By Eugene Kelly (One of my Team Members)
We cannot come up with enough superlatives to describe my BOA 2008 experience, and here the credit can all be showered upon Hano and his team. Amongst all the teams we as the back-markers are the hardest to please and most definitely the hardest to manage from a logistics point of view. For my experience I’m sure I am not alone in saying that I am eternally grateful.
At times despite being literally days behind we were still allowed to test our mettle against the very same course obliterated by the top teams. We as Team Nubi did not short course ourselves but instead, like a few other like-minded teams – The Girls, Katbergers and Thule who we grew to love, we plodded on against the best Hano had to offer:
Through the maze of Lantana snares and Thorn, prickle, spike and spine barriers we did toil, our blood spilled on the very same soil trodden by USN and Mccain albeit a few days before.
We learned every lesson BOA 2008 taught (Yes this is synonymous with making every mistake there was to be made), but we came out all the stronger. Our team stayed intact despite all the hardships, and for this I am proud to say I was a part of it! In a race where there is such a high dropout rate, the personal and interpersonal discovery is so immense, it blows my mind every
time I think about it.
In preparing for a race of this nature, through the endless shopping trips, training sessions and umpteenth worries, one starts to wonder whether it is at all worthwhile. Then the AR Gods throw yet another curveball in your direction in the form of an injury, just to further test your commitment. This is in between all the team struggles that took us almost a year to overcome. So this is why as Hano said the biggest challenge of all is to get to the start line!!!
Eugene Kelly
