NORCHA Adventure Race
NORCHA-The Suspense Begins
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 22.09.2016
Non-stop adventure racing has returned to Portugal. Twenty international teams have been arriving from as far away as Malaysia and Brazil to compete in the NORCHA race. This first edition has been three years in the making. I spoke to the race general manager Pedro Pinto on Skype late last Sunday night to find out more about the genesis of this new Adventure Racing European Series (ARES) race.
Pedro explained that he feels he is an “outsider” who has been studying adventure races since 2012. In planning NORCHA, he said that every detail has a meaning. For example, NORCHA is a combination of the words “North” and “Challenge” because he feels that in life as well as in adventure racing, everyone must find the North and follow it; everyone must be a “navigator of their life.”
He added that life always presents challenges and adventure racing skills can be transferred to everyday life; overcoming obstacles, working with others and exploring new cultures. Pedro stated that he feels often times racers are given too much information before the race and for this race he wants to build up the suspense with just enough information given at the right moment so that racers will “dig deep inside of themselves.”
The race general manager went on to say, “Adventure racers are the real heroes for me! I want to create special moments for special people.” Towards this goal, a key figure in international adventure racing, Jose Pires, has been working tirelessly to help the NORCHA organizing team realize their dream. Jose has been in charge of planning the race route and when we spoke two weeks ago during Raid in France, he expressed his deep sadness that part of the race route had been affected by the devastating fires that ravaged an extensive area around Porto a few weeks ago. Evidence of these fires was clearly visible during our transfer from the Porto International Airport to the town of Vila Pouca de Aguiar, about 125km North-East of Porto.
In Vila Pouca de Aguiar teams are staying in two different hotels and ringing through the halls is a cacophony of international greetings and catch-ups. Tomorrow (Friday) teams will be registering and carrying out gear checks. On Saturday at 15:30 they will receive their road books and at 17:30 the race will start in the Camilo Castelo Branco Square. As Pedro Pinto said as we ended our Skype conversation, “There is always a first edition in your life,” and it is clear that there is a dedicated team working hard to make this first edition of NORCHA a successful one.
Tracemyway will be providing the live tracking once the race has started.
http://tracemyway.com/norcha-2016/tracking/#
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