China\'s Wulong Mountain Quest 2007
Team Sole's TRULY final report
Karen Lundgren / 30.08.2007
It was a bit of a rush on the last night after the final race day, packing gear, awards ceremony, etc so we didn't have much time to comment on the most exciting and beautiful day of the entire race. The last day was scheduled to take 7 plus hours, but it was nicely broken up into many disciplines with lots of transitions so we thought it would be a good day for Team SOLE.
We started with a 7-km biathlon (2 runners and 2 bikers). Paul and I started on the bikes and Sully and Chad set off running. After a couple of bike exchanges the road was so steep that the bikers stopped catching the runners. 1000' climb from the start in subtropical heat. Not a person was peeping a word, instead breathing 60 times a minute. It was a tough climb with running shoes on our small Crank Brothers pedals. Chad and Sully once again hung tough and ran the big climb. We made it over the top of the climb and continued the standard bike/run exchange to the next Adventure Skill.
This time each team was given 4 standard inner tubes (car size and filled with air) 2 boards and a handful of rope. We were intended to build a raft and paddle it 1-km to the checkpoint. We were 5th on the water and it was quite a funny site with teams laying on their tubes all in a line with heads to butts. We spend the 30 minutes side by side, with the Finland team on our left, and French on our right...exchanging hilarious comments on these activities.
The chat was over soon, as we'd be on kayaks for the next hour...There is no keep to grab, so we just rip two double kayaks off the pile, drag them down the steep mud hill and jump into them without so much as a pause.
SleepMonsters
