The AR World Championships - Costa Rica
Three Go Title Hunting
Rob Howard / 07.12.2013
As the leaders came down from the long trekking stage it became clear the predicted times for the monster ‘Chirripo hike’ were optimistic and that teams would take longer than expected. This wasn’t really a surprise, given the nature of the trek and what the teams have been through already, but it will mean more teams will be caught in the dark zone on Saturday afternoon.
The top 3 teams were through in plenty of time arriving at TA8 for the rafting in the morning, after completing the cycle ride from TA7. Seagate were first just after dawn, Thule Adventure second, and Columbia Vidaraid third, and they are the only teams who will get through, those from 4th place onwards will be held at TA8 until 5am the following morning and will re-start together.
So, now there are 3 teams racing for the title, and if they all reach the finish line the teams in the podium positions are already decided.
Seagate and Thule Adventure continued their battle across the Talamanca mountain range for over 40 hours, sometimes changing positions, or catching glimpses of each other’s headlights in the night. Sophie Hart of Seagate told me, “We slept in the hut before the top of Chirripo, as many other teams did, and it was really cold. It was cold and windy on the top too, but we like that, it felt more like home and it’s been so hot at other times.”
Chris Forne said, “It was good to navigate using contours and not trails for a while, and we passed Thule one time when took a sneaky line, but we did have our disasters and lost some time as well. It was good to navigate through some forest too and see some of the wildlife.”
The teams didn’t get the best of the views after 2 nights on the summits, but Nathan Fa’avae commented, “We did see some of the city lights below when the cloud cleared, but didn’t really encounter any of the native tribes people. Except for one who knew we were coming and had some food laid out, which was welcome.”
The leaders looked remarkably cheerful and relaxed at TA8, where they were swiftly through and decided to complete the rafting before sleeping.
First they had to trek steeply downhill for a couple of kilometres to reach the river and the rafts. It is a very wild and remote rafting trip, with no habitation of any kind along that whole stretch. “It was great,” said Fa’avae. “There was lots of white water and we were in a beautiful gorge all the way down – we had to work quite hard in a few places too, even though we had a guide with us.”
Seagate stopped to sleep on the river bank of the banana plantation hosting the transition area for 2 hours after the rafting, so Thule may catch them again. I didn’t get the chance to speak to them, but of the 3 teams they looked the most tired and as she walked down to the rafts Mimi Guillot did say, “It’s too hard this race.”
Columbia Vidaraid were the team who made the biggest move on the long trek, putting in the fastest time on the mountains. Trekking is their strength and they moved away from the chasing pack to bridge the gap and catch the two leaders, although they told me they had not caught sight of them. At the time they were in transition, which was set up on a rough local football field beside the main road and they looked cheerful and were encouraged to hear the first and second teams were not too far ahead of them.
[The Race Director has told me that teams will not be allowed onto the mountains after midnight on Saturday, and any teams arriving later will be transported further around the course.]
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