Maya Mountain Challenge
Strategy on Day 1 of the 2018 MMAC
Press Release / 26.02.2018
As racers prepared for the MMAC, they likely all had a similar strategy in mind. This race includes two dark zones – a short one at TA4 where the first teams were expected to arrive at 3am and would be held until 5am, and a longer one on Leg 9 where the first teams were expected to be just pushing the cutoff time of 1pm on Tuesday or be held until 3am on Wednesday.
The strategy here would be to push to beat the cutoff at TA4 and bank as much sleep as possible, then attempt to complete the rest of the race without sleeping (~15hrs racing, ~2 hrs sleeping, ~38hrs of racing). Everyone anxiously waited to see how the race would unfold and whether this strategy would be realized.
Teams started in the bustling town of San Ignacio where there was a quick run to the canoes and lots of jostling for position as racers scrambled into the water. Naturex, Bones, and Agde Raid Adventure quickly established a lead but another group of teams (Tubaina, Good’nuff DSN74, AdeoRun, and Powerbar Swiss Explorer) remained in hot pursuit all the way to TA1. The high water from recent rainfall proved very beneficial for paddling times. The first seven teams completed the paddle in under 4 hours, and all the teams were off the 22-mile paddle and into TA 1 by 4:45pm.
Following a quick transition sponsored by Crystal Water, the teams set out on bike for Leg 2. Leg 2 was a ~37 mile bike ride through the local villages of Spanish Lookout and Santa Familia, two beautiful farming communities featuring some nice rolling hills. Mostly hard pack and gravel roads but the racers will climb into a nearby jungle to visit a stunning sink hole just kilometers from town. Teams were permitted to get points in any order and it seemed like there was a good split on choice. Shortly after leaving TA 2, Powerbar Swiss Explorer apparently experienced a collision between 2 team members with Susan suffering a pretty nasty fall. She picked herself up and continued on but obviously in some pain.
Although the beginning of the loop permitted fast travel on the bikes, travel between CP 2 and CP 3 required the use of a jungle road that was muddy from the recent rainfalls and slowed the pace considerably. After the jungle road, most teams opted not to try the trail that connected the road to/from CP 2 to the road to/from CP 3 for fear that it would be poor conditions, and instead opted to take the longer road around and back.
In the end, it was Bones that bested the group and arrived into TA 2 about 15 min ahead of Naturex with the other pursuers Agde Raid Adventure, Tubaina, Good’nuff DSN74, and AdeoRun in close pursuit. Although this time with bikes in the canoes, the second paddle leg (Leg 3) proved to be just as quick as the first, and Bones was able to maintain their lead over the group.
There was little change in the pursuit pack as they all flowed in in what is becoming regular fashion. For Powerbar, although Susan continued onto the paddle with sore ribs and a sore hip, their bad luck seems to have continued. Somewhere along the paddle, they accidentally capsized their boat, losing the craft. All have said they are ok and a team is headed out to pick them up.
Leg 4 featured a pretty quick bike through more farmland on gravel roads to TA 4 where Bones managed to arrive about 30 min ahead of our predicted schedule at 2:30am and allowing them to bank a little over an hour of sleep after they transition to prepare for Leg 5. Naturex came in still about 15 min behind but are tending to have quicker transitions so probably got the same amount of sleep as Bones. Good’nuff DSN74 finally managed to break away from the pursuit group, gaining a position and coming into TA 4 third. With only about 50 min until 5am, they opted to just eat and transition without sleeping. AdeoRun also came in shortly before 5am and are transitioning out as well.
As day breaks on Day 2, the teams are now headed for the feature leg of the MMAC where they will trek to a rappel in a 400+ foot sink hole and travel to the mouth of an enormous cave before emerging from the sink hole via ladder. They will then continue on foot to the mouth of a seven mile cave system where they will “swim” the river that runs through it.
There are no rules for equipment on this section and it looks like most racers opted to bring inflatables with either hand paddles or fins that will allow them to quickly jump into and out of the water when it is shallow enough for them to walk/jog. The leg finished with a 14km jungle trek through the beautiful 5 Blues Wilderness Area named for the lake racers will visit that features water of 5 different shades of blue.
There is still much racing to be done!
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