Adventure Race Slovenia
A Marshal in Slovenia
Steve Jones / 15.07.2003
Being a complete newcomer to AR, I figured that the best way to educate myself would be to volunteer as a marshal at a major event. So surfing around on SleepMonsters.com I soon found details of Adventure Race Slovenia. I made e-mail contact with the organisers, and received an immediate and enthusiastic response. A couple more enquiries, speedily dealt with, and I was on my way!Searching out a cheapy with Czech airlines (who provided excellent service), I flew out to Ljubljana via Prague two days before the race. On arrival in Slovenia, I soon meet up with the SleepMonsters team who were acclimatising outside the airport bar. Fiona, Ski, Dave and Howard made me feel very welcome, as did our two Slovenian colleagues who had come to collect us and the teams gear, and drive us the hour or so to the event base camp in Valenje. A nice token on behalf of the organisers.
Arriving at the beautiful lakeside camp, surrounded on all sides by misty mountains, we were shown to our plot, and the team were issued with three very large tents for themselves and their gear. Looking across the site to our neighbours, we could be forgiven for thinking that we had landed on the set of a M:A:S:H re-make. The Slovenian army team were fully entrenched in one corner, complete with 4WD jeep, truck and an enormous inflatable tent. All that was missing was Hot-Lips. That was until Hot-Bot the female member of the team came out of the tent!! It was then that Ski decided that if the Slovenians won the race, he would happily settle for a very close second place!
After re-assembling the bikes, the guys voted to cycle into town to furnish supplies, and find somewhere to eat. It would also serve as a trial run for the bikes to make sure all was ok. I had no choice but to run into town, and so I set off ahead of the others. A few minutes later I heard a loud Psssstt! behind me, and Dave Hooper had got a pinch-flat in the rear tube due to a split tyre. Annoying maybe, but better now than in the first kilometres of racing.
After a swift repair job, we continued on to do some shopping in the town, where a quick stop at the local bike shop had the staff drooling over the team’s Marin, Scott, Trek and Klein machinery. On the way back to the camp, we stopped off at a roadside cafe/bar, and discovered monster Desperate Dan type burgers, and large green bottles of beer with the picture of a goat on the label.
Back at the camp-site we were informed that the pre-race briefing was taking place back in the town, but that was no problem because we we soon taken down by car. I found the briefing (in Slovenian and English) very informative, and a good insight into how the most experienced teams were thinking. At the end of the meeting, we travelled back to the camp site restaurant, for a sweet surprise. Someone suggested that it may be Dave Hooper doing a table dance, but in fact it was a rather delicious plate of apple pie and ice-cream. Ski was delighted to wash it all down with a bottle of Radler before going back to the tents for some kip.See All Event Posts
