This is my site on my experiences with adventure racing. You may see many of these articles published elsewhere as I write for a number of navigation, outdoor, and adventure magazines (normally in condensed and edited versions). This blog contains the full unedited versions of these stories.
Saturday was about orienteering and a great challenging blue course at Moss Park. I flipped positions with Chris Johnson a few times on this - which also makes it a fun run with a little friendly competition.
CP2 - There was no obvious attack so I pace counted from the intersection and cut in. The forest had a lot of downed trees. I over shot and had to double back using the trail to the west as a secondary attack - finally finding it. note: Chris Johnson used the subtle trail bend in the N-S trail, an excellent attack and maximizing trail running. A really good approach.
CP3 - due east to trails, up to mound ridge and along west side of ridge - easy find.
CP4 - South of mound and across rough open to E-W trail. Trick was finding subtle trail entrance to use as attack point. Trail did not go far - but due east bearing led to control.
CP5 - Easy run, though placement was a bit south of where I thought it should be, too close to lake. Ran into Chris here approaching as I was leaving control.
CP6 - Real long run from CP5 to CP6. Chris passed me on trail. Attacked by taking subtle northern trail off main trail and heading due north with wetland as backstop. Area was quite thick near control and placement seemed too far east. Took extra 5-10 minutes to find. (note the well hidden location too)
CP7 - Chris passed me again on way to CP7. Rootstock gave easy attack into open mixed palmetto scrub. Easy find.
CP8 - Stayed on trail until Distinct Tree (Split Oak) was visible and atacked from due west - easy find, open (Orange) areas were distinct.
CP9 - Tried direct route - woods were a lot thicker than mapped so bailed to trail, found bend and took easy route from south.
CP10 - Long run across berm to other side, CP10 was not there so headed in with Chris and one ROTC runner.
All in all an extremely challenging course, good distance with a lot of tough control locations.
SUNDAY
After a great bike I took the family to Scott's Corn maze. http://www.longandscottfarms.com/fall_maze.html It was a bit hot - but it turned out to be a blast working our way through the complex maze looking for all the checkpoints.
It had been nearly 2 1/2 years since the last Florida Coast to Coast. When Julie Ardoin (partner in last C2C and Primal Quest 2008) called I knew it was time to get moving. We were joined by Mitch and Joe (also alias Jim, John, and a whole host of other names I called him by during the race) who were both newcomers to long course racing, and crew Johnny, Jamie, and Ellie Sheriff.
We arrived Wednesday with enough time for dinner and then the 8 PM pre-race and notification that the race would start the next morning at 4 AM. Since I was fully expecting to spend a long night plotting and then up early - this was no surprise. Good news is that the first leg (a 7 mile run) would be in darkness and more important cool weather. After map-marking the team was able to get to sleep around midnight, I packed and had everything ready to go so that I could simply get up and head outside for the race in the morning. Good thing, too since I woke up at 3:35 and the team were all still completely asleep. We still made it outside in time for the pre-race and after the pre-race we were off and running.
Leg 1 -
This was the most uneventful leg. I am still amazed at how many teams really rush the first leg. We decided we would run this leg (as did most of the other teams). The cool weather, easy terrain (road), and easy pace made this a very enjoyable morning run. In just about one hour we covered the 7 miles and arrived at the TA where our crew had the boats ready by the water. This was going to be a long paddle. We had done this one in a past C2C - needless to say Lake Rousseau was not my favorite paddle - mostly because the last time I paddled it I ended up swimming twice due to the abundance of submerged trees and logs. We took the prescribed route down the canal, south on the Withlacoochee, and into Lake Rousseau. The paddle actually went quite well (still a couple of bumps). The weather was good and we saw and chatted with a few teams along the route. After passing Dunnelon - we headed north up the Rainbow River, one I had not paddled before. Beautiful clear water - nice breeze, simply great paddling. At the Rainbow Spring springhead - Mitch got to go for a little swim, and retrieved a punch that was underwater in the spring. We would paddle downstream about 1 mile and then start the next section - the tubing section.
The tubing section was going to be fun. We had about 4 teams that all had about a 15 minute lead on us at the boat to tube TA. We figured out a way to link the tubes together to make it a "kinda boat" - and sure enough before we got the bike TA, we had caught up. This section was a ton of fun - and we were really happy with the way the race had been going.
Once the next leg started - it was going to get interesting; coming up next, the first bike leg, we estimated the time to complete 6-7 hours, the actual time would be much closer to 12. It started out quite well, we got into a good bike line and headed for Pruitt Trailhead. An easy right turn and and a left we were on the trail. Pruitt Trail is a nicely packed limestone road that goes nearly all the way to Santos. The first control was at the same location as the 2008 C2C. It only took a short while in that race, and we were in and out of the control in minutes. We were back onto the trail and heading for the next CP (OP USARA). I had measured the distance my attack point at 2.2 km so when my odometer hit the distance we stopped and took a quick look around. Based om the map the control should have been on the north side of the trail and visible. Nothing. We moved on about 100 meters, searched, no control. We kept this up for about 30 minutes and soon other teams started to show up. We saw Green Paw (who we had passed at the last control go by - they had found it). We kept at it for another 30 minutes, still no CP. At this point I knew we would need a different approach, looking at the (vague) contours on the map. Using this we searched south of the trail and soon found the control and were on the way to the next one.
The next CP (OP Adventurous Concepts) also looked challenging and it was. We met up with Super Frogs who had been looking for it, and led them back to the location. It was also challenging and we were soon joined in the search by Scurvy Knaves and Pangea. We did find it, and I also convinced Greg (Pangea) and Jim (Scurvy Knaves) to go back to the previous control that they had not found. We moved on and headed to the Quarry (picking up another CP on the way) where Elias told us we could move on to the next CP. We headed that way - it was in the tangle of trails that is Santos - the clue was the sinkhole near the corner of Dr. Ruth and Cow Bone. Since the provided map was useless we simply headed that direction (generally) and asked riders we passed if they knew those trails (most of which did).
Now here is something about Santos and Ocala. Even though it is a small community (compared to Orlando). This is probably because it has an awesome mountain bike area. Moral of that story - we need more mountain bike parks in Orlando. OK now on to our story...
OP Howl at the Moon was supposedly near the intersection, and the description (in Sinkhole) seemed obvious since there was an awesome and obvious sinkhole near the intersection. We searched. More teams arrived, and we searched. After 90 minutes it started to get dark and I realized that searching the sinkhole would be impossible in the dark. We moved on going north on Dr. Ruth - we were bailing. As we moved north we crossed a second intersection of Dr. Ruth and Cow Bone, and Sinkhole trail was also near this intersection - so we spent another 30 minutes searching Sinkhole trail and that intersection. Eventually we bailed on that control too. We headed for the ropes - where we ran into all the other teams we had been searching with. They had taken Cowbone north and told us the CP was literally on the trail.
We did the climb (which I always enjoy). Since I had rigged a Froggy Style ascent I moved quickly up the rope. Since I was frustrated by the control searches - I was determined to "corner the ledge" without help. This is making it up the last 4-5 yards of the ascent without assistance - which are always challenging. I made it and was back in pretty good spirits after the rappel back down. The ropes were on a massive (40-50 ft) bridge abutment that was going to be part of the barge canal that never happened. It was a really cool place for a ropes course.
About the ropes course
Just south of Santos are several bridge stanchions, built in 1936 for a never completed bridge over the never completed cross Florida barge canal.
Teams ascended up 45' on one of six ropes we had setup in the middle of the ledge, then moved to one of two rappelling ropes on each end of the ledge to get back down. The first team came through about 5pm on Thursday and the last about 7am on Friday. Between 9pm and 11:30PM Thursday we were very busy, having at times, six racers ascending concurrently.
We went back to get the missed CP - and sure enough it was right on Cow Bone trail. As we headed back out there was a trail stopped on the tracks. We ended up going around, and getting back on the course. At this point I'll make a long story short. The next 2 controls were sheeer disasters. We never found either one - even though one should have been incredibly easy. Some other teams came by - but they decided to not even try to get these. After 2+ hours searching for OP Mighty Dog with Manny and Lori from Nature Calls, we finally decided to head straight to the TA and even skip the 2 bikewhack controls. This was a low point for the team, but I figured some food and rest in the TA would help us out - and it did. From here we portaged to the Silver River, flew through the paddle, exiting and portaging the 3+ miles back to the TA. We were in such good spirits that we asked if we could go back on the bike and pick up the 4 controls we had skipped. Elias said we could, but they would not count - so instead we prepared for the the next leg - a really LONG trek.
Things would get more interesting - We would be the 4th team out the TA, shortly after Pangea, Green Paw, and the Dominican team all of which which had so far cleared the course.
Here is a map of the Silver River area, TA, Bikewhack, and paddle.
It was about 9:15 when we headed out on the trek. Since the approximate distance was 25 miles we were calculating about 7-8 hours to complete the trek which would put us in around 5-6 PM within the daylight hours. It started off well, the first part of the trek was all road and there was no significant navigation. we easily found the turn leading to Lake George. Here I could tell our pace slowed significantly slowed on the trails. It also turns out that the trails it was on were not on the map, though the trail leading towards it were not.
We ran into Pangea (who had been searching for a while here) - while we were searching a few more teams arrived including Scurvy Knaves. This one just required deduction from the clue (Intersection of Forest Roads) - we narrowed in on it by staying right on the trail network - which worked fine. Leaving the control and heading north we had a major water crossing - so our feet were going to be wet. About the point the socks and feet dried out, we had another water crossing. This is also where Pangea (who we had passed) caught up to us. They were having some team issues at the time (it happens) - but they obviously resolved them as they took off at a fast pace heading out towards forest road 86 (Hopkins Prairie Road). As we approached the road from the trail we had to cross a large dirt mound to get to the road. My team asked me why the large mound. They had just seen a TV special on the pythons in Florida so I said "It keeps the pythons off the Florida Trail - maybe we'll see some on the road". I had them believing this for a while, but eventually they figured out I was joking,
This road (just follow it on the map) went on forever. About half-way through the trek we did have a water drop. This was good for 2 reasons (1) we were out of water, and (2) it gave us a mental break from the long endless trek. By the time we reached the water, both my feet and Mitch's feet were in bad shape - his worse than mine. We had been reduced to hobbling along at about 2 mph. I had already abandoned the idea of going for the next control and we were simply focused on getting to the TA. About 1/2 mile east of the water - a truck pulled up to us. It was the medical crew for the race (THANKS ROY !!). They had ice for our water - really - ice ! and they also patched up our feet. I now knew that we would make it to the TA and even going for the second CP was again an option.
As we approached the turn for the second CP I polled the team. We had been out on the course more than 9 hours (approaching 10). Pangea and 2 other teams had passed us and had disappeared into the distance. We were still moving incredibly slow, the feet were really hurting and I know I was feeling serious leg fatigue. We decided to head straight to the TA. We walked and walked and walked and it seemed like the road went on forever. We finally arrived around 8:30 PM - almost 12 hours of trekking. The team was beat and there was no way we would be able to keep everyone solid without some sleep.
We ate, got rehydrated, and took about 90 minutes of sleep in the TA. When I woke up I felt like I had gotten a solid 8 hours - really! I was eager to get on the bikes, and we were soon off. Mitch was still sleepy so we put him on the front of the bike line - and he took off. We hit SR19 and were doing 21-23 mph. We flew to SR 40, took the left and headed east - still flying along. The turn into Lake George WMA was easy to find, and we soon caught up with team Nature Calls. We both had agreement as to the location of the next CP (OP Hammer Nutrition). We both agreed that the control was somewhere Northwest of the intersection of 2 easily identified forest roads - as it plotted obviously on that corner. So we searched. I found trails - so I searched them. We searched the field. We searched the forest behind the field. We searched the culvert and ditch. I finally had enough and called Dennis on the phone. He reminded me that he had said it would be on the northeast (northEAST) corner near the intersection. After that it took a few minutes (and a reminder from Manny what northeast means) to find the control. This was a major "Argh!" - but we had found the control and headed out. Manny was feeling bad - so we headed on and out to US 17.
Now Mitch was falling asleep on the bike. If I could find him some coffee he knew he would be OK until daylight. I had just finished my last caffeine from my pack, so our only option was to find this on US 17. We checked out every store, but did not find one open until the corner of 17 and 92, which I knew would have something open at 4:30 AM on a Saturday.
The next control was a breeze, on a kiosk and easy to find. We nailed it and moved northeast on US 92 to the entrance to Rima Ridge. As a team we were starting to fatigue, Mitch was fighting sleepmonsters, and I was frustrated with the team for no particular reason other than just feeling grumpy. At one point heading for OP CFAR - Julie and I sat staring off the road.
Ron: "That is our trail".
Julie: "Ron, that is not a trail".
Ron: "Julie, really that is our trail, we need to go that way".
Julie: "Ron, there is nothing there."
We looked at the non-trail for about 10 minutes, when I decided to bike on it - and yes it was a trail. It just did not look like one.
We easily nailed OP CFAR and moved on with a group of teams towards the TA. The sun was coming up and being a very regular guy (if you know what I mean) - I needed to use a bathroom. About the same time I thought this we came upon a port-o-let. How lucky is that?
Another couple of miles we were in the TA where we heard that Green Paw was out and Pangea was in the lead. No explanation, just that a team member had bonked about 3 miles from the TA and they were out. I knew them and knew it had to be serious for them to be dropped at this point in the race. We could not worry about this - it was time to bike the final 5 miles to the Tomoka River and the next to last leg of the race, the Tomoka Paddle from SR 40 to High Bridge.
This was a beautiful morning paddle and I wanted to do it in less than 3 hours. The river was very calm and beautiful and I had done this paddle a few times before. To keep the boats together Mitch and I hitched a rope onto Julie and Joe and they were able to get a little bit of tow - which also allowed Julie some sleep. As we approached the intracoastal we had to disconnect the boats. Here you often get large boats flying up and down the river - the Pamlico has about 5-6 inches of water clearance. This is great for comfort and speed = but it means that if you have waves (and no spray skirt) you need to be able to maneuver the boat quickly to prevent a capsize. A xouple of boats gave us a challenge, but none of them pushed enough of a wake to prevent us from simply rolling with the waves. - We paddled hard and finished in 2:57.
It was a simple trek - 7.2 miles right down the beach. Running was really out of the question with Mitch's feet. We settled into a nice little walk. Along the route people asked what was going on and i would stop and explain the race. I would then run/jog to catch up. As it turns out running (for me) was much less painful than walking. I got into the habit of running up to the team, chatting with folks on the beach - running and catching back up, repeat. The 7 miles took us right around 2 1/2 hours to complete. Pizza and beer and sleep awaited us. We congratulated Pangea who had a well deserved win, never giving up and making the extra effort to clear the course.
It was a great race and a great time., My team was wonderful - Mitch was an awesome paddle buddy. Julie and I work great together, she keeps me from going loopy on the nav (even though it may look like I'm irritated, I still appreciate her making sure I am not doing something stupid). She and Joe made a great race pair. And our crew (Johnnie, Jamie, and Ellie) were the picture of awesomeness. When we hit the TA they were ready and anticipated everything we could need or want. I know that have 4 racers simultaneously wanting things - where are my batteries? do you have an apple? how about a pepsi? etc.... and we always had what we wanted.
See you next race !
P.S. Great post-race quote from Mitch. "Normally I don't like finisher medals for races - but holy shit I'm keeping this one!"
When I saw a posted to Facebook for team-mates I got a quick reply from Dave Shuman of FIGJAM. We had raced together many times, but never on the same team - so this was a good pairing. After a message from long time friend and racer Greg Corbitt - and we had a 3PM team.
The race started at King's landing, my worry was that we would have super-hot weather, but it looked like the temps would barely crack 90 (which for Florida summer weather is quite cool). The race started with a little navigation course with some dead reckoning bearings all taken from a common start location. After the first one I could see that we would be able to hit 2 of them without having to return the the bearing point, since the clue on one was "along river" - another one was going to put us real close to the river - and that worked quite well, simply hitting the one close to the river and then following the river to the other CP. These did require somne getting wet (it was on the far side of the river - no problem). Since we only had to do 4 (of 5) we headed back to the bearing point and used the road and some pace counting to get us the the 4th control.
We were the first onto the next leg of the race - though I knew we would have teams very close on our tail. CP8 was easy (on the river), but CP9 had us taking a bearing and heading inland. The bearing quickly took us back to the river - where we could see the control dangling over the river on a tree. Instead of punching we headed back to the boats. One team (Florida Xtreme 1) avoided the dead reckoning on land and simply stayed on the river - which gave them a solid 5-10 minute lead. That was fine - I do not like to lead early in the race - it uses a lot of energy for potential mistakes that other teams behind you can learn from.
We headed for the long control of the out and back paddle - which gave us a chance to see where the teams were. It looked like it was Florida XTreme out front - then about 6-7 minutes back was us, followed by Green Paw, and then a large group of solid teams just minutes behind Green Paw.
We passed the take-out to get CP 10 and CP 11. We blew by CP10 (we'd get it on the way back) - and headed for CP11. Just before this CP was a real tight log crossing, where Green Paw passed us. We got to CP11 within seconds of each other, and actually passed Green Paw again, but they were able to get over the log on the way back quickly. There was a huge cluster of teams here making the crossing on the slick log challenging. We did fine, and were soon in the TA.
For all racers who want to move to elite and be competitive - here is where you can learn a lot to make up time. As we approached the dock, we had already planned out how we would stow the boat and handle the gear. As we got close paddles were thrown to shore, one person was out - packs were tossed to shore, 2 of us pulled the boat up - while the third gathered the paddles and handed the packs to each of us. Time from being on the water - to running to bikes was right around 1 minute.
At the bikes we simply donned helmets and hopped on - we planned to do the trek second. 2 reasons, (1) run while it was still cool, (2) no need to change to bike shoes. We flew to the trek (with a little fun biking on the way) and headed out on the orienteering.
Here you can refer to the scanned map. I planned to attack CP20 from the north and except for a Sport course control that was along the route - this worked well. Team Green Paw was real close and they saw us going in for the control (they were attacking from the east) - and it helped them a bit with this one. My plan was next CP21 - I wanted to go via CP13 - so I would have a mental picture of this when I came by on the bike (it was a bike CP). CP21 was pretty easy, simply attack as the berm north of the trail ended, spot the thicket and follow around to the control. We were keeping a light run and this area was shaded with very open woods. CP25 was essentially run to the N-S trail, follow to the attack point (fence on west side of map) and go due east. As we saw both small depressions that were mapped - this worked well and we nailed it. CP24 was going NE around the thick area and then due east to the small hilltop. The hilltop was very obvious, and we corrected to the depression and the control as we approached.
CP23 should have been the easiest of the controls - simply go NE to the backstop trail and follow to the earth berm. The backstop trail was however almost gone and we went right over it. I realized the mistake within about 150 yards and doubled back - spotting the berm within seconds - but still having to bushwhack through some nasty palmettos to get to it. From CP23 it was a trail run in, with one easy control (CP22) along the route. The attack was the obvious trail bend NW of the control and we found it quickly.
As we came out of the woods - we found out that we were the first team out. I knew we needed to build a little time on Green Paw here - since they are very strong on bike, and orienteering is my strength. I was not sure how Florida Xtreme was going to be doing - but I knew Mark Roberts would pull them through the orienteering quickly also. We got back to the TA, switched passports, put on bike shoes and headed back out - it felt good to make it out before any other teams showed up in the TA, that always provides a mental boost. As we got to Kelly Park we crossed paths with FL Xtreme, and got a kind of "rats" comment from Mark as he calculated our lead time. Green Paw and FL Xtreme were pretty much neck and neck and we had maybe a 8 minute lead. We would need it - as the navigation on the bike would not split teams, and Green Paw is a very fast bike team.
We headed for CP12 and overshot it by about 150 meters, we doubled back and as I stopped in the spot that I calculated it should be spotted it about 10 meters off the trail and a little bit hidden. Mental note - flags will be off trail a little bit. We also overshot CP14 a bit, as the mapped triangle was not really as mapped - though we did not lose much time. CP14 to CP19 was a bit sandy and slow, but ride-able. The same went for CP19 to CP18 - sandy but still firm enough to ride. We gained some time at CP18 as I sent Dave over the berm and ran parallel pushing his bike while he got the control.
The next move was a strategic choice. The road with CP17 and CP18 seemed to be alternating sandy and solid. I had scoped the trail near CP16 while doing the orienteering and new it was fully ride-able - so we cut over and took that trail north picking up CP16 and CP13. My thoughts were simply the single track hiking trails would be more solid than the road. As it turned out that trail, had more elevation change, but was very ride-able the entire route.
We blasted past the gate, got our punch, and started the sprint back to the TA. I felt my energy go low as we pushed through the thick sand just past the gate - but it elevated once again as we headed down the hill after turning right. Once we hit the road we moved into a bike line and pushed with everything we had left. We did not know how far back - the other teams were, we were pretty sure we had the lead. I knew from experience that they would be close. As it turned out - as Green Paw exited Kelly Park - they could see us on the road about 300 meters in front of them.
In the end the times were FIGJAM 4:33:02, Green Paw 4:33:37, Florida Xtreme 4:49:59, Hoof-hearted 5:10:10, and Florida Xtreme II 5:18:36 - with 9 teams clearing the course. This race turned out to be a great warm-up for the Coast to Coast coming up in 2 weeks. To track that race go to http://floridac2c.com/ - it starts Sept. 30 and should at least have some tracking info for folks wanting to follow their teams.
It was an incredibly hot day for orienteering (92 degrees and near 90% humidity) and from the looks of the course - a lot of it was going to be in the full sun. From the start it was a quick jump out to the south bound road (to avoid the high grass) and then back in for the control - pretty easy to find on the thick area.
From there it was around the marshy (but dry) lake to the trail, and then south to the east west trail. I followed that trail west (and a little north) as it was pretty easy running and there was some shade. I headed southwest at the intersections and followed the road all the way to the control just past a trailer.
From there it was north to Hill Road, and then the lighter jogging trail which was pretty overgrown on the direct beeline to CP3. It was across the road on the same bearing, aiming off a little to the left so that I could use the trail near CP3 as a backstop. As I reached the trail the trail curves were pretty obvious, I ran into Greg and Mark (Team Pangea) here and we all quickly found the depression.
From there I headed west northwest along the trail to the open trail heading north. Mark and Greg went the other direction. After hitting the main road I pushed east a little finding a small opening that led out to the trail heading north to CP4. I passed another team approaching CP4. Here is where the going got tough.
I decidied to go north around the green patch to CP5. It was incredibly tall grass and fennel, with scattered blackberry thorns. And it was in full sun. I found the little road cut-through (marked in black) and punched through the tall grass to the man made feature (telephone pole and CP5) I ran into Anna from Team Green Paw here and said hi.
From CP5 it was south in the open, hot and sunny tall grass. The grass required you to step real high, so just walking was pretty draining, especially with the incredible heat. As I pushed south of the green patch southeast of CP5 I twisted my ankle and went down hard. I had a small moment of panic as the pain dropped me to the ground and I felt my heart rate skyrocket with the pain and heat. I decided to crawl/limp to the mapped green patch and push into the shade. Here I used controlled breathing to slow my heart rate and the shade brought my temperature back down. I felt as if something had plugged into my body and drained every last bit of energy I had. Fortunately, however, after I punched into the green - the undergrowth in the shaded area was not bad and the footing was much better (not chewed up like the open fields). I walked through the green patch across the one open area, and back into the last green patch to the long open stretch to CP6. I could see Anna's head bobbing as she walked towards CP6, not more than 200 yards in front of where I was. She had walked along the outside of the green patch in the thick grass, and even with the crawling and resting had not gotten that far ahead.
As I exited the green I could see why she had not made much headway. The footing was bad, the grass was thick and chest-high, and the blistering sun made for extremely slow going. As I apprached CP6, Greg and Mark caught up with me. CP6 was pretty easy to find, but I was hurting. I headed to the N-S dirt road and headed south. My intention was to take it to the main road and hit CP7 from the south. A second glance at the map wiped that from my mind, it was a long way around a out of bounds zone, and that zone was marked off with an electric fence.
CP6 to CP7 was simple suffering in heat and tall grass. I ran into Jason Willems girlfriend (sorry not remembering names) who was also heading to the same control. We had a bit of punching through more fennel grass, but the control was in a pretty easy spot. From there it was south and out of the field. My plan was to go due south and a little west to the trail south of the dirt road and a little west of CP8 and follow it around to CP8, this worked out well and the control was clearly visible from a couple hundred yards.
I only had one leg to go and had cooled down quite a bit from the heat. I considered running, but a couple of steps on the bad ankles destroyed any idea of doing that. I did want to break 2 hours (which would have probably been easy without the injury) but if I did it would be simple luck. Anyway CP9 was a near due east jaunt with plenty of distinct features. I punched through the last bit of white woods pretty much on top of it and headed to the start finish table, which seemed like a long way off. I started into a jog, made it 2 steps, and then decided to preserve my ankles for another race.
As it turned out I was able to finish in 2 hrs 1 minute, so really only a minute off the pace I had started out to beat. Rock Springs has a shower - so I was able to clean up, get some water, talk with Tim, Anna, Jason, Greg, Mark, Bob, and the outdoor athlete crowd before heading home. All in all, a good day, and I was able to push to the limits - which always makes it a great weekend.
If you have any suggestions of words to add to this glossary leave me a comment;
General Terms
Checkpoint (CP) - In adventure racing you race from CP to CP, a location you must visit along the course. Transition Area - An area where you switch from one discipline (run, bike trek, other) to another. Rogaine - A style of adventure racing where you visit as many CP's as possible in a time limit. Expedition Course - An adventure racing course that starts in one location and ends in another, typically a longer (2+ days) race. Sprint Race - A shorter (usually less than 24 hours) race that starts and ends in the same location. Crewed (vs. Uncrewed) Race - A race where a support crew on non-racers provides food and assistance in designated parts of the course.
The Team Members
Mule - A typically strong racer who has the job of carrying the passport and usually extra gear from other racers. Navigator - Carries the maps and is in charge of navigating through the course. In some teams navigation is shared among more than one team member. Mandy - A usually affectionate nickname for the female team member, it is short for (mandatory) female team member. Machine - A nickname given to a team-mate that never seems to tire. Anchor - An injured, fatigued, or otherwise slow team-mate who is slowing the team pace.
Navigation Terms
Bearing - A straight-line direction, usually given as a number of degrees. Handrail - A linear feature that you can follow towards a CP location. Backstop - A linear feature like a road or river that backs up the CP location and prevents you from grossly overshooting the CP. Overshoot - To go too far past the checkpoint and have to double back.
Racing Terms
Going Dark - To turn off all lights during night racing to keep from being seen by other racers. Dark Zone - A section of a course that cannot be completed at night. Bonked - A term for exhaustion of one racer.
Well - we had a pretty hot (actually record breaking heat) On Aug 14. I took the family up to the Florida Ag Museum for the orienteering. Since the only courses were White, Yellow, and Orange - I did a score-O to visit all the controls from all the courses. Here is a little footage of the area.
After the run, we checked out the museum and then headed south on US1 and found a really cool diner - the State Street Diner just south of the intersection of US1 and SR100. Linda was able to get a full rack of Baby Back Ribs, and cole slaw, and fries, and a drink for only $8! Definitely a place worth checking out. We saved so much money - that on the way home I bought a car (actually I had planned on buying a new car for my commute to Daytona that I do daily - it just turns out that I found one I really liked at the CarMax in Sanford).
Preparing for a 12 hour race is very similar to preparing for shorter races, however you will want to make a few changes.
Paddling - Most racers who have done shorter races have been used to paddles that last up to one hour. In a 12 hour races, there will likely be a 3+ hour paddle. Even though this is not actually that challenging, there are a few things that you will need to modify. Form - In a short paddle you can get away with poor paddling form and still be fine. As you move into longer races, you will want to learn how to use your core muscles and improve your form. Here is a simple rule - if your arms are tired after paddling, you are doing it wrong; if your abdominal muscles are tired, you are (probably) doing it correctly. Seat - As you progress to longer and longer paddles, your ability to handle the seated position will get better, in the mean time using a seat pad is a good idea. Teamwork - with 2 people in a boat paddling is truly a team sport, coordinated strokes, and communication are important.
Trek - The most important thing to remember for trekking is that you are a team. Some racers will be comfortable with the concept of running 2-3 hours, while others will be destroyed here by a too fast pace. Towing does supply a nice boost for a weaker trekkers (we do call it trekking for a reason). To train you do need to do longer runs (or walks), but this is not like marathon training. To prepare, get together as a team and do a long off-road (12-15 miles) trek together. Trekking is also the best time to get food, so as you practice trekking - also practice eating.
Bike - For long races, it is a good idea to learn how to tow and to keep a bike line. Your entire team should be capable of keeping a tight line and have an agreed upon method for switching the lead rider. Here is where you can really help team-mates (especially in training). There are some things you can do to refine the team here (like common types of tubes, and coordinated pump, etc..)
Food - Most teams over-estimate the amount of food needed for a 12 hour race. My typical diet in 12 hours would be one gu flask, a fruit pie, and a bag of M&M's (seriously - that is what I ate in my last 12 hour race). More important is to stay hydrated. The longer the race, the more important food becomes, but hydration is critical at longer distances. I personally will go through at least 2 100 ounce bladders of Gatorade in a 12 hour race - more if it is hot.
Training - You are very likely going to find that the distance of a 12 hour race is a lot easier than you anticipated. As a general rule though, the longer the race the more challenging the navigation. It is also pretty challenging to practice navigation as opportunities are not quite as easy as the other disciplines. One thing you can do (I do this) is to geocache without a GPS. I print out a map of geocache locations and then attempt to hut them down from a map.
Here is the approach I would have taken to this course;
- The south approach to CP10 was probably the easiest way to attack this entire leg. The approach was by bike. All teams found CP10 pretty easily. The next leg up the north road was very sandy and at least 1 1/2 km of this was completely unride-able. Nevertheless use of the odometer was important here to know the attack on CP11.
- CP 11 (the clue was backwards, surprised no elite teams caught this on pre-race). The lone palm tree was however quite obvious and teams found this pretty easily. The next step was to find the E/W trail (actually trails and power lines). To find CP12 (some did this well, others struggled) measure from the trail intersection .9 km west. Since the canal was wide, it was pretty easy to know if you came up short or long (canal or no canal). The control was placed right at the bend - with a view up the N/S canal that was pretty impressive.
- Back to the N/S trail mostly rideable, but tough at the very end, probably most teams walked the last 500 meters to the pavement. East on the paved road to US1, then south to the gate entrance - gate 2. I was surprised a lot of teams missed this turn, especially since there was a traffic cone at the gate.
- Once on the dirt road heading west of gate 2, pay very close attention to distance, it was only about 200 meters to the single track leading to CP13, and very easy to miss. For those who found it keeping track of distance to CP13 was crucial, but if you overshot - you had a good trail for a backstop, simply turn back and try again, it was only about 300 meters in and the clue was important (treeline) - it was the only treeline along that single track, the rest was open treeless palmetto.
- After CP13 go south to dirt road, turn right, about 100 meters, then left and to the TA.
TREK
- Now the trek, most teams found CP14 easily enough, north back past where you came out of CP 13 until you came nearly to US1.
- Now back to the main N/S trail, south to the single track, CP15 was right on the single track.
- CP16 was stay north on the single track, there were a couple of turns, but the idea was to stay north. If you came out to the fire road, you could use it as a backstop. The challenge was that the control was on the bridge on the single track and it was running parallel to the fire road at this point (about 30 feet south of it). This was hard to see on the elite map (but not on the blowup black and white we gave).
- I though CP17 was the hardest trek point, but the teams that tried for it had very little problem. The clue (faint E/W single track did help). The single track did run east west to the main N/S fire road - but you did have to cross a barb wire fence if you used that route.
- CP18 was real easy - head south to power lines E/W road, head west to fire road and then south to the control which was right on the road. If you missed it and took the single track - they both led to the same point. If you took the wrong single track though (there were 3 trails going south) - you would be hosed as it cut back east.
- CP19 was meant to challenge the navigators coming from CP18, my route was north to single track heading east, across to the N/S fire road and south on the fire road to the attack point from the west. Trick here was that the trail petered out if you went east, so you had to make a turn to the north about 50 feet in, and then it headed east again. This was not obvious on the map - and the clue was no help. For these types of controls you need to use the team and spread out from the control on the possible paths making sure you don't go too far (the control is mapped as only 100 meters off the fire road - no need to go more)
- CP20, 21 and 22 were simply following the roads. If you were quick you would notice the fire line trail that went due north from CP21 to CP22 (it was not mapped in red, but was on the topo map.
BIKE OUT
- For those who chose to bike out via 23, 24 , and 25 - CP23 was a challenge, the other 2 were pretty straighforward, so skipping 23 and just doing 24, and 25 would take you to a gate and right out to US1 and back to the TA. If you chose to do CP23, catching the single track cross trail was key - and took you south of the control. As for the control itself it was easily visible from the fire road. You would then have to head south from 23 and go east on the fire road. The entire western fire road was poor riding, but from CP24 to the exit was fast - rideable, and easy navigation.
SPORT COURSE TREK
This is best done in order. Head north from the TA and look for the north leading trail towards CP6. This was challenging for some teams as they completely missed the gate just north of the TA - but eventually all teams found it. Once locating the trail, simply stay north and keep your eye out for the single track heading west (left). Follow this single track to CP6. Total Distance 600 meters. (4-6 minutes)
CP6 - CP7 - stay on the single track and head north. There were two intersections, but in both cases you need the trail that headed north. Biking this on Sunday to pick up controls - it looked like most teams did fine and took the correct trails. It also looked like a lot of teams bailed out and headed for the fire road. Unfortunately the bridge was on the single track trail just south of the fire road (about 30 feet). This had a lot of teams searching for a while. One thing that should have helped teams is that there was a very short trail leading from the fire road at the marshy point that connected the fire road with the single track road. Total distance 700 meters. (5-8 minutes)
CP7 - CP8 Now was time to use the fire road. Follow it and head south. The first intersection heading east was the trail to the marsh (and crossing the marsh like some teams did would take you right to the TA). Just past this was another trail heading right. If you made this turn and headed west, stay on it and you ended up at CP8 which was just east of the trail and readily visible. Here you needed to be careful to NOT take the first southbound single track. The second one was OK as it also headed straight to the control. Total distance 1.2 km (8-12 minutes)
CP8 - CP9 You need to go east now. Head south and take first single track, and stay east, even if you missed the first one, the second one was also good. If you stay east you will exit on a fire road just north of an intersection of 2 fire roads. Turn right (south) and then left (east) on the fire road at the intersection. You will know you are in the correct location if you see a third fire road heading south, the control is about 100 meters down this road on a palm tree. After getting this control double back to the last intersection. and continue east. 600 meters. (6-9 minutes).
CP9 to CP10. Follow road east to Y intersection. If you have not biked yet, good idea to look and see where CP11 is and make mental note for bike leg. Continue on main road to T intersection, head left (north). At the next T intersection head right and look for gate. Control was on post at gate. (Head due north around pond on marl road and into the TA. 700 meters (5-8 minutes)
SPORT BIKE
TA to CP11 - If you trekked first finding your way back to the gate should be easy. If not, you need to make special note, the gate and CP10 were 100 meters from the TA and are the correct way to head towards CP11. After finding CP10 and the gate (use this a reference) go west and turn left down trail. You will then turn right at first intersection Keep an eye out for the Y intersection as it will merge and be hard to see. If you nav this well it will take about 3 minutes (really).
CP11 - CP12 - The challenge on this is finding the single track that takes you towards CP 12. You are going to stay on the fire road (very nice one) 0.7 km or just over 1/2 mile. This single track is pretty easy to find - if you start looking at 1/2 mile - if not you'll miss it and end up at another intersection (1/2 mile later). You can also get to it by going north at that intersection.
CP12 - CP13 - This one is easy nav, terrible biking. This road is all chewed up, but all you need to do is follow it to the sharp turn to the east in 1 km (0.6 miles) you did check your odometer at CP12 right?
CP13 - CP14 - OK you are going to stay on the same sucky trail here. Luckily it starts getting a little better. Make note of the gate (as mapped) you pass by, the road starts going a little more north and ends up at an open field/marsh. You are looking for the wooden bridge, which is a simple little bridge sitting in this field.
CP14 - CP15 - Do not go back the way you came, the trail you want starts out due west and after 1km hits a Y intersection. Turn back hard right (you probably came in this way) and check your odometer. You single track is less than 250 meters from this intersection. When you find the entrance, this gets tricky as everything looks like a trail once you enter the single track. Using the map you know the control is less than 100 meters. In this case you may need to check these trails, as the correct trail heads north about 50 feet in.
CP15 - TA - You already rode this on this road. It is pretty easy riding, follow it back towards CP10, the gate, and the TA.
You don't even want to know how long it took me to do this loop... For those who want better practice - we do plan to offer 1 day and 2 day adventure camps this Fall. We will cover bike, boat, and foot nav both in daylight and in darkness.
If I remembered anything from the 2009 Nocturnal it is that it was hot at the beginning of the race. I was racing with Melissa, Jimmy, and Chris - some veteran racers from a couple of years back. Melissa is not (supposed to be) running - more on that later, but she is nursing a knee that needs replacement. We all decided to stay the Friday before the race at a little place in St. Cloud called the Lakeside Inn (http://www.lakesideinnfl.com/ ). Amazingly for $35 per room per night you get a great place with a fantastic home style cafe - with an awesome breakfast and all you can eat fried catfish the night before.
Sure enough as we took out on bikes - it was HOT. I was feeling amazingly sluggish in the heat. Melissa decided to do the bike nav, which was cool. The first control cost us some time - we overshot the attack point and had to crop back. We made up the time on CP2 and on the bike ride to the paddle TA at Billy's Lake. This was the shortest paddle I think I had ever done in a 18 hour race. It was still a pretty cool and had a really nice swampwack (see video) in it. After the main paddle we had the "Paddle Challenge" - a slalom course that was timed. Our entire team is made up of solid paddlers - and we won the challenge - which ended up giving Chris a $50 gift certificate for Travel Country Outdoors ( http://www.travelcountry.com/ ) where he will definitely be able to use it on some nice AR gear.
After the paddle - we started the first trek leg. It was about 4:30 PM and incredibly hot. The leg had no real navigation to speak of and also had no real shade. We left out of the TA just behind Militia AR and they did something that amazed the hell out of me, they started running. Well just for awhile - but it was impressive to see a team actually run in what had to be a 110 degree heat index. By the time we finished the slog (did I mention it was mostly soft sand?) I was wasted. We got the the TA - and I jumped back into Billy Lake. After a few minutes in the lake and a little ice water I felt tremendously better. Militia AR was a few minutes ahead of us - and we had a lot of teams (Florida Xtreme 1 and 2, Nature Calls, Super Frogs, and a few others) all within a few minutes of each other.
The next bike leg had one challenging control (CP12) - which was a challenge simply because the trail leading to it was a bit different from the map at the road. We figured it out just as we saw another team go by. We plugged along and rode hard (I took a tow for part of the way) back to the TA to make the most of daylight and also keep from having to unpack the lights. We made it - at this point the top 7-8 teams were all within 15 minutes of each other. It was too early to do the zip line, so we headed out on the sport trek. For a sport class trek it was amazingly challenging. The approach to Sport CP8 from the south was a challenge as the trail shown on the map were nowhere to be found. CP9 and CP10 were also a little bit of a challenge as keeping a solid bearing for 250 meters is not easy. It took us a little under 2 hours.
It was next to the zip line and all I can say was - awesome. The elite zip line was incredible, one of the most fun I have ever done and doing it at night made it that much more fun. ( http://www.floridaecosafaris.com/ZiplineSafaris/ ). The way the timing on the zip line worked is regardless of how long it took - you could not leave the TA on the next leg before 90 minutes after you started.
We hit the paddle leg next - I though the first paddle was the shortest, but this one was even shorter. It was fun, but also funny as the portage was nearly as long as the paddle...
After that it was the Sport bike leg. We took the Laura's way route from CP13 to CP 14 that turned out to be a mistake (lots of gates and electric fences to cross) - and then lost some time at CP14 as we did not find the trail and ended up doing a blind trek. While we were south of the control - Florida Xtreme 1 and 2 - and SUper Frogs came in, got it and left. We were facing another issue at this point - Jimmy had been eating 2 year old stale Hammer Gel - and the results had caught up to him.
Picture this - you are in the middle of nowhere, and your stomach just drops out and you need a bathroom. Just as you realize this you ride up to a real live bathroom on your bike. This was CP 12 (near the cracker house). After 10 minutes of waiting for you in the bathroom your team finally cajoles you back onto the bike. You head off deeper onto the ranch. Your stomach is still turning flips and you really need to stop at another bathroom. As we approach sport control CP14 - literally way out in a field, there is another bathroom. Yes folks there was another bathroom at Sport CP14 ! Jimmy was really feeling bad, and he got to spend some time there (about 30 minutes). This time when he came out he looked better and was a bit more chipper. We knew we had lost some time so we pushed it hard back to the TA.
Two items left - the sport zip line and the last elite trek. The sport zip was also a fun one (nowhere near as fun as the longer line we used in the elite). Also Jimmy had left the punch card back at the gear-in so we made him run back and get it. We still finished easily in the hour allotted for the zip and still had to wait 15 minutes before we got to do the last trek.
We watched as AR Militia, then Florida Xtreme, and Super Frogs all left on the trek. We were first planning on letting them go and just taking the trek easy, but I got the competitive bug and we decided to run. We aced the navigation, including a straight Bushwhack from CP15 to CP16 - but it was not enough to catch the leaders. AR Militia took a well-deserved first, running a very tight race. The 2nd and 3rd place ended up being pretty exciting sprint finish. between FLXtreme 2 and Super Frogs.
I was happy - we had done 18 hours of amazing racing, this is a really good distance for racing and this race had lots of elements of pain, exhilaration, teamwork, competion, and excitement. I should have the maps up soon - till the next race, see ya !
The SCAR has been a Father’s Day tradition for about 10 years – because who can resist the opportunity to race in extreme heat on this holiday. (Actually – the second SCAR started at the Black Hammock Fish Camp and it was a downpour the entire race – but every other one has been hot). I put together a team with FL Xtreme leader Jeff Leninger. We had a new addition Elizabeth Morse in her 3rd race (her 2nd was one week earlier) and Erik Wise – veteran of the Utility Mutants. This was going to be a fast race (6 hour race – very short time format) and also had a record turnout for both the elite and sport class – it looked like about 250 racers total between the 2 races.
We got the maps at 7:30 AM when we checked in, the race looked to have pretty easy navigation – another sign it would be fast. We started with a 2 ½ K run, pretty much to spread the teams about before we hit the boats for the second leg of the race. We kept a low pace that put us in the front of the middle pack. When we hit the water we headed north (the long leg). The strategy was that most of the teams headed south – so we chose to avoid a potential logjam at those controls. Primal Instinct (Jim Carr and Carolyn Schultz) also headed north and hammered the paddle as we could see them on the out and backs. There was a little bit of navigation, but also plenty of landmarks. CP5 was at the first river split, it did become an out and back as the river was pretty clogged that way and we had to return the main channel. CP6 was also at a river split, only 600 meters from CP5, so you needed to keep your eyes open. CP7 was about 200 meters from the mapped flag. The direct route was clogged, so we did need to go along the main channel west, north, and back east). The curves of the river were with the map helping us find the little entrance to CP7. CP8 was a straightforward out and back and the flag was easily visible from the river.
The upstream paddle was tough and Elizabeth and I did our best to hammer it. The swift current really did not allow us any rest. On the way south we passed the team (heading north) that had gone the other way. The two southern controls were pretty straightforward, one on a island, the other in a cove along the west edge of the river. We came in 12 minutes behind the lead team at about 1120. We had decided to trek second and only spent about a minute moving through the TA. The decision to trek second was because we would not have to changes shoes twice and we wanted to get it done before it got even hotter. We made a clean loop CP18 to CP15. I was suffering on this leg, it was hot and there was no shade. We were running along with Punch Junkies who we caught at CP15. At CP15 we moved to single track with shade and I felt much better. Everyone else appeared to be running OK. At CP17 we doubled back on the trail and followed the northern trail along the road before bushwhacking over to the road (it was pretty open). From there it was a straight run back past CP18 and to the TA. As we started into the transition I heard Greg getting ready to start the Sport Course in 3 minutes. We needed to be out before then or we would be caught behind them all. We flew through the TA and sprinted out of there on bikes.
It was now really hot. As we left CP9 we were on sandy (but ride-able) double track. I was starting to overheat. When we got to CP10 I was able to pour water on my head and wrists and bring my core temp down. It is a good idea for everyone who does AR in extreme conditions to recognize the signs of heat exhaustion – preferably before they are on the trail-side puking their guts out. After the intersection south of CP12, the trail became grassy and easier. We got a few clouds and a little bit of shade, and my core temp dropped a little (unless you really know what you are doing with judging your ability in heat – don’t risk it, rest and cool off). We missed the “Triple Trunk” at CP13 on the way north, but did not worry as we would get it on the return trip. The trail after that turned into mud and water so we pushed bikes pretty much most of the way. CP14 was right on the trail and the trail bend was as shown on the map. We did find the triple trunk and CP13 by simply measuring the distance from the trail bend north of CP13. After CP13 we were back on the bikes and riding south. The trail to CP11 (the last flag) was pretty obvious and it was now just chunking our way through the heat back to the TA. Jeff was struggling with heat here so we were not moving fast – but we were moving. We ended up finishing 3rd with Primal Instinct taking the 1st place and Hoof-Hearted in second.
It looked like most of the teams in both sport and elite class survived a very hot day, and proved they had what it takes to conquer the SCAR.
I did the twelve points AR - a production of Inverted Armadillo Rogue Racing. Pretty cool race - 12 hour rogaine format with 3 4 hour long legs that could be done in any order. The race was at Sunnyhill restoration area near Umatilla on the Oklawaha River - great area I raced with Erik Wise and Elizabeth Morse (we raced great together). The trek was true to word - we finished right at 4 hours - just as the heat index was topping 100 degrees. Highlight was spotting a black bear along the course and some tough bushwacking. We did the paddle second - also a full 4 hour paddle, with one CP that required a pretty tough bushwack through slime (on the video). The bike leg was brutal and we only got 2 of the 4 points before heading in. Still a great race and some awesome training for our team. Highlights are in the video;
OK - this has nothing to do with the adventure theme of the blog. I have been an avid Lost fan for years and was disappointed at the ending. Luckily it is fiction and I can actually write my own ending - so here it is.We'll pick up after Desmond has gotten to the bottom of the waterfall and is unplugging the whatever the hell it was.
The Island
Desmond wraps his arms around the rock pulling upwards. At first nothing happens, but then a slight movement. As he senses the rock will move, he gives one huge pull and falls away with the rock his arms still wrapped around the rock. At first there is no change, but then a sputter. The light starts to flicker the way a candle would in a high wind. It flickers and then it is gone. The darkness seems to move out of the hole left by the rock - but it also comes in from all sides. This is not just a darkness of light, but an all-encompassing darkness of light and sound, of everything. The darkness spreads over the rest of the island swallowing everything - even the sound of the sea. For an instance there is only silence. And then the light comes - brilliant white light that encompasses everything, it grows into a crescendo and then everything is gone. There is only silence and light - the reality of the island has ceased to exist.
The Non-Island Reality
Directly in timed unison with the destruction (or closing of the reality) of the island - everyone is suddenly hit with an onslaught of memories. Everyone - not just the island residents, but the entire planet. For nearly everyone this comes on as a dream and fades just like one. People get the onslaught only to appear dazed as if waking from a vivid dream - only to have this dream fade away. For the people who have been to or been touched by the island the sensation is different. All the memories and emotions, loves and losses of their time in the alternate reality suddenly become full and stark memories mixed with their current life. For some - the meories of their lifes, loves, and death becomes clear. For all this is a shared vision, a glimpse into a life that no longer exists, that closed and disappeared with the reality that encompassed it.
For all the people touched by the island - a shared truth, of how they are all connected and part of each others lives becomes apparent to them. They realize that through the experience they have become found, that they have played a part in a bigger purpose.
Epilogue
Somewhere in the South Atlantic a small hole opens in the water. The hole is a dark black stain in the Crystal blue waters. The a light shines through the hole. An incredibly bright light pours from the hole like the sun trying to fit through a single point. The light blinds the screen until it fades and the light recovers to reveal a beautiful serene island where there was only water before. And the island was waiting for those who were lost.
We finally made the Stage TA at 10:30 PM. It was raining and we he had to plot all the points for the second half of the race. I told the others to do everything they needed to get ready and started on the maps. I was able to finish plotting by about 11:15 and got a route strategy for at least the next trekking leg. I grabbed a cup of noodles, a piece of pizza, threw some food in my pack, grabbed my trekking poles. Unfortunately I did not grab a new pair of socks (though I did grab my trekking shoes) so would have to trek in my biking socks (not good padding). Following the second rule of adventure racing, “If you don’t have it, you don’t need it” we all got together – listened to the pre-race and got ready to go. All in all it felt like a regular transition with point plotting to me. Hey – if we had gotten there sooner we would have had too much time !
The next trek started with a pretty long leg to CP17. The original route had us crossing the Etowah – but the rain had made that too dangerous. We would instead cross at a bridge, but would have to cross another creek that was likely to be swollen. As we approached Shoal Creek we could see it was 20-30 yards across and we saw another team trekking along it on the other side. They shouted that they had been swept downstream, and warned us the crossing was dangerous. We had 6 teams – so we linked arms and headed across. Even with at least 20 racers linked arm in arm – we almost got swept up in the current – luckily we had some pretty tall guys that kept us on the track.
The navigation was not terribly difficult approaching CP17 – though the location was pretty challenging. Luckily a lot of the faster teams were leaving as we approached and we were able to easily follow the lights down the gulley to the waterfall and the CP. From there we headed west and north towards CP18. This one looked easy (it was near the TA) and sure enough, except for wandering off the blue blazed trail –it was. My feet were getting hotspots from the long wet trek in bad socks, but we were heading off onto the bikes. The team had done a great job on the trek – but we were now heading back onto the bikes and the first ride had left most of us tired and a bit sore (in many places). It was going to be a long, but mostly road (not trail) bike ride.
I warned the team that we would have a relatively easy ride (some low hills) until the last few miles which would be a massive climb. We all got a burst of energy as the sub came up and we had been traveling with some really fun teams. Jim was towing Wanda and Kim was riding well even though she was really sore. The final hill started to spread us out – and Jeff decided that Florida Xtreme 1 would hit the next CP and last mandatory control and head to the finish line. That left Florida Xtreme 2 (Jim and I) to finish and clear the course). We were heading out on the Foot Rogaine as FL Xtreme 1 made it up the hill and checked in and headed back down the mountain to the finish. The ropes (ascent and rappel) were open as we passed by so I quickly geared up and did that before we headed out.
My strategy was simple – hit CP25 (on the south peak) first, then go due north to the CP26. I had plotted it a little too far south off the stream. We saw another team leaving it and they told us it was on the stream (it would have been a good clue for the passport). We gave them instructions to the indistinct trail that was on the map along the stream. From CP 26 we contoured up back to the trail southeast of where we went in and headed to the confluence and CP24. We also were able to help a couple of teams that were wandering around that area. The next leg would require us to climb up to the other peak – so we just buckled down and climbed the trail all the way back up. It was easy navigation (only 26 was challenging) – and 8 minutes after finding it, we crossed south across the double peaks to the TA.
It was just Jim and I for the descent back to the main road and to Amicalola Falls. We simply opened it up and coasted the entire way down. My legs were starting to toast as we approached the entrance to the falls. We knew we had one thing left to do – and sure enough we guessed correctly that the final finish line was at the top of the falls. Only a couple miles and 1000 vertical feet were between us and the finish. I was definitely tired, the foot rogaine had toasted me and left some pretty blisters. We achieved the goal – clearing the course and finishing strong. I was very happy with our performance and look forward to racing with FL Xtreme. Just for note – this was Wanda’s and Kim’s 3rd 30 hour race, their first was Swamp Stomp (4 months earlier!) pretty good for 4 months of racing long races.
In just one year the Atomic Adventure race has turned into one of the premiere races in the Southeast so of course when I got a call to join a team, I said yes. I would be joining Florida Xtreme and racing with 5 people (1 three person team and 1 two person team). Since we were going to get maps at check-in we made a point to get there early. I did all the marking while the team prepared gear – we would be marking the first stage, and get another map and points for the second stage. There weren't too may points to plot – though some of the maps had a really weird scale (1:70K and 1:whatever).
The race started with a very short prelude, one team-mate running about a mile and then we started to the top of Amicolola Falls to our staged bikes (CP2) with one CP on the way up. From there it was onto the mountain roads for the frst nice long bike leg. CP3was relatively easy to find, and after chunking uphill to the forest tower, Jim and I were rewarded by being able to scream down the washed out road (we bot enjoyed that downhill immensely – thanks!) . As we left I noticed some teams taking a route north up over Black Mountain. They were obviously planning on attacking CP4 (on Bearden Creek) from the north. Here are a few reasons why that was a bad idea (1) The southern route is on the way to the next CP, (2) The only way get to the attack point was the AT, (3) it would involve a bike bushwhack through very steep terrain, and (4) the southern attack point had a very obvious attack location. From CP3 we dropped down to road 28E. At the end of the road all the bikes from the teams in front of us were on the ground, but we could also see lead teams running down the hill from the CP. One of the lead teams said it was bikeable almost to the control and sure enough after crossing a stream with our bikes it was. We rode up to about200 yards from the CP and climbed the steep and now slippery slope up to the CP on a pretty waterfall. We were with a lot of other teams here - and our team was talking and joking. Mim's the Word had dropped their passport at CP3 and was looking for it – luckily someone (Melissa Scott) had found it and they were back in action.
The ride to CP5 was uneventful and easy navigation – we were starting to get our flatlander Florida legs used to hills. From CP5 we had a bike Rogaine with 5 control of which we could visit 4. We went by paved road and turned left on the first bike trail (223F). The girls (Kim and Wanda) were a little uncomfortable at first with the narrow single track and hills – but adjusted to it very fast. CP6 was right on the trail – so we got one of the 4 controls within 15 minutes of CP5. Wo hoo! Our next control would be CP7. It was on trail 223C – we could take trail 223 straight to it, ut it involved a very steep climb, instead I chose to take trail/road 223F. That allowed us to tow (our team was still adjusting to the hills) a milder but longer slope. We would still have a one steep but much shorter climb as we would approach the control from the north on 223C. That trail was bikeable up, but we pushed up it, found the control. It was a LOT of fun on the way down (I love biking down washouts). Our original strategy had us going to CP9 and then CP10 – I decided to change it and instead hit CP8 (we had heard from a team it was pretty easy travel). We got to the creek, dropped our bikes and started to bushwhack up the hill. That did not work out, Jeff smartly asked a local group camping (where our bikes were dropped) – and was informed that “That there trail will take you right to the waterfall”. That turned out to be a bit easier than a bushwhack along the creek bed. All along this route we would pick up teams and then split off from teams, so this section had a lot of collaboration. As we headed back towards CP10, we ran across some horses. They asked how to get to the dam – as the rain had destroyed their map. That was straight where we were headed. I gave them verbal instructions (take this trail to 223D, to 223F to the 5 way intersection). They were able to follow us on horses most of the first part since it was uphill, we did run into them again as we left the dam and CP10. This next section was everyone's favorite – the long bike up Bull Mountain was tough, the screaming downhill back down was awesome. With a little pumping I was able to get over 60 km/hr. I also took some video of this section holding my camera while flying downhill that turned out pretty good. CP10 was easy. On the rollers on the downhill to CP10 Kim was riding in front of me and got some good air (and then nearly bit it !). We rode back out to CP5/CP11 just in time to see some guys out the church across the street washing out paintbrushes with a hose. After filling our bottles and bladders we headed to CP12. From CP12 to CP13 was one of those navigators nightmares. I was never quite sure where we were – but there was always at least one road going the correct direction. We did enjoy the riding in this section, and we did end up at the bottom of the hill at a small gas station. Jeff treated us all to anything we wanted – after a quick lunch consisting of Hershey's bars, Mountain Dew, Apple Pies, Pork rinds, etc.. we headed to Quick Shoals a solid hour before the cutoff (remember our goal was to clear the course – not win).
Since I had the most (read this as only) experience paddling whitewater – I put Kim and Wanda in my boat. Jeff and Jim were in the other boat. Kim and Wanda loved the little Class I and II rapids – as did I. We took a couple of hard bumps (lots of rocks) and Wanda and I both discovered the boat had a cross board in front of us designed to stop us by our shins. My shins still have indentations in them as I write this. I made sure Kim (from of the boat) knew that the only rocks I could NOT see were those directly in front of us. She developed a technique of calling out ROCK! about ½ second before impact. Which was at least enough for us to brace for impact. The were both worried about tipping over. I made sure they understood that if the boat tipped it was because I wanted to to. We did have some close calls where we wedged and almost put our upstream draft in the water – but a few hard leans downstream side corrected us in time. (If you paddle whitewater you know exactly what I am talking about – if not get out there and do it!). Etowah Falls was a lot of fun – we portaged the main falls but still got to do a few fun drops downstream of the falls.. We got to the tunnel where we were supposed to go about ¼ mile down an old mining shaft (pitch black whitewater). Unfortunately the race had to close this section as 3 of the 7 team that went through had capsized or gotten stuck. One team wedged their boat in the narrow tunnel and ended up wit a crushed bow. By now Jeff and Jim had cracked the hull of my fiberglass Mohawk and had to stop and dump water about every 15 minutes. We paddled about another hour and not having a map of the area or any idea of the length of the paddle was pretty sure we were done. We paddled another hour and it starting raining. Lightning was striking all around us and it got pretty cold. Since it was warm when we went into the water the girls had on tank top shirts. I could see they were shivering, we kept paddling to stay warm. About 8 PM it was dark, pouring rain, and cold. Every road we passed got our hopes up and then dashed them as it was not the take-out. We finally got their about 8:30 PM. The girls were shivering, and there was a covered pavilion. Jim and I were both pretty warm – so we prepped the boats and gear and put the girls under the cover and told them to get warm (as best as possible). A few other teams were under the cover too – trying to stay warm. As soon as we got te boats set for pick-up (all the gear and paddles had to be secured in the boats) we rousted everyone out of the pavilion into the rain. We needed to get to the next TA to get the coordinates and maps for stage 2. We also knew there was a fire station along route that would allow us to warm up. The fire station was less than ½ mile from the take-out and the firemen their knew just what to do to help the girls warm up. Jim did not get a break, I had left my camera on the boat and wanted it so we ran back to the take-out. As it turned out I had dropped it near the boats – luckily it is bright yellow. We ran back to to fire station where Kim and Wanda were now warm. We were informed there was no cover at the next TA (it was still drizzling) – I was not worried about cold, but I would have to plot the next points in the rain. Ugh... We finally dragged into the TA at 10:30 PM. Nearly all the teams were there, the race leaders having arrived around 4:30 PM. I had plotting to do and the second stage was going to start at midnight. The race was about to get even more interesting as the night sections always are.
Had a great (and hot) run yesterday at Billie's Bay in Ocala. Orienteering was challenging - but finished blue course in about 113 minutes (was going for under 2 hours). Here are some scenes from that run. The old helmet cam was a bit bouncy - but you can at least get a sense for what it looked like out there. Here are the top 4 in Blue course fromhttp://www.floridaorienteering.org/ - Greg made me run (I had not intended to run since I've been having issues with joints) by catching up to me at CP 9 - all in all a pretty straightforward blue course. Great run by Chris especially in the heat (92 degrees and humid).
Name Time
Johnson, Chris 101:32
Sirmans, Jerry 105:13
Eaglin, Ron 113:30
Pangea Adventure Racing 114:05
For those new to orienteering - watch this film - it really gives a true flavor of what it is like to be out there running the course. This is NOT Florida terrain.
