Discussion: 2022 AR Panama

The first ARWS of 2022 begins on Saturday, February 19. It should provide some good dot-watching.

Team list:
https://tracktherace.com/es/eventos-deportivos/rai...

Stages:
S1-TREKKING
• T1 (Bike Box)
S2-MTB - 49k
• T2 (Bike Box )
S3-TREKKING+ROPE SECTION - 25k
• T3 (Box 1 & Kayak Bag)
S4-KAYAK - 85k
• T4 (Box 2 & Bike Box)
S5-MTB - 71k
• T5 (Box 1, Kayak Bag & Bike Box)
S6-KAYAK
• T6 (Box 2 & Kayak Bag)
S7-TREKKING
• T7 ( Box 1 y Bike Box)
S8-MTB

At first glance, looks like the stage 4 kayak could be the crux, at 85k with currents, mangroves, and an open-ocean paddle in an area with high winds.

Thanks for sharing! Mangroves are always fun. :)

Crocodiles for the win!

Start on the leg 1 trek up a volcano is in roughly 9 hours. Don't miss the mayhem!

Gale force winds (75kph) have forced alteration to the starting plans (maps were handed out before the bus ride rather than at the start), location and time.

Quoting an Instagram/FB photo post: "Confirmed, the start was moved because of wind. At the starting gun racers will head out along the river at the new start and fine a staff car near the old start which will put teams back on the map."

The tracking map is finally live: https://tracktherace.com/en/sports-events/adventur...

Now that I've looked at the tracking site, it appears that quite a few teams (~10) are not tracking...yet. Hoping the team is already aware of this and working on rectifying.

Love that this tracking software is preloaded with the race maps (folded map icon on the right side), not just the usual layers of satellite, road, terrain, etc. Still looking for a full copy of the race book / rules of travel for reference. have seen videos and photos of folks looking at hard copies of it, but not a full layout for dotwatchers to read.

Full course map is here:

whoa! that was a much more fancy link paste than I expected. not complaining at all!

And, here's a pdf of the entire route book: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p8j8EyU99h4xIZSbn...

A bit of unclear info about who's really leading out there. One "official" indicated that Brazil Multi was first to the summit. A report from a park ranger indicated that Estonia reached the summit first. A photo from the course by Estonia's team reporter has them first down the mountain. Safe to say it still pretty close at the front.

First noticable nav. blunder by the French team as the pass the turn South after the ascent on this bike leg. They've already corrected, but have no dropped off the lead pack of Estonia, Vidaraid and Brazil Multisport

And now France has missed the turn on the double back and passed another team while continuing away from the turn back toward the last TA. Ahhh, navigation at night....

France tripled back and seems to be turning on to the right track now. They lost 45 mins wandering back and forth. Now Bones has overshot the turn, too.

Bones has corrected promptly.

Thanks for all the great info, Conman!

This is awesome Conman! Bend seems to have boots on the ground reporting and mentioned on their FB page their troubles and that Bones had a wreck. Go Bones!

Have somewhat lost interest in regular posts without banter from others, so will probably stop unless something really astounding happens.

Looks like the mangroves aren't presenting the same challenges as in Costa Rica a few years ago. Interesting route choice by Naturex. When is low tide?

Agree, having the race maps available on the tracking page is very cool. Looking ahead there are some interesting things on the last trek and bike that will present some possible challenges later in the race (missing bridges, ferries, etc.).

It's tough to banter when the the dots aren't updating. Gah!

Seems that adverse conditions (wind, waves, tides) at night have forced the race off the sea during the stage 4 paddle. The three leaders (Brazil Multi, Estonia Ace, Vidaraid) are all ashore at the same spot and it seems they were directed to the spot and perhaps even aided with power boats or jetskis. There were police vehicles with the spinning red/blue roof lights parked near the beach, perhaps as a beacon. The only team that I can't confirm status of at the moment is Bones, whose tracker hasn't moved for 10 hours. Can only assume they are roughly where Bend Racing is stopped at the portage or somewhat beyond. Brazil hit the shore roughly 40 minutes before Estonia (per video evidence), and Vidaraid had already been there for at least 2 hours by the time Estonia arrived, but it appears they were transported after some sort of incident on the water ~25-30 kms back.

Thanks for the updates, Conman. Love how on it you are.

Still no reports about the next steps, but the five+ lead teams have been moved from the beach to the next TA and the Brazil has apparently left on the next bike leg. Perhaps it's a restart with teams held until the approx. gaps at the time of the stoppage are equalized?

I saw a video on FB of the restart; I'm assuming that teams were shuttled to TA5 (based on the dots). I didn't see any indication of how they will deal with the incredibly large gap in times though. Also, not sure if there is any equitable way to deal with how much further the lead teams had to paddle before being pulled, unless they are taking times from the portage.

Also, it looks like there might be some nav errors coming into play on this bike leg. Craig Cook highlighted some small issues on AR Live Coverage over the night.

Update to the restart - it sounds like times were taken from Boca Chica, which was well before the portage, and that the restart is being staggered by those times.

Brou and Bend about to ride off their maps. I can't even figure out where they think they are. They should never be heading SW.

What is up with the trackers in this race? So hard to follow with the intermittent pings. Bones hasn't pinged in 22 hours...

Also, with the staggered restarts I think that the order on the road is the true order, but I'm not positive.

Also, wondering how sleep is coming into play with the change in course.

Looks like the second paddle was canceled as well? Teams heading north from the put-in off the race map now.

JayXC - I heard that as well. I think they're being shuttled to the end of the paddle. Lots of places to get media for the race, but I think I heard that from Bend? or ARWS?

Looking slightly ahead to the end of the race, there will be ~24 hours left of racing. A long trek with ZERO cps, and then a decent bike with lots of cps. I'm assuming that all of the top 5-10 teams will have had enough sleep to push to the finish. Hard to make out the top 5 or so, but I think that Brazil is in the lead, and time-wise Estonia is ahead of Vidaraid still, but not by much after factoring in the 1hr they have to serve at TA7. I think Bones might be 4th?

It looks like Brazil has finally started the trek after 12 hours off the clock, which means that there is racing again. I'm not sure what the feeling on the ground is, but I imagine that it must be frustrating to be having the race play out like this. Can't blame the race director for the weather, so it's not their fault, but it must be a strange feeling to have such a long pause.

Overnight brought some changes! Estonia has a commanding lead (chance at a first place finish that has eluded them) and my personal fav Bones dropped back a few places. Bend has had some difficulties according to their FB feed but carrying on!

I lack the insight to add worthwhile comments, so I appreciate the posts that appear with or without banter, Conman!

Again, I'm confused by the tracker and the placement of all these teams. Estonia appears to have a decent lead, but Brazil haven't updated in 10 hours. Vidaraid is most likely in 3rd, and I'd imagine that Bend/Bones are in 4th/5th. I have a hard time believing that the group of teams in between them (Tubaina, Uruguay, France, Gymcity) have passed them and are closing in on world #1 vidaraid, but I could be very wrong.

My guess was correct! Brazil have arrived in the final TA ahead of Estonia. Considering Estonia's 1hr penalty, it would take a big mistake from Brazil to hand the lead over.

Brazil popped up at about 10am local time at the last TA. They've been there for about 20+ minutes and are probably due to depart any moment, unless they've incurred a penalty. Estonia is still on the trek but should arrive at TA any moment. This is where they will need to serve their 1hr penalty. They have built a large lead (~3 hours) over all the followers, including Vidaraid, so should still have 2nd position once their penalty is up. Vidaraid has slowed more than I expected and now has the pack, including Uruguay, right on their heels.

Why did Estonia get penalized?

@silkychrome they didn't take the correct photo of CP1. There's a pic up somewhere with the summary of pending penalty times.

To answer my own question from above (via Bend on FB):

At the restart this morning the top 3 teams were spaced out so they were starting in “real time” and everyone else was released in five minute intervals. Because of all the time manipulation there is going to be some maths involved at the finish to divine the actual finish order, but as far as we can tell so far the team is trekking with @bonesadventure and the two groups are hanging out in 8th/9th.

Just saw the notice on ARPanama's FB page about the Estonian penalty. OH NO!

"Estonian ACE Adventure / La Sportiva met an hour penalty for a PC2 error (photo by referee Adrian Crane) and left the T7 1h30min behind the leaders."

So does that mean the gaps between the top 3 teams are correct as they're shown on the course?

It is pretty close. There has been a comment about making final time adjustments related to the kayak section cancellations at the finish, but that seems to have only applied to the 7-8 teams below 3rd position, who all bussed around the second kayak in groups and restarted on the last trek at 5 min intervals.

Race could end in the next couple hours...but, it's wholly unclear who is leading because Estonia's tracker decided to stop tracking when they loaded their bikes for the first boat shuttle ride. GRRR.

Brazil's tracker seems to have frozen too. Thanks Conman - you got us excited about bantering with you and then immediately jammed all of the trackers!!

Hey, what are digital friends for!?

...if you need anything else hacked and left in ruins, I'm yer fella.

Live feed on instagram NOW with first finishers due momentarily! https://www.instagram.com/arpanama2022/live/

Team Brazil Multisport WINS!

Well done! Who needs trackers when there's Instagram?

Estonia is in...Second AGAIN!!! When will they break through?

Looks like Bend has broken very clear of Bones on the final bike leg, wonder what's going on there.

Bones is trying a special move on the way to CP 19. I actually scouted it out on google maps yesterday - interested to see if it works!

Good to see the US teams bring it home and I hope they are all now sleeping the joyous first sleep after a race of this length. There should be great stories once they have their wits back and some food + food + more food in them. Oh, and maybe showers.

There are quite a few teams still in the midst of the struggle to the line. Keep them in mind...their struggle is even more difficult because of the total duration of their effort.

Here are the top 11 for the race after all adjustments...

1 2 d 10 h 55 m 10 TEAM BRAZIL MULTISPORT
2 2 d 11 h 39 m 15 ESTONIAN ACE ADVENTURE / LASPORTIVA
3 2 d 13 h 44 m 29 TORPEDO VIDARAID
4 3 d 0 h 48 m 16 TUBAINA
5 3 d 1 h 53 m 7 TEAM BEND RACING
6 3 d 2 h 34 m 9 BONES ADVENTURE
7 3 d 2 h 39 m 27 URUGUAY ULTRA SPORTS
8 3 d 5 h 25 m 17 GYMCITY AR
9 3 d 6 h 24 m 11 BROU AVENTURAS
10 3 d 13 h 45 m 8 BOA - BRASÍLIA OUTDOOR ADVENTURE
11 3 d 16 h 16 m 20 PAPACARA SALUDSA VITALITY

Hi all. Question: what happened to the French team? Strong team, and I didn’t see reference to a DNF.

Anyone see something on them in the coverage?

Yes, they did DNF due to a teammate with heatstroke.

Ah, thanks SM!!