Shan in Japan

Last week I headed down to Guam for the Guam Extreme Adventure Race (GEAR) on May 14
This race has been held annually for the past five years...hence the name GEAR 05.

A 24 hour race consisting teams of 4 people, covering a distance of well over 100km on mountain bike, kayak and trail running.

My team members were Yushi, Tatsuya and Makiko. We had all briefly met for drinks in Tokyo a few weeks prior to the race, so all pretty much strangers to one another.

So how did the race go?
After nearly sleeping in, we managed to get outselves down to the beach for the 5am start.
Already sweltering heat before the sunrise, I knew this was going to be a killer day.

As this was my first long distance 'adventure' race, I had to keep reminding myself to take it easy and not burn out too early. Because of the slow steady pace, almost feels like your not 'racing'. Teams spread out pretty quickly and you soon lose sight of who is in front and who is behind you.

On the kayaking section, we saw a pod of dolpins swim by. Naturally, as I stopped to grab my camera they disappeared....

Speaking of photos, I had an instant waterproof camera. Most the shots didn't come out so good but here some that managed to make the cut. http://imageevent.com/shanakin/guam

Considering our team hardly new each other, we all got on well under the boiling conditions.
I won't go into the finer details of the race, but by the 7th Checkpoint (9 check points in all) and 15 and half hours later our team had to withdraw from the race;-(

It was getting dark and we didn't make the time cut off for the next stage. Furthermore, Tatsuya sliced his head open on the sharp rocks on the coast section. While attending to him, Makiko also cut her head open with an even worse gash than Tatsuya. My only ailments were blisters on my feet, which probably saved me from the razor volcanic rocks as I opted to swim in the sea where possible so I didn't have to walk on my aching feet.

I was actually feeling pretty good and felt disappointed being told we could not continue the race. Then on second thought, actually I was quite relieved. 'That'll do for me!'

So as Makiko and Tatsuya were whisked off to hospital to be stitched up, Yushi and I rode a shortened course back to the finish line. One of the support crew had icy cold beers for us - what a legend! As we couldn't finish the race with all 4 members, our time was not recorded. Out of 11 teams, only 4 or 5 teams (need to check) completed the entire race.

I have to take my hat off to our support guy - Brad. He did a top job of keeping us fed, hydrated, gear set up and overall motivated. Definitely a major factor in getting us through this race.

We then kicked back and cheered on some of the other finishers. Later headed back to the hotel and fell asleep like a stone.

So why do I do this? It's like drinking and waking up with a hangover saying 'I'll never drink again!'
Doing the race is fun and towards the end when the 'hangover' kicks in you're cursing yourself for doing this gruelling mission. But now it is over, it is definitely a sense of accomplishment. Seeing how far you can push yourself, learning about your limits and surpassing them. Of course, its much healthier than the drinking analogy!