Hard to believe how fast the time flies by… it seems like just yesterday that I was wondering if we’d ever make it out of the desert!
But its already been 6 weeks, and we are gearing up to head to New Zealand for Coast to Coast in just a week.
We arrived in late on December 8th after two mostly uneventful flights. I met Jen in London; Bob and Bill flew in via Frankfurt. After the initial excitement of the swankiest hotel I’ve ever stayed in, I slept very well.
The next day was devoted to briefings, packing, gear checks, and topping up our food supplies. An amazing buffet dinner and opening ceremony occupied the early evening, then it was bedtime.
Race day 1 started pretty early, but we had our gear together and, after a solid breakfast (same wide-ranging menu three days in a row helped us get ‘comfortable’ with the local food) we headed downtown to the beach where 100 inflatable canoes were lined up. after an hour of getting the boats pumped, gear stowed, and ourselves warmed up we were off. our canoe was in the middle so we didn’t have far to run to get to it, which put us ahead of the pack through the first paddle. Then it was a run through the grounds of an opulent palace (or hotel?), swim, run back to the boats, paddle (our canoe was leaking some air so getting a bit slower over the course), run, and paddle back to finish. about 10 minutes from the end i broke the blade off a paddle, but thankfully team orion adventure (from new zealand) gave us a spare and we finished in good time.
next up was a bus transfer, an hour to get our loaner bikes fitted and tweaked (we were close, but not quite ready) and a 45-50 minute bike ride from Al Ain towards Jebel Haffeet mountain. Sliding seatposts and malfunctioning gears put us near the back off the start, but we worked hard and passed about half the teams again. Still on the clock we transitioned to run / mountaineer our way through a canyon and then over and down a mountain pass, where bob and bill rappelled and jen and i hiked down. reunited, we had a quick run to end the stage and the day.
Day 2 started at 6.30 am with a fast run over rough flats, through another short but steep mountain pass, and back to the bikes. from there it was back to the road and then up a 13 k climb (average grade ~ 8%) that twisted its way up the mountainside. at the top we were starting to feel a bit cooked, but switched again to mountaineering gear to scramble for a couple of hours hitting checkpoints on the upper stretches of the mountain before clipping in and out on a kilometer plus ‘via ferrata’ and rappel descent back to the desert ‘floor’. we headed west about a kilometre, then headed back up a different pass, again with lots of clipping in and out. at the top, feeling very parched and out of water, we made our way through the last few checkpoints and in to the finish. my shoes were pretty shredded. no problem sleeping on the bus to our next camp.
the camps, i should say, were sort of surreal. trucks bearing the insignia of the army officers club and hotel bore our meals, which were good and plentiful. trailers provided showers and washroom facilities, with running water provided by water tanker trucks. a ring of tents housed various administrative functions (first aid, timing, food). in the centre, a large campfire burned wood from somewhere (not a lot of trees around!) and large woven tents with carpets for floors and a variety of cushions provided a place to relax and eat. Racers’ tents scattered across the landscape, reflecting the tradeoff between privacy / quiet and how far a team was willing to haul their gear.
Day 3 started with breakfast at 2.30 am, and a race start time of 04.00. first up was a 95 km bike ride on asphalt then sand (which had been watered) then dryer sand, then finally a bumpy hard surface that was at least rideable, if uncomfortable. it was hard making progress, though leading teams reported success with running tubeless tires at very low pressure – not an option for us on bikes borrowed from the organization (but we were thankful to not have to haul more kit halfway around the world). At the end of that we had a half-hour to strip our bikes down of all the gear we had added / changed, then set off into the desert for a 100+ km trek. it was really hot, and in the middle of the day, so we took the first three hours of our required 8 hours ‘stop time’ at the third checkpoint. we headed off again with the temperature starting to drop, but the sun was also descending. bill was having trouble managing hydration, and eventually threw up just before dark. not a good situation! we pressed on to the next checkpoint, but stopped there for the rest of our time to allow him to recover. he made a good recovery, and we were off again around 1 AM, struggling a bit to find an efficient route through the dunes and knowing that, with all of our mandatory ‘stop time’ gone we had to keep going to hold our position. the sun came up, things got hot, and we passed teams that had taken their rest later. we missed the time cutoff for an optional checkpoint that would have let us do an extra 10-15 km of trekking by 30 minutes, and instead took a 6 hour time penalty. one other team ahead of us was in the same situation, and we worked hard to keep them from getting too far ahead. at the end of the stage, they had moved up the rankings and were sitting in 9th, just 6 minutes behind us.
The winds came up just before dawn on day 5, and were strong enough to force the organizers to cancel the day’s paddling stage. we spent the day lounging, eating, and recovering in our tents and in town at Mirfa city, and were ready for an early morning departure back to abu dhabi on day 6 for a final (shortened) paddle stage. I was disappointed not to have the opportunity to recover some of our losses over a long paddle stage, but my disappointment was quickly erased when I realized that the boat we had been allocated had a major leak that required dumping it out every 15 minutes. an organizer radioed ahead for us and we got a new boat after 1 lap / 11 km / 80 minutes. we then had to get the rudder / pedals recalibrated, and from then on it was hard work to recover time lost to the polish team that was right behind us in the overall standings. bob and bill’s kayak had a leaky bulkhead, which was slightly less severe but more difficult to tip out. by the end, however, we had managed to whittle the pole’s lead to one minute, which kept us ahead overall. whew! exhausted, we headed back to the hotel for yet another feast, awards, and well-earned sleep.
after that, we headed to dubai for a few days, checking out various malls (mostly for their attractions, like an indoor ski hill, fountains, and ‘themes’, beaches, a 60th story bar, but also enjoyed the “old” dubai with its traditional textile, spice, and gold markets, water taxis, and cheap, tasty food. then home again to the cold!
