This is my site on my experiences with adventure racing. You may see many of these articles published elsewhere as I write for a number of navigation, outdoor, and adventure magazines (normally in condensed and edited versions). This blog contains the full unedited versions of these stories.
This is one of my favorite races - the team was Caryn Ciesla (in her first race over 30 hours), Rick Holley, and Junos Reed.
Trek CP1-CP9
We were bussed from the parking area at Blue Ridge Lake to the actual start location. The remote start was a really cool working mill. The first few controls were easy trail and woods running. We ran into our first challenge at CP3. We went up the trail past a road intersection (as show on map). I was suspicious as the map show the trail heading in a different direction than the trail actually went. We followed it for the correct distance and then attacked where we thought the control would be. quickly realized (which I should have done from before) that the trail was drawn in by hand and did not actually match reality. We bailed to the road, re-attacked it from road - and found it quickly. At the same time we also pointed it out to the half dozen or so teams looking for it.
The next few controls went pretty easy, until we got to CP8. CP7 was a nasty climb up a hillside and then the easy route was to bomb down the hillside and attack 8 from below. We decided to use a road that was mapped, but not completely. The road took us right above 8 and we headed down, but after some searching did not find it an then bailed out. My tracker later confirmed we were literally on top of it - but did not see it, but that sometimes happens (even though the woods there were quite open). We had pretty much figured that the course could not be cleared in 30 hours - so the plan was not to waste too much time if we were stuck.
Paddle CP10-CP12
The next leg was a paddle down the Toccoa River with a few controls for good measure. Caryn was going to get to do rapids for the first time in a canoe. I had no plans of going in the water - and she was hilarious after our first little whitewater - about a 1 foot drop over a ledge. She yelped, held her paddle in the air, and nearly leaped out of the boat. A few more rapids an she was gaining confidence and starting to enjoy the bumps.
Just after shooting the rapids near the swinging bridge we had a complex rapid that I had lined up to cross from right to left to right to run. We dropped through 2 hydraulics and she started sliding in her seat as I was twisting the boat hard to make the turns. We started to tip left and I correct hard right, she slipped hard left in her seat,grabbed the right gunnel (as whitewater paddlers will know - that is the kiss of death) and pulled the boat over.
The water was pretty cold, but we had left the worst of the rapids, so I had no problem grabbing her, attaching her to the boat, grabbing the paddles which I had put floaties on in case we tipped, and swimming the boat to the right shore. Junos swam out to help me (actually he could have cared less about me, he swam out to help Caryn) get the boat to shore. We dumped the water - all the gear was in dry bags and attached - so we hopped in and headed downstream.
We got all the checkpoints along the paddle, they were fairly easy, though they were not visible from shore. Caryn was a little cautious after tipping, though she did just fine. She had done quite well considering it was her first time paddling in rapids.
Bike CP13-CP20 an CP21-CP23
The next leg was a bike, which was nice and relatively flat. The course took us to the Stanley TA which was a good distance. From there teams would put on wrist-bands and do the last three bike points having all members punch their bands. Good plan as this entailed a lot climbing (all the climbing we had avoided in the first part was bunched into this part). Caryn had struggled a bit on the first bike leg - and I decided that we would skip these 3 points (21,22, and 23). Long Trek CP24-CP29
This next leg was the one that would decide the fate of most teams. This was a night trek with challenging navigation. There was a continuous threat of rain and it had been raining (but not hard) off and on during the day. We started well heading to CP32 first. After CP31 I decided we would go for the tough control - CP26. We had been warned in pre-race this was a challenging control and only a fraction of the teams that attempted it, got it. After about 90 minutes of searching in incredibly thick brush, on a very steep rocky hillside - I finally called it quits. Before I did, I found an old cross trail that took me over the spur to the next re-entrant east. I went over and then back (which was relatively easy since I had found the old trail) - I almost decided to give it another try (which would have meant climbing back up the steep rocky re-entrant) - but decided to save my energy for a later control.
Here is the track from my tracker:
After this we headed out to CP30 which was pretty easy. We skipped CP27 - and headed back to do CP29, CP24, and CP25. We chose to do CP29 first - this one was pretty easy, but the trail was a lot longer than it appeared to be on the map - as the mapper had chosen to cut out nearly all of the odd bends and switchbacks on the trail. Once we got back to the base of the trailhead at CP29 - we decided to head in. It was starting to rain pretty hard, and Junos was bleeding on his thighs from friction rub from walking in wet pants. Caryn was having some bad knee pain and they did look swollen. Junos was worried about his ability to finish. As we approached the Stanley TA the skies started to open up and give us some intense rain. I decided to rest the team and that we would head out after daylight (6:30 AM) - it was currently 4:30. I was a bit anxious at first as I really wanted to snag CP24 and CP25, but pushing the team too hard here would have potentially been race ending.
After a bit of rest and daylight - the team was in much better spirits and were ready to bike back to the main TA. It was still raining, hard at times - but we had a feeling the weather would break soon. The downhills were pretty sloppy - especially on Aska Road - kicking up a rooster tail (in your own face) at 30 mph.
Once in the main TA, we had 12 checkpoints that we had to transfer from a master map, onto our map - and then essentially paddle and trek to visit. They all looked pretty easy (and they were) except that I copied one down wrong off the master map - and had to go back (with the entire team) to the Main TA to recopy. luckily it was not one that was far away. Many teams at this point had had enough dealing with rain and cold - and the 12 checkpoints were good enough to put us in 6th place.
Caryn had completed her first long (and overnight) race. They team overcame a lot of problems that could have stopped us. But we pushed through and did quite well. Here is a little video of some scenes from the adventure:
The orienteering event this weekend was quite fun, helped by cloud cover and some cooler weather. I shot a little bit of video as I was using this as a practice run for the Atomic May 18 - check out the baby fox at 3:15 in the video. This was shot in HD - so if you change the video quality it is easier to see everything.
Well - sometimes races go great an sometimes not. This ended up being a very tough race for us. we had a string of errors that were recoverable and one that was not. The team was Jim Gorton, Courtney Spratt, Junos Reed and myself.
We started with a short orienteering run and quickly established a lead by burning through it in 27 minutes an getting out of the transition to bike very quickly. Our first mistake came with hitting Bayard Road and me going the wrong way because I never looked at the North Arrow on the map. I realized the mistake and we made it out to the paved road and tucked into a bike line and literally flew down the road - but we lost about 15 minutes on this mistake.
At the boats we decided to head south first and picked up the points pretty easily. CP10 was a really cool spot at the end of a small creek shown here. The remaining controls were straightforward - and also led to a lot of jokes about big root balls (clue one CP).
Heading back north to CP8 the frontal system that had been coming in turned into an all out gale which gave us some pretty challenging paddling. Waves were cresting at about 2 feet, but the wind (and cold) was the real issue and it really slowed our pace down as we headed to CP8. I had figured since we passed a lot of boats that we could get CP8 and be back with the lead pack as we left the boats. This was not going to be the case.
The hard rain and surprisingly cold temps had me shivering quite a bit as we came out of the boats at CP8. We attacked CP8 a little south of the control, but checked the direct location (with 3 of us scouring the area) very well. After that we simply searched further and further from the mapped location. I even went in the duckweed covered canal (about waist deep) to see if I could get a better vantage on the control. No luck in finding the control even had me doubting our overall location we did a little northern leg just to be sure. Since we had been told at pre-race the course would be hard to clear - we licked our wounds and bailed on the control.
The bike ride back had a few CP's. There was a 2 CP bikewhack that we went around, but found from some of the riding, the bikewhack would have been better. The only control to give us issues was CP16 due to a parallel unmapped trail. From the footprints on this one - we were not the only ones to have an issue with this. We again realized our mistake and corrected - had I measured the maps (we were given these on the fly) I would have realized the mistake and hit the correct trail. Also this is one spot where a little familiarity with the park would have been useful.
We made it back to the main TA where we picked up our next set of bike controls, and also our shoes for the second trek. On the way to the trek we stopped for the tower challenge. This was pretty fun - I was in the tower calling out bearings to my three team-mates while guiding them to the control that I could see from the tower - but they could not see from the ground. If Jeff posts some video of this - I'll put a link here - some of the teams were hilarious.
When we got to the foot section I calculated that we would be able to finish the race with a solid hour to spare. We moved pretty well through the foot controls though there were some challenging ones - especially CP22 which had a drawn trail that did not match the actual trail.
Here are some highlights from this section - one nav error - when we left CP18 I did not recognize the trail leading to CP19 so ended up going to the sand pile to re-orient. The battery in my tracker gave out just before CP23 (it only lasts 8 hours) - but you can see that we were on the right track there.
Here are a couple of video clips I took on the trek;
So you would like to come out and do your first adventure race. This is a little step by step guide that will make your experience a fantastic one. This will take you through what to expect in your first race and what to do to prepare for it.
1. Find a buddy - Adventure racing is a team sport, and team can be anywhere from 2 to 4 persons. For your first race it is best to have a like minded buddy that wants to head out and have a great time. If possible your partner should have a similar level of fitness, though this is not necessary.
2. Get some gear - You won't need a lot of gear for your first race. You will need a bike and helmet (mountain bike is definitely best), a pack, something to hold liquids, and the mandatory gear (whistle, compass).
If you have these two things - then it is time to sign up for your first race. If you have not done an adventure race you should sign up for the sport class race. Many very solid athletes decide that they are ready for elite in their first race - they aren't. Sport races are a bit shorter (3-4 hours) than elite, and the terrain and navigation will be easier than you will face in an elite class race. Just trust me here.
About the race
So now you have signed up for the race and it is a 3 hour race. Adventure Races are typically (but not always) measured in time. The race will involve visiting as many check points (orange flags) as you can within a time limit (the race length). You will visit some of these on foot, some on bike, and some by boat. The locations of these will be on a map given to you at the race start, and you will have written instructions describing the locations too. Each checkpoint has a coded punch that you will use to punch a punch card that proves that you visited the point.
When you arrive at the race site you will want to set up your gear in the transition area. Some team will have very elaborate setups with tents, bike racks, tables - and some teams will simply show up and drop their bikes on the ground. You will drop off your gear and then check in and get your maps. For most races you will also be assigned a starting discipline; bike, foot, or paddle. This keeps teams separated and also makes sure that all teams have boats when they get to the paddle. You will also usually have about an hour to plan your race, and also before every sport race Pangea holds an Adventure Racing 101 to help you know what to do.
The Race
At the allotted time the race will start and all the teams will head off in different direction on their assigned discipline. As you go through the course you will punch your passport and usually come back to the transition area for a punch card for your next discipline. You will want to manage your time - the time limit is a hard limit and after the time expires you will be assessed point penalties. That is pretty much how the race works, but of course there will be all kinds of strategies, some transitions from discipline to discipline, and a lot of fun.
The Scoring
So how is this scored. Unlike most races, this one is about collecting as many points as possible within the time limit. Going over the time limit will cost you points. The team that gets the most points wins the race. In case of a tie the team that got the points in the fastest time wins. It is actually quite simple. As you get better at racing, the first goal is to "Clear the Course", this is visiting all the control points inside the time limit.
Moving Up
A laudable goal for adventure racing is to clear an elite course. Typically a race is designed so that only 3-5 teams will be able to clear the course. This keeps the format fresh in that there is always a challenge.
Further Challenges
One of the beauty of adventure racing is that the challenge really never ends. There are always longer and harder races out there. There is always more extreme terrain to explore - the adventure never really ends... (here are some scenes you will not see on a mud run...)
About a week after the Sea to Sea Dave Brault called me and asked if i wanted to do the BOAR, since I had a pretty much free Saturday - I was definitely game. This race seems to always be on a weekend that is cold and extremely windy and this year was no exception.
Trek 1
The race instructions were kind of confusing at first, but we figured them out and decided that we would trek first and then head to the paddle. The one control that gave most people trouble was CP - it was a bit off the trail with a very subtle attack point. We actually attacked from the bend in the road just west of the Orange blaze trail. Once in the woods - we used the clue that it was on a wetland to help us narrow in on the control. The map showed the wetland as being relatively open with a different vegetation type- we were a bit north on our attack - but were able to spot the actual wetland and zoom right in on it. Here is our track for CP4.
Important to be able to spot areas of different vegetation and understand what vegetation types look like in the woods.
We got back to the foot TA with one team - and I think only Nature Calls was before us. We biked to the boats and were in them very quickly taking a counter clockwise route to get the very challenging paddle controls.
we made very quick work of the first few paddle controls and you can see in our track above where we used 2 strategic portages to shorten the actual paddle. Portage 1 was quite easy with shallow mud, portage 2 was a bit more challenging, here is a little video of Portage 2 it tells it all.
We were doing well, and my strategy for CP17 and CP18 were to try to do most of the travel for them on foot. This did not work out so well. We were forced to go far east of CP18 by the terrain, though we were able to run most of this as it was wide open to the east. CP17 was a disaster. I failed to take a good bearing from where we put the boat (directly across from where we attacked CP18) and we spent over 20 minutes looking on the wrong peninsula. I finally called to bail - and that we would paddle to CP17 - wich took us all of about 6 minutes, a much faster option, but we had already wasted the 20 minutes in our fruitless foot effort. Still it could have been worse and it is always a good idea to know when to bail on a plan and move to the alternative plan (in this case paddling to the CP).
The rest of the paddle was uneventful at least in the navigation. Of course the intense headwind made getting back to the TA a struggle. In one section we faced a strong headwind and thick sea lettuce. We resorted to poling the boat through this section which was preferable to the other option of portaging through the thick grass on the side of the channel. If you do not know how to execute poling technique ask me, I will help you out. It is useful in these situations. Bike 1 and Bike 2
A little bike ride and we were back at the TA. In the end the foot/boat took us 3:37 - which was just a little off of the best clearing time by Nature Calls of 3:22. Of course I would love to have the 20 minutes we wasted on CP17 back - but that is adventure racing and Rule #4 of AR is "Anything Can Happen". I have 5 rules of AR that help me - they are spread out through these blogs. Rule #1 "Race Your Race", Rule #2 "If you don't have it. you don't need it", Rule #3 "Know when to bail", Rule #5 "Race as a team"
We switched to bike shoes and did 2 back to back bike legs. I rode hard and by the end of the second ride I was cramping in pretty much every major leg muscle. I had to use stretching and full extension to keep the cramps from slowing me down - and I think we did pretty well. We did bike 1 in 56:00 and bike 2 in 41:00, second fastest time in bike 1 behind Nature Calls (43:00), and tied for fastest time in bike 2 with Nature Calls. Pretty impressive time for NC on Bike 1, especially through the cow pastures.
Final Trek
We new we had 45 minutes to complete the final trek and I also knew that we could do it, if our navigation was good. Unfortunately it was not, on the second control I made a stupid mistake and took us in too early. I realized the mistake and took us back to the trail to re-attack - but not until we had lost 7 precious minutes.
We could still make it - but I made 2 more minor mistakes that cost another 3-4 minutes and then as we headed to CP22 (middle of cypress dome) I simply ran out of steam and had to move to a faast walk to prevent the cramps that were pretty much continuous now.
At CP23 we took a bearing 293 degrees, 60 meters. When I paced at 60 there was no control. Dave had the CP descriptions so I had him read the out loud. When I get very tired I like to have someone on the team (me if I have them) read the instructions out loud. 133 degrees at 60 meters. Oops - I am not even sure where the 293 degrees came from. Just another dumb mistake.
As we left CP23 - I made a strategic decision. I knew we could get CP21 and CP22 - but we would likely go over time. We could also skip those 2 and head back immediately with no penalty, but we would be skipping 2 CP's. This did pay off as we got 2 control points and finished 4 minutes over for one penalty point. More important to me is we did clear the course. This was at least a good decision and it did land us in 2nd place. Final congratulations to Nature Calls for running a great race, and it was also nice to see Canyoneros on the podium.
Final note: Greg - I love the new shirts, great fabric.
This race was both challenging due to the course and the weather (mostly).
Nice to see some folks forgo obstacle courses (I like them too) for a real challenge!
Results at http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-boar-ar
Here is my track - if you click it, it will also let you animate our course.
Recently I've read a lot about "extreme racing" in the news. When it comes to extreme racing in Florida nothing comes close to the Florida Sea to Sea. This race, previously called Coast to Coast has been most recently operated by Pangea Adventure Racing who has maintained it as the great challenge that it was meant to be. Here is a point by point description of the race that I ran this year with Team Honey Stinger - Erik Wise, Junos Reed, and Julie Ardoin. I would also be starting the race with a cold - which unfortunately had me hacking and coughing in the hotel room the night before the race keeping not just me but entire team awake most of the night.
Part 1 - Pre-Race
The race typically meets on one coast, buses the racers to the other and then we simply race back to our cars - pretty great. It is unsupported, each racer gets a gear bin, and the team gets one paddle bag and one bike bag which we can use to transport gear for those sections. We started at the Best Western in Crystal River and were bused to JB's fish camp in New Smyrna Beach where we would begin this great adventure.
After a short beach run all the teams hopped into canoes for nice short paddle across the Mosquito Lagoon to Riverbreeze Park where we hop on our bikes for the first real section of the race. Our team took it very easy during this section, popping out of the water at Riverbreeze well towards the back of the pack.
Many teams completed this paddle in under one hour, our more leisurely pace was one hour 16 minutes
Leg 2 - Bike to Rock Springs (CP3-CP4)
The next bike leg was a straight-forward bike using Maytown Road to Sanford and then from Sanford to Rock Springs run where we would end at the horse barn. We had 2 Checkpoints along the way - one on Maytown Road at Deep Creek, the other at the entrance of the Central Florida Zoo. Our team went north around Lake Monroe on the Spring to Spring trail rather than taking the slightly shorter but more traffic intensive southern route through Sanford. I was happy to see my wife, Linda, was able to greet me at the Zoo checkpoint, but all I had time for was a kiss and hug.
As we left the zoo it started to rain. It would eventually start raining hard and the rain would continue all night long (through the orienteering and the paddle).
We were pretty fast on this leg 3:12, times ranged from 2:40 to nearly 4 hours.
Here we are at the start of the Rock Springs Run Orienteering section. Notice it is raining pretty steady.
I was looking forward to this orienteering run, and it did not disappoint me. Even though I did not find and of the checkpoints terribly challenging, it was setting the stage for more challenges later on in the race.Each point had its own special challenge - we did the course in essentially reverse order (CP14 first - CP5 last) - this made CP5 more challenging, but made CP8 much easier. We "fast" walked the entire section and finished in 2:45. Times on this ranged from 1:58 to much longer (some teams skipping checkpoints).
Some of the trekking we had along the Rock Springs Run Orienteering Section
Rock Springs Run Orienteering Map
Leg 4 - Bike to Margaritaville (6K no CP's)
From the end of this we biked to Margaritaville Camp near Katies Landing on the Wekiva River. It was dark and we almost missed it as I was heading to Katies Landing. This was a 6 km bike, the most challenging part was crossing SR46.
This leg was a make or break for competitive teams. It was dark and the checkpoints were quite challenging.
The first challenge was CP15. We passed Endeavor AR on the way to this - so we both headed into the little channel to find this together. As we searched we ran into 2 other teams - including Florida Xtreme/Grammicci. None of the teams were having much success in finding this. I decided to get out of the boats and confirm our position by using a known location - in this case it was an unnamed street (driveway) that was mapped. Even after this - it was very challenging to get to the spot to beach our boats and then we would need to shoot a bearing and find the control. We came up on the small inlet (clogged) and the bend (subtle) - and I did find a small ditch (water drainage) that was mapped. After that we found the control - and all the teams headed to the next challenge - CP16.
As we left CP15 and were paddling through the weed clogged channels we heard a big splash behind us. Nope - not a gator, Erik and Julie swamped their canoe. They were cold and dry, now they were cold and wet and gathering all the gear floating in the river. The river was about 3 feet deep where they swamped so we put all the gear in the boat Junos and I were in and started to get the water out of the swamped boat. The river was narrow - so the T maneuver that we had to do was challenging, however we did it, righted the boat, and started moving again. Good thing Erik an Julie are tough, because now they were wet(ter) than they were before.
CP16 was what I call a bingo, there was no real distinct feature on the river to tell us where to stop, and the control was a good ways from the rivers edge requiring some real navigation. We had 3 teams traveling together - but FLX/Grammici peeled off before the location where I was pretty sure was correct. When I got the spot where I wanted to start - I did notice there were footprints in the woods. The bearing on the control sheet did not take us to a flag, but following the footprints led me right to it. Whoever was there before us (as it turns out REV3, CP0, and USAF) had made my navigation much easier.
CP17 was a nice long paddle down the Little Wekiva River. We paddled for about 40 minutes (with Endeavor) and I was pretty sure we had passed the control location. We turned around and sure enough found the split in the river that was the distinct attack point and could see the river branch totally obscured by logs. We got out and shot the bearing and even with 8 of us walking the woods, we were not having any success. We had also not seen Grammici since before CP16. As we were searching Team Oddysey showed up. I was about ready to hang this one up - but I decided to give a little more time, and with Odyssey we found it in about 5 minutes in a spot where we had already looked. Junos and I led the convoy of team (7 boats) back out of the river and we headed for CP18.
We never found CP18 - but it was not for lack of looking. The mapped river showed a few islands making side channels - but the reality was there were quite a few more. The 3 teams (Endeavor, Odyssey, and us) searched. After about an hour we knew we needed to give up to make the time cutoff that was coming at the next TA. This also required us to skip CP19 - which was not sad since it looked to be about a 3 hour paddle up and back on the Rock Springs Run (and also a very challenging spot to find). Odyssey stayed and did eventually find CP18 (and got CP19 too).
CP15 - Along the Wekiva
CP16 - A bit more challenging
The long paddle down the little Wekiva to CP17
CP18 and the finish to Wekiva Springs State Park
This took us 7:07 and we still left 2 controls behind. This was the same time it took REV3 and they got all the controls. Odyssey did stick it out and spent 11:13. Florida Xtreme/Grammici skipped both CP16 and CP17 - but they found CP18 and also went all the way upstream for CP19 which finished them with 3 controls after 9:10. Endeavor spent a lot of time and finished in 8:20.
After a short but painful portage to bring the boats up to the parking area and off the springs we received the next maps. It felt great to get out the boat and once again I was on my strength - land navigation. We simply nailed every single one of these controls doing them in order. It was dark (I practice night navigation) but we had good lights and we took a very conservative approach - finding good attack points and shooting bearings. We got all the checkpoints and finished in 4:21. We had a 8 AM cutoff for finishing this section and we finished nearly an hour before this deadline. If anyone wants to know how I approached this (I lost this map) use the comments - I'll be happy to let you know how I did this. REV3, CP0, and USAF were the only teams to make the cutoff with all the checkpoints.
Sorry - no map for this one (cannot find it).
Leg 7 - Bike from Wekiva Springs to Lake Louisa (CP30-CP33)
This was an easy leg which had us biking down the West Orange Trail and the Minneola Trail to Clermont. We took it pretty easy and even stopped at a little quick mart for sandwiches (I had a Cuban) which really perked us up. Just after the sandwich break, we went to retrieve a control at the end of the dock at Lake Palatlakaha. We sent Erik down the dock ahead of us where he slipped, fell, and broke his hand. Well maybe - but it was very swollen and hurting him for the remainder of the bike ride.
We finished this in a respectable 4:30 (even with the 30 minute lunch break) and pulled into the parking lot at Lake Louisa around noon.
At Lake Louisa the team was feeling good and we were also pretty psyched as we were now in the top 5 teams. This was also going out to the internet bulletin board where we had lots of folks watching the race. Junos (later) heard from his wife that there were friends over watching the race progress and the room erupted as we updated to 5 place on the web site.
For us back at Lake Louisa I was preparing to push this one and make some real time. We again moved very quickly and efficiently through each control. Go to attack point, shoot bearing, punch control. This was working well.
A view of the wide open terrain in some parts of Lake Louisa.
A view of the wide open terrain at Lake Louisa State Park.
At the Lake Louisa Transition with the other teams.
Junos coming out of a Sinkhole in Lake Louisa.
We did have to stop for foot repair (blisters), and I had one toe that was oozing blood (no blister though) - but this was not slowing us down too much. The next leg was a long bike that would give my feet a chance to heal. I also could see Erik's foot wound hurting (he has pins in his foot), and Junos had some serious hot spots and was questioning Julie about popping them. Julie said yes and he cleaned his blisters - and Julie covered them in Leuko tape. I wondered if my route choice between CP35 and C36 (which involved a stream crossing) might come back to haunt us later (wet feet).
We still finished up the leg in 4:19 (which was the 4th fastest time). We did this with walking only, and with a 15 minute rest/foot repair break. I was also able to get some food in me. Once we completed the leg - we were also told we were now in 4th place, which got us extremely motivated.
Navigation Side Note - In most races I race I do the navigation. Teams that race together a lot and have a great team dynamic "protect" their navigator. While other team members can easily pull food from a pack, grab water, etc... the navigator is always focused on the map and typically has extra pieces of gear (map/compass/case) that they have to carry in their hands. Teams with a good dynamic realize this and make sure the navigator both remembers to eat - but they also get the food for them. This was going on at this stage and it was making a difference. I had been eating well - and feeling strong. Eating had made a difference, but having the team make sure I was eating well was what was allowing this to happen.
Lake Louisa State Park Orienteering Map
Leg 9 - Bike to Withlacoochee TA (CP44-CP49)
In adventure racing - just when things are going well, disaster can strike. We were fresh from the news of our position, we had a good transition, our lights were mounted and we were heading out on bikes. Not 200 yards out of the TA we hear a scream behind us and Julie is on the ground with her bike on top of her. We got her unclipped and onto her back, she is nauseous, scraped badly, and obviously hurt badly. I went back to the TA - got some help - and we had to make the decision that all teams dread. Julie had received a concussion in the fall and was hurt badly - we had to leave her behind.She wanted to get up and try to bike, but the nausea and her team-mates kept her down.
We would not find out more news on Julie until much later. It was getting dark and we were heading into Richloam Wilderness Area. Our motivation level was low, but we did want to get some controls on this leg. We headed for CP44, and found a few teams there. After finding it I did something I wanted to do - hollered "here it is" and had all the other teams moving in on it. We headed south to the Van Fleet trailhead that we came in on (at a Waypoint) and headed west into the forest. Within about 10 minutes we were surrounded by multiple trucks with hounds in the back. After some friendly banter with the locals we had a good idea of the best roads (limerock, not sandy) - and mostly of where they were going to be running raccoons with their dogs. Two of them even followed us to make sure we found the trail we were looking for (essentially we rode to Lead Pipe Road on Central Road). We picked up C45 - and then decided to head to the TA. We went via CP48, but did not see the trail heading in - so kept moving.
With the 2 controls - this section took us 5:37.
Leg 10 - Withlacoochee Trek (CP50 - CP60)
At the TA HQ at Withlacoochee, looking at trek map
As we were in the Withlacoochee TA we heard the news that it would be very cold on Saturday night (that and windy).We decided that we would want to head out on the River Saturday morning if possible. That would put us at the finish line Saturday evening which sounded like a great plan to me, finish, warm food, and a hotel bed to sleep in Saturday evening. I needed some rest before the trek, and more important some real food. There were hot Ramen noodles at the TA and that really helped me. I took a 20 minute nap in the tents, threw on my shoes - gathered the team - and we headed out.
A little taste of night trekking in the dark Richloam forest.
The first control point (CP60) took us nearly an hour, simply because we took the bearing off the wrong bridge. After realizing this, we headed about another 150 meters to the correct bridge and found it quickly. The others were pretty uneventful - even though they were challenging. After a few hours Erik's foot had really begun to bother him too, so we decided to only get CP60, CP59, CP58, and then grab CP50 on the way back. Even with the shortened course we were out for 6:03. Teams that decided to do the entire trek were out for much longer (CP0 in 16:03, Endeavor in 11:06).
Endeavor had a really good strategy for this section. We had seen them in the TA before we headed out onto the trek leg. They had taken a solid sleep time for the team. As we were heading back into the TA from the trek - they were heading out - and were running (pretty well in fact). They cleared this section in the fastest time.
The three of us in the boat on the Withlacoochee River just North of Dade City.
This would be a long paddle, and even though the length does kind of wear you down, the nice weather and good company made this enjoyable. We were able to take some turns resting in the middle of the boat for parts of the paddle. Also good news is that Erik's hand ad healed enough for him to paddle.
The team leaving the Withlacoochee TA
The paddle took us 7:22 which was a pretty respectable time.
Leg 12 - Bike to Finish Line (CP65-CP66)
As we got to Nobleton, Junos got to rescue a canoe on the far side of the river that had
blown away from the kids at a house on the far side and was heading
downriver in the wind. Julie was waiting for us at the TA - it was good to see her feeling better, though she was still recovering from the concussion.
It would be nice to say we had an easy 65 km ride to the finish, but that is not what happened. We were doing our best to hold it together. The first CP was pretty easy (go to the entrance for Floral City and get the date of founding, 1883). Coming back from this Junos was starting to lose it and was determined that we skip the next CP - which was no big deal. The next CP was in a cave that I had spent hours searching for in a previous race - and I had no desire to go back, but was also convinced I could find it again pretty easily. We headed west. I had not looked at the maps prior to this other than to look at the coordinates of the start and the coordinates of the finish. This allowed me to estimate it was at least 55 km. I do this by simply using the difference in the Easting UTM plus the difference in the Northing UTM coordinates between the start and finish of the leg. This is normally amazingly accurate in estimating a total biking distance.
After some punishing riding against a strong headwind and up and down amazingly large Florida hills we were starting to have some issues. I had a spare 5 hour energy (Walmart brand) and that helped perk Junos up. Erik had been pulling us the entire way and just wanted to get to the end. He was talking about hitching a ride with some rednecks. We stopped along Lecanto Highway about 3 miles south of SR44 and regathered the team. We knew we had about 8 miles of headwind - but we could do it. As we got closer the wind got harder, but our spirits got higher - and as always we crossed the finish line 3 hours and 53 minutes after we started the bike ride.
It was Saturday Night, we were incredibly tired and hungry, there were no rooms at the end hotel, and Drew (Greg's Son) had my truck. Luckily I was able to call Julie who sent her husband Joe to pick us up and we found a room at a nearby hotel. Some great food, and a good night sleep and we were doing much better. We were even talking about the next race...
It's time for a new adventure racing season and we love to start the races off with the resolution. First it is an 8 hour race which is a good distance to start the season, long enough to really test the teams and without the insanity of speed that you have it shorter distances. Lake Louisa is a great venue - and finally Manny Otero produces a great design that combines the best mixture of challenging terrain and navigation.
We planned to have to 3 person teams racing together; Florida Xtreme/Honey Stinger (Ron Eaglin, Jim Gorton, and Wanda Timmons) and Florida Xtreme/Darn Tough (Junos Read, Melissa Watson, and Chris Xiste). This is itself provides a logistics challenge as you have to keep 6 people healthy and on the same pace. On the other side having 2 sets of maps and eyes on what you are doing. Melissa and I have worked as a team at multiple national championships and it was great to be able to race with her again.
The race started with 2 short prologs - first a 3 checkpoint run.
Run 1
We moved through this run very quicky. The real challenge was getting to CP1 which required a swamp crossing. The route from the map would be to find Waypoint 1 and take a bearing from the Waypoint. This might have been a good route - though I do not know, we opted to go south through the light green area on the map. Unfortunately this was still extremely thick and as we approached CP1 from the south I could see Good'Nuff and air force leaving the control with already a 3-4 minute lead. The rest of this run was uneventful and we cam in at 35 minutes which was a full 8 minute behind Endeavor who flew through this at 27 minutes.
Bike 1
We hopped onto the bikes and were off to get complete CP4 - CP7. We had passed CP4 on the run and had no trouble nailing it quickly. The only one that was any trouble was CP7 simply because I wanted to attack from the west instead of the obvious attack from the south - though we correct quickly and did not lose much time.Florida Xtreme/USAF was the fastest on this section at 34 minutes (we were 42 minutes).
Paddle
The paddle was what defined the race for most of the teams. We arrived at the paddle TA and got the instructions and the bearing to the first control. Once we had the control number at that point it allowed us to look up a bearing and distance to the next control. We started bad - At the first control (which was correct) we headed to the wrong CP which in turn took us across the lake to CP53 which told us to go to the finish. We knew this was unlikely - but paddled back across the lake to the main TA where we were told that all the CP's would have to be done before we finished. We also noticed that there was a CP very close to the main dock. Manny had suggested that we plot the controls using the bearing and distance - so I made a quick scale and using my compass plotted the 2 points I knew the bearings and distance for.
Using the bearing and more important the distance I determined that the CP near the dock was the correct CP2 and we headed to it and got the bearing and distance to CP3. This was a challenging one - I plotted it and we did head directly to it, however I could see a second CP on the same bearing a bit further on. The first was CP61, the second was 87. We were pretty sure 61 was correct, but my scale marker had the CP about halfway between the intersection of the line and the shoreline for each control. We paddled to the other CP and read the bearing and distance and determined that it would take us to 70 that we had visited and knew would lead us to the final CP, we paddled back to 61, took the bearing - I mapped it and it took us to 34. From that point all the controls and bearings made sense and I was able to plot them all to ensure we were doing this correctly. One challenge is trying to plot a bearing AND a distance (yes I measured distance too) on a bouncing boat. Once we finished we had Manny check our cards and we knew we had done the paddle correctly. We also learned that only one other team had done it correctly - but we did not know what team that was (we thought it was FLX/USAF). We exited the water shortly after CP Bound.
In the end we spent 1:58 on the paddle. Good'Nuff - 1:25, CP Bound 1:50, FLX/USAF 1:40, Endeavor 2:15. Here is my marked map from the paddle.
Trek 2
We headed south on the road for this trek. Basically it was long. The navigation was easy and the terrain was both bad and good. Bad stretches of Caesar Weed, tall grass, and deep sand were mixed with sections of packed trail and open woods. We were behind CP Bound for the majority of this and were able to stay close to them up to CP24. Around CP24 (heading to CP26) Jim pulled a muscle and we were slowed to a walk and also survival mode. The plan was to get Jim to the bikes where we would be able to at least tow him through the bike course. If you look at the times for all the teams for this trek you will find that except for FLX/USAF (1:49) we were inside of 10 minutes of each other - with Good'Nuff (1:59) and FLX/USAF (1:49) being fast and the rest being a bit slower. We were 2:09 which I considered pretty good considering we had to walk the last 2 miles.
Bike 2
Back at the TA as we were transitioning we also learned that CP Bound was the team that had done the paddle correctly and we were in 2nd. They were roughly 10 minutes ahead of us out of the TA. At the same time we had one racer on a tow (Chris would be towing Jim) and Wanda was feeling a bit weak on the bike. I chose to do a northern loop CP32, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, and 37 and then a southern loop CP27, 28, 29, 30. One reason there was better terrain in the northern section and more controls. I knew that we would likely have to skip some controls and the controls to the south were much easier to bail, especially CP28 which was a long sandy out and back. This strategy proved very effective - CP Bound headed south and used up a lot of time on those 4 controls.
After leaving CP27 and pushing bikes down the long sandy road south - skipping CP28 was an easy decision. Most of the ride from the intersection south of the small lake to CP29 was grassy and relatively easy riding. Had we had 5 more minutes we could have gotten CP30, but I had to skip it on the side of caution. Chris was towing Jim, Melissa was towing Wanda and Junos and I were navigation and punching.
In the end we got all but those 2 controls and 1st and 2nd place - though we would not know this until they got done scoring. Junos and I felt great through the entire race which is important as we had been training really hard for the Sea to Sea. Melissa and I fell right back into the rhythm we had as team-mates from all those years ago and decided we would race some 30 hour races (our favorite distance) together this year.
Manny had set a truly challenging course and we had come out and thrown ourselves against it hard - great day, great race! Also congratulations to CP Bound which earned a spot on the podium and likely would have been on top if they had chosen the northern loop on the bike leg.
