The saving grace is that this will be our last night… but not the last night for teams further back. As Thule cross the finish line, there’s something like 205-kilometres between 1st and 10th and around 350-kilometres between 1st and last.
Today has been absolutely captivating as we’ve watched the front teams nearing the finish. Thule, who have been in first place for most of the race, didn’t have an operational tracker on this 156-kilometre mountain bike leg, so we didn’t know where they were. But we did hear that they were very tired and that they stopped to rest for a bit… but with Columbia chasing they couldn’t indulge in a good much-needed sleep. So, on they pushed.
Finally they got to the zipline (last transition) and their tracker was back and so the wonderfully supportive online community – who have been tracking this race non-stop since the race started – could follow this exhausted team to the finish. (Read Rob’s article about the team arriving at the last TA on SleepMonsters).
I’d be interested to know what their total sleep time has been. 10hrs? If that, I’m sure. Quite phenomenal! I’m sure they’ll be messed for weeks after this – to recover physically and from the effects of sleep deprivation.
Our eyes have been on Thule for a few hours now – willing them on. And at the same time Columbia is progressing towards the last transition, Tecnu and Adidas are battling it out for 3rd and our team, Merrell Adventure Addicts, are on their bikes and in the fray with BMS and Quasarlontra for 4th [Merrell’s track didn’t update for a while and before it went wonky they looked off course… it has just come back and they’ve lost some ground…].
Merrell still has around 10hrs (plus) to go to get to the finish – so we’ll be able to follow them in when we wake up.
While we’ve been glued to the front of the race for a week, there’s a lot happening further back. But hey, I’ll leave that to check out tomorrow because right now I’m willing our team home, safe and sound to the finish. They’ll be on their bikes, in the dark, while we’re sleeping. Not long now… comparatively.
And while most of the field, including Merrell, continue into this eighth night of the race, Thule and Columbia (just a zipline and guided rafting trip away from second) – get to sleep. The whole night. In beds. Tecnu and Adidas have a few hours to go still. Well done teams – a really incredible race and achievement.
Photo of Merrell trekking (a few days ago) by Nacho Cembellin – posted on the AR Costa Rica FB page.