With the 2023 Adventure Racing World Champs around the corner, teams are gearing up to start their big challenge. Anything can happen during the race, and they need to be prepared for every scenario. Besides getting all their equipment in order, transition boxes need to be packed at 25kgs each, topography maps studied, and the area scoured on Google Earth. Strategies for coping with the intense physical and mental challenge that they are about to face have to be reviewed and absorbed – as little as possible should be left to chance.
Amidst all this activity, Camila Nicolau, one of the top female adventure racers in the world, graciously agreed to spend an hour with us to tell us more about her journey to the top of this awe-inspiring sport.
DD: Camila, adventure racing is not a common choice of sport for an athlete, what first attracted you to it and how long have you been racing?
CN: My mother! I started adventure racing twenty years ago because of her. My first sport was white-water kayaking. The owner of the rafting company did adventure racing and was always trying to get me involved. My mother had already started racing and was also tried. At the time, I didn’t enjoy aerobic exercise much so didn’t even consider it, but she persuaded me to join her on a race as part of her support crew. Back then, each team had to get their own boxes to the transitions so there were always many other people involved who had to get the boxes from one point to the next. I loved the whole experience and decided to give it a try and started training. I studied architecture at university, so had the necessary skills to navigate and read maps. As this is a big part of the race, as well as the kayaking, I just had to improve my other skills. In 2003, I did my first race and thoroughly enjoyed it. I did a short race with two of my university friends. We made the top ten (but from the bottom)! Neither of my teammates ever raced again, but I was hooked.
In 2005, I did my first expedition race and since then I have done two or three a year. There is so much to learn from this sport. This is what really attracts me to it. It’s a good way to test yourself as it’s incredibly hard. It’s like a laboratory where you put yourself into stressful situations with other people – a social challenge.
I think this reflects in your life. One becomes so much more tolerant and you know how to deal with difficult issues and other people. The mental strain is immense, and the race is so intense, all the while having to make things work with your team. They say it’s like living 5 years in 5 days because you experience so much every time you do this kind of thing.
The team that wins is not the team that doesn’t make mistakes, but rather the team that knows how to deal with problems more efficiently and can work their way through. It is impossible to spend over 100 hours together and not to slip up. No two races are ever the same. For example, Iron Man is a very hard race and to do it you create a formula to be successful. In adventure racing, you need to create 100 formulas to allow for all the variables.
The training before is not only physical but also mental. Physically, you have to be very fit. I train every day, usually alternating running with cycling. I run about 15-80 km a session and towards the end of my training period, I run more than cycle as the trekking part is more demanding. At least with cycling, you can relax a little when you go downhill, but it’s not like that with trekking.
DD: What is your strength in your team?
CN: I am the team captain, so I am very organised and take responsibility for everything except navigating. During the race, I know that the beginning of the race is always hard for me. So, during this period, I get the lightest pack and less gear. From around the middle to the end of the race, when the others may be struggling more, especially psychologically, I find my strength. It seems that in adventure racing this is a skill that more women are good at, and they can motivate their other team members and keep everyone together as things get harder towards the end. This is when I take the heavier backpack and try to support them more mentally.
DD: Is your team for this race an old team or a newly formed one?
CN: Three of us in this team have raced together for about two years. Obviously, my husband and I have been together for years, but Jonas only recently joined us even though he has been racing for more than 15 years. Jay comes from Thailand and is also an old racing friend of ours, like Jonas. We always had good synergy with both of them and they have the experience and the skills to match ours or complement our skills, so we feel very good about our team.
DD: How do you find the right team?
CN: Finding the right team is very hard and it takes years to get it right. It’s like finding four puzzle pieces that fit perfectly. The balance in the team is important and everyone needs to be good at different things. My husband and I always race together, we also train together. But Jonas lives on the other side of Brazil and Jay is from Thailand, so we don’t train together. But, because we have never all raced in this group, we decided to come to South Africa ten days early to spend some time together as a team and talk through our strategies.
DD: What is the biggest challenge in the race?
CN: The start is definitely the hardest part for me. The first two to six hours are difficult because everyone is trying to get ahead and moving as fast as they can. Personally, I don’t understand why they waste so much energy in the beginning and go at a pace they can’t sustain, but we have to keep up or else we will lose time. As I mentioned before, my team understands this and supports me through this.
DD: Have there been any race experiences that have stood out for you?
CN: Every race is different, even after twenty years of racing. I started racing very young. I am 38 now, but the average age for this kind of race is 42. I think the wisdom that comes with age and the ability to strategize really helps.
DD: Do you have any sponsors or get any funding from Brazil to do the race?
CN: We don’t have any sponsors, but we get some help from the government through various programs, these paid for our flight to South Africa. Finding funding is our biggest challenge in Brazil.
DD: We know that you and your husband also have a business together. Could you tell us more about that?
CN: We coach people to prepare them to do adventure racing. This involves getting them physically strong enough for the race and getting them mentally ready for the challenges they will face in a race. Our program is all online. We set up a daily training schedule for them based on the intensity they would like and the timeframe they have until the race. Once a month, we check in to talk about their progress and then also cover topics such as strategy, nutrition, hydration and mental approach. The other topics are as important as being physically fit.
DD: Is this your first time in South Africa?
CN: Yes, it is and we love it so far. We haven’t had much chance to see too much but I am sure we will see a lot during the race. It’s such a great way to see a country and get a taste of the culture.
DD: Is there anything that worries you about the race being in South Africa?
CN: There is nothing about the landscape or environment that we are worried about, but it’s communicating with people in shops, for example, that is different. On another race, we went into a shop to buy water and they gave us a bag of water (not a bottle). It was completely unexpected, but we had to deal with it.
DD: When you finish the race, how do you feel?
CN: First you sleep for about 16 hours, then you wake up to eat and hydrate and then you sleep again. This continues for about a week. My husband says you resort back to being a baby. This time, we have to do a presentation at the conference which is actually making me more nervous than the race. I think they will have to bring in a couch for me to speak from! Thankfully, it’s a topic we deal with every day so it will be easy for us to speak about it.
TEAM BRAZIL MULTISPORT 2022
