The elite race started with a bike prolog that had 2 checkpoints. My strategy on these is simply to keep the navigation clean and position ourselves well going into the next leg (which would be the boats). Since I navigate I usually call out directions to the rest of the team as we ride so that if they are in front we don't get delayed or have to stop. Our plan was to go left inside the fenceline and hit CP2 first and then CP1. This turned out to be a good strategy as most teams headed to CP1 first - this left us pretty open riding on the trails. We made it back to the TA within a minute of the leaders as planned and made a really fast transition to boats (our entire transition is in the video). This is pretty typical of all our transitions - we like to move in and out of the TA as fast as possible.
Once in the water we had 3 CP's downstream in open water, 1 CP up a clogged narrow, channel, and 3 CP's that were in an open fast flowing channel. We headed upstream on the narrow channel first. We were pretty sure that we would be pushing the boats through this section and we knew that pushing them upstream or downstream would be pretty close in speed. Only a few teams chose this route so we had the river almost to ourselves. There is some fun footage of this section in the video. Once we hit the main channel again we had some tough upstream paddling, but after the most upstream CP it was high current paddling downstream. Since we were paddling fast I jumped out of the boat (literally) as we got to CP4 and my team leaned with me, swamping the boat. CP4 was in very shallow water so we dumped the boat and cruised downstream flying over shallow logs. Unfortunately CP3 was just behind a log across the river and while we ducked under it we totally missed the control and flew past it. We realized this when we got to the river split and the main channel - but I decided we would return for CP3 after got the downstream CP's. These were easy and when we got back it took us 7 minutes to get to CP3 and back, we also passed Florida Xtreme I just before CP3 so we knew we were about 2 minutes behind them. Of course had we not missed CP3 we would have been a few minutes in front of them.
After hitting the main TA we hopped on the bikes. We had trekking shoes on for the paddle and kept these on for the short bike to the bike drop. We would start the trek there. I had previously decided to do this counterclockwise (CP19 first) which turned out to be a good strategy. None of the CP's gave us any trouble until CP28. Because there were not many features and the 2 controls were only about 500-600 meters apart we took a direct bearing from CP27 to CP28. At the distance we did not see the control, so we bailed north to the trail and then west to the trail intersection. I got a little confused here and took us a bit too far, but realized my mistake. We attacked CP28 the second time from the trail intersection NW of the control - again we were not having much success and were joined by Nature Calls as we were searching. Their was a mapped depression North northeast of the CP and we were using that to keep us on the attack. I finally decided to simply follow the subtle ridgeline that was east of the mapped location. This worked and even though I was not positive I think the mapped location of the shallow depression was too far west, but I'll bring that up with the mappers. The extra time at the control was pretty much a moot point because we were about to have bigger problems.
Two controls back Jim had handed the passport to Wanda. He will sometimes take a little break from being the passport mule, but I noticed he was moving a bit slower and was hunched as we were moving. Shortly after CP28 he was totally hunched over and we were stopped. Most experienced elite AR teams have had plenty of experience with heat issues in summer races. Wanda and I had both slowed our team in many races due to heat related problems, but this was the first time Jim had been hurting. It soon became obvious he was really hurting, but after about 15 minutes of dry heaving and emptying the contents of his stomach - we were moving again. At this point sometimes there is partial recovery, sometimes full recovery, and sometimes no recovery. We were in partial recovery - Jim could move, but not fast and we were at the furthest point in the trek. I eventually put Jim on a tow - and I knew he was hurting as I was putting on a solid pull (which Jim would never let me do unless he was in bad shape). We made it to the bikes, and I wondered if we would be able to move faster on bikes (Jim is an extremely strong biker and the strongest on the team). He was having a hard time keeping even a mild pace and at this point I was really worried. Once we got back to the TA - which even for the short bike was pretty arduous (you do feel the pain of your team-mates when they hurt) Jim was pale and not sweating. This is really not a good sign.
We decided that we would check-in as finished at this point. That would at least give us an official finish, and then Wanda and I would head out and do the bike leg. I gave Jim some ice rags and Wanda, we got the bike passport - I threw on my faithful Cannondale bike shoes and we were off. I'm not sure if we caught up with them or vice versa - but at the first bike CP we were biking along with Nature Calls. Oddly - they chose entirely different routes to nearly every CP, but we usually arrived within minutes of each other at each CP. We did this leg counter clockwise too. I had chosen to bike second for 3 reasons (1) to avoid switching shoes twice, (2) avoid running when it got hotter, and (3) be able to see how ride-able the trails were while running to help optimze the bike route. Wanda was awesome on the bike on this leg - I pushed the pace hard (looking to break 1 hour on this leg) and she never fell back. I was feeling pretty good, I've been trying to be better hydrated at the start and it seemed to be paying off (though I did have to pee twice on the course).
Nature Calls dropped back at CP16 (2 CP's to go) and Wanda and I finished at 2:24 (5 hrs 24 minutes). Nature Calls was very close behind us, I did not stay at the start after that - I headed to the water to cool off and wash off chiggers and ticks. Jim was feeling a lot better having cooled off too.
The race was great- I'll post the video as a link here once it gets done uploading. I am now using a GoPro HD t ofilm races. It is a great camera, but HD video takes a while to upload to Youtube (10 hours)
By request here are the maps from the race
No comments:
Post a Comment