4 Months on the Road
When I left NZ in May I knew it was going to be a long trip with a lot of challenges, and looking back it has definitely been an up and down journey.
Fortunately there has been plenty of success in the races lately plus a stunning course at the AWRC in Sweden and Norway to make the second half feel much easier than the few months in the USA…not to mention the fantastic cakes that Elina’s Mum has been dishing up on a daily basis here in Finland.
The last 6 weeks have seen us based out of Finland, in a little town called Ilmajoki – about 400km north of Helsinki. When we arrived it was light for 24 hours a day. Now only 6 weeks later it gets dark for almost 7 hours. They have definitely begun their rapid change from total light to total darkness.
It has definitely been a cultural experience for me with very few people here speaking English, including Elina’s parent’s so it has been a constant challenge to try and pick up more of the language, which from all accounts and personal experience is not the easiest to learn!
Last week I got back from Sweden and Norway from easily the best race I’ve ever had the fortune to race in.
When most raced directors are shunning the stunning areas around them and sending us instead through the most brutal and mind numbing terrain I found our team racing where we would chose to go adventuring outside of a race. By the end people weren’t relieved that it was finally over but were trying to sort through the maze of incredible experience as to what rated as the best?
More rideable single track than I’ve seen anywhere, glaciers, stunning mountains, lakes, ocean paddling under the northern lights, whales (and whale stew) the arctic circle in a t-shirt, cabins to sleep in, close racing and a win to cap it all off – what a week.
There are so many stories from the race it took 5 pages to put together so here a couple of the highlights and stranger moments from our race.
Our team consisted of Ian Adamson, Monique Merrell and Dave Weins who was drafted in just a week prior when another team member was forced out due to injury. Dave is a MTB legend but had only competed in one expedition race before this one and was a little light on some of the skills. On the first Mountaineering section, Dave was introduced to his jumar and learnt to use it in the heat of battle. He also learnt how to ascend a vertical rope using two jumars later in the race when he’d had a little less sleep - awesome
At one stage as we were paddling in the Norwegian Archipelago we were treated to a whale sighting and soon after as darkness set in the northern lights put on an incredible display for over an hour. Long spiralling wisps of light lit up parts of the sky, constantly twisting and changing before dissolving back into the night sky.
Also, during this section the sleep monster was hitting Dave so Mona decided we should do some intervals to keep use awake and keep the motivation up. What a situation, doing kayak intervals in the middle of the Norwegian Archipelago, chasing the Finns, looking for CP’s in the dark, watching the northern lights while whale watching and all during an 800km long race. No wonder people think we’re all crazy!
Another of the memories is from when we finally passed Team Finland on the way to the final glacier, after we caught them we trekked together for about 25 min. We finally managed to get a small jump on them and once we did, we started running for the next CP and so did the Finns. For the next 10 km to the glacier we ran as fast as we could only gaining a few minutes from them. As we arrived at the last glacier, it was spectacular, twisted ice, crevasses and the most technical ice work I’ve seen on an AR course. It was a race to get roped up and on the ice first, as once on course it was virtually impossible to pass. We ascended short near vertical slopes, went through an ice cave and cramponed between great slabs of ice. It was an amazing experience and the only shame was we were almost running around it to keep our lead.
It was a nice finish to the race, a scenic bike back to the where we had started our adventure and we were able to reflect on the ups and downs and the incredible places we had just seen. One thing that really struck us was how excited all the local people had been about the race, they had embraced it and us -helped all the teams with food at TA’s and brought their culture to the race.
Crossing the line brought a mixture of elation and relief. It was a fantastic race experience, with such a different team, course and race it was different in so many ways from our win with Balance Vector last year but a fantastic experience none the less. Racing with Ian who may not be as fast as he once was, but was like a little AR Yoda with his array of skills and unflappable belief in our tactics was a great learning experience, Mona’s passion and Dave’s remarkable effort in only his second AR race combined to make it an awesome experience.
Afterwards it was back too Finland for only 2 weeks before heading to the Raid Word Championships in Quebec. Lots of eating, sleeping and a little more orienteering, which I have developed a passion for over here. I don’t think any of the NZ orienteers need to be worried just yet but after starting off almost 2 hours in arrears of the top guys in my first few races I have got the times down to a respectable 15 min behind and I’m now usually not last!
I have found it helps to look the part though – for some reason it seems to make you go faster, maybe you just don’t want your friends to see you dressed like a clown. It seems compulsory over here to wear long polyester pants, a variety of heinous colours are available but purple and green seem especially popular and the top of you local club. The latest ones appear almost trendy in comparison to some I saw but it seems they also last forever. Some of the old guys were wearing tops that had to come from the 50’s. In saying that though once I was decked out it seemed to be worth a good 20 min in the overall results.
Looking forward to getting home and seeing the beach, sounds like I missed a great ski season but the all year summer has been nice too – and Nelson already looks like it’ll be nice and warm just in time for us to get home!