Raid Gauloises
Lapin Kulta are Hanging In - Underground
Pino / 03.05.2002
It’s the early hours of the morning and the moist, cool air enveloping the jagged limestone foothills of the Thai Nguyen district, resonate to the sound of large collioptres announcing, like angry buzz saws, their amorous intentions. In this spectacular scenery, on a par with anything that Sedona has to offer but in a more verdant register, a foreign timbre lends its jingle to the ambient melody. The sound of creaking harnesses and clinking carabiners pierces the cavernous silence of a vast grotto where the teams are indulging in some subterranean shenanigans under the watchful eye of Guisseppe Minetti.
This morning at 1am, team Lapin Kulta reached an important stage in the fight to stay in the top 10 and in the race. “Ski� Sharpe and Anna McCormack are both suffering with badly blistered feet and even though Anna\'s are worse, she seems to be dealing with the pain a lot better.
However they know that they only have one long 70km trek on their feet left before the end of the race with the other stages being Vietnamese sampan, bike and sea kayak. Here at CP33 they change from hiking to harness for the caving section, then onto their bikes for an 85km section before reaching assistance point 3.
A weary “Ski� Sharpe is eating, changing, packing and tending to his feet in a marvellous display of multi-tasking. After so many days of pushing himself way beyond his limits, its amazing how he can still be upright let alone methodical. Add to the fact that we are all sitting 10 feet away from team Buff, who are taking this opportunity to sleep, our whispering is a sure sign of mental resolve.
I ask “Ski� about the course and his reaction to it: \"The first day’s hike was longer than most adventure races in the UK! Because of the overall length of the race, each stage is much more demanding. We are so pushed to the limit because of the distance, heat and lack of sleep we forget to enjoy our surroundings but the hills have been sapping all our energy.
�The cave we just entered was the size of a cathedral and no matter how tired you are, you have to stop and look�. Anna adds \"The length of the stages have been hard to adjust to. By the end of the race we will have walked 400kms which is very hard on your knees and feet. We really want to finish and we take each stage as it comes\". The rest of the team are looking good and with a flick of their light switches, they disappear into the night.
SleepMonsters
