2017 RAID GALLAECIA, PART SIX
It was around 6 p.m. when we walked into the mall, covered in sweat and grime, wearing spandex, pushing our bikes and clicking the tile floor with our bike shoes. To say we felt out of place would be a drastic understatement. We found and followed a carpet of green astroturf around a corner, and immediately the blaring of an announcer talking about us in Spanish over a PA system overwhelmed us. Ahead of us was a TA of sorts, with a bike rack and what looked like a TV lounge, set up in the mall’s main gallery. We looked around and realized we were in full view of dozens or even hundreds of shoppers, staring down from three floors of balconies above us. Rick kept saying over and over again, “This is too bizarre.”
Undeterred by the audience, Eric went over to the food table and started cooking a pizza in an easy-bake oven provided by the race. Melody started wiping down her bike, while Rick and Cliff poked around and found a back room reserved for the racers, where our gear bags were stacked up and where we discovered it was quiet enough to get some sleep, which we desperately needed. Back at the TA, we also got to check out the race tracking system, set up on a big screen TV. This was the first time we got to see what the course looked like in its entirety, and we were impressed by how much ground we had covered. We were even more impressed by our standing in the race - despite short-coursing ourselves, almost half the field of teams had dropped out of the race, leaving us in 14th place.
We retreated to the back room with our pizza, determined to make a plan that would get us to the end of the race as an official finishing team. Having seen the rest of the course on the TV, we started to calculate how long it would take us to complete the rest of the circuit, and it was a bit worrying. We hadn’t slept in 36 hours, so we started by factoring in at least three hours of sleep/transition. The second factor was Melody’s ankle, which had been feeling better but which had been causing major pains (and slow-downs) in the three previous trekking legs. The next three legs featured 66K of hiking and 25K of paddling, and the paddling couldn’t be skipped, as it connected two sides of a bay. We also had gotten worrying weather reports about impending high winds and large waves from the race volunteers manning the TA. If we couldn’t paddle due to weather, we feared that we would end up stuck on the wrong side of the bay. If we did finish those three legs, we still had another 45K bike ride to the finish line, which we estimated would take us six to eight hours to complete. Given it was now 7 p.m., and the cutoff was 40 hours away, we started getting pretty negative feelings towards our ability to complete the rest of the course.
We started considering other options, and the most obvious one was to bike directly from the TA to the finish. At first, this felt to all of us like defeat. However, looking at the standings, the picture looked a little brighter. Only one other team remained in our division, and they were now six hours ahead of us. The rest of the teams were still on the full course, meaning even if they finished 20 hours behind us in time, they would still rank ahead of us in points. And, judging from the numerous withdrawals from the race, it was clear the course was wreaking havoc on the field. From a competitive standpoint, our best move lay in ensuring we got to the finish in one piece and locking in our official short course finish, rather than risk a DNF by heading out on a difficult mission to complete a part of a course that would mean very little from a points perspective.
After much debate, the decision was made. We decided to sleep through the night at the TA and ride to the finish in the morning. To celebrate, we went to the mall’s pub for a round of drinks to celebrate our race. That’s right, we multiple drinks in the middle of an adventure race, we spent an hour drinking in a bar. No regrets. Then it was off to bed, which, despite being made up of a very light foam pad and some stinky race clothes as a pillow, felt amazing for a solid eight hours of sleep.
In the night, a couple of teams came and went. We were definitely equal parts envious and relieved that we weren’t getting up at midnight or 2 a.m. and heading out into the night for more crazy adventures. Between deep dreams and restful slumber, we quietly wished them luck on their journey.
In the morning, we woke up and took our time getting organized, making sure we ate well and cleaning up in the bathroom - once again enjoying the luxuries of being able to take our time.
Eventually we headed out on our ride at around 8 a.m. but we didn’t get far. About 30 seconds after mounting up, Rick realized his tire had gone flat and we had to stop to change it. One false start complete, we got underway again, only to have some difficulties figuring out our way out of town. Finally finding our way onto a pedestrian bridge across a large river, we saw another team coming back in and felt a twinge of jealousy for them being able to complete a huge section of the course we would never see.
Beyond the bridge awaited another long climb, and we ended up having to dismount and walk large portions of the dusty, rocky uphill. We found the CP awaiting us at the top and continued on, We finally found some nice roads to bike but of course, before long, it began raining. We whipped out our rain gear, which we now knew from experience to keep quickly retrievable, and continued on, knowing at this point we only had four to six hours to the finish line.
Rick led us on, with the team quiet and determined, but also worn down from the race, despite the lengthy rest we had gotten the night before. We made it up to a bare ridgeline pockmarked with windmills and Eric and Cliff went around opposite sides of a big rock to try to find the next CP. Eric found it and told Cliff, who had the passport, to keep close to the rock, but Cliff ended up mired in a nasty thornbush, and Eric had a good laugh at his expense, as he stood near the CP, about 50 feet away from the rock. The downhill off the ridge was fast and fun, and we enjoyed the quickening of the pace while it lasted. The road ahead was paved, but full of dips and climbs, but we pressed on in fairly good time. We continued on through the undulating terrain, mostly on roads but hitting the occasional double-track trail. Our pace was pedestrian but steady.
Undeterred by the audience, Eric went over to the food table and started cooking a pizza in an easy-bake oven provided by the race. Melody started wiping down her bike, while Rick and Cliff poked around and found a back room reserved for the racers, where our gear bags were stacked up and where we discovered it was quiet enough to get some sleep, which we desperately needed. Back at the TA, we also got to check out the race tracking system, set up on a big screen TV. This was the first time we got to see what the course looked like in its entirety, and we were impressed by how much ground we had covered. We were even more impressed by our standing in the race - despite short-coursing ourselves, almost half the field of teams had dropped out of the race, leaving us in 14th place.
We retreated to the back room with our pizza, determined to make a plan that would get us to the end of the race as an official finishing team. Having seen the rest of the course on the TV, we started to calculate how long it would take us to complete the rest of the circuit, and it was a bit worrying. We hadn’t slept in 36 hours, so we started by factoring in at least three hours of sleep/transition. The second factor was Melody’s ankle, which had been feeling better but which had been causing major pains (and slow-downs) in the three previous trekking legs. The next three legs featured 66K of hiking and 25K of paddling, and the paddling couldn’t be skipped, as it connected two sides of a bay. We also had gotten worrying weather reports about impending high winds and large waves from the race volunteers manning the TA. If we couldn’t paddle due to weather, we feared that we would end up stuck on the wrong side of the bay. If we did finish those three legs, we still had another 45K bike ride to the finish line, which we estimated would take us six to eight hours to complete. Given it was now 7 p.m., and the cutoff was 40 hours away, we started getting pretty negative feelings towards our ability to complete the rest of the course.
We started considering other options, and the most obvious one was to bike directly from the TA to the finish. At first, this felt to all of us like defeat. However, looking at the standings, the picture looked a little brighter. Only one other team remained in our division, and they were now six hours ahead of us. The rest of the teams were still on the full course, meaning even if they finished 20 hours behind us in time, they would still rank ahead of us in points. And, judging from the numerous withdrawals from the race, it was clear the course was wreaking havoc on the field. From a competitive standpoint, our best move lay in ensuring we got to the finish in one piece and locking in our official short course finish, rather than risk a DNF by heading out on a difficult mission to complete a part of a course that would mean very little from a points perspective.
After much debate, the decision was made. We decided to sleep through the night at the TA and ride to the finish in the morning. To celebrate, we went to the mall’s pub for a round of drinks to celebrate our race. That’s right, we multiple drinks in the middle of an adventure race, we spent an hour drinking in a bar. No regrets. Then it was off to bed, which, despite being made up of a very light foam pad and some stinky race clothes as a pillow, felt amazing for a solid eight hours of sleep.
In the night, a couple of teams came and went. We were definitely equal parts envious and relieved that we weren’t getting up at midnight or 2 a.m. and heading out into the night for more crazy adventures. Between deep dreams and restful slumber, we quietly wished them luck on their journey.
In the morning, we woke up and took our time getting organized, making sure we ate well and cleaning up in the bathroom - once again enjoying the luxuries of being able to take our time.
Eventually we headed out on our ride at around 8 a.m. but we didn’t get far. About 30 seconds after mounting up, Rick realized his tire had gone flat and we had to stop to change it. One false start complete, we got underway again, only to have some difficulties figuring out our way out of town. Finally finding our way onto a pedestrian bridge across a large river, we saw another team coming back in and felt a twinge of jealousy for them being able to complete a huge section of the course we would never see.
Beyond the bridge awaited another long climb, and we ended up having to dismount and walk large portions of the dusty, rocky uphill. We found the CP awaiting us at the top and continued on, We finally found some nice roads to bike but of course, before long, it began raining. We whipped out our rain gear, which we now knew from experience to keep quickly retrievable, and continued on, knowing at this point we only had four to six hours to the finish line.
Rick led us on, with the team quiet and determined, but also worn down from the race, despite the lengthy rest we had gotten the night before. We made it up to a bare ridgeline pockmarked with windmills and Eric and Cliff went around opposite sides of a big rock to try to find the next CP. Eric found it and told Cliff, who had the passport, to keep close to the rock, but Cliff ended up mired in a nasty thornbush, and Eric had a good laugh at his expense, as he stood near the CP, about 50 feet away from the rock. The downhill off the ridge was fast and fun, and we enjoyed the quickening of the pace while it lasted. The road ahead was paved, but full of dips and climbs, but we pressed on in fairly good time. We continued on through the undulating terrain, mostly on roads but hitting the occasional double-track trail. Our pace was pedestrian but steady.
Nearing CP 57 - the second-to-last CP of the race - the tricky nav momentarily got the best of Rick, and we ended up riding a few extra kilometers before finding the right track and the CP soon after. Then it was an easy ride along a very wet and swampy trail above a viaduct lining the lake we had paddled on three days before until we hit CP 58 and the escape from the woods, through a hole in a chain-link fence, and into As Pontes, where we rode through town and to the finish line in the middle of a deluge of rain. We were handed a bottle of champagne and celebrated with a just a little guilt, knowing that even though we hadn’t completed the full course, we could still call ourselves official finishers.
We didn’t linger long at the finish, as it was cold and we didn’t have a hotel room booked, which gave us a bit of anxiety. We headed off to the official race hotel and were able to get four very reasonably priced (~$50) rooms. We each did our own thing - showering, cleaning gear, calling family - until dinner. Eric wasn’t feeling well so we left without him, and grabbed a great meal in a bar Melody had discovered on the first day. We feasted and toasted and everyone was starting to feel really great about the team, our accomplishments, and the race, until Rick got a text from Eric, saying he needed a doctor urgently.
Fortunately, the finish line was still open and manned, and we were able to ask for the race doctor to visit Eric in the hotel. The doctor arrived soon afterwards and, after an inspection, hooked Eric up to an IV. We were all extremely relieved that the doctor said Eric would be fine, and that we had finished before his health gave out.
The next day featured a lot of packing and haggling with airlines over bicycle fees. There was some doubt Cliff would even be able to fly with his bike, as Lufthansa was not as clear as it could have been regarding what its policies were. Eric started feeling better by the afternoon and was able to accompany the team to dinner and the awards ceremony afterwards. We all enjoyed the musical performances and the speeches given by Naturex and FMR, the first- and second-placed teams. We couldn’t believe that those two teams had finished nearly a day ahead of us even though they had done more than 120 kilometers of additional course than us. Elite adventure racing teams really don’t get enough credit for just what amazing athletes they are.
There was a keg flowing at the after-party and we chatted with our new friends from South Africa, Brazil, Estonia, France and Kuwait, among other places. Even with so many great new friends around, the party still felt like it was small, because so many teams had been forced to abandon the race and had left Spain early. Still, there were enough people around to make it difficult to find who we needed to talk to before leaving. A small but organized search revealed Pablo, Victor and the rest of the organizing crew, and we made sure we told them how thankful and appreciative we were of them for putting together an incredibly fun, tough, and well-run race.
If there’s another Raid Gallaecia in 2019, Team Chaos Machine will do its best to be there, and we highly recommend the race to anyone with the will and means to attempt it.
As for Team Chaos Machine, we plan to be back in action at another two expedition races in 2018, and hope to use the lessons we learned in Raid Gallaecia to power us to greater achievements in the future.
We didn’t linger long at the finish, as it was cold and we didn’t have a hotel room booked, which gave us a bit of anxiety. We headed off to the official race hotel and were able to get four very reasonably priced (~$50) rooms. We each did our own thing - showering, cleaning gear, calling family - until dinner. Eric wasn’t feeling well so we left without him, and grabbed a great meal in a bar Melody had discovered on the first day. We feasted and toasted and everyone was starting to feel really great about the team, our accomplishments, and the race, until Rick got a text from Eric, saying he needed a doctor urgently.
Fortunately, the finish line was still open and manned, and we were able to ask for the race doctor to visit Eric in the hotel. The doctor arrived soon afterwards and, after an inspection, hooked Eric up to an IV. We were all extremely relieved that the doctor said Eric would be fine, and that we had finished before his health gave out.
The next day featured a lot of packing and haggling with airlines over bicycle fees. There was some doubt Cliff would even be able to fly with his bike, as Lufthansa was not as clear as it could have been regarding what its policies were. Eric started feeling better by the afternoon and was able to accompany the team to dinner and the awards ceremony afterwards. We all enjoyed the musical performances and the speeches given by Naturex and FMR, the first- and second-placed teams. We couldn’t believe that those two teams had finished nearly a day ahead of us even though they had done more than 120 kilometers of additional course than us. Elite adventure racing teams really don’t get enough credit for just what amazing athletes they are.
There was a keg flowing at the after-party and we chatted with our new friends from South Africa, Brazil, Estonia, France and Kuwait, among other places. Even with so many great new friends around, the party still felt like it was small, because so many teams had been forced to abandon the race and had left Spain early. Still, there were enough people around to make it difficult to find who we needed to talk to before leaving. A small but organized search revealed Pablo, Victor and the rest of the organizing crew, and we made sure we told them how thankful and appreciative we were of them for putting together an incredibly fun, tough, and well-run race.
If there’s another Raid Gallaecia in 2019, Team Chaos Machine will do its best to be there, and we highly recommend the race to anyone with the will and means to attempt it.
As for Team Chaos Machine, we plan to be back in action at another two expedition races in 2018, and hope to use the lessons we learned in Raid Gallaecia to power us to greater achievements in the future.