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The Toughest Race on Earth
| Date: |
04 February 2002 12:00 |
| Show: | Carte Blanche |
If you met Lindy Bradshaw, you would never suspect she is one of the toughest women in South Africa. This self-confessed shopaholic, with a weakness for sunglasses, has another life far from the air-conditioned comfort of shopping centres.
Lindy is a Springbok triathlete. She is also an adventure racer, taking on the toughest environments the world has to offer. In April this year she is about to face her biggest challenge yet. She will be the only woman in a team of five adventures competing in toughest endurance race on earth - the Raid Gauloises.
It is a journey that began four years ago when Lindy watched a programme on Lesotho Raid Gauloises with friends.
'I remember watching it on TV, and saying 'I'd like to do something like that', and they all laughed and said, 'Ja - you who stays in five-star hotels and never goes camping, you'll never ever do it' and I said, 'I will',' she says.
Not one to back down from a dare, Lindy entered her first adventure race in 1998 - the Moroccan Eco Challenge - and was addicted. In 1999 she teamed up with Andy Tylfer, Steve Camp and Ian Tyrer for the Argentinean Eco Challenge.
Successfully completing the race, they set their sights on the Raid Gauloises, the original and most difficult adventure race of them all.
Lindy explains the difference between the Eco Challenge and the Raid Gauloises: 'The mileage in this one is 1 000km in ten days, whereas in the Eco Challenges, both of them have been 500. It is hard. I think mentally, and physically.'
Adventure racing developed when triathlons became a bit tame for some, and the rules book was thrown out of the window. It's the extreme sport of the millennium. It's all about endurance, and not only are the teams competing against each other, but against nature, the terrain and the weather.,' she says.
The 2002 Raid Gauloises will be held in Northern Vietnam in April this year. Beginning in the mountains along the Chinese border, the teams will race over 1 000km in 10 days to the South China Sea.
The concept is simple: 50 teams of five - including at least one woman - tackle hundreds of kilometres of inhospitable terrain non-stop, without motorised assistance - and often in areas so inaccessible that outside help is impossible.
In Snake Valley in Oman, after hours of swimming in cold water some racers began to get hypothermia. The only way to survive was to get up and walk out.
'We have to finish ... and I think we have to do a lot of work,' says Lindy.
Andy Telfer, who captained Lindy's team in Argentinea, will also lead the Vietnam Raid Team. Besides completing 70 ultra marathons, he is also a twice-decorated soldier - in the Rhodesian war and as a major in the Middle East where he trained and commanded a team of special force soldiers for the Sultan of Oman.
'A bomb could explode and he'd still sit there very calmly and tell us where to go and what to do ... he is a good leader,' says Lindy.
Today he runs 'The Spirit of Adventure' - a leadership centre in Kwa-Zulu Natal for schools. There is little evidence of the tough army commander as Andy coaxes a group of youngsters across a ravine.
'The Raid Gauloises is really a super extension of what these children are facing here. This for us is a way of life, so it's relatively easy to us, but for them it's very, very challenging. The Raid Gauloises takes us out of our comfort zone and challenges us,' he says.
Andy's main aim role is to get the team to the end of the race. Once you cross the start line, that's it. You are locked in for the 10 days, because the Raid isn't just a contest, it's a commitment. Severely injured, or desperately ill, you can be rescued - but at a price to the whole team.
'The whole essence of the race is that the team has to finish in the full complement. If a member drops out through injury, illness, disagreement or gives up, then the whole team is disqualified. So it's essential for the whole team to make it together,' says Andy.
Sibosiso Mkhize is the third member of the Raid team that hopes to finish in Vietnam. He began working for Andy seven years ago when he was still at school, and is now a senior instructor at 'The Spirit of Adventure'. He is the only member of the Raid team that has not competed in an adventure race.
Some might think that makes him the wild card. Not so, says Andy.
'He should be, if it wasn't for the fact that he's Sibo,' says Andy. 'He's such a good man that he's just going to rise to this challenge. I know he is. I think he'll be one of the strongest members of the team.'
Sibu trains for the raid every day by hiking through the hills and valleys where he herded cattle as a child. With a 14 kg pack strapped to his back, he draws a lot of attention from his neighbours.
'Some of them think, 'What's that guy doing? He's crazy', and I tell them what I'm doing and they ask whether I'll make it, and I say, 'Ja, I will make it'.'
Raid Team member number four is Ian Tyrer - a single dad with two jobs. He begins each day by organising his vegetable farm before putting in a full day's work as an electro-mechanic.
'Being a single father is one thing, but it depends on your children. If it wasn't for them it would be a difficult task, but they know how to look after themselves, they know how to dress themselves, the pack their own bags ...' he says.
Somehow Ian has still managed to compile an impressive list of sporting achievements, including seven Comrades Marathons and the distinction of being the first person to cycle Tabana Inshlanyana in Lesotho, the highest point in Southern Africa.
Steve Camp is Ian's best friend. An author of children's environmental books, Steve has 16 titles to his credit - the most popular being his Mr Muddles series.
Like Lindy, Steve also has a wild side. He has flown a motorised paraglider from Kilanjaro to Victoria Falls, sailed the Cape to Rio yacht race and paddled 15 Duzies.
And together with Andy, they are the only members of the Vietnam Team with previous Raid experience.
In 1998 they attempted the Raid in Ecuador. They started close to the Capital Quito, and raced across planes, through jungles and up mountains. On the seventh day of the Ecuadorian Raid, they summited Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world.
With very little sleep since the beginning of the race and temperatures reaching - 20°C the team made an error in judgment and missed their next checkpoint by 20 minutes. They were instantly disqualified.
'Basically you shit off the whole way, you just want to get to the end. It's all about getting to the end, really,' says Ian.
Mental and physical fatigue makes extensive training before the Raid essential. For safety sake the skills have to be second nature, so training takes over when you are just to tired to think. The repeated drilling of skills also builds trust and team spirit.
'Lindy is afraid of heights. She's very, very fit, but she's got a genuine fear of height, and this exercise is helping her to become more accustomed to facing that fear and overcoming it. And what's particularly important is that she's doing it with the support of Sibu,' he says.
The Vietnam Raid is only three months away and the team is in their final stages of training, each member averaging over 400km a week. Carte Blanche will be going to share their experience.
'This is not really a race, it's an adventure. We are there as participants in a most incredible experience,' says Andy.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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