Patagonia Expedition Race
Biking and running through the snow
Jacqueline Windh / 25.06.2006
It’s been a tough 24 hours for everyone. We left Perales Ranch by boat at 2pm, for the long bus/ferry/bus ride to the southern part of Chilean Tierra del Fuego. We are just north of Almirantazgo Sound, in a huge wilderness area that was recently donated to the environmental organization WCS and that is in the process of being turned into a private park. We drove through the night on icy roads to get here, the passenger vans arriving somewhere around 3 am – but we had to wait until 4:30am for the truck with all of our camping gear to arrive. Race organizers kindly did not force everyone to set up camp at that point, and everyone crashed around the woodstove on the floor of the WCS outpost.Our late arrival delayed the start of racing today. We slept until sunrise, 9:00am, and the start today was at 11:00am. Since sunset is at 4:30, this meant that at least some teams would be racing into the night, but at least they would have slept some before setting out.
Today’s course was 23 km bike, 18 km trek and 23 km bike – the longest day so far. The morning dawned beautiful – clear blue sky and no wind (conditions that continued throughout the day) – but cold. Ice crystals glistened in the slanted light. Today’s maximum temperature was probably about –5 degrees C.
The bike rides, along snow-covered gravel roads, were at times slippery. The two teams who fought for the finish yesterday pushed each other hard again today. From the press van, I witnessed a bad crash that took three of their four racers out. But by the end of the section, AL AIRE LIBRE/URUGUAY had managed to edge out GNC by just over two minutes. They also made an extremely fast transition, and took off running through the snow towards Lago Blanco. When I saw them again, in later parts of the trek, both Verónica and Ruben were strong and fast, running the whole way, and pulling further and further ahead of GNC and TURISMO RUNNER ROCKFORD, who by then were travelling together, walking at times.
Verónica and Ruben arrived in at the end of the second bike section at 4:20pm, just after sunset. They were both grinning and looking strong... cold but not too cold. These two do not eat while racing! I have been asking them about nutrition. Today they were out for 5 ½ hours, and actually each had a PowerGel, but generally they don’t eat at all on course. Ruben tells me that that is what really makes a strong racer – getting your body accustomed to burning your fat as you go, rather than trying to ingest foods.
GNC arrived in 14 minutes later, and Diego was really suffering. He had taken a bad fall and his gloves had got wet, so he came in with severely chilled hands and feet. TURISMO RUNNER ROCKFORD showed up another 9 minutes after. Team QUETRO, the seventeen-year-olds from Punta Arenas (BenjamÃn and JoaquÃn), are doing great! Everyone in the organizing crew is looking out for them, but they actually don’t need our help. They are really well prepared and are doing incredibly well, finishing every section in fourth or fifth place. They tell me that they have trained a lot (and you can see that, especially on the runs), but that they really didn’t know what it would be like – so they are very pleased with their progress so far. They were fifth today, and are currently fourth overall. Remember these boys – we will be seeing more of them!
As I write, the last team has just arrived in, at 6:45pm – a long cold day. Everyone is warming up, and looking forward to getting some food in them (me included). Apparently there is some government crew with an internet connection 25 km from here, so I am going to try my luck at uploading today’s report and photos.
Standings and times overall so far (Day 4 of 6) are:
1. AL AIRE LIBRE/URUGUAY 14:55:41
2. TURISMO RUNNER ROCKFORD 15:24:02
3. GNC 15:28:42
4. TUTRAVESIA INDOMITA 17:52:16
5. QUETRO 18:23:05
6. ARMADA DE CHILE 18:58:38
7. INACAP-BUFETE INDUSTRIAL 19:01:24
8. SOIJEN 20:42:53
Tomorrow’s program includes another 40 km of biking through the snow, as well as about 10 km of hiking/snowshoeing. AL AIRE LIBRE/URUGUAY did not bring snowshoes, so they will be hiking through snow that is reported to be about 70 cm deep. We will find out if this turns out to be a wise decision, or whether it costs them the substantial lead that the presently hold.
See All Event Posts
