Leg 1 - Orienteering
It would all start out with a relatively short orienteering leg. In the dark - this can be pretty challenging. After picking up the first CP all the teams headed west of the Persimmon Trail. This trail is very rooted, Wanda took at least 2 nosedives and an ankle twist along this route. I had one minor twist - and this was just on the trail itself. Because the race had just started most of the teams were packed together - and also running hard trying to establish an early lead. The only one that gave teams a bit of trouble was CP3 (which was the last one we got). It was placed on the opposite side of the trail, but still along the fenceline. Once one team got it - all the other teams converged. The run back along the Persimmon trail was still tough - and we were moving fast. As we got back to transition area - Nell of Team Eco-Choice hit the knee high cable separating the road from the grass and went down real hard. She however bounced right back up. I'm including the splits from all the teams clearing the course in their order for each leg.
Orienteering 1
35:00 - Florida Xtreme 2
35:00 - Primal Instinct
35:00 - Eco-Choice
35:00 - Get to the Chopper
41:00 - Florida Xtreme
43:00 - Green Paw
48:00 - Nature Calls
1:03:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
1:27:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants
Bike to Lake Highland
The next leg was a simple road bike about 6-7 miles to the boats at Lake Highland. I decided to NOT wear clips for this leg as I did not want to take the time to change. We were the third team to get into the water just behind Primal Instinct. Green Paw hit the water just behind us.
Bike 2 Deleon Springs to Lake Highland Fish Camp
29:00 - Green Paw
30:00 - Primal Instinct
30:00 - Florida Xtreme
30:00 - Get to the Chopper
31:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants
32:00 - Florida Xtreme 2
33:00 - Nature Calls
37:00 - Eco-Choice
37:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
Paddle Leg
This next leg was a good long paddle leg. We were in the water just around 5 AM meaning we would have at least one hour of paddling in darkness. We were bunched pretty tightly as we hit CP7. I had decided that we would do this paddle with 4 in the boat. That is not necessarily the fastest way to paddle - but it does let us rest a racer. It also would allow me to focus more on the navigation. We were moving about the same speed as the other boats around us, and we had now established a pack of about 6 teams moving together. When we reached CP8 it was completely clogged with vegetation and we were essentially pushing the boat through weeds and sea lettuce to get to the CP. It looked like the water was shallow so I decided to jump out and walk to the CP. This did not work out as planned as I immediately went over my head in the surprising deep water (I never did touch the bottom). I swam and pulled the boat along toward the control - but this was not terribly effective as I could not get purchase on anything and the water was too deep. As 4 teams passed us here I pulled myself back on the boat, now soaking wet - but not really cold. After that we concentrated on just paddling hard to the next few checkpoints all of which were pretty easy to locate with the pack of boats.
The paddle from CP11 to CP13 meant avoiding clogs and jams of all the weeds floating on the surface of the lake. The sun had now come up and it was turning into a pretty sunrise. Of course the beauty was punctuated with the sounds of rifles and shotguns going off as it was hunting season. I can see why the game disappears quickly when the season starts - the sound of the guns carries a long way, and at times it sounded like someone was shooting off cannons somewhere on shore. The next to last control was placed so that you could only really get one boat in at a time. This spread all the boats into a small armada with about 2 minutes between the boats. All the lead pack teams were paddling all out and you can really tell by looking at the split times that are so close together. Florida Xtreme did pull away from the other teams after we hit Spring Garden Run - all solid paddlers, paddling all out.
Paddle Splits
3:27 - Florida Xtreme
3:27 - Eco-Choice
3:34 - Green Paw
3:35 - Primal Instinct
3:36 - Get to the Chopper
3:39 - Florida Xtreme 2
3:46 - FLX/Utility Mutants
3:47 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
3:57 - Nature Calls
Transition to Bikes
After we hit land - the next thing to do was to pack up and get out the door for the bike-trek-bike coming up. None of us had had a chance to eat or drink at this time. Our opportunity would be after the time trial and on the next trek leg (still a ways out). Here are transition times and time to Chuck Lennon (less than 1/2 mile away).
Bike to Chuck Lennon
8:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants
8:00 - Get to the Chopper
9:00 - Eco-Choice
11:00 - Primal Instinct
11:00 - Florida Xtreme 2
11:00 - Florida Xtreme
12:00 - Nature Calls
14:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
Chuck Lennon Time Trial
For those of you not familiar with Chuck Lennon - it is some wonderful single track set on a few acres near Deleon Springs. There is not much land - but the courses are designed to make the most of what land is there. If you have never ridden single track - think roller coaster on a bike. Here is a little video (not mine) that shows some of the highlights of the trail network. The elite course biked hoot owl to the hub, then red, yellow, and finally out the blue.
This section was also a time trial (think race within a race). Since we were all still (biking) fresh nearly all the team rode this hard. We also saw Nell (Eco-Choice) go down hard again on the blue trail - but just like the first time she popped back up. Also "Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake" showed that they have what it takes to do the single track with the second best split time behind Primal Instinct (which had ridden Lennon before and are a strong technical bike team).
Time Trial Chuck Lennon
37:00 - Primal Instinct
39:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
40:00 - Florida Xtreme
43:00 - Nature Calls
43:00 - Get to the Chopper
44:00 - Florida Xtreme 2
45:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants
50:00 - Green Paw
53:00 - Eco-Choice
Bike to Heart Island
Nothing spectacular after the wonderful single track - just all out ride to Heart Island. Jim put Wanda on the tow rope - just as we were entering Heart Island he stopped to take her off the tow, Bruce and I rode in and nearly got a separation penalty - however Jim and Wanda were just around the corner entrance (maybe 30 yards from the actual TA).
Bike to Heart Island
17:00 - Florida Xtreme
18:00 - Primal Instinct
19:00 - Get to the Chopper
20:00 - Nature Calls
21:00 - Green Paw
21:00 - Florida Xtreme 2
22:00 - Eco-Choice
22:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
23:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants
Heart Island Biking
We were warned that the bike trails were pretty sandy (actually they were horse trails). Bruce was having some quad cramps and the sandy riding was tough. I was on my new Motobecane 29 - and they ride incredibly well in sand. Our course is shown - we tried to stay to the best riding trails. Green Paw had arrived just before us at Heart Island, and Florida Xtreme (1) and Primal Instinct were just minutes in front of us as we entered here. I am still picking sand spurs off my tires from this section.
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| Red shows our route - Heart Island Bike |
Heart Island Bike Loop
0:45 - Green Paw
0:50 - Florida Xtreme
0:52 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
0:56 - Eco-Choice
0:56 - Nature Calls
0:58 - Get to the Chopper
0:59 - FLX/Utility Mutants
1:00 - Primal Instinct
1:01 - Florida Xtreme 2
Foot Section Heart Island
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| Red shows our route - Heart Island Trek |
At this point in the race fatigue was taking its toll on the team. I was stiff and not running particularly well. We did a lot of bushwack in this section (though it was not what was slowing us down). We also joined forces with Eco-choice to nail the CP's. So far we had lost about 5 minutes on the previous bike leg to navigation and we immediately lost about another 5 on CP31 on this leg as we shot right past it and had to double back. We made up for that on CP30 heading straight to the control and avoiding having to do the bearing. We did the same on 29 - but missed it and still had to use a bearing for that one. We bushwhacked straight across to CP28 (coming to the white trail a bit north of it) and then headed in.
Heart Island Orienteering Loop
37:00 - Green Paw
39:00 - Get to the Chopper
40:00 - Florida Xtreme
42:00 - Primal Instinct
45:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
48:00 - Eco-Choice
49:00 - Florida Xtreme 2
50:00 - Nature Calls
50:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants
Bike To Main TA
At this point we were racing with Alan and Nell from Eco-choice. Jim was towing Wanda, Bruce was the passport man. We also knew we had about a one hour bike ride and then the orienteering course. The O course would be a make or break, essentially any team at this point could win. Green Paw and Florida Xtreme had built up a pretty good buffer, but not enough to make the race foolproof. Primal Instinct was close enough we knew we could possibly catch them. We did this bike leg with everything we had left in our biking legs - which was not much. I was still happy with my new bike, it had done well on single track, sand, and road. The roads were all nice country roads and quite scenic. I tried to keep a solid line, and pulled all the way back to the TA.
Bike to Main TA
50:00 - Green Paw
50:00 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
52:00 - Primal Instinct
54:00 - Florida Xtreme
56:00 - Florida Xtreme 2
56:00 - Eco-Choice
59:00 - Nature Calls
1:00:00 - FLX/Utility Mutants
1:01:00 - Get to the Chopper
The Final Orienteering
When we got to the TA - there were 3 teams on the O course in front of us (Florida Xtreme, Green Paw, and Primal Instinct). Our team was also feeling pretty lead-legged. I knew if I was accurate with the orienteering and the other teams made a mistake or two we could catch them - of course that meant being perfect in this section.I decided to go in reverse order so that after the last control I could shut off the brain and simply take the trail in to the TA. The first and second controls (CP43 and CP42) were both quick and easy. From 42 we headed north on the trail towards 41 and cut into the woods when we saw the dirt mounds, quickly finding the dry stream and what was left of the fenceline (actually the fenceline found us as Jim tripped over the barbed wire). CP 40 seemed a bit too far south - but close enough. We bushwhacked pretty much straight to the trail NE of CP39 and picked it up quickly too. CP39 to CP38 was a trail run, and we found the old ditch quickly. Here we saw Primal Instinct coming towards CP38 (doing the course in the other direction). They also looked very fatigued. From CP38 we went north to the trail along the road and just ran to CP37 trail the entire way. From CP37 we headed south found the "bend" in the power lines and took that trail south To CP36. CP36 looked easy on the map - it was not. I finally shot it from the trail to the east of it, and the trail heading southeast from the intersection was complete grown over and gone.
Even though it took us to tries to hit CP36 we had lost no more than 5 minutes and ran due west on the road punching through to the blue trail where we headed south and quickly located CP38. We passed some sport teams as we ran to CP41.
This control - even though the hill was obvious cost us 10 minutes (at least). The control was east of the mapped location, and we had found yellow biodegradable ribbon at the mapped location. This led us to believe the flag could have been missing. We gave it one last effort on a wide sweep of the hill and sure enough found it on that last try. from there it was "leaving it all on the field" - running with everything we had left to the finish line. We had not had enough to catch Green Paw and Primal Instinct. (Eco-choice did this entire section with us).
Orienteering Deleon
1:26:11 - Florida Xtreme 2
1:26:14 - Eco-Choice
1:35:42 - Green Paw
1:49:03 - Primal Instinct
1:52:38 - Good Enough 4 Dad's Sake
1:52:44 - Nature Calls
2:07:13 - FLX/Utility Mutants
2:32:26 - Florida Xtreme
2:57:47 - Get to the Chopper
Final Thoughts
This incredible race had pushed the season championships into the final hour of the final race of the season - for those who love competition, you really cannot get more exciting than that. Overall times were very close
9:44:42 - Green Paw
10:09:03 - Primal Instinct
10:14:11 - Florida Xtreme 2
10:14:14 - Eco-Choice
10:42:26 - Florida Xtreme
11:01:38 - Good'Nuff 4 Dad's Sake
11:10:44 - Nature Calls
To see all the teams and splits (I just did the course clearers) - go to http://www.pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2011-turkey-burn-ar
Congrats to all who came out raced. Good job Green Paw on pulling it together for a well earned victory.
Also as a side note - using exercise calculators I estimated I burnt 6500 calories during the race. I drank 70 ounces of Gatorade and ate 2 apples and 2 Cliff Shot blocks (little ones).
