Discussion: Maya Mountain Adventure

I'll start. I leave in a few hours for the race. I will be doing video,pics, updates what ever I can. I'll try to post here but you might see more of Facebook. I will try to post to the different team pages if the gods of the internet will allow.

Maya Mountain Adventure Challenge
http://www.mayamountainadventurechallenge.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MayaMountainAdventure/

My Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/randy.ericksen

My Twitter
https://twitter.com/randyericksen

Mike Sero is also "reporting" live from the race and is already down there scouting the course.

His Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/GreygooseDoubleLime?fref=...

He may also be posting here
https://www.facebook.com/ExtremePrestigeWorldwideP...

Team Adventure Medical Kits will be there (Kyle Peter et al). Any other Attackpointers to cheer for? Other than Randy, of course.

James G? He just signed on as a replacement with Odyssey.

"Relentless", as he is known here!

Rocky33 and Relentless on Odyssey, Silkychrome and Sami11 on OWWWWP-'merica.

Team Adventure Medical Kits will have Aaron Johnson in the field gathering media and relaying it back home to a team that will be posting to our new Facebook page and my Instagram. Please give the page a 'like' to follow us and the race. Starts Sat and finishes Wed. Tommie Mommie will also be at the event!!

Team Adventure Medical Kits Facebook

@kylerobertpeter Instagram

Have you seen the discount codes on our partners page? Team Adventure Medical Kits Website

Team List.
http://www.mayamountainadventurechallenge.com/#!re...

Racer update with a full team roster.

http://media.wix.com/ugd/344846_ef1199b7192f49b581...

I will be taking the place of TBD on OWWWP 'MERICA!!

^^^yes to the above!!^^^

we also have a course outline:

Trek 8-9 miles
Paddle (canoe) 22-23 miles
Trek 1-2 miles
Bike 78-80 miles
TA #4 WITH OASIS BIN
Trek 31-33 miles with ropes element(s?)
Bike 48-50 miles
TA #6 WITH OASIS BIN
Trek 3-4 miles
Packraft 23-24 miles
Bike 53-58 miles
TA #9 WITH OASIS BIN
Trek 3-4 miles
Packraft 13-14 miles
Trek 10-11 miles
TA #12 WITH OASIS BIN
Bike 19-20 miles

Race starts/finishes in San Ignacio, a town near the Belizean/Guatemalan border. We get to do race check-in in the plaza of Cahal Pech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahal_Pech

Thanks! Good luck to all our friends - we'll be watching your dots and cheering back home.

also yes mayer22 on Sero's "reporting". trying to figure out what exactly he's up to in Belize is like trying to understand the puppy-baby-monkey SuperBowl commercial.

Live tracking link (not yet!)
http://www.mayamountainadventurechallenge.com/#!tr...

I just read the race info and saw the reference to "no sails or kites, as per ARWS rules". I wasn't aware of this. Does anyone know how long this has been an ARWs rule?

I didn't know about that!

Teams are arriving in Belize.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.75404543...

Pics and video from today.
https://www.facebook.com/MayaMountainAdventure/vid...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.11382498...

Race check-in today - less than 24 hours to go!
14 teams
550 km

Team Pics
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.75463820...

Thanks, Randy! Could you please get pics of the maps? This is all I've seen so far.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1020544615...

Randy's photos from the eve of the race. KyleRPeter, Silkychrome and Relentless all make appearances.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.75466021...

And they're OFF!

Live tracking
http://yb.tl/mmac2016

Yogaslackers fans will be pleased to know you can cheer for them at MMC *and PER this year.

Course Outline
https://www.facebook.com/MayaMountainAdventure/pho...

Leg 1 is an 8-9 mile trek carrying paddling gear, followed by a 22-23 mile paddle. (What are these "miles"?)

Straight from Belize...texted from Silky a bit ago:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/138738597@N08/shares...

Can't seem to get flickr to give up the http code to be fancy and post the photos...will work on that after I get my yogurt started. :)

Is there a leaderboard somewhere and I just missed it?

DISCIPLINE ~ DISTANCE (miles)
Mountain biking ~190
Trekking ~75
Canoeing ~20
Pack Rafting ~35
Spelunking (non-technical) <1
Rope systems <1

normal version coming soon....

DISCIPLINE ~ DISTANCE (kilometres)
Mountain biking ~305
Trekking ~120
Canoeing ~32
Pack Rafting ~56
Spelunking (non-technical) <1
Rope systems <1

No leaderboard that I've seen but they've said they'll try to use Facebook. So far, so good. There are lots of good photos up already.
https://www.facebook.com/MayaMountainAdventure/pho...

From Team Adventure Medical Kits Facebook page:
"The team is looking great, made quick work of the opening 15k run down a paved road to a little town on the Guatemalan border. Entered the water in 2nd place, grabbed a CP at the top of an incredible Mayan ruin, and now in first finishing off the last couple hours of the paddle. Weather is hot, humid, and beautiful." - this from Aaron Johnson who's out following the team."

After the paddle, racers run 1-2 miles with their paddling gear to the start of a 77-78 mile mountain bike section.

More pics from the start
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.75496236...

I will try to link pics and video here, but watch the Race Facebook page and mine

Is the live tracking working for anybody? I just see an empty map....with no route info or tracks.

it worked for me...using Chrome

of course the second I type that I get connection timed out errors. I blame the cafe's wifi for that.

some technical paddling in actual canoes - love it!
Looks like there was at least one spot where teams were dumping.

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/...

4 in a canoe is never a good thing. not sure if it was 1 canoe per team or if they ran out of boats and these guys drew the short straw.

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/...

AMK got to the front from the word go.

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlp1/...

if the tracking is not working try a link from Facebook

There is a good link on this page.
https://www.facebook.com/MayaMountainAdventure/

Maya Facebook: "Team Adventure Medical Kits is leading the field followed closely by the team from Columbia which is having a strong 1st day. Teams will ride over 70 miles enroute to the next TA. Teams will not be released to start the jungle trek before 3:AM which shouldn't affect many teams as most won't arrive until Sunday morning.
A rope team comprised of the FCD Rangers & the Belize Disaster and Rescue Team left Friday to hike in and lay ropes on the big wall just northeast of Nohoch Chen."

Did Team AMK miss CP8 or is the tracker that wrong?

Hmm, looks like Yellowbrick displays estimated historical locations with fake timestamps when you rewind the race. Guess I'd forgotten about that helpful "feature". (I don't think AMK missed CP8!)

AMK seems to have hit a dead end after making a turn that didn't take them toward CP8 *or* CP9.

Hard to tell how accurate the tracks are...they seem pretty bad. A lot of jumping around. I'd guess that AMK got CP8 and is on route to CP9...but, that's in part cause I'm rooting for them. Anyone have a nice image of their maps? Wish the race directors would post the maps after the race started so we could follow along more intelligently....

I hope you're right but it looks like they're backtracking now. :(

Randy, any way you could post photos of the race maps?

Heya, Ya'll. Been lurking on FB watching the race coverage all day and thought I'd pop over here to see who's chatting and share a bit of conjecture by me on Yogaslackers' race position:

"Only evidence of position is from video earlier today at the Mayan ruins (CP2 Xunantunich) when they were just a climb and descent of the ruins behind Happy Mutant / Main Nerve (#109) & OWWWP (#106). Since Happy Mutant is the only one of these teams still tracking and is currently in ~3rd place in the 4P coed class, I'd guess YS are nearby, maybe in 5th?"

...followed a few minutes later by:

"Further video watching has revealed that YS pulled out of river ahead of Seek Adventure #104 and Happy Mutant. They were running while others walked, so I revise my crystal ball prediction of position to 2nd or 3rd in their class."

Anyone else have better info or better logic based on the available info?

There are a lot of jumps...they're moving the right way now...GPS seems pretty spotty down there.

I asked Aaron Johnson if he could try to get me images of the maps as well. I did find this on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1020544615...

But....not the easiest to work with.

I'm confident that AMK ticked off CP8 easily and blazed right past it. Then route-finding got tough and they made a wrong turn or missed a turn. They seem to be relocating now.

Looks like the lead teams have moved into deep jungle canopy on this trek. Given experience with past races, this means the trackers will be updating irregularly and we may not see any movement until the teams start to emerge on the way back to TA4/5/6.

I'm going to guess that the CPs and WPs on the current trek can be completed in any order since everyone seems to be skipping CP13 as they set out and making a beeline for the climbing.

I'm guessing that TAMK's GPS was in the dark when they went through that first WP. They were headed right for it...then straight past. Other teams are definitely going through that WP.

Has anyone seen an official leaderboard anywhere? I haven't yet. There has been little on the ground info coming our way....just following dots on a map.

Sad Yogaslackers news: they have been unranked after Adam Carter had to withdraw due to dehydration.

For the non-Facebookers, here's a detailed update from 4 hours ago. The trackers are sort of helpful but not so much:

Greetings from the jungle where we are beaming in via satellite deep in the Chiquibul. The first 24 hours of the MMAC have been loaded with beautiful sights and team stories.
After a hot run to the put in and an exciting paddle on pristing class the Mopan River, teams picked up their bikes and proceeded first north to El Pilar ruin before heading south again into the heart of the Chiquibul. Along the route, there were some tricky nav decisions, although Adventure Medical led the teams in to TA4 at 3:40am, they lost about an hour attempting to approach CP9 from the more difficult side of the river. Still in good spirits, they nabbed about 90 minutes of sleep and headed back out on the jungle trek around 6:30am. Teams Happy Mutant/MainNerve, Nordic Adventure Racing, BOSI, OWWWP, and Seek Adventure followed not far behind and are now on their way to the ropes.
Other teams didn't fare so well on the bike leg. Team Secretos de Ullum Aromon, dropped a pack on the road to El Pilar, only to return to find that someone had stolen it. Lacking mandatory gear, the team returned to the start at Cahal Pech. Team Sportera lost their passport between CP 7 and 8. One team member was feeling ill and decided to remain at TA4 while the other three continued on. Team USMES suffered a lost teammate (Amanda Rankin) due to a nagging injury. The rest of the team carried on only to then suffer a crash (Brian) not long after which pulled the rest of the team off the course. Team Yogaslackers Adam Carter dropped from the course after suffering from dehydration. He is recovering and doing better. Team Chiquibul Grisons lost their female Gina Lovell to a sprained ankle. The rest of the team is continuing on. Team Outside Pearl Izumi is moving well again after two teammates suffered from illness and nausea.
All teams that are continuing on have moved on to the jungle trek (with the exception of Secretos who is out on the course to Las Cuevas and will be short coursed forward past the jungle trek). The current teams are as follows:
FULL COURSE:
-Adventure Medical Kits
- Happy Mutant/MainNerve
- BOSI Colombia
- Nordic Adventure Racing
- OWWWP 'Merica
- Seek Adventure
- Outside Pearl Izumi (joined by USMES' Ron Flick)
- No Boundaries Media
- SanIgnacioBelize.com
SHORT COURSED:
- Secretos de Ullum Aromon
UNRANKED:
- Chiquibul Grisons
- Yogaslackers
- Sportera
DNF
- USMES
The teams are pushing towards a 9am cutoff tomorrow at TA 6.

Team AMK appears to be alone so far on the 38-mile bike leg from TA5 to TA6. At 22:15, they visited a CP at the impressive Caracol Ruin.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6...

Also note that the Yogaslackers tracker has reappeared, in spite of their unranked status.

Thanks Bash! I'm totally going to steal that image to post on the TAMK facebook page...hope you don't mind ;) This race really seems to be doing a great job of getting teams to amazing places! Loving it.

I totally stole it myself! :) Too bad it was dark when they got there but other teams will see it.

Facebook update:

Teams battled fatigue and the jungle most of the night. After rappelling down the big wall & trekking to the Ceiba tree teams struggled with finding the trail to Cabal Cave.

Once they did many exhausted themselves trying to find the cave.
Team Yoga Slackers has decided to pull the plug leaving only 12 teams.

Adventure Medical Kits are proving why they are ranked 3rd in the #arws. Not only did they clear the jungle trek & complete the ride to Caracol. They slept several hours before departing to Monkey Tail branch for the long pack raft.

So only Adventure medical kit made the 9am cut off?
Do we know if AMK made it?

TAMK definitely made that Monday 9am cutoff to be off of the Trek....they not only did that, but had actually finished the next bike leg and gotten a solid 4h rest before taking off this morning on a short trek to the packraft put in. It looks like several other teams are going to make that cutoff.

Frenchie: What 9AM cutoff are you referring to?

There may be some other place to find out but way up in this thread, W4J posted course notes that Silkychrome had texted her. The cut-offs are handwritten. Some of the CP numbers don't match the map but I've found it very useful.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138738597@N08/shares...

The first cut-off was at TA5 (end of jungle trek, start of Caracol bike) at 9 a.m. local time today.

Wow! Sorry I missed those rules of travel. Very, very helpful.

Maybe it's been observed already, but I'm just recognizing that the CPs on the tracking map are incorrect starting with CP19, which is supposed to be at the same location as CP13. CP21+ on the map are all one number too high, which explains why there is no CP20.

Randy said at the end of his thread that there was a cutoff at TA6 this morning at 9am... And that the teams were rushing to make it but as I can see the other trackers didn't make it on time
I don't know about AMK cause they don't have a tracker..the only one I see on the water are medical kits...

AMK is the acronym for Adventure Medical Kits so it's all good! :)

Oh sorry I meant team America JDs team. I don't know where they are..

Randy must have meant TA5. Unfortunately, the trackers are too unreliable to come up with a list of teams that made the cut-off. Hopefully, the organizers will do that for us.

I'm almost certain considering the estimates and from what I've seen on the tracking, the following teams should have comfortably made that cut-off:

AMK
Happy Mutant (already done with the Caracol loop and heading to the packarafting now)
Nordic (also heading back down south to the water)
BOSI

From the nothing we know, I think JD and crew should also be in that group.

Also thinking Seek Adventure may have made it since they are out at the turn around point at Caracol now.

Outside Pearl Izumi?? I don't know. Looks like they are heading north, so maybe they are the last team?

I don't know what short course teams are doing. I imagine they are skipping the Caracol bike and heading to packrafting?

Hey gang, I'm doing most of the posting on the TAMK facebook page, and Kyle gave me his cheat sheet for the race (their whole plan). So...that's how I know about the various cutoffs. Here they are:

TA5 - Monday 9am
TA8 - Tuesday 3pm
TA9 - Tuesday 8pm
TA11 - Wednesday 10am

Hmmmm...the cutoffs between TA8 and TA9 don't make much sense, as they are only 5h apart, and the section between is a 93km bike leg. I guess that's doable...5h for 93km....but...4 days into a race it's not necessarily that easy.

Silkychrome's course notes show the Tues. 3 p.m. cut-off at CP28, the Hidden Valley Inn, partway between TA8 and TA9. Teams are supposed to pick up a property map and find 4 CPs in any order before continuing to TA9. It looks like there should be plenty of time to get from CP28 to TA9 but maybe they'll implement a short course option where teams don't have to find the CPs around the Inn.

Facebook updates:

"As the sun hits its peak and the temperature rises to nearly 90* teams push on toward the pack raft section.

Team ‪#‎adventuremedicalkits‬ made history once again by being 1st team to paddle Monkey Tail Branch Creek.

Average speed on pack raft has been 3.6 km an hour."

"One of the racers got an up close look at a Ferdelance in the least likely of places. "Picture coming"
Big Mike Sero & the team at Milanario saw a big cat last night. Sooooo lucky!"

You're right....that Tuesday 3pm cutoff is at CP28 in KP's notes...missed that. Thanks Bash!

It's two hours before sunset and Team AMK has an 8+ hour lead on the slow 24-mile pack raft paddle. If the trackers are accurate, no other ranked teams have started paddling yet. Teams Happy Mutant/Mainnerve and BOSI Columbia appear to be in the TA now, tied for 2nd. There are some unranked and short course teams tracking on the map, including unranked Chiquibul Grisons, the only other team on the water.

Facebook: "Team 101 Yogaslackers, 2014 MMAC Champions, have DNFd as has 110 USMES & 103 Secretos De Ullum Aromon, all to illness or injury, none serious but precautions must be taken.
Our sincere gratitude to the Belize Defense Force (BDF) the FCD Rangers & the Belize Disaster and Rescue Team
(BDART) for their professional, character, zeal & expertise demonstrated in the support of the racers during the Jungle trek."

Has anyone seen any info on team 106 OWWWP/Merica....??? Seems odd that their tracker hasn't worked the whole race and no mention anywhere despite several requests...

JVD: Last evidence of their continued movement was photos late on day 1 at the first river section takeout by that Legendary dude. I bet he pops back up with more vids and photos this evening as he gets back to civilization from the jungle where teams and media crew have been for the past day+.

Okay, BOSI started the packraft, turned back to the put in and is is now heading back to TA6. Wonder if they forgot some key piece of gear or if something else has happened to them.

First cutoff tomorrow: I'm still not clear on this bit, or the details. I get the rough idea, but yeah, it seems like the map doesn't line up with the book...so not 100% sure I'm clear on where exactly they need to get.

Anyway: If Happy Mutant is in 2nd as the map suggests (of full course teams), they seem to be about 7.5-8 hours behind AMK right now at AMK's pace...but...AMK is AMK, they did this paddle in daylight. They slept a bunch...I'm guessing they have at least another couple of hours to TA...I'm wondering as a result: how realistic that anyone else remains full course?

I have not looked at the bike closely to guess as to how long that will take, but let's say it takes AMK a total of ten hours to get to the TA from HM's position (it might be less than that though). Then let's say it takes HM 14 hours to do the same considering: AMK's physical ability, the fact that they did it after some good sleep, the fact that they did most of it in daylight...this gets HM to TA around, say 930 AM Belize time. Leaves them 5.5 hours to TA and bike to the next cutoff. Seems to be too much based on eyeballing it. And they seem to have a measurable lead on other full course teams.

Hoping maybe OWWWP is further ahead and maybe can make it.

Someone please tell me I'm way off. Or spend more time dissecting it and tell me what you think:)

Agree, it may be tight.

Looks like AMK arrived at TA8 around 20:30, so a little over 12 hours of pack rafting. (Oh joy!)

Happy Mutant left TA7 and started pack rafting around 15:30. Sunset was around 18:00. It looks like their last sleep was when they spent 3 hours at TA5, leaving around 5 a.m. today. So they may do some napping in their pack rafts.

According to Silkychrome's course notes, Team OWWWP estimated 9 hrs of biking from TA8 to TA9 (just over 100 km). The 15:30 cut-off is more than halfway through the distance.

So your estimates look pretty good.

Looks like Happy Mutant is the only other team with a chance to make the next cutoff barring an appearance by OWWWP. Appears to me it 3pm at CP30 "Hidden Valley Inn" on the tracking map. Your math seems reasonable, so they will have roughly 5-6 hours to bike 30 miles, which seams reasonable. I would think they would be sleeping in the packrafts as the nav shouldn't be an issue (no CPs and all downstream until they get to the lake)

Then the MTB will be during daylight, which will help them. WIll be interesting to see how long AMK takes in the dark, and how long Happy Mutant takes on the padkraft.

They're really there! Team AMK's photographer Aaron Johnson has emerged from the jungle and posted some awesome pics.

"Aaron is back from internet blackout and can share some of his photos from the big trek on Day 2. The team grabbed 90 minutes of sleep and started on the trek at 6:30am. They followed a wet, muddy, rugged jeep road deep into the Chiquibul National Park, a region very few humans have visited. Many hours of thick jungle bushwhacking led them to a giant sinkhole, a 320 foot rappel, a giant tree, hundreds of stinging ant bites, flesh ripping vegetation, and a 55km deep cave (largest in western hemisphere). 13 hours later, the team emerged from the jungle and make short work of the next bike leg, arriving back at the TA before midnight and treating themselves to 3 delicious hours of sleep. Aaron last saw them this morning, heading out just before sunrise to the packraft section. They were energetic and in great spirits, looking forward to the packraft."

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.16933265...

There is a photo of AMK chatting with OWWWP 'Merica "on the way out of the jungle". It looked like the teams were headed in opposite directions on the same trail though.

AMK started riding from TA8 around 21:20.

Looks like AMK missed a turn to go pick up CP26 at Devil's Drive. Wondering if this is part of the plan or if they missed it in the darkness.

Also note that in the Duo Coed class, the race is running neck and neck between Nordic AR and Seek Adventure. Both are full course as far I can tell from their tracks. Although San Ignacio Belize Team 113 is currently ahead of them by an hour or so, they are a male team and were short-coursed yesterday, skipping the TA5-TA6 bike. Be fun to see how that little race-within-the-race plays out.

OWWP MERICA is finally showing on the map (or I just noticed) at the start of the packraft.
Relentless and team Happy mutant are at the dam in second place woot woot..
Does anyone knows what happened to BOSI? They are back at the TA before the packraft...

They started paddling around the same time as Happy Mutant but turned back after a short while. Could it be a pack raft issue? Or maybe someone was unwell or injured and they realized how long that paddle was going to take.

Looks like AMK took about 9 hours to get to the cutoff CP, including maybe 2 hours of rest..? (Hard to tell for sure in the phone app). Happy Mutant is off the packraft a little ahead of schedule and appears to have just now started the bike, leaving them 7 hours. If they rested on the packraft and with daylight vs. AMK doing it in the dark, they might have a chance. Gonna be close.

So, if you are right about the numbers JVD:

I went back and looked at the bike loop to Caracol. AMK did it in about 5:40. Happy Mutant did it about an hour slower. So, if AMK slept for 2 hours and rode for 7 to get to the cutoff, it's hard to see Happy Mutant making it in time. Though they do have daylight. Still, my impression is that they are riding on roads pretty much the whole way, so I'm not sure daylight will help all that much and compensate for AMK's faster pace.

Looking back, I don't really see Happy Mutant sleeping much at all if at all. Maybe a catnap here or there, but it doesn't look like they have gotten any blocks of sleep like AMK has. Hard time seeing them riding at AMK's pace to reach the cutoff.

But I'm still not clear on the cutoff. Is it at CP28, Cooma Cairn Tower as on the tracking map? Or it at Hidden Valley Inn as the notes suggest, which I believe is CP 30 on the tracking map? Seems like it's at CP30 and it's a mistake in the book or a mistake on the map...

Silkychrome's course notes say the cut-off is at CP28, Hidden Valley Inn.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138738597@N08/shares...

As someone noted above, the tracking map has some CP numbers that appear to be off. If we had photos of the maps, it would be much easier to follow. For Wilderness Traverse, we try to post good copies of the maps online within an hour of handing them out the night before the race. Happy spectators = more people willing to let their spouses race again next year. :)

No word from Randy since late evening on Feb. 20 when he posted a video with the caption, "My last words ever?" Come on, Randy. Speak to us.

Should have done this before to keep it easy to find:

Ron Flick of USMES just posted a lengthy report on the team's struggles on facebook. Not sure whether it's kosher to post here since it wasn't on a public race page, but he did say that he say OWWWP was trailing Pearl Izumi by about an hour on the last trek. Their tracker still seems to be wonky.

Interesting report - poor guy! I won't post the link either but Ron wrote it as a public post on his personal Facebook so it is easy to find.

More great photos from Aaron Johnson:

"The team arrived here at Hidden Valley resort just before sunrise, after biking through most of the night and taking a 90 minute nap around 3am. I joined them for a couple hours as they completed the short bike loop around the resort property, which included visiting some impressive waterfalls. They were rested and energetic, and spirits were high. Kyle got some cookies at the CP so he was fired up. They did say that one of their pack rafts got a large hole right at the beginning of the water section yesterday - they had to nurse it all day and put 3 people into the one functioning pack raft, and lost several hours. They have lots of duct tape at the next TA so should be able to get it patched up."

https://www.facebook.com/TeamAdventureMedicalKits/...

Maya Facebook: "Adventure Medical has arrived at Barton Creek [TA9]. Slept a little more over the course of the night (rumor has it they cuddled up with some ants as well) but are looking strong!"

I am thinking that the cutoff is at cp30 on the tracking map, but yeah, that's a little unclear.

Looking more and more like only AMK is going to remain full course. Happy Mutant is moving slower than AWS did on this bike leg and is not likely to make it from their current position at 1215h local time with CPs 26 & 27 still to bag. They have ~2.5 hours to get to the Hidden Valley Inn by the 1500h cutoff. They may be one of the few teams who misses this cutoff, but is able to make the Barton Creek 2000h cutoff this evening for the beginning of the trek + packraft.

Agree with JVD: cutoff is at the Hidden Valley Inn CP28, which is marked on the tracking map as CP30.

OOOOH! The mutants have found the short-cut to CP26 and should be there by ~1300!! If they bust arse and don't make a nav blunder, they might make it to the cutoff. Took AMK about 2:15 to get from CP26 to the cutoff in the dark. Oh, the drama!

Back to the world. I am posting pics and video on the Maya Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/MayaMountainAdventure/

BAH! They got thwarted by the bush! No chance to make the 1500h cutoff now.

Yup, we all agree that CP28 and CP30 are the same thing. (And we wonder why people find AR hard to understand!) :)

Unhappy Mutants! So sorry for them. Terrific effort.

P.S. Welcome back, Randy! You survived!

A bit worried about Happy Mutant. Their pace over the last few hours is incredibly slow. Either they are walking (broken bike?) or ??

A little worried for happy mutant too...
Do we know what's the short course from there on for them and the ones behind them?

Don't know the short-course plan, but assuming they miss all the cutoffs ahead, I think it's merely a ride back to the start/finish line. Some of them may still make the 2000h cutoff at Barton Creek.

Do we know if owwwp is full course so far? They have passed the crawling Happy Mutant team, but I don't know if they made the cutoff after the jungle trek and skipped that bike..?

I think they are but they tracker doesn't seemed to have gone to the CP 26

Definitely looks like they skipped CP26...

They are not the first team to skip it...I think 107 and 112 also skipped it and they are the only teams other than AMK to make it to Barton Creek before the 2000h cutoff.

Can now see a couple trackers leaving TA8 heading off-course back toward the start. Maybe this is one of the short-course options?

I don't know. Happy mutant's tracker didn't work for the last two hours. Maybe they made it on time for the 8pm cut off

Yeah - good point. Been busy for a few hours and didn't notice the lag their tracker. Sort of assumed they will still just moving slowly.

Happy Mutant and owwwp are going to do the complete course. except the out and back to ATM. the cut off has been extended to 6pm. Happy mutant has 1 more CP than owwwp

Great news! Thanks, Randy. It's been fun to catch up on your videos.

From Facebook:

Teams will begin finishing the course this evening! Of the 14 teams that started, here is the current status:
101 - Yogaslackers -- DNF
102 - Nordic Adventure Racing -- Active; Ranked
103 - Secretos de Ullum Aromon -- DNF
104 - Seek Adventure -- Active; Ranked
105 - Adventure Medical Kits -- Active; Ranked
106 - OWWWP 'Merica -- Active; Ranked
107 - Sportera -- Active; Unranked
108 - Outside Pearl Izumi -- Active; Ranked
109 - Happy Mutant/MainNerve -- Active; Ranked
110 - USMES -- DNF
111 - No Boundaries Media -- Active; Ranked
112 - Chiquibul Grisons -- Active; Unranked
113 - SanIgnacioBelize.com -- Active; Ranked
114 - BOSI Colombia -- DNF
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Team Adventure Medical Kits has almost finished the final pack raft section. They must be relieved, after all the trouble they've had keeping their damaged raft inflated. After that, it's just 60 km of biking to the finish line at Cahal Pech Village Resort in San Ignacio so they'll probably finish in the dark. Great racing!

AMK borrowed a packraft from Yogaslackers

Randy any idea where happy mutant are? Their tracker is stuck at 6:15pm...

Hidden valley, sleeping.

Congratulations to Team Adventure Medical Kits for a decisive victory in their first major race with their new title sponsor!

There he is, Frenchie - safe and sound at the finish. :) https://www.facebook.com/MayaMountainAdventure/pho...

I saw that :) it's a pity I have no idea what they did since CP26... Did they do the last packraft at all or did they just rode to the finish from Barton creek...

It's a mystery. I assume they came 2nd but MMAC doesn't seem interested in rankings, other than 1st place. I just wrote a long comment on MMAC Facebook on that subject! (Mostly to support another person who had been criticized by another spectator for suggesting that some rankings info would be helpful in addition to a tracking map.)

Just saw Randy's latest video on the MMAC Facebook page - can't seem to link to it directly. It features Silkychrome having fun and it explains what happened to BOSI so early in the paddle; pack rafts and rocks do not mix well.

Just spoke to James. They are happy it's finished :)
He said they didn't do the last paddle. I think they biked straight from the cave to finish.

Did he have ants in his pants like Kyle did? ;)

Looks like Silkychrome and OWWWP 'Merica have arrived at the finish. Any guess on their rank? Maybe 3rd or 4th?

hey AP! quick update from OWWWP at MMAC.

we had a great Trek 1. super hot but we ran "EZ" and walked when needed. arrived in TA just as AMK was putting in.

we had a great Paddle 1. fun Class II ? rapids. the boys flipped 3 times but me and Erl made it thru everything! I think this is where our tracker died, after getting wet. bummer. trackers were not being checked at TAs so we did not know we were not transmitting. we finished the Paddle 1 I think in 3rd right w Nordic.

then a short trek up to TA.

the we got on bikes for "the big bike". caught Nordic around El Pilar ruin (CP ?) and rode into 2nd. then as we rode south to Chiquibul, Ryan started puking so we slowed to help him recover and were passed by several teams. we were not too worried tho bc we knew as long as we took care of Ryan he would bounce back. so we just continued w extra rest breaks. around the Big Rock Waterfall (CP 9??) he started to recover although we made a map interpretation mistake and hiked our bikes down a big tricky hill to the river for the CP, intending to cross and continue. however it was dark and we could not see the exit trail on the other side. the river was quite fast and it was a sketchy crossing. so we decided to hike-a-bike back up and go around on a bridge. rode w Seek Adventure for the remaining miles.

headed out onto "the jungle trek" in the morning. the original course plan was a big loop route. unfortunately we picked the wrong trail to start. when we realised this, we were about 1hr away from TA. the map showed a connector trail not far away that would bring us to the route we wanted, and actually would be a pretty good route choice. however we would not find the connector trail in real life. and bush whacking in the jungle is just silly! so we trekked back to the TA and started over. prob ~4 hrs lost and all of that on our feet. so then we were on the correct trail but our delay caused most of our trekking to be in the dark. trails were still there but hard to follow. we got some help from Boris of the Chiquibul team whose teammates had quit. he works in the forest and lead us straight line to the Group Camp CP! so awesome. from there we made it up to the sink hole overlook and on to the ropes. a bunch of teams were all there getting lost between sink hole and ropes. but we did not! after ropes there was more confusion about verbal instructions from ropes guys vs. map. lots of teams thrashing about. but we found the trail to Kabal Cave and made it there before the others. after that we knew we had to hurry back to make the cutoff. we all were struggling throughout this trek but worked really well as a team to make it on time. really proud of the team.

then slept 20min in TA which was more like a "rest".

then on bikes for the out n back ride to CP 20 and 21. paved roads but lots of climbing. and hot. JD started stopping cars to ask for cold drinks, we got 1 Coke and 1 Fanta from sympathetic tourists!

then we had a super long TA breaking down bikes and getting ready for pack raft. my first attempt at this and it took forever! oh well.

trekked down to pack raft put in in the late afternoon.

we put in just after Seek Adventure and just as Bosi was extracting themselves w a ripped pack raft (not an Alpacka) this made us scared so we were really careful in the beginning.

the pack raft was quite memorable. I could write so much about it. low water. for the first 5 hours we were lucky to paddle 20m before getting stuck. but our pack rafting skills quickly improved as we learned how amazing the Gnus are and how to paddle them best. most of the time I was laying on the top w head over the nose of the boat scanning for rocks. and using my hands to push off of them. then Erl was sitting on the back w the paddle/prybar and getting in/out as needed. (JD came up w this technique). then it got cold and we were shutting down. pulled over and slept for 30min. when I woke up I was the most confused I have ever been. but Erl got us all paddling again and the river finally opened up. then the sun rose. the rest of the paddle was on a reservoir and super pretty. and we had a huge tail wind. portaged around the dam and got some more white water. then finally to the take out!!!!

we then had 2.5 hours to bike the 25 ish?? miles to CP 28 for the 3PM cutoff. in theory this was doable but w the terrain and the heat we had no chance. so we decided to skip CP 26 to save 4ish hours out-n-back. met Odyssey at CP27 and learned they had gotten it but were struggling w stomach issues. we rode in to CP 28 at a resort thinking that our race was over, but not sad. we got beer and dinner at the resort bar when Doug came over and said we were still "full course" and could go get some of the remaining CPs for credit. wait, what? with us only 1CP behind Odyssey it seemed like they wanted to see a final push to the finish. but we didn't think that would be fun so we slept. Odyssey left at 2 or 3 in the morning but we accidentally overslept til 5.

but it all worked out since we had a beautiful sunrise ride to CP 33 at Barton Creek and had an awesome breakfast there w fresh tortillas. OMG. then biked straight back, stopped in San Ignacio for some Belikin beer and carried that to the finish line. hurray!

Congrats on a great race! Thanks for sharing your adventures. Special thanks for sending those course instructions to W4J - and to W4J for sharing them here. The race news wasn't very detailed so I referred to those a *lot*.

"but we didn't think that would be fun so we slept." :)

congratulations on a great race. Very fun following all the action. great race overview, would love to read a detailed RR.

Race information from Facebook... There were points! Teams were competing in different categories! Who knew? All kinds of good stuff. Congrats to our friends who did so well.

OFFICIAL RACE RESULTS -- It was a challenging course, but one that offered reward through natural beauty and personal triumph. We saw a lot of amazing and inspirational team work to help each person get to the finish line. The course had a point total of 35 and was open 102 hrs.
4 PERSON CO-ED:
1. Team Adventure Medical Kits (35pts - 89:43)
2.Happy Mutant/MainNerve (29pts - 95:02)
3. OWWWP 'Merica (27pts - 97:28)
4. Outside Pearl Izumi (25pts - 88:42)
5. No Boundaries Media (23pts - 89:50)
2 PERSON CO-ED:
1. Nordic Adventure Racing (29pts - 97:11 - 3rd overall)
2. Seek Adventure (24pts - 87:02)
2 PERSON MALE:
1. SanIgnacioBelize.com (27pts - 97:06)
UNRANKED:
- Sportera
- Chiquibul Grisons
DNF:
- USMES
- Yogaslackers
- Secretos de Ullum Aromon
- BOSI Colombia

Thanks for the report - so glad you got to experience the wonder of the gnu! And congrats on the third place finish!

Great report EK! Sounded like a really great experience.

Silkychrome has sent Map #1 - thank you! Click on it to see a larger size.

All of Randy's MMAC photos in one place!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/legendaryrandy/sets/...

And Randy's race recap video - be sure to boost the resolution in the settings

1. Congrats all on a great race! 2. Thanks for the write up Silky

Here are all the pics and videos

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL58vTgSgRpG...
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10395498...

Race report from Team Adventure Medical Kits
http://www.teamadventuremedicalkits.com/team-blog/...