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Racers see action in Fulung

The Ancient Mariners, who went on to take first in the Combined-Age-100+ category and fifth place overall, prepare for a Tyrolean traverse. PHOTO: CHRIS PECHSTEDT, TAIPEI TIMES

At nine in the morning Sunday the sun had already been baking the white cliffs of Taiwan's northeast coast for hours. Standing at the edge of a 15m precipice overlooking Longdong's roiling sea, Lin Siang (林祥) and Huang Jhih Ming (黃志銘) clipped themselves onto single black cords. Before they turned to jump, I wanted to know whether they were scared.

"No way!" Lin said. Huang, who had only laughed, was already dangling upside down over the chasm, pulling himself arm-over-arm across the 20m Tyrolean traverse.

The two 26-year-old members of team Shou-Mont Great Guy had already been racing for two hours in the 43km-long Asia Miles Action Asia Challenge adventure race, near Fulung, Taipei County. The duo were the first Taiwanese team to cross the finish line Sunday and paced fourth in the competition.

The last Action Asia adventure race to be held in Taiwan was in 2003, but sponsors have already signed to bring the race back in April next year, according to organizer Michael Maddess.

A competitor practices abseiling before the Asia Miles Action Asia Challenge on Sunday in Fulung, Taipei County. PHOTO: CHRIS PECHSTEDT, TAIPEI TIMES

Adventure races like Sunday's combine several outdoor disciplines into a race that can last days. With eighty teams of two competitors each, the Asia Miles Action Asia Challenge is the biggest adventure race in Asia, but it's also relatively short. Competitors spend between four and nine hours running, swimming, biking, kayaking, rappelling and traversing. By all accounts, the rope sections were the strong point of Sunday's competition.

Asian adventure racing is dominated by expatriates, especially those from Hong Kong. Specifically, three expat teams continually swap the top three spots between them: Protrek, Power Bar, and New Balance Power Bar.

Daniel Brown, right, and Pedro Ribeiro, of the first-place-finishing team, Protrek, climb a net up to the Fulung Bridge in the last leg of Sunday's race. PHOTO: CHRIS PECHSTEDT, TAIPEI TIMES

It was team Protrek that finally broke the ribbon in Sunday's race. Power Bar had picked up a lead during the kayaking section, but when it was time to get out of the boats and onto mountain bikes, Protrek pulled ahead.

The nail in the coffin was when Macau-based Portuguese Henrique Galvao of team Power Bar, suffering the effects of the oppressive heat while jogging through "a jungle" with his bike on his shoulder, slammed head-on into a low-hanging branch, cutting open his face.

Racers make a Tyrolean traverse across roiling sea waters. PHOTO: CHRIS PECHSTEDT, TAIPEI TIMES

Galvao still managed to throw his bike into an inner tube, swim across a river with it, climb a net from Fulung Beach to the famous bridge to nowhere, slide down a rope back into the river, wade to shore, and run to the finish line to come in third place.

Shortly after finishing, he nearly collapsed as he fielded questions from the press. "I just want to go lie down," he said, "and then go party."

A competitor in the Asia Miles Action Asia Challenge rappels down a cliff midway through the race. PHOTO: CHRIS PECHSTEDT, TAIPEI TIMES

"This was our worst performance ever," his British partner, Adrian King, said later.

There were other crises as well. Lounging in the shade after the race, Huang of Shou-Mont Great Guy described the hardest part of the race.

"The kayaking," he said, grinning. "We almost got in a fight when we were in the kayak because we didn't have a chance to practice -- ever. We tried to row like this," he said and then demonstrated his flawed technique. Sitting next to him, Lin burst out laughing. "We kept going around in circles!" Huang said.

Even without kayaking experience Shou-Mont Great Guy was the only local team to place in the top 20 percent.

This had much to do with the fact that many local teams, which made up more than half the roster, have little or no kayaking experience. While Taiwanese teams excel at running, biking, and the rope sections, sports that involve potential immersion in salt water simply haven't caught on in Taiwan.

Many Taiwanese teams I talked to had no more kayaking experience than a few hours of training, if any at all.

But adventure racing is also a Western import to the region, and expat competitors are older and more experienced. Many of the most successful expat teams are in their 30s or 40s, and have been racing for many years.

The first-place finishers in the Combined Age 100+ category -- the Ancient Mariners -- finished fifth overall, coming in less than a minute behind Shou-Mont Great Guy, whose combined age is little over 50.

The top Combined Age 80+ team, Camelbak, as well as another over-100 team, Band of Brothers, also finished in the top 10. All of these teams have a number of races under their belts.

Many Taiwanese teams hadn't heard of adventure racing until recently, and those that had certainly haven't been flying all over Asia to participate in them.

After the pre-competition dinner in the courtyard outside the Fulung Beach visitors' center, groups of foreigners, whose faces showed a lifestyle characterized by time in the sun and saltwater, stood around in groups swapping animated race stories in the warm evening like old war veterans.

A few meters away, 28-year-old Taiwanese Rock Lee (李正紀) scavenged the buffet table while he waited for his partner. He was one of the few Taiwanese still there.

"I'm a little nervous," he said, smiling good-naturedly. "It's a lot of pressure. The foreigners look very professional. I just hope I can finish."

Among the veterans, a major point of concern for this race was that, unlike most adventure races, the map was revealed prior to the race. Maddess told me that his reasons for making the decision were largely pragmatic.

Still, team Power Bar was disgruntled.

"Don't reveal the map," Galvao said once he'd recovered from the race. "It just wrecks the fun of it."

Maddess does seem concerned about this, and is asking for the competitors' input as to whether or not to release the map for an upcoming race in Macau.

Overall Top 3 and Top 3 Open Men
1. Team Protrek -- Daniel Brown (Hong Kong) and Pedro Ribeiro (Macau) -- 4:07:48
2. Team New Balance PowerBar -- Gary Mandy (Hong Kong) and Mark Williams (Hong Kong) -- 4:13:06
3. Team PowerBar -- Adrian King (Hong Kong) and Henrique Galvao (Portugese from Macau) -- 4:19:54

Top 3 Open Women
1. Hope to Finish -- Pele Young (Singapore) and Rebecca Johnson (Singapore) -- 6:42:20
2. Ego Eaters -- Brendi Mantens (Singapore) and Megan Luce (Singapore) -- 8:00:52
3. CrazyAss Girls -- Oona McKnight (Singapore) and Jenelle Taylor (Singapore) -- 8:17:48

Top 3 Mixed

1. Ferrell Dog -- Keith Ferrell (Singapore) and Lise Hetit Dehlghen (Singapore) -- 5:25:35
2. Terrapin -- Andrew Nash Webber (Hong Kong) and Christina Corner (Hong Kong) -- 5:33:23
3. Trample -- Heather Longwall (Taiwan) and Vincent Lu (Taiwan) -- 5:45:56

Combined Age 80+

1. Camelbak -- Michael Morrison (Hong Kong) and Cheng King-fu (Hong Kong) -- 4:48:11
2. IronMan Biker: Time Machine -- Mark Vogl (Taiwan) and Galore Jeung (Taiwan) -- 5:44:39
3. Terrain Tamer -- Carrier He (Taiwan) and Arthur Wang (Taiwan) -- 6:27:00

Combined Age 100+
1. Ancient Mariners -- Bob Whitehead (Hong Kong) and Franz Nel (Hong Kong) -- 4:37:31
2. Bands of Brothers -- David McCormick (Hong Kong) and Stephen McCormick (Taiwan) -- 5:14:18
3. Taipei Hash -- Gash Lioa (Taiwan) and Hsie King-ho (Taiwan) -- 7:54:41

University
> 1. Snowman -- Shih Yen-chung (Taiwan) and Cloud Yang (Taiwan) -- 6:01:53
2. TRC -- Pen Liang-an (Taiwan) and Wang Ming-yen (Taiwan) -- 6:17:51
3. Formosan Blackbear -- Hsu Yao-chun (Taiwan) and Xu Jian-hang (Taiwan) -- 6:46:46

Top Taiwanese Team
Shou-Mont Great Buy -- Lin Siang and Huang Jhih-ming -- 4:36:12
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