Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A Toda Prueba 2008 Treinta y Tres..

Looks like it has been a while since anyone has posted anything so I thought I would go ahead post some personal news. Two weekends ago I got talked into doing an adventure race with two individuals who had just recently started exersizing. (running and cycling). That didn't sound right. We actually started training end of March, first of April. Both individuals just recently purchased mtbs. With one having some experience in running but not in a race format. So really both had no racing experience of any kind. Not that I'm a pro but the last 4 or 5 years I have learned a little on how to train. So we set off on training and planning. This was a two day race. Close to 200 kilometers in all. The disciplines included trekking, mtb, canoing, bike and run (two riding while one running taking turns) and boyua cross (swimming with a inner tube).First day we made two errors. First, confusion on what pass to take to get to one of the control points, that took an extra 15 minutes. Second, apparently I didn't understand at the pre-race meeting. (Go figure, different language and they talk fast!) After the fact one of my teammates remembered but that was after the fact. We were supposed to go to one location before another. that cost us a 20 minute penalty along with putting us in the dark on the last bike leg. First day we arrived 14th out of 19th with a time of 9 hours and 9 minutes. Second day we did better but it didn't start out good. Right at the gun start one of my teammates "pinchÓ" had a flat. That took about 10 minutes to fix along with finding the thorn in the tire that caused it. After getting started again, the weaker cyclist grabbed hold of my back pack, and off to the races trying to make up some time. I think that was the first time I put my legs under a constant strain for that amount of time with no recovery. The lactic acid was so thick it felt like my thighs were going to explode. But finally we made to the first virtual check point then onto the check point where we changed disciplines. Trekking or cross country running was next. Just about 13 kilometers. One of my teammates (Gustavo) said that is was the longest 13 in his life. I will lean toward that it was longer than 13 as well. At this point is where the race started to change for us. We decided that we would only run the flats and down hills. Be knowing to us most of it was flat. About mid way we started encountering teams and dropping them as well. Once we reached the next check point we were sitting pretty good on positions. From that cp to the next we could go by any direction. Prior to this most of the dirt roads and cut thrus were mandatory. So there was a friend of ours that knew a short cut that cut about 6 kilometers of that stage. Once arriving at the next cp we were sitting at 5th position. From that check point we continued on mtb and arriving at the boyau cross and canoe. After that we arrived in the plaza of the city fifth for the day and 10th over all. We surprized many people. We had heard that when we arrived at the first check point of the first day, they didn't think we would finish at all. It was a great race and my two team mates showed me up on many occasions.
Check out some photos when you got some time...A Toda Prueba