After a short pre-race briefing, our official starter this year, Daniel, blew his whistle at 7am on the dot and teams were off.  Some teams were so relaxed and busy chatting away to other teams that they didn't realise the race had begun, it was only when teams were biking and running past them that they realised it had started.

23 teams braved the challenging conditions for this years 12hr AR at Blue Mountain and Lochaber stations.  The weather was perfect for the 2nd year running with the sun shining bright for most of the day to the delight of everyone, especially the organisers.

Teams had the choice to either bike or run first and 14 teams chose to do the bike leg first with the remaining teams tackling the run over Lochaber.  Some teams did say they had wished they had biked first as they would have gone faster over the muddy sections as these would have been solid under-wheel given the overnight frost but as it was it was damn muddy when they got to those bits.  Some bikes ended up with wheels bigger than when they had set off: mud, mud, mud clinging for dear life to them!

First mixed team and first overall to finish was Team Racing Rock Wrens (Chris and Emily Forne) in a time of 7hrs 46, having the fastest time on both the run and bike sections.

First male team, and a very close 2nd overall was Team PE Gym Mat (Jim Cotter and Matty Graham).  They finished in a time of 7hrs 58.

First women's team home, Go Go Women (Angela Grigg, Amy Pankhurst, Louise O'Connel), finished in a time of 11hrs 36.

Team Chafing the Dream completed the bike leg in 5hrs 27 but had to cut short their run leg as one team member was recovering from being crook the week before and was still suffering quite a bit on the day but he soldiered on for the sake of his team mate.

Team Pride of the South decided to take a detour (or should I say they went off track or was it that their compass was faulty! That's generally my excuse - damn compass!) and ended up wading through waist high water to get to T1.  Even though we did say teams had to cross via the bridge and not the river at any point they said the water was slow moving and they had linked arms so hey all good!!!  Luckily they survived, and as their flight plan did not take them this way we would not have checked the river for bodies!!  All the time, they were unaware that Anne from Lochaber was watching their antics and was crossing her fingers and hoping they didn't go under!

One team member from Team Sammie on the Hill had major chain issues and they all ended up walking a fair bit of the bike leg until their knight in shining armour came to their rescue (Col on his quad) and brought the broken bike back to transition.  Theirs was the longest bike leg, 8hrs 26.  They then went on to collect some of the run controls and finished in 12hrs 20, one minute ahead of Team The Worlds Fastest Indian "Burt Munro".  If only "Burt Munro" had spent less time in transition (54 minutes) - I think one of the team members had a kip!  We were just about to send out the hound (Col on his quad) when both teams arrived back safely.

Team What a Gamble, who arrived Saturday morning after a lush night in a motel in Fairlie, decided that the bike leg was enough for them and decided to call it a day and head off early but not before enjoying some lasagne and soup. The only thing that was missing was ketchup for the sausages but Team Mutton Madmen came to the rescue.

17 teams visited all 10 checkpoints.

It was very interesting to see the route choice for some teams and a few of them said they should have chosen to go in the opposite direction to what they had actually done as they reckoned it would have been faster.

Thanks to Joe and Anne of Lochaber Station and Roddy of Blue Mountain Station for allowing us access over these areas as without their permission the event may not have gone ahead as we had already looked at a few other places which turned out to be unsuitable.  Also, thanks to Robert at Orari Station for access over the 5.8km section on the bike leg.

Overall, everyone survived the day and had an awesome time made even awesomer (yes, that's a word in my dictionary!!) with much needed post race hot food followed by prize giving and spot prizes.  Thanks heaps to all our sponsors, the majority of whom have supported our event for the last six years.

It is always great to see teams returning year after year to take part in our AR as the general public do not normally get access to a lot of the places we go to, so to visit parts of NZ you wouldn't generally get to visit is fantastic.

Check out the website/FB around May '16 for details of another awesome event.  We hope to see you all fighting fit.

Photo:  The hound (Col) and his quad with Daniel our official starter :)