Patagonian Expedition Race
Those Who Believe
Rob Howard / 11.02.2016
It takes a sustained effort, over many, many months to train and prepare for the Patagonian Expedition Race. The huge financial and time commitment, demands placed on family members, long training hours, expensive equipment and logistical planning are an endurance challenge in themselves.
Those setting out on their journey to the start line have to convince prospective team mates and then sponsors of their ability and determination to meet the challenge, and they won’t convince anyone if they don’t believe in their own hearts that they are up to the challenge of ‘The Last Wild Race’.
For those who are new to expedition adventure racing and with no experience in Patagonia it’s a leap of faith, into an unknown territory where they will find out if they are capable of realising their dream and finishing the race.
Half of the 18 teams taking part this year are newcomers to adventure racing, coming from a wide variety of sporting backgrounds. Successful athletes in other sports, experienced expedition members, explorers and military personnel have combined into teams who believe they have what it takes to complete the race. Now the preparations are over its time to set off and put that belief to the test.
There are two teams from Germany this year, both hoping to be the first German team to complete the race.
Campz Adventure are lead by Thilo Hassebroek, who made an unsupported trek across Greenland with teammate Tom Kuhn in 2014. A few months after returning, they heard about the race and rallied co-workers André Kolbasa, a triathlete and biathalon skier, and Laura Marquart, former Germany Junior national Soccer player, to form a team.
Their national rivals are Team Patagonia Germany lead by brother’s in-law and adventure buddies Andre Hook and Wolfgang Grohé. They trekked across the Alps, climbed and swum together and on their travels met obstacle course racer Yvonne Schönbach in the mountains and aspiring triathlete Alex Glantz at the Ötillö Swimrun Championships. Recognising kindred adventurers they called them up when deciding to enter.
The two US teams new to adventure racing are Sherpa and PRS. There is no lack of belief from PRS who have declared an ambition “to be the first All-American Team to win the Patagonian Expedition Race.” Their endurance backgrounds are in triathlon, trail running and kayaking expeditions and they are racing for team founder ‘Coach Jeff’ who has mentored them and is now suffering from prostate cancer. The team are fund raising for cancer research and said; “Over the years he has provided such incredible guidance support and motivation for countless people of all abilities. We want to do this not just for us, but for him as a way of saying thanks.”
Sherpa have as strong cycling background, as well as military, triathlon and some adventure racing experience from Elizabeth Moore, who has competed in Primal Quest in the past. Jean Paul Desrosiers, the team captain, thinks the strength they’ll rely on most is the “ability to maintain high morale when forward progress is most difficult.” “When choosing our team for PER,” Desrosiers wrote, “I knew every one of us could answer YES to this question: ‘Can you remain happy while suffering for 10 days?’”
Two Canadian teams are venturing into Patagonia and adventure racing as well. Mind Over Body are 4 friends from the Rockies all with years of mountain and outdoor experience and the team captain Francois Charest says the race, “appeals to our need for adventure, wilderness, and adrenaline.”
The other Canadian team are Osedea, a team put together by brothers Martin and Alexandre Coulombe. Like many other teams they have significant climbing, trekking and cycling experience and they are taking a measured approach to the race. Martin said their objective “is to complete each section of the race and cross the finish line with smiles on our faces.”
Team Spirit of Poland came to the race through a different route, by taking part in the Patagonian Discovery Challenge, which is staged by PER race organisers NIGSA. That was a non-competitive Patagonian expedition, but now the team are back to race. They are lead by Rafal Nowakowski and all have extensive military and expedition experience, including navigation and mountain rescue skills. They know something of Patagonia already and are sure to explore more of it in the race ahead.
Another newly put together team from mixed sporting backgrounds are Patagonia 4 Barth of France, and like PRS they are racing for a cause. In this case its Barth syndrome, a serious and sometimes fatal genetic disease that results in a weak heart and immune system, particularly in young boys.
The Green Sentinels team from the UK are another team with military backgrounds and they too are racing for charities, Help for Heroes, Shelterbox, and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. The team include an Adventure Training Instructor and international Expedition Leader, a Physiotherapist, a Physical Training Instructor and an engineering Student. James Gardner is the youngest in the race at 21 and is racing with his sister Natalie.
They will be one of 3 UK teams racing and will no doubt have a friendly rivalry with Team T.B.C. who are another group who’ve come together to rise to the challenge of the race. They are lead by 23 year old Lucy Shepherd who has recruited two teams for this race! Her first team mates pulled out in August. She says they got ‘cold feet’ … obviously they were not believers in the Patagonian dream. However, she wasn’t about to give up.
She already knew Tom Middleton then met Marty Adams when he gave her a lift in Corsica! Finally she headed to the Explorers Club in London and recruited Tim Taylor, a mountain photographer and adventurer. So what had for a while been team TBC (To Be Confirmed) became team TBC (Totally, Bloody Capable!) They jelled quickly and have been training together for some months now.
“The unknown is always exciting,” said Shepherd. “We have lots of expedition experience and are very self reliant, but are not used to racing. It feels strange to us to go lightweight and have no back-ups, and I’m most worried about keeping the pace up on the bikes and the risk of missing cut-offs early in the race.”
She added, “We are desperate to finish.”
That’s a sentiment all the newly formed teams will agree with as they are about to put many months of work, training and planning to the test and find out if they really do have what it takes to complete the Patagonian Expedition Race.
You can read the full team list with details on each team at the race website at http://www.patagonianexpeditionrace.com/teams-2016/
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