Race Report:
La Routa Adventure Race 2025
Reported by Nick Aguilos, Navigator for Team Dirt on November 18, 2025
All photographs used with permission from Rodney Cabrera
For years we chased the chance to put Team Dirt on the international stage. Being Filipino athletes in a gear- and time-intensive sport like adventure racing comes with extra hurdles — funding, logistics, experience — but we kept pushing.
Fate helped: the AR World Series (ARWS) came to the Philippines through La Routa, our homegrown race that’s been running since 2000. We’ve raced La Routa for years (we won the 2019 edition in Tacloban), and when it became an ARWS Asia flagship in 2023 we made a bid for the Asia crown. That attempt didn’t go our way — mainly because we lacked expedition experience.
Since then we worked on what makes an expedition team work: dynamics, strength and endurance, mental toughness, navigation, communication — and above all, experience. After the training, the nights, and the lessons, we’re proud to say: Team Dirt are the AR World Series Asia Champions.
Below is how the race unfolded for us.
Team & Preparation
We came into La Routa fresh from the Samboan Adventure Race, so training tweaks for me, Erika, and Gil were minimal. The bigger task was adding fresh blood: Lilik Velasco. Lilik (20 at the time; he turned 21 during the race) is an XC mountain biker recommended by our friend Dave. This was his first multiday expedition—definitely a risk—but his youth and power showed in training and proved invaluable on course.
Day 1 —
The race flagged off at 9:00 AM from the Capitol Grounds in Naval, Biliran. Our race passports were tied to bamboo poles for the Palo Sebo start. We were clumsy (haha) and left the capitol grounds 10th out of 12 teams.
TA1 → CP1 (Dalutan Island)
From TA1 we sprinted to the Naval port for a paddle. Two bancas took us out to Dalutan. Gil and Lilik shared one boat; Erika and I the other. We hugged the coastline to avoid the stronger currents in the Biliran Strait — a conservative line that paid off. The 9 km paddle took about two hours and we checked into CP1 second, having poached several teams with that coastal tactic.
CP2 (Talahid Beach Resort) — Swim
From Dalutan we swam ~2 km back to mainland Biliran in choppy conditions. Team Skomad was minutes ahead; catching them would be key. We checked into CP2 a few seconds after them and executed a fast transition into the trek — months of practicing quick transitions really helped.
CP3 → CP5 (Mt. Panamao)
We trekked into the foothills toward CP3. Lunch was on the move; we rarely sat down to eat — that was deliberate. CP4 (Camp Beben) was reached in daylight, so yellow ribbons were easy to follow. The sunset over Maripipi and the grasslands of Camp Beben is a mental picture I still carry.
From CP4 we traversed to CP5, just past Mt. Panamao’s summit. By then it was foggy and dark; headlamps went on for the slog to CP6.
Navigation hiccup on Panamao
We hit a dead end around a fallen tree and lost about 45 minutes untangling route options. Skomad was nearby and helped point out an alternate line; with their brighter lights we finally found the trail down to the road leading to CP6 (Palayan). We probably lost a good hour — the gap we’d built earlier was gone.
CP6 (Brgy. Palayan)
Palayan was bustling with crew and supplies. We ate lechon manok, refilled water, and decided to take a longer rest to prepare for the Tres Marias traverse — a section I hadn’t realized would be a full traverse when I first plotted the map.
Tres Marias (CP7 → CP8)
Trekking with Skomad through Tres Marias was cordial — we shared navigation tips and trail warnings. CP7 near Tres Marias Peak 1 was straightforward. CP8 at Ulan Ulan Falls came after about four hours of trekking; it was midnight. We celebrated Lilik’s birthday (he’d hidden fudgee bars as a makeshift cake) and set up for a night abseil beside the waterfall — an amazing, cold, wet experience (I slipped and got doused by the falls). We finished the abseil around 12:45 AM and rolled into Day 2.
Day 2 — November 19, 2025
CP9 / LP1 (Almeria)
We descended to Almeria for CP9 / LP1. La Routa’s LPs act like rich CPs — medical, bathrooms, crew boxes, restocking. We chose a longer coastal highway route to avoid an unbridged river and arrived to find Skomad resting there; they’d been only ~30 minutes ahead of us, which meant our road pace had been strong. We used LP1 to restock and were in and out within ~20 minutes.
MTB Stage (CP10 → CP15)
We hit the cross-country road and stopped at a 24-hour fried chicken spot, Agarun, for hot soup at 4 AM — small comforts matter. CP10 was checked around 6:30 AM; CP11 at ~8:00 AM on a scenic highland road. CP12 was tricky on the map; we opted for the longer, safer coastal road to Biliran Town. Fatigue and heat built up as the sun rose, but by ~11:00 AM we were still leading. Skomad trailed an hour, followed by KBS and Eastwind.
CP13 (Villa Enaje) was straightforward. The 20 km ride to CP14 (Tomalistis Falls) in midday heat was brutal; we made sure to carry plenty of water and checked into CP14 at ~11:30 AM.
CP15 / LP2 (Caibiran)
We rode into LP2 at ~1:00 PM. Plotting the next stage showed a big trek from the foot of Mt. Suiro to a falls (Saob) with another abseil, so we set a 1-hour nap timer — sacrificing an hour of lead to arrive refreshed for the big trek.
Trek into Suiro (CP16 → CP18)
We started the trek ~2:30 PM, checked CP16 at ~3:15 PM, and pushed into virgin Suiro terrain. CP17 (~600 MASL) required constant triangulation; taking the lead early gave us daylight to confirm summits. We reached CP17 around 7:00 PM.
CP18 was a 5 km ridgeline route through thick vegetation and high elevation — deceptively hard. It took ~4.5 hours and ended at Saob Falls. La Routa designated this a dark zone, which forced a mandatory 4-hour rest and effectively bunched us with Skomad and KBS. We abseiled at 6:00 AM; because rope sections take time, going down first created a useful gap.
CP19 → CP20 / LP3
The Saob abseil was one of the race’s most beautiful moments for us. After a gorge approach to CP19, we ran toward LP3 at Cabucgayan Gym and checked in around 8:30 AM. Erika joked, “Guys, we’re running out of passport pages” — finish line signs.
Final MTB & Kayak-O (CP21 → CP22)
The final stage included an MTB leg and a surprise kayak orienteering at CP21 near Biliran Airport — our first kayak-o. It took about an hour to collect the four kayak CPs. After CP21 we fired back onto the bikes and headed to the finish at the Provincial Capitol Grounds in Naval.
Since day 1, NHK (Japanese media) constantly asked us if we were confident in winning La Routa. We said “we don’t know”.
La Routa had such a strong roster of asian, and even european and north american teams, that our chances of winning were slim.
In LP2, they asked us again before we left for the big trek stage. Again we said We don’t know. but maybe. Depends on the upcoming stage”
In LP3, they again asked us. But this time we said “We might actually win this thing” with a big smile.
We’ve been dreaming of bringing an all-Filipino racing crew to the forefront of the ARWS for the past few years.
Being Filipino athletes isnt easy, especially not with a gear and time intensive sport such as adventure racing that demands so much financial and time investment. We are a grassroots team from Eastern Visayas that have been funding our efforts from our own pockets.
At times we’ve wanted to give up on our dream of raising the Philippine flag in the world stage, but we kept moving forward despite the toll it was taking on our personal lives. Because bringing our team, our community, and the national colors up there meant so much that no doubt, no fear, no challenge big enough can ever deter us.
We clocked into the finish at 12:10 on day 3. Total time: 57hours 15mins. 2.3 days of racing.
We were crowned the asian champions.
This race was for our families and our friends. Thank you for your unwavering support for us.
Team Dirt A Lineup: Erika Viojan (Team Captain), Nick Aguilos (Navigator), Gil Peñero Jr. (Packhorse 1), Hienreck Velasco (Packhorse 2)
Team Dirt is sponsored by the following brands:
