Do all roads lead to Madrid?

Race 2 Madrid, the 2,500 km charity adventure across land and sea, began today at 5:30am.

I am among the 200 participating St Andrews students.  After months of fundraising for the three selected charities – Families First, Macmillan, and Doctors Without Borders – the day has finally come. Alongside my two other teammates and best friends, Katharine and Riccardo, I will attempt to hitchhike all the way to Madrid in 5 days.

But – at the time of writing – the realisation that I am about to embark on something relatively challenging – to put it lightly – has still not sunk in, and I’m beginning to wonder when it will. Maybe not until we get dropped off in the early morning hours at our “secret drop-off location”, under the pouring rain with nothing but our sweet-talking skills and survival instincts to get us to Madrid.

On arrival at the hostel in Madrid, we are promised a programme of organised activities and nights out, exclusive bars for Race2, free sangria, and a racer party for all participants on the last night (well, for all participants that have arrived). The organising committee has assured us that last year every team had arrived at the hostel in Berlin by the last day. To be honest, I’m not sure if that just makes me more worried, knowing it’ll be a tad more embarrassing if we don’t manage to make it…

What if we’re the only team that doesn’t make it to Madrid? What if we don’t even make it out of Britain? What if we get lost and accidentally end up in Russia? What if in an unexpected turn of events, Katharine, Riccardo and I all fall out, go our separate ways and decide to individually race each other to Madrid? (Maybe a bit unlikely, but still!)

For the past fortnight, the committee has been urging the teams to send photos of our preparations for the hitchhike. It was maybe at this point that I realised Race 2 Madrid wasn’t just a bit of a laugh. Preparations…what preparations?!

Katharine’s ensuing message on our team’s Facebook chat confirmed my fears: “Lol guys how do we actually prepare for this hitchhike?” But despite our consequent “planning meetings”, that answer remains unknown.

Maybe we’re doing it all wrong; maybe the other teams have devised a strategic plan and memorised a map of every road leading to Madrid. The extent of our planning is something along the lines of “GET TO FRANCE THEN KEEP GOING DOWN”. As useful as Second Year French has been in learning how to write essays on medieval French literature, my knowledge of how to explain why I’m hitchhiking to Madrid for charity is quite limited. Luckily, being fluent in Spanish should help us once we cross the border.

But perhaps the fact that I do not have the slightest idea of what to expect makes this little adventure so appealing. Because in a world of continuous, structured and ordered routine, Race 2 is an attempt to find a little bit of spontaneity and unplanned excitement; a way of pretending for 5 days that I’m actually an adventurous and intrepid person. Who knows how the hell you prepare for a hitchhike, let alone if it is even possible to prepare.

Whatever happens over the next five day, I am confident that one way or another, all roads lead to Madrid.

All Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.