2025 | ARWS Raid Bimbache Morocco

Raid-Bimbache Race Report

by Jesse Tubb

Like most adventure races, the race to the start line is often as important as the race itself. Can you get to the start line with all your gear and in the proper physical state? While some of us had some bumps along our travels to Marrakech, we arrived a few days early with all of our gear. Roy’s wife and son, Trish and Gavin, and James’s wife, Cara, flew out for the race, so we had a larger “family” for this race. They had booked a travel excursion to coincide with the race but the details were largely a mystery, which mirrored our experience with the race organizers. Plans and schematics were shifting and changing as the race drew near. We were all going to have our own version of an adventure. Luckily, everyone took this in stride and adopted a gumby mentality. Be flexible and adaptable. This would end up being a theme for the week to come.

We were all cautious about what we ate, knowing that the time for tasting local cuisine is best saved for after the race, given the GI risks involved. We opted to eat at the hotel restaurant since it served some traditional foods along with pizza and pasta. This seemed to be a safe enough option, and without many options around the hotel, this ended up being our go-to place for dinners.

We spent the majority of Saturday getting our gear and food ready and went to bed with the satisfaction that there was little left to do before we left for the race Monday morning. We went to bed with plans of taking the last day before the race, nice and easy, to prepare our bodies and minds for what we knew would be a challenging experience. At some point in the middle of the night, I heard a loud thud in the bathroom along with an accompanying moan. I initially thought that Roy had subbed a toe or banged his knee, but was too groggy to give it too much attention. Plus, I knew Trish was there to attend to him, so I went back to bed in an attempt to bank as much sleep as possible. A few hours later, I hear Roy vomiting in the bathroom and making sounds that make it clear that this isn’t simply a quick stomach bug, but something that is attacking his whole body. It turns out he was passing out just before vomiting, so he would flop on the bed and vomit through his nose. The thud I heard earlier was him passing out and falling on the hard bathroom floor. It was a miracle he didn’t injure himself but we needed another miracle to get him healthy in the next 30 hours.

All the next day, Roy slept and tried taking in any liquid or calories he could. We knew our plan for the first couple of legs of the race, and if he could even make it to the race, we would need to change it if we had a chance of getting to the finish line. He was only able to get down a fraction of the liquids and nutrients he lost before we started the race, but we spread his gear amongst the team, and he only carried a light pack with water and food.

The 3-hour bus ride to the starting line was uneventful, and since we only had the first couple of maps, there wasn’t much to do except sleep and try to focus on the things we could control: how we managed Roy’s energy and recovery. We arrived in Ait Ben Haddou, which was the start line for the race. We were greeted by a local musical group and found some shade until the race started. Roy was able to drink some soda and had a protein bar, which was a great sign! The prologue for the race was a small orienteering section around this historic site, including a predrawn route through the old city, which we had to follow to locate four volunteers with punches along the route. Since we weren’t allowed to run in the city, each team had to spend a minimum of 30 minutes locating the checkpoints.

After spending our allotted time in the city, we exited and returned to the start line, which was CP 7 and the official start of the course. We jogged a little but mostly hiked to CP 8, which was located a few kilometers down the river, only to find several teams circling where we all thought the CP was supposed to be. At this point, we were in the front pack of the race, but spent a long time looking for the control. A race-branded truck pulled up in the area, and some teams went over to talk with them. We kept looking and couldn’t figure out where this control could be. James finally went over to the truck, and they told him to just take a photo of the group in front of where we thought it was, and we would receive credit. We’re still not sure why they didn’t come out of the truck and let all the teams know, but by the time we left, we were solidly in the midpack of the field. This was still early in the race, so it didn’t bother us too much, especially since we knew tending to Roy’s recovery would play a much larger role in our performance 5 days from then.

This 40k trek brought us through the low-lying desert and the highest temperatures of the race. Getting Roy through this stage was going to be pivotal for our success, so we took our time, hiking at a pace more in line with a day four trek than a day one trek. We made it through the desert without too much trouble and entered a city park to locate more historic film locations. Each checkpoint in this leg was a filming location for a famous movie: Ben Hur, Jewels of the Nile, Game of Thrones, James Bond, and Star Wars, to name a few.

After the desert, we entered a city park at night, which had a confusing set of trails and was the first true test of navigation for the race. A combination of skill and luck got us through this section and to our first of MANY small market pitstops for Coke and snacks.

We finished that first leg in 23rd place, not where we were hoping to be or were accustomed to being, but we knew that this was more of an adventure than a race and were grateful to have completed the first leg. Roy was feeling better, and we were optimistic that once he got on the bike in the cooler temperatures, he would continue to improve. We received the rest of the maps, including a satellite photo of the reservoir we needed to navigate around. This was to show the current water levels and aid us in determining our route around this newly formed body of water.

My plan to navigate around was to hug the shoreline as much as possible and hope that there would be tracks from the locals who visit the reservoir. This was mostly the case, but because it was night, we couldn’t see the water very well, so it was a bit of guesswork as to how far from the water we needed to go to get around the fingers of the reservoir. Because of this, we didn’t have an accurate gauge of our distance, and I mistakenly assumed the first couple of buildings we came upon were the larger city on my map. There’s always a bit of a learning curve with a race to get to know how the race director notates things on a map, or how a region identifies various objects. Had I taken a minute to remember this and assess things with more clarity, we would’ve saved a few hours of hunting for CP 15. Roy had asked a very important question about some lights in the distance, which would’ve clued me in as well, but I got drawn into the trap of allowing the teams around us to sway my objectivity.

We eventually found the CP and made our way onto the large section of roads and trails in the desert. We stopped several more times for Coke and sugar supplies, and to take a moment to cool off. This was the first section where we had some major route choices, and we opted to play it mostly safe. We were starting to make some good time and recover as a team. Once we finished this leg, Jen had our distance at 150k, not 115k. This was confirmed by other teams, so we knew that we would have to take the information for the RD with a grain of salt.

In recent years, teams have been given the distance, elevation gain and loss, and the fast/slow time estimates as a way to help them gauge how much food and water to bring and how to manage time. We weren’t given the fast/slow estimates, so teams were left to use their experience to determine how long each leg might take. Each leg took us 30% longer than we had estimated. Part of this early on was Roy’s condition, but even as we began to move more efficiently, we underestimated our speed.

The majority of this leg was flat, so as we neared TA, we knew that there must be a monster climb, and boy was there. We found ourselves climbing for 20 km and gaining over 1500 meters of elevation.

We pulled into TA2, moving up 12 places and knowing we needed sleep. There were 12 tents set up, and we thought it would be more efficient to use one of them instead of setting up our own, but there was too much noise. TAs are typically a terrible place to get some quality sleep, given their chaotic nature, and this one was particularly busy. Local children playing in the area, race staff joking and smoking, and other teams transitioning made it challenging, to say the least. We opted to set up a tent just outside the TA on the grass, and it was the right call.

We headed out on what was promising to be the crux of the race. Huge elevation gain over 75km in the Atlas Mountains, which required us to bring climbing gear and crampons. The navigation in the early stage of the race was made more challenging by the fact that locals seemed to make a sport of finding the checkpoints as well. Only, they kept them as souvenirs, so when we arrived at CP 23 along with a scrum of other teams, it took us a while to realize that the CP was missing and we needed to continue on.

Roy had recovered enough at this point to take lead nav, and we worked together to pick our way through the disappearing trails and over the icy summit where we donned our crampons and began our descent. The wind at the peak of the saddle was intense. It was difficult to even sit and attach the crampons without being blown over. Once we started our descent, it was clear that the need for legitimate crampons was warranted. As we rounded a spur, we got a full view of the valley below us and the scope of the sheets of icy snow we would be traversing.

Halfway through our descent, my left crampon slipped off my shoe, and I began sliding on down the ice, unable to control my speed and not knowing what was further below. After a few seconds, I was able to turn onto my back and put my full weight on my pack, which finally stopped me. I put my crampon back on and began walking again, only to see the roll of maps which had been on the outside pouch of my pack, fly through the air and slide down the icy reenetrent. I yelled down to Jen and James in hopes that they would be able to catch it. In true Canadian form, James positioned himself as a hockey goalie in the middle of the ice and prepared to make the save of the race. As the maps tumbled down the ice, he made a last-second leap to stop the roll from sliding past. A full belly flop on a sheet of ice, which saved us countless hours of searching at the bottom of the ravine.

We eventually made it to the traveler’s hut in the valley below and enjoyed some mint tea, eggs, and a much-deserved nap. This section of the race rewarded us with spectacular mountain views and incredible rocky landscapes. Because of the unprecedented snowfall, the course had to be altered to skip the knife-edge ascent to one of the summits. The race director said that this climb would’ve been a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I have no doubt that it would have been stunning. With the intensity of the wind, I wonder if it would’ve given us a different once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’ve never encountered such intense and sporadic winds in my life. Even without that climb, this was one of the most picturesque sections of any race I’ve done.

We transitioned back to the bikes for what looked to be a fairly straightforward section. They had to move 25 km of the trek to the bike, and I assumed this would make those kms much faster. Be careful of what you assume in a race…

We started with a 4 km hike-a-bike, which we were cautioned wouldn’t be possible without attaching our bikes to our packs. It was steep, narrow, and rocky, but we were able to manage it without carrying our bikes. With the exception of leg 5, all of the maps were at 1:50,000 scale, and the contrast on the maps was subtle, so it made for challenging navigation and interpretation of what we were heading into.

The trail we were to follow led into a 14 km reentrent which I suspected followed a river. What we soon learned was that this was a river that we could suspect had a trail at some point. I was using flats and my running shoes for the whole race, and the other three members opted for clipless pedals and bike shoes. This 14 km section was wet, rocky, rugged, and challenging. This was part of the 25km that was taken from the last trek section and attached to this leg due to the landslides and road closures, which made transporting gear impossible. This course pivot was necessary to maintain its integrity. This didn’t make it any easier to make peace with the difficulty of this section.

We began to catch a lot of teams who were trying to pick their way through the river. It soon turned into a conga line of teams following us as we led the pace and direction of travel until we emerged into the town at the end of the canyon. The next CP was a hotel, and we decided to take advantage of the shelter and take our longest sleep of the race. Three hours later, the wind was still just as intense, but it was a tailwind, so we decided to get dressed and head out. The wind was so unpredictable and violent that it blew the shutters open several times during the night. It knocked a sizable rock, which was holding the shutters closed, onto the ground, narrowly missing James and my head (it actually grazed James’s head once).

The remaining portion of this bike leg was less eventful than the first until we arrived to the final CP of the stage, a cave where three of the four teammates were required to enter the cave to locate the CP. Jen was beginning to feel unwell, so she stayed out with the bikes. It was in the peak of the midday su,n and we were all feeling its effect. When we exited the cave, we found Jen on all fours and had just thrown up and was being tended to by the volunteers. Roy had opted to leave his helmet with this bike and ended up cutting his head and shin on the cave, and was bleeding in both locations.

We limped into TA a few kms later to find the family members waiting for us, which lifted our spirits tremendously. We got the rogaine map, some much-needed food and shelter, and Roy was evaluated by the race medical team. When he emerged, he looked as if he belonged on the set of The Mummy (which was also a movie set CP from earlier).

The various approaches to race directing are interesting to experience. Some are cavalier, others are extremely cautious, and yet others are a unique cocktail of the two. Some of the checkpoints in this race were placed in areas that we found to be lacking in any safety consideration (i.e., sliding down a 70-degree scree hill), and yet, Roy was almost pulled out of the race because the small cut on his head might need some stitches. Luckily, he had an ally in the volunteer staff, and we were allowed to continue with the agreement that we would look after him and check in with the staff upon completing the next leg.

We set out on the 40 km rogaine needing to collect 20 of 26 points. If we arrived after 12:00 on Friday afternoon, we would lose all the points collected on that leg. This was the second cutoff we were close to missing. The first was at the icy summit on leg 3, and this one. We made both of them with only a couple of hours to spare. It’s an unusual situation to find ourselves in. This was due to a combination of an aggressive timeline by the race director (most teams didn’t make the first cutoff) and the condition Roy was in for the first 36 hours of the race.

Even once we made it through half of the rogaine, we weren’t confident we would clear this section. Because of the tricky math of adding both one-point and two-point checkpoints, James asked to double-check our math once we were out on the course. It’s a good thing he did, because somehow, Roy and I had only planned on getting 19 points. We were able to adjust our plan quickly, and the navigation on this portion went fairly smoothly once we got to our second point. This section was full of incredible caves, buildings, landscapes, and villages. Two of the most memorable for me were the house built into a cave. A three-story dwelling that was marred with the charcoal of long-ago fires. The intricacy and complexity of the structure were stunning and must have been a magical place to live. The second was the Colosseum, built on a peninsula along the river, with a view of the canyon walls that must have served to inspire countless people to revere nature and the supernatural.

Now that we had completed the last big stage, we were excited to get on to the “Mountain Bike Fast” leg, paddle for 23km, bike for a little bit more, then get onto the last 9km trek. Pretty much all downhill from here…right…?

On paper, a 54 km “fast” bike with only 900m of elevation gain should be fast. Maybe 4 hours?? Not so. The navigation was fairly straightforward, and there was only one CP, a watering hole with a few options to exit. James’ French came in handy multiple times this race, and when we arrived at the watering hole, we were able to get some information that the 1.5 km river trek was indeed a viable option compared to the 17km bike around. So began picking our way through the groves with the faith that we would find the road on the other side that would lead us to TA. After only a few hundred meters, we ran into a local adolescent (maybe 16 years old) who, through gestures mostly, invited us to follow him through the maze of trails and farms. He showed us a picture of a previous team he helped and made valiant efforts to communicate to us, piecing together broken English, French, and hand signals. We could sense his humor, confidence, compassion, and poise throughout our brief time together.

As promised, he led us successfully through to the other side and saved us hours of time and energy we would’ve needed to navigate through that terrain. We gave him a well-deserved tip and shared a brief moment of gratitude with him. We had many wonderful interactions with the locals, and this stands out as a special moment for us in many ways. Generosity, honesty, compassion, and authenticity seemed to be the rule, not the exception, for the Moroccan people.

We descended into TA to get ready for the one and only paddle, only to find out that there was a new cutoff given how long it was taking teams to finish the last two legs. That, and the wind was picking up, so we only had a few hours to attempt to collect some of the 6 points along the reservoir. We opted to collect one point, then head out, knowing that we were not going to clear the course, and it was safer to leave more time to complete the last two legs. We had been leapfrogging several teams and knew we were around 10th, but this race had become more of an adventure, so we played it safe and headed back out on the bike after a 20-minute paddle.

The navigation was a little tricky here, but we managed to minimize our mistakes and had to take a 20-minute nap halfway through so I could get my brain to function. The toll of navigation was showing, and the 20-minute nap allowed me to get back into the maps and finish the last several kilometers strong.

Once we arrived in TA, we decided to take one last sleep since we had heard the 9 km trek was taking teams over six hours. The volunteers assured us that the water would be thigh-high at most, but we donned our drysuits regardless. Somehow, there was a mix-up with the planning, and Roy, James, and Jen didn’t have a set of trekking shoes in the team bag. So, it would be one last twist of the knife, and they would have to trek down this canyon in bike shoes.

Once we rappelled into the river from the bridge, we quickly learned the information the volunteers gave us was incorrect. I didn’t zip my drysuit closed because I didn’t want to overheat. 30 meters into the trek, my worries of overheating disappeared as we found ourselves chest deep in the water. My suit quickly filled with water, but I was able to minimize the amount and zip my suit closed. Roy’s suit was letting in copious amounts of water, and about 1 km into the trek, we had to cut his foot seals off to let the water drain. His legs, which looked like they belonged to an elephant, were finally able to move with some dexterity.

James and Jen took the lead on this trek, and Roy and I barely managed to keep up. We were both slipping, and it was a good thing we had helmets because several times while navigating the boulders, we fell and hit our heads. It was a slow slog to the finish, but we managed to pass several teams along the way.

We were looking for a river to enter from the right, and sometimes it is better to be lucky than skilled. The French team that was in front of us passed the exit of the river before the volunteer called us up out of the river, and we were able to get to the ropes section before them and finish the race just minutes ahead.

We ended up in 11th place overall, having left 5 CPs on the course. 12 teams had team members drop out, or the whole team dropped out, and almost half of the teams didn’t make it to the cutoff at the summit of CP 22. We could’ve raced for 8th if we had collected two more CPs on the water, but there was no guarantee we would’ve finished, and we have to make the decisions based on what we know at the time. I don’t think we regret leaving those out there.

Ultimately, our main goal was to finish, given the circumstances of how we started. We met that goal. I’m writing this one week after we finished, and I’m still feeling the effects of the race. Roy stated that this was one of the top 5 hardest races for him, and given the condition he was in at the start of the race, I’m not surprised. For me, this was also one of the most challenging races I’ve done, and it’s been difficult to pinpoint why. Jen and James were amazing teammates, figuratively and literally carrying weight when needed, and we performed exactly as we needed to as a team to get to the finish line. Roy has got to be one of the toughest racers in the sport. I don’t know many people who could pull off what he did.