ITERA - Presented by Open Adventure
The Race For Second Place
Rob Howard / 15.08.2014
Through the night time trek over the Brecon Beacons there has been an intense race for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place positions, and Walhalla, Haglofs Silva UK and SWECO were all in the final transition at the same time!
These 3 teams have been trading places for the second half of the race and as they ran into Pontneddfecahn down the Dinas Rock Trail it was Haglofs Silva UK who were slightly ahead, but there wasn’t much in it. The final trekking checkpoint had been at a waterfall, with the checkpoint behind the curtain of water, and from there the run finished by taking teams past caves and quarries, crags and mines, and an area that was for a long time a large gunpowder works.
They won’t have paid much attention though, not with the competition so intense. Haglofs Silva were the first to get through transition and leave. Competitive transitions are hard to manage – the pressure is on but not stopping to eat or drink enough won’t get a team to the finish quicker, and it’s easy to rush and forget a piece of mandatory gear, or even head off in the wrong direction!
As the British team were about to leave Lucy Spain’s chain stuck and Chris Near asked, “Have you lubed it?” When the reply came back negative he just said, “Why not?” Bruce Duncan was busy helping get it fixed and finding the lube.
SWECO were next to leave and were questioning Tom Gibbs about the route and finish location while they had the chance. Malin Hjalmarsson said three of the team had been sick during the night, and this seems to have been common among the leading teams towards the end of the race.
Walhalla were in worse shape with Daniel Pincu spark out in his sleeping bag and going nowhere for a while. His team mates didn’t seem sure if he was sick or exhausted, it was probably both. They were clearly frustrated. “We were second in the night,” said Barbara Bonfim, “but lost that position. We had to stop and sleep in the bothy bag and it was very cold.” Gustavo Bogognon added, “Daniel has lost it in his head now.
The team have been here at transition some time now and seem to have given up racing for the podium places, they are between Haglofs Silva UK and SWECO now.
SleepMonsters
