Huairasinchi - The 2014 Adventure Racing World Championships
An Ecuadorian Experience with Team Finalin
Becky Law (Finalin/Bivouac Colts) / 10.12.2014
If you would have asked me this time last year after World Champs in Costa Rica if I’d race in Ecuador at the World Champs, the answer would have absolutely been “No Way”, it’s too far away and the high altitude is impossible to train for here in New Zealand and the other main reason: cost. We just can’t afford it as a team this year
Two months ago the answer would have still been a solid “NO”.
Five weeks before the start of the world champs ago I got a facebook message from Paul, a young Ecuadorian adventure racer saying that someone has recommended me as a strong female racer and would I be interested in coming and joining his Team Finalin at the World Champs. I was so taken aback that anyone even knew who I was and that someone would recommend me that I forgot about the distance and the altitude and figured this was an opportunity that I could not pass up.
So, there I was a few hours later on the phone to the travel agent, flights book and paid, leave from work granted now all I had to do was prepare. Luckily I had been training for Coast to Coast and had a good level of fitness so I wasn’t too concerned about that, it was the altitude that had me worried.
Five weeks went by so quickly and on the 2nd of November at 1:30am I arrived in Quito and was picked up by Paul and Gustavo. My first impressions were they look reasonably fit and strong and THANK GOD they speak English. Something that worried me a little and had been in the back of my mind was why they couldn’t they find a local girl to race with if they were a good team?
I was lucky enough to have arrived a week early which meant I could try and get used to the higher altitude (Quito 2800masl) and we could get to know each other. The boys took me to the Cotopaxi National park (4000masl) for a night and we walked up the world’s largest active volcano to 5300masl. This trip and exercising at this height was really good for my confidence going into the race as I felt reasonably good and didn’t have too many effects of altitude sickness.
The weeks leading into the race the team had a number of media interviews. This was a whole new experience for me, luckily enough I didn’t have to do much talking in front of the camera.
The team is sponsored by a pharmaceutical company Finalin, who were absolutely incredible. The guys were so passionate about supporting this team and would do anything they could to help. It was awesome to see the support they gave the team and the race and I myself. I cannot thank them enough for this.
The race prep and organizing gear boxes took some time compared what I’m used to with Team Bivouac. The order in which we got given our boxes was really easy A, B and Bike in the first half and C, D, Bike and Kayak in the second half. The problem for me was explaining how and where everything for each stage should go in plain English and having the team there all at the same time to pack everything up. The boxes got packed and unpacked several times due to confusion and then again because of the ridiculously small weight limits of only 20kg. After a stressful couple of days we got there in the end.
Race Day 9th November 2014 – ‘Huairasinchi’ this is a word from the native Kichwa language that means “the strength of the wind”. The route passed through three continental regions of Ecuador; Highlands, Amazon and Coast, crossing the equator line 0°.
Two hours from Quito within the Antisana Ecological Reserve was La Mica Lake which was where the race kicked off from at 8.30am. This was located in the eastern area of the Andes highlands and was at 4000m. The landscape was absolutely breathtaking and I don’t just mean that literally. A vast open landscape blanked by tussocks and snow capped volcanoes in the back drop; if it wasn’t for the lack of oxygen I would have felt at home.
There was a buzz of excitement with all the teams and supporters, but as always I was nervous as hell and just wanted to hear that start gun go as I knew that the nerves would soon be long gone.
The gun goes off and teams break into a slow run and quickly spread out. This leg was a 29km mountain run which climbed over a pass at 4500m. I was feeling good but the boys insisted and Nico took my pack. Wow, what a difference that made, we were able to maintain a good pace as we climbed up to the highest point. Nico and Gustavo took turns with my pack for the first half of this leg so I could concentrate on my breathing. The first stage of any race is the one I usually find the hardest, my heart rate sky rockets and I tend to feel really bad, so going into this race I was quite concerned; but I have to say it was by far the best I’ve felt and my favorite leg of the whole race.
The stage ended in a place called Papallacta and we were greeted by a number of cheering spectators in TA. We had a fast transition which was what we had planned and we were out on the bikes ready for a long decent.
Stage 2; A 67km mountain bike from Jamanco to El Chaco
Woohoo! This was an awesome stage with an incredible 1800m descent on roads running alongside rivers. We were feeling good as a team and pushed on this bike and the air was quickly filling with oxygen as we dropped. One issue I had was I lost my water purification pills on the trek and couldn’t risk drinking from taps or streams so we had to stop at a gas station to purchase some bottled water. About 15km from the end we encountered our first taste of mud on a hike through a scrubby bush track. I was thinking to myself ‘Oh no here we go again! Please don’t let this be a repeat of Costa Rica.’ It didn’t last too long and we were into transition just before sunset.
Stage 3; Trek 44km
After another good transition where we were able fuel up on some good hot food and exited TA just on dusk. We tried to push ourselves a little while we were on a gravel road and the terrain was easy. This trek took us along the very famous track known as the El Chaco - Oyacachi trail.
The trail starts in El Chaco at 1500m and follows the Oyacachi River all the way to Oyacachi which is at 3200m. This trail is only one of three natural trails in Ecuador that link the Western and Eastern Sides of the Andes. It was used by indigenous people to travel from the highlands to access the Amazon area for trading potatoes for fish and yucca.
This trail was what you would expect in the Amazon, narrow, technical, very muddy and hard to decipher at times with all the wind fall, landslides and over growth. It was slow going in the dark and got worse when it started to rain. As I found out when it rains here it pours and doesn’t let up. No matter how good your rain gear it doesn’t work and we were soon wet through.
This trek saw us cross many old swing bridges some were so old we needed our harness on to be clipped on as they were missing a number of bits of wood and the ones remaining were completely rotten and were ready to go with one more step. Unfortunately on this leg we were supposed to stay on the right hand side of the river at all times and not follow the main track for a particular part, which we didn’t realize and crossed over. This meant we incurred a 4 hour time penalty, which was served in TA5.
After a long, cold, wet night we emerged from the jungle track onto a gravel road around 8am and although the sun was up it was overcast and still raining. Being out in the open again meant we were subject to the wind that was whistling down the road. This was the first WTF am I doing moments of the race. I had never been so cold in my life, I was past the point of shivering and felt so sick I couldn’t eat anything, all that was running through my head was I can’t stop moving or I’ll freeze to death.
The rest of the team was in the same boat and Gustavo was falling asleep as we walked. The two of us walk hand in hand for about 10km so I could pull him into line every time he tried to close his eyes and drift off track. Our hands were so stiff and cold it was hard to get a good grip. TA3 couldn’t come soon enough.
Here we stripped off; put on dry clothes, had some hot chicken soup and took a 3 hour discharge.
The race rules were set that we had to take a total of 8 hours discharge time in transitions and it was counted in 1 hour blocks, so this was the perfect spot to warm up, refuel and get an hour and half sleep in before the next big mountain bike. This wasn’t the best place to try sleep as it was so noisy with other teams around, it was mid morning and we were quite alert at this time of the day and the concrete floor didn’t offer any comfort.
By this stage the sun had come out and we managed to lay all our gear out to dry while in TA.
Stage 4; 144km Mountain Bike
This ride was up and over the Andes from Oyacachi to San José de Minas. The first 10km of this ride was an 800m ascent biking up to around 4000masl. I was feeling really good but Nico insisted I go on the bike tow so we could push a little, in hindsight we should have realized Gus wasn’t feeling the best and eased off a little so his condition didn’t get worse.
The scenery on this leg was spectacular and again many parts reminded me of home. We rode some good single track, along a rail way line, across farm land following water races and through many little towns with paved roads. It was during this ride we crossed the 0’ degree equator line, and rode into the northern hemisphere. Having team mates that spoke the language was so useful as we could ask for directions and confirm we were on the right track when the maps weren’t very good.
Early on in this ride Gus started to feel bad; he had stomach problems and was feeling extremely weak. The food he was using to fuel his body was just going straight through him. I’m pretty sure he picked up something from the untreated water earlier in the race. We stopped in a small town and saw a couple of teams getting dinner at a little restaurant. I suggested we buy some bottled water for Gustavo to mix with electrolytes and carry on. Paul decided it was a good idea to stop for dinner, I didn’t think this was a smart move as we needed to use our down time discharging in TA’s and we had enough food to see us through this leg. He insisted this stop would only be for 20 minutes. 2 hours later we departed the restaurant after the boys had a full cooked meal and smoothies. I was not impressed at this stage but on the upside we ran into a guy who gave Gus some antibiotic which we were hoping would kick in.
We had another climb ahead of us and were about half way through the stage. At the start of the climb we ran in to Dayne and RT. Their team were going really strong and looked good. It felt a little bit weird seeing them in another team and it was even harder when they kept getting ahead of us. As sun rise arrived we had another break for breakfast at a small store where the local lady couldn’t give me change for $5, it really made me wonder how they manage to run a business but I suppose most people deal in cash and have the correct change.
Again this was another stop I didn’t think was necessary and time was ticking by, but as we were all tired and the language barrier was getting harder it was hard to get a point across about the need to keep stops to a minimum. Paul talked to a local in this town and asked about a good route to the next TA. We were told there was an old track across the mountain which was a shorter route but a little steeper. I think the boys had a heated discussion over whether it was a good idea but we went with it anyway.
It was a narrow single track that was overgrown and our bikes had to be pushed most of the way which made it slow, when we came out on the other side we had a long climb up, up and up. It was at this point Gus had absolutely no energy and had completely hit the wall so I took Paul’s pack and told him to tow Gus. I was feeling really strong so rode to the top of the climb dropped my bike and pack and ran down the hill to help the push Gus to the top. He was extremely stubborn and wouldn’t give me his pack to lighten the load but still had a strong mind and wasn’t going to give in this easily.
We arrived in to TA22 hours after we started this ride to a gear check. The sentence “Can we see your tent” will be a one I will never forget. “I’m sorry you said we only need our tent on the kayak hence why we put it in the kayak bag like we got told when we checked our gear in”. I was so pissed off and the language barrier made it even worse. At the rego I confirmed with 3 staff one which had “Race Director” on his tag that the tent was only needed for the kayak stage and was told to put it in the kayak bag, the guy even came over to our gear and watched us place it into this bag. And now they were asking to see it. My heart sunk, I felt like this was my fault and wondered what sort of penalty this would incur or if we going to be able to continue without a tent. We explained what we had been told and who had said this and were told we would find out later in the race our penalty.
Personally I don’t think it was fair but it had happened and wasn’t worth worrying about. What was most important now was to get Gustavo to the medical team and get sorted for the next stage.
We took another 2h discharge here which in the end blew out to about 2:45. Gus got a couple of IV lines in his arm and a shot of antibiotics. The doc said he would be fine to continue which was a relief. Another attempt to sleep was made; again it was in a noisy room on a concrete floor, at about 10am so I think I managed maybe 30mins.
We were about to head out on another long trek and during the Amazon trek my pack had given me some serious chafing all over my lower back and hips. From what I could see myself one area in particular looked to be getting infected so I asked the medical team to have a closer look and see if there was anything they could put on it to prevent it from getting any worse.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out the reason it was so sore down my spine was not because of the chaffing but because I had 7 long thorns in my skin. I don’t recall rubbing up against any thorny bushes but had slipped over a couple of times in the last trek and must have rubbed up against something then. They didn’t think it was a good idea to pull them out and leave an open wound so they covered my back in an antibiotic cream and sent me on my way.
Stage 5; Trek 45km
We headed out on this leg all feeling pretty good, Gus was still low on energy but in good spirits. We had seen the kiwi boys leave TA about 30mins before us and I knew they would be pushing hard to get away from us. They had been hot on our heels all race and I watched them transition, they were so fast, it made me a little disappointed we weren’t racing as a team, when I got frustrated by our slow transitions.
Paul’s navigation was really good on this stage and we traversed across some farm land and down to a track that took us to the start of our climb. Moments later from behind appeared Dayne and RT, turns out Paul’s route choice was a good short cut. We spent some time with the boys and it was so nice being able to speak normal English, where I didn’t have to slow down my speech and select the words to say, that would be easily understood. We chatted away for some time and when Gus felt good we decided to make a move. I found out later on that my team was trying to listen in to our convocation but had absolutely no idea what we were talking about as far as they were concerned us 3 kiwis were speaking in Chinese.
This leg was a Mountain hike through the Riatadero Del Quinde, from San José de Minas to Meridiano. We had a climb of 1800 metres to a peak next to terrain covered with ridge lines and steep canyons.
At about 5pm, three quarters of the way up the rain started to fall. This was nothing new; this race was all rain, mud and hills. We saw a little house beside the track and took shelter under the porch to stop and put our wet weather gear and headlights on. An old lady came out and Gus started talking to her, he told her what we were doing and asked her about the route we were taking and whether there were any good places along the way we could stop and sleep. As we had no tent we were in need of shelter.
She said that it was a couple more hours to the top then a long muddy trek down for about 12h, and there was nothing from here to the next town. She asked if we wanted to come in and get geared up and even if we wanted to stay till the rain stopped. It was still early and we were still quite alert and sleep wasn’t on the mind at that stage but we decided it was a good idea. Well, what an experience of a life time and something that will never be forgotten or experienced by many. This woman welcomed us into her home, which she had built by hand with her husband over 40 years ago. There was a fire on the floor in the corner of the room, with no chimney and her husband was busy cooking, a large pot on the fire with some sort of food for their 3 pet dogs.
We all gathered around the fire and shared some of our food we had with them and tried to thaw out. It was pouring down with rain outside and there were about 10 guinea pigs running around the room squealing. I have a feeling these weren’t just pets. The woman was a tiny old lady probably in her late 60’s but was absolutely beautiful and so generous. She laid a woven mat down on the floor for us so we curled up and slept for 2 hours. Upon awaking she had a big pot of potato soup cooked for us to share. Soup had never tasted so good. When we finally left about 3 hours after arriving; the rain had eased and we left smelling like smoke but warm, rested and happy.
We got to the top and caught up with the kiwis again, they hadn’t been as lucky as us and had trekked through the worst of the rain gotten completely wet, tried to sleep in a old cowshed and were now freezing cold. We carried on and Nico and I managed to find a small discrete track through some bush which lead to the ridge line we needed to be on to get to the check point. From here the descent was fascinating. We travelled on an ancient drug smugglers route that’s almost been forgotten about. It was famous as lowlanders used it to take alcohol up into the highland villages when it was prohibited.
The trail had been carved 2-3 meters into the ridge that it followed. Due to the rain it was extremely muddy and slippery and at times the vegetation had grown right over the top and it was like we were traveling through tunnels.
Coming into the early hours of the morning I was getting sleepy and it was time to pull out the iPod. This really helped me keep my eyes open and Gus did the same. I don’t know if Paul and Nico appreciated my out of tune singing too much but I wasn’t too concerned. I had to give it up after about an hour for Nico to have a turn as he had been hit with the sleepiness. We were pleased to see the sun come up and get the body clocks reset again but weren’t too happy to learn when we exited the trail it was 10km on a gravel road to the TA. Our knees were all a little sore at this stage from the long downhill so we jogged the flats and walked the up and down hills.
Spirits were high and the team chatted and joked away, to make the time on the boring road pass faster. It was made even better when we met up with the 2nd placed Ecuadorian team who were suffering. As much as I hate seeing another team suffer it unfortunately does give your confidence a boost and makes you want to push harder.
Coming into this next TA we were told we had to take our 4h time penalty for the mistake we made on the Amazon trek. What a bugger, another midday TA and this also meant it was going to be so much harder to make the kayak dark zone. I insisted to the boys before we do anything all our gear needs to be ready and packed to go on the 4h our mark. This was agreed on and again not followed. The boys trotted off to the restaurant for a cooked meal, showered and slept and with 15mins left in the penalty decided it was time to get the gear ready. Another 40mins over time we left. These boys are incredibly strong both physically and mentally but their time management was something they really needed work on.
Stage 6; Mountain Bike 160km. Game Changer
This ride was going to be long and hard but we really wanted to push through it to see if we could make the kayak dark zone. Again the ride was up and down, up and down, up and down. In every ride it felt like there were was much more up than down. It wasn’t the most exciting ride along gravel roads. We had a few mechanical problems. Gustavo lost a screw from a cleat and couldn’t clip in to his pedal but fortunately a kind local managed to fix it up and we carried on. He also broke his chain 6 times and we got one flat tyre.
Again we had to stop at a little store for food, which was quite amusing; we brought bread rolls, cans of tuna and a tomato and proceeded to make sandwiches on the counter in front of the lady who was serving us. I have no idea what she was thinking we were up to, but we didn’t care. It was here Dayne and Ryan caught up to us again and we rode with them for a while. I was talking to them and said it wouldn’t surprise me if they beat us with all the stops we were having. I have a feeling Gustavo must have overheard this and understood what I was saying as he asked me if I wanted to beat them and of course I said” Hell yeah!”
A few words in Spanish to the other two and the paced increased and we soon parted ways with the boys. At around 1am we stopped to fill our bottles and had a 10min power nap before making our way to the checkpoint. It was a long downhill from here and I could feel myself getting tired. The iPod came out again and this time was turned up loud. The downhill was horrible with numerous sleepmonsters warping my vision and making me question what was real and what was not. At one stage I looked up and thought I was racing with my Kiwi team, and on a second glance my team mates were ninja turtles.
We hit a highway which had a number of huge trucks doing road works, it was really dusty and this reflected in our head lights making it hard to see. I came round a corner hit a pile of dirt and lost control and went flying over the handle bars. This was a close call and a realization that I needed to sleep and the boys felt the same way. We got to a small town and found a house on piles with a good area underneath that suited us so at 3am we pulled out the sleeping bags and curled up together for an hour. The sound you don’t want to hear when racing is that dam alarm clock going off after what seems like 5 minutes of putting your head down. It took some time to get Paul up and going but we dragged our sore butts out from under the house and back on the bike.
When we got to the ropes section we saw my kiwi boy’s bikes … Damit!
Here we harnessed up and jumped into the San Dimus River -“Jump of the Tiger”, then continued to a Tyrolean across the river, then onto fixed lines through slippery rocks and finally a parallel rope bridge back across the river to the bikes. Normally something like this would scare the hell out of me but when you’re so tired you don’t really realize what you’re doing you just do it and I enjoyed it.
We pushed on the last bit of the ride to the kayak TA. After days of hiking, biking, hiking, biking, hiking, biking I couldn’t wait to paddle.
Stage 7; River Kayak 69km
We got into TA and the crew there said if we hurried we might just make it through without getting dark zoned. Finally a fast transition, the bikes were packed, gear was sorted and we were away. We even managed to get some hot food. This was the first cooked food I’d eaten from a stall as I don’t have a good stomach was avoiding getting sick, but I was so hungry I couldn’t help myself. Rice and fish what’s the worst that can happen?
We had a 10km walk with all our gear to the river in the blistering heat and seemed like it took a life time. When we made it to the boats the lady told us there’s no way we would make the dark zone.
What a disappointment, we had packed light with no food for the camp and nothing to sleep on because we were told we could make it if we pushed hard. Oh well, we got in the boats and away we went, well that was the plan but with not much paddling experience and terrible boats Gustavo and I were having a few difficulties, I soon realized what was going on and we swapped places so I was in the back to steer the boat and gave him my paddle as his was a flat blade and far too long and hard for him to use.
The river was spectacular with many class two rapids and one big class three one. This was right before we needed to get off the river for the dark zone and the safety guide gave us the option to walk the boat down the side or have a go with the high likelihood of capsizing. Paul and Nico took the easy option of walking the boat, but Gus and I were dead keen to give it a go. We got through the first rapids OK and loved it, both of us really thought we were going to make it, next thing we know we are upside down in a washing machine of white water trying to get to the surface for a breath of air. The guides grabbed our boats and us and pulled us to the side, the two of us were just laughing at each other and how we thought we were doing quite well before we fell out.
We camped the night on the river, again the most uncomfortable sleep ever. The morning couldn’t come soon enough, back in the boats we had one more section of rapids which we fell out on, and I smashed my knee quite badly on a rock.
We finished this paddle and had to carry the bloody heavy boats 1km into TA. My arms were shagged after this as I’d worked a lot harder kayaking than I do when I race with Bivouac as Gustavo wasn’t a strong paddler, but I really enjoyed this section and didn’t want to get back on the bike.
Stage 8; Mountain Bike 42 km
We had planned on pushing on this leg and resting for our last discharge hours in the next TA. Wow, now that we were down in the coastal region the temperatures and humidity were high. I almost felt like I could have gotten heat stroke. - a weird feeling considering only days earlier I had hypothermia. Again this ride had hills, hills and more hills connecting Cole with La Y de Cube. I was still feeling quite strong which I was happy about. We got into TA around lunch time and it was so good to get some ice cold water and another hot meal.
Stage 9: The Mud Trek- 40km
This was a trek through the Mache Chindul Ecological Reserve which connected the Y de Cube with Bocana de Tigua. The Mache Chindul Reserve is one of the last remaining preserved forests on the Ecuadorian Coast line. It had been mentioned that this was going to be the hardest leg of the race and was a jungle filled with deadly snakes.
As there were no good maps for this leg we were allowed to use our GPS. One team had two members pull out and their remaining members asked if they could join us for this leg so we were more than happy to have a couple extras along for the journey. Luckily for us they did come along as our gps decided it didn’t know where it was about 10km in.
The first few km’s were up a gravel road and as it was the Polish guys birthday we thought it was a good time to have a beer to celebrate so, we purchased 2 big bottles from some locals and had a toast to celebrate. As we entered the track we could hear monkeys howling in the bushes but we weren’t lucky enough to see any. The race organizers had said this area was full of snakes so stick to the track. Well it just so happened that the track was a mud hole and every step we took for the next 30km was knee deep or deeper. There were a couple of times when I'd go to pull my leg out and it would come out of the hip joint instead of the hole it was stuck in. It was hard going and even harder when you fell over and got both your arms and legs stuck.
At one point I had to step over a log and was left stuck straddling it as both legs were stuck one on either side. What made the trek even worse was it was night time and it felt like 50 billion little bugs were attracted to your head light but instead of going for the light they ended up flying up your nose and getting stuck alive and wriggling around. It was a constant mind game and another WTF am I doing here moment, for the first time in the race I thought if I cry it may make me feel better. But my Dad’s voice popped into my head at this stage and told me to toughen up Bex there was no need for crying out here. He’s where I get my never give up attitude from and when times get tough I think of him and how determined he is to give whatever he’s doing 110% no matter how bloody hard it is.
When we finally got through the majority of the mud we could see the ocean from a lookout on a high point. I told the boys about how I wanted to cry at one point on that trek and Paul said he had the same thought cross his mind which made me feel a lot better. We only saw 2 snakes during this leg, but there were hundreds of spiders bigger than my hands which I’m sure were poisonous, but again as you are so tired the brain just doesn’t register that fear of them for some reason.
We decided as a team no matter how much someone offered to pay us we would never be returning to that track again and were glad to be into TA.
Coming into TA we were informed we had to sit out 2h time penalty for not taking our tent. Again we tried to dispute this but the officials were not budging and we decided to take the time to sleep and eat before a long paddle and worry about it if any teams caught us on the boats. Paul’s parents were here in this TA and it was so nice to see a familiar face.
Stage 10; Sea Kayak 59km
It’s a great feeling when you get to this stage because it dawns on you that finishing this race is actually possible.
The final challenge was a coastal kayak from Bocana de Tigua to the finish line. This kayak started by heading down a river surrounded by mangroves, then it opened out into a large estuary that ran alongside the coast. We lucked out and had the outgoing tide on our way down the river. Crossing the large estuary was hard into a head wind, with different currents and lots of chop. Again I found myself working a lot harder than normal in the boat and was trying to avoid hitting Gus over the head with my paddle when I fully extended my arm. Gus had a sleep for about 20 minutes at one stage and we made a rule that someone must be paddling at all times otherwise they had to shout beer or ice cream.
I also had the pleasure of listening to Gus singing in Spanish for hours trying to stay awake. Two boats full of the boy’s friend and family and Finalin crew turned up and followed us for a couple of hours which was awesome to see and really boosted the boys spirits. Paul’s navigation was bang on for the first CP. We hit some shallow water as we were looking for the entrance to the canal and I got out to pull the kayak. As I was walking I felt a stinging sensation on my leg and it got worse and worse almost instantly. I started screaming “OUCH, OUCH” and was jumping around trying to get back into the boat. I’d just been stung by jelly fish. Gus had a puzzled look on his face like I have no idea what you’re saying, speak English! “Jellyfish I’ve just been stung” I kept saying. Nope it wasn’t getting through. Paul managed to hear me and translated in Spanish so he understood.
The pain was getting worse and my leg was red and looking swollen. I hadn’t seen the jellyfish so was so worried. I said to the boys “One of you need to pee on my leg right now, I promise I won’t look just pee on my leg please.”. They all looked at me and laughed but wouldn’t do it. All that I could think of was please get me to the finish line now. About 30 minutes later I saw a blue bottle and breathed a sigh of relief, fingers crossed that’s what stung me.
Down the canal we picked up the final CP and headed for the kayak finish. Unfortunately the tide hadn’t come in enough and we had to get out and push the boats a number of times. At some stage down the canal we lost the map with the kayak finish so had to employ a local kid to help us find it. We dropped the boats off and it was about 5km to the finish at Mompiche Beach.
A crew of the boy’s friends ran with us to the beach. One of them said to me, "Bex when you hit the beach there’s half a km to the main street and then a km down the street to the finishing shoot. There will be people all over the beach cheering you on and taking photos and the closer you get to the finish line the more people there will be. Ha-ha yeah right I was thinking I’ve done these races before; no one comes to the finish line.
Well I was in shock when we hit the beach, I couldn’t believe the people, he was right. The experience of that last 2km was one that no words could ever come close to describing. We were hugged, kissed and photographed by so many people and we hadn’t even won the race. We walked down the main street to a crowd of people chanting “Ecuador, Ecuador”. Crossing the finish line in 13th place and 2nd Ecuadorian team was an indescribable feeling and experience with a lot of emotion and joy. 710km 6 and a half days totaling 156hours later we had finished the 2014 Adventure Racing World Champs.
I cannot thank my team of Gustavo, Paul and Nico enough for the incredible week of racing, these men were both incredible physically and mentally stronger than I ever expected. We had a language barrier that many people would struggle with under these conditions and at times especially during the nights it was like I was speaking Chinese to them, but for some reason we understood each other in a different way and got through the race without a single argument. We were still smiling at the finish line and have a special friendship that has been formed in a way that not many people will ever get to experience in their life time.
Thanks so much to the teams sponsor Finalin, without them we couldn’t have achieved this awesome result. And to my sponsors Bivouac Outdoors, Inov-8 shoes, Gloworm headlights, High-5 Nutrition and Ledged Paddles.
Thanks the support we got from all our friends and family and partners who follow us throughout the race and put up with numerous hours training and weekends away.
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