Ecomotion Pro (Brazil)
Running with brazilian team Paradofobia
Luther Papenfus / 15.12.2006
Team Leader: Edilson Cremonese (green)
Competidor2: Rafael Melges (yellow)
Competidor3: Luther Papenfus (blue)
Competidor4: Manuela Vilaseca (red)
From: Brasil - São Paulo ( SP )
Sponsor: Puma
Team Web Site: www.paradofobia.com
Let me start by saying that this was one of the funnest, fastest, hardest, longest and most beautiful races I have done in a long time. I have not raced this hard since I did the Beast of the East back in 2000 with Odyssey legends Ronny Angell and Dale Blankenship. I am still sleeping half the day and eating the other half trying to recover. The Team was Paradofobia (rough translation “The Fear of Standing Still�). It was a Brazilian team of 23-26 year olds who still think they are immortal and me. The pace of the race was phenomenal. The top teams were all the big names, Team Finland, Merrill, Go-lite, Sole, Buff, etc. The field had a lot of depth to it, much better than PQ. At the end of the race, Geoff Hunt announced that Eco Motion would be the 2008 World Championships.
The course was beautiful, like Costa Rica on steroids. A lot of paddling, tandem kayaks, rafts, duckies, solo kayaks. Open ocean at night to islands that were only 25 meters in diameter, to class 3 white water at night. Like Costa Rica, the race director was not there to baby you. You made your way across Brazil with a pocket knife and a lighter.
For those of you who really know me you will be shocked, but I am now sold on full suspension for races over 72 hours. Brutal pounding for hours after hours after hours. We had to stop because our feet hurt from the pounding and our legs and arms were shaking from exertion. Also some of the stuff was unrideable on a hard tail, at least for me, unless I was going much slower and could pick a good line every time. I just had much more energy to put into pedaling vs. the pain I remember from Costa Rica.
Let me start off with a disclaimer and some definitions. All the pre-race instructions and race briefing were in Portuguese. My team had to translate everything to me which was very hard on them, but they did a great job. All the city names, directions and road signs are my best translation attempts.
Definitions:
PC = Passport Control, point where you have to check in when passing thru
AT = Transition Area, sometimes with the support crew present sometimes not
PPO = Mandatory Pass thru Point, not much different from a PC
PO = Mandatory Sleep Site
Virtual PC or PPO = You need to visit an unmanned site to answer a question or check a punch
SleepMonsters
