MEDIA RELEASE by Sarah Hearn | Six days in and only seven teams remain officially ranked in the Patagonian Expedition Race. While they suffer through the remaining legs, the other brave souls who have been beaten by conditions so much bigger than any of us, must suffer the disappointment of no longer being allowed to headbutt the hardship out there.
Merrell continue to vasbyt, biting down hard on their determination. Through the days and night of rain and wind they have been following their plan and photos have emerged from the transition areas of them looking progressively more grubby and tired, but by all accounts still in good spirits.
Yesterday at 7am five teams that had been held back from the water were finally released to paddle the 6km across a windy passage. One team, Yogaslackers had managed to take a short weather window the previous day and get over, the others were all held back for safety reasons, despite the South Africans, all strong paddlers, being adamant they could easily manage. Their times were neutralised at their time of arrival at CP 9 and restarted on departure.
All were given tracking devices before crossing the water, only one is still working. So watching the Dot page is a disservice to the race because we cannot truly see where teams are in relation to each other, or even if they are there. And the dot in front is not necessarily the dot with the fastest actual racing time. All we can do is wait for them to emerge at the next checkpoint to understand who has been racing better. Then they will kayak a 17km stretch passing along a shore close to glacier outfalls. And then the race director has decided to stop all those teams again at CP 13 for times corresponding to what they lost at CP9 to correct their race position, so at the start of the final trek leg, it should all be less confusing.
Here then are the latest available race positions, two days old, based on when teams arrived at CP9.
- #3 YogaSlackers (20 Feb, 00:55)- 88:55:00hrs
- #1 GODZone Adventure (20 Feb, 8:20)- 96:20:00hrs
- #2 East Wind (20 Feb, 17:10)- 105:10:00hrs (including 21hrs 40min post-accident lost time)
- #5 Merrell Adventure Addicts (20 Feb, 17:40)- 105:40:00hrs
- #19 M.O.B. Mind Over Body (20 Feb, 18:12)- 106:12:00hrs
- #11 NorCal Odyssey (20 Feb, 18:50)- 106:50:00hrs
- #17 Patagonia 4 Barth (21 Feb, 16:50)- 128:50:00
Huge respect to every athlete. It’s wild out there. Merrell Adventure Addicts are doing us proud.
Facebook: Merrell Adventure Addicts
Website: Merrell Adventure Addicts
Race website: www.patagonianexpeditionrace.com
Look also to the official race media coverage on Sleepmonsters and the Patagonia page
With thanks always to our main sponsor Merrell, we will continue to OUT.Perform. Also to PVM Nutrition, Black Diamond, Ocean Eyewear, Llama Bars, ButtaNutt Spreads, Extreme Lights, SquirtLube and Giant Bicycles.
Words by Sarah Hearn. Photos by Rob Howard, SleepMonsters.com