Story from the City Chase World Championships
I’ve been procrastinating writing a race report about Morocco for fear of somehow loosing the mystic of my experience by turning it into words on a page. I’ve thought of ways to convey the story: photos, waiting for the TV show, or perhaps a play-by-play account? However, none of them would give justice to what happened over those five incredible days in central Morocco. None of them would capture the smells of the ancient city, the chaos of the overcrowded souks, the heat of the desert, the camaraderie between teams, the relationships formed with the cameramen and race organizers, the connection to the culture, the confusion and frustration of the race and the joy and exhilaration of the wild once-in-a-lifetime experiences. But, if only for my own chance to relive some of the moments … I will try.
It was hardly a ‘race’. Rather, it was a mission to not be eliminated, a quest to get to the finish line. It never mattered whether you were in first, or how big of a lead you had on the next team….you just didn’t ever want to be last. We guessed that only 6 teams out of twelve would actually finish and I desperately wanted to be one of those six. This was my 11th city chase event and so I know better than anyone that you don’t want to miss one second of what is going to be dished up. My excitement at finally seeing the towering snow-capped Atlas Mountains rise out of the Moroccan desert on arrival was met with a fair whack of apprehension. Staying in this race would prove to be a very fragile venture indeed.
The teams
Twelve countries were represented in Morocco: the two delightfully American fellas from Pennsylvania (Eric and Martin) — loud, jolly, party boys who were a lot of fun from beginning to end; Diarmaid and Ian from Ireland, who were continuously regaling us with good Irish humor and who were exceptionally insightful; Lahcen and Hafida who represented the host country with intimidating resumes (Lahcen is ten time Marathon de Sables winner and Hafida is Morocco’s first female professional mountain guide); Nadia and Clemantine, the all girl team from France who were wild bullets of fun; the much adored Nuno from Portugal who had returned to CC world champs with a new partner, Paulo, top Portuguese adventure racers who were definitely one of the favourites to win; Pablo and Raoul from Spain, on the national orienteering team and sub 2.5hr marathoners (the fastest team by far); the un-stoppable big Davide (6’7”) and little Davide (5’6”) from Italy; the Aussie boys of Chris and David; the very chic Adrien and Damien representing Hong Kong, but who were really French … both of whom work for big cosmetic and watch companies in Asia and led the way in style and fashion; Ben and James from England who were…”oh, so British” and nuclear-something geniuses; the two spunky and savvy guys from Singapore, one of whom was actually another aussie transplant and the other from New Zealand; and finally, Jim and I from Canada. It was such a great bunch of people who became close friends through the course of the week, who shared in the despair and tears whenever a team was eliminated, and who never once considered each other as ‘opposition’ but rather as a group sharing in a remarkable experience. I always had my money on Singapore for the win … right from the outset I could tell they had the whole package required for success in this race: good looks, charm, intelligence, fitness, multi-skilled, savvy, resourcefulness, navigation and initiative. With 22 city chases between us, I knew that we had a chance as well. However, we soon worked out that if it came down to a speed event, Spain was going to leave us all behind.
Pre-race action
As soon as we arrived in Marrakech the excitement mounted. We were met at the airport by Nat Geo camera crew who filmed our every move from customs to arrivals to our pick-up. We were ferried over to a lovely ‘stuck-in-the-70s’ resort hotel and were handed our agenda: buffet lunch, interviews, press conference, race meeting, champion’s dinner, and then free time to meander around the city and laze by the pool. There was never any mention of when the race would start so we were all on edge. Ireland spent those first two days walking around in their race gear and wearing their backpacks just in case …
Nick Jelinek, the race owner, left the champion’s dinner on the 2nd night with a cheeky smile and a strong recommendation to be in our rooms by 11 pm. We still had no official start time so I slept in my race clothes. As expected, we were awoken at 1.30 am to the sound of Moroccan instruments playing in the hall and someone banging down the door. After a panicked stumble to the door, we were handed a sheet of paper and then the commotion left. We had to be packed and ready to go by 8 am. We got to have a few more hours of sleep but finally, the race was on …
There is no way to explain every facet of this race as there were about 25 challenges over 3 days and it would take pages. So instead, I’ll highlight my favourites!
The race for a goat
City Chase World Champs is actually a series of micro-races within the bigger, all-encompassing 3 day event. One of these mini-races was the pursuit for a goat. It was halfway through day two and we were down to 10 teams, but there were only 8 goats. For two teams this was going to be the end of the race, and to make it more interesting, we all began on equal playing fields. We were marched over to the beach in gorgeous Essouaira where 20 wild racing camels awaited … which are quite different from the tame, take-a-tourist-for-a-walk-on-the-beach kind of camels. We were wrapped in Lawrence of Arabia scarves and given a one minute lesson which pretty much just advised us hold on tight and don’t fall off. We were to race the camels up the beach for about 5kms, cross the river (camels hate water), find the CP, dismount the camel, wait for your partner to arrive and then together take a 4-wheeler quad bike on a high speed sand-dune orienteering course for about 10km. We would arrive at a farm where the 8 goats were being held and we had to lasso and if required, wrestle the goat until we had him in our custody on the back of a truck and thus the chance to continue in the race. It was nerve-wracking: NO-ONE had ever ridden a camel and so it was anyone’s game. Any team could have been eliminated. I knew that I’d be putting all fear aside in order to stay in the race. Fortunately, I had a super camel and my undiscovered camel racing prowess was just waiting to be unleashed. After one of the most thrilling once-in-a-life time experiences where I imagined I was Indiana Jones belting across the desert, I was one of the first to arrive. We picked up the bikes and Jim drove the 4-wheeler like a pro, zipping through those sand hills and dirt tracks faster than my nerves cared to be going. We were lucky enough to acquire said goat and stay in the race. Unfortunately, one of the French girls was thrown from her camel and had to require evacuation from the country due to a back injury, and Team Ireland’s bravery was a little too much for their motor-biking skills and they did a high-speed roll-over which ended their race. When they finally hobbled into the farm, there were no more goats to be had. To make matters more bizarre, Nat Geo had hired some extreme cameraman from France who hovered above us on this section in a motorized paraglider. He was able to fly at camel head height straight towards the galloping beasts which, as you can imagine, made them extremely irate. And camels are already cranky and obstinate animals. I can’t wait to see the footage from this section of the race … it’s going to be breathtaking.
Roof-top orienteering
Another very cool event in Essaouira was the series of challenges strung together that took us all over the ancient walled medina. It began on one of the forts over-looking the ocean as the sun was rising on the second day. We had to orienteer around the city by looking for flags flying from the roofs of the 5-story buildings. You had to climb up to a rooftop, visually locate the city chase flag, descend into the labyrinth of streets which were horribly disorientating, and try to get to the particular building that was marked with the flag. If you got lost, you had to convince a local to let you climb up to their rooftop to get another glimpse and re-locate. Eventually we were led to a clock tower to collect our next clue which was a map with a specified route to the next CP. I was also given a donkey cart and I had to climb in with the map and verbally direct my blindfolded partner to push me along the route and avoid inevitable obstacles. A successful journey led us to a traditional 6-story Moroccan riad where we had to rappel from the roof into the central courtyard and restaurant while guests dined on breakfast. From there we ran down to the port and had to clamber across 20 or so blue dory boats tied together without falling in, collect a live crab, clamber back, fillet a fish and then eat two raw shrimp. My recent sushi habit proved great training for the latter.
White-water kayaking
On the third and final day of the event, we were all driven up into the Atlas Mountains on a freezing pre-dawn morning. There were seven teams remaining but the final elimination was coming up. We were dropped on the side of a raging river where inflatable double kayaks awaited. From here we had to negotiate the big rapids downstream until the take-out CP, then hike our boats up and out of the canyon as quickly as possible. The slowest team to complete the entire challenge was going to be eliminated. We hoped that being from the country that invented canoeing and having some white-water experience behind us would bode in our favour. Indeed it did and we recorded the second fastest time, just 90 seconds behind Team Singapore….their southern hemisphere adventure racing skills just trumping ours. However, the trip downstream did not come without some serious ‘excitement’. At one stage, our kayak veered towards a low bridge and we clothes-lined ourselves resulting in a long and painful hypothermic swim for me. I ended up with a monstrous contusion on my back and a broken finger….all of which was not discovered until much later when my body thawed. And then on the biggest drop on the river, Jim braced himself off a rock and dislocated his little finger, once again unbeknownst due to the numbness of his hands. He only discovered it when he noticed his pinky sticking out completely sideways from his hand and getting in the way of gripping the paddle. A physiotherapist by profession, he cleverly preformed a mid-river relocation and continued on.
The good, the bad and the luxurious
The race also included some thrilling challenges: we did a vertical zip-line down the front of a huge hydro-electric dam; and some more relaxing ‘challenges’: we were pampered at a traditional Hammam (the Moroccan version of a day at the spa). We were bathed, thrown in the sauna, scrubbed, massaged, stretched, mud cleansed, and rinsed again all in a marble bathing house. It was simply divine. But, after 10 city chases, the Marrakech race finally threw a challenge at me that completely pushed my comfort boundaries to near impossibility…..and it involved food. Apparently the local delicacy is sheep’s head and each team had to eat one in order to continue in the race – the WHOLE head….skin, eyes, cheek, tongue, hair, nose, fat….smoked and cooked on a BBQ. I swear I can still taste it.
Unique experiences
Much of why I loved this race came from just being in Morocco, not so much the challenges themselves. In all my life, I will never forget the thrill of sprinting through the crowded labyrinth of underground souks trying to locate a certain door, or an particular alley, with bazillions of kids yelling at us to go every which direction and then running alongside, trying to dodge locals, tourists, donkey carts, mopeds, small cars, bicycles, and shop wares. Those alleys were so narrow, and inevitably we had a cameraman trying to keep up alongside on the back of a motorbike capturing the insanity.
I will never drink mint tea and not think of Morocco again. I drank so much of the stuff. It was constantly being served whenever we had ‘downtime’.
One of the coolest things that happened during the race was on the first night. We had busked in the infamous Jemaa el Fna square for enough money to take a taxi with another team three hours west to the coastal town of Essaouira. We arrived around 9 pm with Team Spain and were then given a map of the old medina and told to find the location indicated on the map. It couldn’t have been a better time to be partnered with one of Spain’s best orienteering athletes. We found the small door in a back alley after a windy and complicated sprint and knocked. A sweet Moroccan man answered the door. He spoke no English but we tried to extract from him the next clue or the next challenge. Instead he invited us inside his simple home and started introducing us to his extended family of about 8, who all share two bedrooms. I was a little frustrated and feeling impatient by his kind gesture because I wanted to get on with the race. He sat us down, poured mint tea, motioned for us to take off our backpacks and then began to bring out dinner. He showed us the bathroom and a room laid with four mattresses and it was then that we FINALLY worked out that were actually going to be spending the night with this family. He had been instructed to take us to the city gate at 5.30 am but in the meantime, we were to relax, eat, enjoy some Moroccan culture and get some sleep. The next morning, we were led through the dark, quiet streets up onto the old city walls overlooking the ocean and shared a sunrise and stories with the other teams. What a magical moment!
Remembering Steve
I would be remiss to not mention some of the emotion I felt about being back on the same continent on which Steve was killed just a month earlier. One of our tasks on the final day was to ride bikes 40 km from the mountains, across the desert and back into Marrakech. Initially I was quite uncomfortable and afraid to be riding a bike on narrow African roads so soon after Steve was run down by a crazy motorist on his bike. But then I realized that I was getting a taste of his last moments on earth and I paused my thinking about the race to let the words of his blog pass through my mind. He talked about kids running alongside, open desert landscape, friendly folk waving and I came to fully understand the pleasure he got from riding across the African Sahel.
The race run-down
Day 1
Where’s Wally — find one of many water sellers in the Jemaa el Fna square and receive your clue
Tannery — run through the souk to locate a specific tannery written in Arabic script and participate in the traditional and VERY putrid process of preparing animal hides for leather. Last team to arrive is eliminated (Team Morocco).
Hammam — run back through souk to find a Hammam and be pampered and cleaned.
Delicacy — receive a photograph of a storefront which must be located in the souk maze where we are seated to a meal of sheep’s head.
Palmarie — run through entire medina and then 6 km out of town under blistering afternoon sun to palmerie and plant palm trees, then return the same way to the Jemaa el Fna.
Busking — receive bag of mystery tools (instruments, mime paint, magic tricks, costumes …etc) and use said tools to raise 100 dirhams.
Snake charming — one partner is blindfolded and led into snake charming ring where multiple snakes are wrapped around head and made to hiss in face, then plunge hand into writhing, snake-filled container for next clue.
Taxi ride — Wait for next team to be ready, pool the dirhams, and together rent a taxi to take us to Essaouira, 3 hours west of Marrakech. There are only 5 taxis and 11 teams so last team to arrive is eliminated (Team USA).
Billeted — On arrival in Essaouira, go to riad and collect address and map and run with the team with whom we shared the taxi (Team Spain) to locate house. Spend the night with Berber host family.
Day 2
Rooftop flags — locate flags placed on roofs of buildings all over medina of Essaouira.
Donkey cart — blindfolded team-mate pulls partner around town in donkey cart, trying to follow indicated route on a map through the twisty, narrow alleys.
Rappel into riad — rappel into the central courtyard of a riad and interrupt breakfast!
Port — run to port and clamber over 20 or so blue fishing boats tied together to recover a live crab, fillet a fish and then eat a raw, live shrimp.
Camel racing — run to beach, choose a camel and race 5km along ocean, cross a river and climb sand dunes to find abandoned building with 4-wheeler bikes waiting.
Quadding — With partner, race 4-wheeler bikes around sand dune orienteering course and arrive at a farm.
Goat wrestling — locate and lasso a goat and place on back of truck. Last two teams to arrive will be eliminated [Team France and Team Ireland].
Moroccan cooperative — ride in back of cattle truck with goats for nearly an hour as we are taken to a cooperative where we are instructed to slaughter our goat as a gift to the people. Teams not willing to do so are given a lengthy penalty. All teams reluctantly agree to complete challenge, tears are shed, emotions run wild, and then we are told just before Team Hong Kong was to bring the axe down that it was just a bluff. Goats are spared.
Fire fighter challenge — we are driven two hours back to Marrakech and dropped on edge of town. We are told to run to train station. We have to climb a fireman’s ladder, then a free-hanging climber’s ladder to the roof of train station, then zip-line back to ground while thousands of amazed and curious locals and tourists look on.
Memory — We must run back into medina and negotiate souk labyrinth again to find obscure restaurant. We are given a photograph of a private dining room and must then enter room and recreate the design exactly as it appears in photograph with ornaments, cushions, plates (etc.) in correct place.
Moroccan artisan — Continue through medina to find an artisan where we must sew Moroccan leather shoes, do some pottery and carve a piece of wood.
Run to central Club Med and jump in a waiting SUV with another team. Last team to arrive is eliminated (Team Portugal, after running to wrong Club Med 6 km away).
Moroccan tents — be driven out to Atlas Mountains and dropped at a 5-star Moroccan tented resort where we are left to share a meal with each other and then have a few hours sleep in a Moroccan tent.
Day 3
Kayaking — Awoken at 4 am and driven further into High Atlas Mountains. As the sun rises, we get on the Ouirka River for wild white-water kayaking run. Slowest team is eliminated (Team Spain, after missing take-out and going 15km further downstream)
Zip-line — taken to large hydro electric dam and hooked up to a vertical zip-line for a thrilling ride down and then a long climb up. With 6 teams left and no more eliminations, we are now racing for the finish line.
Mountain biking — we are each given a mountain bike and have to ride 40 km back into Marrakech. Along the way, we stop off at a farm and ride donkeys over an obstacle course without getting bucked off.
Fashion show — we have to check-in at classy night club on the outskirts of town and select a fashion model, take her to the dressing room and choose an outfit, do her hair, and then choreograph a catwalk routine for her to perform for judges. Certain score will earn you different values of local currency which will buy you a ride in a taxi back to town, the distance of which depends on how much money you earned.
Urban-a-thon — We are sent on a final endless ‘goose chase’ from one corner of the city to the other and back again (over 20km of running). Finally, we are told to run to the finish line in the Jemaa el Fna where local musicians blast instruments as we run up the red carpet to be greeted by all the city chase organizes and all our friends who had been eliminated.
Team Singapore won by about 40 minutes, after just a 5 minute head start back on the bikes. We nearly caught them but got horribly lost trying to locate the night club and were very lucky to hang on to 2nd place. Team Hong Kong used their running fitness to go from 5th to 3rd during the urban-a-thon, leaving Australia in 4th, Italy in 5th and England in 6th.
City Chase has something to teach us all. It throws our everyday world upside down, challenges us to connect….to connect to ourselves, to our fellow humans, to other cultures; to become more adaptable, resilient, flexible, easy-going and problem solving. It requires one to manage life in light of the realities of luck and chance. I love the element of exploration and laughter. It makes you realize that the only two things you can control in this world are your attitude to life and the way you treat one another. It represents an intense snapshot of the way life should be lived, and that’s why I love City Chase.
