Swamp Stomp 2008 - Part III

The mile posts shown on the map were actually physically marked posts out there on the trails. This really did help a lot with the navigation – whenever you would find a post, you would no where you were. The problem with that is many of them had been renumbered. We quickly figured this out as we ran into posts that were not on the map or were obviously wrong. But this was not the real cause of our problems and the problems of many other teams. That would be the trail to marker 60. Since nearly all the teams were coming from CP21 – we had all plotted the shortest trail distance to get to BP16 which would take us down that road. When our team arrived, there were a few teams that were obviously bailing out on that route. That is never a good sign. We were pretty sure we knew where we were and there was a road heading that direction. The trail was at first rideable, then pushable, then it was a bikewhack, and then it became a carry. We got within site of our destination across the swamp – but knew as it grew deeper that we would probably have to turn back. So like many teams after wasting 1 1 ½ hours we bailed out.



After we exited we still wanted to get BP16 (and the other two BP’s near it, 17 and 18). Rob who lives in Sarasota pointed out that the power lines just north were fast riding. So we headed for them and sure enough, they were fast (and a little wet) as well as the other trails leading around from the back side. After having wasted almost 2 hours – it felt good to snag these bonus points. It was a quick ride to CP23 – except we realized that we had not gotten CP 22. At this point Sheri was hurting and did not relish the going 5 miles out of the way on horse trails to grab this CP. But Rob and I were having fun, and the riding was pretty fast. We picked up both CP22 and BP 19 and then headed to CP23 and the start of bike leg 2.

It was getting pretty late (10:15) as we arrived at CP23. I had calculated we would have just enough time to get the mandatory CP’s and make it in on time. We were told that the two difficult CP’s had been removed, so now we had a choice. We could do the run (which I figured at 30 – 40 minutes) and then pedal back. This would have been an easy 4 points boosting us to 23 points. At the same time we knew we were out of the running with a lost team-mate and a lost passport. Sheri was also hurting a bit and she would have had to run at least one of the miles, though Rob and I would have been happy to run 2 each – I don’t think the rules allowed that.

We also had a fun discussion with a park ranger about the missing road back at BP17. He confirmed that the road had flooded and that they had ceased mowing it – allowing it to quickly get overgrown. He thought it was pretty humorous we had tried to get through it, at night, with bikes….

So we decided to head straight back. Local knowledge came into play here. We knew we had enough time to even pick up some BP’s on the way back, but again we were being prudent and Sheri kind of looked like she was ready to puke. I was getting pretty hungry – having not eaten very much the entire race. Even Rob was starting to show some signs of fatigue. The fun here was passing other teams, we were catching teams about every 5-10 minutes. It gave us a chance to say high and see how others were doing. Our pain and misery (I was now nauseous as it started to get hot) was being shared by plenty of others. Rob and I teased Sheri by telling her that people were behind her – and since she was too tired to turn around and look, she simply kept peddling.

We even saw Team Relentless again. Lisa had kept Paul moving after an incredible recovery – they were biking strong. We crossed the finish line about 11:30 (a full 1 ½ hours to spare). After we crossed the line Sheri even asked if we could go back out and get the closest BP (the answer was no – and that was from Rob and I). I wanted to get my stomach settled – it was hot coming in, and that made it tough. I also enjoyed seeing some folks from other teams I had raced with in the past. Following the race that EMS and Snickers had with each other showed that it was an epic 2 team showdown, and Snickers won it with Michael Moule leading the navigation.

The next big race (for me) will probably be the ACC. I’ll be coaching soccer on Saturday’s and being a good dad since my family is letting me race in the PQ. My team was great – I really felt Greg’s pain, and Rob and Sheri just took every setback in stride. So if you wanted to get a feel for our finish – we had 19 points and finished at about 11:30.

Swamp Stomp 2008 - Part II

The next leg of the race was a shorter paddle that headed south on the Myakka towards deep hole. We looked to see if anyone at the TA wanted to join us – but in the end it was going to be 3 of us in the boat. The race was not really going well for us; lost passport, bonked team-mate; at this point it was all about pride. We were still in racing mode, we had not entered that nether mode that occurs in long adventure races; survival mode. In addition we had learned that the course director had removed to CP’s from this leg (quite a blessing). We grabbed a few pads and put Sheri in the middle of the boat and started paddling hard. With three of us paddling we were making awesome time through the twists and turns heading for South Myakka Lake. We also got to pass and say hi to many of the teams heading back towards the TA who I am sure were curious about our three person team. After hitting the end of the long winding river section a due south bearing took us right to the next CP (17). Of course we had to walk by it a few times before seeing it – but that can be completely normal for this point in a race. We paddled back to pick up the bonus CP (BP14) on the north side of the lake, which was off the lake a bit. Sheri at this point was shivering really bad so we stopped to put on some clothes (she donned a heavy rain jacket she had in her pack). It was probably 55 degrees, but we were soaking wet from the paddling and the fog.

We got to the spot to and Rob found the control though Sheri and I liked a different tree that fit the control description better (Tree in Wetland). Still we had found it quickly – and it had appeared that there were a few teams roaming the swamp looking for it when we got there who quickly moved in on it after we found it.



The paddle back was fun as I went ahead and put my headlight on (I had not used it for the paddle to this point because the near full moon gave lots of light). With the light on I was able to spot the hundred of orange looking eyes peering back at us from the water on the shore. Gators – and they were thick. It became fun counting the number of gators in each little cluster of them. And then we passed the bridge and were back to the TA.

Back at the TA there were teams in every condition. Paul from Team Relentless who had completely bonked and was puking back on the trek where we had last seen them was resting (amazingly he would finish the race – we would next see him on the bike leg). Some teams had obviously bailed as the TA was missing a lot of team spots that had been there earlier. I was feeling completely recovered from the trek, my stomach was fine – and a couple of Red Bull’s from the TA folks had my energy back up as we headed off on the bike.

There is something so right about getting onto a bike and riding. As tired as I was the feeling of turning those wheels was good – I was truly enjoying the ride at this point, though that would not be the case 10 hours later. We snagged CP 19 (and easy one), headed south to the mandatory crossing point. We passed Eco-choice (Rod and Fish) going the wrong way and that confused us a bit – though we did get to the correct crossing. I was feeling good and it looked like Rob and Sheri were solid at this point also.

We made a strategic navigation error here, we should have collected CP22 before CP21, but missed it as it was on another map and headed straight to CP21. This (CP22) would cost us some effort later as we would have to bike an extra 5 miles to pick it up where it would have cost us less than 1 ½ miles if we had done it before CP21.


Note the line down the center of the image is the two different maps, we passed right by marker 25 on our way to CP21 - oh so close to not see it. Lesson learned is to be sure to point these little things out to yourself before the race as they are easy to miss in the dark when you are tired.

We found CP21 and the haunted shack and headed for the cluster of 3 bonus points on the far east side of the map. This is where things would get hairy and scary. We had stayed out of the water for most of the bike ride, but this was not going to last and this was also going to be the proving point for many teams that wanted these bonus points.

To be continued in Part III – the finish.

Swamp Stomp 2008 Part I

As always the swamp stomp did not disappoint, there was plenty of stomping and plenty of swamping. I would be racing for the first time with Team SWIM (Sarasota Wellness and Internal Medicine) My team-mates Sheri and Rob were both doctors, so now worries about needing medical help. Greg filled in at the last minute for a hurt Jamie, who was filling in for a hurt Melissa – but we had our four racers.

The race started with a prolog, that was simply a short run along the river to a point and back to get in the boats. We made it to the boats with the lead pack and started up the Myakka River. The control points heading north looked pretty easy, the first one CP1 requiring us to hop out of the boats and go to the top of this really cool double tower with a spring suspension bridge between the towers. We made some serious time there and it was us and EMS in the boats and heading up river. As we got through a winding section of the river I noticed we had missed a small river shortcut and made a mental note to use that on the way back. The lead teams all regrouped as we hit BP1 and BP2 as we group searched for these. The course was made up of mandatory (CP) and bonus (BP) controls – though we had decided early on we were going for them all.

BP3 looked like it would be a pretty challenging control as it was located a good distance off the top of Upper Myakka Lake. As we beached the boat, Rob flushed a 6 foot gator right into me, so I had to do a little dance around to avoid an unpleasant encounter in the shallow water – it did get the heart racing. We lost a little time here as we hit the “described” vague trail near BP3 and went the wrong way. We could see that the lead pack had made about 5-10 minutes on us.



The paddle to the BP4 and BP5 was really neat, though the river was narrow with a incredibly strong current (we were going upriver). We had a little bit of bumper boats jostling with the returning lead teams - . The weather was now warming up and we were paddling hard to catch up with the lead team, we had gotten all the CP’s and BP’s on the way upriver so now it was simply head back and push. CP6 was a take-out and a short orienteering. We nailed each point easily – bushwhacking across the cow pastures. Rob and I each had a set of maps and the double orienteering was working well – we passed a lot of teams in this section. As we hit the boats – the first disaster struck. Sheri looked for the passport only to realize that she must have dropped it. We were not sure what penalty we would get – but we were sure that it would be painful. We had done all the BP’s and would probably not be able to get credit (except for the manned ones). Ouch.


Here is a picture of Sheri just before we lost the passport - yep that is it in her hands. Too bad she did not hold it up to Mark taking the photos. We had gotten all the CPS's and BPS's on the passport.



Here is an even closer look - hmmm looks like it is all punched...

We paddled back in and transitioned for what would be a long trek (25-30 miles) and told Jessica about the passport. We would await the decision on the penalty for the loss of the passport.



The trek started out strong - it was 2:16 PM and we were right where I like to be in the race (EMS was leading having left at 1:48). We caught up with the lead pack (the first teams had about a 20 minute lead at the TA) that was having trouble with the first CP on the trek. This was our section – we had 2 solid navigators and we used that to our advantage. We made a clockwise loop easily nailing every CP. As it started to get dark – Greg started to really hurt. I knew that we were in trouble. We finally made our first mistake at BP12 – over-running the turn into the swamp (it was dark). We doubled back and found it pretty easily after that thanks to thesolid trail left by the teams in front of us. We had had dry shoes up to that point, but BP12 was a slog in knee deep water. It also had a BP12+ that was shown on a map at BP12. The direct route to BP12+ looked too thick so we went around – but gave up after a short search. Greg was now really hurting and was having a hard time keeping up. We decided to get back and skipped BP13 – we knew that would take us out of the hunt, but we also knew that Greg might have to drop, and we had lost the passport. Rob put Greg on a tow rope (we had about 10 miles to go) and we made it back to the TA around midnight. Greg dropped at this point and we sat him in a chair and headed out for Paddle #2. Any normal human we would have put on an IV – but Greg is strong and he would recover with rest.



And then there were 3 – to be continued….

Race Director - Resolution and UCF Race

I was recently the race director for 2 races and in both cases I've got some great pictures and video. The first race was the Resolution put on by Pangea Adventure Racing. The results of this race along with some great video are available at the Pangea Site - click on the video link to see the video I created. Also - Mark the photographer for Team Race Photos was out and shooting photos of this incredibly scenic area. They are at the Team Race Photos site. These photos are worth a look even if you don't race - they are incredible photos of a scenic area.



The other race that I directed was the UCF adventure race. Once again I took some video footage which is available at Trail Maps. In addition Mark was out at this race and again took some great photos that are at Team Race Photos. So even though my blog may not be too busy - I've still been pretty active. While you are checking out these sites - take a look at the trail maps wiki, if you are from Central Florida we are starting to get some nice pages created.

Jamie Sheriff making the leap

Swamp Stomp 08

Watch here for a race write-up on the swamp stomp - but until then follow the team I am racing with - SWIM/TCO on the checkpoint tracker - hopefully there will be more here soon from me. Right now I am putting together my gear, food, clothes and getting everything ready for the trip Friday to Sarasota to race. The race will be in the Myakka State Preserve - a huge area for racing.

More on Primal Quest

So now the PQ is partly a challenge for the mental aspect. One thing that is pretty cool is that it is named one of the 7 most difficult. The coolest thing on this is that the endurance folks can look at it and see what the other 6 are.... So now I am contemplating how I can compete in the others. The Hawaii Ironman looks like a pretty easy second. The Badwater - though incredibly challenging might also be one to shoot for. I'm not sure about events like Dakar (I'm not a driver) or the Idarod (not a dog sledder) - but who knows, maybe there is time to learn.

Anyway - this one is worth checking out. And stay posted for info on the Swamp Stomp and be sure to check out my mapping at http://trailmaps.pbwiki.com/

7 hardest events