Expedition adventure racing is like a gruelling cross-country version of The Amazing Race. But one woman competing in this male-dominated sport, believes the finish line is not as far away as we may think.
Just like you, Sophie Hart enjoys a good night’s sleep. But for about a week, every now and then, she will settle for a whole lot less. Last month she was part of team Avaya, the GODZone adventure race winners (not for the first time). She spent six days and nights bush crashing, pack rafting, kayaking, mountain biking and navigating her way through tricky New Zealand terrain with long time teammates, Nathan Fa’avae, Stu Lynch and Chris Forn. You could try it too if you want - seriously, it’s not that big of a deal. Says Sophie, “A lot of people are far more capable than they give themselves credit for. You’ll hear things like, ‘I don’t know if I could do that because I just need to sleep. That’s not a good reason not to try though, in my mind, because I totally fall into that category. But until such time as you try these things you really have no idea.”
All four have plenty of experience in expedition racers (over 50 events for each of the guys, ‘somewhere in the mid twenties’ for Sophie) which can be useful for winning, but it isn’t everything. The second-placed team were relative newbies. “I think as long as we have a really good solid race and perform well and we do all the things well that we know we can, I think we probably get more satisfaction out of that rather than necessarily the end result. Of course, we want to win, but I think we know what we are capable of now if we are sensible and race smart and have a good strategy.”
Nathan is the team captain and they rely heavily on him for all the pre-race planning, but when Chris says, “Let’s go this way”, the team go this way. That’s because Chris is a top-notch navigator. Knowing where to go is perhaps the most crucial skill when well off the beaten track, since backtracking is a morale-crushing, race-losing activity no team wants to experience. Sophie says Stu is also an excellent navigator, a great allrounder and their highly valued white-water whisperer. Stu reads the currents, and the rest go with the flow. Sophie, self-effacing, reckons she just tries to keep up. [I’d think having a medic on the team would help me sleep at night. Maybe even the entire four hours of it.]
Sophie is a GP three days a week at Harley Street Medical and a marshmallow-negotiator on the remaining days. As we talk over the phone, her son Huxley (3) becomes restless, though in his defence I didn’t ask him a single thing about adventure racing. While they both endure my rapid-fire questioning for longer than either of them could have wished, one of them at least earns a sweet treat for putting up with the interrogation. The Keeper of the Marshmallows is notably cheerful and easy going. Useful traits for 23 adventure racing, among others. “I love the outdoors and you have to not be too worried about getting a few scratches here and there, going a few days without a shower, and challenging yourself, because there is a bit of suffering involved at times.”
Being fit also comes in handy and not working as a GP full time does allow Sophie the luxury of training (oxymoron). She thinks it might be impossible otherwise, though insists there is not as much preparation involved as you would think. This depends a bit on whether you think 10-15 hours a week falls into the ‘not much’ category. She feels very fortunate to have a supportive husband and her parents also came to help with the kids for six weeks prior to the race. They’re all justifiably proud of her and were a welcome surprise at the finish line, though she admits she probably didn’t match their energy levels at the time.
Sophie would love to see more women try adventure racing, which she pitches as a slightly harder version of a walk in the park. A walk in the park could be where it begins. “It doesn’t have to be that demanding. You have to have a baseline level of fitness and then I think the conditioning of the feet is important. If you can get in a few multi day hikes with heavy packs, then that’s really great training. It doesn’t have to be that your every spare moment is training and you don’t see your family, it’s not like that at all.”
So, you start tramping with friends and then sign up for something like the Spring Challenge which is an adventure event just for women. You can choose from 3, 6 and 9 hour options. “Your baseline doesn’t have to be that great to raft for an hour, walk for hour and bike for an hour. And because of that [Spring Challenge] you go along to these orienteering events now, these rogaines, and it’s such a turnaround. It used to be rare to see women there and now most of the entrants are women. It’s awesome.”
Once you are addicted to the Spring Challenge, try a few 24-hour races (because anyone who is reasonably fit can grit their teeth for a day and a night). Eventually you’ll be eyeing up a multi-day adventure challenge website telling yourself that life is too short and scanning your brain cells for at least three other people who have tendencies to mutter ‘carpe diem’ at random intervals. While GODZone requires a degree of forward planning, ultimately, it’s a seize-the-day philosophy that will get you to the start line. And a few other things.
If you are pessimist, then you only need to have a positive attitude for 6 to 9 days. Don’t forget to toughen your feet up a little. And what the hell, the rest of your muscles while you’re at it. As mentioned, you also have to be prepared to forego a full night’s rest for a week, though on the flipside, it sounds like the jokes are hilarious once the sleep deprivation kicks in. You must be able to tolerate amazing views. You’ll need to store them in your memory bank though because no phones are allowed. No selfies, no video clips to upload to Tik Tok. Just you and her and her and her. The sounds of the bush and the river. You are never more than 100 metres apart. Etch it all into your grey matter. After a few of these you’ll get to talk about the other adventure races you did together and remember them too. “We’ve shared a lot of intense moments over the years in really obscure corners of the world doing really strange things, and we did have a moment during the race …We were doing a top five and bottom five all-time [memories] and that was really interesting and quite fun to get everyone’s moments over the decades, and the majority included us as a four.”
Must really like the other three people. Better move that to the top of your list. It’s on Sophie’s.
“For me, I don’t have any real desire to turn up and race in a random team because so much of it for me is being part of a team that I feel connected with and I know we race smoothly together and it’s easy…If the team are keen to do GOZone next year, I won’t be able to say no, I don’t think.”
Sophie Hart, adventuress. Try and keep up.
Words: Britt Coker.
