Im starting to have an issue with the term "Sprint" Adventure Race when it takes over 5 hours to complete. Look, I've done Sprint triathlons for years and never took issue with the word being used for a Triathlon that lasts around and hour but we are talking 4 times that. Lets just say I figure we arent doing alot of sprinting in the 5 hours it takes to get to the finish line. Regardless, I teamed up with Rick Kiefer, under my team name "Suicide Hotline...please hold" Rick is a better athlete with a recently developed passion for Adventure Racing. We had orienteered together and done a practice AR together and we seemed to click. Both of us seem to put mistakes behind us quickly and we both had a sense of humor even during intense race situations. I was playing the role of lead navigator and Rick would handle race instructions, race sequence and card punching. Being a faster runner and biker we planned to use him as the "fetcher" and do the heavy lifting when we got close to the controls while I used that time to plan our next move.
The race started with a challenge to keep a beach ball together without using your hands to support and go aout about 100 meters and return. Rick came up with a strategy of tieing a bandana to the air nozzle and carrying that in our teeth....nice strategy that paid off but teams shot ahead in a frenzy still able to squeeze partially deflated balls between their hips and other body parts to out run us. I wanted to stay calm knowing that you dont win these things at the first special test. We were mid pack when we completed this test and picked up our maps and instructions.
A quick glance and I realized we were going to orienteer first on foot. I spotted CP1 on the map and tood a quick bearing. As I was going in the straight line direction of the CP I noticed the crowd on the dirt road to the east of us. I checked the map and saw the dirt road doglegged to the CP. Quickly I decided to join the crowd and ran up to the CP quickly for Rick to punch. The next CP was down a steep ravine and in a flash we were heading down with the crowd in a early race frenzy. I quickly surmised the fastest way down would be using a flying butt slide technique that I had perfected at an Orienteering meet the week before...as I started the slide on the loose dirt I noticed a young kid sliding by me at hyper speed "slow down there cowboy....you can only go as fast as your teammates". I hit the bottom of the ridge at the beach andd Rick came tumbling after. We ended up going south down the beach and back up a bit to get the CP2. Back to the beach and looking for the reentrant at the bottom to climb back up the ridge to get CP3. Several teams found themselves making the lungbusting climb up the ravine. We went to the top with a line of teams but failed to locate the CP at the top while the teams we were with were off like they had located it. Weird, I thought we were in the right ravine, what gives?...after 4 minutes wandering at the top I figured we must have missed it somehow....we then spotted the CP in a smaller gulley that branched off the ravine that was to small of a feature to show on the USGS map.....damn!...if we had only focused a bit more.
On the top of the ridge I shot a bearing to CP4 and located it quickly using trails mainly to get there and scampered back to the TA. After a 7 minute transition to load shoes and PFD along with everything else we were off on the bike to find one CP on the way and find our way to TA2 for the kayak put in. It began to rain...nice. With the weather at 44F it was perfect for Hypothermia. Using my new map holder for Bike orienteering we only made one very small navigational bobble on the way to the TA2. We did have to stop to change maps and relocate our postion on the new map...I choose a convienance store canopy to execute this because I was paranoid at getting the maps wet because I knew thaey ran easily. I was starting to get very cold at this point as we made our way and the rain droplets and fogging on my glasses was making it next to impossible to see the map in front of me. We stopped twice on the way over. We were not stopped for long but it seemed like it. Looking back it was the right thing to do besides just following others and hopeing they were right. I drafted off Rick as he drove the train and I was very focused at not making a mistake. We eventually found the park road in and Rick spotted the kayaks before I did. I might not have seen them and might have biked past as I thought we still had another half mile to get there. Good catch Rick.
It was cold on the bike over and I was feeling it. I was not having fun at this point and this is unusual to me. I think we were both feeling it.
We quickly pumped up the kayak and moved efficiently. Rick did the hard work of pumping while I prepared the maps and paddles in less than 9 minutes we were on the water. It looked like we were in the top 15% of teams at this point?. Hard to say but I was happy with our positon. I knew we were pacing well and doing what we could.
I know we were strong in the kayak and would be fast but the people around us were pretty good also. I was till having problems seeing with my eye glasses so I handed Rick the maps and said "navigate us". We used the kayaks up ahead to spot position while we checked the map and passed one team on the way over on the .85 mile paddle over to a sand bar. We tumbled out of the kayak and grapped our packs. We had a trek/orienteer section next and had to cross a stream to get to the shore to navigate to CP7. As I gingerly hiked quickly through the water I was suddenly up to my knees in quicksand. "Well, this is not working out that well is it..." I layed prone in the stream for a few seconds to get some purchase and leverage with my body as Rick offered me a hand. I pulled myself out without pulling off my shoes and we were back forging the stream this time more aware of what part might be more solid....
On the way over to CP7 on deer trails and bushwhacking we made good time and Rick went deep into the ravine 30yards to punch as I looked for how to attack CP8. there was not much to go on but it looked like a reentrant from the shore would lead us in the right direction. I tool a bearing with my thumb compass to aid in this and began a pure bushwhack with not a whole lot to go on. These are the moments when doubt creeps in with very little to relocate on if we miss. We were being careful and slow but it still had our heart pumping. It took 20 minutes but our general plan worked after and we located the CP in a depression and I made a quick decision to go back in our general direction to use the shoreline as a handrail to get to CP 9. I did not notice the road on the map which also served as a back stop to CP8 would have allowed some road running to get closer to CP 9 rather than the pure back bushwack we were executing. On top of that we drifted east in the green vegetation we were fighting and I began to get nervous about totally getting turned around..."the lake should be south!....where is the dang lake!" I was just saying that if you lose focus you could get lost on an exit out of a difficult CP and now I felt we were living it. Eventually Rick stated "I see some water" and I was relieved to find we were now back near the kayak put in and could use the shore and then river to handrail up to CP9. I figure we lost 10 minutes on my route choice here but once on the river bank we quickly located the CP and scampered off down the flat river ban after a quick crossing to the flat side of the river to navigate to CP 10 at a lookout tower. Eventually we popped out on a wide trail and was about to turn the wrong way when I asked a couple people on the trail where the lookout tower was. "That way" they pointed....the opposite way I was thinking...another near miss on a simple navigation move after being repectable on the tough stuff. The compass should always be your friend and be consulted often. On the way to the stairs to the lookout tower a couple racers asked us if we knew where they were suppose to drop their bikes and get to the Kayaks. Rick and I just looked at each other and told them. "Well, you are not in the right place...I would retrace your steps and find the way back to the park entrance and locate the beach" I guess thats one two person mens team that we will not have to worry about.
To our left we saw the stairs up to the tower and met a team on the way down. "you are the 2nd place open team" they told us as we made our way up the stairs to another verticle thigh and heart burner. At the top we were told we both had to come to the top for a gear check. We had the items and as Rick checked in I used the lookout and map to locate our next CP back to our kayak and determined crossing the river on the bridge and using the trails would get us there. They told us we were the 5th or 6th team in and I was encouraged that 40 teams were in our wake. We met the next team on the way down. Another 2 person mens team of the 24 that were in the race. At hs point if figured we were about 5 minutes down on the lead and 5 minutes up on the third place team. If we kept moving well we could stay on the podium and you never know what else could happen.
Rick told me to take in the view as we ran across the bridge and I must admit I took a few seconds out of my race focus intensity to take it in. From CP10 to CP11 we could run. One of the few areas that would allow it. Rick powered down the trail as I struggled with fatigue and tired legs to keep up while looking for a point to leave the trail to bushwack to the river to the west to get us back to our kayak. We kept running and ended up very close but we had to go back in the river up to our belly button to cross to the sand bar where the crowd of yellow Sevylors Tahiti Kayaks where resting and awaiting their owners return.
We jumped back in and after 16 minutes of coordinated paddling we were landing and quickly deflating the kayak. the race director Dan told us wer were doing very well and we had a good idea we were appx. 5th out of all teams. Back on the bike and rolling in less than 9 minutes I felt kinda rough as we biked up some good hills to make our way out of the park. I used Rick to draft. I slowed him down at times....and he comented that he was now the official fetcher and domistique. Boy it felt slow, but as low as it was we were still creeping up on another team. Eventually we passed them as it was obvious that one of the two was struggling. I wasnt exactly a tower of power and but quickly realized that the team we were passing were the lead two person mens team which meant we just went in the lead for out division. The route back was simple and we navigated back without a navigational bobble.
At the end of the bike I began to worry about the climbing test. I was very fatigued and wondered if I could execute the climbing wall. And with two teams very close I wondered if even a small penalty could cost us. 3 minutes in the Transition to the climb and trek and we scampered over the rough open field to the barn where the test was located. We were told we would have to boulder over on a climbing wall to the end of the wall and touch it. we were to go one at a time. I told Rick to go ahead because I wanted to collect myself. Rick executed it quickly and I was up. Rick coached a bit which helped and it ws done quickly. I had asked what the penalty was for falling and was told 2:30 for each failed attempt. We executed this in 3:19 for a net gain and were off to get the last 4 orienteering points so that we could get to the finish.
The team behind us must have completed quickly and taken advantage of my quick look for my thumb compass but I decided to move on and use my back up. We were now back neck to neck with two young guys for the win and the next CP was located close at the entrance to a reentrant. the other team went beyound the point I thought it might be located and made a quick decision trust my navigation and not follow them. It had to be closer to the dirt road that was on the map...after one miss looking we went back and found it in the thick vegetation. I pointed it out to Rick and told him quietly to get it and be quiet and not give away the location. He punched and I led us on a quick move down the ravine to find CP 14. It was located in a side ravine branching into the main ravine and after a few searches of ravines to the south that wre not on the map (too small for a USGS map) I eventually realized we were down near the shore and had overshot. But how to locate the right ravine?...I decided to get an idea of how far back up we needed to go and then pace counted and moved up into the side reentrant abut 200 meters us....as we went up higher I saw the flash of orange that we had mssed on our first search of the same ravine. "Fetcher!" I shout whispered "its right there!...go get it!" I kept looking for the other team running down the ravine that might see us and set up a sprint to the finish but they had not come. We ran back to the shore to get CP15 and then climbed the side shoulder of the ravine in a gut wrenching climb to locate CP16 the last CP. The team behind us never showed and I told Rick Im glad we are not having to try and sprint this thing for the win. I took a quick bearing to the finish to be careful and took a conservative route to the finish to prevent any last minute screw ups we would regret. Rick saved me from another simple mistake when he mentioned that the finish was at the Start area and not the TA. We finished in 5:24:32 and was 6th overall and 1st in the two person open division.
I really enjoyed the course and the event. Rebecca and Dan did a good job and the volunteers were great. The controls were located where they were they were on the map and that is always appreciated. We remarked while on the course that it had the feel of a longer race. I knew that some of the less experienced teams might have a tough time with some of the navigation as a large part of the field short coursed in this "Sprint" event. Rick and I enjoyed ourselves and felt we had a solid race overall given our fitness level and navigational skill.
Onward!
Stephen Bullard
"Suicide Hotline...please hold"