CtoC Race Update – Feb 3, 2007

With just over a month to the start of the 7th annual Coast to Coast
Challenge it is time to start giving you a bit more info on what to
expect from this year's race. The route design team (Mini, BJ,
Carr, Mau & Chris) have finished exploring the course and are
excited to see how teams will do. They have a few tips and hints
that we will mention further down in this email.

We like to think of the Coast to Coast Challenge as a yearly
gathering of tribes. Here is a bit about the tribes that will be
attending this year's gathering.

As usual the local tribes are strong! Red Bull is back after
winning the 2006 Costa Rican AR Series with wins in all 3 events.
They are captained by Ligia, Costa Rica's top female adventure racer
and navigating duties go to Marco Gamboa who has competed in all but
one CtoC race. Team Battery is back after their second place finish
in the CR Series but they have a couple of new members - Franklin
Chavarría will join the team. "Chava" captained last years CtoC
Race winning team so the battle of the energy drinks will be
fierce. Team Thule is also back after missing last year's race as 2
of the members decided to have a baby. Other Costa Rican teams
include Caribe - winner of last year's race spirit award, BCR – a
rookie team, Economy Renta a Car , and Elok - ELÔK is a Bribri
(Costa Rican pre-columbian ethnic group) word which means: PROUD!

Tribes that will take the big iron bird from the north to join the
gathering are few but strong. This will be the 3rd time that Dark
Horse will make the journey. They always say that they are out to
have fun but don't let that fool you – they would love to be the
first foreign tribe to win the event. Team Bones, lead by Chief Roy
Malone, will also be a tribe to look out for -

Team Pura Vida is a mixed nationality team (CR/USA) – Marco Méndez
captain of the team has been on 2 CtoC race winning teams and Buck
from the US has competed in the PQ, ECO, Southern Traverse and
Raid. They have never met before but the amount of expedition race
experience is sure to put this team up with the front runners.

A team from Nicaragua (Fuerte Equipo) will also join the fun. They
competed in our Pacuare AR but this will be their first time for the
CtoC Race.

In total there are 12 tribes that will join the gathering and there
are still 3 places available. Several other teams have shown
interest and we are confident that we will get to the limit of 15
teams. It is rumored that Team EMS may join the gathering.

Now the part that you have been waiting for - The route! One great
thing about adventure racing is that each race has its own unique
format and components. It is important that teams understand how it
all works and carefully analyze the info that is given. Here is how
it works and what info we have decided to reveal to the teams for
this year's edition of the race.

The race will start at noon on the Pacific Coast somewhere south of
Manuel Antonio. There are only 5 stages to the race so you will only
see your cases 4 times during the entire race. There are 2 stages of
biking, 1 trekking stage, 1 rafting stage and 1 sea kayaking stage
of about 100 kms.

There will be a Dark Zone and Mandatory Stop. This will be a bit of
a new twist to the race. We are not completely sure on how it will
work but have decided to give it a try. As you already know, there
will be a rafting section on the Pacuare River – it will start at El
Nido Del Tigre Camp and finish at Finca Pacuarito, both are camps on
the Pacuare complete with comfortable tents on wooden platforms.
The Dark Zone for this section is from 2:30 pm to 6 am – a very long
time to wait around if you happen to get there at 2:31 pm. So, in
the attempt to offset this we have included a mandatory stop of 8
hours that can be taken at either one of the camps. The moment you
arrive at El Nido camp you will have to tell race officials where
you will take the 8 hours. These 8 hours can be taken during the
dark zone. For example, if you get to El Nido at 10 pm you could
take the 8 hours right away and be able to leave at 6 am. If you
get to El Nido during hours when the rafting section is open then
you would probably choose to raft down and take the 8 hours at Finca
Pacuarito. It will definitely be an interesting component to the
race.

Renee, a supporter of team Dark Horse and race volunteer, has for
the past few years brought down school supplies and donated them to
a school along the route. She has always talked about how we should
incorporate this type of donation into the race so this year we will
give it a try. We are in communication with a school along the way
to find out what they need. It is a small school with just 13
students – grades 1 through 6. The way it will work is each team
will be required to donate 1 kg of school supplies. You can keep
this 1 kg package until you get to the transition before the
school. The school will be a PC. In the next update we will give a
list of possible items you could bring.

This is all the info you get until next up-date on Feb 9 (official
race info)

If you have any question please send them along – we may not answer
them but it is always worth a try!


Mike Lapcevic
Race Director