ARWC 2015 Brazil - Pantanal
Norwegian Team Making Last Preparations For ARWC Pantanal
Jo Inge Fjellstad / 03.11.2015
After a surprising third place at the World Series competition Cowboy Though this summer, Nordic Adventure Racing are now preparing for the World Championship in Brazil. The team members have been taking part in multisport and adventure races for several years, and previously competed against each other as two couples. However, after Helén Persson and Jacob Westerberg moved from Sweden and settled in Norway it was natural to form a four-man “Norwegian” team with Wendy and Jo Inge Fjellstad.
Unlike in neighboring Sweden, Adventure Racing has not grown big in Norway, and with the exception of a couple of joint Norwegian-British efforts, there has not been Norwegian teams participating in ARWC since the last time the race was held in Brazil in 2008. During the past year the Nordic Adventure Racing have raced in several competitions, with Cowboy Tough as their first major overseas event together.
In stark contrast to the race in Wyoming, ARWC is taking place in the Pantanal, the largest inland wetland in the world. The race will involve up to seven days of running, mountain biking and kayaking. The race will cover approximately 650 km, with the potential to be much longer if teams are not very careful with the navigation.
"I think that this may well be the most challenging navigation I’ve ever tried" says Jo Inge Fjellstad, the team’s main navigator. "I enjoy orienteering, the night-time variety in particular, and I’ve been to the World Championships in Costa Rica and Ecuador the past two years and accumulated some experience with tricky tropical jungle navigation, with maps of dubious quality. But still ... Pantanal is a vast floodplain that changes dramatically throughout the year and from year to year, depending on how much rain there is - it must be almost impossible to map with any degree of accuracy".
With three competent map readers on the team, the fourth is more interested in the wildlife that might be experienced along the way. The Pantanal is a "hotspot" for biodiversity. The area is home to some 650 bird species, and newsletters from the organizers are full of details about various animals that teams can expect to encounter, from the Tuiuiú stork, the symbol of the Pantanal, to alligators, capybaras, giant otters, piranha and jaguars.
"I guess some of this wildlife might make us a bit nervous" admits Wendy Fjellstad with a smile. "But we have been assured that there is no shortage of food for the animals in the Pantanal, so people are generally not on the menu. And the organizers have devised a good defense for us when we are so tired that we have to sleep. Apparently a flashing strobe light is supposed to be enough to scare off even the jaguars ". Nordic walking sticks are also on the list of mandatory equipment - not for use running in the mountains (the Pantanal is fairly flat), but to chase off stingrays when walking in the swamps!
The team have spent quite some time planning their sleep strategy for the race. To sleep is to lose time ... unless you have to sleep, to avoid making mistakes. "In Wyoming this summer, we had a little over two hours sleep during the three and a half days" says Helén Persson. "In the Pantanal we are planning a bit more, to keep us going in the right direction for nearly twice as long. If we take the wrong direction there it could be really difficult to get back in touch with the map again! So we’ve done our research and calculated the best timing to keep our adenosine at an optimal level... but I can’t give you any more details about that of course… it’s one of our team secrets".
With less than a week left before departure the team have finally acquired most things on the equipment list, including two packrafts. These are lightweight inflatable canoes, which the teams may have to carry as much as they paddle in the swampy maze of the Pantanal. "We’ve never tried boats like these before" team captain Jacob Westerberg admits, "and our first trial wasn’t too successful. We also felt like complete idiots running through our home town on a Sunday afternoon with paddles strapped to our rucksacks… But on our second try we started to get the hang of it, and it does seem like a fairly ingenious means of transport for the Pantanal wetland”. The team will be spending a few more hours during the last days before departure polishing their technique unpacking, inflating, paddling and repacking. “We are seriously looking forward to getting away from the close-to-freezing water temperatures here in Norway …”
"Mind you, the heat and humidity might be a bit of a shock for us Northerners ", continues Jacob. "Part of our preparation is to remind ourselves that this is going to be tough! All the team members have put in a lot of time training throughout the year. We participate in both short and long competitions, from 3-4 hours to several days. However, the World Championship in Adventure Racing is something extra special. This is the World Championship in the world's toughest endurance sport. We are preparing well, but the most important thing is to realize that it is impossible to prepare for everything. There are swamps and jungles and rainforests, 650 km, terrain that might not resemble what we see on the map ... It’s important to be mentally strong - focused but at the same time flexible. Our goal is to make each other better - to grow as a team and enjoy our adventure together”.
The competition can be followed online through the organizer's website: http://arwcpantanal.com and on www.SleepMonsters.com
More on the Norwegian team can be found on their website: http://nordicadventure.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Team-Nordic-Adventure-Racing-404318386427321/
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