Patagonian Expedition Race 2012; A Day with Adidas Terrex

Albert Rocca

February 22, 2012

By Ammi Midstokke

Expedition races seem to attract some of the most diverse groups of four people one could possibly conceive. There are people that have never met showing up to race together on the same team. Lawyers and nurses suddenly appear with a common goal. Teachers and business owners contribute to a changing team dynamic. Though each member has a personal reason for being there, as a unit they share the same dream, yet how they work to reach it is different for every team.

Stuart Lynch

During the race, how the teams interact is carefully observed. They plan their sleep and meals, their foot treatments and their strategy. For the most part, teams in the Patagonian Expedition Race aim to finish - at a 40% completion rate, finishing this race is no small task. The teams plan a strategy that will keep them strong enough, fast enough, and healthy enough to make the checkpoint cutoffs on time. They hope they don't run out of food, succumb to the agony of blisters, or simply collapse in exhaustion. They are modest in their admittance of aims. At least most of them are.

Then there is Adidas Terrex - a team that makes no secret of their goal and goes about conquering the race course with a machine-like efficiency that can only be called incredible.

Nick Gracie

Adidas Terrex got off their bikes at Checkpoint 9 and began stripping layers of bike gear in the dome tent that is provided. They wasted no time unpacking food and shoving handfuls of potato chips and sausages, cookies and yogurt drinks into their hungry bodies while they changed their clothes. None of them ever stopped moving. A shirt would be changed, and then a bite of a wrap (cheese, meat, tortilla) taken. Baby cream would be rubbed on feet while energy bars were chewed. Caffeine pills were packed into rucksacks and the team continued on foot into the mountains.

They started at a somewhat leisurely pace - a pace that would not intimidate your average hiker. But Adidas Terrex are not your average hikers, and as the forest grew thicker and the hills steeper, they only got faster.

The team moved with a silent determination through the trees. As this is Patagonia, moving through trees also requires hoping over them, around them, pushing them to the side, clawing one's way free of branches. This team is not slowed by the laborious efforts of bushwhacking. In fact they seem to methodically move forward in firm focus on the immediate goal.

In this case, the goal was to break out higher than the trees and move on the free rocks of the mountain until the pass could be taken and rivers used for guidance. Here, one can follow guanaco trails for the most part. Navigator Stuart Lynch has a sixth sense when it comes to finding animal trails, and within steps of clearing the tree line, he is moving fast on open trail with the team in tow.

Sarah Fairmaid

Occasionally a call is heard through the line: "Everyone okay?" "Are you remembering to eat?" There is limited chitchat beyond the necessities: navigation, strategy, technique, logistics.

The pace increases to a steady stride as they work their way along the rock. The views out here are the scenery of dreams and post cards: Pristine mountain lakes, guanaco calling from stone outcroppings, snow fields, condors, and endless stretches of open sky. There is no indication the team is aware of the beauty they are traveling through, but one can only assume they appreciate it with the same sort of trained efficiency of movement that they apply to the race.

The team seems to be getting stronger on their legs as they climb - as if the motion of walking is comfortable and familiar and the 140 kilometers they just biked were somewhat of a rest. By the time they reach the top of the mountain, they are jogging and striding everything flat and always using gravity to their advantage.

This is a key difference between Adidas Terrex and the other teams. They have clearly raced together before and they use every opportunity available to gain advantage on other teams. Such as trekking through the night when others may be sleeping. Or increasing their speed to get every last bit of light out of the day.

As they descend toward the Valle Profundo in the dark, the soft snow turns into a constant rain to which the team is impervious. As far as Patagonia weather goes, this is still tropical and pleasant. They push their way steadily through bush, trample through rivers, and move with undaunted persistence through soggy forest.

It is unclear how they find the checkpoint in the rain and darkness, but they do, as if they knew exactly where the single yellow tent would be waiting for them in the trees. They arrive at midnight and wake the staff with their shouts of "Hola!" and with only a quick signature on their race passports, they move on.

Any other team would have likely stopped to rest for at least a couple of hours. Adidas, however, went on to do the precarious 70 meter abseil into the Valle Profundo in the pitch black of night, pressing on toward the challenging cold of the Cordillera Darwin.

It is this precision and this effective strategy (and lots of caffeine) that has propelled them ahead of all the other teams in their race to the finish. And when Adidas likely takes first place in this year's Patagonian Expedition Race once more, it will be the clear result of their unparalleled racing strategy and impressive performance as a team.