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Mystery Checkpoints, Solo Race, Gorgeous Course

Corey Rosen / 13.04.2006

After a long day of check-ins and gear checks, the competitors departed San Jose for the startline at 10pm Tuesday. With a long bumpy drive through the back roads of Costa Rica, we arrived at Lake Arenal, the start of the race, at 2am. Sleep was not a luxury afforded to the participants on this bus ride. With the final race briefing scheduled at 4am, some racers took this short time to catch some shut eye. Some of the participants were too wired or excited to sleep. This added to the already 18 hours most of them had been awake.

Before the race briefing, I talked to Jenny Vitale, a first time adventure racer, about why she decided to do this solo race as her first attempt at the sport. She told me,\"Every year, Jenny has a wild hare up her butt, and this year this happens to be it.\"

At the race briefing, everyone was given slightly more detail than before, still though, there was not enough information to diseminate a strategy for the entire race, or even a small section of it. As the kayaks arrived, participants set up their boats for the 22km paddle. At 6am, one hour later than anticipated, racers made their way across the lake to the startline on an eight man boat. After three trips across, the racers were ready. At 6:30am on Wednesday morning, the First Annual Costa Rican Solo Adventure Race was underway with a 300 meter swim across Lake Arenal to the competitors waiting kayaks.

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