Nocturnal Challenge
After Primal Quest I needed about 3 weeks of full rest, so I took a little time off from training – but like most adventure racers it was not long until I wanted to get back into the woods. Luckily I got the call from Melissa, she had been out with an injury for months – but was now ready to come back. She had not been able to run (hip injury), but decided it was time. We made a few calls and soon we had Jimmy, Jamie, Melissa and I set to go.
This is Jamie after 16 hours of racing.
Jimmy the bike stud leads the bike line to TA1
More photos at TeamRacePhotos.com
We got the maps at 4 PM for a 5 PM start. It looked like some challenging navigation with a lot of transition – but nice that we did not have any huge distances in any discipline without a change. We started with a roughly 6 mile bike to a TA on the river where we did a short (less than 1 mile run). Our route choice forced us to swim a pretty nasty canal – but at least it cooled us off – as well as covered us in slime and mud. The teams were all pretty close as we finished the run and headed off into the river for a relatively short paddle (7 km). The first CP was easy – the second one was a little tricky (CP4 in the race). We had to find a narrow channel and head due east down the canal to SR 407 (and then back).
View Larger Map
Look at link – the CP was near SR 407 on the east end of the little canal in the middle of the map. We paddled from the east end of the power line road on the west side of the road.
After returning from the paddle – we had a small front pack with a lot of strong teams also chasing. Melissa was feeling pretty good so after a short bike to TA2 – we were able to run the next few CP’s. These were not terribly challenging, though they would have been pretty hard after dark. Luckily it was light and we made the best use of the remaining light making it to just before CP7 before we broke out the lights.
As with most races, the race changes quite a bit after it gets dark. A full moon helped, though we had plenty of bugs – gnats, mosquitoes, - and pretty much everything else that flies. We returned to TA2 with a few minutes behind Miami Shake-a-Leg and about 15 minutes back of Village Bike. As we transitioned to bike Team SWIM showed up and we could see Badfish and Mim’s the Word approaching. It was good (it is fun to have a lot of good teams running tight together). We caught up with Village Bike near CP11 which they had found. Melissa was navigating the bike, but I was using a little local knowledge (with a peek at the terrain for confirmation) to get around the worst of the terrain near CP10. CP10 was located on a spoil back SE of CP11. We used the trail that ran due North South to get to CP11, and we dropped bikes at CP 11 to bushwhack to CP10 (and back).
View Larger Map
By the 4 ponds you can see the spoil bank. CP10 was at the south end of the westernmost pond.
The bike continued from there with some more challenging terrain – though the navigation was not that terrible. We finished up at TA3 and headed south (with Dave Shuman) into the best swamp trek section of the race and CP13 and CP14. We remet up with Village Bike at CP16, and helped them out a little with direction to CP15 which they had missed (where they met up with team Miami SAL). CP16 was the only control to give us a challenge. - We did have some fun wading through the lake at CP17 (which was on the NW corner of a man-made lake) in the dark, though no gators challenged our route choice. It is stil kind of scary being in a Lake in the middle of nowhere, with gators, chest deep in water, at night.
After that it was back to TA3 and on to bikes. Miami SAL and Village Bike caught up again at CP18, where we made a slight mistake going down the wrong trail. Melissa's spider sense finally took us in the correct direction and we found the real trail. Shortly before CP20 – riding hard on the terrain at night I had a pretty good scare as I went down hard and caught a palmetto just above my right eye which cut my eyelid and gave me a pretty good black eye. Luckily it was more blood than pain and we kept moving strong. The next segment was going to be the toughest of them all. The aerial below shows the section of river we navigated. Needless to say the controls required picking up the small lakes and canals and keeping meticulous track of your position. This was more challenging as the river was high and the channels edges were submerged and much more subtle. The final control in Jim Creek is one of the most spectacular (and secret) locations in Florida. Anyone who has ever paddled that section will have to agree it is almost magical. I’ll leave this one as a secret known only to a few adventure racers – if anyone else wants to know this secret place, they’ll have to come out to a race. Other racers who have been there – please feel free to leave a comment (but not the secret of the location).
View Larger Map
As we trudged out (Pictures here thanks to Mark and TeamRacePhotos.com) of the paddle – we could not see any other boats. We knew we had enough time to beat the 11 AM deadline for a full course finish, but we still ran some of the 2 ½ miles back to the bikes (from the take-out). The last 2 bike controls were easy and it was daylight. We biked a pretty easy pace and finished up at 10:07 (all controls and 53 minutes to spare). About 40 minutes later Miami Shake a Leg showed up followed by all the other finishing teams. Considering the difficulty of the navigation – all teams that completed the course should feel proud of themselves.
It was great to return to Florida racing and see everyone at a fantastic race with great teams. Also thanks to Dave Shuman (Team Figjam) who stuck with us (well we kind of insisted) for the last half of the race. By the way – my eye is fine.
After Primal Quest I needed about 3 weeks of full rest, so I took a little time off from training – but like most adventure racers it was not long until I wanted to get back into the woods. Luckily I got the call from Melissa, she had been out with an injury for months – but was now ready to come back. She had not been able to run (hip injury), but decided it was time. We made a few calls and soon we had Jimmy, Jamie, Melissa and I set to go.
More photos at TeamRacePhotos.com
We got the maps at 4 PM for a 5 PM start. It looked like some challenging navigation with a lot of transition – but nice that we did not have any huge distances in any discipline without a change. We started with a roughly 6 mile bike to a TA on the river where we did a short (less than 1 mile run). Our route choice forced us to swim a pretty nasty canal – but at least it cooled us off – as well as covered us in slime and mud. The teams were all pretty close as we finished the run and headed off into the river for a relatively short paddle (7 km). The first CP was easy – the second one was a little tricky (CP4 in the race). We had to find a narrow channel and head due east down the canal to SR 407 (and then back).
View Larger Map
Look at link – the CP was near SR 407 on the east end of the little canal in the middle of the map. We paddled from the east end of the power line road on the west side of the road.
After returning from the paddle – we had a small front pack with a lot of strong teams also chasing. Melissa was feeling pretty good so after a short bike to TA2 – we were able to run the next few CP’s. These were not terribly challenging, though they would have been pretty hard after dark. Luckily it was light and we made the best use of the remaining light making it to just before CP7 before we broke out the lights.
As with most races, the race changes quite a bit after it gets dark. A full moon helped, though we had plenty of bugs – gnats, mosquitoes, - and pretty much everything else that flies. We returned to TA2 with a few minutes behind Miami Shake-a-Leg and about 15 minutes back of Village Bike. As we transitioned to bike Team SWIM showed up and we could see Badfish and Mim’s the Word approaching. It was good (it is fun to have a lot of good teams running tight together). We caught up with Village Bike near CP11 which they had found. Melissa was navigating the bike, but I was using a little local knowledge (with a peek at the terrain for confirmation) to get around the worst of the terrain near CP10. CP10 was located on a spoil back SE of CP11. We used the trail that ran due North South to get to CP11, and we dropped bikes at CP 11 to bushwhack to CP10 (and back).
View Larger Map
By the 4 ponds you can see the spoil bank. CP10 was at the south end of the westernmost pond.
The bike continued from there with some more challenging terrain – though the navigation was not that terrible. We finished up at TA3 and headed south (with Dave Shuman) into the best swamp trek section of the race and CP13 and CP14. We remet up with Village Bike at CP16, and helped them out a little with direction to CP15 which they had missed (where they met up with team Miami SAL). CP16 was the only control to give us a challenge. - We did have some fun wading through the lake at CP17 (which was on the NW corner of a man-made lake) in the dark, though no gators challenged our route choice. It is stil kind of scary being in a Lake in the middle of nowhere, with gators, chest deep in water, at night.
After that it was back to TA3 and on to bikes. Miami SAL and Village Bike caught up again at CP18, where we made a slight mistake going down the wrong trail. Melissa's spider sense finally took us in the correct direction and we found the real trail. Shortly before CP20 – riding hard on the terrain at night I had a pretty good scare as I went down hard and caught a palmetto just above my right eye which cut my eyelid and gave me a pretty good black eye. Luckily it was more blood than pain and we kept moving strong. The next segment was going to be the toughest of them all. The aerial below shows the section of river we navigated. Needless to say the controls required picking up the small lakes and canals and keeping meticulous track of your position. This was more challenging as the river was high and the channels edges were submerged and much more subtle. The final control in Jim Creek is one of the most spectacular (and secret) locations in Florida. Anyone who has ever paddled that section will have to agree it is almost magical. I’ll leave this one as a secret known only to a few adventure racers – if anyone else wants to know this secret place, they’ll have to come out to a race. Other racers who have been there – please feel free to leave a comment (but not the secret of the location).
View Larger Map
As we trudged out (Pictures here thanks to Mark and TeamRacePhotos.com) of the paddle – we could not see any other boats. We knew we had enough time to beat the 11 AM deadline for a full course finish, but we still ran some of the 2 ½ miles back to the bikes (from the take-out). The last 2 bike controls were easy and it was daylight. We biked a pretty easy pace and finished up at 10:07 (all controls and 53 minutes to spare). About 40 minutes later Miami Shake a Leg showed up followed by all the other finishing teams. Considering the difficulty of the navigation – all teams that completed the course should feel proud of themselves.
It was great to return to Florida racing and see everyone at a fantastic race with great teams. Also thanks to Dave Shuman (Team Figjam) who stuck with us (well we kind of insisted) for the last half of the race. By the way – my eye is fine.
Please check out Team Race Photos http://www.teamracephotos.com/ and if you have not viewed our Go Pro video from Primal Quest – please view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkELSRRRgy8 - in fact view it on as many computers as possible – every view is a vote for our team.
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