Another great adventure!
Prologue:
I was already tired when we arrived at the race site at 7:15pm after a 5 hour drive. We got our maps, marked our control points and headed to the cabin about 30mins away. We spent a few more hours determining our route and preparing our equipment for the race ahead – into bed by 12:30am for 5.5 hours of interrupted sleep.
We returned to the race site the next morning at 7am and started setting up in the sometimes TORRENTIAL RAIN. At 8:30 we found out that the race was going to be delayed due to TORNADO WARNINGS. After 2 FALSE STARTING TIMES, we finally got going at 10:45.
The Course ahead: 16 MILES OF MOUNTAIN RUNNING (3 control points), 9 MILES OF PADDLING (1 control point), a 100 FOOT RAPPEL (1 control point), the rest of the course was ROGAINE format with 45 miles of SERIOUS MOUNTAIN BIKING (lots of control points) and 9 MILES OF NIGHT TIME ORIENTEERING (6 control points).
We were tired, but we were ready – right?
The Race:
Chris and I talked about 2 things the day before – do the first hour nice and easy – and we should be able to stay with the leaders. Hmm. As we climbed the side of the mountain, I somehow forgot the first bit. Sure I was holding back, but not enough.
Rain, Mud, Climbs, and Painful Descents. On the down hills my toes starting hurting (new shoes – dumb ass) slamming against the front of the shoe. At mile 9 (check point 1!!) I was in pain on EVERY down hill step I took. We now had to run 3 miles or so to the bottom of this mountain – OUCH my poor toes! My quads were also pretty well shot at this point.
Eventually we got to flat ground and headed to the boat launch 4 miles away. We were already exhausted and couldn’t believe how slow we were moving this early in the race. The leaders were long gone and we were in with the second group of racers.
The Whitewater section was awesome! At times I felt like the captain in that scene in Forrest Gump on the ocean during the hurricane. The cold water felt great at first, but after 9 miles and wind, I was shivering when we neared the end. I could barely walk when we got out and had to carry our boats up to the top of a hill, then run (walk) to CP4.
Donning our harness we preceded to rappel 100 feet off the side of bridge and scramble up a very steep climb back to our bikes. Way fun!
It felt good to be on the bikes – so good that we rode right by our first turn and decided to do our course backward – which meant doing the easy part first and the hard part last – hmm.
The first bit was a looong flat ride along the river – we got to our next control point easily, but it took a while. Then a monstrous climb up a fairly open gravel trail – no breaks, just straight up for at least 2 miles. I was feeling pretty good, but there were sections that were so long and steep we had to walk our bikes.
We got to the next couple of control points, but only after some serious climbs and lots of mud. The Rock Garden was cool – the CP was hidden in this monstrous Rock / Cave formation. It took about 10-15 minutes of searching to find it. We took a short break, then started up again, missing a turn that was not well marked on the map. As we back tracked, we tried to warn several other teams that this was the wrong way.
Prologue:
I was already tired when we arrived at the race site at 7:15pm after a 5 hour drive. We got our maps, marked our control points and headed to the cabin about 30mins away. We spent a few more hours determining our route and preparing our equipment for the race ahead – into bed by 12:30am for 5.5 hours of interrupted sleep.
We returned to the race site the next morning at 7am and started setting up in the sometimes TORRENTIAL RAIN. At 8:30 we found out that the race was going to be delayed due to TORNADO WARNINGS. After 2 FALSE STARTING TIMES, we finally got going at 10:45.
The Course ahead: 16 MILES OF MOUNTAIN RUNNING (3 control points), 9 MILES OF PADDLING (1 control point), a 100 FOOT RAPPEL (1 control point), the rest of the course was ROGAINE format with 45 miles of SERIOUS MOUNTAIN BIKING (lots of control points) and 9 MILES OF NIGHT TIME ORIENTEERING (6 control points).
We were tired, but we were ready – right?
The Race:
Chris and I talked about 2 things the day before – do the first hour nice and easy – and we should be able to stay with the leaders. Hmm. As we climbed the side of the mountain, I somehow forgot the first bit. Sure I was holding back, but not enough.
Rain, Mud, Climbs, and Painful Descents. On the down hills my toes starting hurting (new shoes – dumb ass) slamming against the front of the shoe. At mile 9 (check point 1!!) I was in pain on EVERY down hill step I took. We now had to run 3 miles or so to the bottom of this mountain – OUCH my poor toes! My quads were also pretty well shot at this point.
Eventually we got to flat ground and headed to the boat launch 4 miles away. We were already exhausted and couldn’t believe how slow we were moving this early in the race. The leaders were long gone and we were in with the second group of racers.
The Whitewater section was awesome! At times I felt like the captain in that scene in Forrest Gump on the ocean during the hurricane. The cold water felt great at first, but after 9 miles and wind, I was shivering when we neared the end. I could barely walk when we got out and had to carry our boats up to the top of a hill, then run (walk) to CP4.
Donning our harness we preceded to rappel 100 feet off the side of bridge and scramble up a very steep climb back to our bikes. Way fun!
It felt good to be on the bikes – so good that we rode right by our first turn and decided to do our course backward – which meant doing the easy part first and the hard part last – hmm.
The first bit was a looong flat ride along the river – we got to our next control point easily, but it took a while. Then a monstrous climb up a fairly open gravel trail – no breaks, just straight up for at least 2 miles. I was feeling pretty good, but there were sections that were so long and steep we had to walk our bikes.
We got to the next couple of control points, but only after some serious climbs and lots of mud. The Rock Garden was cool – the CP was hidden in this monstrous Rock / Cave formation. It took about 10-15 minutes of searching to find it. We took a short break, then started up again, missing a turn that was not well marked on the map. As we back tracked, we tried to warn several other teams that this was the wrong way.
This poorly marked area took a long time and required us to stop several times. I felt ok if we kept moving, but I was getting sick everytime we stopped. Chris seemed to have the opposite challenge - not a good combination. We started down a 4WD trail, but lost the trail in the dusk twillight - it was now getting dark.
We decide to bushwhack with our bikes down the side of the mountain in the dark. We were attacked by sticker bushes that refused to allow us through – we fought back and eventually won the battle with plenty of battle scars. Fortunately we passed through a couple of downhill meadows on our way to the bottom and were eventually rewarded with a relatively flat trail along the river.
We are now at the furthest point from our transition area. It is 10:00 at night, Chris has lost his headlamp and tail light, and he looks exhausted. I’m ready to puke and can’t get any fuel in. We stop, rest, regroup, reassess. We decide to get the next control point, then go off-map to try to find a flat way back instead of trying to hit more control points which would be a lot more climbing.
We end up in a little town with a couple of bars. We ask one of the patrons if we can get to the rail trail from there – this guy was 3 sheets to the wind, but gave us precise directions that got us exact on the rail trail.
We rode hard back to the transition in a complete mental fog, eventually getting to transition after midnight. We decided that was the end of the race for us – we would sleep until 6am, head to one more checkpoint, which would take us 18 miles of flat riding.
Sitting here with a very messed up ankle and toe, that was clearly the right decision. I don’t think I could have done 9 miles of night time orienteering on a mountainside even if we were able to eventually get to the orienteering course on our mountain bikes.
So we finished the mandatory first 5 control points, plus another 5, which gave us a fairly low score, but considering the struggles we had, not bad.
It was a great time, with lots of cool memories.
We decide to bushwhack with our bikes down the side of the mountain in the dark. We were attacked by sticker bushes that refused to allow us through – we fought back and eventually won the battle with plenty of battle scars. Fortunately we passed through a couple of downhill meadows on our way to the bottom and were eventually rewarded with a relatively flat trail along the river.
We are now at the furthest point from our transition area. It is 10:00 at night, Chris has lost his headlamp and tail light, and he looks exhausted. I’m ready to puke and can’t get any fuel in. We stop, rest, regroup, reassess. We decide to get the next control point, then go off-map to try to find a flat way back instead of trying to hit more control points which would be a lot more climbing.
We end up in a little town with a couple of bars. We ask one of the patrons if we can get to the rail trail from there – this guy was 3 sheets to the wind, but gave us precise directions that got us exact on the rail trail.
We rode hard back to the transition in a complete mental fog, eventually getting to transition after midnight. We decided that was the end of the race for us – we would sleep until 6am, head to one more checkpoint, which would take us 18 miles of flat riding.
Sitting here with a very messed up ankle and toe, that was clearly the right decision. I don’t think I could have done 9 miles of night time orienteering on a mountainside even if we were able to eventually get to the orienteering course on our mountain bikes.
So we finished the mandatory first 5 control points, plus another 5, which gave us a fairly low score, but considering the struggles we had, not bad.
It was a great time, with lots of cool memories.
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