Away with the Fairy Bells race for the Swinging Sixties
PENNY Hearn, John Harders and Rosemary Longstaff proved age is all in your mind, and definitely not in your body when they claimed third place in the Fairy Bells Adventure Race.
Penny, 60, John 63, and Rosemary, 61, formed a team, the Swinging Sixties, for the 24-hour adventure race near the Glasshouse Mountains and finished the run, ride and paddle event in a swift 21 hours.
"Not bad for our age," Rosemary said.
Their adventure provided plenty of challenges, a surprise or two and some stormy weather.
"Near the start, whilst just walking along, John's glasses suddenly broke at their bridge and he had to complete the race with only one good eye," she said.
In the finishing few hours the trio were forced to don thermals and jackets to cope with intermittent fits of icy rain.
And the middle will be remembered for a navigation error.
"We'd taken the wrong track on the second mountain bike ride in the early hours of the morning." Rosemary said.
"And as the race progressed, more and more we had to get off the bikes and walk up the steeper hills.
It was hard to even raise our leg to get back on our bikes."
OLD RUNNERS
Rosemary has been involved in sport in various forms, including running, orienteering, squash, tennis and skiing, all her life, and was the national women's marathon champion in 1981. She ran her first triathlon at Caloundra in February.
John comes from a swimming background but got into long distance, cross-country racing that involves navigation about 20 years ago.
He also competes in triathlons. Penny, who Rosemary describes as "the all-rounder of the team", is a triathlete, rogainer, and outrigger canoeist.
The three met through Coast competitions and decided to form their own team, the Swinging Sixties, for Fairy Bells.
