Atlantic Coast Conquest 2008

Atlantic Coast Conquest 2008 – 30 hour race
Team SWIM Photos Courtesy of Team Race Photos

Well –Team SWIM is really made up of Rob and Sheri, however when they ended up with a conflict for the St. Anthony’s triathlon – I decided to take over and put together a team. The weekend before (yes one week) I called up race partners Chris Xiste (partner for LEACH 2007) and Jim Levine (USARA Nationals 2007) and Jamie Sheriff (toughest woman alive) and we had a team.

Preparing the maps, notice the help of my team-mates!

We got our maps and passports at 7:30 AM and were told to be ready for the 9 AM start. We would be starting with the Short race (4 hour race) but splitting up after a short run. The 1 ½ hours proved to be ample time to prepare maps as most of the CP’s were marked. After a 20 odd mile (2 ½ hours) off-road bike loop most of the teams hit the water together for the epic paddle. Though the paddle distance was less than 20 miles, the challenging navigation and one really tricky checkpoint made my list of epic paddles, of course we would get a chance to do it twice. The wildlife was spectacular with multiple Bald Eagles and even a flock of Roseate Spoonbill’s that flew right over the tops of our boats. And of course alligators! We took a little extra time to get lost, we made strategic portages, we worked with the other team near us (Eco-Choice) and finally arrived at the Destination at Jim Creek around 6 PM. We arrived at TA just behind Eco-Choice and left out on bikes just before the arrival of Florida Xtreme. We knew we had waning light that we wanted to most of since the bike ride was all single track which becomes exponentially more difficult in the dark.

Chris and Jamie Paddling Hard

We did lots of portaging


View Larger Map
These are the lakes that we crossed at the start and finish, try zooming in on the channel connecting the top lake to the others, tht was one tough part.

The bike ride went essentially smooth and we were making excellent time. This is also a team strength and we expected to make some progress on the field in this section. However tough terrain and aggressive night biking sometimes do not mix. Jamie sheared her derailleur of her bike. It was then I realized I had removed my chain tool for repairs a few races ago and had not returned it to my bike pouch. Of course nobody else on the team had one either – so we ended up duct taping the derailleur so the chain would still thread and moving to a bike push. We had one section where we passed within 3 miles of the TA – so we headed in to do some bike repairs. We headed back out and decided to pick up the CP’s we missed in reverse order. Under the 528 underpass we ran into FL XTreme, they looked strong – we continued on and completed the loop. My best guess was we lost an hour to the broken bike parts. Chris must have fallen 10 times, I broke a spoke (and had to release my back brake for the rest of the ride), but the most spectacular wreck was Jimmy who endoed and shattered his helmet.

Link to cracked helmet

At the next TA we fueled up and headed out on a 6 mile trek just behind Eco-Choice. FL Xtreme had not arrived yet, but did come in right as we were leaving on the short 6 mile trek. The first CP appeared to be misplaced near the edge of a pond with a ton of beady red eyes. We located the CP and I could see the lights of Eco-Choice across the pond so I shouted to them the correct location. The trek had some great bushwhacking and we were overtaken by a fast-running Team FL Xtreme with about 2 miles to go. After they were safely ahead we moved into a jog. I wanted to start the next section without the other teams too close. FL Xtreme was heading out just as we arrived at the TA. Even though the race director said the route was easy – for some reason I felt it might be challenging.

It was now around midnight and the bike ride was pretty cool. We were in an open area along the river following cow tracks (much like single track). I zoned out and forgot to measure the distance from one CP to the next (24 to 25) and ended up overshooting and having to head back after locating CP 26. Chris fell a few more times in the sand – we lost count of the falls in this section. As we arrived in the next TA for the final trek (12 miles) we learned that none of the other teams had arrived. We started out with a solid jog but went to a walk as we entered the woods. We attempted one bonus point here – that proved to be extremely difficult in the dark, so we bailed. We bushwhacked essentially all the way to CP27 where we ran into Team FL XTreme again. We decided to work together for CP 28, 29, and 30 – which turned out to be a good choice. The 2 mile jog to CP28 was refreshing, but then the real bushwhack started. We first crossed a cypress swamp in the dark which was relatively easy to the terrain we crossed as we merged into wiregrass and tall fennel. The weeds were so thick that Chris simply dived into them to push them down so we could cross. It seemed like forever until we reached CP29, and the sun did come up while we pushed across the swamp. It would be CP30 that would bring all the teams together. The map showed this being roughly ¼ mile south of CP29 ( a later look at an aerial shot showed we were way off).

Eco-choice showed up while we were looking, and so did Team Big Daddy’s on bike. It turns out they had some issues with the paddle and had been “short-coursed”. We never did find CP30 even though I tried for about another 20 minutes after FL XTreme bailed out and headed to the boats. I had calculated that we would need to leave in boats by 9 AM to make the cutoff (3:15 PM) for the finish. We left at 9:15 AM behind FL Xtreme and just before Eco-Choice.


View Larger Map
Just south of the lettering for Tossahatchee where the small creek meets the power lines (distinct Northeast to Southwest cut (try scrolling the map to see) is where the paddle take-out was. If you want a real challenge try scrolling the map and following our course north back to Loughman Lake. Good Luck !
The first part of the paddle was beautiful, both Jimmy and Jamie were having a hard time staying awake. We caught up with FL Xtreme just before SR50 and saw them take the west river route, we chose to take the east route. After a few more miles Team Eco-Choice overtook us and we paddled together. Our team, though good paddlers was not able to keep pace with John and Rod who are an extremely strong paddling team. I was focusing very hard on tracking our route through this tricky section of river – but I let my attention go for about 5 minutes and the next thing I knew, I had no idea where we were. Luckily I was able to use a treeline in the distance to re-orient and achieve what I though was the main channel, but we had lost time and we were in a false channel. After 15 more minutes of going in circles I finally called on the team and convinced them we simply needed to pick a straight line and portage. This time it worked and we emerged east of the treeline and in the correct lake.

The next mistake here was believing the map that showed a northern passage to Lake Loughman. This passage did not exist (I confirmed later by looking at online aerials) and we debated more portaging or doubling back. We selected to double back and confirmed the correct channel by seeing an airboat passing through it. Now completely back on track we were moving fast. We could see the next CP (the tower at the south end of Loughman Lake) and we pushed towards it. Two challenges remained one was traversing the channel between the two lakes with a strong current and shallow water. This was so bad we simply jumped out and pulled the boats along. The next one was crossing Loughman Lake into a strong wind with only 20 minutes remaining. As we emerged into Loughman Lake I could see FL Xtreme about halfway through the lake. Our goal at this point was beating the time cutoff. We hammered this paddle, into the wind, leaped out of the boats on the other side and ran into the finish line with 1 minute to spare.

Jimmy and Ron hammering to make the cutoff

Food for Racing

One of the most common question I get about racing (besides sleep strategy) is what do I eat. This is pretty easily answered - but first you must understand that you will

- Burn 500-800 calories per hour
- Eat 200-300 calories per hour

in at typical 24-40 hour race. So to gage your eating you simply need to figure out how many calories you'll need for a leg; say 10 hours * 300 calories = 3000 calories.

Next you need to pack these calories. The easiest way is to simply put 1000 calories of food in a plastic bag and grab one bag for every 3-4 hours.

OK - so now what do you put in the bags. First, I like a flask of hammer gel with me on every leg, so that goes separate from the bags and is refilled every TA. In the bags, I first want something crunchy - granola bars are my favorite. I like some fruit, mostly apples and bananas. I like some meat - usually beef jerky, hot dogs, and vienna sausages. Then your typical candy bars, energy bars, and other assorted bars. Finally sandwiches; PBJ, Ham, Turkey - anything on bread - though I prefer mine on bagels. These are all mixed in the bags.

Next mix it up - the idea is simple - nothing looks good to eat when you are exhausted - but hopefully you'll find something palatable if you give yourself a good selection.

As for fluids - I always carry some mixed drink in my hydration bladder (usually Gatorade), and on the bike at least one of my bottles will be pure water. The idea is to get as many calories as I can from fluids.

For those who want to lose weight (which is not usually adventure racers), I have lost more than 10 pounds in a single race and this was not hydration loss. Even with eating as much as you can bear - you will still run a calorie deficit of possibly 400 calories per hour. In 10 hours this is 4000 calories, which is nearly 2 pounds ! Now extend this over a multi-day race (like the 3 day Florida Coast to Coast and it is an easy calculation to see how you can lose 10 pounds.

Circle F - Family Weekend

I'll add some pics to this post later, but this weekend we had a family weekend with a few of my kids girls scouts (Troop 3056) at the Circle F Dude Ranch http://www.campchannel.com/camps/1851.html

The weekend was aa blast filled with kayaking, volleyball, paintball, horseback riding, climbing, swimming, and other activities as planned by the Circle F folks. If you are an active family (this is not for the couch potato crowd) - and you want a fun family weekend for a good price (2 nights lodging, all meals - excellent food, activities - for about $500 for 4 people). Some of the activities cost extra - but $20 for 2 hours of horseback riding is the best price you will find in Florida. Anyway - I'll post some family pics on this soon.

XStream Adventure Camp - Gravity Play Sports

Having made the commitment to do Primal Quest our team (Team Blue) knew we needed to get together and there was no better chance for this than Gravity Play’s adventure camp, that not only would allows us a chance to meet and get to know each other – but also to complete the certifications required for PQ. The camp was a 3 day camp starting on a Friday – but the team decided to travel on Wednesday so that we could get together for some training before the camp. I flew into Salt Lake City where I met up with team-mates Julie and Dom, rented a car and then drove to Moab where we would meet up with Kent. We met up, had dinner, but made an early night of it as we would have a long day on Thursday.

The drive from Salt Lake City to Moab is increble scenery and wildlife - we must have seen thousands of deer (and some Llama's too)

Kent had planned a nice training day for us on Thursday, and I had rented a bike from a local bike shop (rentals are from about $30-$75 per day in Moab and there are plenty of places to rent) for our ride. Our plan was to ride from town up to the entrance of the Porcupine Rim trail and then take the rim loop back to Moab. We expected a 5-6 hour ride at a moderate pace with plenty of time to catch the scenery. Of course from Moab – it is pretty much up to get to Porcupine Rim. Julie and I both being flatlanders and used to sea level oxygen had a tough going keeping up with Kent and Dom who hammered out the uphill road miles to Porcupine Rim trail, though that is where the real fun starts. The first part of this trail is essentially uphill with some short downhills. It was not terribly treacherous, though we did have to contend with snow covering the trails on the northern non-exposed trail sections, but when we reached the top we were rewarded with incredible views from Porcupine Rim. It overlooks an incredible valley where the Priest and Nuns (famous from PQ Utah were clearly visible). This is also were we started some incredible downhill riding. The double track trail was rocky with lots of 1-2 foot drops that you would take at very high speed (as you were going downhill). This was an absolute blast; accurately described as better than sex by the local tour guide. After hoofing it up nearly 3000 feet it was a long adrenaline filled downhill rush. To make it more fun I had one endo (though it was benign as I luckily landed in sand). We reached an infamous single track section that I decided to walk, not because of how technical it was, but because the penalty for a mistake was a 100-200 foot drop off the right side of the cliff. As we moved further from the edge, I was bolder and truly enjoyed the ride.

Entrance to the Porcupine Rim Trail and some incredible Class 4 Moutain Biking. To really see this take a look at http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/trails/porcup.htm

Porcupine Rim offers some of the most incredible views as long as you don't mind incredible drop-offs that give you that queasy feeling.

I turned in my bike (after 6 hours of riding), we hit a quick dinner and after a short debate we decided to explore Negro Bill Canyon (on a well established trail) and some of the side canyons. The plan was to stay in the canyons until well after dark. The far end of Negro Bill Canyon is well worth it as you are rewarded by a small beautiful aquifer filled pool with a stunning arch overhead. As it got dark we decided to give the other side canyons a look. Most of them had well established trails, that we had a hard time following in the dark, though we only canyoned out once. It was a great adventure climbing over some challenging rocks in the canyons until we reached the end – viewing from below some spots we would get to see from above the next day when we biked Slick Rock.

The camp officially started on Friday, so we registered and got ready for the mountain biking day – which would entail a trip to Slick Rock with some expert mountain bikers. For those people who like tough single track I have only one thing here to say – don’t die before riding Slick Rock Trail. Slick rock is really a misnomer – the rock has more the consistency of sand paper, it grips the tires of your bikes making it possible to do incredibly steep up and downhill rides on your bike. I walked most of the steeper uphills, usually passing folks who decided to chug it up on the bike, though Dom and Kent rode nearly every uphill. You simply had to lean forward and push as hard as you could to make it up. Each time I would do this I would end up looking like a fish that was gasping for air at the top as my lung burned from the new elevation. The downhills though were a different story. At first I tentatively explored the limits of my rental bike (A Santa Cruz Superlite – I WANT ONE). As I gained confidence in the traction and abilities of my bike and suspension I took the downhills more and more aggressively. These downhill sections on rocks at typically 30-40% slope were absolutely incredible. The bike hugged the rock tightly and the suspension on my bike made what could have been a major jolting into fun, screaming downhill wild-ass rides. I was having a great time. Our small group stopped for lunch about half-way on slick rock, there were some awesome riders in the group, they were all heading to PQ as this was the certification for them too.


Julie took one nasty spill on a section of heavily sloped rock, and Dom went down hard on an uphill and actually broke his bike frame. Another group member broke their ankle, though I missed that one. Dome decided he would run his bike back the 6 miles to the trailhead (which you could see). The rest of the team walked the uphills with him, but as soon as he got far enough ahead we would go after the downhill sections. Elbows low to the ground and butts hanging far over the back of the seat – we were having a great time and all too soon it was over. I got a newfound respect for downhill as I saw riders taking lines that would have been well beyond my abilities, with plenty of jumps, air, and speed – but I was happy with the ride and had a fantastic time. Do Slick Rock!

Words cannot do justice to the ride at slick rock, even the pictures are simply not enough, for more on this trail check out http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/trails/slickrck.htm

The rest of the day was filled with a classroom session on first aid and our swimming certification (what was supposed to be a mile swim). It was pretty uneventful, though the cold (50ish degrees) air made a lot of folks apprehensive about hitting the swimming pool. The water was warm and I enjoyed the swim enough I stayed in a little extra before joining the team in the hot tub to warm up. We were starting to get a nice team dynamic. Dom and Kent are both incredible bikers – especially on single track and uphill terrain and also would make great team-mates. We were nice and tired by the time we finished dinner and the classroom sessions and we had a nice full day of whitewater kayaking for Saturday.

A frontal system had moved through Maob cooling things down considerably – so our biggest worry on the whitewater would be cold. The kayaking would be in rubber tandems on the Colorado River just past the site of PQ 2006. With Kent and I in one boat and Julie and Dom in the other we hit the water with about 6 other (4 person) teams. WE did have the obligatory what to do in whitewater and safety speech where we stood around and shivered, but once we hit the water we warmed up quickly (we were wearing wetsuits). Julie took an unintentional swim as they crossed into an eddy through a particularly strong eddy line, but even then she said she was not that cold. The 43 degree water was actually refreshing. Kent and I had a great time in the whitewater looking for the most aggressive lines through each rapid and being disappointed when we would eddy out and see a tougher line we missed. None of the rapids were too challenging, topping out at an easy class 3 and you could see all the boats were having a good time. The sun was out and strong by the time we finished and we enjoyed a nice lunch in the sun as we dried out and got ready for the bus trip back. We would finish up the day with classroom sessions in navigation and general adventure racing topics from the Team Solomon/Crested Butte. As it turns out the instructors from Boulder Performance Network and Team SCB were excellent – though I had different techniques of doing some of the navigation. They had excellent racing tips and gear recommendations – and I am also sure all the PQ teams there appreciated the insight they were able to give into the dynamics of such a long race. Tired once again we slept well and got our gear ready for Sunday and our final certification – climbing.

All of our team-mates had plenty of climbing, ascending, and rapelling experience – but we also don’t get that much easy access to experienced climbing instructors and we were all eager to get as many tips to perfect our technique. The PQ requires a specific type of single rope prussic on the rappel’s – so I learned a new technique (that was a pretty good one). This turned out to be important as both Dom and I have Figure 8 devices that simply do not provide enough stopping power without aggressive braking. My figure 8 will actually let me slip through at full speed without a strong braking hand, which is why I use an ATC – which at the time was not allowed by the PQ staff, though I believe it has been added.

Dom demonstrates his awesome ascending. The entire team did great on the ropes and enjoyed both ascents and rappels.

Ascending is a completely different animal. I had never done froggy style ascent, typically preferring a Croll and single hand ascender technique. I was determined to learn all the techniques and had ample opportunity to try multiple techniques on multiple types of rock faces – from free hanging to sloped hard rock. We also got to do a really cool zip line on a double pulley system, one of my favorites for sheer fun. The day was quite cold and as we were doing our last lesson; self rescues on a knotted rope, it started to snow. It was almost surreal ascending back up the rock after the lesson in the snow. We climbed into the van and headed back. It was hard to believe it was all over. A few racers were hanging out talking with team SCB and the folks from Gravity Play. They had coordinated a wonderful and enjoyable camp experience. Our team had completed the obligatory certifications for Primal Quest, but more important had gelled as a team. I don’t know what will face us at PQ – but I do know we will have an awesome team facing it together!

Team Blue (Left to Right, Kent, Dom, Julie, and Ron)

For more on Team Blue check out our Primal Quest Blog at http://pqteamblue.blogspot.com/

Best Orlando Area Race (BOAR 2008)

I got the call from Rob (Team SWIM) the week before the race. Hey – you up for another race, we need a 4th for the BOAR. Well of course – I’m always up for a good race and also with a good team. The BOAR has been a race that for 5 years running has highlighted some really cool areas and this would be the first time we would be racing at the Orlando Wetland Park, so the team (Rob, Sheri, Stefan, and I) lined our bikes up for the mass start early morning on Saturday, March 1.

The race started with what looked like a 6 mile loop around the wetlands park on hard packed berm roads.

Note the tight bike line!

Two team (Village Bike and SWIM) pushed the early pace and established a pretty strong lead on the remainder of the pack as we cam around past the TA and received our first set of race instructions.Village Bike lost some time as they had left their trekking shoes in the TA and had to go back and get them as we would be trekking later in the race without a chance to return to the TA before that. It was off to the boat pickup, another few miles where we would do a challenging navigation paddle to Hatbill Park. The day was gorgeous and there were lots of folks on the river (or should I say rivers) – this section of the St. John’s River is really a complex maze of streams cutting through grassland flats with lots of gators. We made all the right navigation choices here and made it to the CP at Hatbill Park where we hopped out of our boats early and ended up giving ourselves a little swim (hey it is in our name).

The paddle had some shallow portages and clear water

We passed Village Bike who also hopped out of their boats early on the little island as we did and I chuckled as I knew they would also need to do a little swim.
As we returned we saw teams everywhere on the river. The tricky navigation had teams moving in all directions through the maze of canals. We missed one turn heading back, but quickly caught our mistake and recovered. The camera crews at the boat drop got some great shots as we decided it was easier and faster to run our boats through the shallow swift current near the boat drop rather than paddle that section. We were able to leave our boats at the boat launch, and quickly transition back to bike to head to the orienteering. We decided to do the O in the order 1, 3, 4, 2 (we could choose our order). This required a tricky bushwhack from 1 to 3. We found both the first and second streams but my “aiming off” on the nav was off and we headed east on the stream when we should have gone west. This was compounded a bit by the flag location being (slightly) off on the map, still mostly our fault. After nabbing 3, we had no trouble with 4 (near a fence on the treeline) or 2 (easy attack point from the forest corner SW of the control). We took Florida Trail back to the bikes and began the most grueling leg of the race – the cow pasture bike.

The next leg had us doing a roughly 5-6 mile loop to find 5 checkpoints (easy navigation) in the cow pasture. Most teams were unable to ride through the thick grass and mud – we simply geared down and chunked along. Except for a few cows running in front of us and the occasional section where we would have to carry our bikes (in other words very wet) we moved well through this section. WE did have one interesting section where we biked across a small canal feeding a pond and startled an amazingly large alligator (for a small pond).

A team with a nice tight running formation - this does not work on narrow trails though.

When we arrived at the TA we received our next set of instructions and passport, a 5-6 mile run with a short paddle in the middle. The first part of the run was to our bikes (we had done this route before) – so we put our heads down and dropped into a nice pace. My pace was a little less than the team pace, though we were running well – I knew I was holding them back a little. We had not seen Village Bike for a while, so we knew we had a decent lead (I get much more motivated when there is a team right on top of us). The paddle was a short paddle to a control on Bear Island and then back. We ended up punching our instruction sheet as our punch card was safely back in the TA where we had left it, I think we could convince the RD we visited every control. The paddle and punch took 18 minutes and we arrived back at the boat drop just as Village Bike was heading out.

I think this was leaving the boat drop - good spirits here

We had a 3 to 3 1/2 mile run back to the finish with one CP along the route. We were supposed to take the North Woods trail which despite being wet in a few places was a really nice run. I was still feeling good and was not slowing the team too much through this section. We came out of the woods at the berm road at Lake Searcy. The road weaves around the lake and we could see across the lake. We kept a light pace and the muscles in my back that had never healed from the swamp stomp started giving me some real pain. We decided to take the South Woods trail instead of running the berm the entire route. We were trying to beat 5 hours which we just barely missed as we came into the finish line.

As I dropped my pack, Rob hollered to put it back on as we had another section of the race to go. Mercifully it was a short out and back run on the trail we had just left, but Rob carried my pack for me as just putting it on caused me some nasty back pain. We finished the race in 5 hrs and 23 minutes, followed shortly by Village Bike (Jason and Marghi) at 5:43. It would be a while till the remaining team, which were really spread out at this point, made it in.

Another great race for Pangea http://www.pangeaadventureracing.com/race_archive.php?r=3 and a fun race with Team SWIM.

Swamp Stomp in Pictures

Robert's photography and video did a great job of video documenting the Swamp Stomp race. A great way to get a feel for the race and the area is to read through the 2 page photo story of the race at

Page 1 - http://www.englewoodbay.com/swamp-stomp-2008.html
Page 2 - http://www.englewoodbay.com/swamp-stomp-2008-2.html

supposedly we will soon have a DVD of the race, I look forward to that, it is always fun to go back and look at the race went.

Swamp Stomp 2008 - Part III

The mile posts shown on the map were actually physically marked posts out there on the trails. This really did help a lot with the navigation – whenever you would find a post, you would no where you were. The problem with that is many of them had been renumbered. We quickly figured this out as we ran into posts that were not on the map or were obviously wrong. But this was not the real cause of our problems and the problems of many other teams. That would be the trail to marker 60. Since nearly all the teams were coming from CP21 – we had all plotted the shortest trail distance to get to BP16 which would take us down that road. When our team arrived, there were a few teams that were obviously bailing out on that route. That is never a good sign. We were pretty sure we knew where we were and there was a road heading that direction. The trail was at first rideable, then pushable, then it was a bikewhack, and then it became a carry. We got within site of our destination across the swamp – but knew as it grew deeper that we would probably have to turn back. So like many teams after wasting 1 1 ½ hours we bailed out.



After we exited we still wanted to get BP16 (and the other two BP’s near it, 17 and 18). Rob who lives in Sarasota pointed out that the power lines just north were fast riding. So we headed for them and sure enough, they were fast (and a little wet) as well as the other trails leading around from the back side. After having wasted almost 2 hours – it felt good to snag these bonus points. It was a quick ride to CP23 – except we realized that we had not gotten CP 22. At this point Sheri was hurting and did not relish the going 5 miles out of the way on horse trails to grab this CP. But Rob and I were having fun, and the riding was pretty fast. We picked up both CP22 and BP 19 and then headed to CP23 and the start of bike leg 2.

It was getting pretty late (10:15) as we arrived at CP23. I had calculated we would have just enough time to get the mandatory CP’s and make it in on time. We were told that the two difficult CP’s had been removed, so now we had a choice. We could do the run (which I figured at 30 – 40 minutes) and then pedal back. This would have been an easy 4 points boosting us to 23 points. At the same time we knew we were out of the running with a lost team-mate and a lost passport. Sheri was also hurting a bit and she would have had to run at least one of the miles, though Rob and I would have been happy to run 2 each – I don’t think the rules allowed that.

We also had a fun discussion with a park ranger about the missing road back at BP17. He confirmed that the road had flooded and that they had ceased mowing it – allowing it to quickly get overgrown. He thought it was pretty humorous we had tried to get through it, at night, with bikes….

So we decided to head straight back. Local knowledge came into play here. We knew we had enough time to even pick up some BP’s on the way back, but again we were being prudent and Sheri kind of looked like she was ready to puke. I was getting pretty hungry – having not eaten very much the entire race. Even Rob was starting to show some signs of fatigue. The fun here was passing other teams, we were catching teams about every 5-10 minutes. It gave us a chance to say high and see how others were doing. Our pain and misery (I was now nauseous as it started to get hot) was being shared by plenty of others. Rob and I teased Sheri by telling her that people were behind her – and since she was too tired to turn around and look, she simply kept peddling.

We even saw Team Relentless again. Lisa had kept Paul moving after an incredible recovery – they were biking strong. We crossed the finish line about 11:30 (a full 1 ½ hours to spare). After we crossed the line Sheri even asked if we could go back out and get the closest BP (the answer was no – and that was from Rob and I). I wanted to get my stomach settled – it was hot coming in, and that made it tough. I also enjoyed seeing some folks from other teams I had raced with in the past. Following the race that EMS and Snickers had with each other showed that it was an epic 2 team showdown, and Snickers won it with Michael Moule leading the navigation.

The next big race (for me) will probably be the ACC. I’ll be coaching soccer on Saturday’s and being a good dad since my family is letting me race in the PQ. My team was great – I really felt Greg’s pain, and Rob and Sheri just took every setback in stride. So if you wanted to get a feel for our finish – we had 19 points and finished at about 11:30.

Swamp Stomp 2008 - Part II

The next leg of the race was a shorter paddle that headed south on the Myakka towards deep hole. We looked to see if anyone at the TA wanted to join us – but in the end it was going to be 3 of us in the boat. The race was not really going well for us; lost passport, bonked team-mate; at this point it was all about pride. We were still in racing mode, we had not entered that nether mode that occurs in long adventure races; survival mode. In addition we had learned that the course director had removed to CP’s from this leg (quite a blessing). We grabbed a few pads and put Sheri in the middle of the boat and started paddling hard. With three of us paddling we were making awesome time through the twists and turns heading for South Myakka Lake. We also got to pass and say hi to many of the teams heading back towards the TA who I am sure were curious about our three person team. After hitting the end of the long winding river section a due south bearing took us right to the next CP (17). Of course we had to walk by it a few times before seeing it – but that can be completely normal for this point in a race. We paddled back to pick up the bonus CP (BP14) on the north side of the lake, which was off the lake a bit. Sheri at this point was shivering really bad so we stopped to put on some clothes (she donned a heavy rain jacket she had in her pack). It was probably 55 degrees, but we were soaking wet from the paddling and the fog.

We got to the spot to and Rob found the control though Sheri and I liked a different tree that fit the control description better (Tree in Wetland). Still we had found it quickly – and it had appeared that there were a few teams roaming the swamp looking for it when we got there who quickly moved in on it after we found it.



The paddle back was fun as I went ahead and put my headlight on (I had not used it for the paddle to this point because the near full moon gave lots of light). With the light on I was able to spot the hundred of orange looking eyes peering back at us from the water on the shore. Gators – and they were thick. It became fun counting the number of gators in each little cluster of them. And then we passed the bridge and were back to the TA.

Back at the TA there were teams in every condition. Paul from Team Relentless who had completely bonked and was puking back on the trek where we had last seen them was resting (amazingly he would finish the race – we would next see him on the bike leg). Some teams had obviously bailed as the TA was missing a lot of team spots that had been there earlier. I was feeling completely recovered from the trek, my stomach was fine – and a couple of Red Bull’s from the TA folks had my energy back up as we headed off on the bike.

There is something so right about getting onto a bike and riding. As tired as I was the feeling of turning those wheels was good – I was truly enjoying the ride at this point, though that would not be the case 10 hours later. We snagged CP 19 (and easy one), headed south to the mandatory crossing point. We passed Eco-choice (Rod and Fish) going the wrong way and that confused us a bit – though we did get to the correct crossing. I was feeling good and it looked like Rob and Sheri were solid at this point also.

We made a strategic navigation error here, we should have collected CP22 before CP21, but missed it as it was on another map and headed straight to CP21. This (CP22) would cost us some effort later as we would have to bike an extra 5 miles to pick it up where it would have cost us less than 1 ½ miles if we had done it before CP21.


Note the line down the center of the image is the two different maps, we passed right by marker 25 on our way to CP21 - oh so close to not see it. Lesson learned is to be sure to point these little things out to yourself before the race as they are easy to miss in the dark when you are tired.

We found CP21 and the haunted shack and headed for the cluster of 3 bonus points on the far east side of the map. This is where things would get hairy and scary. We had stayed out of the water for most of the bike ride, but this was not going to last and this was also going to be the proving point for many teams that wanted these bonus points.

To be continued in Part III – the finish.

Swamp Stomp 2008 Part I

As always the swamp stomp did not disappoint, there was plenty of stomping and plenty of swamping. I would be racing for the first time with Team SWIM (Sarasota Wellness and Internal Medicine) My team-mates Sheri and Rob were both doctors, so now worries about needing medical help. Greg filled in at the last minute for a hurt Jamie, who was filling in for a hurt Melissa – but we had our four racers.

The race started with a prolog, that was simply a short run along the river to a point and back to get in the boats. We made it to the boats with the lead pack and started up the Myakka River. The control points heading north looked pretty easy, the first one CP1 requiring us to hop out of the boats and go to the top of this really cool double tower with a spring suspension bridge between the towers. We made some serious time there and it was us and EMS in the boats and heading up river. As we got through a winding section of the river I noticed we had missed a small river shortcut and made a mental note to use that on the way back. The lead teams all regrouped as we hit BP1 and BP2 as we group searched for these. The course was made up of mandatory (CP) and bonus (BP) controls – though we had decided early on we were going for them all.

BP3 looked like it would be a pretty challenging control as it was located a good distance off the top of Upper Myakka Lake. As we beached the boat, Rob flushed a 6 foot gator right into me, so I had to do a little dance around to avoid an unpleasant encounter in the shallow water – it did get the heart racing. We lost a little time here as we hit the “described” vague trail near BP3 and went the wrong way. We could see that the lead pack had made about 5-10 minutes on us.



The paddle to the BP4 and BP5 was really neat, though the river was narrow with a incredibly strong current (we were going upriver). We had a little bit of bumper boats jostling with the returning lead teams - . The weather was now warming up and we were paddling hard to catch up with the lead team, we had gotten all the CP’s and BP’s on the way upriver so now it was simply head back and push. CP6 was a take-out and a short orienteering. We nailed each point easily – bushwhacking across the cow pastures. Rob and I each had a set of maps and the double orienteering was working well – we passed a lot of teams in this section. As we hit the boats – the first disaster struck. Sheri looked for the passport only to realize that she must have dropped it. We were not sure what penalty we would get – but we were sure that it would be painful. We had done all the BP’s and would probably not be able to get credit (except for the manned ones). Ouch.


Here is a picture of Sheri just before we lost the passport - yep that is it in her hands. Too bad she did not hold it up to Mark taking the photos. We had gotten all the CPS's and BPS's on the passport.



Here is an even closer look - hmmm looks like it is all punched...

We paddled back in and transitioned for what would be a long trek (25-30 miles) and told Jessica about the passport. We would await the decision on the penalty for the loss of the passport.



The trek started out strong - it was 2:16 PM and we were right where I like to be in the race (EMS was leading having left at 1:48). We caught up with the lead pack (the first teams had about a 20 minute lead at the TA) that was having trouble with the first CP on the trek. This was our section – we had 2 solid navigators and we used that to our advantage. We made a clockwise loop easily nailing every CP. As it started to get dark – Greg started to really hurt. I knew that we were in trouble. We finally made our first mistake at BP12 – over-running the turn into the swamp (it was dark). We doubled back and found it pretty easily after that thanks to thesolid trail left by the teams in front of us. We had had dry shoes up to that point, but BP12 was a slog in knee deep water. It also had a BP12+ that was shown on a map at BP12. The direct route to BP12+ looked too thick so we went around – but gave up after a short search. Greg was now really hurting and was having a hard time keeping up. We decided to get back and skipped BP13 – we knew that would take us out of the hunt, but we also knew that Greg might have to drop, and we had lost the passport. Rob put Greg on a tow rope (we had about 10 miles to go) and we made it back to the TA around midnight. Greg dropped at this point and we sat him in a chair and headed out for Paddle #2. Any normal human we would have put on an IV – but Greg is strong and he would recover with rest.



And then there were 3 – to be continued….

Race Director - Resolution and UCF Race

I was recently the race director for 2 races and in both cases I've got some great pictures and video. The first race was the Resolution put on by Pangea Adventure Racing. The results of this race along with some great video are available at the Pangea Site - click on the video link to see the video I created. Also - Mark the photographer for Team Race Photos was out and shooting photos of this incredibly scenic area. They are at the Team Race Photos site. These photos are worth a look even if you don't race - they are incredible photos of a scenic area.



The other race that I directed was the UCF adventure race. Once again I took some video footage which is available at Trail Maps. In addition Mark was out at this race and again took some great photos that are at Team Race Photos. So even though my blog may not be too busy - I've still been pretty active. While you are checking out these sites - take a look at the trail maps wiki, if you are from Central Florida we are starting to get some nice pages created.

Jamie Sheriff making the leap

Swamp Stomp 08

Watch here for a race write-up on the swamp stomp - but until then follow the team I am racing with - SWIM/TCO on the checkpoint tracker - hopefully there will be more here soon from me. Right now I am putting together my gear, food, clothes and getting everything ready for the trip Friday to Sarasota to race. The race will be in the Myakka State Preserve - a huge area for racing.

More on Primal Quest

So now the PQ is partly a challenge for the mental aspect. One thing that is pretty cool is that it is named one of the 7 most difficult. The coolest thing on this is that the endurance folks can look at it and see what the other 6 are.... So now I am contemplating how I can compete in the others. The Hawaii Ironman looks like a pretty easy second. The Badwater - though incredibly challenging might also be one to shoot for. I'm not sure about events like Dakar (I'm not a driver) or the Idarod (not a dog sledder) - but who knows, maybe there is time to learn.

Anyway - this one is worth checking out. And stay posted for info on the Swamp Stomp and be sure to check out my mapping at http://trailmaps.pbwiki.com/

7 hardest events

Eco-Primal Quest

One of the interesting things about talking to folks not in the adventure racing community about doing the Primal Quest is explaining the race to them. These two video's pretty much sum it up...

Black Hammock Wilderness Area Trail Mapping

This is a detailed trail map of the Black Hammock Wilderness Area (click on the map for the original printable file). The BHWA is a Seminole County WA - info at http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/leisure/natland/bhammock.asp

I created this trail map of the Black Hammock Wilderness Area trails during the 2007-08 Christmas break. To create it I used my Garmin GPS 72 set on track mode (this is automatic) and simply carried it in my pack as I ran and biked the trail network. The best GPS units now for doing this are the Garmin 60 CSx or Garmin 76 CSx - they both track and have very good antenna strengh - critical for not losing coverage under tree cover. I am sure there are a few trails I missed (this was done in three successive workouts) - and if so I will be going back and filling in the blanks later. After each workout I downloaded the trail network to my Topo! software ( http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/category/Outdoor%20Recreation%20Mapping%20Software/?cid=3&tid=0 ) - at one point it looked like they were going to have a nice online capability of sharing the TPO files, but this seems to be a lower prioirty for them now. No worries - if they don't do it someone else will eventually. Anyway - I download the track (as a freehand route without waypoints) to the software and overlay it on top of the USGS topo maps from the software. The printout should print at a 1:15000 scale (not the original1:24000). I did some editing - deleting duplication of some tracks and defining the trail style before printing.

This is pretty much the type of maps we are producing for adventure racing in Florida, most all the race directors (Elias Jiminez, WeCeFAR folks, Greg Owens, etc... ) are familiar with doing this mapping now - so we are getting some pretty nice maps. Anyone with other good mapping tips (also ones that can be done easily) or software, please feel free to comment on this post. I am probably going to set up a wiki of the local trail maps and hiking as soon as I find someone to host it for free (or convince CFAR folks to pay fo the hosting).

Family Adventure Vacation - Stowe Vermont

Stowe Vermont – Family Vacation

Sunday Dec. 16

The travel to Stowe was not looking good as we boarded the plane to JFK. Two major snowstorms had been in the forecast for days – and the travel advisories were up in full force. Sure enough as we arrived at JFK around 3 PM, it was snow turning to rain. All the northbound flights from JFK were cancelled, except one – ours to Burlington Vermont. We only faced a 2 hour delay which gave us time to explore JFK’s food choices. We arrived in Burlington around 5 PM (it gets dark around 4:30 PM) and picked up our rented Mitsubishi Galant to head to Stowe at the tail end of the snowstorm and 2 full feet of Snow. The drive up to the Trapp Family Lodge (a family business of the Trapp family from the “The Sound of Music”) was a nailbiter. As I kept the gas on the floor with the wheels spinning and the motor revved at 100% - the car was slowing to crawl. It must have been pure luck – the little car made it up the mountain. After a nice dinner at the Trapp Lodge – we headed to our cabin, turned on the TV and wound down – tired from the excitement of the day long travel.

Monday Dec. 17

This was the least eventful of the days. The snow was still not cleared from the roads – but we did venture to the grocery store where we stocked up on food for the week and also bought some snow disks for sledding. That afternoon we tromped through snow, sledded down hills and explored the area around the lodge which was still pretty much snowed in.

Tuesday Dec. 18

It was time to learn how to do cross country skiing. The Trapp Family Lodge is known for some of the best XC skiing trails in the country and also expert instruction. The entire family got to learn all about XC or Nordic skiing – our instructor (Larry) was great and we made it through our lessons. After some skiing and lunch (we could ski right to our cabin)– Catherine and Linda decided to do the snow shoe adventure while Anna and Ron tried their hand at the ski trails. XC skis are “squirrely” to say the least. We moved well – but Anna spent the better part of 3 miles on her butt, and I was having trouble with controlling the skis on the downhill. Still we had fun and were quite tired by the time it got dark. Time for some relaxation as Tuesday would be the start of downhill days.






Wednesday – Friday

Mt. Mansfield had 3 feet of natural snow and also plenty more man-made. Linda started with lessons getting good instructors on both Wednesday and Friday. We put the kids in mountain adventure school, and they learned both skiing (Anna’s strength) and snowbarding (Catherine’s strength). Linda improved so much from lessons – that I decided to take a morning lesson on dynamic skiing (thanks to Jonathan, my instructor – he was awesome). After the lessons even the hardest slopes that I had found challenging earlier – were now easily handled. All the nuances that I had been missing were now solid. I spent the afternoon trying all the slopes that looked too steep or slick – and never felt uncomfortable or out of control. I did fall once – it is still tough to hit a mogul on a steep incline. Linda had improved greatly also – she still does not like steep – but she controls the ski’s on the green slopes. Catherine had mastered the basics of the snowboard. All three days had good weather with temps ranging from about 5 F – 15 F, good ski weather.




Saturday Dec. 22

This was our last skiing day and I wanted to give XC one more shot. The weather was also a lot warmer – about 20 F. Anna and I headed out on some more strenuous slopes, while Linda and Catherine went off in snowshoes again. After 3 days on alpine skis I found the XC skis difficult to handle, they love to slide all over the place, I even feel 3 times though not from going fast – simply slick ice and snow and unstable legs in the skis. Anna fared much better, mastering all the down-hills and up-hills we faced in the XC skis. We then picked up some snowshoes and went back and did a family snowshoe hike. Just for reference – you still sink in the snow and even a short distance in snowshoes is quite a workout. Another good night of sleep.





Sunday Dec. 23

Traveling in the north in the winter is always a challenge. We stopped by the Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream factory for a fun tour on the way to Burlington. At lunch I got a phone message from delta that our flight from Burlington to JFK was cancelled due to bad weather in the area. A heroic effort from a Delta gate agent diverted us to Cleveland and then to Atlanta where we missed our connecting flight to Orlando. Luckily we were able to book a later flight (lots of flights between Atlanta and Orlando on Delta) and finally make it home.

Kelly Park Orienteering - December 2007

The routes are exact based on a GPS I carried in my pack. Total time 79 minutes 25 seconds, total distance 5.6 miles, equivalent road distance 8.9 miles.

S to 1 – Trail run to attack point. I originally was going to attack from south of the green area. The white open looked good and it was not hard crossing the splotchy green. Came out just west of the flag, though the control description “terrace” was not too useful.
1 -2 – My mistake of the day. My bearing was slightly off and the lack of features was apparent. I saw the trail, ran too it and used the hilltop to attack. I misread the contours thinking the dashed contour was the bottom of the low area, instead it was a sub-contour and the flag was on a tree on the hillside. I corrected as soon as I saw my mistake (which you can see from my route.
2-3 – My plan was to beeline the control, but the terrain was really bad so I used the east trail as a backstop and attack and relief from the uneven ground. As I got into the low area I did not see the control which was on the northern edge of the low area and well hidden.
3-4 – This was pretty easy and the spur top and trail was apparent, though I did have to do some weaving through the thicket areas.
4-5 – I was proud of myself – finding the little gap in the dark green to the control east, cutting through and quickly finding the control.
5-6 – Plan was to hit the trail T-intersection and attack from there, bulls-eyed it.
6-7 – Never saw the vegetation boundaries (2 dashed circles), but the flag was obvious from 100 meters.
7-8 – Headed North until I got tired of the terrain – headed to the trail and put on the burners. Location was pretty obvious in the white finger protruding into the thicket. Attack point (depression) was also easy.
8-9 – Just run hard, looking for the easiest route and terrain, easy find on an obvious thicket.
9 – F Sprint to trail, and in.

Results (how are these for close results ! - 50 seconds separate the top 3):

Bob Putnam 78:35
Rob Kohnen 79:10
Ron Eaglin 79:25
Tim Buchholz 80:00
Jeremy Hauff 81:40
Wecefar (Kip and Jessica) 82:15

Kelly Park Orienteering

I figured I'd at least post my GPS track from the Floida Orienteering Championship. The event was an awesome race, with at least 5 competitors within 2 minutes of each other. Each of us made at least one mistake (mine was on #2 - which was in retrospect a pretty easy control compared to some of the more challenging controls that I did get. On Monday I'll scan and post the actual map with my route on it. I ran the entire even with a GPS on tracking mode in my backpack.

I am able to transfer the route to my Nationa Geographic TOPO software, which in turn I am able to print at 1:15K scale and trace (using a light table) onto my orienteering map. Unfortuantely my home scanner is not working (damn HP printers/scanners), but my scanner at work does work OK. Anyway - Here is the USGS version of the map, I'll also give my thoughts on various controls and where I made my mistake on #2 (which won't make much sense looking at the USGS map). Total off-road distance 5.7 miles (a tough 5.7 miles) and a travel time of 79 minutes 25 seconds. I did run too conservative as I had too much energy at the end, which at least made controls 8, 9, and F pretty fast.

Primal Quest Bound

I figured this is as good as a place as any to announce something this big. I am joining Team Blue on their epic adventure that is Primal Quest ( http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/ ) . Of course this is more than just entering a race. On any given day I can simply show up and complete an iron distance triathlon event (they actually seem kind of short - like a long training day) - though I am still amazed at how much they cost ($400-$500). This is different, this requires starting in ironman shape and honing to a level well beyond this. It also requires certified skills in ropes, climbing, first aid, navigation, swimming, whitewater, and paddling. Of course to that end you have to do the certifications (I will be going with my team to Camp XStream http://www.gravityplay.com/campxstream/index.html for the certs).

The commitments are more than just physical, the cost ($12,500 per team) is also pretty intense. To that end I will probably be hosting seminars on everything from navigation to paddling - all for the SDR2PQ - "Send Dr. Ron to Primal Quest" fund. Watch this space - I will be testing myself to some higher limits to ensure I am ready for this goal. I've already started upping distances, laying out a more severe training schedule - doing what needs to be done.

I join 2 other Floridians (Blaine Reeves and Don Nettlow) who will be racing for my normal team (Team Travelcountry.com) in this PQ preparation effort. I have 200 days, I will be ready...

Turkey Burn Maps

Turkey Burn Rogaine Adventure Race

Turkey Burn Rogaine Adventure Race
Race Director: Dave Brault/ Team Sun-tek Skylights.

BB = Bonus Bike, MB = Mandatory Bike
BP = Bonus Paddle, MP = Mandatory Paddle
BT = Bonus Trek, MT = Mandatory Trek

To understand what it is like to race in a Rogaine adventure race, you must understand Rogaine. Unlike most races where you complete a course and the fastest time wins – in a Rogaine, you already know your time, the objective is to complete as much of the course as possible. In the TB Rogaine control points are a mixture of mandatory and bonus. All teams must complete the mandatory CP’s, and as many of the bonus CP’s as possible. The Turkey Burn is a Rogaine style race of this type, which is a great format as all teams can compete at their levels and they all finish at roughly the same time. This was also the inaugural race for Pangea Adventure Racing (www.pangeaadventureracing.com) which was the company formed by Greg Owens to handle the challenge of setting adventure races in Central Florida.

Team TCO (Travel Country Outdoors, www.travelcountry.com) was made up of Jamie Sheriff, Ken Kandefar, and Greg Corbitt and we were ready to race, kind of. Greg was coming off a stomach virus that had kept him down all week so he was not starting at 100%. I was feeling pretty good, but had raced literally the last 2 months on races ranging from 4 hour to 30 hours, though I was looking forward to a break after this race for at least a few weeks. Adventure racers are tough stuff so it was that we got about 4 hours of sleep and headed out to set up at the race TA at 2 AM. We were given maps at 3 AM and for me the race was on. Planning and plotting of the course took us the full hour (and about 3 extra minutes) as we missed the start gun and spent the first little run section catching up with the pack.

The race started at 4 AM with a wonderful moonlight paddle on the Wekiva River. There was no navigation on this paddle, we simply paddled to Katie’s landing and back. We arrived back and immediate headed off on bikes for the real racing. It was about 5:30 AM when we headed out, and our plan was to collect BB5 first. A route choice of taking the northern jeep trail was bad as the trail turned sandy quite early, though the southern road might have been just as bad (though I suspect it was better). We slogged about 2 km through the sand and punched BB5. From here it was pretty easy riding East Northeast to Sandy Road and then north to MB1. This was good road and after the bridge the ride up Pine Rd. was fun. BB4 was next and it was pretty easy (though it was off the road a ways). We headed south to BB1 which was pretty easy. We headed back north and picked up MB3 on the way to BB2, which was pretty easy. The trail north from BB2 to the intersection at the end of the railroad grade was packed with head high dog fennel (a tall grass). At this point I reset my odometer, of course I should have paid attention to it as we missed the turn for MB2 and had to double back about 200 meters to it, and then it was to TA1.

The transition to trek here was slower than I would have liked, but we were heading out on foot and it was a beautiful day. BT3 and BT4 were our first two control and were found pretty easy (though the clue to BT4 was in pretty bad shape). From there it was south on the old forest road – now completely overgrown – to MT1. From there it was West Southwest to the southern trail to BT2. We walked right past the flag twice before finally nailing it and heading to BT1. With the clue of a vegetation boundary east of the trail we also found BT1 pretty fast. Since the woods were pretty open we decided to bushwhack back over to the N-S trail. This ended us up near the creek intersection on the N-S trail. A left turn and a little more bushwhack and we were heading north where we had biked earlier that morning. We had kept a pretty good pace throughout the trek, but now we were wearing down and ended up walking the last bit into the TA. So far we had collected 50 points and hit all the mandatory CP’s for that section of the race.

At this point I knew that time would be critical. We still wanted to get BB3 on the way back to the Main TA and that looked to be quite a bit of extra biking and we had been warned that the last half mile of the trial to BB3 was very sandy. After getting back to Pine Rd. we took the right onto the railroad grade (Grade Rd). At this point I switched the Seminole State Forest map. We took a convoluted route towards BB3 staying on the best of the rideable roads (see course map with overlay). We reached the sand road, dropped our bikes and headed down the sand road on foot (from the earlier bike tracks we knew that others had made this choice). Hoof-hearted and SWIM where the other 2 teams to go after this 15 point control, though I was beginning to suspect this was a bad choice. We wasted about 10-15 minutes with some extra looking here – but found the control and headed back to the TA at the fastest clip we could carry.

At arriving at the Main TA we had to scale the wall, paddle 8 miles, bike to the horse barn, do an orienteering course, and get back – all in 3 hours. We scaled the wall quickly and headed out on the paddle. We hammered the paddle as fast as our arms could take us. Greg was in the boat with me, and I could tell he was having some serious back spasms. We saw other teams heading back as we approached the mandatory paddle CP, found it and headed back which was much easier (downstream). I knew I needed an hour to complete the orienteering course under ideal condition (fresh) – and we were not fresh and we only had 40 minutes to bike, run, and then bike back.

Still we had a job to do, we skipped the transition and simply hopped on our bikes – BUT Greg’s front bike tire was flat. The bike was only 1 ½ miles so we pumped it up, prayed it would hold and took the big bike pump with us. The tire held to the barn and we were off and running. We only had time to hit the 2 mandatory and there was no time to have trouble finding them. We nailed both of them – but we were not running well. I was hurting so Ken and then Jamie took my pack so I could concentrate on the navigation. Greg was hurting from simple lack of fuel (remember he had not eaten much of anything since Wednesday and being sick). The 4 PM deadline passed as we were limping back to the bikes about halfway between MT12 and the bikes. We were now losing points, one for every minute. We had been going at 100% for the last 6 hours. We hit the bikes and re-pumped Greg’s bike tire and took the last 1 ½ miles at what could only be called a reckless all-out pace.

In the end we finished at 4:20 (losing 20 points of our 65 we had painstakingly gathered) – and in second place. We had pushed as hard as we possibly could – how we wished we could have gotten back some of those easy minutes from the first half of the course. Congratulations to Manny and Jason of Hoof-hearted, who had done a wonderful job of pushing hard and making all the right choices, even picking up an extra 5 points on the orienteering section. They took the overall win – and I think we were in second behind them.

Of all the races in the past few months – this was the one that hurt the most, we pushed with everything we had for a solid 6 hours and that was following 6 hours of pretty hard pushing. Everyone on the team came through when they had to and once gain we raced wonderfully.

LEACH Maps

LEACH Pictures

The full set of pictures from the LEACH are available at http://www.clubscrub.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=600

Here are pics from the teams in this LEACH race report.

LEACH - Loxahatchee Eco Adventure Challenge

LEACH 2007 – A tale of 3 teams

While sitting at the banquet table at Nationals over Bourbon shots and Beer, Melissa and I made a commitment to race the LEACH, one of the premiere races in South Florida. And so it was this Friday I was packing up the family to head to a cabin we were lucky enough to get in Jonathan Dickinson State Park (awesome cabins in a beautiful park – definitely worth trip for those looking for a fun family getaway). I would be racing with Chris in what would pretty much be his first sprint race and his second ever adventure race (having raced a multi-day race in New Caledonia - http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_id=4311) as Team TCO. Melissa would be racing as a 3 person coed team with Jim Levine and a new racer, Dave – who was a colleague of theirs from work (and also covered for Jim on his trip to Nationals) and Team Trail and Error. Melissa had injured herself the week prior doing a competition and was limping on a bad hip before the race even started. She would be racing on painkillers and her own natural determination. Anyone who knows Melissa, also knows that there is a lot of that…

We got the maps and passports about 15 minutes before the race start and some quick instructions. Pretty much I gathered info that one course route was evil (bad trail) and the area was a lot wetter than the previous year. We quickly laminated the maps and passports with contact paper (they were plain paper) and made it to the start with about 30 seconds to spare before the “Go”.

The race started with a short (3/4 mile) run to CP1 where we were greeted with a swim, at least for one member of the team. I shed my backpack and tossed it to Chris and leaped into the water which was pretty chilly (it was a chilly morning at JD). The flag was suspended on a line over a creek and the water was deep enough that this was a real swim. To save time in the pack I swam around the back side of the control to punch it – and with a little teamwork from other teams (one hand on the rope, one hand on the punch, one hand holding the passport – see the problem here?) was able to punch and swim to a spot where it was less crowded and exit the water flopping my body up the wet, slippery, and muddy bank. Jim had essentially jumped right into the water with the Trail and Error passport and we headed back to the TA in mid-pack.

After reaching the TA we scaled the “Wall of Death” which as walls go was moderately challenging, though teamwork made it a lot easier. We grabbed our boats and were on the water for checkpoints 2, 3, and 4. Because the wall and the CP1 had been pretty tight bottlenecks we hit the water about 10 minutes behind the lead teams – but knowing both teams were strong paddlers, I was pretty sure we would put some distance on the field. Sure enough before hitting CP2 on the south riverbank and the short run to CP3 and back, the teams in front of us had been reduced to 5 teams. By the time we reached CP4 at Trapper Nelson’s we were down to a lead pack 4 teams. As we headed back Team “Are We There Yet” led by Will Murphy and our team had put some distance on the field.

As we exited the water the next special test was to fill a water bucket, throw the water to our team-mate and then they would use the water to fill a 3rd bucket and lift a gallon jug of water (with a pulley attached to the bucket) off the ground. After a little trial and error I figured that throwing the water up in a nice arc, caused it to land cleanly in the bucket Chris had – and we finished the special test in a few quick minutes.

It was then on to bikes where we would head out, not to return to the TA until the end of the race. We got everything together quickly and then waited a couple of minutes for Melissa and her team to enter the TA before heading out on bikes. We biked an easy road 3 miles to CP5 where Melissa caught up with us and we had to dismount and do a short (3 mile) run course. According to JJ who was at the CP, RWTY had left 6 minutes prior. Melissa was limping pretty bad – but we decided to run as strong as we could and caught up with RWTY at an unmapped intersection just west of CP7. We worked together to get CP8 (which also required another navigation decision on an unmapped road and it was back to the CP5, which was also CP9.

From CP9 we instead headed north along the railroad tracks and cut across on a trail directly to CP10, shortcutting RWTY who had taken a longer road ride to CP10 and the lookout tower. After climbing the tower and getting our picture taken at the top (yes this was part of the race), we went down for the next special test. A 2 mile cyclocross trail had been set up and the person (not team) with the best time would get a special prize at the end. Chris and I took this pretty easy (Chris at 8:10 and me at 8:24). After finishing I forgot to go back on the short cut we had taken from CP9 to CP10 and ended up following RWTY along the road route past CP9 and to CP11. We arrived just seconds ahead of RWTY at CP11 and the next special test – the “Spiderweb of Death”.

This was a team test where we clipped onto a rope that we had to follow through an obstacle course (and with the team-mates clipped to each other). Our team-work was going strong and we completed the course just and Melissa’s team arrived. RWTY left second before us heading west on the road. I decided to take a route north on the power lines – pretty much the opposite direction. We arrived at CP12 at pretty much the same time and made a silent agreement to work together on the next few controls.

From CP12 we had to bikewhack west across into the swamp, across the creek, up through thick palmettos to get to the trail we needed. It was a pretty tough bikewhack especially since the creek was not only deep – it also had a muck bottom. I got snagged on a tree and any effort to lift myself over by pushing down with one foot just sunk that foot down into the muck. What I really need was a free hand to push off the submerged tree I was caught on – but the hands were busy holding up my bike. A strategy of holding my bike with one hand and using both feet and my free hand to “3-leg” through the downed tree eventually got me out. Of course the other 4 racers coming through with me were smart enough to stay off the tree. Coming out the other side of the creek was also tough with a solid wall of green followed by palmettos. Willem (I’ve raced with both Will and Willem of Team RWTY) found a good spot to bash through and we were finally out and racing again.

The ride to CP13 was pretty easy and we all rode together. We worked together to find the CP which was just off the Florida Trail in a pretty interesting (ready swampy with many water crossings) section of the trail. Rding from CP13 to CP14 we saw Melissa’s group, which had gained another rider somehow, heading towards CP13. We leapfrogged with RWTY a few times heading to CP14 and were the first bikes to arrive. (from what I understand all the other teams skipped CP13, which was a bonus CP to make the 3 PM cutoff at CP14). At CP14 we had another special test, the orienteering course.

The course was not a true orienteering, as an orienteering is a sport which has a special map and rules. The was a bearing course and it would take both of our teams into some pretty thick and interesting terrain. On one of the OP points we did have to form a search line – which quickly got us to the OP (I think it was OP4 which was 30 meters east of the creek we kept crossing). Luckily we had kept close track of all the clues (15 degrees, 25 meters) to lead us to the last control. One other team had arrived in the mean time and we worked together to get the final OP (CP15) before memorizing the map hung there to return us to the bikes.

At the bikes I tried to note whether Melissa and the other team were there – but by this time a LOT of bikes had arrived. Chris and I mounted up and I called to Will to see if they were ready. Their team was looking at the maps, I had memorized the route back to the TA while we were running from CP15 to the bikes so we headed out. (This was not really that hard as we simply stayed on the westernmost trail all the way back). On arrival we had one more task to complete. We were given the location of the final CP (16) which looked to be an easy out and back mile long run. Jason warned us that long pants might be a good idea – so we knew it would not be that easy. I tried to take us on a shortcut route (I could see a yellow blazed trail that looked like it diagonalled across to the CP – but it was quickly apparent it did not). We simply hit the power line and headed east on the Township/Range fenceline to CP16. As we got there we learned that it would not be that easy – the control gave us a bearing and distance that would put us in the middle of a wire and trip grass swamp. We fought our way into the swamp to the clearing which was on the map and was right where the bearing and distance were taking us. Instead of keeping a straight bearing I tried to weave us around the thickest of the stuff, relying on hitting the large clearing and seeing the flag. Sure enough we could see daylight and the flag was right there on the north side of a huge open wiregrass clearing. We got to it, punched the flag, painted our pinkies and headed back following our path in, back out.

After exiting the swamp we had an easy mile run back, passing RWTY on the way into the swamp. We kept an easy light jog back into the TA and ended up finishing at about 3:30 (beating the 4 PM cutoff). RWTY arrived about 20 minutes later, followed by Trail and Error another 10 minutes after that. It looked like we were the only three teams to get all the controls and beat the cutoff. It was an incredibly exciting race and the cutoffs and the competition were tight enough to keep us moving hard. Team RWTY raced a solid race, running fully on all the (many) foot legs, paddling hard and keeping us moving on the bikes. It was a great race. I should have the maps up by Tuesday (Melissa is scanning them and sending them to me). I have one more race for the season - The Turkey Burn, a solid 12 hour Rogaine style race in one of the most incredible areas of Florida – Wekiva Springs and Blackwater Creek. Watch here for the latest.