2004 Adventure Racing World Championship, hosted by Raid the North Extreme
The Pack at the Back
Susan McKenzie / 05.08.2004
A gear box is closed, then re-opened, then closed again. Sunscreen is misplaced. Shoes are added to a pack, and then removed. The Americans are tired, and their bodies are responding accordingly. Their humour, though, remains intact throughout the entire long transition (more than two hours from arrival to departure, double the time taken by the lead teams).
“We’re slow, slow, slow,� says Tim Reif as he packs up his gear. “We’re not getting lost or anything, we’re just moving slowly. And we haven’t gotten lost either. We’ve made some wrong route choices that slowed us down, but we didn’t get lost. That first trek, in the water, at that speed, that was really hard for us�
“When we’re moving, I think we’re keeping race pace,� says Ellen Stein. “It’s just that when we stop, we take forever.�
Wachovia Services isn’t in last place, but they are in the bottom quarter of the field.
“It’s so hard to keep going when you know teams have already crossed the finish line,� says Stein. “I’m so used to being competitive when I race, but here I feel like I’m just a tourist. I love it, though. When I heard the World Champs were going to be in Newfoundland I knew we had to come.�
Wachovia’s feet are suffering. Andreas Halvorsen’s feet are in rough shape, and Reif finally removes his shoes for the short zip across the outer edge of Serpentine Lake. Teams were supposed to leave here and make their way to the ropes section, which included an ascent and a rappel, but safety concerns have forced the cancellation of the ascent and teams must now hike around the mountain to the rappel.
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