Discussion: GODZone 2014

This starts "tonight" in North and South American time zones, doesn't it? Excited! Would love to do this race someday, although the Kiwis with their superior paddling would really pull away on the long water sections. If I went, I would focus my training on three things: paddling, paddling, paddling!

Mar 6, 2014 3:07 PM #

Sami11 is racing w Checkpoint Zero. full team list here:

http://godzoneadventure.com/team-resources/teams/

Mar 6, 2014 6:30 PM #

Wally80:

I am racing with team 9, Sheepeaters (I had no say in the name) Our biggest competion are the other West Australian APers AndreM and Rabbit racing on the Mobilyzer Openwire team.

Looking forward to the long paddles since we can train that at home, going higher than 1000m is not something we can train and that is going to hurt more.

Mar 6, 2014 8:57 PM #

The Breathe Magazine live coverage site will be up sometime later this afternoon.
http://www.breathemag.ca/flashblog/category/1-godz...

Mar 6, 2014 9:03 PM #

Actually, it's up now, so come on over. Please share and please comment. Oh, and please enjoy. :)

Mar 7, 2014 3:23 AM #

Found out that the 100km paddle has a 10.5 hour dark zone covering it, hence the Camping gear bin at the transition before. Looks like every team will be spending a night camping beside the river. Should make for a fast second half of the race.

Mar 7, 2014 5:08 AM #

Looking forward to your coverage Los Dobos (and have already enjoyed your beta re: boats, etc.)

Mar 8, 2014 12:50 AM #

legendaryrandy:

I had a chance to talk with the race media director minutes before the start. You can here it here.]http://adventureraceworld.podomatic.com/entry/2014...

Mar 8, 2014 9:15 PM #

I hear crickets...

Mar 8, 2014 9:16 PM #

Bash:

We're here! I'm watching the Breathe coverage.

Mar 8, 2014 9:42 PM #

yeah we are totally slacking! here are my thoughts:

--the split start was really cool. sorta like 2012 USARA Champs in kerHONKsken! (except somewhat less strategy).

--Seagate is amazing.

--route choice on the first bike leg! yay!

--Seagate is amazing.

Mar 8, 2014 11:34 PM #

Myka:

Following Breathe as well:)

Mar 9, 2014 9:44 PM #

Catching up via Breathe - thanks for all of the reports!

Mar 10, 2014 2:34 AM #

afsheen:

If an ARWS Championship were held in New Zealand in the next few years, like some have wanted, will any of the international teams stand a chance against Seagate and the other NZ players on their home turf? Local knowledge would affect the outcome, I think.

Mar 10, 2014 3:58 AM #

Good question afsheen! Previously I would have thought there would be some local advantage but lately I believe these top teams have dominated regardless of the location, so I think it's more a matter of how good the team is, versus having local experience. I think the top teams have become so good that they are not affected much by unfamiliar locations.
I think a team like Thule would crush all of the local competition, except maybe one team... (And I'm not going to gamble on which of those two teams would come out on top)

Mar 10, 2014 12:37 PM #

Agree with CO about Thule, and also likely Haglofs Silva is in that category. The rest of the top-10 internationals would have a tough fight of it with the top 1/2 dozen Kiwi teams for spots 4-10. It'd be a ripper of a race.

Mar 10, 2014 1:40 PM #

z:

Thule won Untamed New England 2012 by a margin of something like 12 hours. We had scheduled dam releases to bump up water levels on a final section that they were 8 hours ahead of (and so a final packraft section became 10 miles of very slippery and rocky trekking for them instead ). We ended up staging their own support vehicle *just* for them as they had outrun all our earliest equipment staging logistics plan. Teams like that are a race organization's nightmare :)

They had never raced in New England, and certainly had no prior familiarity with the course or terrain. I don't think they had packrafted before, either, by the looks of their "technique" through those sections.

When a team . . .
a) doesn't make major navigation mistakes (in UNE that's amazing)
b) rarely stops forward progress (for sleep, injuries, mechanicals, etc)
c) moves about as fast as imaginable through most sections of a race course
. . . they can be unbeatable.

They will be back to UNE this June, competing against a much tougher field of teams, so it should be interesting.

Teams like Seagate and Thule are in an exclusive club of teams, ones that are competing at a different level.

Mar 10, 2014 5:12 PM #

i don't know why it took me so long to check out the leaderboard, but i finally did, and WOW. omg. amazing. awesome.

http://live.godzoneadventure.com/leaderboard/

LosDobos said it was good, but i guess i was just expecting up-to-date TA times. but this leaderboard also tracks current progress WITHIN each stage!!

Mar 10, 2014 5:37 PM #

Bash:

They've done an amazing job!

Mar 10, 2014 7:57 PM #

Oh man, that IS a sweet leaderboard! Not much left to ask for!

Mar 10, 2014 8:56 PM #

afsheen:

Thanks CO, LosDobos, and untamed. Great points, and agree. I like untamed's assertions about Thule, and for any team who can do what they do at high speed, with great navigation, and never pausing in their forward progress.
Great race at Godzone this year, too.

Mar 11, 2014 4:22 PM #

Seagate is SO close to finishing! What a win. And what a battle among the next five teams for the podium positions!

Mar 11, 2014 6:33 PM #

Seagate has finished!

Mar 11, 2014 6:43 PM #

Wow, there's only about 1 km between each of the next positions for the next four teams. Thank goodness for synchronized trackers!

Mar 11, 2014 8:02 PM #

carbon:

I agree about the very awesome leaderboard. They are setting a good example. Hopefully other race organizers will follow this approach to continue to make it easier to follow expedition races.

Mar 12, 2014 5:35 AM #

Rowan:

I know a lot of non adventure racers who have come across the live tracking and are now glued to it. Lots of late nights and early mornings following.

Great work by the organisers.

Mar 12, 2014 6:27 AM #

afsheen:

The tracking reminds me of the Tour de France's live tracking website.

Mar 12, 2014 7:53 AM #

Wal:

FYI Thule came out to NZ to race Godzone last year and ended up pulling out. They were not near the front either so I'm not so sure that they would automatically beat all of the other local teams. At least they didn't last year

Mar 12, 2014 12:35 PM #

jackson5:

Following all the coverage on breathe and GODZone site - amazing web site and pictures. Congrats to Seagate, they indeed are on another level.

Mar 12, 2014 3:00 PM #

Wal: interesting re: Thule at GodZone last year, I didn't know that.

Mar 15, 2014 8:22 AM #

Wally80:

Thule was without their primary navigator last year, probably not a great comparison

Mar 16, 2014 12:37 AM #

I don't travel anywhere without my primary navigator :)

Mar 26, 2014 6:10 PM #