Myakka Mud Slide

This would be my second Myakka Mud Slide race. I was racing with Erik Wise, Caryn Ciesla, and Jeanette Ciesla as Team Mojitas on Monday.

The race offered a new format, where elite teams had to collect 8 of 13 CP's on boat, 8 of 13 on foot, and 10 of 13 on bike. This meant that strategy and course selection would be very important. After a short prolog we hit the boats and headed north, some teams chose to head for the southern points. Even though the water was too shallow to paddle in most places north of the bridge it was pretty fast running and portaging (see video below). We got all CP's and finished the paddle in 1:37, in second just behind Nature Calls at 1:32. Primal Instinct and Florida Xtreme III were just behind us.

We headed out on the trek first straight for CP27 which we located quickly, we then bushwhacked through some palmettos straight to CP28. We hit an unmarked blazed trail to CP29 but went past it on the first 2 attacks. We bailed out to trail east of the CP (on map) and attacked a 3rd time nailing it on the 3rd try. This still cost us a solid 15-20 minutes. We picked up the pace and hit CP39 easily and then headed north  picking up CP31 en route. The vegetation was thick between CP31 and CP 32 so we went around on the trails to CP32 and the followed  that trail to CP33. CP33 was the one that killed both us and Nature Calls. After 30 minutes of searching we verified it was not there, and bailed out to pick up CP34 instead. After CP34 we hit CP30 and jogged it in. The 30 minutes spent searching for the non-existent CP33 hurt us - but we were in good spirits as we headed into the TA and I was happy to get on bikes. I was kicking myself for simply not bailing sooner when we found ribbons in the correct location - these things happen in AR.

The bike ride was hot and sandy - we overshot CP14 by about 200 meters as we were looking on the north side of the road and it was plainly visible on the south side. After that we were a bit more cautious to check all sides of the road and really did not have any issues with any other controls. We bailed out to the paved road at CP26 and took the road all the way back to the CP18 (which we had skipped earlier) and then back to the TA. We had a good 10 minutes to make it from the TA to the Start/Finish - so I knew we could clear within time (my biggest worry).

A great day and a finish with about 3 minutes to spare - it doesn't get much better. Some chocolate milk and pizza and then a long drive home !