Kings Landing Superhero AR

Superhero AR Nov 1 2008

I raced in the Superhero Adventure Race with team SWIM this last weekend Nov. 1. As I went to sleep Friday night I knew I was coming down with a head cold, but I felt pretty good as I got up Saturday morning and headed out to King’s Landing to meet Adam, Stefan and Charlie (Team SWIM) for the race start.

We were given the maps at check-in and the course looked relatively straightforward – though we would be racing off of black and white trail maps, which are not known for their accuracy. We were told at pre-race that the controls would all be located in obvious locations on the trails (and they were) – so it was simply a matter of making sure we stayed on the correct trails.

We started on bikes and finished off the short loop around CP1 and CP2 without incident, though it was apparent there were a few extra trails along that route. The important thing here was to pay attention and stay on the correctly blazed trail. We had a little problem as we started on the second bike loop in Kelly Park – nearly missing the Yellow blazed trail, but corrected quickly. Each control was located correctly – but the short mistake put us about 5 minutes behind Team Shake-A-Leg Miami. We took that 5 minute gap into the transition and into the first and long paddle leg. This leg was a paddle from King’s Landing to Wekiva Marina with one control en route. We were making great time (as a strong paddling team) – but lost a lot of time as Stefan and Charlie decided to go for an involuntary swim due to a submerged log. We came into the transition area about 7 minutes behind Miami, and headed out at a strong pace to catch them.

The run looked to be quite long – with really no navigation other than choosing the correctly blazed trail, which was pretty much the white blazed trail the entire route. We did get opportunities for a few small shortcuts where we caught up with Team Miami just before CP11.

As we reached the marker for Trailpost 22 we had to choose to bushwack to the control or take what looked like a longer trail route by Big Buck Camp which we opted to take as the woods looked pretty thick. It turned out to be slightly faster as Team Miami bushwacked and lost a few minutes on us. From CP11 to CP12 it looked by the map to be a little over a mile. This was entirely misleading, as the trail snaked in and out and the actual distance was about 3 miles. Just after CP12 Team Miami passed us and started to pour on some speed – the run was starting to take its toll on me, but we kept the pace up and stayed behind them until M2 and the swim section.

The swim was quite refreshing in the cool spring water of Kelly Park (72 degrees). We had to swim in full gear and then get out and finish the last mile to the TA – which we did just behind Team Miami. We had 2 sections left, one long bike and a short paddle section. Team Miami made a very quick transition and was out within a minute. We were having troubles getting out of the TA, and I was starting to hurt, though I felt we had enough to catch up. We moved through Kelly Park fast and headed into Wekiva to do the Red Blazed Bike loop. I missed the turn onto the single track (not sure how) and we ended up biking cross country through the woods a short distance to return to the trail – costing us another few minutes. Once we hit the trail we pushed as hard as we could, both Charlie and I were hurting, and I was on the edge of bonking so could only push so hard.

The single track turned into sandy double track and we were forced to bike along the edge of the freshly tilled road. The section near CP14 was also a bit confusing – but the landmarks I made note of when we passed through that area earlier in the race helped me get us to the control quickly. From CP15 we pushed as hard as we could back to the TA and found we were 7 minutes behind Team Miami hitting the water for the last paddle.

Paddle turned out to be a misleading word for this section. We decided to take the section counter-clockwise to take advantage of the current in the main channel heading downstream. The first section in the canal turned out to be a boat drag as the channel narrowed into shallow thick hyacinth. I let Stefan drag me for a while in the boat to recover – I was starting to feel the cold, and a bit nauseous. We came out to the main channel where we had some strenuous paddling with plenty of downed trees and obstacles – but we also had a good current.

Just as we had left 7 minutes behind Team Miami, we arrived 7 minutes back of them and took a solid second. They had pushed hard the entire race knowing we were just behind them and would be pursuing them relentlessly. It was a great race. I am now recovering from my cold and will be ready for the next post – USARA Nationals this coming weekend. Many thanks to my fun team-mates; Adam, Charlie, and Stefan.