The news at 6

Following on from the ups and downs of the race - read all about it!

http://elizadventures.blogspot.com/ - Elizabeth's blog.

So long, and thanks...

So, they’re home safe. Team Cruachan finished the Adventure Race World Championships 2009 at around 9:30am this morning. They’ve endured 6 hard days of trekking, mountain biking, kayaking, canyoneering, inline skating, climbing and abseiling. They’ve taken all the rain, wind, cold, heat and all the other niceties that the Portugese landscape could throw at them, and they’ve come through it smiling.

It’s not been without its ups and downs. The portaging of kayaks seems to be a particular thorn in the team’s side. Sleep deprivation doesn’t suit Philip, we hear. Elizabeth’s knee is hurting. The sleepmonsters came to visit a couple of times. They’ve got sore, chafed backsides.

We’re back at Vila Bicuda, where this adventure started, sorting the kit and sleeping ahead of the prize giving and party tonight. In due course the team will let you know in their own words how they feel, what they enjoyed and didn’t, and spill the stories of faces in the walls and disappearing support people, but for now, they need to sleep and bask in the glory.

I’ll sign off for the week, and post a few more pictures in the next day or so. From me, thank you so much for following us and lending your support, I can assure you it meant loads to the team. But I’m sure they’ll tell you that themselves...

So, until then, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Adventure Race World Championships 2009 finishers Lizzie Rose, Elizabeth Adams, Philip Price and Dan Gates: TEAM CRUACHAN.

Cheers

Pyro

Pics - Day 6

Finished!

They finished!!!!!

Words

As promised

Caught up with the team at T14 having been chasing them for a day. They're looking great, happy and smiling, joking and sharing food round. They've had a few 'moments' so far, crashing on skates, wearing out brakes, overshooting the end of kayak stages, nav errors, but they're thinking well - Joe will be proud - and aiming to preserve themselves enough just to finish.

As an example, they deliberately missed the T14 cutoff. Elizabeth's knee is a little tender, and the big (60km) trek they would be routed onto if they arrived 2pm wouldn't do it any favours. So they stopped a short distance away from the transition, found a small building to get into, and had half an hours sleep. That way the can not only get some shuteye, but they can stick on the bikes and save the legs for the last trek stage to the finish.

That said, the bikes are taking their toll, their behinds "a little tender and a bit chafed". But they will finish, and finish well.

The current leaderboard, up to the end of Stage 4 puts them 45th (out of 59 starters), ahead of the Costa Rican team.

Pictures!!

Thanks to my mum for the update below - we had no net access and I wanted to post quickly as we'd FINALLY caught up with them!

Pictures from our brief meeting today, words to come. Cheers!

Team Cruachan left T14 at 2.30pm all smiling and happy on their bikes after having slept in a shed, deliberately, to miss the 2pm cut off.
Pyro will update as soon as he finds an internet connection.

Pyro's Mam.