The AR World Championships - Costa Rica
Team EnduranceLife Favours Fresh Feet
Adam Rose / 30.11.2013
We managed to catch up with Gary Davies, captain of Team Endurancelife, before the team left for Costa Rica. There are four UK teams competing at the event, the others being Team Mountain Hardware, Great Langdale Bunkhouse and Adidas Terrex Prunesco.
How are you feeling now that there is less than a week to go?
I’m very excited and apprehensive at the same time. Work has been really busy in the last few weeks so I’ve not been as prepared as I normally am for expedition races. Getting to the start line with all the right kit will be a challenge in itself!
How has the training gone?
Good but perhaps not the amount of training volume that I would have liked. I normally have the A race mid-year so it’s easy to keep the training volume high between the New Year and then. However this race is at the end of the year and maintaining the training volume high was difficult. I suffered from ITB Syndrome after doing the South Wales Traverse (75 miles, 5000m ascent) in August so I cut back on running volume and increased conditioning work in the gym.
Have you had to make any last minute replacements?
No it’s the same team that we planned back in January 2013. Kevin Stephens was introduced to the Endurancelife squad after his successful 4th place at last year’s Terrex race where he raced with Moxie Racers. Kris Smith, Natalie Taylor and I have raced together several times in multi-day races.
Has anyone in the team competed in Costa Rica before?
No. We haven’t raced in that type of climate either. We’ve done Portugal ARWC 2009, Switzerland APEX 2011, Slovenia 2012 and UntamedNE 2009. All very different to Costa Rica!
What are your expectations of this race, considering the hype that it will be bigger and better than anything before?
I think it’s going to be brutal on our feet. We fully expect our feet to be wet for the majority of the race and foot maintenance is going to be key to successfully finish. I’m excited that the organisers have planned the race to be more like to the old format of EcoChallenge and Raid Gauloises. I’ve watched several of the EcoChallenge Races on YouTube and they look awesome.
What do you expect will be your biggest challenge?
In the first few days I think the main challenge will be to go slower than what we normally do in 4 day races. I’m normally the team member trying to increase our tempo and cajoling the others to skimp on sleep. In this race I think I’ll have to listen to the others more, in particular Natalie and Kris. The other big challenge will be to stop frequently for feet maintenance. This will feel alien to us but based on our research, this will be crucial in increasing our chances of completing the full course.
SleepMonsters
