I think I'm finally seeing straight and somewhat awake now. It's been a week today that my teammates and I crossed the finish line in Costa Rica after racing 500km, 103hours on 5 hours of sleep. Adventure Race Costa Rica 2010 is part of the World Series AR. This was the first year for the Costa Rica Race and WOW these guys put on an incredible, well run race indeed! I was fortunate to join this adventure with Team Real Costa Rica/ Costal Challenge consisting of 3 amazing Tico's ( Costa Rican's ) Rodrigo Carazo, Eduardo Baldioceda, and Sergio Sanchez. I was hooked up with the guys through our mutual friends the Ecuadorians. I had never raced with the CR before but was guaranteed an amazing good time full of laughs and that we would make it to the finish! Top 5 would be a bonus. The more epic the conditions the more this team seemed to succeed. They have many years of AR experience and the navigation led by Rodrigo was bang on! Our personalities and attitudes were a match all around. What better way to race and experience a country then with the locals. Eduardo works as a guide and had eyes like a hawk for spotting all the critters and snakes with much knowledge to share about CR. The race: We had an unique start on white water rafts. We ran down to our assigned raft and guide and off we went on a very thrilling river! Time went by pretty quickly as we raced between the other rafts. It was bout a 4 hour paddle. First TA was on to the mountain bike. The beginning of the race had shorter transitions. From Bike to hike to bike to zip lines to bike to hike. It's all a blurr to me now. The first night was one of the highlights. After hiking up to a lake and seeing 2 tarantulas and some other crazy spider we took this amazing canyoneering section back down. 2.5 hours we waddled through warm rushing river from boulder to boulder the water never getting higher then the waist down this amazing canyon. There was a couple beautiful water falls coming in to it on the side. Now this was Costa RiCa! Traveling through it in the dark added to the exoticness. The water was rushing pretty hard at some points which we were able to take the high road. When we reached the bottom we were stunned by bright lights of cameras as the local news was there filming us for the daily segment on the race all week along with ESPN south america. Latter in the week when we got to villages we would get asked to take pictures of us as we were "the crazy ones from T.V." The race had a mandatory 2 hour stop which was placed around the half way point. Our strategy was to make it there for our first sleep. Half way took a little longer then to be expected. Sleep monsters were after us and just before the last hiking section to the mandatory stop over I voted for a 10min eye rest. My vision was going squirrelly. 10 min helped and we made it to our point of rest nearly 48hrs without sleep. Too long! Bodies were feeling abused at this point. Teams were dropping out from foot problems, heat exhaustion. My feet were doing pretty good but my body had heat rash and OMG it was BAD! It came in waves, it felt like needles all over your body almost like a muscle spasm you'd cry out. I also felt like puking from the smell of myself. Really, like never ever before have I smelt like that. I don't know what I was burning off but honestly I was almost scared something was seriously wrong with me it was that bad. After a 1.5hr sleep we were back out hiking in the hottest, most humid part of the race up by an active volcano. I wish I remembered the name of places. When I got to the top of the hike I looked like I jumped into a lake. My shorts were so wet from humidity they stuck to me and I dripped of sweat. We made it to the kayak section just before dark. The water was calm as can be. 5 hours we were on the lake. This night was my 3 year wedding anniversary that I was missing and Eduardo's wife's birthday. We received a present out there though. The most amazing sight from the middle of the lake, we watched the volcano erupt and spew red lava out. Incredible!!! Best seats, clear night. Truly amazing. The sleep monsters were back and after the guys this time. Funny how you start to make no sense. I was amused listening to Sergio fight the sleepiness. The monster caught up to me at the very end too as I beached us into some rocks falling asleep. My sleep gibberish was " can't wait to use the washrooms on shore, hope they have them plugged in and ready for me" Hun? We had pizza ready for us when we got to shore. We ate really well in this race as it passed through many villages. After some food and a short hike we slept on some couches at a lodge we passed by. Must had been too comfortable though as we sleep 1.5 hour longer then we wanted to. 3 hour sleep we had. We needed it though. We still had our last 170km bike leg to get through. Our finial long ass bike leg started way up high descending through the cloud forest. Another highlight. Looking over the edge of the road it was all clouds. Mystical, magical, beautiful CR! Bike Bike Bike. Then Down poor! This was the first rain we had had. It rains buckets here. Couldn't see in front and ruts were starting to form in the road. It was dark now too, we needed to pull over and wait this one out. Two lovely women waved us into their home out of the rain. CR hospitality at it's finest. We dried out our cloths, they cooked us food and welcomed us into the quaint home. The rain passed and we were back out. It was slow going, hiking through mud and cow shit. Our finial CP proved to be an epic in finding. After 2.5 hours looking we thought we were done. Cutting our losses we turned around along with the Canadian team and headed back out..... but low and behold. Ahhhha. We got it! Out of place but found. Now it was a press for the clock to make it back before cut off. We busted our ass and was pleasantly surprised to find the finial leg rerouted due to flooding. We made it to the end. 103hours of racing finishing 4th. Out of 18 teams 5 teams fully completed the coarse and award machetes. Really, a machete! That's awsome. People's feet were completely destroyed and the heat was apparent amongst all in some way. Thanks for the amazing Costa Rican Adventure. I hope to come back and sit on a beach next time. We saw 5 snakes, frogs, spiders, weasel, monkeys ( have you ever heard a howler monkey rorr? Sounds like a sasqwatch. creepy ) The jungle was so alive and noisy with life at night. Incredible Costa Rica.
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