Fusion 2009

This last weekend, a bunch of friends and I participated in something called Fusion 2009, which was sponsored by the Port Authority here in Port-of-Spain.  Fusion is something along the lines of an adventure race.  Adventure races are done either individually or in teams (in this case teams) and it requires multiple events and multiple disciplines (running, biking, etc.).

It all started about 2 weeks ago.  Aaron saw an ad in the paper talking about this race and sent out an e-mail to a bunch of us asking if we wanted to give it a try.  We were all intrigued, as last year's Fusion apparently started with a run where teams were tied together, followed by a 17 mile run, followed by a 2 hour hike, and finished with a quick 5k run around downtown.  That is all that we knew about Fusion and had no idea what it would be like this year, because with these races, they tell you what will happen on that leg of the race about 10 minutes before you start the leg.  So we really had not idea what we were getting into.

We did a crash course in getting ourselves ready for this by scheduling hikes, yoga, runs, and what not for the 10 days leading up to the race.  Yes, we only trained for 10 days after hearing what last year was like.  We split ourselves up into two teams based on the anticipated pace that each person would match up with and away we went.

The race started in the NE of Trinidad at 5:45 AM Saturday morning (with an informational meeting at 5:00 AM).  We stayed at a little guest house about 30 minutes away from the starting line, so to get ourselves a little breakfast, and get to the start on time, we were up by 3:30 AM.  As we were driving to the start, we literally woke up some roosters.  It was a nice payback for once.

As we were milling about the starting area, we looked around and we noticed that we were the only two teams who were not in matching uniforms.  We also noticed that we were the only ones without a lot of gear with them.  We were just a couple of rag-tag teams, thrown together at the last minute, completely unprepared for what we were about to get into, and it showed.

The first event was called "Divide and Conquer".  Every team had to split in half and send two people to a mental challenge and the other two to 'get wet'.  My team consisted of me, Nick, Charlie, and Tara (a friend of ours from ultimate frisbee who filled in for another friend at the last minute when he found out that he was going to be traveling for work.  Tara only trained with us for about 4 days.).  We decided that Tara and Charlie would do the mental challenge and Nick and I were going to do the 'wet' leg.

The whistle was blown and we were off in opposite directions.  Nick and I started running up the road and within about 5 minutes were directed into the woods, where we were immediately greeted with someone passing out life vests.  At this point I thought "oh crap!" and apparently Nick was thinking "YES!".

The trail was pretty straight...downhill.  The ground was wet from some early morning sprinkles and I slipped a handful of times.  It was a little worrisome because I really didn't want to start out with losing my balance so much.  And I'm sure that Nick was rolling his eyes as well.  We wound our way down the hill and hit a shallow river.  Fortunately this isn't anything too bad now that we've started hashing.  However, the shallow river got deeper and deeper and the life vests started to come in handy, especially if you have every tried to swim with shoes on.

We kept going, slowly passing people and we hit a checkpoint where they gave us a red rope to signify that we got to the checkpoint and told us to go back to the starting line.  So back up the river we went and up that long, steep, wet hill that was so slippery coming down.  It wasn't much easier going up either, especially with this guy who was running by us, constantly yelling at his partner, telling him to hurry up, this is what we trained for, where are you boy? etc.  The last statement was probably the most accurate, because the only people in sight were me and Nick.  Fortunately, this guy finally figured out his partner was no where to be seen and went back for him. 

Nick and I soldiered on, running down the road and as it turned out, we finished in 4th place out of everyone who went on our leg.  And then, as it turned out, Tara and Charlie were the first to finish their puzzle and second to finish their leg.  We were quite shocked that we finished so well.  All in all, this first leg took us about 1:30.

After about an hour rest, waiting for the other teams to finish, they sent everyone on their way to the next starting point, about 45 minutes away at Las Cuevas beach (actually it was on a road above the beach, but anyone looking at a map can now orient themselves a bit).

This next leg was the hard leg.  It was basically a hike up a mountain on the north coast called El Tucuche.  Apparently this mountain is the second highest peak in Trinidad, with a summit height of 3071 ft.  Giving a rough estimate that our starting point was bout 70 ft above sea level, we hiked up 3000 ft in this leg.  Now to give you some perspective, a story in a building is generally 10-12 ft.  So this would mean that we were about to hike roughly 250 stories (and it felt like it).

This leg started with a "burn" (a steep climb that makes your legs work so hard that the lactic acid buildup feels like it's burning in your legs), followed by a long climb, followed by a flat river run to a checkpoint where we would have to answer some puzzles/mind benders, followed by another burn, another shorter climb and then a 3-4 mile flat run to the end of this leg of the race.  It was not pretty and it was a little intimidating.

Since we all didn't have this great gear, like hydration packs, we had to put all our water and some trail mix into a backpack and trade off from person to person throughout the hike.  Keep in mind that unlike marathons, mini-marathons and what not, there were no water stations in this race.  You had to provide everything for yourself.  And considering that it was around 90 degrees and we were carrying water for 3 grown men, we had the odds stacked against us because someone was going to be carrying all this extra weight.  

We started out and our goal was just to keep a steady pace.  We jogged along until we got to the first burn and just kept going at a slow-to-medium pace.  We slowly passed teams and after about an hour and 15 minutes, we came across the quiz checkpoint. 

Here the questions each had a time penalty attached to them.  If you got a question wrong or skipped a question, the time penalty would be added to your finishing time.  There was one question that consisted of finding the next letter in a sequence, a logic question sorting out information about people's names, ages and places that they got playing chess and scrabble, a question about a ladder during high tide, and a fill in the blank to write out a word.  We felt very comfortable about all except the logic chess/scrabble question.  They all had 9 minute penalties and the logic chess/scrabble had a 7 minute penalty.  We thought we would spend more than 7 minutes on that question, so we just filled in an answer and were on our way.

After the questions, the burn and the steady climb were tough, but not as bad as the first burn and climb.  Then before we knew it, we were on a flat straightaway.  As we were going, we had to occasionally take 5-10 seconds to stop and look at the view, which was just incredible.  We looked out onto valleys of trees surrounded by mountains, on a clear day.  It felt like the valleys went on forever even though they were surrounded by mountains.  The colors were so rich and vivid.  I haven't seen constant shades of green like that since I arrived on the island.  The sky was cloudless and was such a rich blue.  Nick had said at one point that 'it was nearly a religious experience' and I would tend to agree with him.  I wish I had my camera with me.  Maybe I'll find the trailhead and try to hike back there some day.

So after taking the moment to take in the view, we were back on our way.  Fortunately, it remained a nice flat path and we quickly approached a bend.  As we rounded the bend, we started a slight descent.  Then before we even knew it, we heard clapping and cheering.  There had to only be 30 people waiting for us, but it sounded like a thunderous applause.  It reminded me of finishing a marathon, with the feeling of incredible accomplishment, pushing myself harder and farther than I have before.  And to top it all off, we again came in 4th place.

We went straight back to the car and were talking with Tara and Katie (she didn't run for her team on this leg) and they were shocked at how quickly we finished.  They were the ones to tell us that we finished 4th and that they had only arrived to the finish line about 30 minutes earlier (our finish time was about 2:27 minutes or there about).  

As we were chatting, we made note when the next team came across the finish line and it was more than 7 minutes after us.  So we were thinking that if the first 3 teams were not the first 3 teams from the first leg, that we would actually be in 3rd place overall.  Only time would tell.  The other teams came rolling in, some strong, some looking quite tired and weakened.  But everybody got a lot of applause, cheering and support.  It was definitely a challenge to remember.

After a bit, we were told to meet at the savannah for the final leg of the race.  This last leg would be a run around the savannah (a little more than 2 miles) and then down a few streets of Port of Spain, to finish at the port authority offices. 

As we were waiting to start, we killed the time by stretching and discussing the questions on the quiz during the second leg of the race.  The other team of my friends answered one way (the same way we originally answered - but then we changed our answer).  So now the question was who was right and who would get the time penalties.  Also, as we were waiting the organizer of the race was walking around from team to team, telling them the standings.  He didn't give out times or anything of the sort, but confirmed that we were in 4th place.  He pointed out the team that we needed to beat in this last leg if we wanted to take 3rd and also told us that 2nd place was out of the question for us.  So we set our sights on that 3rd place team.

This leg our entire team ran together and they told me that this was "my leg" since I was the road runner and that I was to bring us home.  They told me, "set the pace and we'll be there."  So that was my job - to have us finish strong, but not burn us out.

The horn was blown and we were on our way for the final leg.  We started out a couple people behind the 3rd place team and I noticed that one of their team members was already falling behind their front runners.  So I increased the pace just a bit, but not too much, knowing that we would get them in the long run.  We quickly passed their slowest person and were slowly gaining on their fast team members.  Nick kept pushing me to go faster, but I had to hold him back because I knew we would lose Charlie and Tara as well as the 3rd place team. 

About one-third of the way around the savannah, we passed the 3rd place team.  After we got to approximately the 2/3 mark, the 3rd place was no where to be seen and we were still holding strong as a team.  We rounded the savannah and started down the final stretch on the streets of POS to the finish line.  We stayed fairly close as a group and we rounded a couple corners and there was the finish line.  Nick and I turned around and started running back to make sure that we all finished together.  Charlie and Tara were with us in a matter of seconds and we all sprinted to the finish.  Our eyes were focused on the finish line and our friends and family waiting for us and our ears were filled with cheers and clapping from the crowd.

We finished 3rd out of all the teams in the race.  The 3rd place team that we had passed came across the finish line about 4-5 minutes later and now it was just a matter of whether we cut down the time difference enough to make it into 3rd place overall.

After a short bit, Aaron, Katie, Mark, and Karen came running across the finish line and they too were greeted with great fanfare from the crowds and friends and family.  We filled them in on the finish situation and we all anxiously awaited the final results.

So here we are...the moment of truth.  The race results began with Team Spirit and the the winner of the all female teams and then they started the slow countdown from 9th place on up, each of which received a prize package for their efforts.  So it comes down to the 4th place team announcement, and at 4 hours 37 minutes, the 4th place team was...The Ultimate Frisbee Players (my team).  It was kind of a bummer, but we felt like we did really well considering this was our first time.  They then announced the 3rd, 2nd and 1st place teams, all of whom received not only a trophy, but also one of those big checks like they always show on game shows and Publisher's Clearing House commercials.  How cool would it have been to actually get one of those big checks?

Anyway, as we were listening to them announce the top 3, Mark leaned over and said that if he heard correctly, we only lost by a little over 1 minute.  WHAT!?!?  That can't be!!  So after all the announcements were done and everyone was on their way, I went up to the organizer and asked him the times and he said that we finished in 4:37:57 (hrs:min:sec) and that the 3rd place team finished in 4:29:21, which was a difference of 8:36.  Ok, that wasn't as bad as 1 minute.  But wait a minute...that question from the second leg of the race that we were discussing...we got that wrong (actually both our teams got it wrong).  So that means we had a 9 minute penalty tacked on to our final time, which also means that if we did not miss that question, we would have made 3rd place by 24 seconds.  24 SECONDS!!!  Nick reminded us that there are olympic athletes are beat by fractions of a second, but I'm no olympic athlete and this was a hard pill to swallow.

So this little rag-tag group, thrown together at the last minute almost pulled off a decent upset.  We learned a lot from this experience and all of us have ranked it in the top of all experiences since we have moved here.  Next year though, watch out.  Because we're going to train hard and we'll get that big check.

Oh, and here is a picture of our 4th place prize basket.

Yes, those are boxes of Uncle Ben's rice, aluminum foil and cake mix (along with outdated warm yogurt, canned sausages, and Nutella - at least we got Nutella).

Modern Marvels

I believe that I have stated in the past that Trinidad driving is something a little different from other places.  You need nerves of steel and have to have a lightening quick reaction time to avoid potholes as wide and as deep as your tires or to avoid cars swerving into your lane to avoid potholes in their lane.  And on top of that, many of these cars are driving at excessive speeds.

With all of this also comes an incredible amount of traffic and congestion in the streets.  The rules of the road are really just guidelines.  Cars will cross into the oncoming lane, in traffic, to park on the wrong side of the street because they see a parking spot.  On streets where there is a steady flow of traffic and cars are driving along at 50 km per hour, someone will come to a complete halt, nearly causing a pileup, so another car can cross the street, even though there will be a break in traffic in a matter of seconds.

While I'm becoming adjusted to it, and just accept that this is the way that it is, there are still times when you get completely frustrated and there are times when you have to take a look at around and realize what is going on.

On May 1st, Trinidad completed what I believe is the first flyover in the country.  For folks in the states, a flyover is basically an overpass on the highway.  There is one point going from Port of Spain to San Fernando, a city south of POS, where there is always backed up traffic.  To alleviate the problem, the government started building the flyover.  I believe that it took 5-7 years to build (I have not confirmed that timeframe), but do know that it was extremely over budget and 2 years past the initial deadline.

Here is a picture of this incredible feat of modern engineering, taken from a video that I found on YouTube of someone driving on it.  That's how big a deal this is.

So some friends and I were going to a hash near Chaguanas, which is between POS and San Fernando, and we had the pleasure of driving on this new modern marvel for Trinidad.  We approached the flyover and expected to continue to zip along to our destination.  However, once we actually got on the flyover, the traffic came to a screeching halt.  

What caused this?  Well, along the shoulder, there were a string of cars pulled over with everyone out taking pictures.  And then we saw the flashing lights.  We approached a police car, which was also pulled off on the shoulder and a big black, tinted SUV stopped in the left lane.  We were all diverted into the right lane and as we passed, we saw that the police were also standing on the shoulder looking around at the view, and the SUV had a police light on the top of it, with no one in it.  

So in a nutshell, this great innovation of traffic flow was stopped so people could take pictures, including some police officers, who couldn't be bothered to pull onto the shoulder, but instead decided to park in the middle of a lane on a highway.  Only in Trinidad...