The AR World Championships - Costa Rica
For Kingdom And For Glory!
Adam Rose / 08.12.2013
Competing in the ARWC Costa Rica has required plenty of stiff upper lip. No whinging, no cringing, just uncompromising grit. Good thing, then, that there are four UK teams competing, to demonstrate those virtues that made the Empire great, wot!
They are:
#3 Team adidas Terrex (5 time winners of the Patagonia Exped Race, and 2009 world champions)
#43 Team Mountain Hardwear (team members in 4 ARWC events)
#44 Team Endurancelife (team members in ARWC and ARWS events)
#45 Great Langdale Bunkhouse (team members in ARWS events)
Adidas Terrex came 4th in the 2011 Tasmanian ARWC, and 10th in RIF ARWC 2012 (sickness effected their performance). Consequently, there have been high hopes they'll do well in ARWC2013, and they have been in the top 10 for much of ARWC 2013.
Currently on the final 89km kayaking stage, alongside Tecnu and Quasarlontra Kailash, reports are that team captain Nick Gracie has greatly swollen feet, which is obviously slowing the team down. For those who have seen footage of the ELF AR held in the Philippines (2005), where Ian Adamson suffered terrible trauma to his feet, you'll know how bad this can be. Way beyond simple trench foot.
The upcoming trek stage after the kayak is short (only 18km) but the route description is "the first section of this trek is very tough and teams may have to trek in sometimes chest high mud". Not nice for infected feet.
The final biking leg and rafting will be less of an issue for him, unless he can't get his bike shoes on...
Team Mountain Hardwear has some very experienced members, especially in Sally Ozanne and Ant Emmet. It is therefore not surprising they are currently in 13th place, but they moved slower than expected on the mountain stage, being overtaken by a few teams. Their navigation has been on the money throughout, and as their speed is currently back up approaching the rafting, if they can put pedal to the metal now, they might be able to avoid being dark zoned during that stage.
Team Endurancelife has a motto of 'Never, never, NEVER give up' and are well known on the UK AR scene. Captain Gary Davies has competed in the 2009 ARWC in Portugal, Apex race, UntamedNE and the Adidas Terrex UK races. Before they left for Costa Rica, they gave us insight into their race preparation HERE, and it's no surprise foot care was high on their list of concerns. Their race thus far has been pretty much by the book, not losing ground due to any navigational issues, although they slowed down on the opening bike ride just before CP4, regained composure on the first kayak before having a bit of a wobble near the end of that stage, and took some time to cover the hike over to the mangroves.
Team Great Langdale Bunkhouse is a new team, but features well-experienced members, including Tom Davies (no relation to EL Gary) and Sabrina Vergee. They haven't competed in tropical conditions before, or on a race of this length, so were suitably nervous before the start. Nonetheless they were ahead of midpack up to the mangrove madness. They then took a direct route towards CP19, before doubling back for CP's 18, 17, 16, and made the difficult decision to collect CP15, even though it meant retracing earlier tracks. Consequently, they covered almost as much mangrove distance as Issy Aventure, and set themselves back quite heavily, being overtaken by Endurancelife. Their tracker went dead once they reached TA4, and was only reset on reaching TA5.
EL started the Big Trek ahead of Great Langdale, both ahead of many teams. Their pace slackened on the climb to Chirripo, with the net result that Great Langdale is currently the final team on that stage, with EL just 2 places ahead. Credit must go to both for their never-say-die attitude -they could easily have dropped a CP as a number of other teams elected to do earlier, but instead remain in the full rankings. Once they are out of the high mountains (not a strong point for UK teams), they should be able to put on a spurt, but will be dark zoned tonight. The pressure must be on, as they are the last teams who could escape the cut-off at 14:00 on Monday 9th.
If you see Great Langdale on the route, have a look at their Revo Dynamo bike lights - no batteries required!
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