Hi all. It’s Mel here with the Team Bend Racing race report from the MAGNIficent Adventure
A little bit about me…I did my first adventure race in the fall of 2001 in wild and wonderful West
Virginia, USA. It was a 60-hour course and my best friend, Jaimie, and I completed it in 59
hours and 40 minutes. That race was called the Endorphin Fix, and it was by no means a
misnomer. I had not ever done drugs (still haven’t) but the high I felt after that race was like
nothing I had ever known. I was hooked.
Ever since that first race, I have dreamed of racing in New Zealand. My parents are both kiwis,
so I had been many times to visit family, but the timing of races just never worked out. While I
wasn’t always able to race as much as I wanted due to deployment schedules, work, raising
children, et cetera, I was able to take advantage of opportunities to race in the US and abroad in
the Raid World Series, Adventure Race World Series, and other races. However, twenty years
of GodZone races came and went without me. In 2023, Bend Racing won a free entry into the
2024 GodZone, which I thought would finally be my chance. All hopes were dashed when news
broke that the race was canceled.
Shortly thereafter, I found out that Jason and Andy Magness were putting together an expedition
in New Zealand – The MAGNIficent. I have raced with and known Jason for years and know
that nothing is more important to him than putting on a stunning, challenging race, with an
emphasis on stunning. And challenging. Better yet, Dan Staudigel announced in the team chat
that he was putting a team together for the race. I love racing with Dan and knew that I had to
make it happen.
Fast forward to January 2025 and our team, Dan, Matthias Arnbert, Mari Chandler and I were
on our way to New Zealand for The MAGNIficent. Dan, Matthias, and I traveled together and
made it with our gear and without issue. Well, except that Matthias’ batteries were all removed
from his luggage and disposed of. Luckily, Dan packed enough Fenix lights and batteries to
outfit the entire team – as it turns out 20 batteries is the maximum one person can carry into
New Zealand – the exact amount Dan packed.
While the rest of us arrived without (much) issue, Mari, on the other hand, had an adventure just
getting to the start line. She got stuck in Dallas, TX overnight due to a canceled flight. The
airline sent her bags on to Brisbane, while Mari was rerouted through Sydney. It was a week
and a half before she was reunited with at least one bag. She was back in Michigan in early
February before being reunited with her bicycle, ironically with a note that said “Please expedite
to traveler; race starting 1/26”. Doh!
So, as you can imagine, the day before the race was a mad dash to source all of the gear Mari
would need. One of the many things I love about this sport is the kindness and generosity of
fellow racers, enthusiasts, and race directors. The community really came together to get her
all that she would need and Dan’s careful backup packing came in handy once again. With all
the gear sourced and heaps of excitement, we headed out to the start line on Sunday morning.
After a beautiful Maori ceremony in the rain, we set off on our adventure. We were stoked to
start the race on bike, as we all love to ride…fast. Shortly into the ride, however, I recognized
my first issue. I seemed to have left my legs somewhere between my trainer at home and the
start line in New Zealand. I seriously had nothing in them and just had no watts to transfer to
the pedals. It was awful. I should have known when I woke that morning and noticed my HRV
had dropped 20 points from average, that something might not have been quite right, but I am
new to the whole HRV tracking thing and haven’t really paid it any mind.
As Dan gently assisted me with a side push, we made our way along the course. Still hopeful
that my old body just needed to warm up (I am, after all, no spring chicken), we made our way
to the first TA. Though the first leg was only four hours long, it was riddled with a comedy of
errors for our team. My legs had been replaced by imposters, I slipped while launching myself
over a barbed wire fence and sliced the back of my leg, and Matthias’ bike seat flew off –
apparently the carbon rails had catastrophically failed. In short, we were not off to the best start.
Don’t worry, it goes downhill from here. Haha.
We transitioned to a lovely hike up and over some mountains west of Kingston. The scenery
was gorgeous, despite the continuous rain and some snow up at altitude! Yes, snow in the
summer in New Zealand. All of us coming from winter in the US, this was the last thing we were
anticipating! But we made it through, with Dan’s flawless navigation from checkpoint to
checkpoint. Wet and somewhat cold cruising downhill to a valley before a climb back up and
over the mountains on the other side, we had our first big uplifting surprise. We stumbled
across an unmarked hut that literally still had the new-hut cedar smell. Joking that it had been
airlifted in that morning, we huddled inside to dry our feet and take a little nap just after nightfall
on the first night.
After about an hour and a half in the hut we headed back out into rain to climb up and over the
mountains to descend into a creek for a packraft back to the TA in Kingston. In all honesty, it
was probably labeled a “river”, but there was little water and definitely not enough for both of us
to sit in the boat. So, we took turns paddling and I was fortunate enough to get to navigate the
one fun rapid! Sorry, Dan.
As we headed out of the creek and into Lake Wakatipu for our final paddle back to Kingston, we
were met with a strong southerly, you know, to spice things up. The waves and white caps
made us grateful to have hauled the spray skirts and extra gear on the trek, and really came in
handy to keep water out and to keep us warm! We collected the checkpoints along the route
back and arrived at the TA shivering, but excited to get pedaling on our next leg. The transition
itself was a little disjointed, and definitely not the best showing, with boats in one place, bikes in
another and gear in yet another. But once we warmed up and were able to function, we got our
stuff aligned and saddled up for a long bike leg – 160km, which we were promised to have
some substantial hike-a-bike.
Jason and Andy sent out videos of strapping bikes on backpacks and preparing racers for what
was to come. Based on the hype, we anticipated carrying our bikes for hours, and prepared
them early – on the flat spot at the base of the hill. We quickly realized this was an error and
that for as far as we could see, the bikes could be pushed alongside to save the legs the extra
weight of carrying them. So, we dropped the packs with bikes, put the front wheels back on,
and pushed our bikes for the next few hours. Close to the top of the mountain, off trail and back
in tussock and Spainard (Aciphylla Colensoi or speargrass) territory, Mari taught us a fun way of
flipping the bike overhead and onto our shoulders. We spent the next few hundred meters
hauling bikes up the mountain like this and were relieved to reach the checkpoint on a road near
the top. There we realized the race directors had missed a great opportunity to provide racers
with sausages or some other treat, as there was a barbeque at the checkpoint that looked so
lonely without some meat cooking in it! And we were pretty hungry!
Once at the road, we were able to put some of the 160kilometers behind us as we rode into the
second night, with a stop at a hut for a quick nap. We were locked out of the interior of the hut
but took shelter in a covered area just outside the front door. Rejuvenated, we rose to meet
Team Canada coming toward the hut. We shared some stories and laughs as we headed out
toward the first orienteering leg, which we reached just after sunrise on Tuesday. Dan continued
his navigation trend of taking us straight to the checkpoints, after we realized with the first
checkpoint we came across that some might be hidden, and we finished the orienteering leg
without incident. However, that is the final time I could even jokingly say “without incident” as
things were about to turn from not so good to awful for yours truly.
Happy to be back on the bike, the team rolled out from the orienteering section base hut with a
renewed vigor to keep pressure on and try to pick off as many teams as we could. While I felt
this drive in my heart, my heart was feeling something else, something that I could not put my
finger on. That is okay, though, cause it put its fist down on me. I simultaneously couldn’t
breathe while my heartrate (at 110 beats per minute) felt like it was redlining. Like, seriously was
going to explode out of my chest. Within 30 minutes of leaving the orienteering section, I was
face down on the trail, while Dan, Mari, and Matthias were splitting up my gear and tried to
lighten my load in any way possible.
We limped along on climbs – I was SO slow. Like embarrassingly slow. My only redemption
was when gravity worked for me, as I could still cruise down the descents. Along the route, we
passed dozens of bike packers in a race of their own – the Great Southern Brevet (GSB) some
absolutely insane 1100 km bike packing race – those folks are nuts! Dan must have asked
everyone we passed if they had an emergency inhaler. Just when I lost all hope, a couple of
guys answered in the affirmative, and graciously gave me an inhaler. Unfortunately, it did not
make any difference at all, and my condition continued through into the evening.
Luckily enough, because we had climbed so much before the orienteering section, a substantial
amount of the ride was downhill, and we were able to cruise into the TA in the town of Alexandra
close to sunset on Tuesday evening. For those who haven’t been, and this was my first trip,
Alexandra is a COOL town with a river flowing through it, a giant clock on the cliff face, which
we visited, heaps of fruit trees along the river trails, the fruit of which we devoured, and what
looked like adorable shops and cafes, which we did not get to partake in because of the time of
day.
We continued moving through town, gathering checkpoints with Zombie Mel, and then we came
to the climbing section. Two members of the team were to climb, two to belay. One person had
to climb an easy route and one an intermediate route, which was more like an extremely
advanced route at this stage in the game! We split up and Mari and I went to the easy route
while Matthias tried the intermediate route. Mari made it up the climb smoothly and finished just
in time to see Matthias come off the rock, with cramped forearms, without reaching the top.
Mari volunteered to try the more difficult route and incredibly pulled it off with substantial effort.
She is amazing. You all know that, but I have to say it. Truly amazing.
Now well into the third night, we decided to rest in Alexandra before heading out for the next
bike/packrafting leg. I miraculously found a spot to rest on a tile floor of a bathroom, which
sucked all the excess heat out of my body. This was a welcome relief, as I had been
overheating (likely with a fever) for many hours.
We woke from our “nap” in which nobody really slept well, but at least our bodies got rest, and
headed back to the transition area to get our bikes and boats and start on the next adventure.
We decided to ride our bikes back out the trail we had come in on, with the idea that riding
would be faster than paddling. This was a great idea and would have been fantastic if we hadn’t
gotten overzealous about a clearing in which we could blow up the boats to cross for a
checkpoint. We stopped short of the actual checkpoint and lost about 30 minutes in the search
at the wrong location. Matthias looked at the map and realized the error, we corrected and went
further down the trail before bush bashing through the woods, blowing the boats, and crossing
to find the checkpoint. Back to the bikes, we rode to the dock, blew up the boats again, and
headed down the lake, this time with a glorious tailwind! For the first time this race, we finally
had something other than a headwind, both literal and figurative!
We paddled through the night and watched the sunrise from the boats, just before reaching the
dam. From there, we were off on bikes again, crossing the dam and climbing up and over some
hills. Then, to our surprise, we made a turn on a road to see an angel with a barbeque filled
with sausages, hashbrowns, and chicken parked across the street! It was the father of a
member of a ‘local’ team, Forever Forests, who had set up to give teams a little boost as they
passed through. He had been watching our tracker as we approached from the dam and kept
the barbeque going for us. We stuffed ourselves silly with sausages, chicken and hashbrowns.
Honestly, I think it was the bulk of the calories I consumed the entire race!
With elevated spirits, we continued on our journey until we climbed to the top of the mountain
ridge – with plenty of hike a bike on the way – where we could look down on the valley that
housed the next transition. My heart lifted when I saw the river as I imagined that we were so
close. Just a big descent away from the TA. I have never been so wrong. What I thought
would be a quick descent was just that, followed by many steep, brutal (to me) climbs along a
road that would eventually, after much frustration and a still close to exploding heart, lead to the
TA. That was the first time I got really down. There was always the nagging thought of “I don’t
know how I am going to do the rest of this” followed by “you are going to put one foot in front of
the other, Mel, and just keep going.” But for some reason, this road of “rolling hills” (misnomer)
damn near broke all of me.
Continuing to put one foot in front of the other, we made it to the TA, where we were to transition
into the massive stage 6, which was split up into three sections, a canyoneering section, a river
section, and an enormous trek over ALL of the mountains. We arrived before sunset but based
on the estimates we had been given, didn’t think we had time to knock out the canyoneering
section before the dark zone, so we opted to start with the enormous trek. Before we left, I
asked for 5 minutes to lay down with legs up, to try to rejuvenate my system. By this time, I was
coughing so much that the noise was annoying me! Sorry, teammates, I am sure it was difficult
to listen to my lungs doing their best to turn inside out!
The team decided to get going without the rest and it wasn’t long before we were bedding down
for a nap, just after sunset in the forest. This was hands-down the BEST rest we got the entire
race. We set the alarm for two hours and treated ourselves to one more hour after that. I’d like
to say that I woke a new woman, but I still had the same imposter legs, lungs filled with gunk,
and that heart issue. With all that, we continued on, slowly knocking out checkpoint after
checkpoint on our mountain adventure. While what should have been a 24-ish hour leg
dragged on for about 36 hours, I have never, in all my years of adventure racing, experienced a
leg that was even close to as beautiful as this one in its scenery. We climbed mountains, and
from the top of every mountain, all you could see was more mountains, lakes and beauty in
every direction. At one point, we could see as far north as the glaciers on the west coast of the
South Island (likely Franz Josef). We climbed waterfalls and traversed around alpine lakes. It
was stunning. In a word – MAGNIficent. At this point in the race, it might have been the only
thing keeping me going, just to see more of this incredible land.
We returned to the TA after the long trek, knocked out the canyoneering section after Dan quite
literally carried my limp body up the hill to the entrance of the canyon, grabbed the boats and we
were on our way upriver for the last section. Here, we ran into Team Canada again, who had
closed the gap on us after dealing with their own health issues, including some food poisoning
the night before.
Seeing our Canadian friends lit the fire we needed to push and focus on something good, like
the finish line. We knew we had about an hour lead and were determined to keep it that way.
We got into the boats and made our way back to the TA for a quick stop to pick up whatever we
needed to finish out the race. Our goal was to get downriver before Team Canada could see us,
to at least stay out of sight. We made it in and out and paddled as fast as we could. Just before
nightfall, Mari and Matthias got swept into a strainer on river left, and that led to some exciting
times. I stayed down river to collect paddles and other gear, while Dan went back upriver to
help extricate them from the tree that held them down and flooded the boat. Not too shaken,
they emerged with all gear accounted for, and we continued to the TA.
This, the last TA of the race, was by far the fastest for Team Bend Racing. Imagining Team
Canada directly on our tail, we didn’t bother to change clothes, shoes, or much of anything,
except Dan putting on an extra layer after going swimming for his Fenix light that slipped out of
my hands as I was trying to tie it to the bow. We thankfully acted fast enough that we were able
to recover the light. This was very important to us as a boat crew, given that the last time I
raced with Dan (in Ozark), another brilliant Fenix light we were using on the bow came undone
and was lost in the rapids. He was insta-pissed (instantaneously pissed off) at the idea of losing
another fantastic light, which I felt to the core of my being. These lights are incredible,
waterproof and seemingly bullet proof. Definitely the prize possession of the race given the
amount of water we were in and around, whether from the sky or in rivers and lakes!
In what seemed like minutes into the TA we were off on our final ride to the finish line. Dan set
up his watch alert to keep my heartrate low enough that I wouldn’t have exploding heart
syndrome, put me on tow, blared music over a speaker, and we made our way to Lumsden. I
kept looking over my shoulder, expecting to see the lights from Team Canada coming at any
minute, but as we got closer and closer, I realized we were going to make it. I was going to
make it. I didn’t die!
None of this could have ever been possible without such incredible teamwork from everyone.
Mari and Matthias carrying my gear, Dan carrying my limp body at times, towing me at others,
and everyone with an unceasing patience with my suffering, coughing, and painfully slow
movements at times. It kills me to have had such a terrible race after training so hard for my
first NZ expedition. But when the immune system breaks down, it can break down hard, and we
have no control. Now a week and a half after the race and after a solid dose of antibiotics, the
infections that had set in are gone, the barbed wire scrapes are turning into cool scars, my
hands are healing from the Spaniards (with still yet many layers of skin to grow back), and my
determination to return to New Zealand to move fast and race hard is growing. Some bug got
the better of me this time, but I’ll be back, New Zealand, I’ll be back!
Gear We Loved and Stand by:
Fenix Lights: We use many different lights from Fenix and they are ALL amazing. They are durable, long lasting, easy to use and are waterproof. All of these things make them the best lights for adventure racing. To top it off, they are also relatively inexpensive! But feel free to use our code: bendracing25 for your purchase. Our most used lights are the following:
HM65R Rechargeable Headlamp
PD36R Flashlight
BC50R Rechargeable Tail light
4 Hour Fuel: As you all know we LOVE our 4HourFuel. But seriously. It is the absolute BEST for endurance sports. We now do about 90% of our calories on it because it is just way too good and feels sooo good as well!
USWE packs: We love our USWE 30 L Ultra packs and our Pace packs. For this race we did a mix of the Hyperlite packs and the USWE packs because of how many packraft carries we had to do. But, for the long O course, and many of the bikes, we used the USWE Ultras and loved them. They are super comfortable, and are able to have a lot of our little things (like snacks, chapstick, sunscreen, etc) accessible to us.
Angelinas Organic Skincare Skin Doctor: Our feet were magnificent the whole race, sure we slept more, but we were still out there A LONG time and were on our feet for much of that- so yeah- Skin Doctor for the win as always. It truly is the best feeling and working for our feet and hands out on course and really every day.
MRS Barracuda R2 Pro Packrafts: Our MRS Barracuda's are both light and FAST - making them the best option for this race, and really any adventure race with a ton of paddling. The lightness of these though really paid off as we had to carry them on our bikes and on our backs for a LONG time. They are hands down our favorite racing boats.