By the time you read this, Brent, Bruce, and I will be 30,000 feet in the air, en route to Costa Rica. We’ll meet Ali down there, spend half a day in San Jose, and then Saturday morning, we’ll be transported to the start site for two days of media and prep time. The race will begin on Monday morning, June 27, and assuming we don’t become lunch for an alligator (or caiman or crocodile) or lose ourselves in the banana fields, we should be crossing the finish line sometime before Friday at 6 PM. We’re the only team from the United States competing, but hopefully our rusty spanish will serve us well enough to get through.
As a world championship qualifier, this is one of the premiere adventure races of the year, and we’re all excited for the opportunity to race among some of the top competitors out there, including the 2010 world champions.
We’ll be skirting volcanoes, hanging out with monkeys and sea turtles, and navigating along the contours of the coastline. I’m sure you all are as sick of hearing about this race as I am prepping for it, but if you have a spare moment and feel like checking out our progress (Team GOALS ARA) and reading about the event, there are four websites that may/should/will have coverage.
Starting on Monday morning, there should be live(-ish) tracking on the course site itself: http://www.arcostarica.com/. However, as with any adventure race, coverage is generally spotty so it’s unclear how often they’ll be updating the leaderboard.
Alternately, the race organization also has a facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ARcostarica) and a twitter feed (http://twitter.com/#!/ARcostarica), which will hopefully be active during the event.
In addition, last year Sleep Monsters (http://sleepmonsters.com/) offered comprehensive reporting on the event, so we’re hoping they show up this year, as well. Here’s a link to the 2010 articles, if you want to get a sense of what we’ll be up against: http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_id=8341.
And if you don’t feel like checking out any of it, that’s fine, too 
I’ll be offline and away from the blogosphere for the next couple weeks, so I’ll look forward to catching up with you all then.
See you on the other side!
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Excellent!! Best of luck and I can’t wait to hear all about it
Best of luck and have a great trip! I can’t wait to hear all about the race and I’ll definitely check some of those sites!
Woohoo!! Good luck! Can’t wait to hear about it!!
HAVE A BLAST! Good luck!! Can’t wait to read all about it
I’m jealous. These are the times I wish I fit into someones suitcase
Can’t wait to read your recap! Stay safe, and say hi to those sea turtles for me!
Ahhh!!!! So exciting!!! Have an amazing time and I will be stalking those websites to see how you are doing!!
i tried to email you back last night but it got hung up and wouldn’t go through. GOOD LUCK!!! have fun and be safe. i can’t wait to track you and hear all about it when you get home. safe travels!
What a trip of a lifetime!!! You’ve got to hang a disposable camera around your neck to take pics for us blog stalkers!! Safe travels, and HAVE FUN!
Good luck! Can’t wait to read all about it!
Oooh, I saw in my stalking that you are indeed headed to Tortuguero. I’m really excited to hear about this and it looks like you are doing really well!
I thought I couldn’t be any more impressed with you. WOW, you are amazing. Seriously. GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!!! I’m so proud of you!
Have sooooo much fun! Can’t wait to read all about it!
Hope you have a great trip! Cannot wait to read about it
Abby, it is Wednesday and I was stalking one of the race websites and I think it said your team has withdrawn from the race?!? I hope you all are OK!!! Thinking about you!!
I went to Costa Rica on my honeymoon. It’s beautiful and the people are wonderful! I cannot wait to hear about your adventure.
Weeks???until we hear from you again? Not fair!
Hope you’re having A BLAST!
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