The 2013 Adventure Racing World Championships in Costa Rica finished this week with the Thule Adventure Team from Sweden crossing the finish line in Sarapiqui, province of Heredia. This is the second championship for team Thule, the last time they took the title was in 2011 in Australia. Participating athletes and race observers agreed that this was the toughest race ever.

According to the Thule press release concerning their victory in Costa Rica:

Jacky Boisset and Mimi Guillot from France, Stuart Lynch from New Zealand and Albert Roca from Spain have been racing together through jungle, whitewater rivers, challenging mountains, mud up to their chests, mangrove swamps and tricky tide water during an entire week with only a few hours of sleep.

On Monday, December 9^th, Jose Luis Rodriguez of national newspaper La Nacion reported on the Thule team position as they were approaching the last leg of the grueling race. At that time, the team was 23 kilometers away from the finish line; they were negotiating a jungle canopy course so that they could jump aboard rafts for their final effort.

The Thule team overcame the hardest obstacle when it comes to adventure racing: Psychological strain. Such was the case with French team member Jacky Boisset, who suffered an episode of extreme exhaustion that deeply clouded his thinking. Monsieur Boisset’s wife, fellow team member Mimi Guillot, could not stop crying as she was extremely worried about the deteriorating health of her husband.

Against all odds, the Thule team put a respectable distance away from Spanish team Columbia Vidaraid and Tecnu from the United States. The best performing team from Costa Rica, Aerodiva, had a great start but later fell back to eighth place. After 168 hours and 23 minutes, Thule team captain Martin Flint commented:

“Jacky, Mimi, Stuart and Albert [have] done an incredible race in Costa Rica. They [won] thanks to their incredible team work and a successful strategy in anticipating each challenge of this race. They’ve prepared themselves in the best possible way, both physically and with the strategy for the most evident aspects of the race[:] sleep, nutrition, sufficient drinking water and [prevention of infections] and blisters as much as possible. ”

When the second place Columbia team crossed the finish line in Sarapiqui, one of the team members celebrated with an Imperial beer.