Day 3 Race Check in and Divulging Day 1

Day 3 began with the process typical of any adventure race, check in. Preparing our gear the morning of check in seemed unexpectedly easy compared to many of my past racing experiences. I hoped that the painless preparation process in preparing for check in would transfer to an easy check in as well.

I was very pleased when we stepped outside the hotel to see the check in and gear check process was very streamlined. The initial process included medical check where many participants presented physical forms and provided health insurance information to the race organization. Lost in translation was the fact that each participant was suppose to provide a medical sign off of good health during registration; we were pleased to see that this was not a big issue as the medical staff quickly took our heart rates and breathing rates and signed us of to begin the gear check of the check in process.

After having our climbing gear, bikes, and mandatory gear checked we were done registering and ready to see what we would be facing on Day 1 of the Transmarocaine Adventure Race

That evening all the racers gathered together for the race brief for Day 1. During this time we saw that day one would begin with a short run to one bike where teams would begin a short ride and tie section feeding into a split in the race. Following the ride and tie the adventure race would split teams into two courses. Half the teams would do an 1 hour 15 minute orienteering course and the other half would do a 1hour 5 minute orienteering paddle. After completing the first discipline teams would swap and complete the other discipline of the race. This would be followed by a long bike ride through the desert, and a short urban style orienteering section in historical ruins. The day would finish with a bike ride to the finish. The only catch to this race brief was we were provided a passport, which we were pleased to see the race management had translated to English, but we would not receive maps until we hit each particular portion of the course. This would be standard throughout the race and make the question of the map quality and route difficulty for day 1 a question to think about throughout the night.

After the race brief we had an opportunity to go as an entire race to a dinner hosted by the mayor of the town in their grand palace. We were welcomed with traditional moroccon music and we were provided with a grand feast. This would be the first indication that the Moroccon people truly invited us to visit their country and the race management had done their best to ensure that they intertwined us with much of the country's culture into the race as possible. After eating, singing and dancing teams slowly began to leave and head back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep before the racing began.