The Dirt - Adventure Racing according to Robyn Benincasa
presented by Merrell - Wigwam

Hi Gang!!

Well, we finished the race about 24 hours ago in an ugly final run/paddle sprint for 3rd place against Supplier Pipeline of Canada--the new "terminators" of AR. I'm sure you'll see it on ABC or ESPN. Definitely a "show worthy" finish, with the Canadians catching us on a dead sprint running down from the climb site about 1 mile before the final boat put in. What was supposed to be a leisurely hike and paddle to the finish suddenly became complete insanity as Supplier Pipeline approached.

With all of us running full bore on tortured feet, shuffling weight to the stronger teammates instinctually as we sprinted through the final sandy trails and over the freeway to the boat put-in, where we literally threw ouselves and our packs into 2 person duckies (good comedy with Neil and Ian both thinking they were in the front, sitting back to back, and paddling against one another for a few seconds).

The lineup of our 4 boats leaving the shore was intermixed, with Supplier's first boat out front, and Jeff Mitchell and I second. I couldn't see Neil and Ian, so I just paddled with everything I had left, and prayed that we'd find a way to hang on the the podium finish after trying so hard for so long out there. It was an amazingly instense 20 minute paddle, lots of grunts and yelling and even a couple of paddle bashing fights as we all jockeyed for position. After a few minutes, Jeff and I took the lead (thank God it ended with a paddle!), and as we approached the finish line, I was to afraid to look back for Ian and Neil.

The take out was full of deep soft mud, and as I jumped out of the bow (instantly losing a shoe about 16 inches down), the CP person yelled to us that the race wasn't over until we pulled our boats up the hill and ran with our backpacks to the finish line, 100 yards away. Aaggghhhhhh!

I believe I was making some terrible suffering animal type noises as we strained to drag our boat up the slimy, muddy hill and the first Supplier Pipeline boat approached (who are these people who'd been chasing and catching us at their leisure for the last 3 days?!).

Jeff and I finally crested the hill with our boat, threw off our PFDs and started sprinting with the packs to the finish. Halfway there, Jeff, always a good thinker when the you-know-what hits the fan, gave me both packs and told me he was running back to help neil and Ian. I threw the packs over my shoulder and focused every last quark of energy I had on the finish line, legs wobbling underneath me, head spinning, mouth open gasping for air (we ran out of water about 4 hrs earlier on the climb and were critically dehydrated to start with).

As I approached the finish line, I was surprised to still be all alone. What was happening back there?! Was it us or them?! All I could do was wait and hope and pray that a sea of Merrell/Wigwam orange would emerge from around the corner first.

Waiting....waiting....waiting...lots of yelling as someone approached the final turn....and then three smiling boys in Orange were running toward me!! We had done it! We had hung on for third!

Lots of tears of joy and relief followed as we stumbled across the finish line, hugged our friends and sponsors and watched the intrepid Canadians shuffle in about 20 seconds behind us. You can take the old dog out of a fight, but you can't take the fight out of the old dog. :).

Good on ya Kiwi boys!! What a race. And we're so very happy and proud to be on the podium after facing the amount of adversity we did out there. More on that soon. But for all of you who were wondering whether we're bummed about not placing higher, we're absolutely not. We're thrilled with third. And damn lucky to have it with the quality of the field that PQ attracted this year (not to mention the mistakes we made). It's just crazy how fast these teams have become and the level of intensity on which they're able to operate over 6 or 7 days. No down time, no long transitions, and never out of "race" mode. Never again will we see top teams out on the course having a picnic together during a race--nor will we ever be able to relax in the final couple of days as we used to, confident in our position. Bye bye old days. We'll miss you. And we'll remember you with great fondness.

Right now we're limping around Moab getting ice cream and epsom salts after a 16 hour sleep-a-thon. Aaahhhhhh. The person who invented sitting is awesome, but the person who invented laying down is my HERO! The simplest things bring so much joy after being out there for so long--a hot shower, a slice of pizza, a real toilet with paper!, and a beverage other than the orange Gatorade supplied by the race (we did appreciate it being there, though) :).

But the best part is your pillow, your blanket, and the tv remote--with the realization that you have a accomplished something larger-than-life with your team, knowing your family, friends and sponsors are proud, and secure in the knowledge that you can lay there and NOT race as looooong as you'd like. AaaaaaaaaAh. Paradise.

Love and hugs to all, and thanks to everyone who sent us messages during the race. Your good juju worked!! More soon....a bowl of ice cream awaits!

Woo hooooo! Xxxoxoxoxoxo robyn

Team Merrell/Wigwam came into TA 10 in the late afternoon, finished with the mountain trekking and orienteering course, they looked haggard, but were pretty upbeat. Neil Jones had been sick during the entire mountain trek/orienteering section of the course, but was feeling much better.

Merrell/Wigwam had a little trouble starting out of TA 10, they were towing Neil Jones down the paved road.

The course design has teams getting access to their food boxes three times on the course. This has forced the teams to take enough food for up to 30 hours at a time. The last time teams will see their food boxes on the course is TA 9, so far no team has taken less than 30 hours to get from TA 9 to TA 10, with an estimated 20 hours left on the course after that the race finish could be difficult one. TAs and some CPs have gatorade and water and some have meal supplement shakes and powerbars.

Currently Nike PowerBlast and Go-Lite/Timberland are on the final ropes section, both teams are on hold due to lightning. The rest of the race is still continuing, its assumed that the race for first and second will continue with the same intervals once the lightning has cleared.