Nocturnal August 8-9 2009

This would be my first time racing with May-Li, who is by all accounts an incredible athlete (and also great motivator, especially late in the race. The race started at 1:30 PM with a 1.5 K run out and back to spread out the pack before starting into the trek/paddle/trek section. This little jaunt in the full Florida sun would essentially start the process of 90+ degree heat slowly sapping the strength of even the strongest teams.

CP1 was a simple control and we chose to go straight across the field from CP1 - CP2 (I marked our route in purple) as it was pretty much wide open. Once arriving at the boats, we learned quickly the paddle section would be a push/paddle/swim as the copious deadfalls made the race a game of bumper canoes. May-Li and I were pushing pretty hard at this point and the hopping, pushing, lifting of the boat was taking its toll on our bodies in the heat (as we would find out later). We chose to drop the boat at the TA after CP5 and run/swim to CP6 which proved to be a great strategy. Since we did not have to return to the Boat TA, we punched east out to the field where we spotted the fenceline along the township range line - we were able to travel due east to the trail south of CP7 and follow that trail directly in (marked in purple). Because of the heat we were electing not to run and to conserve our energy for the night portions of the race. From CP7 we headed to the road, and back to the TA, and were still first in, even with our low pace strategy.


The bike legs in this race looked and were quite long, though they did not appear to be a huge navigation challenge. We picked off CP8, CP9, CP10, and CP11 easily on our way to the Tiple N ranch TA. All were near distinct feaures and pretty easy to find - but the biking in the heat was causing some pain.

The next section (trek) was the most challenging. We left the TA with Team SAL Miami, heading in opposite directions. We elected to go after CP12 first as it appeared to be the most challenging and we had a good bit of light left. It was strightforward, simply continue west as the Orange Blaze trail headed south. As we headed for CP13 - we realized the trail along the creek was quite the challenge to follow - so we punched out to the open field and were able to follow game trails using the small road to guide us to the attack point (creek/trail intersection) for CP13. We crossed paths with Team SAL Miami heading out from CP13 - they had opted to go in reverse order, they were moving fast (we weren't). CP13 was a challenging find in the dark as you had to get pretty much on top of it to locate it. CP14 was straightforward, and we chose to use the open field bushwhack again (instead of the trail). Leaving 14 I elected to take us due north to the road (we were stumbling a lot - and figured we could move well on the road) - and then dropped down to CP15 which was straightforward. As we headed for CP15 we ran across Team Miami again heading out on bikes - they had flown through this section, we were still not moving too fast - but the cooler night air was helping bring us back around.

The next few were pretty easy, though we overshot the bearing CP18 - and ended up in some really thick nasty stuff - (I'm not a real fan of CP's that are not on some actual feature). As we got to CP20 - we realized the bike back across to Florida Forever and the TA would be a leg burner.CP20 to CP21 was a real slog, CP21 to CP22 was worse (with some waist deep wading). We chose to bike back around to CP23 and attack from the trail to the south. Fatigue clouded my navigation at this point and I shot us way too far west. We came to another trail, realized our mistake, determined where we were - and then took a due east from the trail bends (as shown in purple) and nailed it - though the slow walk through that section cost us some real time (30 minutes). From CP23 (we were seeing lots of Sport teams wandering around on bikes in the darkness - since by this time they were well into their race) we punched back to the TA on slow but rideable trails.

At the TA - we headed to the zip line, we were still in kind of a zombie state, but zippig through the cool night air was a great rest and a lot of fun. This zip line was probably the best I have done - they really have a great system with the 2 towers and you can get some real speed on it.

We then decided to do the Sport run (walk mostly for us) - and that was a really fun course with a couple creek crossings (it was still hot so the water was nice). As we came off ECP5 on the Sport trek - we decided to jog back and hope we had time for one more control on the bike course. We hit the TA at 7 AM and decided to snag CP6 (paddle control) - which we were able to bike to. My legs really did not want to pound through the muddy trail down to Sport Control CP6 (about 1.5K) - May-Li had gotten a second wind and was charging, so I sucked it up and pushed hard. It only took us 8 minutes to reach the control and another 8 back - so we finisehd with time to spare (though not much).

In the end Team Shake A Leg Miami took first, May-Li and I took second (team Off the Map), and Katie and crew (Mim's the Word) took third. I met a lot of new racers - and there were quite a few first timers in both events (Sport and Elite). Hopefully we'll see them all return. A lot of them looked tired and beat. I always get a kick out of talking to Ironman triathletes - who after completing their first long AR, and being asked how they compare usually respond "Holy S***". There is a great satisfaction in pushing yourself hard, applying your wits, and navigation skills, and challenging nature that you get from this sport.

Upcoming Adventure

My next race is the Nocturnal - I've been training my running hard to be able to keep up with my race partner May-li. After that I'm looking forward to a trip to Ecuador where Mickey and I will be flying out of Shell, Ecuador


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to Pavacachi


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and then paddling to Cononaco on the Peruvian border.


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Here is a little closer look - yes, those 2 structures are the village of Cononaco. This is a pretty isolated stretch of the Amazon rain forest.



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also check out

http://www.amazon-indians.org/

Death Race

Well - I couldn't make it to the death race this year. If you have not heard of the death race, you should check it out.

Death Race

I've got a lot of things going on, August 8 I'll be racing in the Nocturnal ( http://www.pangeaadventureracing.com/race.php?r=29 ) with May-li (and possibly a 3rd person) as team Off the Map. I'll have a full race report and pretty much figure she'll be dragging me all through the swamp while I stare at the maps. I have upped my running training a bit to get ready. At the end of August I'll be heading to Ecuador to help Mickey set up some fun activities in the Rain Forest for Eco-Xtreme adventures.

I am also in the early planning stages for an awesome bike race - the race will be 106 miles and will trace one of the early historic routes of Florida history.

SCAR 2009

OK - so it was going to be a hot day. 105 heat index. At 8 AM the elite teams lined up and headed for a nice wet and muddy trek to the boats. Picking up a few CP's they paddled a few miles over to another wet and muddy trek section for a little orienteering, and then a paddle back.

Meanwhile the sport course racers were lining up at 11 Am for their start. They went to the same CP that the elite team's went for and then onto the hidden path and the mudwalk. I was proud to see my girls (Team Daddy's Girls) as the second team to come off the mudwalk - woo-hoo. I also saw some elite teams (Bill Jacksons and Shake-a-Leg Miami) in the mudwalk.

Both groups headed out for a little single track biking. Unfortuntely this was where my daughter won best blood - hitting a submerged barrel and giving herself a few stitches (video of that coming later). The remainder of Dadyy's Girls forged on to finish the race.

The top 2 elite teams Bill Jacksons and SAL Miami made a real race of it.

Highlights of the race, Single track biking, the mudwalk, a really cool paddle section, and a pretty shady course protecting racers from the gueling heat. Good job to all who finished in the race. Youngest racer today was - 7 years old - awesome. Anyway enjoy the little movie I put together as see you out there later. Make sure you check out the photos at

http://www.teamracephotos.com/

The Radiator Cat

I somehow seem to be a magnet for bizarre occurrences. Today (Thursday 6/11) while biking to work - heard a loud yowling noise. It disappeared and I thought it was a bird. As I approached one of the stop lights on the UCF campus I heard it again, but still could not figure out where it was coming from. As the light turned green I heard the sound go by me and this time it registered that it was coming from the front of a Hyundai Santa Fe that was driving by.

My next action was kind of funny. I first hauled butt to catch up to the Hyundai - passing it, and then getting between it and the car in front of it. I idenitifed the sound as a cat yowling from the front of the car, so I motioned fractically to get the lady in the car to pull over. She did and she had a small tabby kitten caught between the grill and the car radiator.

Three parking services teams later we were able to safely extract the kitten - which seemed frightened and relieved. We were also able to find the kitten a home ( a few phone calls) and it was off in a box with one of the parking guys. I think they should name it "Lucky"

Bizarre Story Before

It was only about a month before this story that my bike ride home was interrupted by a screech of brakes, as a car just 100 yard in front of me hit a duck. The duck was near dead by the time I arrived, I had to finish it off. The duck had an an entire cadre of about 3 day old ducklings. A few others came to help me catch the ducklings. I was able to catch 5 of them (some folks stayed to try and catch the remaining 3 ducks that had moved into some thick palmettos where I was unable to flush them out).

I put the 5 ducks in my backpack and headed home. The ucks ended up living for 4 weeks in our bathroom, doubling in size about every week. We finally took them to an animal rescue where they are doing very well.

We now (wife and kids) volunteer regularly at the animal rescue feeding the menagerie of animals there. We get to see our rescued ducks too.

Impossible Panther

Impossible Panther 24 Hour

This looked to be a fun and challenging race held in Troy NC (a manageable ride), a couple of teams from Florida (Shake A Leg Miami, and Mims the Word) were racing. I was racing with Katie and Dave from Mims the Word. Here is the race summary.



The race actually started at 8 AM with an orienteering prelude, a little 45 minute jog - even though we were in bike shoes, we headed out. I held the team up a bit with my bad ankle, but good navigation had us 3rd in and we headed out quickly on bikes. We ended up back in the pack at CP2 as the plethora of trails in the area made the navigation challenging. This challenge would follow us to the next CP (CP3) which would see a lot of teams head up a ridge in the wrong direction - luckily this only fooled us for a while and we found it while a lot of the other teams were still searching. CP1 was the first big climb, though we dropped bikes and hit this on foot - though we took non-trail route, the woods were open.



We next headed for the river crossing at CP4, Katie slipped here - the river was about waist deep and the rocks were very slick. Luckily she caught her bike before it headed downstream and we moved quickly to CP5. From CP5 it got a it confusing, simply because of the multitude of trails here. We did not find CP6 on the way down, but ran into Team SAL and headed for CP8 , CP10, and CP7 with them. CP7 was pretty challenging - but we found it and decided to skip CP11 and CP9 and head straight back to the TA.


We caught back up to SAL at the TA, they had gotten CP11 ad CP9, we marked maps and headed out just a few minutes in front of SAL. The trek was enjoyable - it was about 5:45 AM as we left and we made it quickly through the points - making one mistake between CP14 and CP16. CP16 had Katie hanging by her pack over a bridge trying to reach it. A short jog to manned CP19 and then a jog to the TA had us in our boats.


The river section was a blast. A swift current with a little whitewater made it a lot of fun. The first CP 21 cost us some time as we followed the original clue into a creek, for some reason the conrol had been moved to the river bank - but I hada good time exploring the creek. The water eventually became calm as we approached the PeeDee River - which was flowing swiftly. We crossed and stared the orienteering course.


The orienteering course was a highlight of the race for me. Though it was challenging and long - we were using a real orienteering map (sorry - I cannot find it - but you can see it at http://www.teamrocgear.com/w/2009_Impossible_Panther ) and I'm very comfortable on those maps. We beat the time estimate and finished in 3 1/2 hours. The one challenging control (CP27) hidden in the Rodendendron at the top of Sugarloaf mountain was challenging - but the rest were pretty easy.

When we arrived back at the TA - we had some points to plot. The Dam had opened the gates and the river was now "unpaddle-able" - so our choice was to portage the boat to the dam. This turned out to be very challenging with our heavy boat and the steep slopes up and around the dam. At one point it was humorous as Dave literally lowered the boat to me over a 20 foot cliff. Luckily the 16 foot boat was something we could do this with.

We paddled to the rappel and sent Katie out (since they were only letting one team member rappel). The River and the open gates on the Badin dam made the other 2 points north of the rappel difficult and dangerous so we got the one south of the TA and headed in for one more portage up the side of a mountain.

Dave had a flat at the TA (hey - best place to have one). We decided to take the road back as we only had one hour to get back. We were able to get one control on the way back (we even saw SAL Miami) and still finish with 20 minutes to spare.



For those teams who want challenging navigation - and for us - unfamiliar terrain, this is a good race. It was tough. The 24 hour Rogaine format lets you push yourself as hard as you want. I had great team-mates and we really meshed well as a team. In the end we finished 4th overall (see http://www.gobushwhack.com/IPAR09_results_summary_24.pdf )

More information on the race is at http://www.teamrocgear.com/w/2009_Impossible_Panther

My Soccer Team

Here are my girls soccer team - they are pretty awesome. I really enjoy coaching them and just as they learn a lot from me - I also learn a lot from them. I

ACC Video

Watch out for Giant Crabs



Awesome Pictures thanks to Mark at TeamRacePhotos.com

Maps for ACC

Here is a race synopsis (race partners Rod Price and Alan McDonald as team Eco-Choice). If anyone wants a detailed how I got to any control or found any of them - just leave a comment - I'll add it. Yes, I can remember my attacks and approach to every control.

- The race started at 8 AM with a choice between run or bike start. We chose run, which was about a 90 minute orienteering run for CP 1 through CP5 as shown on the map. This was pretty straightforward as was the first bike leg.I had one nav error on the bike leg (about 5 minutes) turning on a parallel dirt road about 75 meters from the correct one - but I figured out the mistake very quickly and we found all controls and the top 5-6 teams all arrived at the TA after the run and bike within 5 minutes of each other.

- The next leg was a paddle to Stoke's Landing with a lot of CP's to find - nearly all of which required a significant detour off the river. We skipped CP11 till the way back to better use the tide. The rest were spot on - but still required some solid marine navigation. The big boats on the IntraCoastal also made paddling our small canoe pretty exciting. At Stoke's Landing we did a foot nav (CP 18 - CP 21) and had a major issue with CP21. After 2 false tries - we finally looped around to the 2 small lakes NNE of the control and bushwhacked to the CP - this worked, but the control had cost us a solid extra 50-60 minutes (and a lot of energy). We made some of that back by going due north from the landing to the river with a very short portage.

- The real race really starts at night. We had a lot of bike controls (CP23 - CP39) Bike nav is also pretty exciting at night. We had minor problems with a few controls, none of which were more than 10 minutes extra time - except for CP30. There were at least 5 teams searching for this when we arrived - and I got into group mentality (I was tired) and instead of using my wits to find a good attack point - I instead ended up following other teams. Bottom line was 2+ hours later we still had no control and we ended up giving up and heading for CP33 (which we found very quickly). In retrospect the best approach for this would have been to bushwhack due south from CP 29 - the terrain along the river was open and the landing (Cook's Landing was very evident even in the dark). The rest of the controls were not too bad, we worked with a few other teams and helped them out before arriving at the TA for the final trek a little before 6 AM.

- The final trek (CP41-CP45) ended up being wonderful (though long at 3+ hours). The wildlife was stirring as we moved through wonderful open forestland. Rod got to be towed by Alan and repayed us by giving up some nice home-made cookies from his food stash. We finished the trek along with some other teams, hit our bikes and pedaled hard back to the main TA to finish a little after 10 AM. Congratulations go out to Team Miami SAL - they had solid navigation and a good pace and truly earned their USARA qualifier jackets. Tim and Anna - you better watch out those jackets were pretty nice, so I'm going to be heavily motivated at the next race ! Of course I'll need to get a coed team ... and all of my female partners are injured, hmm....

Navigation Attack Points - in order
CP2 (Trek) - After passing visible marsh west of trail (below 5 on 54) we angled off trail along contour and spotted pond and control.
CP3 (trek) No problems
CP4 (Trek) - from the trail intersection we went north 75 meters to minimize bushwhack distance and went due east to control, we left south via marsh.
CP5 (Trek) - Took small trail towards lake and handrailed lakeshore.
CP1 (Trek) easy find.
CP6 - CP10 (Bike) - Easy nav, did them in order.
CP12 (Paddle) - Easily saw feature after passing marked Daybeacon.
CP13 (Paddle) - Cook's Landing was readily apparent from the river, not so at night on bike.
CP15 (Paddle) -Turned east at second channel, spotted CP34 along eastern shore, ran north to CP15.
CP22 (Paddle) After leaving CP15, went across and easily found channel and paddled to control.
CP16 (Paddle) Cutacross was open, though shallow - got into channel and went easily to tower which was visible from river.
CP17 (Paddle) Feature was very visible, easy find.
TA1 (Paddle) - Entered Stoke's Creek at main channel (saw Team Miami leaving) and paddled to TA. Leaving we headed due north and entered main river (after short portage) east of Little Pine Island.
CP 11( Return Paddle) - Angled in at channel marker 5 directly to control, left south and then due west - was able to paddle directly to channel.
CP23 (Bike) - Dropped bikes at intersection and headed due east, flag was actually a
bit north of the due east bearing.
CP25 (Bike) - All trails no problem.
CP24 (Bike) - No problems, headed south from 24 on eastern trail. Road took us out to major road, went south.
CP27 (Bike) - Tried at first to bushwhack straight across, abandoned effort after a few minutes and went south and then back up NNE trail to control.
CP26 - Measured 600 meters from intersection to firebreak, took wrong firebreak about 50 meters shy, but were able to go north on unmapped firebreak to control.
CP29 (Bike) - Measured 600 meters from trail bend, found quickly, led many teams to control. Headed north and back around after finding - which was slower as Punch Junkies were there and took the southern route which was faster. (towards CP28)
CP28 (Bike) - Simply measured distaance from exit of CP29, turned west and followed to control.
CP30 (Bike) - Weaved through unmapped trails east and south of control. Ended up south of Island. Lost all navigation sense here and spent 2+ hours searching before giving up.
CP33 (Bike) - Took main trail south, turned west on trail that "felt right" ended up right on the control.
CP31 (Bike) - Measured north on main N-S trail to attack point, found easily.
CP32 (Bike) - Entered woods too far north, though woods were open and flag was easy.
CP34 (Bike) - Followed second trail to control
CP35 (Bike) - Came out a little north on lake after measuring south from intersection, followed shoreline until control was visible.
CP37 (Bike) - Easily found tower.
CP36 (Bike) - Backtracked from tower using distance
CP38 (Bike) - Somehow missed entrance and had to backtrack 200 meters.
CP39 (Bike) - Followed fence easily to control.
CP40 - CP 45 (Trek) - All easy finds

Lighting recommendations

This is a recommendation I gave on lighting for overnight racing;

There is quite a bit, the most important being lights. You will need at least 3 flashlights (per person) - and these will be used on bike and foot. This is the light you want

http://www.botachtactical.com/inbo4ledfl.html

Don't bother purchasing cheap lights - they cannot handle the rigors of adventure racing, this light will. You will also need batteries, for that get a 20 pack of C123A (the batteries these lights take)

http://www.botachtactical.com/rarl3liba10.html

You will also need a headlamp - I use this one

http://www.botachtactical.com/pemyoxphe.html

I was able to find this with a C123A battery option, but no longer can find this (instead you use Lithium AA's). The last part you'll need is the ability to mount lights to your bike and helmet. The best mounts (and only) I have found are at

https://www.fenix-store.com/index.php?cPath=92

Squiggy Classic 2009

This was going to be a fun race for me and it was on a Sunday, so all the usual Saturday conflicts were not a problem. Greg and his son Drew (14 years old) picked me up at 4 AM and we headed over to Tampa. The race started with a short bus trip to the start and an awesome orienteering course. The first flag (FP1) was missing and after I was positive this was the case I yelled for all racers that it was missing and we should move on. It was kind of like restarting the race at CP1 – so if a flag is going to be missing the first one is the best one. We moved fast through the O course and nailed pretty much each one then jumped on our bikes for the next leg of the race. We had one soloist (Frankie) traveling with us, and we only made one mistake, turning short on a dirt road between bike points 4 and 5. At that point Team Shake-A-Leg Miami passed us.

We had one team-mate hurting a bit, and there was not much chance even perfectly healthy to catch up to SAL Miami, but we were still moving OK. We were drawing out a lead on the other teams – so it looked like a 2 team race. I was enjoying the single track, and the navigation was not that tough. We made it to the boats, finished the Funnelator – hitting Greg with a water balloon on the second try. Drew was nauseous on the paddle, but I was feeling pretty strong, so was able to hammer the paddle. We did see SAL Miami returning from CP3 as we were leaving CP5 – which meant they had at least a 20 minute lead at this point. We were able to see the positions of all the other team as we returned from CP3.

After we returned we got the final special test reserved for the front team. We were going to bike the dash run, which turned out to really be a hike-a-bike. The terrain was basically cypress knees for the first mile. After that it was ride-able. I ended up with a flat with just under a mile to go, so I ran the bike and did a pump/ride combo. We had one last thing to do at the end, the obstacle course, which was really a chance for me to get covered in dirt. It was a bit backed up, but there was no threat of another team catching us, so that was no problem.

In the end we finished in second – a great showing for Team Pangea. I really recommend this race, Michael Moule and Kip Koelsch know how to design a course to be challenging but at the same time fun. The park is absolutely gorgeous – lots of interesting terrain and wildlife.

The PQ Video - MUST WATCH

The previews for the TV Special on PQ Montana are out - they are at

http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/media/videos/pq-montana-video-promos.php

pretty great filming..... I'll have race report on The Squiggy Classic - which was so much fun soon!

BOAR - Pangea Adventure Race

I almost did not get a chance to make this race. As it was having cross country with the kids in the morning and a soccer match in the late afternoon - nearly kept me from racing, but i was able to come and do the sport course. Even though I was racing solo I did race most of the race with other teams, and I only broke away when I had to so I could get to my car by 2:30 (which left me enough time to go home, shower, change and get to soccer by 4 PM). The highlight was the paddle (which was really a long portage). It was so much fun I went out the next day and picked up the controls with Greg and we trekked the entire paddle leg. I also stepped on an alligator by accident during the flag pickup (he was little and not too happy about being stepped on). Here is a GPS of our flag pickup including my picking up some of the bike controls.

UCF Super AR

This was my first year of watching, not setting this race. The students did a great job of putting together a great race with many awesome puzzles. Here is a little video







You can also see it directly on Youtube at



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtNsaB0dqxU

Resolution Adventure Race

A picture is worth a thousand words - and I'll save you all the words and simply give you the video of the Resolution Adventure Race. This was Pangea Adventure Racing at its best. http://www.pangeaadventureracing.com

Link for the video directly from Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H39PR9DFdao

Turkey Burn 2008 - Team SWIM

The TB race always has a high WOW factor, being the last race of the season. I had heard that Dave and Jim who had designed the course were not going to disappoint this year and raise it up a notch – which they did. I was racing with Rob, Sheri, and Adam – Team SWIM.

The 4 AM start and a recent cold front was going to mean at least a few cold hours of racing. We started with a straightforward 2 mile run, which got the pack spread out. We ran hard so we could head into the bike leg with a bit of a lead. CP2 was pretty easy, and we transferred to the trail to CP3. and headed south. At CP3 we ended up doing a short bike whack to the parallel trail, but found the control quickly as other teams closed in. We pedaled hard for CP4 – it was solid riding with just a bit of mud. We stayed on the fenceline which had us missing a small trail bend, but we simply dropped the bikes and followed the fence to the control. CP4 to CP5 was much more of a challenge, A good portion of this was along a spoil bank with a lot of mud. We opted for the direct route which was head west and then up the unmarked horse path. Our bikes got pretty caked with mud, but a lot of this was also ride-able. And it was back to the TA where we had about a 4 minute lead on Team Shake-a-Leg.




The next section was a real highlight. We headed due east from the TA on an old logging tram. The tram eventually became overgrown (at CP6) and we bushwhacked to the marked “boats” location where we used three roped boats to ferry across the lake. Another set of boats was used to ferry across the second lake – and we finally reached our boats at the marked spot, where I estimate they were (see map). This was really a highlight and I wonder how they got all of these boats into this pretty inaccessible area?


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The incredible trek to the boats due east along the berm line and across the 2 lakes

We paddled to CP7 and looked towards a portage to CP8. We instead (seeing it was think paddled back around). We heard from Teams SAL and Nature Calls that is was actually a pretty easy portage and took less than 10 minutes. The paddle back around took us 18 minutes (so we lost a little time there). We shifted into hard paddle mode and headed for Blackwater Creek.




This is where we (meaning me) made a huge mistake. I missed a crucial turnoff onto the creek and instead headed down the Wekiva thinking we were on the creek (we did make a left turn – but we needed to make a second one). We paddled for a little over an hour and finally came upon Wekiva Haven – oops. We turned around and headed back and after about 40 minutes located the turn into the creek. In all including figuring out our mistake we had lost a couple of hours. (FlXtreme also was with us – sorry guys).


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Blackwater Creek turn from the Wekiva (we took the first right, missed the second one


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Here is where ended up turning around and heading back - the small area at Wekiva Haven


Finding the creek was now the least of our worries. The creek could only be described as “full contact paddling” with lost of deadfall and obstacles. We still completed this section of paddling in about 2 hours. Arrive at the TA near 1:30. Now our problem would be time. We decided to skip all the foot checkpoints except the mandatory CP11. This was sad – since that was the section I had most looked forward to. I can handle making mistakes and blowing our chances at the race – I do enough races that I’ll get more chances. What I regret is missing a really cool foot section – though I figure the race director will probably let me pick up the controls – so I’ll still get to do it.



Anyway – we did run hard back to the TA via CP11 (well hard by my standards and physical condition). My team-mates are all good runners (and so am I usually, though I had just taken a month off from running to heal and was not quite back at 100%). It felt good to be back on the bikes for the last leg of the race. We had over an hour, and only 3 CP’s that were all pretty close and the entire route (except for one short section) was all good riding. We made it in with 20 minutes to spare – and congratulated those teams (Miami SAL, Badfish, Nature Calls, and Eco-extreme) that had run quite a great race.

Prologue – at 6 PM we finally got all the teams off of Backwater Creek. Team Tarzan, Luchadores, and Colkat probably also all have quite a story to tell….

See the race photos - especially the incredible paddle photos at http://teamracephotos.smugmug.com/2008%20Race%20Photos/669936

USARA Nationals - Blue Ridge Georgia

Splits for all legs are at http://www.usaranationals.com/progress.aspx

“That’s how we roll” is one of the great sayings of our team – in this case Melissa Watson, Jimmy Levine, and I were headed to Blue Ridge Georgia after qualifying at the How at the Moon adventure Race. Nationals are always an opportunity to see some of the teams from around the country and also enjoy a well set and challenging race. The race course team of Ron, Tony Berwald, and Patrick Harper would never disappoint – so we expected a challenging and well set course. We arrived by plane to Atlanta (and also learned about a lot of the new luggage charges) on Wednesday morning so we would have an extra day to enjoy the area before the check-in on Thursday. We went around and hiked to a few waterfalls. I unfortunately had a bad cold that I had aggravated (racing) from the week before so was hacking and coughing all this time hoping I would at least be on the tail-end of the cold by the race start on Friday morning. Racing with a cold is one of the most miserable experiences you can have. I know a lot of racers who have done this will sympathize.

The volunteers from Blue Ridge were extremely friendly. We checked in and ended up with the same race number we had at Potosi (69). I think we’ll have to ask Troy to make that number our tradition (it was the same team I had raced with last year too). The pre-race gave us a number of solid warning – most important was be at the start at 6:45 AM or the penalty would be severe. I figured we would be riding the train (and we were). We were given the maps and about 30 checkpoints to plot. I wanted pasta so we headed for the local Pizza Hut – and started on the maps. We met our sister/brother team there Travelcountry.com and we worked together to plot all the points. We decided sleep would be more important than race strategy (for me with a cold it was) and crashed by 11 PM so we could be up early for the start.

The next morning started around 5 AM. I had a little issue finding my race bib and it looked like it would be a panicky start. We had to be ready and downtown by 6:45 – where we would be transported by train to the actual race start, and also given the maps for the race prologue. The train ride was great – even though we couldn’t see anything in the darkness. It did not matter, we needed the time to do that last minute map marking. The prologue was an enjoyable run with three easy control points, followed by a cold but shallow river crossing to the canoes. We did not plan to run any, and we stuck to our guns – and even got to be in dead last for at least 5 minutes (until some teams got lost looking for the first control).

Our split: 44:20 (fastest teams 21:30)

The paddle was along the Toccoa river. The water was quite shallow and we spent a great amount of time pushing the boat off rocks and other obstructions. The rapids did not present much of a challenge, but they were still fun. We did take one swim, we still have not figured out how. We were paddling along – not even a rapid, and the next thing Jimmy was sliding into the water. Well it was going to be a wet race, so we might as well start off wet. It was easy to slide the boat to the side and dump the water. Our gear was also OK. We got back into the boat and enjoyed the remainder of the paddle. We passed beautiful mountains and mountain homes overlooking the river. The fall colors were in full swing and the sun was out – for at least the first part of the paddle.

(Paddle Section: Our split: 4:25:45 faster teams 3:23 with average teams around 4 hours)

The take-out was pretty obvious, though the first part of the portage was a bit tough. Still the boats were not terribly heavy – and the portage was only about a kilometer, though I do not recall ever portaging up a hill like that (hey – I race in Florida). The next short trek was to the bike drop. We had a great trail map, though for a good part of the trek we decided to bushwhack. I think it saved us some time, we were passed by about 5 teams, and 3 of those teams passed us multiple times. We pretty much could not run at all, we did not want to aggravate M’s injuries.


The Portage from the take-out to CP2

Location of CP3 and Bike Drop, including really nice single track from CP3 to CP4 (uphill of course)
(Trek Section: Our Split: 2:17:24 Race Time: 7:27:29, average splits for teams was about 1:30)

When we got to the bike drop there were about 10 sets of bikes there. We took a little time and got some food into us. We also made sure we had our extra clothes ready as it was starting to rain. It was going to be a long wet ride. The first section of single track was a blast – there is some great single track at the Ocoee Whitewater Center (where the 96 Olympics were). It got darker and the weather got colder. We did not have any real trouble with the navigation or the terrain – but all three of our Florida legs were struggling with Tennessee hills. Since this was a 30 hour race we simply decided to get into a rhythm and move through the checkpoints at our pace. It was also getting pretty cold out – we were completely soaked, and the temperature was going to be dipping below 40. We were really having fun with these – and we also hooked up with another team (Team 78 – Quincy Multisports Team; Carrie, Antony, and Pat). The navigation was relatively easy to this point, no frustrations had us in good spirits. After CP5 we took the road (not marked on the map) to CP6 and ran into some teams leaving CP6. Since we were not on any marked trails or reads – the nav at this point was from reading contours. The large number of teams that had bushwhacked to the hilltop where CP6, leaving a lot of track, made this one pretty easy to find. The real challenge came finding CP7. For some reason – I completely stopped thinking on this one. We went east to the ridgeline and started heading downhill, we realized this was wrong, so we backtracked. A lot of teams were packing gear on the ridgeline and for some reason we moved west and down to the next ridgeline where we found a trail and headed south. This trail petered out pretty quickly and a little map reading made it obvious we were on the wrong ridge anyway. At that point we decided to bail on CP7 and take the FS22 road to CP8 and the transition to the first trek.

(Bike Split, we got CP4,5,6,and 8 - arrived at CP8 at 14:22:56. The fastest teams arrived there around 8:20. Our bike times were not fast, but we were starting to move better)

We were freezing (wet and about 40 degrees) by the time we got to CP8. I knew we would warm up quickly on the trek. The navigation looked relatively straightforward – but the rain and fog had visibility at about 15 feet. We saw teams heading in all directions as we approached CP9, some running the loop backwards – some going our direction. CP9 was on a driveway and we followed the pink ribbons (prescribed route) for CP10 – though these petered out pretty quickly. Still – we simply followed trails south and did a little bushwhacking and came out right at CP10. From there CP11 was simply following the road. There was a truck sitting at the entrance of the road where CP11 was. That also made me miss it. Luckily there were 2 entrances, so there was really no chance of missing it. Here there were no trails mapped, but the passport alluded to a trail that would lead us to FS22 – which is what we wanted so we used this clue. We headed east on a very well defined horse trail. About 1 km the trail split with one trail going south and the other east. Neither trail was on the map – so we headed east and uphill, which was our desired direction. About 10 minutes in we ran into FLXtreme and Relentless coming down the trail – apparently it looped back around to CP11. We headed back down and took the other trail that ended taking us straight to FS22. Unfortunately for FLXtreme and Relentless they had lost a couple of hours on the loop.

It was pretty much uphill from there straight to CP12. Carrie got to try her first time on a foot tow on this trek as I locked her in behind me, her legs were really hurting from doing an Ironman the weekend before. We now had 3 teams traveling together (Relentless dropped of the pace after we found the trail). We had a little burp in finding the CP, and FLXtreme bailed out on us before we found it – even though I was yelling “This way”. From CP12 it was a complete plunge downhill to CP13 and the bikes. This was tricky for us just as it must have been pretty tricky for the teams coming up the hill. Carrie gave us all a scare as she started over a small cliff – but I was able to snag her before she went over and swing her back around to the side. For me this part was a lot of fun – the terrain was challenging and we had to simply move north to the bikes.

(We got all controls for the trek section CP8 - CP9 1:10:04; CP9 - CP10 36:07; CP10 - CP11 21:16; CP11 - CP12 2:38:23; CP12 - CP13 [bike drop] 53:34] and arrived at CP13 at 20:02:20)

By the time we reached the bikes there was a fire going so we were able to try to dry out some of our clothes before taking off on the bike. We were moving slow – not because we were tired, but simply because we were cold. Also 2 of the bikes had flat tires when we returned so we had to change these. There were a lot more bikes still sitting on the ground when we left this TA than when we left the last one – so I was pleased that we were moving up in placement. Considering we were biking extremely slowly and had not run a single step – we were doing pretty well.

The bike leg to CP14 was basically up one big hill and down the other side. Both Carrie and Melissa had very little bike legs left, and none of the guys were doing well enough to tow. We decided to just keep our nice slow and easy pace and get there. As we came to the sign warning of the road being closed (we had to go through some construction) leading into CP14 – there was a camper with a fire going. Team 78 decided to head back to the finish line from here and skip these final controls. We said our goodbyes and headed on.

(Bike leg CP13 - CP14 2:53:13 arriving at CP14 at 22:53:33 race time)

There were a lot of teams relaxing around the fire and planning out there strategy for the final controls when we arrived at CP14. We decided to go after CP15 on foot – but bail on the other 2 controls (CP16 and CP17). This was really a neat location near a waterfall that was a short walk from the TA (CP14/CP18). When we got back from CP15 it was now light, so we would be able to do the remaining course in daylight. We decided we would get three more controls on the way to the finish. Most of the bike controls on this leg required some serious climbs – and Melissa had no climbing legs left, mine were also starting to feel the all-night bike ride. Leaving CP16 we had an uphill climb to the road heading back towards Blue Ridge. I had heated up nicely and the sun was out – so I stripped down as we reached the top. Of course the entire next few miles was downhill in the shade so I was freezing as we approached the turn to CP23 and had to put my clothes back on as I was shivering pretty hard. And then we climbed again. Even though this was by no means the worst climb of the final bike leg – it was enough for me. We pushed and biked up the hill, got the control and enjoyed the screaming downhill back to the main road.

(splits were pretty meaningless here,we made it from CP18 - CP24 in 2:28:24, most teams in our area were skipping controls at this point)

CP28 at the fire station was pretty eventless – though we did stop and chat. We also enjoyed a Whisky shot to warm us up (leave it to firefighters to be prepared for cold shivering bikers) at the fire station. The remaining section was downhill to the railroad tracks and CP29. As we approached the CP – Jimmy grabbed Melissa’s bike and ran to the CP – which was manned. Melissa and I – both puzzled walked along and caught up with him at the CP. We were both puzzled – by why he grabbed her bike and started running, he thought that it was the finish, so he wanted to beat the team behind us in. It wasn’t and we had about 3 miles of biking on the railroad tracks. Melissa was also bonking – but we stopped that with a solid shot of Hammer Gel (she cleaned out our flasks).

(CP24 - CP28 1:25:59, race time 27:32:14)
(CP28 - CP29 21:55, race time 27:54:09)

For those who have never biked on railroad tracks – it is bumpy. Also after 28 hours of racing, it is pretty punishing. I have a hard tail, but I discovered that if I kept my speed up – I kind of glided over the railroad ties. Melissa had a brand new Cannondale full suspension (that had been giving her problems shifting) that she was able to move pretty well over the tracks. We passed about a dozen teams on this section, though that really meant nothing in a Rogaine. I felt pretty good about our speed, we finally made it past the tracks section and hammered the final road ride to the finish.

(CP29 - CP30/finish 33:16 - one of the fastest times on the course !)

In the end we got 19 controls in 28 hours and 27 minutes to put us solidly in 35th. We though that was a very respectable race. (results are at http://www.usaranationals.com/results.aspx ). We got to meet up with all the teams at the banquet – most important we had an awesome time !

January Adventure

Any adventure racers who are interested in a true adventure in January and has a passport please contact me. I am planning with some AR friends an expedition with a group in Ecuador that is pretty amazing. Mickey and Fish (know racers) are working on the adventure now. If you have an interest - please let me know. Here are some pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/prodemolition.com/EcuadorBeginingOfExpedition?authkey=ti3HVbrlBCg#slideshow

http://picasaweb.google.com/prodemolition.com/EcuadorExploringTheCampgroundArea?authkey=6z4ieqsfO60#slideshow

http://picasaweb.google.com/prodemolition.com/EcuadorOffRoadOnTheWayToTheCampground?authkey=52bARg5vLyU#slideshow

Kings Landing Superhero AR

Superhero AR Nov 1 2008

I raced in the Superhero Adventure Race with team SWIM this last weekend Nov. 1. As I went to sleep Friday night I knew I was coming down with a head cold, but I felt pretty good as I got up Saturday morning and headed out to King’s Landing to meet Adam, Stefan and Charlie (Team SWIM) for the race start.

We were given the maps at check-in and the course looked relatively straightforward – though we would be racing off of black and white trail maps, which are not known for their accuracy. We were told at pre-race that the controls would all be located in obvious locations on the trails (and they were) – so it was simply a matter of making sure we stayed on the correct trails.

We started on bikes and finished off the short loop around CP1 and CP2 without incident, though it was apparent there were a few extra trails along that route. The important thing here was to pay attention and stay on the correctly blazed trail. We had a little problem as we started on the second bike loop in Kelly Park – nearly missing the Yellow blazed trail, but corrected quickly. Each control was located correctly – but the short mistake put us about 5 minutes behind Team Shake-A-Leg Miami. We took that 5 minute gap into the transition and into the first and long paddle leg. This leg was a paddle from King’s Landing to Wekiva Marina with one control en route. We were making great time (as a strong paddling team) – but lost a lot of time as Stefan and Charlie decided to go for an involuntary swim due to a submerged log. We came into the transition area about 7 minutes behind Miami, and headed out at a strong pace to catch them.

The run looked to be quite long – with really no navigation other than choosing the correctly blazed trail, which was pretty much the white blazed trail the entire route. We did get opportunities for a few small shortcuts where we caught up with Team Miami just before CP11.

As we reached the marker for Trailpost 22 we had to choose to bushwack to the control or take what looked like a longer trail route by Big Buck Camp which we opted to take as the woods looked pretty thick. It turned out to be slightly faster as Team Miami bushwacked and lost a few minutes on us. From CP11 to CP12 it looked by the map to be a little over a mile. This was entirely misleading, as the trail snaked in and out and the actual distance was about 3 miles. Just after CP12 Team Miami passed us and started to pour on some speed – the run was starting to take its toll on me, but we kept the pace up and stayed behind them until M2 and the swim section.

The swim was quite refreshing in the cool spring water of Kelly Park (72 degrees). We had to swim in full gear and then get out and finish the last mile to the TA – which we did just behind Team Miami. We had 2 sections left, one long bike and a short paddle section. Team Miami made a very quick transition and was out within a minute. We were having troubles getting out of the TA, and I was starting to hurt, though I felt we had enough to catch up. We moved through Kelly Park fast and headed into Wekiva to do the Red Blazed Bike loop. I missed the turn onto the single track (not sure how) and we ended up biking cross country through the woods a short distance to return to the trail – costing us another few minutes. Once we hit the trail we pushed as hard as we could, both Charlie and I were hurting, and I was on the edge of bonking so could only push so hard.

The single track turned into sandy double track and we were forced to bike along the edge of the freshly tilled road. The section near CP14 was also a bit confusing – but the landmarks I made note of when we passed through that area earlier in the race helped me get us to the control quickly. From CP15 we pushed as hard as we could back to the TA and found we were 7 minutes behind Team Miami hitting the water for the last paddle.

Paddle turned out to be a misleading word for this section. We decided to take the section counter-clockwise to take advantage of the current in the main channel heading downstream. The first section in the canal turned out to be a boat drag as the channel narrowed into shallow thick hyacinth. I let Stefan drag me for a while in the boat to recover – I was starting to feel the cold, and a bit nauseous. We came out to the main channel where we had some strenuous paddling with plenty of downed trees and obstacles – but we also had a good current.

Just as we had left 7 minutes behind Team Miami, we arrived 7 minutes back of them and took a solid second. They had pushed hard the entire race knowing we were just behind them and would be pursuing them relentlessly. It was a great race. I am now recovering from my cold and will be ready for the next post – USARA Nationals this coming weekend. Many thanks to my fun team-mates; Adam, Charlie, and Stefan.

Howl at the Moon 2008

The Howl is one of Florida’s great races (I’ve done 4 of them now) and the return to Jonathan Dickinson park meant that it would be a challenging race. I was racing with Melissa Watson, Jim Levine, and Ken Kandefar. We had all raced before – but this would be the first race where Ken raced with Jimmy.

The race started with a short 3-4 mile orienteering run with 3 checkpoints. We took this section easy, it was hot and we knew this was primarily a night race. I loaded double the mandatory gear in my pack (so Melissa could go packless), Jimmy did the same for Ken who was carrying the passport. After the run it was on to bikes. Even though we were well back in the pack coming in from the run – we were the third team out on bikes with a speedy transition. Our first good navigation choice was to parallel a sandy bike trail on a more ride-able trail and then bushwhack across when we reached the correct distance. The sandy trails in the first part of the bike leg were essentially push-a-bike. You could not ride along the edges due to the large number of cacti – which would easily flat your bike tires (we had 2 flats in this section). Some team had 10 or more flat tires. After the sand ride, we had about 8 miles of road to the paddle start.



We had to paddle with bikes, we arrived at the paddle start in 3rd place, behind Club Scrub (Brian and Jason) and Sport and Spa (JJ and team). The paddle was fun but brutal. The river in the first section was narrow (with bikes hanging over the canoes this was tough) and fast. The high current meant we were moving fast, and the winding river and low and protruding trees made this a real challenge. I took 3 good shots from branches on my head leaving a bit of blood behind – but we were keeping a fast pace. The 2 spillways were also fun as they made a small rapid. We entered the water about 10 minutes behind Surf and Spa, and we exited the same way.

As we finished the paddle, we hopped back on our bikes and headed to the TA to get ready for the foot leg. It was now very dark. We caught Surf and Spa at CP7, and did the bushwhack from CP7 to CP8 with them. This was one of he harder bushwhacks I have done. Clinging vines caught our feet, the knee deep water, cypress knees, fallen logs, and thick vines made this an incredible section. We came out just a bit south of CP8, I had lost my hand light in the swamp (the second this year) – bummer. We ran easily from CP8 to CP9, and then picked up the trail network for CP10. CP10 was another bushwhack in a deep swamp. We found the control quickly, but we had to navigation out of the swamp – which required essentially a due west bearing to meet up with the correct trail. This was challenging. We met up with Surf and Spa – but they had missed the control and had to go back.

At this point we were essentially by ourselves, Club Scrub was well ahead of us (and also had some serious home field advantage going – as well as being incredibly strong athletically). Surf and Spa was now well behind us. We jogged back to the TA and headed out on bike for the single track. One of our least favorite styles was the next part of the race. You essentially stay on the single track trails and find 3 controls along the route. The single track was fun at night and we had no problems finding the 3 controls in this section. From there it was to the tower, and a long ride to CP 14 where we would do another trek. This was all pretty easy.

CP15 looked like an easy control – it was about 150 meters at 340 degrees from a distinct intersection. I did a bearing shoot and jog – but missed it the first time – so we had to come back and redo the bearing shot. The second time around a bit of teamwork made this one a pretty quick find. The last control of this run was easy (on a bridge). Team Club Scrub had a mismarked map in this section and had lost some time here – putting us within range of them as we headed back to the TA and off to the final paddle. Melissa was having a little bit of bonking on this section, but some food got her back up and strong. The remainder of the team was doing well – and even Jimmy was not complaining about the pumpkin we had been given to carry at the end of the first paddle.



The final paddle had relatively easy navigation, one control in Kitching Creek, the other in an obvious location past a small island. We pushed, but not terribly hard here. We had expected to see Team Club Scrub here – but they passed while we were in Kitching Creek. We boogied hard on the paddle to the boat ramp and had an easy ride to the finish line. We finished at 3:52 for an official race time of 13 hours and 42 minutes. This put us second overall and first coed and also qualified us for USARA Nationals – so that is now my next race.