Girls can do ANYTHING in a Skirt!

One night in Vegas makes a hard man humble … or something like that. It might be called CityRaid now, but this amazing race around our home town is still called ‘Vegas’ to us!
So, just how do 2 chicks in their SkirtSports Gym Girl Ultras scoot about town in 3 hours collecting 1200 out of 1300 points? Our plan was based around being on both the train and the ferry that Mr & Mrs Smith were aboard. Then it was just up to getting the navigation right, thinking a bit laterally and getting out and having some fun! Check out our race map to see which route we took.

You might think with a great score like that, we had a perfect race – but not so. First mistake – we copied the time incorrectly onto the map, and jumped onto the 7.31 from Central, not the 7.31 from Southbank. AAGHH!! This cost us 20 points, having to skip the control near Central (got the photo at Jacob’s Ladder though!) So we got off at the Valley and used the 7 minutes ‘platform time’ to regroup and check the rest of the route.

You have to admit, a bit of local knowledge helps. Narelle and I ride, run and use public transport in the city and suburbs all the time. Little things, like knowing the steps from the platform at Bowen Hills station are at either end of the platform, meant we were off the train quickly and at the head of the crowd stampeding towards Café DiBella.

Also knowing what you are capable of doing and what each other’s strengths are is really important. We set a plan that matched our running speed, (although we were working pretty hard at times to meet the deadlines) and modified it accordingly as we went. Like, we wanted to catch the 8.45pm Holman St ferry and pick up the 10 point control, but as we were still playing with paper aeroplanes at 8.42pm – we had no hope. So we ditched the 10 points and ran back over the Story Bridge to Eagle St, picking up a TimTam from a kind 7 Eleven shop owner who told us what a Dickie Sipper was. Sweet!

With only 3 hours, you have to be thinking on your feet all the time – making the tough decision to omit the 50 points at Mountain Designs in order to get more points elsewhere. Or changing plans to get off the final City Cat at QUT instead of Southbank and run back through town looking for an adult store after we’d already been through the Valley where there are adult stores aplenty! Or scavenging goggles out of lost property at Centenary Pool to make it easier to find the submerged object.

It never hurts to share the love a bit either. Our best investment during the night was the $1.00 extra we spent paying for another team's Dickie Sipper. The cashier at the adult shop was too slow giving us our change for the DS, so we told her to keep the dollar and pay for the one these two guys were lined up to buy. We ran out of the shop, and a short while later, whilst getting agitated in the slow line up for the ferris wheel, who should let us squeeze into their gondola - the two guys we'd bought the DS for!! What comes around ....

It really was great night. Narelle’s highlight was definitely jumping off the 5 metre diving platform. “Much more fun in a skirt!”

Thanks Geocentric and race sponsors - awesome race, great people to be with and a nice sense of satisfaction in nearly clearing the course. Can’t wait for next year – maybe then the perfect race!!

Ps can we be team #69 again?

Narelle & Wendy
Team Skirt Sports Australia