Monday, March 22, 2010

La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge 2010

180 miles.
The flight distance from New York to Rhode Island. 180 miles is 6 miles longer than the entire length of the country of Belize. 180 miles is the distance on the river from San Ignacio, Belize to Belize City, Belize. In History,
La Ruta Maya
is known throughout Central America, the Old Belize River is part of the route that Mayan people had to take to trade and sell their goods. As a way to remember this history and to promote general well-being and healthy lifestyles, a canoe race was established in 1998. It is one of the largest sporting events in Belize. It is the La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge. It entails 180 miles on the Belize river, with 3 people per team, paddling for FOUR days. I was crazy enough to participate this year, so I thought I would share a little about my experience.

www.larutamayabelize.com

I was crazy enough to attempt the race last year, but I didn’t write about it – because I didn’t finish. Luckily, this year turned out differently. Two friends from the states, Spencer and Brad came down to take part in this awesome event.

T minus one day: Spirits are high. The canoe was dropped off, along with the paddles, and we are more ready than ever. We head out on the bus for Cayo, where the raee will begin at 7 am the next morning. We shop for supplies which include pieces of foam to cushion our butts, duck tape to hold it to the seat, and a few energy bars for the race. Our support team was taking care of the rest. I have been working out at the gym, so I feel prepared (a little). Flashbacks from the year before keep jumping into my mind, but I push them away due to my new partners for this year. Brad and Spence, each fit guys, which was different from the two women I paddled with last year. Not that they weren’t fit, just that I had much more confidence with two men in my boat. We register our team, the WIN-Belize Bembes. We set our alarms for 5 am to prepare for the first day of the race.

Day 1: San Ignacio – Banana Bank : 50 miles

Wake up call at 5 am. Feeling groggy, but manage to put on the designated shirt, which happened to be yellow for the day with our team name BEMBES
tattooed across the front. Even though it felt unnatural, I applied sunscreen all over my body while it was still dark outside. We had a big breakfast: Johnny cakes, beans, cheese, eggs, and bacon. Fuel for the paddling. We carried the canoe out to the water – which took about 6 people. I opted to ride in the vehicle to scope out the water and the competition ;) As we get to the water we realize we are missing a life vest, which are mandatory for the race. We scramble to find one. We started out with two, and ended up with five. go figure. Then we finally made our way into the water. We had medical tape on our hands, sunscreen on our bodies, and hats on our heads. Unstoppable.

Hour 1: Not so bad. My hands hurt a small bit, but nothing I can’t handle.
Hour 4: I am so hungry my stomach is practically snarling. I think I ate a protein bar – but it is all a blur at this point. Once we arrived at the lunch checkpoint we are so relieved. We decided to take turns eating so we wouldn’t lose too much time.
thought the peanut butter and jelly’s were delicious. When it was brads turn he realized that they were in fact just jelly sandwhiches. It didn’t matter. it was delish at the time.
Hour 7: Each village we pass we ask how much longer?????? Asnwers vary, but we take their word for it. When we see a toothless man standing on the shore hold up a 3 on his fingers we were elated – 3 more miles!!!! That has to be close. A few minutes later the safety boat pulls up.

Team Bembes:
How much longer!?

Safety boat:
You have about 3 hours left


I wanted to cry. My arms were so tired and all I wanted to do was relax. We pulled through, and finished in 9 hours. Whew. What a day. We had our tents set up for us, and were able to relax and eat dinner. All I could think about was how much I didn’t want to do the next day, which was 10 miles longer than day one.

Day 2: Banana Bank – Burrell Boom Approx 60 miles.
Wake Up: OUCH, I can barely move. It hurts to move my head. It hurts to raise my hand. Muscles hurt that I didn’t even know existed. I poured icy hot all over my body. Popped some ibprofun. Poured sunscreen over my body. Assembled clothing and rolled out of the tent. Sleepy eyed and groggily ate some breakfast. Don’t really remember what it was. I think it was cold eggs and beans and Johnny cakes. We get in our canoe and the pain goes away momentarily. The coordinator of the race gave a lovely speech that went something like this:
Team xyz you are disqualified. The river is lower than ever, before. This day will take longer than ever before. If you don’t make it to big falls by 2 pm, you WILL be disqualified. One Two Three – GO!


Hour 1-3: I have no idea.
Hour 3-7: Paddling, Paddling, Paddling. The safety boat informs us we are just barely on the side of not being disqualified. Awesome. We are trying to make the time cut off. We are struggling worse than the first day. Just as I realize I am absolutely exhausted, the safety boat comes up and asks if we have FOUR more hours in us? If we do, then he will let us pass, and stay in the race. Silence. I can’t muster a word. Brad says… Yea we got this. Spencer agrees. I agree silently. We continue on the way.
Hour 7-11: I am delirious with laughter. I think trees are hilarious. I see cows and make cow noises. I begin making up random songs, or sing existing tunes that happen to pop into my head. Row Row Row your boat popped in there quite a few times. My arms are moving without my brain even telling them to. It wasn't quite four more hours, but I have never been so happy to see an end to something in my life… but my elation is quickly dissipated by the idea of two more days of this “La Ruta Maya”, better known as hell on earth. I step out of the boat with sea legs. I was stumbling about, but still delirious and happy to be out of the canoe.
Why did I do this? AGAIN?



NINE boats were disqualified this day. I felt proud having made the cut. This was where my LRM experience ended the year before, so I felt as though I had really accomplished something.

Day 3: Bermudian Landing to Burrell Boom Approx 40 miles.

Pain, Paddle. Pain. Paddle. It has become exhausting just to lift the paddle out of the water.
Hour 1-2: We had two creepers on our tail. The adrenaline of racing with them kept our mind off of the pain and agony we were in. Finally the adrenaline subsided and we were passed… then again, then again. One, two, rest. One two. rest. Suburned knees and arms were adding to the overall pain of my body. It is amazing what your body can endure. Just when you think you can’t go anymore – you paddle for 6 more hours. It took us a total of 7 hours on day three – the shortest distance so far, but the shortest distance through what seemed like molasses. The water was perfectly still – what one might consider beautiful if they weren’t paddling with a 3 pound paddle in the blazing sun. The greatest part of all was when a nice gust of wind would rush against us, making it even harder to paddle.

Day 4: Burrell Boom to Belize City – Approx 30 miles.

Before the race began I figured this day would be so simple. Logically after doing a 50 and 60 mile day, surely this day will seem like no challenge at all. IDIOT. After having rowed 150 miles already, this wasn’t the case at all. Each day got progressively more difficult. More Wind and the current was against us as well. It was as if we were paddling just to stay in place. It took us just under 5 hours to complete day 4. Those were some of the most painful hours of my life. I felt as if my arms were going to fall off. My knees were next to blistered from the sun. My hands donned a lovely dozen blisters that had to be taped and wrapped. But after all, I still felt wonderful. It is a great feeling to accomplish such a challenge.

As we paddled up to the shore, small kids ran up to steal our left over nourishment – apples and juice and protein bars. I snatched the pretzels before they could. I am not usually greedy, but after those four days, I really wanted pretzels. ☺

My lovely co workers from WIN-Belize held a bar-b-que for us, which was delicious, and it was great to have finished the race. La Ruta Maya is the second longest canoe race in the world. It is one of those things you hate to do while you are doing it, but I am so glad that I accomplished it. It was a great time, and if someone asks me to do it again, I might just be crazy enough to forget about all this pain, and do it again. Until my next adeventure…






Take care, and take it easy.


Glossary:

Bembe: Steming from the African people in the northwest forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was a tribe, and the name has now been adopted throughout Belize and beyond to define a feirce, independent and strong women.
Johnny Cakes: Typical breakfast item in Belize. Made out of a flour based dough, then baked, they are kind-of like something us southerners call a biscuit. They are usually filled with cheese, beans, and/or ham. Delish!
WIN-Belize: Women's Issues Network of Belize. It is the organization I am currently working with.
http://www.winbelize.org/

1 comment:

Mica Clark-Peterek said...

Loved reading about your La Ruta Maya experience. Congrats on finishing! What a great accomplishment!