Macpac GOT have completed the Xpd Adventure racing world champs.

Well we have knocked the buggar off and achieved all our goals in the process. Apart from a few issues with illness we managed to move through the course reasonably quickly. What an amazing part of the world Tasmania is. We have seen some spectacular scenery and had an amazing time. We also finished better friends than when we started. We will write a full race report once our brains and bodies reconnect.

Here we are at the final briefing before all hell breaks loose tomorrow when the maps are released. Today has been filled with gear checks and competency checks. As usual we also spent a bit of time packing repacking buying more stuff packing some more and gossiping and speculating with other teams. Craig the race organiser is currently reminding us that this event is more an expedition rather than a race. Looking forward to another nice warm night's sleep in a bed :)

Hanging out in Bernie tassie

Been chilling in Bernie today. Great little seaside town - did a photo shoot for the local paper this am then some food shopping for last minute supplies. things heat up tomorrow with gear checks competency checks and registration etc. Teams everywhere from all corners of the world. It is pretty exciting - wish the weather was a bit warmer - it is very cold out tonight - too cold to go out and wait for the penguins to come up the beach. Must be getting soft.

Have been in launceston for last day buying race food and equipment. Just had an awesome brunch in a cool cafe. About to head up to Bernie to race HQ. Starting to get excited - weather is overcast with snow forecast in the hills - brrr

Team Macpac GOT heads across the ditch in search of the Tassie Devil

Team Macpac GOT (Ally, Craig, Debbie and Anne) head across the Tasman tommorrow for the AR World Championships in Tasmania, Australia. The race kicks off on Nov 2nd and we have 10 days to complete the 700kms on foot, by kayak and bike. We will be updating this blog pre-race and hopefully Annie from Nga Rakau can keep you posted during the race. Check out the official race website http://www.xpd.com.au/ for live tracking once the race kicks off or you can head into any Macpac store for an update. Please yell at us down your computer if we appear to be going the wrong way :) Also dont be shy to send us the odd message of support to help us along the way. Thank you to our amazing sponsor Macpac for providing us with great gear and helping us get to the event. We could not ask for a better partner :)

Woo hoo

A Long Weekend of Last Minute Training and Prep

We know it's not long to go now because Ally's on a long haul flight from Germany to NZ as we write - can't wait to see her and start to get final prep underway oh and hopefully do a bit more light training - together :) Craig is moving house this weekend so his traning will be mostly heavy lifting and waking.  We are planning a couple of paddles, a couple of rides and a couple of runs with some shopping, packing, eating, rugby watching, labelling and washing our flash new cycling kit from Tinelli, wearing in new montrails and hopefully getting a sleep-in or 2 in at some point.

With races like this there is so much to think about and get organised. You would think that after doing this sport for 10 years we'd have it down pat but somehow we seem to angst over what clothes we'll need for the conditions, what additional equipment to take and how to keep the weight down for the flight to try to minimise costs of excess baggage.

Hopefully the wind will die down, the sun will shine and the weekend of Rugby will keep cars off the roads :)
Go the Wallabies ... go the All Blacks ..........

Only 6 more sleeps and we'll be Tassie bound .......

Team Macpac Girls on Top - Team Members - XPD World Champ - Tassie November 2 - 11

Debbie Chambers - Team Captain



Debbie Chambers



Debbie has been involved in the outdoors all her life. Her most memorable adventure was cycling through Asia from Japan to New Zealand in 1993. She has been competing in the sport of adventure racing since 2000. Over the past decade she has raced in numerous adventure races ranging from 24 hours to 7 days both locally and internationally. Her Adventure racing exploits have seen her racing through the New Zealand Alps in the Southern Traverse, the Amazon jungle in the EMA, coastal and inland regions of Brazil in the Ecomotion and through the outback and wilderness of Australia in the XPD and Geoquest. This will be her fifth XPD

She started her racing career with Team sportzhub.com but in more recent times has been the driver of the Girls on Top adventure racing team which is New Zealand’s most successful all women’s adventure racing team. She loves the teamwork aspect of Adventure racing the most but also raves about the freedom of being able to race through the night and the amazing places you get to explore. “There is nothing more satisfying than completing a gruelling 750 km adventure race that takes you through the most incredible scenery and pushes you and your teammates to mental, physical and emotional extremes.”

When not adventure racing, cycle touring or out in the outdoors training she manages the girlsontop.co.nz website and helps organise fortnightly runs around Auckland. Her passion for being in the outdoors is infectious.

Debbie is based in Auckland and works for Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development where her job is to promote Auckland as a study destination for International students


Anne Lowerson - Team Navigator



Anne Lowerson



Anne has always been active and loves getting into the outdoors. She has cycle toured through Asia and many parts of Australia; hiked in Nepal, North India, Australia and New Zealand; and done a number of kayak camping trips in New Zealand and Australia. What a great way to see the world !!

In 2000 she discovered adventure racing after competing in the Aqua Terra adventure race in Auckland. She was immediately hooked as it combined all the sports she loved as well as her other passion of orienteering. Ten years on she has competed in numerous adventure races ranging from 12 hours to 7 days both in New Zealand and Australia. She is addicted to expedition length races and thrives on the unknown element of adventure racing. "Adventure racing is like a box of chocolates - you never know where you are going or what you a going to be doing until you get there." This will be her fifth XPD.

When she is not exploring and adventuring Anne is the Assistant Director of Studies at an English Language School.

Ally Davey - Team Strategist - GOT founder



Ally Davey



Passionate for the outdoors and everything about it Ally founded Girls on Top to inspire other ladies to experience the outdoors. She has a grown to love high mountains after following her team mates up every high hill they could find... After a short one year stay in Australia and experiencing spider webs big enough to bounce her back when she ran into them on the track and managing to advert being eaten by great whites in the Sydney habour she moved to Germany to the land of Bratwurst and Beer.





She combines her love of mountain biking and paddling through the Alps and has learnt to appreciate what a real mountain is. Her goal is to continue to aspire other ladies to step outside their comfort zone and try a new adventure. She is excited to race the XPD world championships after many years of racing with the two best friends she started the sport with, a friendship that has endured the good times and the bad and like a MacPac jacket still continues to provide protection in the toughest of elements.



Craig Stevens



Craig Stevens - Token male in the team, packhorse, yes man, everything man…

Father of 2, Builder by trade

Making his comeback into adventure racing with Team Macpac Girls on Top after having (forced) time out with young family for the last 5+ years.



Over the past 10-15 years Craig has raced in competitively in a number of teams, quite often winning or finishing in the top 5-10 teams. He has raced internationally in Borneo, Brazil, Abu Dahbi, Australia & USA, not to mention all the fantastic events in NZ including Southern Traverse, Mizone Length of NZ Race, Coast to Coast, Arrow International 24hr Race Series, ARC events, Tongariro Mountain Classic, Crazy Man… the list goes on.

Seems to be that the longer and harder the event, the more he enjoys it!





Team Macpac GOT get out and about at the first of the Lactic Turkey Rogaine series events.

Last weekend Team Macpac GOT took on the challenge of a three hour rogaine at Auckland’s Riverhead forest. Having been off training for a month with the flu we were unsure how we would go at this event. However, we knew that with legendary navigator, Marquita Gelderman in our team our navigation would be spot on. At nine am we were given our maps and we spent the next hour in the car debating the possible route choices and options. My simplistic approach is simply to join the dots and keep travelling in one direction until it looks like time might be running out and then heading for the finish at high speed hoping to get there before the cut-off. Marquita and Anne however are far more strategic and measured and the conversation involved lots of talk of “clusters of high points” “elevation gain and drop” “out and back distances” “ease of running on well formed tracks versus small boggy ones” “escape routes” etc etc. Finally, after much discussion and evaluation and re-evaluation (which is hard for someone like me with a concentration span of a five year old) we decided on a route and a drew pretty little highlighted lines all over our maps to show our intended route. At 10am Shaun counted us down and we were off with people heading out into the forest in all directions. In these events it is always key to focus on your own map and direction and not worry what others are doing and that is exactly what we did. The three of us kept together and communicated clearly about where we were heading what, was coming up to look out for and what the clue of the next control was. This kept us all on our toes and aware of what we were looking for once we got to the control. With these events everyone has a map so it was a cool experience for me to see how both Marquita and Anne think through the details on the map and keep tabs on where they are at all times. We made good progress and no mistakes over the first part of the course but at the half way time call we realised our initial plans were extremely optimistic and that there was no way we were going to get all the controls we were hoping to get. From this point on we were constantly re-evaluating our choices and adapting our route to ensure we would get back to the finish line within the three hour time limit. In these events you get penalised 20 points for every minute over the three hours. It is amazing how quickly the last couple of hours goes – before we knew it we were sprinting to the finish – we arrived with 6 minutes to spare, covered in mud and happy with our efforts. What a great day out

For results check out http://www.lacticturkey.co.nz/RogaineRiverheadResults2011Overall.pdf

Team Macpac GOT named to take on the XPD 2011 Adventure racing World Champs

After a lot of angst and decision making we have finally decided on our team to take on the XPD World Champs Adventure Race in Tasmania in late October this year. We have chosen a team based on long standing friendships and adventure racing experience. The team members are: Debbie Chambers team captain and chief bottle washer; Anne Lowerson team navigator and homeing pigeon specialist; Ally Davey team strategist and doctor in charge of all things bad; Craig Stevens team navigator, team pack horse, team joke teller and bar boy.

The Girls on Top adventure racing team had its first expedition race outing in the XPD Tasmania in 2006 as a mixed team with Debbie, Anne and Ally taking part so we feel it is appropriate and fitting that we have our last GOT expedition race outing as a mixed team in Tasmania in 2011.

This team will be usig the Geo Quest Aussie on June 11,12 as a build up to the XPD so check us out and see how we get on at www.geoquest.com.au