Coast to Coast Adventure Race
Pozo Azul - Mundo Aventura entering final stage!
Jacqueline Windh / 03.03.2006
This is the first time I have stayed put at any time during this race. I am still on the shores of Lake Arenal – now, in daylight, able to appreciate the fantastic view from here – up on a steep green hillside in the shade, with a cool brisk breeze blowing (well, cool for here...) My rushed decision last night to come here has had only one drawback – the teams who were at that TA last night saw glowing lava flowing down the sides of the volcano!
We’ve seen three teams pass through here today, finishing the 25 km kayak section on Lake Arenal and heading out on the 48 km hike: BATTERY (CR), WHICKED NEARA/NEMO, and ROCK N’ROAD CYCLE. Race Director tells me that this hike is much denser jungle than the jungle hike that I did with ROCK N’ROAD CYCLE two days ago, and that it will be a real challenge for any teams passing through at night. I also have news of all of the other teams that are further ahead and behind where I am stationed.
Here are updates, in order of teams’ current placing:
POZO AZUL – MUNDO AVENTURA (CR) is in the lead. They passed through “Pablito’s house�, a way-point about 22 km into the hike, at about 7:00 this morning. Mike tells me that they are all looking powerful, and it seems that there strategy from now on seems to be just not to sleep and to get this race in the bag. They still definitely face a challenge from AVENTURAS DE SARAPIQUI, who are hot on their heels, and who were even ahead of them for a short while today. POZO AZUL headed out on the hike yesterday evening, about four hours agead of SARAPIQUI. They stopped to sleep at some point, but slept right on the trail so that they would wake up when SARAPIQUI came through – POZO AZUL got right up and started marching, and soon passed SARAPIQUI. This is the first adventure race ever for Marcela Madrigal, and apparently she is loving it and the guys are loving her.
NEWS JUST IN: they just finished the trek, around 5:30 – they have only the final 175 km ride (finishing with a few kilometre’s beachwalk) to go!
SARAPIQUI (CR) is in second place right now. They arrived at “Pablito’s house� about 15 minutes behind POZO AZUL - but they stopped to rest while POZO AZUL continued on. When I talked to SARAPIQUI yesterday, they seemed pretty confident that they would catch POZO AZUL on the kayak and trek, but they acknowledged that POZO AZUL is a stronger team in the mountain bike section. POZO AZUL have been going with very little sleep – if they can keep up the pace, they should win this race. However, I saw yesterday that SARAPIQUI are strong, determined and working well together – they still have a chance of catching the leaders and take first place.
BATTERY (CR) are probably something like 12 hours behind the two lead teams. They seem in good spirits, but they are definitely looking a lot more tired that the leaders. They took a long time on this kayak section – they said that they were getting blown around so much in the dark that they had trouble finding waypoint box WP13 - this is the box that is on a pole on a submerged island, and very hard to find at night. They finally had to go to shore and wait for light to continue. Cintia is clearly in a lot of pain, with extremely bad blisters on her feet, and when they left here this morning to start the trek she was not walking very well. I hope they manage all right on the demanding trek – they are probably in the worst part of the jungle now, and it will be dark within an hour.
WHICKED NEARA/NEMO (USA) arrived here at 11:00 this morning. Three of the team members are struggling with very bad blisters on their feet, but they are all in incredibly great spirits. Aside from the foot pain, they look strong. “We are not out here to win,� said Mike. “For Jenny and me, this is our first long race. We just want to finish and to have fun�. I walked the first kilometer of the trek with them, and Dave was obviously not fearing the trek, as he found a cool volcanic rock and threw it into his pack. Dave used toe socks, which saved him from the blisters that are plaguing his team-mates.
ROCK N’ROAD CYCLE (USA) came through here a few hours later. They are doing fine – definitely looking a bit more tired than last time I saw them, though. Mary has a swollen wrist from the first kayak paddle, so she didn’t paddle much of this section at all. The guys said they encountered a lot of wind on the lake paddle today – sitting here above the lake I have felt the wind come and go all day. They loaded up on Bill’s vaccuum-sealed treats from home (cookies and bagels with all the air sucked out of them, so they have the texture of hockey pucks) and headed out on the trail.
CARIBE (CR) arrived in to TA3 last night, from the first long hike. The word that I have received is that they headed out on the Stage 4 bike section somewhere around midnight. I also hear that they are in great spirits, arriving at each PC with cheers and smiles. We have no word on them after that, but I would guess that they would have arrived at TA4, below Arenal Volcano, some time this morning, and are probably on the water now – so I expect to see them here within the next few hours. Hopefully they make it to the waypoint box WP13 before dark –the box on the submerged island that is very hard to find at night – or we might not see them until tomorrow morning.
THE GOPPERS (ENG) and TEAM TOW (USA) were travelling together on the Stage 2 hike, and left TA3 for the Stage 4 bike ride, 130 km, together at 8:40 this morning. We have no further information on them right now. They should have made it to TA4, at the Arenal Volcano, by now, but I doubt that they will be able to get on the water before dark. So we will see if they choose to paddle in the dark, or if the sleep now and get on the water first thing in the morning. (Race Director tells me that that would be a bad idea, because that would force them to then do the jungle trek in the dark).
SleepMonsters
