Sunday, September 19, 2010

Pangea Superhero Adventure Racing - 9-18-2010

When I saw a posted to Facebook for team-mates I got a quick reply from Dave Shuman of FIGJAM. We had raced together many times, but never on the same team - so this was a good pairing. After a message from long time friend and racer Greg Corbitt - and we had a 3PM team.

See us here in the boat -

http://megrobertsgalleries.com/Adventure-Racing/Superhero-2010/Superhero-2010/13831447_eWyPx#1013576424_rdoob


http://megrobertsgalleries.com/Adventure-Racing/Superhero-2010/Superhero-2010/13831447_eWyPx#1013808972_m62uP

and Green Paw - hot on our tail


http://megrobertsgalleries.com/Adventure-Racing/Superhero-2010/Superhero-2010/13831447_eWyPx#1013811429_MN7RU

The race started at King's landing, my worry was that we would have super-hot weather, but it looked like the temps would barely crack 90 (which for Florida summer weather is quite cool). The race started with a little navigation course with some dead reckoning bearings all taken from a common start location. After the first one I could see that we would be able to hit 2 of them without having to return the the bearing point, since the clue on one was "along river" - another one was going to put us real close to the river - and that worked quite well, simply hitting the one close to the river and then following the river to the other CP. These did require somne getting wet (it was on the far side of the river - no problem). Since we only had to do 4 (of 5) we headed back to the bearing point and used the road and some pace counting to get us the the 4th control.

We were the first onto the next leg of the race - though I knew we would have teams very close on our tail. CP8 was easy (on the river), but CP9 had us taking a bearing and heading inland. The bearing quickly took us back to the river - where we could see the control dangling over the river on a tree. Instead of punching we headed back to the boats. One team (Florida Xtreme 1) avoided the dead reckoning on land and simply stayed on the river - which gave them a solid 5-10 minute lead. That was fine - I do not like to lead early in the race - it uses a lot of energy for potential mistakes that other teams behind you can learn from.

We headed for the long control of the out and back paddle - which gave us a chance to see where the teams were. It looked like it was Florida XTreme out front - then about 6-7 minutes back was us, followed by Green Paw, and then a large group of solid teams just minutes behind Green Paw.

We passed the take-out to get CP 10 and CP 11. We blew by CP10 (we'd get it on the way back) - and headed for CP11. Just before this CP was a real tight log crossing, where Green Paw passed us. We got to CP11 within seconds of each other, and actually passed Green Paw again, but they were able to get over the log on the way back quickly. There was a huge cluster of teams here making the crossing on the slick log challenging. We did fine, and were soon in the TA.



For all racers who want to move to elite and be competitive - here is where you can learn a lot to make up time. As we approached the dock, we had already planned out how we would stow the boat and handle the gear. As we got close paddles were thrown to shore, one person was out - packs were tossed to shore, 2 of us pulled the boat up - while the third gathered the paddles and handed the packs to each of us. Time from being on the water - to running to bikes was right around 1 minute.

At the bikes we simply donned helmets and hopped on - we planned to do the trek second. 2 reasons, (1) run while it was still cool, (2) no need to change to bike shoes. We flew to the trek (with a little fun biking on the way) and headed out on the orienteering.



Here you can refer to the scanned map. I planned to attack CP20 from the north and except for a Sport course control that was along the route - this worked well. Team Green Paw was real close and they saw us going in for the control (they were attacking from the east) - and it helped them a bit with this one. My plan was next CP21 - I wanted to go via CP13 - so I would have a mental picture of this when I came by on the bike (it was a bike CP). CP21 was pretty easy, simply attack as the berm north of the trail ended, spot the thicket and follow around to the control. We were keeping a light run and this area was shaded with very open woods. CP25 was essentially run to the N-S trail, follow to the attack point (fence on west side of map) and go due east. As we saw both small depressions that were mapped - this worked well and we nailed it. CP24 was going NE around the thick area and then due east to the small hilltop. The hilltop was very obvious, and we corrected to the depression and the control as we approached.

CP23 should have been the easiest of the controls - simply go NE to the backstop trail and follow to the earth berm. The backstop trail was however almost gone and we went right over it. I realized the mistake within about 150 yards and doubled back - spotting the berm within seconds - but still having to bushwhack through some nasty palmettos to get to it. From CP23 it was a trail run in, with one easy control (CP22) along the route. The attack was the obvious trail bend NW of the control and we found it quickly.

As we came out of the woods - we found out that we were the first team out. I knew we needed to build a little time on Green Paw here - since they are very strong on bike, and orienteering is my strength. I was not sure how Florida Xtreme was going to be doing - but I knew Mark Roberts would pull them through the orienteering quickly also. We got back to the TA, switched passports, put on bike shoes and headed back out - it felt good to make it out before any other teams showed up in the TA, that always provides a mental boost. As we got to Kelly Park we crossed paths with FL Xtreme, and got a kind of "rats" comment from Mark as he calculated our lead time. Green Paw and FL Xtreme were pretty much neck and neck and we had maybe a 8 minute lead. We would need it - as the navigation on the bike would not split teams, and Green Paw is a very fast bike team.

We headed for CP12 and overshot it by about 150 meters, we doubled back and as I stopped in the spot that I calculated it should be spotted it about 10 meters off the trail and a little bit hidden. Mental note - flags will be off trail a little bit. We also overshot CP14 a bit, as the mapped triangle was not really as mapped - though we did not lose much time. CP14 to CP19 was a bit sandy and slow, but ride-able. The same went for CP19 to CP18 - sandy but still firm enough to ride. We gained some time at CP18 as I sent Dave over the berm and ran parallel pushing his bike while he got the control.

The next move was a strategic choice. The road with CP17 and CP18 seemed to be alternating sandy and solid. I had scoped the trail near CP16 while doing the orienteering and new it was fully ride-able - so we cut over and took that trail north picking up CP16 and CP13. My thoughts were simply the single track hiking trails would be more solid than the road. As it turned out that trail, had more elevation change, but was very ride-able the entire route.

We blasted past the gate, got our punch, and started the sprint back to the TA. I felt my energy go low as we pushed through the thick sand just past the gate - but it elevated once again as we headed down the hill after turning right. Once we hit the road we moved into a bike line and pushed with everything we had left. We did not know how far back - the other teams were, we were pretty sure we had the lead. I knew from experience that they would be close. As it turned out - as Green Paw exited Kelly Park - they could see us on the road about 300 meters in front of them.

In the end the times were FIGJAM  4:33:02, Green Paw 4:33:37, Florida Xtreme  4:49:59, Hoof-hearted 5:10:10, and Florida Xtreme II 5:18:36 - with 9 teams clearing the course. This race turned out to be a great warm-up for the Coast to Coast coming up in 2 weeks. To track that race go to http://floridac2c.com/ - it starts Sept. 30 and should at least have some tracking info for folks wanting to follow their teams.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Rock Springs Run Orienteering - Blue Course

It was an incredibly hot day for orienteering (92 degrees and near 90% humidity) and from the looks of the course - a lot of it was going to be in the full sun. From the start it was a quick jump out to the south bound road (to avoid the high grass) and then back in for the control - pretty easy to find on the thick area.

From there it was around the marshy (but dry) lake to the trail, and then south to the east west trail. I followed that trail west (and a little north) as it was pretty easy running and there was some shade. I headed southwest at the intersections and followed the road all the way to the control just past a trailer.

From there it was north to Hill Road, and then the lighter jogging trail which was pretty overgrown on the direct beeline to CP3. It was across the road on the same bearing, aiming off a little to the left so that I could use the trail near CP3 as a backstop. As I reached the trail the trail curves were pretty obvious, I ran into Greg and Mark (Team Pangea) here and we all quickly found the depression.

From there I headed west northwest along the trail to the open trail heading north. Mark and Greg went the other direction. After hitting the main road I pushed east a little finding a small opening that led out to the trail heading north to CP4. I passed another team approaching CP4. Here is where the going got tough.

I decidied to go north around the green patch to CP5. It was incredibly tall grass and fennel, with scattered blackberry thorns. And it was in full sun. I found the little road cut-through (marked in black) and punched through the tall grass to the man made feature (telephone pole and CP5) I ran into Anna from Team Green Paw here and said hi.

From CP5 it was south in the open, hot and sunny tall grass. The grass required you to step real high, so just walking was pretty draining, especially with the incredible heat. As I pushed south of the green patch southeast of CP5 I twisted my ankle and went down hard. I had a small moment of panic as the pain dropped me to the ground and I felt my heart rate skyrocket with the pain and heat. I decided to crawl/limp to the mapped green patch and push into the shade. Here I used controlled breathing to slow my heart rate and the shade brought my temperature back down. I felt as if something had plugged into my body and drained every last bit of energy I had. Fortunately, however, after I punched into the green - the undergrowth in the shaded area was not bad and the footing was much better (not chewed up like the open fields). I walked through the green patch across the one open area, and back into the last green patch to the long open stretch to CP6. I could see Anna's head bobbing as she walked towards CP6, not more than 200 yards in front of where I was. She had walked along the outside of the green patch in the thick grass, and even with the crawling and resting had not gotten that far ahead.

As I exited the green I could see why she had not made much headway. The footing was bad, the grass was thick and chest-high, and the blistering sun made for extremely slow going. As I apprached CP6, Greg and Mark caught up with me. CP6 was pretty easy to find, but I was hurting. I headed to the N-S dirt road and headed south. My intention was to take it to the main road and hit CP7 from the south. A second glance at the map wiped that from my mind, it was a long way around a out of bounds zone, and that zone was marked off with an electric fence.

CP6 to CP7 was simple suffering in heat and tall grass. I ran into Jason Willems girlfriend (sorry not remembering names) who was also heading to the same control. We had a bit of punching through more fennel grass, but the control was in a pretty easy spot. From there it was south and out of the field. My plan was to go due south and a little west to the trail south of the dirt road and a little west of CP8 and follow it around to CP8, this worked out well and the control was clearly visible from a couple hundred yards.

I only had one leg to go and had cooled down quite a bit from the heat. I considered running, but a couple of steps on the bad ankles destroyed any idea of doing that. I did want to break 2 hours (which would have probably been easy without the injury) but if I did it would be simple luck. Anyway CP9 was a near due east jaunt with plenty of distinct features. I punched through the last bit of white woods pretty much on top of it and headed to the start finish table, which seemed like a long way off. I started into a jog, made it 2 steps, and then decided to preserve my ankles for another race.

As it turned out I was able to finish in 2 hrs 1 minute, so really only a minute off the pace I had started out to beat. Rock Springs has a shower - so I was able to clean up, get some water, talk with Tim, Anna, Jason, Greg, Mark, Bob, and the outdoor athlete crowd before heading home. All in all, a good day, and I was able to push to the limits - which always makes it a great weekend.