Sunday, December 15, 2013
Sunday, December 01, 2013
Turkey Burn 2013
Results and short race summary at http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-turkey-burn-ar See the tale of the Canyoneero's - anyone who knows Snow Hill will be impressed they survived a fall off the great cliff - http://canyoneros-ar.blogspot.com/2013/11/pangea-turkey-burn-ar-elite-12hr.html
Team Honey Stinger is Ron Eaglin, Jim Gorton, Junos Reed, and Wanda Timmons. We came into this race with the intentions of racing as hard and as fast as we could possibly go. I was also determined to make the race as clean as possible with solid navigation. The start was at UCF which had just defeated USF at home the night before the 4 AM start. The parking lot was still full of beer cans, trash cans, and port-o-lets - but it was nice to have some asphalt to set up our TA in - not that we would see it during the race.
We started with a short run up a parking garage, back down just to spread us all out before the bike leg. A few teams took off here - we took our time and moved cleanly onto the bikes and headed out towards CP1 on the UCF campus. Teams were already looking for the CP when we got there - but we zoomed in it quickly and were able to get out as the other team converged on our location. CP2-CP4 were uneventful but did provide some nice double track riding in the dark. As headed off campus Nature Calls was the only other team we saw, and we arrived at the boat TA just behind them, but with a few more teams just behind us.
We headed south on the Econlockhatchee River and found CP5 quickly working with other teams. After we came out we dropped the boats at the mouth of the Little Econlockhatchee and trekked to CP6 and CP7. Mojitos paddled this section and as it turned out that was probably a better choice as there were only 3 deadfalls to get around. Oh well, we came off the south paddle and headed north on the Econ River just behind them. We also saw a team ahead of us - I was pretty sure it was Super Frogs.
The paddle section on the Econ River was great. It did require meticulous navigation, but at night I always keep very tight contact with the map. I really just wanted to avoid costly mistakes - so we paddled a little slower than usual, but at the same time navigated this section flawlessly. Controls were also spaced very well to provide challenge and keep us from just dropping into "go" mode.
We got to Barr Street with Mojitos on Monday and headed out on the first orienteering section with them. The sun had just started to top the horizon, so I was able to ditch the headlamp - and we were on an orienteering map. We made quick work of the first 3 controls working with Mojitos. A couple teams caught us at CP13 as were a bit too far south looking for it - but it was good to have a few eyes looking through the woods - and this early in the race it makes sense to work together. At some point Mojitos decided to take a trail route to one of the controls - where I decided to punch straight through, and that was the last we saw of them. At one control Junos twisted his ankle and landed hard - he was right next to one of the controls and we likely would not have seen it had he not gone down. On one other control I spotted it right in the path of Junos and Jim and then watched as they walked right by it - so I was thinking I was seeing things. On closer inspection (I went to check out where they had just walked) it was the control so I gave them a hard time about not keeping their eyes open. In their defense - they were walking through raspberry stickers. We ran the last section of this trek hard and came out of the woods to the boat TA with Team Endeavor. From this point on it would be a 2 team race.
The next paddle section had some really awesome control locations, and paddling the Econ in general is pretty great. it is a very interesting river. We came out at the next TA and transitioned to bike, making it through the TA just a little faster than Endeavor. I did not even need to consult my map in this section (except at the end to make sure we had to go back to the TA). I've ridden Snow Hill single track many times and there is really only one word to describe it; fun. Endeavor did catch up to us in this section and just as quickly disappeared. They re-appeared as we switched control cards at the Snow Hill TA - but stopped to do something - so we were a little ahead as we headed to the Bridge TA. They arrive at the bridge TA just about 20 seconds ahead of us - we both transitioned to foot together and headed out to do a second orienteering. We had been working together well and we were pretty sure we had at least a 30 minute lead on the rest of the teams. We knew at some point we would switch from cooperation to race mode, but for now we were still working together.
The next orienteering section had some really challenging points, and even though it looks like we did the course in the same order - we took totally different attacks on the CP's. As we punched the last CP in this section we ran into them again on the Flagler Trail - they were about a minute in front of us - and were about 2 minutes behind when we got back to the bridge TA and transition back to bikes.
We had to mark 4 CP's on our map from a master map - and then head out into some technical single track. I still had local knowledge here of the trails, but the navigation was going to be challenging. We spent some time on the first CP (CP48) - but at the same time Endeavor had overshot it and were doubling back when I found it. The next to last CP in this section (CP50) got us a bit confused, simply because there were so many unmapped trails. At this point we were working with Team Endeavor and even some local bikers that ride Snow Hill every week tried to help us (it didn't help - that had no idea the trail CP51 even existed). We decided that we would go to the last known point (which was the last CP) and try again. This time we found the correct trail and then the control. As we got CP51 and headed back to the Flagler Trail we had no idea where Team Endeavor was, as we reached the Bridge TA for the last time, we were informed that Endeavor had not passed through yet - so we had a slight lead heading back to UCF.
That lead did not hold long - it was only about 10 minutes and Endeavor had caught back up with us and passed us, we passed them again just before CP52 and we both headed out on the road ride together. I took the lead and set a pretty fast pace hoping that Jim, who was towing Wanda would be OK. Endeavor was about 50 yards back of us for this section. When we approached the turn onto Lockwood - disaster struck. I looked for clear, seeing one car, and then looked again and saw clear so I called the crossing to the left lane to turn left. As Jim and Wanda (Jim towing Wanda) crossed a Motorcycle slammed into the back of Wanda, and I turned to see Wanda sliding along the top of the motorcycle and the Rider sliding to a halt. Endeavor was right behind us and immediately went into assist mode. About a dozen people called 911 all at once, and we were able to get assistance to Wanda and the Rider quickly. The fire trucks from Station 48 (one mile away) came about a minute later. Once the paramedics were on scene we told Team Endeavor to continue (they wanted to stay). The police quickly assessed the situation, the motorcyclist was OK, but would be taken to the hospital to be checked out. Wanda had a good sized hole in here ankle, and a nasty burn on here rear where she had landed on the motorcyle muffler.
Once we were cleared to continue (it took a while because they could not find records of Wanda and she had been hurt) we very shakily headed back out on the bike. We made it back to UCF shaken but in one piece. Wanda was clearly in pain - but was determined to continue and finish the race. She had a broken ankle - though she did not know this at the time, and the burn on her rear I think was hurting her more than the ankle. We used a mixture of carry and tow to get through the last section, finishing 2 minutes in front of Mojito's for 2nd place, and winning the point series. A very hard fought victory. I really love this sport; you meet incredible people, do incredible things - but the greatest thing is the sense of camaraderie. Thanks to everyone who was out there - and a big thanks to my team!
And best wished for Wanda to get better - you are one tough girl!
Team Honey Stinger is Ron Eaglin, Jim Gorton, Junos Reed, and Wanda Timmons. We came into this race with the intentions of racing as hard and as fast as we could possibly go. I was also determined to make the race as clean as possible with solid navigation. The start was at UCF which had just defeated USF at home the night before the 4 AM start. The parking lot was still full of beer cans, trash cans, and port-o-lets - but it was nice to have some asphalt to set up our TA in - not that we would see it during the race.
We started with a short run up a parking garage, back down just to spread us all out before the bike leg. A few teams took off here - we took our time and moved cleanly onto the bikes and headed out towards CP1 on the UCF campus. Teams were already looking for the CP when we got there - but we zoomed in it quickly and were able to get out as the other team converged on our location. CP2-CP4 were uneventful but did provide some nice double track riding in the dark. As headed off campus Nature Calls was the only other team we saw, and we arrived at the boat TA just behind them, but with a few more teams just behind us.
We headed south on the Econlockhatchee River and found CP5 quickly working with other teams. After we came out we dropped the boats at the mouth of the Little Econlockhatchee and trekked to CP6 and CP7. Mojitos paddled this section and as it turned out that was probably a better choice as there were only 3 deadfalls to get around. Oh well, we came off the south paddle and headed north on the Econ River just behind them. We also saw a team ahead of us - I was pretty sure it was Super Frogs.
The paddle section on the Econ River was great. It did require meticulous navigation, but at night I always keep very tight contact with the map. I really just wanted to avoid costly mistakes - so we paddled a little slower than usual, but at the same time navigated this section flawlessly. Controls were also spaced very well to provide challenge and keep us from just dropping into "go" mode.
We got to Barr Street with Mojitos on Monday and headed out on the first orienteering section with them. The sun had just started to top the horizon, so I was able to ditch the headlamp - and we were on an orienteering map. We made quick work of the first 3 controls working with Mojitos. A couple teams caught us at CP13 as were a bit too far south looking for it - but it was good to have a few eyes looking through the woods - and this early in the race it makes sense to work together. At some point Mojitos decided to take a trail route to one of the controls - where I decided to punch straight through, and that was the last we saw of them. At one control Junos twisted his ankle and landed hard - he was right next to one of the controls and we likely would not have seen it had he not gone down. On one other control I spotted it right in the path of Junos and Jim and then watched as they walked right by it - so I was thinking I was seeing things. On closer inspection (I went to check out where they had just walked) it was the control so I gave them a hard time about not keeping their eyes open. In their defense - they were walking through raspberry stickers. We ran the last section of this trek hard and came out of the woods to the boat TA with Team Endeavor. From this point on it would be a 2 team race.
The next paddle section had some really awesome control locations, and paddling the Econ in general is pretty great. it is a very interesting river. We came out at the next TA and transitioned to bike, making it through the TA just a little faster than Endeavor. I did not even need to consult my map in this section (except at the end to make sure we had to go back to the TA). I've ridden Snow Hill single track many times and there is really only one word to describe it; fun. Endeavor did catch up to us in this section and just as quickly disappeared. They re-appeared as we switched control cards at the Snow Hill TA - but stopped to do something - so we were a little ahead as we headed to the Bridge TA. They arrive at the bridge TA just about 20 seconds ahead of us - we both transitioned to foot together and headed out to do a second orienteering. We had been working together well and we were pretty sure we had at least a 30 minute lead on the rest of the teams. We knew at some point we would switch from cooperation to race mode, but for now we were still working together.
The next orienteering section had some really challenging points, and even though it looks like we did the course in the same order - we took totally different attacks on the CP's. As we punched the last CP in this section we ran into them again on the Flagler Trail - they were about a minute in front of us - and were about 2 minutes behind when we got back to the bridge TA and transition back to bikes.
We had to mark 4 CP's on our map from a master map - and then head out into some technical single track. I still had local knowledge here of the trails, but the navigation was going to be challenging. We spent some time on the first CP (CP48) - but at the same time Endeavor had overshot it and were doubling back when I found it. The next to last CP in this section (CP50) got us a bit confused, simply because there were so many unmapped trails. At this point we were working with Team Endeavor and even some local bikers that ride Snow Hill every week tried to help us (it didn't help - that had no idea the trail CP51 even existed). We decided that we would go to the last known point (which was the last CP) and try again. This time we found the correct trail and then the control. As we got CP51 and headed back to the Flagler Trail we had no idea where Team Endeavor was, as we reached the Bridge TA for the last time, we were informed that Endeavor had not passed through yet - so we had a slight lead heading back to UCF.
That lead did not hold long - it was only about 10 minutes and Endeavor had caught back up with us and passed us, we passed them again just before CP52 and we both headed out on the road ride together. I took the lead and set a pretty fast pace hoping that Jim, who was towing Wanda would be OK. Endeavor was about 50 yards back of us for this section. When we approached the turn onto Lockwood - disaster struck. I looked for clear, seeing one car, and then looked again and saw clear so I called the crossing to the left lane to turn left. As Jim and Wanda (Jim towing Wanda) crossed a Motorcycle slammed into the back of Wanda, and I turned to see Wanda sliding along the top of the motorcycle and the Rider sliding to a halt. Endeavor was right behind us and immediately went into assist mode. About a dozen people called 911 all at once, and we were able to get assistance to Wanda and the Rider quickly. The fire trucks from Station 48 (one mile away) came about a minute later. Once the paramedics were on scene we told Team Endeavor to continue (they wanted to stay). The police quickly assessed the situation, the motorcyclist was OK, but would be taken to the hospital to be checked out. Wanda had a good sized hole in here ankle, and a nasty burn on here rear where she had landed on the motorcyle muffler.
Once we were cleared to continue (it took a while because they could not find records of Wanda and she had been hurt) we very shakily headed back out on the bike. We made it back to UCF shaken but in one piece. Wanda was clearly in pain - but was determined to continue and finish the race. She had a broken ankle - though she did not know this at the time, and the burn on her rear I think was hurting her more than the ankle. We used a mixture of carry and tow to get through the last section, finishing 2 minutes in front of Mojito's for 2nd place, and winning the point series. A very hard fought victory. I really love this sport; you meet incredible people, do incredible things - but the greatest thing is the sense of camaraderie. Thanks to everyone who was out there - and a big thanks to my team!
And best wished for Wanda to get better - you are one tough girl!
Video of Ditch Trek
Getting a CP in woods
Crossing grassy plain in LBE State Forest
A Nasty Swamp lake with CP
Wanda is really hurting but will finish
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Lighterknot Adventure Race 2013
I originally as not planning on racing this race as it was falling during a very busy time for me. However - knowing that Sheriff's Posse always puts on a great race and the new location at Haw Creek - we put together Honey Stinger with Courtney, Junos, and Jim and decided to make a strong go of it.
Foot 1
At the start teams could choose to do a bike or a foot leg - we chose foot and we also were assigned a starting time that would make us the only team choosing to do it backwards (you can go in any order). This worked out quite well at first as we moved through the first few controls with just small corrections as I adjusted to the map scale (1:20K). We made it to the special challenge at the boat TA with no other teams around and just USAF coming off the water in front of us. Shortly after that we saw a large number of other teams coming from the other direction - they had clustered a little bit as they worked through the challenging controls at the start of their direction.
When we got to where I thought CP8 was - we simply could not find the control. After about 15 minutes of searching we went to the "last known location" strategy. In this case we actually headed north up the trail rather than backtracking because I knew there was a distinctive large intersection north. Because CP7 was also near that intersection we picked that one up and also decided to get CP6 while we were there. We worked with FLXtreme/Hunter as they had completed the bike leg and were now doing the foot section. After finding CP7 and CP6 - it was quite easy to find CP8 and some compass work and pace counting put us right on the control. We headed back to the TA to learn that after the first leg of the race pretty much every other team was now 30 minutes in front of us.
USAF 0:45
Rink Side Sports 0:50
AR Milita 0:58
BikeWorks 1:00
Honey Stinger 1:25
Bike 1
The first bike leg had very simple navigation and a lot of road miles. It was a simple set the odometer and ride hard in a tight bike line to the control. We made up a little of the lost time on this section - but were still significantly behind the pack when we finished the bike leg and headed to the boats for the paddle.
AR Militia 0:56
FLX Hunter 0:57
USAF 0:58
Honey Stinger 1:00
Bike Works 1:02
Rink Side Sports 1:06
Paddle
Haw Creek is simply awesome paddling and there were enough side channels to make the navigation interesting. The only control to give us any trouble was CP14 - we blew right by it as it was down a creek a small way and not terribly visible. The clue was creek within a creek. I quickly realized we had gone too far and we spotted it as we backtracked out. It was a long out and back paddle to CP19 - and we pushed hard. The creek was good paddling and we could see Bikeworks and Rink Side Sports in the distance as we would hit straightaways. In the end we pulled up into the boat TA just as Bikeworks was leaving for the next leg - estimating that we were probably 2 minutes behind them at this point.
USAF 2:05
Honey Stinger 2:07
AR Militia 2:13
FLX Hunter 2:14
Rink Side Sports 2:27
Bike works 2:30
Bike 2
I changed a lot of strategy as we approached this bike leg - we would start with CP24-CP25-CP26 and then come back around and do the first loop that was intended by the cotrol order. We had a little bit of trouble with CP25 - I rode to the gate on the map and then backtracked 100 meters - but the control was more like 90 meters so it took a few extra minutes searching. We planned on taking a trail straight across from CP25 to CP26 - but never found so ended up going back to CP24 an taking the trail straight due south. None of the trails were very bikeable in this section, it was mostly slogging and bikewhacking. Still we were moving fast and nailing each one. We also made a great decision on the last bike whack (CP22). The WP had us going east into the heavy dog fennel. We got the control and pushed on past it to a very good road on the east boundary of the park. This took us directly to CP23 and then it was a road ride in to the main TA.
USAF 1:30
Honey Stinger 1:34
FLX/Hunter 1:33
Bikeworks 1:54
Rink Side Sports 1:57
Trek 2
This trek was all about navigation and strategy. I felt pretty good about the map at this point and was determined to make no errors. We hit pretty much every control dead on and I had pre-plotted the bearing controls which allowed us to go straight for them. I started with CP27 due south down the berm to the small trail. Easy find. Then it was a bearing to CP28, dead on. Then due south to the river and follow river to "Bluff" and CP29. Again easy find. From there it was back to the main road and right at the trail heading toward CP21, I had already plotted this so we headed straight for the marsh - found the marsh (clue was west side of marsh) and then found CP30. CP31 was a bearing from CP30 - dead on, found it easily. We bushwhacked out to the field and the campground - took a bearing from the NE corner of the field and went straight to CP32. From there it was pretty much due north to the mowed road. We went to the WP, took the bearing and once again were dead on the control. I was nearly exhausted as we made the final run back to the TA - but felt we would be in a decent position, we had no ideas where the other teams were at this point and pretty much gave everything we had to bringing it in hard.
USAF 1:09
Honey Stinger 1:17
Rink Side 1:23
Bike Works 1:25
FLX/Hunter 1:39
Finale
In the end - USAF ran a perfect race, fast and dead on in every section. we had a great race after the first foot section, not quite as fast but the navigation was solid. The course was fantastic with a little mix of everything - swamp, woods, trail, road, and incredible paddling. Making up the early time was also really gratifying to the team - we never gave up or even got down, we just kept going at 100% and it paid off in the end.
All results at http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-lighterknot-ar
Foot 1
At the start teams could choose to do a bike or a foot leg - we chose foot and we also were assigned a starting time that would make us the only team choosing to do it backwards (you can go in any order). This worked out quite well at first as we moved through the first few controls with just small corrections as I adjusted to the map scale (1:20K). We made it to the special challenge at the boat TA with no other teams around and just USAF coming off the water in front of us. Shortly after that we saw a large number of other teams coming from the other direction - they had clustered a little bit as they worked through the challenging controls at the start of their direction.
When we got to where I thought CP8 was - we simply could not find the control. After about 15 minutes of searching we went to the "last known location" strategy. In this case we actually headed north up the trail rather than backtracking because I knew there was a distinctive large intersection north. Because CP7 was also near that intersection we picked that one up and also decided to get CP6 while we were there. We worked with FLXtreme/Hunter as they had completed the bike leg and were now doing the foot section. After finding CP7 and CP6 - it was quite easy to find CP8 and some compass work and pace counting put us right on the control. We headed back to the TA to learn that after the first leg of the race pretty much every other team was now 30 minutes in front of us.
USAF 0:45
Rink Side Sports 0:50
AR Milita 0:58
BikeWorks 1:00
Honey Stinger 1:25
Bike 1
The first bike leg had very simple navigation and a lot of road miles. It was a simple set the odometer and ride hard in a tight bike line to the control. We made up a little of the lost time on this section - but were still significantly behind the pack when we finished the bike leg and headed to the boats for the paddle.
AR Militia 0:56
FLX Hunter 0:57
USAF 0:58
Honey Stinger 1:00
Bike Works 1:02
Rink Side Sports 1:06
Paddle
Haw Creek is simply awesome paddling and there were enough side channels to make the navigation interesting. The only control to give us any trouble was CP14 - we blew right by it as it was down a creek a small way and not terribly visible. The clue was creek within a creek. I quickly realized we had gone too far and we spotted it as we backtracked out. It was a long out and back paddle to CP19 - and we pushed hard. The creek was good paddling and we could see Bikeworks and Rink Side Sports in the distance as we would hit straightaways. In the end we pulled up into the boat TA just as Bikeworks was leaving for the next leg - estimating that we were probably 2 minutes behind them at this point.
USAF 2:05
Honey Stinger 2:07
AR Militia 2:13
FLX Hunter 2:14
Rink Side Sports 2:27
Bike works 2:30
Bike 2
I changed a lot of strategy as we approached this bike leg - we would start with CP24-CP25-CP26 and then come back around and do the first loop that was intended by the cotrol order. We had a little bit of trouble with CP25 - I rode to the gate on the map and then backtracked 100 meters - but the control was more like 90 meters so it took a few extra minutes searching. We planned on taking a trail straight across from CP25 to CP26 - but never found so ended up going back to CP24 an taking the trail straight due south. None of the trails were very bikeable in this section, it was mostly slogging and bikewhacking. Still we were moving fast and nailing each one. We also made a great decision on the last bike whack (CP22). The WP had us going east into the heavy dog fennel. We got the control and pushed on past it to a very good road on the east boundary of the park. This took us directly to CP23 and then it was a road ride in to the main TA.
USAF 1:30
Honey Stinger 1:34
FLX/Hunter 1:33
Bikeworks 1:54
Rink Side Sports 1:57
Trek 2
This trek was all about navigation and strategy. I felt pretty good about the map at this point and was determined to make no errors. We hit pretty much every control dead on and I had pre-plotted the bearing controls which allowed us to go straight for them. I started with CP27 due south down the berm to the small trail. Easy find. Then it was a bearing to CP28, dead on. Then due south to the river and follow river to "Bluff" and CP29. Again easy find. From there it was back to the main road and right at the trail heading toward CP21, I had already plotted this so we headed straight for the marsh - found the marsh (clue was west side of marsh) and then found CP30. CP31 was a bearing from CP30 - dead on, found it easily. We bushwhacked out to the field and the campground - took a bearing from the NE corner of the field and went straight to CP32. From there it was pretty much due north to the mowed road. We went to the WP, took the bearing and once again were dead on the control. I was nearly exhausted as we made the final run back to the TA - but felt we would be in a decent position, we had no ideas where the other teams were at this point and pretty much gave everything we had to bringing it in hard.
USAF 1:09
Honey Stinger 1:17
Rink Side 1:23
Bike Works 1:25
FLX/Hunter 1:39
Finale
In the end - USAF ran a perfect race, fast and dead on in every section. we had a great race after the first foot section, not quite as fast but the navigation was solid. The course was fantastic with a little mix of everything - swamp, woods, trail, road, and incredible paddling. Making up the early time was also really gratifying to the team - we never gave up or even got down, we just kept going at 100% and it paid off in the end.
Here are some scenes from the race
 |
| We ended up 2nd overall and 1st coed |
Sunday, October 06, 2013
USARA National Championship - Team Pangea
I knew a lot of folks were waiting for this - the writeup of the USARA National championship. Team Pangea consisted of Ron Eaglin, Greg Owens, and May-Li Cuypers. We would be racing in an extremely competitive Masters category and against the best teams in the country. The race was in Nashville Indiana, and incredibly picturesque town in Central Indiana.
Greg and I actually rented bikes (29") from a local bike shop (Hesitation Point Bike shop). We arrived before checkin, got our bikes and headed to the checkin. Brown County has an incredible set of single track bike trails and and IMBA Epic designation - so we were looking forward to some wonderful single track. We were also looking forward to some great weather - highs near 80. lows near 60.
We received our maps at 6 AM Friday morning, 2 massive 1:24K scale topo maps, and 20 points to plot. I got to plotting while May-Li and Greg got to planning. We finished at 7:45 AM and were just in time to make the 8 AM start time.
Start and Leg 1
We started with a 1 mile cross country run to split the teams up before hitting the single track. This would be followed with a 15 mile marked single track bike course. We went out incredibly fast with the strategy of getting a good placement heading into the single track. Of course so did 180 other top class athletes. We flew through the run and the next section was pure concentration, flying single track at all levels (beginner through expert), no CP's - marked course and some fast biking. It was also for me - battling cramps (many other experienced cramping due to the ultra-fast start). After 15 miles of screaming single track - we arrived at Hesitation Point and CP1. From this point on it would switch from a bike race to an adventure race as we would be navigating.
Despite the early cramps we were moving well and picked up CP2 quickly, though not as quickly as I would have liked, since I was still getting used to the map and the terrain. I handed the map to Greg to find CP3 - while I concentrated on controlling my cramps. (I don't remember anything from this section at all other than pain). After what seemed like hours (it was probably 15 minutes) - I was feeling better and took the navigation back - and we took an interesting off-road bush-whacky route to the road leading to CP4 and CP5 which was a long out and back. As we headed south to CP4 we saw some of the lead teams heading back (and biking at an unbelievable pace). CP4 and CP5 went without incident - and we were with a number of other teams at that point. Interesting because we did not see any teams due to route choice from CP3.
From CP5 it was north to the TA and the start of the paddle. We would be passing through a small town called Helmsburg and I had high hopes for a convenience store. It worked out pretty well, there was a corner store where we purchased Gatorade and Milk - which we drank in the TA just a mile from the store.
The Paddle
From the looks of the TA there were at least 40 teams in front of us at TA1. The instructions were to drop the bikes and take our boats and head for the water. Well water would be a strong word for it, the sliver of a creek on the map was just that, a sliver of a creek. We proceeded with the boat-whack/portage section of the race. After Patagonia 2012 no portage looks hard and Greg worked hard dragging the boat along through the shallow water. In some spots we were actually able to get in and paddle - but the real paddling did not start until we reached the wider channel east of Lake Lemon.
The checkpoints on the lake were pretty easy, especially since the prior racers had really turned the routes into foot trails. We had fun with CP9, where we had to squeeze through a culvert to get a point where we were allowed to drop our boats. It was all pretty straight-forward and we were feeling pretty good when we got to CP10.
Split Up
As we approached CP10 we could see 2 person teams rafting from CP11 to CP10. We were not sure what this meant - but we soon found out. At CP10 the team was split up. I headed out into the darkness 2 checkpoints (blue dots I drew on the map) and Greg and May-Li had to paddle the canoe across the lake to CP11 where they dropped the canoe and then rafted back. Even though it was dark I had no real trouble with the 2 checkpoints - there were lots of other folks out there looking for them, and we worked together to find them. It took me nearly 45 minutes - much more than what I estimated it would take Greg and May-li to paddle 1 km, drop a boat, and paddle back. Sure enough they had been waiting for about 30 minutes when I came jogging in. Had we planned it better I would have gotten the map and took off while they messed around with gear (the opposite of what we did). Now back together - we headed out on the long trek and our only issue of the race.
Long Trek
The next section was a long trek 5 checkpoints. We did not get off to a great start here. We attacked CP12 from the south re-entrant - and did it again. And again. Eventually after about 90 minutes of attacks and re-attacks we gave up and moved on. The remaining controls proved much easier and we even took some risky route choices - including an almost direct route from CP15 to CP16. This leg still took us nearly 7 hours and we were really happy to pull into TA1 again.
Orienteering
At TA3 we were given and Orienteering map and we headed out on my favorite - orienteering. This was pair orienteering - so some strategy was involved. In pair orienteering you are given checkpoints in pairs - and you must collect both points in each pair for them to count. So there will be a CP A1 and CP A2 - you must visit them both to get credit. The strategy is that we only needed to collect 4 of 7 controls pairs - so you must decide which ones to visit. We completed this section in just under 3 hours - my legs by now were toasted - though we still were jogging a lot of the downhills.
Bike to Start/Finish
The sun came up during the orienteering, and now it was early morning with 2 sections left, a bike ride to the main TA with 4 checkpoints (CP17-20)
and the final orienteering. The bike leg was easy - Greg navigated it and we had one minor error. We ended up at the main TA with 2 hours left to race. We only had enough time to get one checkpoint and chose to get AA (it was far, but easy).
Greg and I actually rented bikes (29") from a local bike shop (Hesitation Point Bike shop). We arrived before checkin, got our bikes and headed to the checkin. Brown County has an incredible set of single track bike trails and and IMBA Epic designation - so we were looking forward to some wonderful single track. We were also looking forward to some great weather - highs near 80. lows near 60.
We received our maps at 6 AM Friday morning, 2 massive 1:24K scale topo maps, and 20 points to plot. I got to plotting while May-Li and Greg got to planning. We finished at 7:45 AM and were just in time to make the 8 AM start time.
Start and Leg 1
We started with a 1 mile cross country run to split the teams up before hitting the single track. This would be followed with a 15 mile marked single track bike course. We went out incredibly fast with the strategy of getting a good placement heading into the single track. Of course so did 180 other top class athletes. We flew through the run and the next section was pure concentration, flying single track at all levels (beginner through expert), no CP's - marked course and some fast biking. It was also for me - battling cramps (many other experienced cramping due to the ultra-fast start). After 15 miles of screaming single track - we arrived at Hesitation Point and CP1. From this point on it would switch from a bike race to an adventure race as we would be navigating.
Despite the early cramps we were moving well and picked up CP2 quickly, though not as quickly as I would have liked, since I was still getting used to the map and the terrain. I handed the map to Greg to find CP3 - while I concentrated on controlling my cramps. (I don't remember anything from this section at all other than pain). After what seemed like hours (it was probably 15 minutes) - I was feeling better and took the navigation back - and we took an interesting off-road bush-whacky route to the road leading to CP4 and CP5 which was a long out and back. As we headed south to CP4 we saw some of the lead teams heading back (and biking at an unbelievable pace). CP4 and CP5 went without incident - and we were with a number of other teams at that point. Interesting because we did not see any teams due to route choice from CP3.
From CP5 it was north to the TA and the start of the paddle. We would be passing through a small town called Helmsburg and I had high hopes for a convenience store. It worked out pretty well, there was a corner store where we purchased Gatorade and Milk - which we drank in the TA just a mile from the store.
The Paddle
From the looks of the TA there were at least 40 teams in front of us at TA1. The instructions were to drop the bikes and take our boats and head for the water. Well water would be a strong word for it, the sliver of a creek on the map was just that, a sliver of a creek. We proceeded with the boat-whack/portage section of the race. After Patagonia 2012 no portage looks hard and Greg worked hard dragging the boat along through the shallow water. In some spots we were actually able to get in and paddle - but the real paddling did not start until we reached the wider channel east of Lake Lemon.
The checkpoints on the lake were pretty easy, especially since the prior racers had really turned the routes into foot trails. We had fun with CP9, where we had to squeeze through a culvert to get a point where we were allowed to drop our boats. It was all pretty straight-forward and we were feeling pretty good when we got to CP10.
Split Up
As we approached CP10 we could see 2 person teams rafting from CP11 to CP10. We were not sure what this meant - but we soon found out. At CP10 the team was split up. I headed out into the darkness 2 checkpoints (blue dots I drew on the map) and Greg and May-Li had to paddle the canoe across the lake to CP11 where they dropped the canoe and then rafted back. Even though it was dark I had no real trouble with the 2 checkpoints - there were lots of other folks out there looking for them, and we worked together to find them. It took me nearly 45 minutes - much more than what I estimated it would take Greg and May-li to paddle 1 km, drop a boat, and paddle back. Sure enough they had been waiting for about 30 minutes when I came jogging in. Had we planned it better I would have gotten the map and took off while they messed around with gear (the opposite of what we did). Now back together - we headed out on the long trek and our only issue of the race.
Long Trek
The next section was a long trek 5 checkpoints. We did not get off to a great start here. We attacked CP12 from the south re-entrant - and did it again. And again. Eventually after about 90 minutes of attacks and re-attacks we gave up and moved on. The remaining controls proved much easier and we even took some risky route choices - including an almost direct route from CP15 to CP16. This leg still took us nearly 7 hours and we were really happy to pull into TA1 again.
Orienteering
At TA3 we were given and Orienteering map and we headed out on my favorite - orienteering. This was pair orienteering - so some strategy was involved. In pair orienteering you are given checkpoints in pairs - and you must collect both points in each pair for them to count. So there will be a CP A1 and CP A2 - you must visit them both to get credit. The strategy is that we only needed to collect 4 of 7 controls pairs - so you must decide which ones to visit. We completed this section in just under 3 hours - my legs by now were toasted - though we still were jogging a lot of the downhills.
Bike to Start/Finish
The sun came up during the orienteering, and now it was early morning with 2 sections left, a bike ride to the main TA with 4 checkpoints (CP17-20)
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Superhero Adventure Race - September 28, 2013
Here is a little rundown for Team Honey Stinger (Jim Gorton, Caryn Ciesla, in the Superhero Adventure Race. The race was held at Blue Springs State Par. Teams were staggered by minute intervals and also split between a paddle leg and a foot/tube leg for the start. We started at 9:05 on the foo/ tubing section. The navigation was pretty easy and we quickly caught up with the other teams on the foot portion of this leg and were the first to hit the tubes. We took full advantage of the 100 meter rule on the tube section and let Jim do the hard swimming while Caryn and I had a pretty easy float. We ended up posting the fastest time of all teams for this section of 37 minutes.
We transitioned very quickly to the boats and headed upstream first to CP15, then CP11, CP14, CP12, CP13 and CP10. This leg was very uneventful other than CP13 being a little north of the mapped location. We posted the second fastest time on this leg - and had the lead as we headed out to the single track biking leg next.
The single track biking was a lot of fun. We moved quickly through the trail network. We had a prescribed course to follow with 2 Checkpoints along different sections. As we got to the bailout on the Green course we had only gotten 5 of the 6 checkpoints that were supposed to be at the unmapped locations. Instead of following the course out - I thought we had missed one and we ended up doing the orange trail (I call it rattlesnake) again. We ran into a few times that were doing it for the first time and I realized we had not missed it. We jumped onto yellow trail where it connected with the green bailout and quickly found the missing CP. We were now with a large group of teams - I recorded the locations of 2 controls at the trailhead and we headed out to get those points. We were leading a small pack of teams towards the main TA, about 100 meters out when Jim gave me the turnaround signal. He had realized we had not checked out of the bike course - so we headed back to bike course entrance - that cost us about 15-20 minutes, oops.
Now we knew we had some real time to make up (and one section of course to do it in). The next section was a bike to a trek and a bike back. We caught the first group of teams at CP25. The bike section was long and sandy and we eventually reached the bike drop and took off on the trek. Caryn struggles a bit with the bike - but Jim assisted with a tow, so we were making good progress.The trek was an awesome one with lots of navigation and off road and trail travel - not much to say here, we hit every control pretty much dead-on, but it was not enough to get us back to the lead - there are some good teams out there.
After we biked back and had a small issue with CP34 (I ended up on the wrong side of a fence). At the finish we found that it was an incredibly close race. Pinnacle Mobfit (they were with us when we turned back to get the bike TA checkout) had been narrowly edged out by Cow Tipping Dwarfs. Unfortunately the Dwarf's had failed to return to the main TA after the singletrack bike and had not gotten their passport - thus costing them a CP (which pushed them back behind all the course clearing teams). The Dwarfs did prove that they belong in elite racing, though and were really just edged out by a rookie mistake that would have only added a few minutes to their time (going back to the main TA from CP24/34). Bike Works showed that given an opportunity they are quite capable of hitting the top of the podium, and the Canyoneeros used sheer force of will for a great finish.
We got 5th overall and 2nd coed - and had a great time.
Here is a little video of the course;
Results at http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-superhero-ar
 |
| Foot/Tubing Section Map |
We transitioned very quickly to the boats and headed upstream first to CP15, then CP11, CP14, CP12, CP13 and CP10. This leg was very uneventful other than CP13 being a little north of the mapped location. We posted the second fastest time on this leg - and had the lead as we headed out to the single track biking leg next.
The single track biking was a lot of fun. We moved quickly through the trail network. We had a prescribed course to follow with 2 Checkpoints along different sections. As we got to the bailout on the Green course we had only gotten 5 of the 6 checkpoints that were supposed to be at the unmapped locations. Instead of following the course out - I thought we had missed one and we ended up doing the orange trail (I call it rattlesnake) again. We ran into a few times that were doing it for the first time and I realized we had not missed it. We jumped onto yellow trail where it connected with the green bailout and quickly found the missing CP. We were now with a large group of teams - I recorded the locations of 2 controls at the trailhead and we headed out to get those points. We were leading a small pack of teams towards the main TA, about 100 meters out when Jim gave me the turnaround signal. He had realized we had not checked out of the bike course - so we headed back to bike course entrance - that cost us about 15-20 minutes, oops.
Now we knew we had some real time to make up (and one section of course to do it in). The next section was a bike to a trek and a bike back. We caught the first group of teams at CP25. The bike section was long and sandy and we eventually reached the bike drop and took off on the trek. Caryn struggles a bit with the bike - but Jim assisted with a tow, so we were making good progress.The trek was an awesome one with lots of navigation and off road and trail travel - not much to say here, we hit every control pretty much dead-on, but it was not enough to get us back to the lead - there are some good teams out there.
After we biked back and had a small issue with CP34 (I ended up on the wrong side of a fence). At the finish we found that it was an incredibly close race. Pinnacle Mobfit (they were with us when we turned back to get the bike TA checkout) had been narrowly edged out by Cow Tipping Dwarfs. Unfortunately the Dwarf's had failed to return to the main TA after the singletrack bike and had not gotten their passport - thus costing them a CP (which pushed them back behind all the course clearing teams). The Dwarfs did prove that they belong in elite racing, though and were really just edged out by a rookie mistake that would have only added a few minutes to their time (going back to the main TA from CP24/34). Bike Works showed that given an opportunity they are quite capable of hitting the top of the podium, and the Canyoneeros used sheer force of will for a great finish.
We got 5th overall and 2nd coed - and had a great time.
Here is a little video of the course;
Results at http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-superhero-ar
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Nocturnal AR 2013
Here is a little video clip of the Nocturnal while it was still light.
The biggest challenges were CP5 - long paddle, lots of deadfall, video tells it all.
CP5 - We took the south river split which was very clogged (we heard the North split was better). We dropped boats and trekked to the CP with Nature Calls, and also had trouble finding boats on return trip. The total trek distance was about 300 meters out and 300 meters back.
CP7, 8, 9 - A lot of teams had trouble here. We found 7 easily and then just tracked the curves of the river to CP8. We doubled back past CP7 and found CP9 with no issues. The trick on CP9 was to keep close track of the distance - the curves on the map were a lot more subtle than the actual river. There were multiple channels at the split - the largest went east and north and that was the correct one. There was also (unmapped) a channel continuing east and a second channel heading south.
CP19 was tricky, the actual road curved east. This is a little difficult to see because the CP mark on the map is just above the curve. After a couple of odd attempts we found the old mapped logging road, totally overgrown. Once we found that road we took it to the marsh - and after after finding the marsh it no problem. (time spend search - 23 min)
CP14 took us the longest time. The unmapped cross trail gave us trouble (I marked it in yellow and you can see it in the areal map). Our original track was from the south along the dark red mapped trails. We ended up at the correct location - but did not find the control. While looking for it the first time I started down what looked like a path that was blocked by trees - so turned back. After trying out a bunch of different trails we used the "Last known point" part of AR - which is return to your last know point. So we returned to the last known point where the Florida Trail came out about 1 km south of the CP (and just north of CP12) and used the Florida Trail on the second attack. This time we ended up in the exact same spot. This time I pushed through the wax myrtle trees that I had stopped at on the first try - and found the CP - right where it was mapped. (time elapsed from first time at correct location to finally finding the control 1 hr, 10 min)
The last orienteering leg was a lot of fun too. We had the fastest time there - 1:02 and yes we did run it, mostly with Team Mojitos on Monday.
Overall - we had a great race, with only one real navigation hiccup (CP14) - making that leg cost us 2 hrs, 43 minutes - in comparison Team Northwest AR completed it 1:37. What helped us was having a great second bike leg - we completed that in 4:24 and the next closest team was Canyoneeros in 6:04.
Full results and splits are at http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-nocturnal-challenge-ar
Also pictures of this and all the races are at https://www.facebook.com/pangeaadventureracing
CP5 - We took the south river split which was very clogged (we heard the North split was better). We dropped boats and trekked to the CP with Nature Calls, and also had trouble finding boats on return trip. The total trek distance was about 300 meters out and 300 meters back.
CP7, 8, 9 - A lot of teams had trouble here. We found 7 easily and then just tracked the curves of the river to CP8. We doubled back past CP7 and found CP9 with no issues. The trick on CP9 was to keep close track of the distance - the curves on the map were a lot more subtle than the actual river. There were multiple channels at the split - the largest went east and north and that was the correct one. There was also (unmapped) a channel continuing east and a second channel heading south.
CP19 was tricky, the actual road curved east. This is a little difficult to see because the CP mark on the map is just above the curve. After a couple of odd attempts we found the old mapped logging road, totally overgrown. Once we found that road we took it to the marsh - and after after finding the marsh it no problem. (time spend search - 23 min)
CP14 took us the longest time. The unmapped cross trail gave us trouble (I marked it in yellow and you can see it in the areal map). Our original track was from the south along the dark red mapped trails. We ended up at the correct location - but did not find the control. While looking for it the first time I started down what looked like a path that was blocked by trees - so turned back. After trying out a bunch of different trails we used the "Last known point" part of AR - which is return to your last know point. So we returned to the last known point where the Florida Trail came out about 1 km south of the CP (and just north of CP12) and used the Florida Trail on the second attack. This time we ended up in the exact same spot. This time I pushed through the wax myrtle trees that I had stopped at on the first try - and found the CP - right where it was mapped. (time elapsed from first time at correct location to finally finding the control 1 hr, 10 min)
The last orienteering leg was a lot of fun too. We had the fastest time there - 1:02 and yes we did run it, mostly with Team Mojitos on Monday.
Overall - we had a great race, with only one real navigation hiccup (CP14) - making that leg cost us 2 hrs, 43 minutes - in comparison Team Northwest AR completed it 1:37. What helped us was having a great second bike leg - we completed that in 4:24 and the next closest team was Canyoneeros in 6:04.
Full results and splits are at http://pangeaadventureracing.com/event-details/events/2013-nocturnal-challenge-ar
Also pictures of this and all the races are at https://www.facebook.com/pangeaadventureracing
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