This was going to be a fun race for me and it was on a Sunday, so all the usual Saturday conflicts were not a problem. Greg and his son Drew (14 years old) picked me up at 4 AM and we headed over to Tampa. The race started with a short bus trip to the start and an awesome orienteering course. The first flag (FP1) was missing and after I was positive this was the case I yelled for all racers that it was missing and we should move on. It was kind of like restarting the race at CP1 – so if a flag is going to be missing the first one is the best one. We moved fast through the O course and nailed pretty much each one then jumped on our bikes for the next leg of the race. We had one soloist (Frankie) traveling with us, and we only made one mistake, turning short on a dirt road between bike points 4 and 5. At that point Team Shake-A-Leg Miami passed us.
We had one team-mate hurting a bit, and there was not much chance even perfectly healthy to catch up to SAL Miami, but we were still moving OK. We were drawing out a lead on the other teams – so it looked like a 2 team race. I was enjoying the single track, and the navigation was not that tough. We made it to the boats, finished the Funnelator – hitting Greg with a water balloon on the second try. Drew was nauseous on the paddle, but I was feeling pretty strong, so was able to hammer the paddle. We did see SAL Miami returning from CP3 as we were leaving CP5 – which meant they had at least a 20 minute lead at this point. We were able to see the positions of all the other team as we returned from CP3.
After we returned we got the final special test reserved for the front team. We were going to bike the dash run, which turned out to really be a hike-a-bike. The terrain was basically cypress knees for the first mile. After that it was ride-able. I ended up with a flat with just under a mile to go, so I ran the bike and did a pump/ride combo. We had one last thing to do at the end, the obstacle course, which was really a chance for me to get covered in dirt. It was a bit backed up, but there was no threat of another team catching us, so that was no problem.
In the end we finished in second – a great showing for Team Pangea. I really recommend this race, Michael Moule and Kip Koelsch know how to design a course to be challenging but at the same time fun. The park is absolutely gorgeous – lots of interesting terrain and wildlife.
2 comments:
Ron,
You told me before this race started that you guys were gonna "go slow and take it easy." :) Good thing for us, cause as it was, you kept us pushing the pace to get/stay ahead of you. Nice racing against you again!
-Tim
We took the run at a moderate pace, which made the nav easy. It' so much harder to navigate when you are running top speed. I did take the bike leg pretty easy, and it did feel pretty good. The hardest I worked personally was the paddle, I hammered it the entire return leg - I wasn't expecting the surprise the race director had in store for us when we returned.
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