So it has been a week since I completed my first adventure race and I feel I should give a little recap of how it went. Sorry this didn’t come sooner, life and work have been a little hectic this past week.
The week before the race it did nothing but rain, so for race day we expected more rain and some really muddy conditions. Well we were right, the race was set to start at 4:00 am and it was 5.7°C, drizzling rain with a 26 km/h north wind.
This year’s race had a few changes in the format. First, we didn’t get our maps at the pre-race briefing and it was a score format instead of a timed race. In a score format, each checkpoint is worth a certain number of points based on their difficulty and while there were 11 mandatory checkpoints, there were about 40 optional checkpoints that could be obtained to achieve the best possible score. There was still a time limit of 12 hours and the transition areas were only open during certain times, so route planning and time management would be of utmost importance. It would be impossible for a team to get all the checkpoints in the time allowed.
At the start of the race we knew we would need our bikes ready, but we wouldn’t be starting with them. We found as we lined up to start that we would need to climb the nearby ski hill (300 vertical feet) to get our maps that were waiting at the top. So, in mass start, 41 teams of 3 began their run up the ski hill in the pitch black of the night. The slopes of the hill were slick with mud in spots and made the climb a little challenging. Once at the top and the maps in our hands we ran back down the hill to our support vehicle to plot the checkpoints and retrieve our bikes.
The bike started out fairly easy, a good road to ride on and a slight detour to pick up an optional checkpoint. I wasn’t long before we hit the muck, and we hit a lot of it. The road/trail we found ourselves on was so muddy it slowed us to a near stop. We ended up riding as much in the knee to waist high grass along the trail as we could. That worked for a little while until the ditch became unrideable and we were forced back onto the muddy trail. Riding on the mud didn’t last too long because our tires soon got so caked with mud that the wheels stopped turning. We thought we could carry our bikes but the fact that we could barely lift our bikes left us to dragging them until we could find a spot to cross through a farmer’s field. After a quick cleaning off of the mud we were off and riding again, now across a nice rocky, bumpy farmer’s field.
After some faster paced riding through framer’s fields and lifting bikes over barb-wired fences, we were forced back onto the muddy road. By this time everyone had cold, soaking wet feet and hands. The rest of our body was still warm and dry at his point thanks to some good rain gear. The slow and muddy road continued until we hit mandatory checkpoint #2 and we had to hike our bikes up a short, steep hill to where we had to cross a highway. By this time it was now fairly light out and we were able to shut off our headlamps and bike lights but the weather remained unchanged, 5.7 °C with 33 km/h wind and drizzling rain.
Across the highway we got to ride on a grid (gravel) road for a while. It allowed us to go a little faster even though it was still muddy and very muddy in some spots. This new found speed was great but it wasn’t to last.
The grid road was a nice change of pace and so was the daylight. It remained cold, windy and rainy but that didn’t matter cause our legs felt delighted that we could pedal our bikes easier now. Soon it was time for the grid road to end and it was now into the trees for some double track riding. The riding started great, smooth hard packed trails, not very muddy but then they became sandy. At times the sand was so loose and wet that it caused us to come to a stop and walk our bikes for short stretches.
Navigating at this point became more crucial as there were many intersecting trails and routes that could be taken. Each route could take you on a different path for more bonus checkpoints. We tried to take a fairly easy and direct route, not going to far out of our way to get extra points. We were worried about taking to much time to get to the transition area so we tried to keep it simple, it looked like we were going to be late for the set transition time but all the other teams looked to be in the same boat as us.
At this point in the race it also became important to make sure we tried to get water and food in us and stay as warm as possible. Drinking on the bike isn’t usually a problem but eating can be difficult so we had to make sure we ate something at regular intervals to keep our energy and body temperature up. It was easy to forgot such simple tasks as drinking and eating because one becomes so focused on the navigating and technical riding that we had to endure that these tasks are easily forgotten. By now our feet and hands were very cold and wet and you cold feel the stiffness in your hands from being wet and cold.
We thought we were probably about middle of the pack when it came to time but when we came upon checkpoint #4, a manned checkpoint, the volunteers informed us to our surprise that we were only the 3rd team through the checkpoint. We were thoroughly shocked as we thought we weren’t doing that good for time. As we were getting our passport signed I number of other teams quickly arrived at the checkpoint.
At this point we were trying to get to the transition area as quick as we could because we were concerned about time for the rest of the race as the first stage was taking along time to complete.
After checkpoint #4 the transition area wasn’t that far off, it was just a relatively short bike up a secondary road into the wind. Up to this point our teammate Rob, who filled in at the last moment for injured Adam, had been leading us on the bike. Rob has lots of mountain biking experience and it didn’t surprise us that he was doing so well on the biking stage, but as we started biking on the road things began to change. JJ and I soon found us leading Rob down the road and Rob was beginning to slow down and lose pace.
The further we rode down the rode the more we found that we had to slow down to make sure Rob was keeping up with us. As we slowed down team after team began passing us but it was important that we stuck together as a team. I just thought Rob didn’t get enough food during the ride and just needed to refuel and I knew he could do that at the transition area, so I wasn’t to concerned.
When we finally did reach the transition area our support person, Garett, and Rob’s wife were there to cheer us on. Upon arriving JJ handed Garett her bike while she checked us in and we quickly headed to our support vehicle to transition to the run. Rob was still moving pretty slow at this point but I hoped the transition would revive him.
To be continued …
