Feature Press Release for
The Mild Seven Outdoor Quest Adventure Race
by Martin Dugard
Even more than Borneo‚s legendary jungles, even more than the roiling South China Sea, even more than their fellow elite competitors, athletes in the 2002 Mild Seven Outdoor Quest feared one facet of the competition above all others: equatorial heat. It was no idle rumination. With the heat index forecasted to reach 120 degrees, there would be no escaping heat‚s withering properties. "It takes away your ability to race hard, by as much as twenty percent, I‚d say,‰ Steve Gurney of New Zealand‚s Team Hi-Tec said warily. He had trained for Mild Seven Outdoor Quest by placing his stationary bike in a greenhouse, cranking up the heat, then donning two layers of clothing. "It dehydrates you, casts a layer of fatigue over everything you do.‰
As they toed the starting line on November 23rd in the resort town of Kota
Kinabalu, those fears seemed warranted. It was dawn, but a cloak of heat and
humidity enveloped the racers. Pre-race favorites Hi-Tec, Finland's Team
Nokia, America's Team GoLite, and Team Switzerland raidnature.ch eyed each
other warily, not sure whether to race conservatively and perhaps fall behind,
or push a torrid pace and maybe suffer the indignity of slowing to a crawl due
to severe dehydration.
In the end, it was a little of both. Racing conservatively when prudent, but
showing an even greater inclination to race as hard as humanly possible, Team
Hi-Tec won their second consecutive Mild Seven Outdoor Quest. Nokia was
second, just 27 minutes back, followed by GoLite. "There was never a low
moment out there," said Aidan Craig of Hi-Tec at the finish line. "We raced on
the front, which was very motivating, and made as little mistakes as possible.
But," he added, alluding to the same intense heat that had sunburned his face
and hands, and drenched his entire body in water, "I'm absolutely glad this is
the right day. I'm very tired."
The 2002 Mild Seven Outdoor Quest marked its sixth incarnation, and the first
year of being held outside China. The event is a multisport stage race, with
four-person teams ˆ each having at least one athlete of the opposite gender or
over the age of 50 ˆ contesting four stages of such adventure disciplines as
mountain biking, trail running, ocean kayaking, whitewater paddling, and
abseiling. The team with the lowest cumulative time takes home the lion's
share of the $200,000 (US) purse.
The move to Borneo was a bold maneuver on the part of race organizers, taking
it from the relative seclusion of China's mountainous Yunnan Province into a
land synonymous with adventure. "We feel Borneo will be a little tougher, a
little more adventurous," race director Murphy Reinschreiber noted as
competition got underway. "Every year we've been doing this, the athletes have
gotten faster and tougher. I think this will be a great challenge for them."
Day One began with competitors racing down a white sandy beach, then swimming
to waiting sea kayaks. Hi-Tec and GoLite got to the craft first and began
paddling the graceful windmill-like kayak strokes. As protection from the sun,
Hi-Tec ˆ constantly mindful of the climatic differences between New Zealand
and Borneo ˆ raced in long tropical weight pants, long-sleeved shirts and
floppy hats. They looked like ambitious tourists as they left GoLite and the
rest of the field behind. "I don't know what we did," Murray shrugged when the
day was done, sitting in a patch of shade on Nexus Beach. "We didn't start
paddling particularly hard. We just got away from them."
Left unsaid was the attention to detail marking Hi-Tec's breakaway ˆ the
oddball stationary bike training back home (Murray's version of a greenhouse
was the fireplace in his home), the long clothing. GoLite, sitting nearby, had
raced in singlets and shorts. They looked sunburned and spent, while Hi-Tec
appeared ready for a new bout of competition. "This day is going to be decided
by who recovers best from each day of racing," noted Mike Kloser of GoLite.
"Tomorrow's a new day."
As the race moved into its second and third days, Hi-Tec held their lead by
racing at the front and winning each stage. Meanwhile, attrition was attacking
the European teams. Antonia de la Rosa of Team Red Bull grew seasick during
one long paddle and was forced to abandon the race, thus disqualifying his
team. During a trail run on Day Two ˆ a brutal push down a jungle trail made
muddy and puddled by a torrential downpour ˆ Taijia Lyyski of Finland's Team
Lapin Kulta tore ligaments in her left ankle when she tripped in a deep hole.
Her team, too, was forced to abandon. Finally, and perhaps most ravaging to
the European squads, Team Switzerland raidnature.ch was forced from the race
when team leader Iwan Schuey broke his collarbone in a fall on Day Three.
In keeping with the spirit of the Mild Seven Outdoor Quest ˆ a spirit that
says competing hard and never quitting is as vital as winning itself ˆ two of
Schuey's teammates chose to race Day Four unofficially. They would not count
in the overall standings, but would be racing purely for the love of the
sport. Forgotten were prerace worries about heat ˆ those had been allayed long
before. Bettina Ernst and Alain Berger toed the starting line on the fourth
and final day of competition, glad for the chance to push their personal
limits.
Of particular difficulty would be a trail run to the summit of 13,000-foot
Mount Kinabalu. Priapic and sensate, thrusting itself above the Bornean
jungles and the puffy white clouds at its base, the mountain loomed as a
personal challenge for all the athletes and the last great obstacle between
Hi-Tec and victory. Their lead over second-place Nokia was 26 minutes, but
were entering a phase of the competition for which they had not prepared.
Altitude was Hi-Tec's Achilles Heel. "We were concerned about that run because
Nokia and GoLite live at altitude, and were already acclimated to the thin air
toward the summit,‰ noted Hi-Tec‚s Steve Gurney. "But none of us live at that
kind of altitude. We were afraid one of us would get altitude sickness ˆ or
worse.‰
And though Hi-Tec‚s Keith Murray complained the lack of oxygen "made me feel
like my legs were dead,‰ the Kiwis were close behind Nokia and GoLite upon
reaching the summit, and remained within striking distance on the descent.
GoLite would go on to win the stage, using their superior mountain biking
skills to blast away in the leg following the trail run. "We ran very
conservatively, paced ourselves. None of us wanted to twist an ankle or make a
mistake that would slow us down,‰ said Craig after crossing the finish line.
The question now is whether or not Hi-Tec can win again in 2003. It would be
their third straight MSOQ title, matching Nokia‚s streak between 1998-2000.
Another win is definitely possible. Indeed, they looked so unbeatable this
year that Mike Kloser of Team GoLite referred to them as "the masters.‰ But
Team Hi-Tec isn‚t talking about next year, preferring to revel in this year‚s
title and let next year take care of itself. "It was a hard week of racing ˆ
hard, fast, and interesting,‰ Hi-Tec‚s Murray said of the event and locale.
"Right now my only plan is to go home and recover.
www.msoq.com
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Videos : Prolog Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 |
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The race frim inside
"Why do monkeys have such a thick fur, when they are living at 40°C in the jungle? And how are they swinging from tree to tree without wearing any gloves? Alain had to remove 20 thorns out of his hands after day 1." - bettina
"Obviously sometimes I was racing completely at the edge: neither did I see the two monkeys that were walking in front of us, nor did I realize that we were running through some romantic fisher villages." - bettina
"The mountain bike leg on day 4 was a very special experience: Alain and me were in leading position and therefore we had just in front of us a police motorcycle which cleaned the way: cars got stopped, dogs, pigs, monkeys and snakes were removed from the trail…and all this just for us!" - bettina
"Just to mention snakes: Team Nokia met one example that was especially impressive in its size. This snake was so astonished to see these 4 MTB, that it had a tuff time deciding which one of the Finns would be best tasting for diner…..and so the Finns took the opportunity and were hiding away." - bettina
"How brain function diminishes with increased tiredness: beginning of day two I was neither talking nor understanding a single word French." - bettina
"Boire, boire, boire et encore boire un petit peu pour être certain de ne pas se déshydrater, j'ai bu 14 litres le premier jour!!! Et les autres jours je n'ai plus planifié... Mais, en ayant assez de sucer mon camel back, et ayant moins de pression, j'ai rempli mon sac de bouteilles le dernier jour, ce qui n'était pas plus mal." - alain
"En kayak, le premier jour, après mes problèmes dans la jungle, je voyais noir et avais peur de verser, tomber à l'eau, et couler comme une pierre, l'enfer." - alain
"Dans la jungle, j'ai cru qu'on arrivait près d'un village car j'entendais une scierie, mais c'étaient des insectes qui remplissaient l'athmosphère d'un bruit assourdissant. On a aussi eu droit à une petite tranche d'exotisme lorsqu'on traversait un village sur une petite île et que le son de prédications sortaient de la mosquée rudimentaire du village. Les sons imprègne très fort le coureur qui entend tout même si la fatigue fait qu'il n'a plus les yeux en face des trous." - alain
"Une pensée m'a hanté : il fallait s'entraîner au papillorama, en kayak dans la gouille à piranha, ou dans la serre du jardin botanique. on parlait de spinning dans une sauna en plaisantant..." - alain
"Le dernier jour, l'élastique ne s'est pas détendue en montant au Mont Kinabalu (2000m de dénivellé), en effet, je n'avais pas envie de ne pas être premier au sommet car ma confiance dans l'organisation n'était pas au top en ce qui concernait les "adventure skills" (pas de neutralisation lorsqu'il faut attendre à l'entrée d'une tyrolienne, collisions sur cette tyrolienne...), donc je voulais passer le rappel en tête pour être assuré d'avoir des cordes qui n'ont pas râpé le rocher après le passage des équipes." - alain
"Une fois un avion trouvé pour Iwan au soir du 3e jour, l'énergie manquait, la tête n'était plus très à son affaire et l'heure limite étant déjà dépassée, je ne suis pas retourné mettre mes chaussures de vtt dans le box de départ vtt, ce qui signifie que c'est en chaussures de course que j'ai fait le vtt, il y a avait 2000m de dénivellation en descente, et quelques petites montées dans l'une desquelles on a cassé l'élastique, faisait-il trop chaud ?" - alain
"Le vtt de Luc en première page du Borneo Post ! En effet, Luc a prêté son vélo à un français qui avait un problème de freins et ce dernier a chuté sur le chemin à l'endroit où la couche de boue était la plus épaisse, on ne voyant que le blanc de ses yeux sur la photo!" -alain
"Les animaux sauvages représentent toujours une source de discussion avant le raid.Quelles bêtes risquons-nous de renconter? Comment faut-il réagir? Comment éviter les mauvaises rencontres? Après les serpents à sonnette et les cougars de Californie, la Malaisie présentait tous les atouts nécessaires pour de subites montées d'adrénaline! Outre les singes, plus curieux que dangereux, les organisateurs nous ont mis en garde contre les crocodiles..." - luc
"Animaux sauvages bis: Je ne sais pas si c'est l'odeur de la transpiration mélangée à la crème solaire, ou le bruit de notre respiration épaisse, toujours est-il que la faune de Bornéo est restée cachée de nos regards. Ce n'est que par 15 mètres de profonds lors d'une plongée avec bouteilles le dernier jour de notre voyage que Alain et moi avons pu admirer de magnifiques tortues de mer et une multitude de poissons multicolors." - luc
"La communication dans l'équipe joue un rôle primordial comme chacun le sait. Avec 2 suisse-allemands et 2 romands, notre team a constamment mélangé les langues en fonction du stress, de la fatigue et de l'humeur du moment. Ajoutez à cela les contacts en anglais avec les autres équipes et les organisateurs et vous comprendrez que le résultat avait souvent de quoi surprendre." "Crache tout, on triera." - luc
"Le kayak à deux est une source de dispute comme chacun le sait. Avec Bettina il nous a fallu pas mal de temps pour vraiment s'entendre. A son commandement "gauche!" il fallait parfois comprendre "aller à gauche", mais parfois aussi "pagayer à gauche pour tourner à droite!" Sans compter toutes les fois ou la traduction d'allemand en français à l'approche des rapides se trouvait perturbée... Toujours est-il que nous n'avons jamais versé et que je n'ai jamais eu de peine à comprendre le soupir de soulagement accompagné du "bravo Luc" à la sortie des passages délicats." - luc
Photos ©Alex di Suvero, Coni Altherr
