Related Teams

• Aberdeen Asset Management - 30
• DART-nuun - 46

Night Two - Trekking Decisions

Sometimes, the Road Left Untaken is Best

June 27, 2006

By Brock Foreman

The view was sublime from CP14 yesterday afternoon. Perched halfway up a several-hundred-foot domed ridgeline of sandstone, the CP offered a spectacular panorama of flat desert and distant mountains.

Thunderheads developed in the distance, flashing the occasional bolt of lightning and rumble of thunder, heralding the arrival of the lead teams.

Rain never came. But the racers did. One by one, the top teams trekked across the desert floor, although they came from different directions.

Nike PowerBlast, Spyder, and Merrell arrived around 3:30 p.m. on a gravel road that lay slightly to the west of the checkpoint.

Taking the road was a gamble. Although the footing on the gravel road was much better than trekking across the sandy washes and brush of the desert, the road added some additional distance.

The gamble didn’t pay off. Although Nike, Spyder and Merrell probably conserved valuable energy by hiking on the road, the longer route cost them time.

GoLite/Timberland and SOLE arrived at the checkpoint slightly from the east, taking the more direct route across the desert. It saved them about 30 minutes. GoLite and SOLE and the two teams took the lead by a few minutes lead over Nike and the rest.

Later, other teams made the same decision as Nike to take the road. As team DART-nuun neared the checkpoint, they surveyed the desert plain they could have taken instead of the road. “[Expletive],” said one of the team’s members as he realized the decision to take the road cost his team valuable time.

After a long kayak trip and another sweltering trek through the desert, teams at CP14 didn’t look nearly as fresh as they did when they popped out of the cool river after their whitewater swim earlier that morning.

Aberdeen Asset Management neared CP14 about five hours after the two lead groups. They came by road, but they didn’t seem disappointed with their decision. “Nice night for a walk,” said one of their teammates as the sun dropped over the horizon and the desert temperatures finally began to cool.

The race continued into its second night.