2019 NIAR, EPILOGUE
The feeling of finishing an expedition race is always a little surreal. You’ve dedicated yourself to forward movement for the last 4-7 days and you finally allow yourself to stop and relax. It’s not always the easiest transition. Plus, your brain is silly-putty from sleep deprivation. For all of us, NIAR was the longest race we had ever done, and we felt it. Adding to the weirdness of the moment, there was a colorful Indian wedding, as well as around a million cruise-ship tourists in the park. We had to confirm with each other that we were not hallucinating.
After about 30 minutes of hanging around at the finish, we decided to ride down the hill to the hotel before we got too stiff. The hotel was nice, and we all took showers and naps of varying intensities, then went to find our bike boxes and TA bags to start the clean-up process – we were all flying out the next day, Sunday.
Packing up was difficult but was made more fun by sharing a conference room with the foursome from the Kuwaiti team. They were all from different continents, and Deb (from Belgium) was also signed up for Eco Challenge, so we had a great time talking with her about that, and with the others about their own crazy experiences during NIAR. Apparently, they had made it onto the final trek, only to have one teammate just completely break down and necessitate a call for a ride.
The awards ceremony was a low-key affair, taking place in the hotel restaurant, which offered a buffet dinner for racers and other hotel guests unfortunate enough to choose to eat at the hotel that night. An impressive performance from the no-nonsense Swedish Armed Forces team landed them first place easily; in second were the young bucks from Hamilton AR, another Swedish team. Third place was taken home by the French team of Tuc-Tri Absolu Raid, who were friendly but who didn’t speak much English. Two other teams finished the full course: the Australians from HARd Day's Night, and the Canadians from Storm Racing. One of the most fun parts of this race was getting to know all the teams, since there were only nine of us in the race. As always at any adventure race I’ve ever been to, everyone was incredibly friendly at NIAR. The final dinner definitely had a wistful quality as we shared a few final hours with the fellow racers and volunteers with whom we had shared such indescribable experiences.
Before we headed off to finish packing and then get some sleep before our departures the next day, we approached RD Micke to settle a matter of pride. In the comfort of our hotel room, with full high-speed wi-fi, we checked the race website and saw we were listed as unranked. But Micke confirmed to us that we were official short-course finishers, and that gave us a large measure of self-congratulatory happiness as we retreated back to our rooms for some more desperately-needed sleep. In no time, we were zonked out and dreaming dreams of adventure racing. Powerful, vivid AR dreams, which I have gotten since I started racing six years ago and which, since then, I never have been able to dispel, no matter how much or how long I race. It’s now just an accepted fact of life for me. But these dreams had new details – new geographies, new colors. Endless green Swedish plateaus, sepia-toned Norwegian hills, black reflective mountain lakes, towering brown spires of rock, airy yellow mountain passes, bright red strawberry fields, dark blue fjords.
After we finished, I felt the pride of adding a meaningful life experience to my personal resumé. But that night, and in nights since, when I dream, it’s clear that I also something added deeply meaningful to my subconscious, which is as close as I get to making an equivalency to my soul. I notice many people, including myself, often struggle to describe why they love adventure racing. For me, the answer is related to this feeling of soul-growth. As you can see, it’s nearly impossible to describe, but I’m pretty sure if you’re an adventure racer, and you’ve read this report all the way to here, that you know exactly what I’m talking about. And because of that, if we see each other at any race in the future, we’ll be able to look each other in the eye and not have to say a word. There will be a silent understanding of why we do this, and a deep respect of that mutual understanding. Even with my toes still numb, more than three weeks after the 2019 Nordic Islands Adventure Race, I can’t wait until I arrive at the next starting line. And I look forward to sharing that line with you.
After about 30 minutes of hanging around at the finish, we decided to ride down the hill to the hotel before we got too stiff. The hotel was nice, and we all took showers and naps of varying intensities, then went to find our bike boxes and TA bags to start the clean-up process – we were all flying out the next day, Sunday.
Packing up was difficult but was made more fun by sharing a conference room with the foursome from the Kuwaiti team. They were all from different continents, and Deb (from Belgium) was also signed up for Eco Challenge, so we had a great time talking with her about that, and with the others about their own crazy experiences during NIAR. Apparently, they had made it onto the final trek, only to have one teammate just completely break down and necessitate a call for a ride.
The awards ceremony was a low-key affair, taking place in the hotel restaurant, which offered a buffet dinner for racers and other hotel guests unfortunate enough to choose to eat at the hotel that night. An impressive performance from the no-nonsense Swedish Armed Forces team landed them first place easily; in second were the young bucks from Hamilton AR, another Swedish team. Third place was taken home by the French team of Tuc-Tri Absolu Raid, who were friendly but who didn’t speak much English. Two other teams finished the full course: the Australians from HARd Day's Night, and the Canadians from Storm Racing. One of the most fun parts of this race was getting to know all the teams, since there were only nine of us in the race. As always at any adventure race I’ve ever been to, everyone was incredibly friendly at NIAR. The final dinner definitely had a wistful quality as we shared a few final hours with the fellow racers and volunteers with whom we had shared such indescribable experiences.
Before we headed off to finish packing and then get some sleep before our departures the next day, we approached RD Micke to settle a matter of pride. In the comfort of our hotel room, with full high-speed wi-fi, we checked the race website and saw we were listed as unranked. But Micke confirmed to us that we were official short-course finishers, and that gave us a large measure of self-congratulatory happiness as we retreated back to our rooms for some more desperately-needed sleep. In no time, we were zonked out and dreaming dreams of adventure racing. Powerful, vivid AR dreams, which I have gotten since I started racing six years ago and which, since then, I never have been able to dispel, no matter how much or how long I race. It’s now just an accepted fact of life for me. But these dreams had new details – new geographies, new colors. Endless green Swedish plateaus, sepia-toned Norwegian hills, black reflective mountain lakes, towering brown spires of rock, airy yellow mountain passes, bright red strawberry fields, dark blue fjords.
After we finished, I felt the pride of adding a meaningful life experience to my personal resumé. But that night, and in nights since, when I dream, it’s clear that I also something added deeply meaningful to my subconscious, which is as close as I get to making an equivalency to my soul. I notice many people, including myself, often struggle to describe why they love adventure racing. For me, the answer is related to this feeling of soul-growth. As you can see, it’s nearly impossible to describe, but I’m pretty sure if you’re an adventure racer, and you’ve read this report all the way to here, that you know exactly what I’m talking about. And because of that, if we see each other at any race in the future, we’ll be able to look each other in the eye and not have to say a word. There will be a silent understanding of why we do this, and a deep respect of that mutual understanding. Even with my toes still numb, more than three weeks after the 2019 Nordic Islands Adventure Race, I can’t wait until I arrive at the next starting line. And I look forward to sharing that line with you.
