USARA Nationals - Blue Ridge Georgia

Splits for all legs are at http://www.usaranationals.com/progress.aspx

“That’s how we roll” is one of the great sayings of our team – in this case Melissa Watson, Jimmy Levine, and I were headed to Blue Ridge Georgia after qualifying at the How at the Moon adventure Race. Nationals are always an opportunity to see some of the teams from around the country and also enjoy a well set and challenging race. The race course team of Ron, Tony Berwald, and Patrick Harper would never disappoint – so we expected a challenging and well set course. We arrived by plane to Atlanta (and also learned about a lot of the new luggage charges) on Wednesday morning so we would have an extra day to enjoy the area before the check-in on Thursday. We went around and hiked to a few waterfalls. I unfortunately had a bad cold that I had aggravated (racing) from the week before so was hacking and coughing all this time hoping I would at least be on the tail-end of the cold by the race start on Friday morning. Racing with a cold is one of the most miserable experiences you can have. I know a lot of racers who have done this will sympathize.

The volunteers from Blue Ridge were extremely friendly. We checked in and ended up with the same race number we had at Potosi (69). I think we’ll have to ask Troy to make that number our tradition (it was the same team I had raced with last year too). The pre-race gave us a number of solid warning – most important was be at the start at 6:45 AM or the penalty would be severe. I figured we would be riding the train (and we were). We were given the maps and about 30 checkpoints to plot. I wanted pasta so we headed for the local Pizza Hut – and started on the maps. We met our sister/brother team there Travelcountry.com and we worked together to plot all the points. We decided sleep would be more important than race strategy (for me with a cold it was) and crashed by 11 PM so we could be up early for the start.

The next morning started around 5 AM. I had a little issue finding my race bib and it looked like it would be a panicky start. We had to be ready and downtown by 6:45 – where we would be transported by train to the actual race start, and also given the maps for the race prologue. The train ride was great – even though we couldn’t see anything in the darkness. It did not matter, we needed the time to do that last minute map marking. The prologue was an enjoyable run with three easy control points, followed by a cold but shallow river crossing to the canoes. We did not plan to run any, and we stuck to our guns – and even got to be in dead last for at least 5 minutes (until some teams got lost looking for the first control).

Our split: 44:20 (fastest teams 21:30)

The paddle was along the Toccoa river. The water was quite shallow and we spent a great amount of time pushing the boat off rocks and other obstructions. The rapids did not present much of a challenge, but they were still fun. We did take one swim, we still have not figured out how. We were paddling along – not even a rapid, and the next thing Jimmy was sliding into the water. Well it was going to be a wet race, so we might as well start off wet. It was easy to slide the boat to the side and dump the water. Our gear was also OK. We got back into the boat and enjoyed the remainder of the paddle. We passed beautiful mountains and mountain homes overlooking the river. The fall colors were in full swing and the sun was out – for at least the first part of the paddle.

(Paddle Section: Our split: 4:25:45 faster teams 3:23 with average teams around 4 hours)

The take-out was pretty obvious, though the first part of the portage was a bit tough. Still the boats were not terribly heavy – and the portage was only about a kilometer, though I do not recall ever portaging up a hill like that (hey – I race in Florida). The next short trek was to the bike drop. We had a great trail map, though for a good part of the trek we decided to bushwhack. I think it saved us some time, we were passed by about 5 teams, and 3 of those teams passed us multiple times. We pretty much could not run at all, we did not want to aggravate M’s injuries.


The Portage from the take-out to CP2

Location of CP3 and Bike Drop, including really nice single track from CP3 to CP4 (uphill of course)
(Trek Section: Our Split: 2:17:24 Race Time: 7:27:29, average splits for teams was about 1:30)

When we got to the bike drop there were about 10 sets of bikes there. We took a little time and got some food into us. We also made sure we had our extra clothes ready as it was starting to rain. It was going to be a long wet ride. The first section of single track was a blast – there is some great single track at the Ocoee Whitewater Center (where the 96 Olympics were). It got darker and the weather got colder. We did not have any real trouble with the navigation or the terrain – but all three of our Florida legs were struggling with Tennessee hills. Since this was a 30 hour race we simply decided to get into a rhythm and move through the checkpoints at our pace. It was also getting pretty cold out – we were completely soaked, and the temperature was going to be dipping below 40. We were really having fun with these – and we also hooked up with another team (Team 78 – Quincy Multisports Team; Carrie, Antony, and Pat). The navigation was relatively easy to this point, no frustrations had us in good spirits. After CP5 we took the road (not marked on the map) to CP6 and ran into some teams leaving CP6. Since we were not on any marked trails or reads – the nav at this point was from reading contours. The large number of teams that had bushwhacked to the hilltop where CP6, leaving a lot of track, made this one pretty easy to find. The real challenge came finding CP7. For some reason – I completely stopped thinking on this one. We went east to the ridgeline and started heading downhill, we realized this was wrong, so we backtracked. A lot of teams were packing gear on the ridgeline and for some reason we moved west and down to the next ridgeline where we found a trail and headed south. This trail petered out pretty quickly and a little map reading made it obvious we were on the wrong ridge anyway. At that point we decided to bail on CP7 and take the FS22 road to CP8 and the transition to the first trek.

(Bike Split, we got CP4,5,6,and 8 - arrived at CP8 at 14:22:56. The fastest teams arrived there around 8:20. Our bike times were not fast, but we were starting to move better)

We were freezing (wet and about 40 degrees) by the time we got to CP8. I knew we would warm up quickly on the trek. The navigation looked relatively straightforward – but the rain and fog had visibility at about 15 feet. We saw teams heading in all directions as we approached CP9, some running the loop backwards – some going our direction. CP9 was on a driveway and we followed the pink ribbons (prescribed route) for CP10 – though these petered out pretty quickly. Still – we simply followed trails south and did a little bushwhacking and came out right at CP10. From there CP11 was simply following the road. There was a truck sitting at the entrance of the road where CP11 was. That also made me miss it. Luckily there were 2 entrances, so there was really no chance of missing it. Here there were no trails mapped, but the passport alluded to a trail that would lead us to FS22 – which is what we wanted so we used this clue. We headed east on a very well defined horse trail. About 1 km the trail split with one trail going south and the other east. Neither trail was on the map – so we headed east and uphill, which was our desired direction. About 10 minutes in we ran into FLXtreme and Relentless coming down the trail – apparently it looped back around to CP11. We headed back down and took the other trail that ended taking us straight to FS22. Unfortunately for FLXtreme and Relentless they had lost a couple of hours on the loop.

It was pretty much uphill from there straight to CP12. Carrie got to try her first time on a foot tow on this trek as I locked her in behind me, her legs were really hurting from doing an Ironman the weekend before. We now had 3 teams traveling together (Relentless dropped of the pace after we found the trail). We had a little burp in finding the CP, and FLXtreme bailed out on us before we found it – even though I was yelling “This way”. From CP12 it was a complete plunge downhill to CP13 and the bikes. This was tricky for us just as it must have been pretty tricky for the teams coming up the hill. Carrie gave us all a scare as she started over a small cliff – but I was able to snag her before she went over and swing her back around to the side. For me this part was a lot of fun – the terrain was challenging and we had to simply move north to the bikes.

(We got all controls for the trek section CP8 - CP9 1:10:04; CP9 - CP10 36:07; CP10 - CP11 21:16; CP11 - CP12 2:38:23; CP12 - CP13 [bike drop] 53:34] and arrived at CP13 at 20:02:20)

By the time we reached the bikes there was a fire going so we were able to try to dry out some of our clothes before taking off on the bike. We were moving slow – not because we were tired, but simply because we were cold. Also 2 of the bikes had flat tires when we returned so we had to change these. There were a lot more bikes still sitting on the ground when we left this TA than when we left the last one – so I was pleased that we were moving up in placement. Considering we were biking extremely slowly and had not run a single step – we were doing pretty well.

The bike leg to CP14 was basically up one big hill and down the other side. Both Carrie and Melissa had very little bike legs left, and none of the guys were doing well enough to tow. We decided to just keep our nice slow and easy pace and get there. As we came to the sign warning of the road being closed (we had to go through some construction) leading into CP14 – there was a camper with a fire going. Team 78 decided to head back to the finish line from here and skip these final controls. We said our goodbyes and headed on.

(Bike leg CP13 - CP14 2:53:13 arriving at CP14 at 22:53:33 race time)

There were a lot of teams relaxing around the fire and planning out there strategy for the final controls when we arrived at CP14. We decided to go after CP15 on foot – but bail on the other 2 controls (CP16 and CP17). This was really a neat location near a waterfall that was a short walk from the TA (CP14/CP18). When we got back from CP15 it was now light, so we would be able to do the remaining course in daylight. We decided we would get three more controls on the way to the finish. Most of the bike controls on this leg required some serious climbs – and Melissa had no climbing legs left, mine were also starting to feel the all-night bike ride. Leaving CP16 we had an uphill climb to the road heading back towards Blue Ridge. I had heated up nicely and the sun was out – so I stripped down as we reached the top. Of course the entire next few miles was downhill in the shade so I was freezing as we approached the turn to CP23 and had to put my clothes back on as I was shivering pretty hard. And then we climbed again. Even though this was by no means the worst climb of the final bike leg – it was enough for me. We pushed and biked up the hill, got the control and enjoyed the screaming downhill back to the main road.

(splits were pretty meaningless here,we made it from CP18 - CP24 in 2:28:24, most teams in our area were skipping controls at this point)

CP28 at the fire station was pretty eventless – though we did stop and chat. We also enjoyed a Whisky shot to warm us up (leave it to firefighters to be prepared for cold shivering bikers) at the fire station. The remaining section was downhill to the railroad tracks and CP29. As we approached the CP – Jimmy grabbed Melissa’s bike and ran to the CP – which was manned. Melissa and I – both puzzled walked along and caught up with him at the CP. We were both puzzled – by why he grabbed her bike and started running, he thought that it was the finish, so he wanted to beat the team behind us in. It wasn’t and we had about 3 miles of biking on the railroad tracks. Melissa was also bonking – but we stopped that with a solid shot of Hammer Gel (she cleaned out our flasks).

(CP24 - CP28 1:25:59, race time 27:32:14)
(CP28 - CP29 21:55, race time 27:54:09)

For those who have never biked on railroad tracks – it is bumpy. Also after 28 hours of racing, it is pretty punishing. I have a hard tail, but I discovered that if I kept my speed up – I kind of glided over the railroad ties. Melissa had a brand new Cannondale full suspension (that had been giving her problems shifting) that she was able to move pretty well over the tracks. We passed about a dozen teams on this section, though that really meant nothing in a Rogaine. I felt pretty good about our speed, we finally made it past the tracks section and hammered the final road ride to the finish.

(CP29 - CP30/finish 33:16 - one of the fastest times on the course !)

In the end we got 19 controls in 28 hours and 27 minutes to put us solidly in 35th. We though that was a very respectable race. (results are at http://www.usaranationals.com/results.aspx ). We got to meet up with all the teams at the banquet – most important we had an awesome time !