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Posted by Grant on 10. November 2009 21:10
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It's agonizing to say it, but I have nothing really new to report on the AR World Championships. It's Weds morning, the lead teams are inline skating (based on what I can see from the tracking map and extract from the course outline). Some teams have had tracking units run out of power (they'll hopefully get fresh batteries and come back online soon).
Orion and Nike are neck-and-neck and while they are less than a mile apart on this skating leg, there is confusion over bonus checkpoints and whether or not they are really tied when these bonuses factor in. Some debate whether the bonuses will even matter, since teams must make the time cut-offs first and then after that the bonus checkpoints are counted. A Scandinavian support crew mentioned that they thought Nike had one more bonus than Orion, but I don't have any real confirmation and I know that a transition area with support crews milling around can be the worst place for discerning fact from fiction; in many cases, the support crews have as little sleep as the teams on the course!
The race leaderboard is of no assistance, in fact it would be better not to display it since it gives the casual observer the wrong impression. The race organization has had technical difficulties with the board, apparently, and we should look for an updated version around noon on Weds (Portugal time).
By this time tomorrow, Thursday, I'll have cleared airport security and be a few hours from Portugal. I have no clue what I'm getting into once I arrive, but the race org assured me that it was "under control" and so I'll take a blind leap of faith and arrive in Lisbon around 2 PM tomorrow. Mind you, my blind leap also includes my credit card, sleeping bag, IPhone, and an intention to rent a car if necessary and figure out a bit of what is going on out there . . . There are AR World Series organizer meetings planned for Saturday, and it'll be interesting to see how that unfolds if the race continues to run as long as it is looking.
Our Untamed guy on the scene, Colin, indicates I should brace for some chaos and I know my way around an adventure race so I think it'll be both fun and challenging.
Upping the ante of the challenge, we've planned to record a podcast late tomorrow night (check out our latest set of podcasts if you want pre-race interviews with ATP/Salomon, Kinetic, and NYARA), and if Jason can turn it around quickly enough we'll have some fresh audio from on the scene by Friday morning. Better late than never, right?