I don’t think there’s much I can tell you that you haven’t been following on Live Tracking… I’ve been a bit all over the place today. Saw the front teams this morning at the Tugela Rapids and then a bit of this and that this afternoon.
Super to see Red Ants and Tecnu in the Spionkop Nature Reserve. What a beautiful place! We saw loads of giraffe, some zebra and bunch of antelope. I’ll link to Soren’s album when he uploads. We also got some super sunset shots – the sun going down behind the Drakensberg mountains with a rich, warm orange reflection on the dam.
We heard from Tecnu that Sweco were at the T3 (end of paddle) transition but we didn’t see them at all. When we left Omjakon where there and there was a massive gap back to the next teams.
Team Energy, who I saw below Woodstock Dam this afternoon, didn’t make the darkzone cut-off. BUT, a whole bunch of teams (eight or nine of them) did. I’m heading out later tonight to find some of them. We’re also heading to the Tugela Rapids (CP14) overnight stop to see what is happening there as teams coming in (since 5pm) have to stop and sleep there overnight. Photographer Soren’s team, Merrell Denmark, will be there later tonight so we’re aiming to find them. We’ll be back at the rapids early-early to see the ice-encrusted paddlers setting off at sunrise.
I’m currently at T4 to eat, shower and use Wi-Fi before we head out to go team hunting.
I’ll try to put something out for you when I can but signal is really bad (even struggling to get 2G/EDGE) and Wi-Fi here turns off at 20h30. I’ll be sleeping at Spionkop Dam tonight and on the move very early. If you’ve been following my tweets… I have my mom , Liz, to thank as I’ve been sending her text messages and she’s been tweeting them for me. Such is the signal here!
Definitely keep an eye on Rob Howard’s stuff on SleepMonsters. He has been more with the front teams today so he’ll have more – and different – news for you. The new Sleepmonsters website layout has gone live in the last day ot so – well done Rob and Richard.
Graham Bird has posted a bunch of videos (seven of them to be exact) from today on the Team Merrell Adventure Addicts website. They’re of a bunch of teams.
Thx Lisa. Great updates, really nice to follow. Can’t help but scratch my head about the enforced dark zone before the rapids. I understand the danger factor, but was wondering about the lack of alternatives should you just not manage to reach the cut off… Giving the teams behind you 13hrs to catch up with you…although I’m sure the teams would welcome some forced rest, this effect/gain due to rest cannot offset very well should the team behind you catch up and also enjoy 10hrs rest. This seems a dispraportionate intervention in the race?Could someone (or Lisa) help give us interested novices some better perspective on these type scenarios. Are these time factored/control points(?) typical to these longer races..? Etc. Etc. Thx a mill again Lisa, really appreciate the updates!
Hi Konrad. Dark zones are sooooo contentious. Really cool paddling tends to be the more difficult stuff and it generally isn’t safe for night paddling. Keep in mind that a lot of the course planning is done with a specific schedule in mind – expected time for the first group of teams and keeping in mind midfield teams. It’s impossible to accommodate Come hell or high water darkzoning is going to screw with some teams and benefit others. Teams are messed if they arrive soon within the start of the dark zone. This gives them a LONG night sitting doing nothing much. Of interest, many of the teams caught hadn’t slept the night before so they made good use of the time to dry clothes and get some sleep. I don’t think any were in too early on so it worked well for them. The benefit of reaching CP14 is that they had a warm place to sleep – on mattresses – with tea and coffee made for them by the race marshals. Some only got in very late so those few hours of sleep were just what the doctor ordered and were very appreciated – it got them through the next leg and cycle to T4.
The dark zone only applied here to the section of river directly after CP14 (Tugela Rapids). Those anywhere else on the river could do it at night. But, it was freezing cold so many pulled off the river at some stage to sleep – a cold and uncomfortable sleep. In some races dark zone are applied for whole paddle sections.
Teams who get way behind schedule on a previous leg (like the first hike) then are totally off schedule and they could get caught by the dark zone badly – but then maybe not too if they end up 24hrs behind the leaders. Then they’ll go straight through (in this case with the rapidly dropping water levels the section after CP14 was canned.
At the end of the day dark zones don’t work for everyone but in this race it actually seems to have worked out well for most teams.