MALDITO RAPIDO FMIJ

July 22, 2005

Our strategy for the first leg was to stay dry, but be fast and arrive in the top few teams in what we thought was a rafting section next. We thought that the marshy areas on the map would contain standing water with all the rain that we've gotten lately. So, from the start, we led Team Spirit for the first 100 or so meters, and then they passed us. They took a left and we continued straight on a small trail, then bushwhacked to a road. From there, we jogged basically the entire way to CP1 on a road, then a smaller trail. I felt like crap through most of it and couldn't figure out how everyone else was going so fast. We were the third team to arrive at CP1 and were about 25 minutes behind the leaders. CP2 found us make a 180 degree mistake which lost us about 15 minutes. Then down to CP3/TA1 was pretty straight forward we ran most of the way. We arrived in TA1 in second place.

Our transition was decidely long (20 minutes or so) when all that was really required was to grap some gear and eat on the way to the rafting. We were all very disappointed that we didn't have to portage the rafts eight kilometers up the road to the put-in as we thought that that would be fun. Instead, we only got 500 m of portage in. Trevor, Vinny, and Carlyle got the raft pumped up before I could change (I still felt sick). We shouldered the raft up the road and the put in the water. It was then I remembered that I hadn't gotten the passport signed at the last CP. Back to CP4 they told us that it wasn't necessary. Then, back to the put-in where we noticed Trev didn't have his race jersy on.... another trip back to CP4 relocated the jersey , but now we were probably about 25 minutes behind the leader, where as when we pulled into CP4 originally the leader had just left the CP... The first half of the paddle was a FUBAR paddle (f&*ked up, but adventure race-able ?? ). It might have been a good chance to get our 8 kilometer portage in as perhaps carrying the raft down the road to CP5 would have been faster... just an afterthought. Actually, Vinny did a great job in getting us down the river with minimal effort. It was nice to see some 'tributaries' meeting the river. One looked like it served to double the water flow. I peed in the river a couple of times and Vinny cleverly negociated the raft on the small wave for a couple of meters. The second half of the paddle was alot more fun. We had seen the leaders upon leaving CP5 and caught and passed them just before TA2 (sorry I can't remember your team name, guys).

TA2 transition here was alot better, but still a little slow. Part of it being that in FMIJ you need to plot the next course in transition. I think we were gone in about 15 minutes or so.

Off to the Tyrolean with our bikes. This was pretty straightforward. Then hike a bike up a steep bank. We recognized that there were options available for this part of the course, but thought that this would be the fastest.... actually, it was Vinny that thought this would be the fastest (thanks Vinny), so we sucked it up and pressed on up the seismic line like Vinny wanted us to . After a couple of ups and downs, I started to pout. We looked at the map to see if we could bail from this route. Other than returning where we came from, it looked like we were in it for the long haul. Up and down we went all the way to the first road. We decided we had had enough of that seismic line , so down the road we went, over a bridge, then up to a gas well, through the lease, then up an old overgrown trail. Ride-a-bike turned to a push-bike where I bonked and Trevor got to push two bikes. We emerged from a cut block to see our friend Brian who was putting out the CP sign and some water. Down the road we went to a gas line, then another hike-a-bike up to the main road. Then a downhill and uneventful ride. We pushed and towed to keep our speed up.

Arriving in TA3 we found ourselves feeling pretty good, but with some team issues going on we took about 2.5 hours in transition. A couple of us got a nice snooze in and we all ate tonnes and changed into some fresh clothes. We left shortly after the next teams came in deciding to do the regular course. There were two reasons for this: 1. we had a few injuries going on 2. it didn't look like the advanced course was doable in the time we had.

So, we pressed on. Now there were a few teams around us as a few had quick TA's. Going to CP11, we took the low route as we figured we had been beaten up enough on seismic lines for the day. The rain started and didn't stop. Soon it was dark. We made it to where we thought CP11 should be, but couldn't locate it. We were obviously making a parallel error or the CP was in the wrong spot (likely the former). We looked around for a couple of hours and when the temperature dropped we decided to bail. It got very cold going out and then we found a good tree to hunker under and build a fire. So, we stayed the night out in the bush until sunrise and walked out the next morning.