Reigning champions Helly Hansen-Prunesco are entering last minute preparations in their bid to become the first team in history to retain the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race title – and they are hoping their experiences from last year will give them an edge in the endurance battle ahead.
Nicola MacLeod, who captained the team to victory last February and also won the Adventure Racing World Championships with three other members of the squad in the autumn, admitted there is pressure on the team to perform but believes the teamwork they built last year will be vital to their performance in 2010.
“There is a bit of pressure on us going back this year,” she admitted. “But we enjoyed racing as a team last time and the team worked very well together. It was a real high to win the race as it was definitely the hardest we had ever done – so we wanted to come back as the same team.”
That means MacLeod will be joined by fellow Britons Mark Humphrey, Andy Wilson and Bruce Duncan, who made his first adventure race appearance in last year’s event and went on to quit his job as a reservoir engineer in Aberdeen to pursue a career in adventure and outdoor sports.
Helly Hansen-Prunesco overcame the tough and changeable elements of the Chilean Patagonia wilderness with the well devised tactics of running light and eating regularly, but after losing their tent poles half way round and getting drenched by the incessant rain for days they have a different approach for this year’s event.
“Despite being sponsored by a Norwegian clothing company, we realised we didn’t take enough clothes last year,” admitted MacLeod. “This year we are not going to go lightweight – we are going to accept a bit of extra weight so we can add an element of comfort to the race.”
The competition, which has grown a reputation as the toughest event of its kind, will again offer a non-stop course that will push competitors to the very limit of exhaustion both mentally and physically, and many are likely to suffer wild hallucinations due to sleep depravation.
Last year, the team experienced plenty of confused moments in the forest, and MacLeod recalled: “At night we started to think there was an extra person with us. It’s the ‘third person’ sense that mountaineers describe, where there is either someone watching you or someone with you. We also kept forgetting who was who and what they were doing there. I constantly thought we were about eight people. It was a bit freaky!”
MacLeod’s team won the race in around six days last year, making them the first British Adventure Race winners in history. One American team, meanwhile, had a close call after getting lost in the mountains for days, having to survive on wild berries before two team members swum in ice-fed waters and climbed a cliff face without ropes to escape.
And with that experience in mind, MacLeod is not expecting it to be any easier this time around. “It is always a really tough race,” she said. “But that’s what is so good about it – the chance to pit your wits against other competitors and against the unpredictable climate in such a beautiful wilderness place.
“The two things we were not so keen on last year were paddling against the winds and battling the impenetrable forest. Unfortunately, from what we have heard, we don’t think they are going to hold back on the forest and the paddling looks like it might be shorter, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that means it’s tougher…
“Whatever happens this year, though, we are going to enjoy the wilderness of Patagonia. It’s hard not to!”
