Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge

Written by Glenn Rogers
Created Date: Friday, 09 January 2009 08:17
Last Updated: Friday, 23 January 2009 10:49

After nearly 24 hours of travel, one lost teammate and two lost bags, team DART-nuun arrived in Abu Dhabi together with all of their gear. The team was invited to participate in the 2008 Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge, ADAC, after winning the Upstate Adventure Race. Mari Chandler, Ryan VanGorder, Matt Hayes, and Glenn Rogers all made the trip to participate in this six day stage race in and around the United Arab Emirates.

This race offered the richest prize of any adventure race in 2008 and attracted the best teams from around the world. We were all excited to race in a country as beautiful as the UAE. However, the stage race format together with the allowed use of GPS to navigate did not fit our strengths very well. The race was compised of the following stages:

Day 1 Triathlon (bike 16k , paddle 13k, and run 10k)
Day 2 Bike 47k and Paddle 29k
day 3 Paddle 80k
Day 4/5 Desert Trek 100k
Day 6 Bike 12k, Trek 14k, Bike 27k

The first stage was uneventful until we attempted to portage a peninsula on the island we were paddling around. The choice was to carry our boats 100m across or paddle 800m around. We attempted to portage only to learn that while our route was quicker, there was no way to launch our boats through the house sized trank traps that lined the beach on the other side of the peninsula. This cost us some time but provided a valuable lesson; In this race there is no route choice, no navigation, just follow the leaders who were following the GPS.

The next day had us starting en masse on our bikes again. 160 bikers, in a pelaton, some inexperienced and some even using their tow lines. It was chaos and we just tried to stay in the front to avoid the inherent danger. However, when all 160 bikers arrived at the first control and attempted to punch all at once, absolute chaos ensued. Our team became separated. This was a very rookie mistake that broke the basic rule of adventure racing and cost us a 15 minute penalty. At the end of the section we were all wondering when we were going to find our legs and perform like a DART-nuun team.

The afternoon paddle took us to a desert island in the middle of the Gulf of Arabia. We camped for the night on in this beautiful island. We watched the sun set over the gulf as we set up camp and cooked a feast. This was like no other race I had ever done. Teams bartered various items. Since we had a stove, we traded boiling water for Coke with Team Sole.

Day 3 was the longest section yet, A 50 mile paddle through the gulf. We started before sunrise paddling into the day. This was the day when we finally found our legs as a team. We had a great paddle and finished well on a section that we all enjoyed.

Days 4/5 were the desert trek that was really the crux of the race. This section would take 24 hours and cover 100k of neverending sand. These dunes were 1,000 feet tall and went on forever. This area is the Liwa desert and it is the largest sand desert in the world. We had done our research. We purposefully started in the middle of the pack so that a trail would be well worn in the sand. This ensured that we wouldn't be breaking trail and no navigation would be necessary. This made the trek fast and easy for us. In the heat of the day we made another criticcal choice. All teams were required to take 6 hours of rest. We chose to take our rest in the heat of the day while all other teams pressed on. We set up our tents for shade, rehydrated, ate and set off again in the late afternoon, refreshed and ready to rock. Our strategy paid off as we quickly made up time and passed many teams throughout the night.

The final day started with a 2,500 ft road climb in another mass start on the bike. This was a 60 minute sufferfest as we redlined all the way to the summit of the Jebel Hafeet. After a 10 minute rest we were off again treking across the top of the mountains to the canyoneering section. The canyoneering section included multiple rappels and downclimbing to the foot of the mountains. This section was off the clock so we took it easy and enjoyed the views. Once out of the canyon we were back on the clock and racing the last 10k back to our bikes. The last section of the day and race was a tour de France type finish into the center of Al Ain. We were within minutes of the two places ahead of us but in the last bike, there was no way to make up this time. In the end we finished 13th.