They say misery loves company. We read a lot of race reports, but ever read a report that was nothing but the racers low points? Recently I asked my teammates to describe what they felt was their lowest point during the recent Baja Travesia Expedition race and how they rose up to overcome it. A couple days after returning home my wife caught me staring off into the space for no apparent reason. When I finally realized I was being watched, I asked “what?”. She said “You look like you’ve been through alot. You look like you’ve seen a lot… maybe too much.”

Adam Doti - My low point was in the last canyon at Agua Caliente – wear I saw voices and lights coming from the sky. I could not comprehend how the lights and voices could come from the dark sky like that. We became completely turned around and could not figure out which way the river was flowing and which way west was. Later we realized it was Antonio(?) marking our arrival at the WP and allowing us to pass. Didn’t really overcome it. Freaked out rest of the race till the TA. To get us out of running in circles Jen recommended we just get right into the water and start walking downstream in knee high water. Thats what we did and we said bye-bye to Agua Caliente.

Adam (A-Bomb) - Worst moment… I’d have to say in the final canyon from Agua Caliente to that next TA. First, because Stiffy (Adam) completely lost his mind and could not comprehend the directions coming from the sky. I’ll admit it was pretty comical, but then again, very sobering when you realize the guy with the map has gone bananas. Also, our sleep strategy, which to this point was working great, went bad. We took a few small cat naps that barely charged our batteries, and at one point, we woke up and had no idea where we were headed before we fell asleep. At this point, I was extremely tired and had a constant charley horse in left hip. Every step I took with my left leg felt like I was taking a direct hit to my left ass. If it wasn’t for my magic legs (hiking poles) I would have been crawling. Fortunately, I caught an adrenaline rush that carried me through to the end of the race, but it was unfortunate that it was at the expense of Riggs, who took a tumble into a cactus bush.

Jen - My worst moment was getting up close and personal with the cacti. A-bomb and Eddy (Adam) did a good job of describing our mental state leading up to the incident….we were all pretty much delirious and my feet were in a world of pain (I’m still missing a silver-dollar sized chunk of my left inner heel). For a couple of hours I was literally dreaming while walking because I was convinced I was trekking not with A-bomb and Eddy but instead with my brother and one of my old neighbors. Then Eddy said something out loud and I thought he sounded like the actor Zach Braff so then I said to myself “oh right…that’s not my brother, that’s Zach Braff…I’m trekking with my old neighbor and Zach Braff.” It made perfect sense at the time. Then I scrambled up onto a rock, slipped, and was blasted straight out of my state of delirium by hundreds of cactus spines as they found new homes in my left hand and leg. I was tired, I was hurt, I was angry at myself for making such a dumb mistake, and I was scared. I just sat there and cried while my teammates tweezed as many needles as possible out of my leg (not sounding so tough now, huh!!). That rock absorbed a lot of Rigs-snot and tears. Once I was back up and had confidence I could still walk and finish the race I felt a lot stronger, and it was probably only 10 more minutes until we saw graffiti on the rocks and knew we must be approaching the hot springs at which point my attitude improved at least 2X. A bit more tweezing at the TA and DA1 were on our way to the finish line with smiles on our faces.

Mark - I was my most physically tired on the last 3 miles of trekking into the TA in the Nat Park after the canyons. Route-finding and bushwhacking took it’s toll. We slept alot…probably too much so I never had any real bad mental meltdowns. After our nap at the sand slog Adrian got onto cow trails in the brush and we rode most of the sand section on semi firm but very narrow singletrack.

Melissa - My lowest point was in the final canyon. My ankle gave way and I fell up to my waist in skanky cold water. I had poison oak all over me, an infection that needed antibiotics and ankles like my grandmother. I guess it’s funny to think about it now but at the time it was blimmin’ miserable! If it hadn’t been for Mark pulling me up I think I’d still be sat in the water feeling sorry for myself.

Brian - The trek across the tundra after CP 8 on day 2. I’ve learned that during expeditions, Day 2 sucks ass for me, no matter the circumstances. And I’ve also learned that if I push through that, Day 3 and beyond gets better (aside from the typical/occasional foot problem(s)). My body seems to adjust by Day 3 and I ride that state to the end.

Mike - My low point was on the second trek. After taking 24 hours to do the 1st bike due to the unmarked trail, etc, we did the bike in the heat of the day and got dehydrated. After less then a 2 hour sleep (we were trying to make up time) we headed off looking for the entrance to Canyon Colorado. In short I couldn’t find it and we wondered around the desert for hours. Finally I got to the point where I had no idea where we were and couldn’t read the map at all. At that point we build a fire and did a lay down waiting for the sun to come up. When it did we easily found our way and continued on. However, at that point, I knew we were never going to make up the time that we lost which as very disappointing.

Will (our lonely home base teammate) - My low point was Day One when I realized I was still at work and not there for the fun. That whole week then turned into a blur of day and night and night and day as I stayed half awake hitting the refresh button on the browser tabs for bajatravesia.com and sleepmonsters.com. You kids can complain all you want about your foot blisters, cankles, and PO, but what about my poor index finger clicking the mouse button. You may have gone 250 miles and climbed many feet, but I clicked refresh approximately 832 times and this was just in the first paddleboard section imagine how that felt in the dry office air conditioning, staring blurry-eyed hard at one of my four screens telling my co-workers to go away while waiting, waiting for the damn screen to refresh. Absolute hell on earth, I am so done with watching adventure races.

Hey when’s the next race?

(some photos copyright Jacqueline Windh www.windhphotos.com )

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 5:11 am and is filed under Race Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [Permalink]