Minutes before the race started, I had to go to the restroom. Unfortunately, the only one available was occupied and there were people (non-racers) waiting their turn. So I ran over to my support crew, got the keys to my car and picked up a roll of toilet paper, dropped off my backpack with the mandatory gear and off into the woods I went.

As I returned, I learned that the maps had been handed out. Being the navigator, I needed every second I could get with the map prior to the start of the race. As I was figuring out my way around the map, the race went off and so did we. I folded the map the best I could and we took off on a downhill concrete road.

All teams were practically in one big pack until I hear someone shout my name and ask me where my backpack was. I freaked and told Mayde that it was back at the start. I told the boys to keep going until they find any significant intersection while Mayde and I (there's a rule stating that team members cannot be more than 50 meters apart) went back uphill to the starting line. As soon as we turned around, I looked at my watch and saw that we were less than 10 minutes into the race. This meant we would be last in our category about 20 minutes behind overall.

We finally managed to regroup and off we went. As we reached the top, we were passed by the first novice team, which had started 15 minutes after the official start for the expert teams; they were racing a shortened course with less time on the bike. Checkpoint 1 was in the valley at the bottom of the first trekking section.

Once there, we received a 1:5000 orienteering map and a data sheet. We had to find 12 tags in consecutive order and fill out the data sheet correctly. We started making our way up and down the valley, repeatedly, in and out the river, and made very few errors. Juan saved me a couple of times; he simply saw things in the map a bit faster than I did, which was unexpected but very welcome. I guess he's just earned himself a new role as sub-navigator for future races. It was amusing to see teams dash past us in the wrong direction and then repass us in the right direction, only to err again, while we kept our slow but consistent pace.

Once we completed that section, we were back in the top 8 teams. We returned to the start (now CP 3) to pick up our bikes. Now we were in good spirits, having regained time lost and managing to pass a few other teams.

We rode until reaching the dirt and then began a nasty downhill. I had forgotten to unblock Mayde's front suspension (which was blocked for a MTB-on-pavement race a week ago) and she was having some issues, obviously, at the beginning. We took care of that and descended toward the other side of the mountain and back into the river. She rode like never before; her new bike and our recent long rides and races have helped her gain new confidence. I'm really proud.

Then, we just rode and rode for what seemed like ages, up and down. We never got too excited on the downhills because we knew that in this race, unlike Newton's apple, everytime we'd go downhill, we'd have to climb right back up.

We reached a paved area, and Carlos towed Mayde, which would theoretically allow Juan and me to push a harder pace and the 4 of us to go faster. But after a while, Juan got tired and Mayde and Carlos went on, unknowingly. So the only solution was for me to push Juan with one hand while we rode. I'm not that much faster than Juan so it was a good effort. The four of us met at the next intersection.

We reached another long downhill, Juan ate and hydrated more consistently and seemed to recover. At the bottom, two of us had to wear life jackets, use a children's inflatable and wade our way toward two different checkpoints while the other teammates had to carry the both our bikes and backpacks toward a place where we'd regroup. I decided to have CD and me in the water and Mayde and Juan walking, but it was probably the wrong decision since the two that went in the water were feeling stronger at the time and that activity was less strenous.

After about an hour, we regrouped and got back on the bikes. It was a grueling return through yet another mountain back to the starting place, which was now CP 6. From there, we took off on foot toward the rope section. The instructions were a bit ambiguous and we lost some time unsure of our whereabouts. We decided to keep on the same course and were proved right. We descended and reached the another part of the same river we had crossed with the bikes.

We had reached the ropes section. We rappelled next to a small waterfall, walked our way toward the bottom and jumarred our way up another rock section with another waterfall. Absolutely beautiful! Carlos Daniel had never even wore a harness before and did great on this section...what a natural.

Then we were instructed to read our maps and head toward CP 8 without removing our harnesses. We walked alonside a cliff, through a cave, and reached another rope section. This time we were out on a ledge, really exposed, and had to self-secure ourselves to a rope and cross about 200 meters. I'm not afraid of heights, but all it took was one look down and I just became very careful of each step. After crossing, we continued reading the map and began trekking uphill, but the line just wasn't convincing for me, so we asked a farmer in one of the few houses around where the road would lead, and it didn't match what I saw in the map, so we came back down, a little upset that we'd lost some time and energy.

We continued walking trying to find the right and found the four leading teams also lost trying to get their bearings (we were fifth and sixth at the time). They told us that they'd tried every possible route choice to no avail. They looked like crap, really tired and uninspired.

We decided that instead of taking their word, we'd try it out for ourselves, confident in all the navigation choices we'd made so far. So, about 100 meters after we last saw the other teams, I asked Carlos to go up a trail and see where it led while Juan, Mayde and I analyzed the map. While we waited the three of us agreed that this was clearly the right track, so we started climbing and met Carlos on his way down: he had good news. Everything matched what we were interpreting from the map, so we pushed on.

At this point, I told the guys that if we kept this position and pushed hard to the finish, we'd win. I was stopped by Mayde, who told me that it's not over til it's over; she's the boss in real life, so I just shut the hell up and kept moving.

What followed were two hours of an emotional mix of stress, joy and uncertainty that maybe the other teams would find a different route and get there first or that they'd finally find the right track and reel us in (those 4 teams are physically stronger than we).

Night time came. At one point, both of Mayde's shoelaces came undone, but she said she didn't care that she just wanted to keep going. I struggled for a while to keep this pace, but we were so close that I had to dig deep. We reached the top of the hill overlooking the valley where we'd originally done the orienteering section. We knew the finish wasn't far now. Mayde tied her shoes and we descended like mad. And after a while, there it was the FINISH LINE.

Once we got there, one of the volunteers told us we were fifth and sixth. He actually thought we were a novice team. That's what you get when you have a team comprised of a short chubby guy (me), a very pretty chubby girl (Mayde), a 19 year old (Carlos Daniel) and one very tired-looking athlete (Juan)!

WE WON (1st place Male Expert for Juan and CD, and 1st place Co-Ed Expert for Mayde and me) AND I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE IT!

The key for us was that we went at our consistent pace the whole time and navigated quite accurately. Though most of the other teams are physically stronger, I'm glad to say we worked great together and maybe outwitted them this time. Each one of us played an important role.

Trust my teammates more. Delegate duties a little more. Appoint a person to be in charge specifically of ensuring that everyone has hydrated and eaten properly.

Where's the beer? Finally our support crew informed the organizers that we were the overall winners.

The date of the awards ceremony is to be announced.


Nothing. This was definitely not a flawless performance for us. But that's the beauty of adventure racing; it's not always the fastest who wins.

This is the single-most important event of my life as an "athlete". And I'm glad to have shared it with my future wife and two good buddies. I'll never forget it. This means much more to me than having finished an iron-distance race or having beaten any PB in any single sport.


This event was great, prepared by racers for racers!

We were 12th overall and 5th co-ed in last year's race. So this result means a lot to us. As we headed toward the finish line, I remembered my second and third adventure races in which my respective teams finished last. I also recalled that last year Mayde and I missed the cutoff of a race by 4 minutes, and then in the following race we DNF'd because of a navigational error. A week prior to the race after that, I sprained my ankle pretty badly and DNS'd. I felt it was all worth it because those experiences helped us through in this race to never give up and never feel discouraged.

It's a little sad that some might feel that we got lucky in finding the right paths. The team that was in 1st place for most of the race came up to us after being rescued and asked how we found the trail, and after telling them, their sh*thead navigator said that we followed our intuition but that the map said otherwise. I guess that was his way of excusing himself for getting lost and dragging the other leading teams down with him. All I told him was that it was not only us who reached the finish line through those directions, but also the four novice teams made it in, who had a shorter bike course but had to use the same instructions for everything else. He just shrugged his shoulders and walked away; they were the only team not to congratulate us.

Melba, who is the best female AR race in our country but did not compete here, had tears of joy in her eyes as she told us about how proud she was of our accomplishment. I got goosebumps.

I've gotten lost more times than I can count in these types of races. Orientation is definitely the most important activity in these races; it doesn't matter how hard you can go if you're not going in the right direction.

I'm still trying to come to grips with the fact that we won. It wasn't even remotely in our wildest dreams!