Pissfit Presents – Hell’s Bells 24hr AR

2 Bottle Tour

So the Johnnys (Gloory and Power) were at it again and signed up to the 2010 Hell’s Bells AR which is a 24hr 100km adventure race on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. It is a race on the Aussie AR bucket list. Although the Johnnys are adept at cycling, paddling, running and our endurance fitness would not be a problem for a 24hr AR, there was one key skill missing – navigation. So Johnny G (Gloory) organized for a hired gun in Canadian Dave to join Team Johnny Grimstal. Canadian Dave is from Canada (!) and possesses extensive experience of adventure racing and exploration and is an all round fit, awesome dude. It was a pleasure having him on board, at least for the very fact that the Johnnys would have been lost forever in the South-east Queensland scrub without Dave’s navigation prowess.

Things got off to an awkward start, when the guy behind the Jetstar counter at Sydney Airport started laughing when he saw our three bike boxes, 6 plastics containers of race kit and three huge sports bags of our own gears. Johnny G tried to give him the old ‘I’m a Qantas Club member’ spiel but eventually we had to fork out $600 in extra baggage. It could have been much worse if her made us pay for the whole extra 200kg.

We made it to Mooloolooba and spent a full night and morning getting our kit sorted and preparing boxes for the kit drops – there is a lot of logistics with these 24hr+ AR events! We got to the starting line in good shape and went out hard and early.

14hrs later we made it back into the base camp in Mooloolooba after a furious finish with 3 teams hot on our tails. We came in a respectable 4th overall.

The photos below tell the story. But some of the highlights of the weekend include:

There was a 2km creek which we were meant to navigate on boogie boards – Johnny G got his sister to buy 5 buck jobbies from K-mart, plus some kiddie flipper. Meanwhile the other top teams all bought their huge Manta boards and dive flippers – this is a good way to lose about 5 placings and an hour in the over scheme of things – classic!
Building a 2 foot high sandcastle on Caloundra beach as a surprise challenge, sand got into places that it hadn’t reached already
Johnny P (Power) consuming 14 nurofen plus for his calf injury in under 12hrs, telling the boys ‘I feel great’ – their response – no shit dude, you’ve had 14 nurofen plus!
Smashing 2 big macs and 2 cheese burgers plus nuggets at 3am post race – first time we’ve ever done this sober mind you!
Hitting the Mooloolooba surf club at 11am on the Sunday, finishing up 14hrs later in the wee hours on Monday morning. No other competitors were out then that is for sure.
Johnny G (Gloory) driving home in his folks’ Nissan Patrol, extremely tired and hungover, stops to fill her up, and puts a full tank of unleaded into it instead of diesel – nice one Johnny!