What an experience of excitement, adrenaline, life
threatening, outrages,
perseverance, accomplishment and the list could go on...................
Our team "Helly Hansen / MOMAR" were the 2nd team to cross the finish the line in this 5 day adventure race. We come in the afternoon of the 4th day feeling great. Although we were the 2nd team to cross the line behine Dart-Nuun, we didn't offically get the 2nd place title.
There are many stories to be told and there are many reports on Sleep Monsters
http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_action=lea&race_id=3936and the MOMAR site
http://www.mindovermountain.com/momar/blog/blog.htmBut here it is first hand
PRE-RACE
All pre-race stuff went smooth, the weather was gorgeous, the waves were small for our kayak surf entry and exit testing and had fun playing around in the waves with our kayaks, and the climbing/repeling testing was all good. We have a pre-race meeting the day before the start date. We get warned there is a massive storm hitting california and that we may get the tail end of it and keep up to dates with weather reports, as will affect our kayak start leg.
Race Breakdown (if you didn't get lost or go the wrong way!!!)
57km kayak
50km mountain bike
17km trek (bush wack)
58km mountain bike
14km trek
28km mountain bike
20-30hr mountaineering
100km dune buggy
12km desert trek14km kayak
DAY 1
We were ready to go hard. The weather report looked not so good but the sun was trying to shine. We started in a calm bay and we were off. 10mins into it, we left the calm bay to head straight into 15-24foot swells and 80km-hr winds. I had a huge smile on my face thinking this is sooo much fun, crazy huge waves in this little tiny kayak, but that smile didn´t last long! We had a total of 57km to do in the kayak which would be 8hrs+, we got to our first checkpoint in about 6th place, then headed on. All those teams ahead of us had 3 person kayaks, a lot more stable and solid for those conditions, we had 1 double with me and gary and one single with todd.
Gary then spewed a few times from sea sickness and then we continued. This is where the carnage began. We proceed around the next point to come into a small bay for the next checkpoint, as we come around the massive swells are now hitting us from behind and it becomes harder, the 4inches of water in our kayaks that we were sitting in didn't help for our stability. I couldn´t believe we were out there, the condition were crazy and the water was freezing and wind was freezing. Todd capsized and recovered himself, he then goes again, and we help him empty the water out of the boat, 2 mins later, he goes over again, we help him again, all in while we are slowly or should i say rather quickly are getting swept to the opposite point. He is back in, then we capsize, we can´t bail the water out in time with the water just rushing back in from the waves, we start to get concerned of how close we are getting to the rocky point-cliff. So we just sit in the emerged kayak and try to paddle just to get out of there. That didnt work, we are now going into mild hyperthermia, and about 50m from the rocky point that the swells were smashing up against, we realise we are not in a good situation, we send todd into the bay for help, gary and Iare in the water hugging the kayak, freezing and worried. We decided to let ourselves be taken into the rocks and keep the boat between us and the rocks to aviod being smashed up. We move now where, we are floating in one spot. We then know we can´t stay in the water any longer with hyperthermia. We decide to ditch the boat and swim into the point, we get about 20m out, and we too a in a lull spot, we swim as hard as we can and we move nowhere. The waves are smashing into the rocks and we are that cold we feel like we can´t even kick. I then get pulled away from garyin a matter of seconds and into some rocks just off the cliff. I swim as hard as I can to the rocks, a wave then picks me up and smashes me into the rocks, I try to grab on, but then it sucks me back out and then picks me back up and smashes me again against the rocks, I can´t feel my body. I then get sucked under, and it was at this point I knew I was in extreme trouble and visioned the movies of how people die from this etc. I honestly was not confident I was going to make it out of there alive, and this was no joke. I then manage to hold on the to rocks on the next hit and avoid being taken back out, I look around and see the next wave coming, I run with every ounce left I had in my body up the rocks to aviod the next wave. I made it .............. gary are my next thoughts, he is about 5m from some other rocks, same thing happens to him, then I look up and see about 8 local mexicans running down the cliffs to help us, we are shivering out of control, they help us up to saftey ripping our clothes off and giving us dry jumpers and pants etc. We both just got worked, with blood and bruised and cuts all over us. The mexicans put us in the back of their van to drive us down to the bay to the checkpoint we were trying to get to. I see our kayak upside down 20m out from the rocks, we are avoiding the thought that we knew it was about to get smashed into pieces with the swell but at that stage we are just happy to get out of that alive and we would deal with the kayak later (we loaned it off someone, so a MASSIVE expense if it got ruined). We found out from a local that there are crosses above the point of all the people that have died on that point over the past.
We are now down with staff in the bay at checkpoint 2. As other teams come into the bay, no'one is going back out in those conditions. We got word we could continue on with the race but would be marked unranked as we could not finish the kayak stage due to our kayak being unsavable in those conditions. We warm up, get over the trauma, and our beaten up, bloodied, bruised and cut bodies and get driven to the bike leg, where we were not allowed to leave until the last team came in from the kayaks. Both mine and garys backpacks with all our mandatory gear were in the kayak still and we could not continue on without this stuff. Due to the generousity of the people around, we managed to be leant everything we needed.
We start on the first bike leg into the night.
So we found out later that only 11 out of the 20 teams continued on after checkpoint 2 in the kayak, the rest went to unranked. The navy had their boat out helping with rescues and the coast guards closed the course to letting anyone go back up in the kayaks. Three teams were still missing after dark. I found out the 8 boats got smashed into pieces at various points and rocks behond checkpoint 2, that there were many others that got into a lot of trouble with rocks and hyperthermia too. One of the smashed boats was from a wave picking them up and as it broke over them it snapped their kayak in 2 pieces. One team was stranded overnight at some fishermans place. It was absolutely crazy, we should not have been out their and the race directors needed to think of an alternative plan.
As for our boat, we found out later that the current took the kayak back out to the ocean and dragged it around the point and then our tow rope on it got hooked to a randam buoy and it was safe from the rocks, the Navy boat then went and rescued it. That just saved us over $2500. Somone was looking over us that day !
Day 1 - Night
So we started back in the race with a 50km bike ride going into the night. We had to wait for the last team to get off the kayak before we were allowed to start. My battery for my crazy good bike light I just brought was in my pack that was in the kayak that was still in the ocean, so was going off my head lamp until that died half way through the ride, it was nearly a full moon, and was a gorgeous night so most of the ride i just went off my team mates lights or the moon light! it was mentally hard that night, to think what we just went through and to know how much i had ahead to get through, really not sure how i was physically going to do it. We did pretty good in this stage, got off track a few times, but had heaps of teams around us throughout the night, and we always help each other find our way. Thats what i love about adventure racing, the people are just so nice, everyone is always willing to help other teams and work together even though we are racing against each other.
We managed to break away from the 6 or so other teams at the end of the ride. Gary had a fall and broke his brand new waterproof camera he just got, it still worked but no longer waterproof, oh and my new ipod i got off ebay a few days before the race is out floating in the pacific ocean somewhere. And at this stage still thinking all our packs gear and kayak were gone forever, we were beginning to think this has become a very expensive race, but kept our spirits high and just had to laugh about it all.
After the ride we went into a 17km, bushwack trek. Todd nailed the navigational side of this and we progressed in passing teams, although towards the end we made a bit of a detour up the wrong valley, but recovered, found another team on course, worked together to get the last checkpoint at sunrise, and treked back into next transition with the other team.
Day 2Feeling good, not tired, we jumped onto our bikes for a 58km ride, through the day, scenery was beautiful and changing all the time, we were making great time, but the end of this ride was riding into the mountains and the hill did not end, we were riding up hill for hours, but again the views around were breathtaking. Gary helped my a lot on this climb by towing me. What all teams do for the female is hook up a toe device on our bikes so there is a bungy cord from the back of his bike to the front of mine, so as we ride up hill he is helping me by pulling me up as i still pedal to the best effort I can.
So we got into the transition into third place, totally shocked with our placing, with 3-4hours of sunlight ahead of us to get through our next 17km trek. But our gear boxes had not arrived yet. We had to wait at that transition for over 2 hours for our boxes to arrive with our treking gear and shoes in it, so we got about a 30min nap in someones car while we waited, and by the time they arrived we only had a few hours of sunlight left. We got credit the 2hr 10mins back for having to wait. So moved fast on this stage too, a flat easy navigational section to our bikes again at the base of the mountain we had to climb next.
We came into transition in 3rd, and 2nd placers were having a few hour sleep here so we moved on and left in 2nd place. we had a 28km bike climb to about 2000m?? transition was not where it was meant to be and the signs they left in the trees didn´t match up to where we were meant to come in at. Transition ended up being the tent and car we had just passed, with us thinking it was just some randam people camping, it was in the middle of the night so there was no activity, the volunteers where sleeping!! it was cold and they got the fire going. The biggest leg was ahead of us through the canyon. We just found out we took the wrong route on the bikes and missed a checkpoint, but we are unranked anyway, and we ended up doing a harder route than we were meant to !! but this brought the spirits down a bit.
Day 3We left into the 20-30 canyon trek early morning maybe about 3am with the race director, she was going through the canyon to check on her volunteers in there, she could not tell us which way to go though, we still had to navigate our way and she just followed. We were in some solid thick scrubs just riping our legs and arms apart on the sharp branches and thorny bushes and moving so slowly, we needed to find clearer terrain to get through but could not see until light. After about 1hour, we make the call to have a 1 hour sleep until day light, and the race director then moved on the canyon (probably our biggest mistake from not staying with her, as when we moved on we got soooo lost!!) but we had a sleep, well Todd did, me and gary were way too cold to sleep, the worst time to sleep is early morning at its coldest. We pushed on at day break, and as i said we went off route and had no idea on where this check point was meant to be at the top of canyon. We treked through thick sharp thorn like scrub for 12hrs, which should have been about 6hrs, pretty much all up hill. We absolutely distroyed ourselves in this section taking the wrong route, this is when teams would normally start to snap at each other, tired, lost, and not knowing where to go next, but we did great and just kept pushing on. We were so relieved when we finally found the checkpoint. (this was after we treked up another hill to a fire we could see in the distance thinking it was our checkpoint, to only find it was a bushfire). We were extemely suprised to find we were still ranked high in 5th place, with 3rd place there with us at the top of the canyon, there had been a lot of teams right behind us, so they either all got lost too or had a 3hr or so sleep. it was about mid afternoon and we had to try and move through as much canyon as we could in the daylight. We absolutely motored through the canyon, had about 8 -10 repels we had to do. This section was breathtaking, so amazing. The terrain changed every few minutes. Some of the repels were straight overdrop hangs, some where angled walls, and some straight into a pool of water at the bottom. By the time we got to the water ones it was night and cold. Although we could feel the temp getting warmer as we were descending. So every water drop we would change into minimal clothes and repel down, then change back into our dry warm clothes. By the last water drop gary desides he doesnt want to get back into his wet underwear, he decides to repel down naked !! lucky it was at night!! The very last water one was an optional slide down the rockface into the water with 30m swim out or repel into the water or a dangerous scale the canyon wall with no ropes to stay dry. It was mabye 1am by this stage and we were done with being cold and choose the scaling the wall option to stay dry. Wow was that scary and dangerous but fun! and we made it safely somehow! The full moon just light up the canyon and its walls all night it was amazing. our last repel at the bottom was onto some nice soft sand, we were now pretty much through the canyon and in 2nd place after passing 3 teams through there. It was so peacful and warm, wind free, and comfortable on the sand, this is where we should have slept for an hour or two to wait for day break to get out, but we just wanted to push onto the next transition. We exited the canyon, and couldnt find the transition, we searched for about an hour and then decided to wait for day break and slept for about an hour, again cold in the wind, and I maybe got about 30min ressless sleep out of it.
Day 4
We wake of 5am, and searched endlessly for this tranisition, we kept calling out through the scrub and trees, TA7 (transition 7), and we finally got a response, they were so hidden in little enclosed scrub area with a mexican flag that we saw 45min earler posted up on the hill above (if they had of had a baja travesia flag we would have known!!!)
They had food and drinks for us here, unlike at any other transition, i was so thankful as i was running out of food. We were still in 2nd and we had a huge feed packed our bags up with food and had what was now the easier part ahead to the finish. Car rally for 2-3hrs, a 13km trek of 2-3hr, and a kayak to the finish, we knew now we would be done by sundown. Our driver takes up to his rally car, expecting one of the dune buggy rough things, instead we get taken to a 2 door 4wd ute with a canopy on the back that has a mattress in the pack with pillows and an esky with food. We couldn´t believe it, so todd goes up front to navigate the driver were we had to go and me and gary pass out in the back for 2 hours, this was my first real sleep since we started 4 days ago, i was out cold over the bumpy rough terrrain. Todd and gary swapped so todd could sleep for a bit. 3 hours later, we were into our last trek across a flat straight desert to the ocean. We moved fast swapping from jogging to treking. The ocean came in view, and it was the most amazing parts of the race, we look back and we see the flat desert we were crossing with the huge 2500m mountains in the background that we just hiked up and came down through the canyon and then the ocean in front of us, making it feel all surreal that we just did that and were about to finish, and finish in 2nd. We made it to the ocean with the hopes that both our kayaks had been delivered there for us. We had one and the race directors organised someone elses for us. The water was rough and winding by nothing compared to the other side 4 days ago. We had a head wind and were against the current, and our destination just didn´t seem to get any closer to us, but we didnt stop paddling until the end. (when i woke up this morning to see the calm still glassy ocean I was so mad to think why couldnt it have been like that yesturday to finish our paddle with !!)
No this is the funny bit. We knew the town we were paddling into but not what part of the beach the finish was, as we finally got closer we could see a whole bunch of people on the beach and music and someone on microphone, and cheering, and we were all so overwelmed that with the welcome and support we were getting and for being the second team in, as we got to shore, and could see better, we started laughing, as we realised all the cheering and people was for a beach vollyball competition on the beach, our moment of fame had been taken from us !!! we look up the beach and see a saloman flag (one of the races sponseres) and realised that was our finishing point, so we get back in our kayaks to paddle up the beach 100m, with what was a smaller welcoming finish then what we thought we were getting down the beach at the vollyball comp !!!
But we were done. I suprisingly felt great. showered, which felt like a million dollars, ate a pizza then came to email the family and Nick, and thats where i crashed, i had to keep re-reading my sentances as couldnt think what i just wrote and i fell asleep looking at the screen and zoning in and out, so then went straight to bed!
FinishSo all in all, we missed out on the $2000 second prize money, but were overwelmed to here that our kayak was not destroyed like the 8 others, and that we got our packs and gear back that were in the kayak, and that we all made it safe to the finish line. So now going to lay in the warm sun on the beach for the afternoon and watch other teams come in. We went from hyperthermic the first day, to cold through the night, to hot during the day, to freezing in the high mountains to the extremely hot sweltering desert trek. Crazy conditions. This was no normal adventure race, this was exteme, with dangerous conditions throughout, the kayak and down the canyon etc, unlike all others, what an amazing experience.
Apologies - I never did finish this race report ..... Got too busy :-(
