads managed a few light-hearted moments.

 

“Riding through the lake passes after the half-way point we go to through snow,” Weir says. “We were having snowball fights and even gave away 45 minutes waiting for another team just so we could hit them with snowballs.”

 

Weir said the arm and leg warmers, allowed them better control over body temperature as they were able to pull them up or push them down as needed.

 

“Simon and I never took our leg warmers off,” Weir said.

 

But, despite the laughs and plenty of good camp fire stories up their sleeves, Weir says at the next race, in about 18 months, the Team BMD/Vaude would be serious competitors.

 

“We had good speed, just bad navigation. We made a couple of wrong turns – beginner schoolboy errors. We were lost as, but having an absolute ball, the time of our lives – it was sensational. We always knew where we were – just always taking a more difficult route than we had to,” he says.

 

“There was a bit of disappointment at going unranked, but that's how this adventure-racing gig goes at times ... so we're told. We had a great deal of satisfaction that we got there, there was a lot of problems thrown at us and a lot of teams didn’t finish but we finished unranked because we didn’t finish with four.

 

“Financially and time wise you spend a lot of time and money to race and it’s just deflating (to finish unranked). When we got to the end, we were sitting there saying straight way that we’re doing the next one and we’re doing it properly.

 

“The shits and giggles are over. Next time we’re racing.”