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
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| We ended up 2nd overall and 1st coed |
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