---

Racing for the dark zone

Susan McKenzie / 03.08.2004

As the nine pm cut-off for the first paddling section drew near, those teams within reach of CP7, the end of the section, were making fast work at pushing through the cold sea. If they could not reach CP7 by 9pm, they would have to pull over to the shore and stay off the water until 4:45am – losing almost eight hours to those teams who did make it. If they did not stop paddling, they could face disqualification



The Kiwis of Bridgedale arrived shortly before 7pm, pushing for a top ten finish. Simon River Sports, the Canadian team sponsored by a paddling company, pulled out of its kayaks around 7:30pm, followed by Team Maybe from Sweden and then, just three minutes before the dark zone was enforced, Team Sierra International from New Zealand.



Simon River Sports took advantage of its early-ish arrival to order hot food and soup – two cheeseburgers and a hearty bowl of chicken and rice soup.



“That trek was terrible,� says Alain Beaudry of Simon River Sports. “Last time we were here (for Raid the North Extreme in 2001), we were trekking through the tuckamore. This year we’ve replaced the hard tuckamore with rocks.�



“We were so happy to see the rocks,� adds Benoit Tremblay. “We thought, ‘Ah, rocks, good. But then there were rocks and rocks and rocks and we kept twisting our knees and ankles and it was horrible.



“Plus, it was so wide open, so we would look ahead and there would be a team up there, and a team behind, we could just see dots of teams all along the trek, � says Beaudry.



“Hey, but we were leading for a bit,� says Tremblay with a laugh. “At one point we were up there with Nike, and we were feeling great. But then everyone else caught up and ran right past us.�



“The paddling was fantastic, though.� Beaudry. “It was great to be out there, the swells were just fantastic and we were just looking at all the little towns up and down the coast.�



Team Maybe from Sweden was planning to spend several hours at the CP7. Asa Eklund, who hadn’t eaten since the start of the race, has spent much of the race ill and out of sorts, so the team elected to stay in the warm shelter provided, and allow her some time to recover.



Sierra International from New Zealand has leaped from last place to eleventh place. Swimming isn’t exactly the team’s strong suit, so starting the race with that discipline wasn’t great for them.



“We really can’t swim,� says Julian Minehan. “We were much happier once we got onto the trek. It was tough at night, though, when the fog rolled in. We just decided at one point to stop and rest and re-start at daylight. We were able to see so much better then. When we arrived at the kayak put in we were so disappointed to learn we were back down to 33rd place after going up to 23rd. But then we got on the water and we passed a few teams, then a few more and we thought, ‘All right, this is good.�



Sierra International is possibly the only team at this race that has adopted office attire as adventure racing attire.



“Yeah, I’ve raced in white dress shirts for a while now,� says Ian Edmonds. “Now I’ve converted the whole team to them. Cotton is really cool, and especially out on the water when it’s hot like today, it’s white so it keeps you cool and doesn’t absorb the sun.�

“Plus you can put the collar up on the shirt to protect your neck,� adds Julian Minehan.



Perhaps it was the formalwear that helped Edmonds finagle a hot meal for the team. The kitchen of the restaurant at the CP closed at 9pm, but the Kiwi accent convinced the chef to cook up burgers and chips for the team.



EADS wasn’t so lucky with the hot food, but it was very lucky with another 9pm closing.

It took a gamble and stayed on the water past 9pm, paddling into the CP at 9:11pm.



It was a risky move, and it paid off. Racecourse designer Lawrence Foster and AR World Series director Geoff Hunt decided not to disqualify the team but rather give it a penalty of 150 minutes.



“This is a fair penalty,� EADS captain Bruno Rey tells Hunt. “This is still better than pulling over just ten minutes from the end of the paddle.�



The team members were shivering as they huddled next to their gearboxes, digging through for bike shoes and warm clothes as the mosquitoes and “nippers’ (tiny, invisible biters) swarmed around their heads.



“This has been a very tough race so far,� says Stephane Toussaint. “Very hard and very fast and very different from last year when we won.�



Adventure race or not, Toussaint’s food bag clearly marks him as French. Not for him Pringles and Ramen Noodles and cold pizza: he travels with waffles and Nutella and Saucisse de Berger (shepherd’s sausage). And for dessert: Prince Michel chocolate biscuits.



“Of course, this is good food,� says the elementary school teacher.

See All Stories On This Race