It takes HEART! Bimbache Post Race

Team Feed the Machine at the start in Jaen, Spain

One of the reasons I love adventure racing (AR) so much is because it is so unpredictable. There is no set course and the navigation can be super tricky. The weather can be sunny and warm one day and then the coldest temperatures in Southern Spain's history for the next three days! Your teammates can be the strongest physical and mental athletes, but have a break down that causes them to surrender. You never know what is going to happen and for that reason, you must be prepared for anything and everything.

I put together a team of strong athletes for the Bimbache Xtreme 4 day AR in Spain because I knew it would be fast and furious. I figured we were going to need lots of physical power to get through the course. And all of us had previously proven to be physically and mentally strong enough to endure. But once again, adventure racing proved to me that it takes so much more than just physical and mental strength to finish a race.

It takes HEART! You've got to want it and you've got to envision finishing it. If your heart is not in the race to finish it, then you probably won´t.

Organizing the transition gear bags before the race

The race started at 10am on a beautifully, sunny and nice 65 degree day. We started with a long trek that included a fun urban orienteering section through the city of Jaen.

Checking the map at the start of the urban orienteering through Jaen

We ran up and down the streets, around the locals, looking for stairwells, cathedrals, and other landmarks. I especially enjoyed the quick window shopping I did while following my guys around the town. (Such beautiful dresses in Spain!)...oh, okay, where was I?...

Running through the streets of Jaen

We ran for about the first three hours until we hit the mountains and started climbing. We made some navigational detours that put us behind the pack a little bit, but for the most part we were moving well and feeling strong. We kept running to make the 6pm cut-off at the canyoneering section. We put on our wetsuits and rappelling equipment and proceeded through the canyon. The water temperature was about 50 degrees so needless to say, swimming through the canyon forced a few obscenities out of my mouth. Luckily, the hour long section went by quickly and we were back on dry land.

The night was drawing near and we were getting a bit chilled, but we continued on and trekked through the night. There were so many roads that were not shown on the map; dirt roads, new paved roads, construction roads, olive tree rows that looked like roads, olive tree rows, olive tree rows, and more olive tree rows. The night time navigation was especially difficult and we ended up tramping around for a few extra hours. Pierre's feet were giving him trouble and we had to stop a few times to check them out. There were no signs of blisters or injury but he was in a lot of pain and moving very slowly for the last few hours of the trek.

Seventeen hours after we started the race, we finally reached the first transition area (TA) and we sat down to talk. Pierre decided to abandon the race and the rest of us lost our motivation as well. Without going into too much detail, there was some discussion; there were reasons, there were excuses, there were distractions, but most of all there was the lack of HEART. We slept for while but I just couldn't stand it. I knew that I could not be happy with myself if I didn't do everything in my power to continue, even if it was unranked. So Horacio and I jumped on our bikes and continued the race.

Lots of maps and route choices

Now, like I said, the navigation was intense and Horacio and I worked together to stay found and make the right decisions. The brand new, two month old super highway that was not yet on the map threw us for a loop and we lost an hour or so, but we gathered up a few checkpoints and found our way to the mountains. And then it began to SNOW! It was early evening and we were climbing up the mountain, already wearing all of our clothing. We stopped to have a snack and then we had to make a decision. Do we keep climbing and spend the snowy night up in the mountains? Or do we surrender to the AR gods and realize that we can't always have a successful race? By this time we no longer had the emergency GPS unit with us. We had no cell phone because we were using Pierre's. Christian and Pierre were the ones carrying our emergency sleeping bags and we were already wearing all of our clothes and it was only going to get colder through the night. We decided to play it safe, skip the mountains, and take the lower freeway to the next TA. And with the way people drive in Spain, I'm not sure that was the safer of the two choices, but it would have been a quicker death than freezing. So it rained and hailed and snowed on us back to the TA and of course we were miserable. But being miserable as a fully ranked team of four still trying to finish the race is very different than being miserable as an unranked team of two. And when we reached the TA we threw in the towel.

Snowing in Southern Spain

I must also mention that I was already super bummed because I broke a tooth! Yes, one of my front teeth! Yes, I looked like a damn hockey player! And NO I don't have any photos!

So that was it. That was the end of our race. Surprisingly enough we were not the first team to bow out. There were already 4 teams who had lost team members or who quit entirely. It was a tough race and only five of the 26 teams actually completed the entire course. But that's the way it goes in AR; when you mix professional teams with amateurs. All we can do is give it our best and do as much as we can as a team.

Bern with Petri Forsman of Team Finland

I've been quite lucky to have had three successful big international races before this one. And no, we were not at all the best physically. But we were a team, bonded by our personalities, our mental and emotional strengths, and our love for the sport and for each other. That is what got us through those other races and that was part of what was lacking this time.

Bern with Denise of Team Supplierpipeline, Canada

Teams tend to place the blame on the one person who decided to abandon. However, I believe that the entire team is at fault. It takes the entire team to successfully complete the race and it takes the entire team to abandon. In our case, maybe there was a lack of chemistry? Maybe there were distractions, like other races, or people, or vacations? I don't know, but there was definitely a lack of communication. We failed to discuss our goals as individuals and as a team. And that doesn't mean, "Our goal is to finish." That means "Will we do whatever it takes to finish? Will we take pain medicine to help us continue? Will we complete the entire race even if we are in last place? If an individual wants to abandon, how can we get him to keep going?" Those are the real questions that should be asked before setting out on the journey.

Hammer products "Feed the Machine!"

Although I wasn't the initial one to pull the plug, I'm disappointed in myself for not motivating my teammates to continue. I let them down by not encouraging them enough. I was too easily influenced to surrender because at that particular time, I was hurting too. But I cannot stress this enough: THE PAIN OF ABANDONING THE RACE LASTS A HELL OF A LOT LONGER THAN THE PHYSICAL PAIN YOU ENDURE WHEN YOU CONTINUE TO THE FINISH.

Bern, Emma Roca of Team Buff, Spain and her 7 mo. old daughter Irina