Ecomotion/Pro
Day 3 - The “Make or Break� Trek
Louise Foulkes (ARWS) / 14.08.2013
Firstly, Columbia Vidaraid are looking extremely strong. They arrived at PC 21 yesterday afternoon. They had not slept at all to that point and admitted that they were in a daze and not able to make good decisions. They needed a sleep to “recharge” their bodies and minds. On saying that they thought that they had done very well so far and had made no significant navigation errors. They believed that the teams behind them would struggle because the navigation was very, very hard.
As a bystander it is hard to understand why, looking purely at the race maps. Even though it is 1:100,000 and 40m contours, there are clear natural features. No doubt teams, particularly those strong with navigating felt the same way when starting the trek.
The reasons for the problems become easier to understand after talking to the Race Director. Apparently this area only become a State Park 2 years ago. There has never been a map of the area. The only maps that were available were owned by the military. These were classified documents and had never been released to anyone. Much to the excitement of the local ranger and farmers in the area, Ecomotion has managed to get a hold of these and has updated them for the race.
The other big problem for navigating is that when teams are out there, they cannot see the surrounding features clearly as they are moving through some of the thickest Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil.
Columbia Vidaraid decided to sleep well away from the busy transitions. When they woke up and arrived to check out, they were literally swamped with media and village people. Barbara Bomfin was obviously the designated spokes person while the 3 men in the team spent time looking at the map, avoiding eye contact with the crowd surrounding them. At exactly 3pm, the team left the TA running very quickly (perhaps to escape the media).
When Equipe BMS arrived they looked completely destroyed. They had found the trek very difficult to navigate. They got very lost between CP 18 and 19. There searched for CP19 for 6 hours before returning to CP18 and trying again. They chose to sleep for 6 hours in this transition.
Seagate were next. They looked quite good. They said they had 5 hours sleep on the previous bike leg after they became very lost in the middle of the night. This meant that during the trek they moved quite slowly as they were fixated on the map, carefully stopping to check every twist and turn. It did mean they didn’t make any significant errors in the trek. They said they have found it hard not being able to speak the language and ask for directions from local villagers. They stayed in the TA for only 2 to 3 hours.
BMS and Seagate left together. From the look of the tracking this morning they have sped up considerably and put a lot of time into Columbia Vidaraid. Seagate will no doubt be hoping that their strength in the kayaking will play in their favour as there are some big paddling legs coming up.
Perhaps the most interesting news amongst the lead teams is that by far the team in the best condition to arrive at CP21 was Brazilian favourite, QuasarLontra. They ran in to the TA happily chatting and laughing. The fatigue and strain that was evident in the other lead team’s faces was not present. This team would be worth watching and are by no way out of the race.
The first “cut” in the course was implemented at 2am last night. Any team arriving at CP 21 after this time will now trek directly to CP34, cutting off another 15hrs of trekking (Columbia’s time) and a difficult 80km mountain bike. This cut will bring the very spread out course back together. It does mean that only 5 to 6 teams are still racing on the full course.
At the back and middle of the pack the attrition has started. There have been no medical emergencies. The worst was that a member from team Competition Aroira fell off his bike and was taken to hospital with a suspect broken rib. Team China are also out of the race. Apparently one of the team members feet are extremely blistered. The entire sole is loose.
As teams start to emerge from the long trek there will be a lot of stories! There will be many stories told about this trek by teams for many years to come.
SleepMonsters
