|
Updates
from the 2003 Eco-Challenge North America Championship (July 20-26,
2003) |
|
Barb Dutrow, CSR member, is currently participating as a member of Team Santa Fe in the 2003 Eco-Challenge North American Championship that is hosted in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. This is an expedition-length (350-500 km) adventure race that involves 4-member coed teams in which all members must complete the entire course. If any member drops out, for any reason, the entire team is disqualified. This championship involves 36 teams from the US and Canada. Team Santa Fe members include Barb Dutrow, Carl Gable, Joel Krypel and new team member, John Fruedenberger, from Ohio. All team members are experienced in adventure racing. Because there is no support team, this report will be generated from website information, media contacts and speculation. |
|
Information from the Eco-Challenge North America website: "The diverse terrain of Sault Ste. Marie will offer competitors an extremely challenging race course, as they cover approximately 350 km using only non-motorized forms of transport ("disciplines"). Co-ed teams of four will race non-stop, 24-hours a day for up to six days. This race will combine several disciplines including: fixed ropes, mountain biking and canyoneering. Competitors will also experience the Northern Ontario paddling mecca as they travel through both flat and white water. The course will include healthy portages that connect the myriad of lakes and rivers that range in size from small tributaries to the daunting Lake Superior. With an intricate network of waterways and heavily forested areas, teams can expect a wide choice of routes characterized by very challenging navigation. |
|
“Sault Ste. Marie is a great example of the Canadian outdoors. We could have chosen from a dozen other courses across North America and each option was tougher than the last. But, it was Sault Ste. Marie that had it all - class four rapids on Lake Superior, technical descents, and gruesome mountain bike trails through the inland.” says Steve Menzie, Race Director.The City of Sault Ste Marie is situated in Northern Ontario on the eastern side of Lake Superior and shares a border with Michigan's Upper Peninsula - perfect for the North American Championship. Located at the mid-point of the Trans-Canada Highway, the population of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is 76,000 with neighbouring Sault Ste. Marie Michigan, having approximately 18,000 citizens." |
|
|
|
|
|
July 26 2003
(Saturday)
12 noon ETZ - ~141 hours into the race (official finish) This was the official cutoff time for the race. Only three teams actually made it by the noon cutoff. It is known that Team Salomon Canada (Sault Ste. Marie) finished the race in first, Algoma Water Tower (Sault Ste. Marie) was second, and Team Eastern Outdoors (New Brunswick) was third. After that it is uncertain, because the coverage seems to have stopped after the first two teams finished. Barb reports that there were 7 teams that were given rankings at the end of the race, but she pointed out that she knows that one or more of these teams were pulled off the course. I found out that only three teams finished the race. Team Santa Fe came out of the race in fairly good shape other than being very tired. Based on their relative placement during the race they were probably in roughly 15th place. However, because of the length of the race and abbreviated cutoff times they were forced to continue in the race as an unranked team. Despite this, Barb said that the team did very well. 5 am ETZ - ~134 hours into the race At 5 am, Team Santa Fe was pulled from the race at CP11 after missing a 4 am cutoff time. This was not unexpected - at this point it appears that only 4 teams will be able to complete the course as ranked teams. Barb called and said that all team members were doing well but were exhausted after a few hours sleep. Now they have to go back and pack their gear for departure tomorrow. The closing ceremony is at Searchmont at 4 pm this afternoon.
|
photos by Martin Paquette and Luis Moreira) |
|
July 25 2003 (Friday) 7 pm ETZ - ~124 hours into the race The guessing game continues - Team Santa Fe arrived at CP10 at 1:22 pm (Fri) and was reported to have left at 5:10 pm for the last grueling bike leg. The hotline reported that the bike leg as 288 km. However, based on the map it is almost certainly not that distance. Nonetheless, the two teams that have finished up to this point took 20-21 hours to complete this leg. To complete the course at the noon cutoff time, Team Santa Fe will need to finish this leg in less than 17 hours. Two teams, both from the Sault Ste. Marie area, have completed the course. Team Salomon Canada finished the course at 9:05 am Friday in 4 days, 20 hours and 21 minutes. The second place team was Algoma's Water Tower Inn team who finished at 12:54 pm Friday afternoon. There is a short video of the winners. Of the remaining teams out on the course, there are only 6 teams that remain ranked and there are 8 teams that are trying to finish as unranked teams. That means that 20 teams have been eliminated. It will be interesting to see the final tally tomorrow.
|
|
|
July 24 2003
(Thursday)
10 pm ETZ - ~105 hours into the race Although the website does not show it Team Santa Fe is apparently progressing well as an unranked team. Because they missed the cutoff time at CP5 they were transported to CP8 to continue the race as an unranked team. The website shows that Team Santa Fe arrived at CP5 at 5:40 pm on Wednesday and departed CP8 at 6:09 am on Thursday, so it is likely that they get some rest overnight. According to the people at the race hotline Team Santa Fe started the canoeing leg at CP8 at 6 am and arrived at CP9 at about 12 noon (However, remember that they gave incorrect information in the past.). At CP9 they faced what the organizers call "the wall of doom" - a bit overly dramatic. This involves a roughly 400' ascent of a rope that is free-standing, and the a 400' descent through a waterfall. Each team member must do this. Assuming they have done this, they face the next canoe leg to CP10 against the current of the river. The fastest team took 22 hours in this leg. You could probably assume that Team Santa Fe will not arrive at CP10 until Friday evening. This leaves a final bike leg to the finish that has taken fresh riders about 10 hours. The cutoff for finishing the race is noon on Saturday. The race organizers expect Team Salomon Canada to finish this evening about 10 pm. There remain only 8 other ranked teams that are competing. It is expected that most of these will finish in time for the official cutoff - but that may not happen. The race distance discrepancy may be solved - and it might be termed the "NASA contractor" syndrome (remember the crashed Mars spacecraft of a few years ago). Apparently, the number 350 was out there as the distance, but that is actually the total distance in miles and not kilometers. If you make the conversion of miles to kilometers you get about 570 kilometers.
|
|
|
July 23 2003
(Wednesday)
11 pm ETZ - ~82 hours into the race According to the race hotline, Team Santa Fe did not make the 12 noon cutoff time for CP5 and arrived at 5:40 pm. Consequently, they will continue the race as an unranked team. (Note: this is in contrast to the earlier report from the hotline that had Team Santa Fe traveling between CP5 and CP6.) They will be transported to CP8 which is the beginning of a canoe leg. This leg is potentially very difficult, in part because it takes the teams against the current of the river. In the middle of this leg the teams apparently have to do some ascents and descents on ropes. The organizers estimate that this leg will take 24 hours. However, based on the accuracy of their other estimates it will likely take at least 36 hours. Of the starting 36 teams there are only 11 teams left officially in the race. The full course is over 570 km long and not the 350 km that was initially indicated by the organizers. Obviously, the race organizers did not properly estimate the length and difficulty of the course with the time element involved. There is an entertaining video of Team Santa Fe coming into CP5. 7 teams are listed as being
disqualified and 17 are continuing unranked for a variety of reasons.
There is another video of
some of the action of Day 3.The question is: will any team be able
to complete the course in the allotted time? 3 pm ETZ - ~74 hours into the race Team Santa Fe is still holding on to 14th place and is doing very well. According to the race hotline, Team Santa Fe is currently on the water between CP5 and CP6. There is a picture of Barb on the right to prove this. The day is generally sunny and breezy, but this can change locally. At CP6 the team transitions to another mountain bike leg of about 50 km length. After that leg they face a grueling canoe segment of about 50 km, against the current! Roughly 10 teams are out the race already. There were no major injuries, but the wet and the cold of the nights produced hypothermia in some of the racers such that they could not continue. One of the favorite teams missed two of the CPs on the kayak section, and were eliminated. There is also a cutoff time at CP5 at midnight Wednesday, and if teams do not make it there they will be eliminated. It is likely that several more teams will be forced to drop at that point. Latest team results as of midnight (Tuesday): 1st place - Team Salomon Canada
(Ontario)
|
|
|
July 22, 2003
(Tuesday)
12 midnight ETZ - ~59 hours into the race Team Santa Fe is still listed as not having passed CP2 on the website. However, upon calling the race hotline I found out that Team Santa Fe had passed CP3 and left at 8:20 pm. They were roughly in 14th place at that point. CP2, CP3, CP4, CP5 and CP6 are all parts of the sea kayaking legs that will be about 120 km in length. The weather on the Lake is currently calm, but that can change rapidly and violently on Lake Superior. Based on previous team's performance on the CP3 to CP4 leg it is likely that it will likely take Team Santa Fe 7-12 hours to reach CP4. The only team that is finished with the sea kayaking leg is the lead team, Team Salomon Canada. It took this lead team 33 hours to complete the sea kayaking legs, and the race organizers estimated that this would take 22 hours. Obviously, the organizers were very optimistic about the time commitment for this leg. It will be interesting to see how the teams respond. Team Salomon Canada is still in the lead by about 6 hours with 3 teams in pursuit. Apparently all of the teams have reached CP1 and most have reached CP2, so they are not still lost in the woods. The media group has put together a short video of day 2 of the race.
2 pm ETZ - ~49 hours into the race The race is now a bit over two days long and a few more results are coming in on the website. Team Santa Fe came into the CP1 transition are at 3:30 pm on Monday and left at about 6 pm, presumably after getting some more food and a bit of rest. They left the CP about mid-pack in 17th place. The next leg is an 80 km mountain bike leg that they should have completed by now (although it does not show up on the website yet. I would guess that they are in the sea kayaking segment after CP2. This is a 170 km section of sea kayaking that begins at Scott Falls just 10 km south of Wawa. As previously noted, kayaking an Lake Superior can be very difficult and teams without experience or with bad luck can have a nasty surprise. The lead teams appear to be tightening. The sea kayak leg appears to be a big equalizer. Team Salomon Canada is still in the lead but 4 other teams are closing in. The race is starting to take its toll on some of the teams with Team Leatherman being disqualified due to injury of a team member, and three other teams continuing unranked due to radio contact rules. As of this time, the website lists 6 teams as not having reached CP1 yet.
|
|
|
July 21, 2003
(Monday)
11 pm ETZ - ~34 hours into the race Currently, the information on the website still has only 13 of 36 having passed CP1. This is the end of the 35 km trek leg. However, information from the Media center says that 17 teams have currently passed CP1, including Team Santa Fe. The weather was quite wet with medium to hard rains during the day. Apparently, each little valley has its own microclimate and conditions will be quite variable during the race. Team Santa Fe is currently on the 80 km bike leg to CP2. The other big news is that the race organizers underestimated the distance, and it is actually closer to 550-575 km long! Just based on the time estimation that the organizers made for the first leg, it seems likely that at least half of the teams will be unable to complete the race in the allotted time. Currently, there is one team (Team Leatherman) that is eliminated due to an eye injury (corneal bruise). There are 3 other teams that are listed as unranked meaning that they contacted the race headquarters by radio, and may be disqualified pending the ruling by the race officials. The lead team is still Team Salomon who is out in the kayak leg between CP3 and CP4. The wet and windy weather would make things very difficult in a sea kayak on Lake Superior. There are 3 other teams that have passed CP2. 1 pm ETZ - ~24 hours into the race The weather overnight saw light to
moderate amounts of rain to make things wet, slippery and cold.
Bushwacking in these conditions is not pleasant. The initial trekking
leg from start to CP1 was about a 35 km. The lead team is Team Salomon, having reached CP1
at 12:20 am. Although the website has only 4 teams having reached that
CP, the media center has said that most teams are through CP1 at this
point, and 4 teams have gone through CP2. CP1 begins an 80 km mountain
biking leg that ends up near Lake Superior, ending in the town of Wawa (due
north of the start).. The lead team (Team Salomon
Canada) took about 6.5 hours in this leg. At CP2 there is a relatively
short 10 km trek to the shores of Lake Superior and a grueling leg of sea
kayaking that the organizers estimate will take 22 hours. This could
also be an underestimate in that the winds and the waves on the Lake can
be treacherous.
|
|
|
July 20, 2003 - Race start (12:44 pm ETZ).
The start of the race does not begin immediately in the morning. Instead, the teams must assemble at 6:45 am at the Algoma Central Train station for a two-hour ride about 100 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie to the Agawa Canyon, the actual starting point of the race. According to tour information, the Agawa Canyon Tour Train is one of the most spectacular train tours in North America that travel 114 miles through the rugged wilderness until you reach the Agawa Canyon. During the train ride competitors received their maps and the locations of the first 5 check points (CPs). This is a time that each team can develop a strategy for the initial stages of the race.
The EcoChallenge North America Championship race actually began at 12:44 pm (ETZ) on Sunday, July 20, 2003 at the Agawa Canyon. At that time the 36 teams from the US and Canada began the race in partly cloudy conditions with a temperature of 23°C (73°F). Conditions call for possibility of some rain, but generally partly cloudy with lows about 10°C The initial leg is a trekking leg that will require expert navigation through the heavily wooded hills of the Agawa Canyon area. Because of the dense woods and subdued topography it is likely that this leg will find teams that are lost. An added difficulty is that this area is full of iron-rich rocks that may result in erroneous readings of the compass. The initial CP of the race is at Wawa, Ontario (roughly due north of the starting point). The race officials speculate that the lead teams will reach the initial CP about 17 hours after the beginning of the race (that would be about 6 am). Prior to the arrival of the teams at CP1 it is only a guess where the teams might be, and how well the race officials have estimated the difficulty of the course. This part of the course will require a significant amount of bushwacking which has nearly stopped teams in previous adventure races (See the story on a peculiar strategy for starting the race.) |
Pictures of the
beginning of the race
|
July 19, 2003 - Sault Ste. Marie - Completion of equipment and ability check and opening ceremony. Team Santa Fe makes final equipment and food preparations for the race. The opening ceremonies (6:30-8:30 pm) involved local entertainment and final information. To top things off, the race officials contacted each team at 11:30 pm to make sure that they are ready to go at 6:45 am. The teams will be taking a train ride to the start of the race. July 18, 2003 - Sault Ste. Marie - Mandatory equipment and ability checks. Each team must have equipment and abilities approved by the race directorship. The skills include self-rescue in kayaks and a variety of rope techniques. Team Santa Fe passed these tests with the exception of a harness problem that was encountered. John Fruedenberger's father came to the rescue by delivering a new harness. July 17, 2003 - The team arrives in Sault Ste. Marie - barely. Team Santa Fe arrived Sault Ste. Marie with a number of very tight connections. |
|
