Manicured toenails and lipstick make way for blister packs and sun block for the female athletes in on one of the jewels of adventure racing, the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race.
This annual endurance event demands high physical fitness, mental strength and extreme determination – and it sees female competitors standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts as mixed gender teams compete on bikes, kayaks and foot through the stunning wilderness of Chilean Patagonia.
Here, recent competitors offer a unique insight into what it takes to compete at the highest level in one of the rare sports where males and females race alongside and against each other.
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In 2010, the 15 female athletes in the race included trainee teacher Ingrid Stengard, from Scandinavian team Nord Water, real estate agent Denise Rispolie, of Untamed New England, YogaSlacker practitioner Chelsey Gribbon, racing for GearJunkie.com, and army doctor Nicola MacLeod, who captained her Helly Hansen-Prunesco team to victory.
They are all part of a rare group of women who compete in this extreme sport and an even more elite collection that have completed what is considered to be the toughest and wildest race in the world.
But why do they put themselves through such a tough event?
“The Patagonia race is all about the experience of pitting your wits against the elements,” explained MacLeod, whose team has won the last two competitions. “It’s about taking on the huge seas, the snowy mountains, the weather and the incessant wind so that you can experience scenery that is just remarkable.
“This year we did a huge trek through the remote Darwin Range. It was tough and we were pushed mentally to the limits, but at one point we just stopped and stood looking at the stars for five minutes. They were bigger and better than we had ever seen before, surrounded by a massive crown of mountains. Those moments are just beautiful.”
Forward focus
To get to this level, dedication and commitment is essential.
The Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race is one of the longest adventure races out there, with the most recent event steering a 600km course through the pristine virgin wilderness of Chilean Tierra del Fuego. The immense distance creates off-the-scale demands on physical fitness, and just making the 15-team line-up takes a huge effort in training.
Most adventure racers, female or male, are naturally immersed in an active life, but their jobs don’t always reflect that, and estate agent Rispolie explained: “The way I see it, I have two full time jobs. When you are gearing up for a race you spend 20 to 30 hours per week training and you also work 42 to 50 hours a week.
“Most mornings I’m up by 6am for either a weight workout or a trail run and in the evenings I try to get on my mountain bike. At weekends I take long drives to find quality hilly terrain to train in and I started Ultra Running four years ago, so have done many races between 50km and 160km which go through the night, a great carry over to adventure racing.”
In contrast, MacLeod’s role as an army doctor automatically offers her plenty of excellent opportunities for on the job fitness training as well as exposing her to extreme elements and giving her the chance to develop the teamwork, leadership and mental skills demanded by longer endurance races.
For Gribbon, meanwhile, a short but intense programme designed by Andy Magness combined with her everyday exercise offers a good solution. “The programme only demands three hours of training per week and it puts an emphasis on intensity, focus and recovery,” she explained. “I also play in the outdoors a lot and I have a daily yoga practice, which helps me deal with adverse conditions and go for long periods of time.”
Gender differences
Most top adventure races require entrants to have at least one female member in their four-person squad and traditional gender differences are often leveled by personality in such an extreme sport.
Despite that, there are some that still stand out – and the most significant one is in comparing strength, speed and stamina.
Men are naturally built with more muscles, which helps when carrying heavy weight like canoes or large backpacks, but size also makes a difference and MacLeod explained: “In Patagonia the thick bush, wood and ankle breaking scrub slowed me down more than the bigger lads, so the tallest carried the heavy team items. Also, on the bikes the winds were so strong I could only draft the others when the wind was head on, so the heavier boys did more work in the side-winds.”
Most female racers admit struggling to keep up with their male team-mates in the early stages of a race but because women naturally store more body fat they have a stronger physical reserve and, as proven in other endurance sports like ultra running, they have the stamina to come back strong.
Gribbon explained: “Men have better fast twitch muscles and are natural sprinters whereas I don’t reach my full potential until we’ve been going at least 12 hours. But by 30 hours I really get into my ‘Zen’ zone and I am right there with them or even pulling them along. On top of stamina, I also believe we are better at suffering and have a higher pain tolerance.”
For Gribbon, though, the 2010 race was almost over before it began. Unbeknown to her, she was pregnant – and just five days before the race she suffered a miscarriage. It was, needless to say, an immensely tough time but her decision to go on showed the massive mental strength racers have built into their psyche.
“In the first day I was more exhausted than the guys but after that I was good to go for a long time and towards the end of our second bike ride, I took some weight from a team-mate because he was getting tired,” she said.
“He was amazed that I, a 5ft1, 108-pound woman who had just had a miscarriage, was taking weight from him but I was just repaying him the favor because at the start of the race he took my backpack so I could keep up with his fast pace. It was a good example of the different strengths men and women have.”
Talking tough
Ultimately, the male racers know that there are strengths on both sides – and the scarcity of female adventure racers puts the very best women at a premium.
Gribbon explained: “I feel male adventures see female racers as gems and I’ve heard the comment ‘once you find a strong female racer, don’t let her go’ many times from male racers.”
That explains why many teams are built up over time, creating strong male-female bonds, but there are always cases where male racers put out a call for a female member – and that can lead to disaster if too much focus is placed on fitness and not enough on personality, mental strength and, most importantly, team bonding.
“Most guys look for a girl who is as fit as them but some fail to pick someone they can get on with, and in these teams the girl is sometimes merely there to keep up and be ‘carried’ where necessary,” explained MacLeod, whose team for the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race was picked from a collaborative pool of adventure racers in the UK.
“The reality is that it can be hard to find a girl who can match the men physically. And when you get teams who pick someone of different ability, that can lead to difficult dynamics because the people in the team have different expectations of performance - although that doesn’t only apply to girls.”
Leading from the front
A big part of racing is communication, with many racers saying women are better at revealing their feelings than men, and for Scandinavian Stengard, who captained a team of two women and two men in the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race this year, the act of reading male team members is perhaps the ultimate challenge.
“If you are tired and need help, men often think they have to be strong,” she said. “They don’t say when they are tired and then they just almost collapse. If you do lots of races with the same team you learn to know how people are doing and you just need to keep your eyes open but when you are in a team for the first time it’s very important to talk.”
Gribbon added: “There’s no time for ego when we’re racing and training together. If I need help, I have no problem asking for a tow or for food but this goes for my male team-mates as well. As we’ve been training and racing together for quite a while, we all fall into our respected roles - task master, head navigator, mule, peacemaker, organiser.”
MacLeod’s army background has made her a strong leader but this year’s race through Chilean Patagonia forced her to face several issues that could have stopped her team in their tracks, including injury to a team member and a torrential river swim. In each case it was a team discussion, but the final call whether to go on was down to her.
“Each individual has their strength, so their opinion is considered,” she said. “We had plenty of heated discussions but all reached rapid resolve – and the best way of getting over an argument in usually to make sure it’s finished and then have a laugh. A good team makes the best of adversity and looks beyond the problem to the finish.”
There is no denying the women who compete at the forefront of adventure racing are a different breed – but for Rispolie, it all ultimately comes down to personality.
“Overall, when we are in top condition, I think that male or female, we are all comparable in mind and spirit,” she said. “After all, we all are out there for same reason, for the love of the sport and the wilderness. And I truly believe the men would say the same…”
Will Gray, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
The Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race is the ultimate eco-adventure, a non-stop 10-day race involving 15 teams of four people from all around the world. Known as ‘the Last Wild Race’, it takes place in the stunning region of Chilean Patagonia and is run to promote global sustainability by highlighting the protection of the region’s fragile environment as a model for the world.
The next event will run in February 2011. To find out more visit www.patagonianexpeditionrace.com.
Images from the top:
Race organiser Stjepan Pavicic hands Helly Hansen Prunesco captain Nicola MacLeod the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race trophy (Image credit: Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Left image: Battle scarred Canadian Denise Rislpolie after Chile’s Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race (Image credit: Valentino Saldivar, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Right image: Nord Water captain Ingrid Stengard during Chile’s Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race (Image credit: Valentino Saldivar, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Left image: Nord Water captain Ingrid Stengard takes on a rock face in the 2010 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race (Image credit: Tony Hoare, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Right image: Scandinavian team Nord Water, with two female members, head into Chile’s spectacular Darwin range (Image credit: Walter Alvial, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Nicola MacLeod (front) of Helly Hansen Prunesco paddles through the Magellan Strait (Image credit: Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Left image: Noora Pinola shows bike mechanics is important on long-distance races (Image credit: Luis Espinoza, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Middle image: Nord Water captain Ingrid Stengard leads her team to the finish of the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race on Chile’s Isla Navarino (Image credit: Luis Espinoza, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Right image: Chelsea Gribbon takes in some much needed liquids on the early stages of the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race in Chile (Image credit: Luis Espinoza, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Left image: Nord Water captain Ingrid Stengard in the Chilean peat bogs - sometimes girls just can’t help being girls…! (Image credit: Tony Hoare, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Right image: Nord Water captain Ingrid Stengard plans a route through the Chilean mountains in the 2010 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race (Image credit: Tony Hoare, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Chelsea Gribbon carries her bike through Chile’s Tierra del Fuego on the early stages of the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race (Image credit: Will Gray, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
Nicola MacLeod shows bike mechanics is important on long-distance races (Image credit: Luis Espinoza, Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race)
