Thursday, November 5, 2009

World Championships: PORTUGAL



OK, I'm not racing, but 4 of my nuun-FeedTheMachine.com teammates will be competing in the Adventure Racing World Championships that start on the 8th in Lisbon, Portugal. The 59 international Teams are expected to be finished and off the course by the 13th.

We would like to see the team improve over last year's 6th place finish at the World Championship at ECO MOTION Brazil, however this year's unique format may make luck as big a factor as fitness, navigation, teamwork and cunning. Along with the mandatory checkpoints from point A to Z, there will be Optional checkpoints available on the course. Even the teams with the best navigation and fitness can lose the race if they Opt for an optional checkpoint and wind up bogged down in terrain or circumstances that are not on the map. Speaking from experience, even the newest maps are not always 100% accurate and can be misleading to even the sharpest navigators.

It will be fun to watch!

This time I get to bring the popcorn while THEY bring the pain!

Actually I will be going long this weekend...paddling on the ocean on Saturday and running and mountain biking in the Santa Monicas on Sunday.

2 comments:

Tom Bailey said...

I like your blog! I connected to you through a search on charity, I am also into endurance sports - just marathons though. I do some mountain biking but just as X-training.

Portugal, is an amazing place to ride I have heard from a friend of mine that is from there. He also says great things about the wine and climate.


Best regards

SC said...

Thanks Tom!

It turns out the race was a bit different than everyone expected. www.sleepmonsters.com has excellent reporting on what went down. It does sounds like a beautiful part of the world.

SC