For the most extreme of the OCR community the Fuego y Agua Survival Run is just around the corner. As the athletes get ready to head down to Nicaragua for the 3rd year of the event, Race Director, Josue Stephens is putting the finishing touches on what will surely be another challenging event. Athletes from around the globe are ready to take on this 30 hour challenge covering 80+km depending on the routes they take.
We will have exclusive coverage of the event with boots on the ground following all the action starting this weekend. We spoke briefly with Stephens this morning about this year's race and although we couldn't get any details out of him he gave us a few hints about this year's race. Here is what we learned:
“We [the race directors] have gone for a smarter not harder approach [this year for Survival Run] and guarantee this is the most unique race experience anyone has ever had or seen.”
Ben Slow on local terrain
We can only imagine what this means for those embarking on FYA Survival Run this year. Stephens did tell us that the infamous egg will reappear this year and play an vital role in the overall race experience. He also noted with the addition of Ben Slow, 2014 FYA Survival Run Finisher and local business owner, as Regional Race Director “this race is even more integrated into local culture than ever before“. Stephens has used Slow's experience and connections on the island to continue to build on local traditions, culture, and the landscape itself.
New for 2015
Stephens is constantly evolving the Survival Run series and this year there are two key changes to the race from past year. The first is the new team race, teams of two will race together and complete challenges and obstacles as a team. This adds a new dynamic and twist to the race. With the formation of the team race the individual racers now are not allowed to help each other on challenges and will be disqualified for doing so. From a recent email, “Read the Rules Thoroughly on the Race Page BEFORE arriving – One thing to note is that if you are NOT on a team you CANNOT help each other out with challenges! This is grounds for instant disqualification.” So it seems the stakes are even higher for the individual racer this year.
Also instead of medals this year,reading I Will NOT FAIL, Stephens has gone more traditional to the native culture and small idols will be give out during the race at certain checkpoints. From past races we know it will not be simple to get each idol Stephens will find some creative way to make the participants work for it!
Coverage for the 2015 FYA Survival Run begins over the weekend as well as early next week leading up to the start of the race on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at 4pm for Gear Check. Schedule for the race is listed below.
Wednesday, Feb 4th
- 4pm SHARP – Waiver Signing – Bib Assignment – Announcements – Race Gear Check **If you have any donations for Los Ramos, they can be dropped off at this time
- 5pm SHARP- Race starts, all gear (including your water, food etc.) goes with you
Thursday, Feb 5th
- 11pm SHARP – 30 Hour CUTOFF – race is over!
Follow all the Action on our live Coverage Page
[…] running, the Farmstay has hosted some of the participants of this survival run called Fuego y Agua (preview here) which is done on Ometepe Island. If you watch the video there is a part where one of the […]