The Talon 2007

The Talon 2007

This was one of those races that could only be described with a wow. Jim Hartnett was trying out a new format for the races that really allowed all teams to get the most out of the entire race. Their would be a mandatory course that all teams would complete and then after completion we would start on a Rogaine format course that would allow teams to accumulate points. The top teams were expected to be able to complete the course within 5-6 hours and then get another few hours of intense racing collecting the bonus checkpoint.

I was racing with long time race partner Greg Corbitt, we’ve raced together many times so are pretty used to each other on the course. Shortly after 7:30 AM we did a quick half mile run to spread the pack and started on the single track bike section. Greg and I placed ourselves well on the run and entered the single track as the third team – ensuring that we would not be stuck behind other teams. I was pacing well and Greg was in front of me as we went through River Loop, Rock Garden, and then the Sand Pine trails. These are nice single track sections and with the exception of Rock Garden relatively easy single track. We crossed over the power lines where Greg spaced me a bit and entered Roller Coaster. Roller Coaster has some solid drop and rollouts with steep slopes and rocks and turns making it a relatively tough course. Here I would have a spectacular crash, though I am not even sure what happened, breaking my map board and putting a slight bend in my back tire. Greg was ahead of me and did not hear the crash. As I sat up stunned, I did the usual broken bone check (OK), bleeding check (just some skin off my knee), and then checked my bike. My back tire was slightly bent and not rolling so I was either going to have a lot of fun with a chain tool, or I’d get lucky. Sure enough I got lucky and a hard smack on the tire popped it back into skew. I was now off again – though a lot more cautious and shaky this time. I walked a few rollers that would have been a lot of fun to ride, still being shaky from the fall.

Luckily all this occurred real close to the transition area and as I came in Jim informed me that Greg was just in front of me on the “second loop”. I’m not quite sure what this loop entailed as when I got out on the course it looked like teams (which were somehow behind me) were pedaling both direction on all the trails. I took the trail that looked like the intended course and heard Greg’s voice ahead of me – who was coming towards me. Since we had all bike checkpoints we headed for the TA.

We had 2 small orienteering legs at the TA. We blasted through the first one and quickly caught up with the lead pack. On the second one we got to the final bearing (125 yards at 310 degrees) which took us up onto a large Gypsum piling that was being thoroughly searched by the lead pack. After 15-20 minutes of searching we headed back to the control that had the bearing to learn that the distance was off. (In reality it was more like 75 yards at 320 degrees). This served to flip the pack – the earlier lead teams (who spent a lot of time searching) were now behind as we biked to the canoes.

The paddle started south where we had some open water paddling eventually ending up in a narrow channel (think bumper boats) and CP10. We turned around (more bumper boats) and headed back to the canoe launch. There we would climb up a cargo net to the bridge and down the other side on wood posts and start the second half of the paddle. Because the punch was attached to the boat and there was not much water in the “river” this leg turned out to be a boat drag for about 1 ½ miles (up and back). I was feeling really bad (still shaky from the crash and nauseous in this leg), and Greg came through by doing most of the dragging. I was hoping I would recover, as I was extremely weak and also nauseous at this point – which at the level of exertion we had been at (not high), did not make sense to me. We finally made it back to the canoe launch and biked back to the TA for the last mandatory leg of the race, the orienteering.

Alafia River State Park is lucky enough to have extremely high dirt piles left by the mining industry from years past. These pilings have now become completely canopied and grown in with ferns and other plant life. Going through these areas – you would think you were hiking the Appalachian Trail. It also makes for great orienteering as teams now had to scramble up steep slopes, travel ridge lines, and cross mucky streams at the base. Greg and I flew through this section and I also started recovering my energy at this time. As we returned to the TA to complete the mandatory course I was in great spirits.

The Rogaine started with pretty much all the lead teams within 30 minutes (we started right around 2 PM) of each other (every team had a pretty good chance of taking the race at this point). Our strategy was to go for the greatest point densities – which first meant completing the special tests. These went very quickly, and I got to even scale the pole which was the “ropes course”. We dropped our bikes near CP 24 and then easily found 24, 25, 26, and 23, with a little challenge on 25 as Greg had to scale a large tree to get to the punch. We returned to the bikes and then biked to near CP 32, swam across the muck pond and then back, and finally biked around to near CP 27 and did (in this order) 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31.

With about 2 hours of racing left I decided we would make a loop (for 8 points) and hit CP 36, 38, 37, and 39 (also in that order). We spent too much time on 36, originally overshooting it and then searching for the flag. CP 37 was a lot of fun as we crossed the fence and found the concrete bridge which required (me this time) a balancing act to get to the conduit chase about 20 feet away from the bridge where the flag was hung. The strategy was to do this south loop, head back to the TA, and if we had enough time hit CP 41 and 43. We arrive back at the TA with 15 minutes to spare – but I selected a bad attack point for CP 41 (too much hurrying) and we eventually had to head in. By my calculation we had 44 points that should put us well into the standings. My original plan would have given us 7 additional points (51 total) – but time did not allow that.

I transcribed the letters at the end, where I made an error transcribing CP31 (which for some reason sitting in front of me now is very clear), writing E instead of U. This dropped us from 44 points to 41 points and from 2nd to 6th in our division (bummer) and even though it was clear we had visited the CP, the race officials would not credit us the points (double bummer). However, I come to the races for the adventure and my wife won’t let me keep the trophies anyway (I’ve already had multiple trophy purges), so having my fill of adventure for the day I still left happy.

As always, It was great seeing all the teams – special thanks to Village Bike, Bill Jackson’s, Gecko, and Jim’s Bicycles who we spent a lot of the race with. It is always great to race alongside fun teams who also enjoy the adventure and the competition. And also a special kudo’s to Jim Hartnett who really found a winning formula in the race format. I was happy to get a full 10 hours of racing (in past years we finished in well under that and spent a lot of time sitting around for awards). And the best thanks to my team-mate Greg who pulled me through the rough time I had in this race.