Terra Incognita
In the Dark
Jon Brooke / 28.05.2004
In fact just 40 km of trekking in 2 sections took a pretty serious toll on the field. Two other teams had injuries that needed stitches and almost every team had someone sporting cuts on their shins or hands. It was not until 4 p.m. almost twelve hours after the race restarted following the first dark zone that the leaders got through the whole swim/trek leg – they covered just 43 km in 12 hours.
At the end of the island chain teams picked up kayaks to paddle back to the mainland. They knew that if they could reach the end of an 87 km mountain bike leg before 6 a.m. that they would reach another dark zone before a river paddle, with the chance to get more sleep without penalty.
It was also pretty clear that not all the teams would even finish the sea paddle to the mainland before dark, and that would leave them at another disadvantage – paddling out to the islands in the dark the teams were guided by a lighthouse near the point they were aiming for – coming back in the dark they were aiming at a shoreline with lots of lights and small coves. It meant that a field that had essentially split in two during the trek / swim would be split even further.
In the end Adria Lada reached the shore at around 5.30 p.m. and trekked a short distance through the small town of Murter to another village, Betina, where checkpoint 10 / TA 1 was located. Here they had access to their gear boxes and they took the opportunity to make hot food and fix their feet.
After TA 1 teams don’t see their gear boxes again until CP 24 / TA2 just 85 k.m. from the end. In between they have to carry all of their trekking and biking gear with them. By nightfall the first 9 teams had arrived including the only team that seemed to be moving up the field, Salomon / OpvaNet from the Czech republic.
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