The Leach 2006
Adventure racing in Florida is full of cool nicknames for the various races; the Stomp, Howl, Crusher, Scar, and so on. When I heard that there was going to be an addition to the list – The Loxahatchee Eco Adventure Challenge (LEACH) I was ready to try out this new race. By the standards of most adventure racers it would be a short (sprint) style race with winning times in the 6 hour range. This only means that the pace of the race would be very fast with little time for transitions, food, and absolutely no resting.
After a long day at work on Friday I threw the AR gear in the car and headed to Hobe Sound, about 2 ½ hours to team-mate Greg’s house only 10 minutes from the race start. After a good nights sleep and a good breakfast it was time to head out to Jonathan Dickinson Park and the 9:00 AM pre-race. We joined Jamie who had beat us to the start and picked up our bags and maps. We had about 30 minutes to plan for the race and we jogged from the trailer to the start just in time for the get started in the short run to CP1. As the teams took off I realized I was missing a piece of gear and ran back to my bike to snag it – separating me a bit from Jamie and Greg (in the front) with me in the back. A quick climb over a wall split up the pack a bit before reaching CP1, and then after that the team was roped together at the wrists. Being tied together after the wall was slowing us down through the narrow trails, but we were still able to arrive at the boats tied with the teams in the lead pack at 9:55 AM.
Times into the Boat Transition
Flight
9:55:00 AM
Team Travel Country/CFAR
9:55:00 AM
Team Get it Finnished
9:55:00 AM
5 Elements
9:55:00 AM
Dead Weight
9:55:00 AM
Blackbird Boys
9:55:00 AM
Purple Hemp Train Of Pain
9:58:00 AM
Guns and Hoses
9:59:00 AM
Are We There Yet?
10:00:00 AM
The next leg of the race was a fairly short, beautiful, and relatively uneventful paddle. The paddling was very nice with passing an Eagle’s nest and the navigation was pretty easy. We settled into a nice pace and did most of the paddle side by side with Flight and Are We There Yet with a few teams just behind us in the paddle. We also learned that Team Hoof-hearted had swam to CP2 saving themselves about 10 minutes on the leg and putting themselves about 10 minutes in front of the lead pack .
Times at Completion of Boat Leg
Flight
11:16:00 AM
Hoof Hearted
11:02:00 AM
Are We There Yet?
11:17:00 AM
Team Travel Country/CFAR
11:18:00 AM
Team Get it Finnished
11:21:00 AM
Guns and Hoses
11:21:00 AM
Purple Hemp Train Of Pain
11:22:00 AM
5 Elements
11:25:00 AM
At the transition we had a quick special event where we had to fill a bucket on a see-saw with water and raise a cinder block off the ground. Then we started the run section. Reading the map we decided to take a pretty “straight-shot” towards the next CP and with a small amount of bushwhack we were back with the front pack (which now consisted on Are We There Yet, Flight, and TCO. About 5-10 minutes in front of us was team Hoof-Hearted and we knew there were at least 5 teams within 5 minutes behind us. We kept a mild pace and were passed by Team Get it Finnished just before arriving at the next checkpoint and heading to the orienteering.
Times in at Checkpoint 6
Flight
11:52:00 AM
Hoof Hearted
11:45:00 AM
Team Get it Finnished
11:52:00 AM
Team Travel Country/CFAR
11:55:00 AM
Are We There Yet?
11:55:00 AM
Purple Hemp Train Of Pain
12:04:00 PM
Guns and Hoses
12:04:00 PM
We blew through the orienteering and then proceeded to waste 5 minutes looking for OP7 (which did not exist) because we didn’t read the passport. Oh well – it happens, as soon as we realized our mistake we jogged back the main transition (a couple of miles) and did a fast transition to bikes for the next leg.
Times into Main Transition
Flight
12:16:00 PM
Hoof Hearted
12:18:00 PM
Team Get it Finnished
12:22:00 PM
Team Travel Country/CFAR
12:28:00 PM
We left out on bikes down the power lines. The race officials had set the wall back up and we went over it one more time and headed towards CP8. As we approached CP8 we met up with Flight and Hoof-hearted. They appeared to be strategizing the best route to CP9, I looked around – but determined we would be bike whacking a good part of the distance to CP9. The bike whack was one of the more difficult I had done, and I was also starting to feel strangely weak. We still suffered through it, though I was now losing time and slowing my team down noticeably. CP9 gave many teams a very difficult time – though I did not find it too difficult and we arrived at it with Team Flight. Looking at the map contours I intuited that heading north out of the swamp at CP9 would be easier than east (which the other teams took) allowing us to pick up a few minutes – which we promptly lost by taking the wrong trail after getting out of the swamp. Either way we passed the turn to CP10 (which was manned) near the other teams and caught up with them at CP10. It was here though I knew I was in trouble.
Times at CP11 as we passed going to CP10
Flight
1:22:00 PM
Hoof Hearted
1:27:00 PM
Team Get it Finnished
1:22:00 PM
Team Travel Country/CFAR
1:24:00 PM
After leaving CP10 I was starting to feel waves of nausea which were puzzling to me, it was not overly hot and our pacing should not have had me feeling this bad. Later I would figure out that I was starting to get sick (and was sick for the entire next week) – but at the time we were racing. This part of the race had us in some very sandy single track. I moved into the “just keep moving” mode. As we came upon the 3rd bike waypoint where we had to retrieve a disk in the single track I noticed my back tire was quite bouncy. This would be the first flat of our team. Normally I can change a flat in about 4 minutes – but this time it was slower, partly because I was feeling bad and partly because the CO2 cartridges (we had 2) malfunctioned. As soon as I completed changing mine – Jamie noticed that her front tire was flat. We used our last tube changing here tire and made it to CP11 – but we had lost a lot of time.
Flight
2:28:00 PM
Hoof Hearted
2:37:00 PM
Team Get it Finnished
2:55:00 PM
Team Travel Country/CFAR
2:57:00 PM
As we changed shoes in the TA – my back tire blew, this time quite loudly. Team Get it Finnished which was in the TA with us gave us one of their tubes. Unfortunately they had lost their passport and were racing unofficially – though we could vouch for them hitting each checkpoint as we had been with them most of the race. They took off a few minutes in front of us and we slowly headed off to CP12. After CP12 Greg got his first wave of nausea and threw up the peaches he had eaten for breakfast. My nausea and vomiting and nausea earlier in the bike leg only had produced Gatorade and Hammer Gel. Greg recovered pretty quickly and though we could not move fast – we could move. CP13 was quite easy and CP14 gave us a small challenge as we lost the “supposed” trail. The bushwhack between CP13 and CP14 slowed our pace, but also allowed me some recover time. We finally made it into CP15 where we had to still change my back tire.
Team Name
CP12
RR Wack
CP15
Flight
2:42:00 PM
0:52
3:34:00 PM
Hoof Hearted
2:51:00 PM
1:17
4:08:00 PM
Team Get it Finnished
3:09:00 PM
1:14
4:23:00 PM
Team Travel Country/CFAR
3:13:00 PM
1:10
4:23:00 PM
Team Flight had finished long before we arrived at CP15 and with only a couple of miles we took the final bike leg a bit easy (also the next team was over an hour back).
Team Name
CP15
Bike
Finish
Flight
3:34:00 PM
0:09
3:43:00 PM
Hoof Hearted
4:08:00 PM
0:11
4:19:00 PM
Team Get it Finnished
4:23:00 PM
0:10
4:33:00 PM
Team Travel Country/CFAR
4:23:00 PM
0:14
4:37:00 PM
After the race I was not able to keep down any food and I also knew I had a 2-3 hour drive in front of me on the way back. I said goodbye, I was tired – but the race had been excellent and even with the nausea, it was still quite enjoyable. The most exciting events of the day were still in front of me though.
On the way back as I got onto SR 528 I was traveling about 70 mph behind a silver car. Just before the 407 overpass a white van pulls over in front of the silver car and gets bumped. The van turned sideways and then backwards flipping once landing on it front facing the wrong way in the bushes at the side of the road. After avoiding the accident – I hopped out of my car and ran to the van. The doors had been ripped off in the accident and a woman was unconscious on the drivers side. I had called 911 as I ran back to the cars and now I was checking the woman’s pulse and breathing as she regained consciousness. She immediately freaked out and started screaming in what I first thought was bad Spanish (though it turns out it was Portugese). By now I was running on 100% adrenaline, after giving my statements to FHP I headed home where I collapsed (for 2 days). The cold finally caught up with me.
As always my team-mates Greg and Jamie pulled me through the race. Our navigation and pacing were good and we raced well. It was great to see and be with the teams out there who really make this sport great.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Howl at the Moon AR
The Howl at the Moon 2006 – Team Travel Country Outdoors
It is an annual event that has its own cult following. It is a chance to stay up all night long and race through the darkness and cold that makes even the simplest tasks a true challenge. Teams from Maine to Key West lined up on a cold afternoon in White Springs to see what the worst of the Suwannee River area and the Adventurous Concepts could dish out. I had been looking forward to the race and was racing with long-time team-mate Greg and also new racer friend Melissa.
A cold front moved through the area the morning of the race promising to make it a cold night. Melissa and I made very quick work of the usual preparing the maps for the race and we got all the gear ready. We would start with a bit of orienteering – but not until the race directors ran (yes ran) us to the intended start location. We had different ideas – our intention was to do the orienteering in reverse (an action that had been declared OK by the race director). Unfortunately we (and some other enterprising teams) took out a bit earlier than intended and by the time the race officials found us and ran us to the real start we were 20 minutes behind the pack. Oh well.
After about 2 ½ hours of running and bushwhacking we came back to the race start around 6th place and prepared to split up. Because Greg and I were racing 2 person and Melissa was racing as a solo, she had to paddle to the next Transition while we had to bike. We hoped we would be able rejoin – but the split did have us worried. Greg and I headed out on the bike where we immediately overshot the turn for the Transition by about a mile, doubled back, turned onto a dirt road that headed to the transition and promptly dead ended, bushwhacked, and finally found a good road. We were the second team out on the bikes and we became the 11th team to hit the water. Oh Well again.
As Greg and I hit the water we knew 2 things, we would be wet and we would be cold. We were carrying the bikes in the boat with us and had been warned of submerged rocks and very shallow water. We had those and were able to add 40 degree weather, wet clothes, thick fog, and failing lights. We were a lone boat on a dark winding river. Any time we stopped paddling we would start shivering. We were in and out of the boat to pull it off of sand bars and rocks.
After a few hours of paddling we reach a point where we had to get out and visit two checkpoints. As I stepped out of the boat I started shivering uncontrollably – literally quaking with chattering teeth and flailing hands. I wanted to take my shoes off so that I could put on a pair of dry long packs I had in my pack. After much effort I was able to get them on and retie my shoes. I knew that once we started jogging I would warm – but at the time it was the misery of going towards hypothermia. I forced myself to prepare and hollered to Greg and we were off. As expected I quickly warmed and regained my senses. We quickly found both controls and also ran into Melissa as we headed back to the boat. She had a single control to find and would be able to catch up to us quickly on the boats. With my brain once again working I noted that I had beached us on the south tip a peninsula, seeing the other boats on the same sand bar. My original plan had been to pull out at a location 400 meters further on and that would have saved us quite some time in bushwhacking. These small mistakes were beginning to bother me, but in the middle of the race – all you can do is keep going and try to do better.
The white fog had that had been “bad” before we had our CP7/8 stop was now basically a wall of white. It was like being snowblind and the lights were absolutely no use as they simply reflected up from the fog. I turned my headlamp to face sideways instead of forward and found that at least we could navigate by seeing the large limestone walls on both sides of the river. This of course made it nearly impossible to see anything in front of use – but as we figured, if we hit it hard enough it would probably move anyway. It’s a good thing is those aluminum canoes are nearly indestructible!
As expected Melissa quickly finished the orienteering and caught up with us on the paddle. With 2 boats and the ability to use the shallow draft of the kayak to help Melissa spot the shallow water we were able to stay off the sand-bars, mostly. We still had a few scares as we slammed into rocks, and we still had a few sand-bars that we simply could not get over without hopping out of the boat and dragging it. As with all sections of all races – this one finally came to an end. Checkpoint 9 and the conclusion of the paddle was a welcome sight.
Here we would portage our boats and put them on the racks. We were once again cold – but I had dry socks and my bike shoes in my pack and they were a luxury (dry feet). We were about an hour behind the leaders and were determined to make it up in the tricky navigation that would follow on the bike. It was not long before we learned that our maps were not going to be entirely useful as we found the first road that we planned on using to get to the next CP (10) was simply not there. We tried north, we tried south and eventually simply went around and made our way to Suwannee Springs. As we arrived another team relayed their misery of having been there for an hour and not finding the control. We set up a search pattern – and after 10 minutes of searching, the obvious came to mind. We were at Suwannee Springs, we simply needed to find the Spring. I called to Greg and Melissa – and sure enough Melissa had figured it out, we quickly located the Spring and in a cubby along an old Coquina wall – the control point.
After looking at how sandy the direct route looked I decided we would try an indirect route by road. We headed first west and then south to find the “cutover” road that would take us towards CP 11. It dead-ended into a house. We tried a southern road, it dead-ended. We doubled back to the main road and tried the next road south. It seemed to go through, but quickly came to a 90 degree turn – heading south. We wanted north, but I decided to try south and sure enough the road turned east again, and then south, and then east. We finally came to a solid marl road that appeared to go due north with no end. After a quick debate “it goes the way we want to go” we decided to take it and after a mile we came upon a T-intersection and the river. At that point I knew where we were and we quickly found CP11. With two solid navigators we made quick work of CP 12, 13, and 14 with relative ease (also we could see the tracks of the teams in front of us). It was about 8 miles from CP 14 to the finish and mostly paved road – so we formed a bike line and put our heads down. Greg proved his worth, pulling the bike line at a brisk pace.
We came to the finish line at 3:46 to find four teams in front of us (who had finished at 3:30), who as we had guessed from the tracks had traveled much of the course together. We were a kind of second place and we were only 16 minutes back. It was also great to have the other teams cheering our little band of three into the finish in the darkness. After some Olive Garden pasta around a campfire and a short nap – we felt much better.
We had overcome it all and also had a great new team-mate in Melissa. After the misery, the frustration, the mistakes, and the triumphs it was a great race and a great experience.
It is an annual event that has its own cult following. It is a chance to stay up all night long and race through the darkness and cold that makes even the simplest tasks a true challenge. Teams from Maine to Key West lined up on a cold afternoon in White Springs to see what the worst of the Suwannee River area and the Adventurous Concepts could dish out. I had been looking forward to the race and was racing with long-time team-mate Greg and also new racer friend Melissa.
A cold front moved through the area the morning of the race promising to make it a cold night. Melissa and I made very quick work of the usual preparing the maps for the race and we got all the gear ready. We would start with a bit of orienteering – but not until the race directors ran (yes ran) us to the intended start location. We had different ideas – our intention was to do the orienteering in reverse (an action that had been declared OK by the race director). Unfortunately we (and some other enterprising teams) took out a bit earlier than intended and by the time the race officials found us and ran us to the real start we were 20 minutes behind the pack. Oh well.
After about 2 ½ hours of running and bushwhacking we came back to the race start around 6th place and prepared to split up. Because Greg and I were racing 2 person and Melissa was racing as a solo, she had to paddle to the next Transition while we had to bike. We hoped we would be able rejoin – but the split did have us worried. Greg and I headed out on the bike where we immediately overshot the turn for the Transition by about a mile, doubled back, turned onto a dirt road that headed to the transition and promptly dead ended, bushwhacked, and finally found a good road. We were the second team out on the bikes and we became the 11th team to hit the water. Oh Well again.
As Greg and I hit the water we knew 2 things, we would be wet and we would be cold. We were carrying the bikes in the boat with us and had been warned of submerged rocks and very shallow water. We had those and were able to add 40 degree weather, wet clothes, thick fog, and failing lights. We were a lone boat on a dark winding river. Any time we stopped paddling we would start shivering. We were in and out of the boat to pull it off of sand bars and rocks.
After a few hours of paddling we reach a point where we had to get out and visit two checkpoints. As I stepped out of the boat I started shivering uncontrollably – literally quaking with chattering teeth and flailing hands. I wanted to take my shoes off so that I could put on a pair of dry long packs I had in my pack. After much effort I was able to get them on and retie my shoes. I knew that once we started jogging I would warm – but at the time it was the misery of going towards hypothermia. I forced myself to prepare and hollered to Greg and we were off. As expected I quickly warmed and regained my senses. We quickly found both controls and also ran into Melissa as we headed back to the boat. She had a single control to find and would be able to catch up to us quickly on the boats. With my brain once again working I noted that I had beached us on the south tip a peninsula, seeing the other boats on the same sand bar. My original plan had been to pull out at a location 400 meters further on and that would have saved us quite some time in bushwhacking. These small mistakes were beginning to bother me, but in the middle of the race – all you can do is keep going and try to do better.
The white fog had that had been “bad” before we had our CP7/8 stop was now basically a wall of white. It was like being snowblind and the lights were absolutely no use as they simply reflected up from the fog. I turned my headlamp to face sideways instead of forward and found that at least we could navigate by seeing the large limestone walls on both sides of the river. This of course made it nearly impossible to see anything in front of use – but as we figured, if we hit it hard enough it would probably move anyway. It’s a good thing is those aluminum canoes are nearly indestructible!
As expected Melissa quickly finished the orienteering and caught up with us on the paddle. With 2 boats and the ability to use the shallow draft of the kayak to help Melissa spot the shallow water we were able to stay off the sand-bars, mostly. We still had a few scares as we slammed into rocks, and we still had a few sand-bars that we simply could not get over without hopping out of the boat and dragging it. As with all sections of all races – this one finally came to an end. Checkpoint 9 and the conclusion of the paddle was a welcome sight.
Here we would portage our boats and put them on the racks. We were once again cold – but I had dry socks and my bike shoes in my pack and they were a luxury (dry feet). We were about an hour behind the leaders and were determined to make it up in the tricky navigation that would follow on the bike. It was not long before we learned that our maps were not going to be entirely useful as we found the first road that we planned on using to get to the next CP (10) was simply not there. We tried north, we tried south and eventually simply went around and made our way to Suwannee Springs. As we arrived another team relayed their misery of having been there for an hour and not finding the control. We set up a search pattern – and after 10 minutes of searching, the obvious came to mind. We were at Suwannee Springs, we simply needed to find the Spring. I called to Greg and Melissa – and sure enough Melissa had figured it out, we quickly located the Spring and in a cubby along an old Coquina wall – the control point.
After looking at how sandy the direct route looked I decided we would try an indirect route by road. We headed first west and then south to find the “cutover” road that would take us towards CP 11. It dead-ended into a house. We tried a southern road, it dead-ended. We doubled back to the main road and tried the next road south. It seemed to go through, but quickly came to a 90 degree turn – heading south. We wanted north, but I decided to try south and sure enough the road turned east again, and then south, and then east. We finally came to a solid marl road that appeared to go due north with no end. After a quick debate “it goes the way we want to go” we decided to take it and after a mile we came upon a T-intersection and the river. At that point I knew where we were and we quickly found CP11. With two solid navigators we made quick work of CP 12, 13, and 14 with relative ease (also we could see the tracks of the teams in front of us). It was about 8 miles from CP 14 to the finish and mostly paved road – so we formed a bike line and put our heads down. Greg proved his worth, pulling the bike line at a brisk pace.
We came to the finish line at 3:46 to find four teams in front of us (who had finished at 3:30), who as we had guessed from the tracks had traveled much of the course together. We were a kind of second place and we were only 16 minutes back. It was also great to have the other teams cheering our little band of three into the finish in the darkness. After some Olive Garden pasta around a campfire and a short nap – we felt much better.
We had overcome it all and also had a great new team-mate in Melissa. After the misery, the frustration, the mistakes, and the triumphs it was a great race and a great experience.
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