images/stories/content/2009-04-08_water-on-the-mind/2009-04-08_1.jpgWe love keeping secrets, and as it seems so do the organizers of the 2009 Mountain Designs GeoQuest. In traditional AR style the organizers remained tight lipped about the location of the race. Indicating that competitors would be let in on the secret the morning of the race. We poked our intel. They told us it would be somewhere in Australia and possibly near New South Wales. Thanks guys. 

This slid across our desk a little later: From 5-8th June this year the golden beachside town of Forster on the NSW North Coast... hmm, will there be surfing? Well kayak surfing most likely... er... maybe just suffering?

New South Wales is Australia's oldest and most populous state. Widely environmentally diverse and having over 780 national parks and reserves, New South Wales provides many options to stage a mini-epic. This is also provides a good reason for why race organizers have favoured the area over the years. 
From Caravan Park where HQ will be located, teams will traverse through parts of Forster and Barrington Tops, trekking, mountain biking, sea kayaking  and roping their way through a stinkin' long 48 hour course.

The Forster region is rife with inland waterways around what has come to be known as the Great Lakes - a smaller, yet warmer network of lakes than the Canadian great lakes. 

It seems that water was on the mind of the race organizers when setting the course; this installment of GeoQuest, Grade 1 white water rapids will be added to the mix - inflatable kayaks boys and gals. Maybe this week's grit shot will be spot on for a few teams this year? For good watery measure organizer have also included what they call a "rafting mystery discipline."

Coming up for some air and into the unspoiled wilderness of Barrington Tops, competitors will get to experience a subtropical rainforest, ancient beech forests and subalpine woodlands, all the while their weary bones creaking ever closer to the finish line. This year's race will again play to the senses through unbelievably beautiful and virgin landscapes - but don't get too carried away, race organizers have learned the other art of Adventure Racing*: to hold a successful race one must strive to juxtapose beauty with flagrant misuse of the body's ability to remove lactic acid. Thus organizers attest that your brain will be begging you to stop and only a few will be so lucky as to crawl across the finish line. 

So... suffering? Yes. Surfing? Sort of. Wishing that you were one of those tourists lollygagging through while you try to squeeze the last drop out of your glycogen stores? Not a chance. 

*The first art was indicated in the Grit - the art of packing light.