This was our first outing of our new short format race as well as our first event heading in to the nation of Moldova. A smaller field, a tighter time window and a finish in a city that is not on everyone's travel radar, what's not to love!
On the start line racers opened their packs and found out their options. After Vienna they could head to either Nitra in Slovakia or Szeged in Hungary, before coming back together in Oradea on the Romanian frontier. After that, another split, heading to either Iasi, Romania, or Brasov. Those aiming for a top placing also had another checkpoint to hit before Chisinau, which they had a quick puzzle to solve before this was revealed as Comrat, in the autonomous Moldovan region of Gagauzia.
Impact Hub in Vienna hosted the race start and pre-race coffee morning with racers getting some last minute fuel in. At 10:30 the race packs were ripped open, and unlike our other events where racers immediately head out the door to a first checkpoint known ahead of time, there was a pause as the options were processed.
Early indications on our tracking maps saw a pretty even split with racers heading straight to Budapest and on to Szeged vs. others taking the Nitra route.
By three in the afternoon we had our first racers through Nitra. Fernando P was right there, very sharp on his connections, and for a while looked like he was going to run the whole thing from the front. It was fast and it looked like both options were proving fairly equal.
Evening brought the first proper spread. The Slovakia route arrivals started to reach Oradea, while the southern route was just behind them. Our map showed Iain B, Bram @TheLazyRacer and Chalky’s Butcher as the ones to watch, while the northern route racers who had now come through Budapest were in touch and heading east.
Day 2 Oradea to Romania split
In the morning, a leading pack had formed from racers who had chosen the Nitra route. Arthur S, Fernando and Wes T had gone through Oradea very early, around three or four in the morning, and were pressing on toward Cluj. For a moment it looked like Fernando might have opted for the Brasov option while the others seemed to be on the Iasi side.
Behind them the Szeged group was a few hours back. Catching up was going to be difficult, there is only so much you can do in that part of Romania without night transport.
Later in the day Fernando was bearing down on Chisinau, but making it to Comrat overnight would be tough to impossible. He'd done everything right, but the challenge of the local timetable gave the pack behind him a way back in.
Arthur S and Wes T were near the border and were lining up for the Comrat detour. The first racers on the south route had reached Brasov, with Richard Taylor and the Jack’s Flight Club duo of Katy and Fran battling to get the checkpoint task first.
Day 3 morning toward the finish
Friday morning, a handful of racers were lining up for early morning transport to Comrat. That group included Iain B, Bram the Tallinn 2025 champ and Fernando P. The question was, would the group on the first bus get back to Chisinau before the chasers closed them down.
Back in Chisinau there would be one last checkpoint task to visit before the finish line, the old state circus. We were expecting a first finish sometime between 10:00-13:00 local time.
Drama unfolded as different marshrutka minibuses made different pit stops on the journeys to and from Comrat changing the running order as they went. With bated breath on the finish line, Vivien and Andrea broke the suspense as the first to emerge from the park and cross our finish line by the Triumphal Arch. A very impressive effort from a pair of first timers!
Low spend submissions also came in across the day with Nina W putting in a super strong submission of just under sixty pounds for transport across the whole event.
Day 4, Saturday 25 October was the final day with the rest of the field trickling in throughout the day. Our team cracked through the invigilation of travel evidence so we could confirm the top spots that evening at the awards.
Fastest finishers
Invigilation confirmed the front of the race.
Joint winners: Andrea and Vivien from Hungary. Congrats to these first time Lupine Racers, as well as the first team to ever take the top spot over a solo racer!
Third place: Iain B. Another newcomer to these events and straight on the podium. He tracked the lead group from very early on and never let the gaps grow.
Honourable mention: Fernando for lighting up the map on Day 1 and Day 2. He was the story for a long time until the Moldovan night schedule scuppered him.
Lowest spend
Our spend category had a clear winner this time.
Winner: Nina W, with an amazing total of just under sixty pounds on long distance travel during the event. A very tidy piece of work.
The Detourist and side adventures
Richard Taylor-Holland was first to visit The Detourist checkpoint in Constanta, Romania, but then he decided to go further, across into Odessa in Ukraine. It was a bold decision, but it gave the chasing pair of Kaitlyn and Noah a chance. They took the more direct route back from the Detour and reached the finish ahead of Richard.
Thank you
A big thank you to the National Tourism Office of Moldova for the welcome in Chisinau and for letting racers explore the city's museum free of charge. Thank you to FlixBus for discounted travel during the week. Thank you to the crew from Jack’s Flight Club who helped again on the ground at the start in Vienna and then at the finish in Moldova. Thanks to every racer who took a chance on a new format. We will refine it for the next one.
