The recent Mission Adventure race was hosted by Camp Kysoc in Carrollton, KY.  Camp Kysoc does some great work with children and adults with physical or developmental disabilities.  We got a quick summary of what the camp has been involved in during the prerace meeting.  

2009 Mission 18 Hr AR
May 16th, 2009
Camp Kysoc, Carrollton, KY

I raced this years Mission AR with Matt Jourdan and Whitney Diggs of Mystik/Gray Goat. Whitney joined Liller and I at the PA Sprint this past April but I have only previously raced against Matt. With both of us usually acting as our teams primary navigators we weren't sure how well we'd race together, but it turned out to work quite well.

The drive down and pre race meeting went smoothly. In fact, we had all our gear prepped, packed up and ready to go in the TA before the sun was even down. With no maps to agonize over, we really weren't sure what to do with ourselves. (The Mission RD, Brian Holzhausen, generally never gives up maps until well after the start of the race.) So, we just went back to the hotel and crashed.

4:30AM came quickly and unfortunately the weather report was disheartening. Lots of "red" on the radar. Lightning flashes in the pre-dawn darkness confirmed that there would be no escaping some rain. Sure enough just as we got started at six AM the rains came soaking us quickly.

The first small section of the race was a run around a small lake on camp property. I think the darkness and mud slowed things down a bit and caused some confusion as by the time we got back to camp there were only a handful of teams coming in. Upon completion of this section we received our first set of coordinates for what would be the first biking section.

Matt and I quickly plotted and checked our points while Whitney got the bikes and gear ready. We left the TA in the lead and quickly made our way to CP1 an on to CP2 for some single track riding in General Butler State Park. Brian and a couple of volunteers wished us luck as we hit the trail. I don't know if they were trying to disguise that tone in their voices that told us the riding would be tricky or not, but regardless, we all heard it.

For the next three CP's we knew only that they were somewhere along the designated trail, not the specific locations. The riding was muddy and difficult, even though it was probably easiest for us since we were at or near the front of the pack for this section. Each team passing through those trails just made it slicker and messier for the teams behind them. At one point I heard Whitney yell behind me (I won't repeat the specifics) but when I turned to look for her she was nowhere to be seen. A moment later I saw movement a good 30 feet off the trail and down hill. She had managed to crash onto a log and slide down the log into a bush. (Would love to have some video of that, nothing personal Whit!) We rode pretty conservatively after that, and had to stop for one flat, but the rest of the 4.5 mile loop was pretty uneventful. Pavement was a welcome sight back at CP6 and the rest of the way back to Camp Kysoc.

CP7 was a quick blind folded ropes challenge and then we had the infamous "bike through the hole" challenge back at the TA check in. Advances in bike geometry (2-9er's) made this challenge a little trickier but we knocked it out pretty quick. (Note for those that do this challenge in the future. Make sure you double/triple check your wheels to be sure your teammates fully secured them. How and when they choose to detach from your bike will determine how important this step was...)

The next leg would be a fairly straightforward, albeit somewhat long, trekking section. Alpine Shop had left the TA just a few minutes ahead of us and a little effort on the run caught us up to them halfway to CP9. After punching we chose to continue along the gravel road where CP9 was located as it headed in the direction of CP10. Constantly looking over our shoulder for Alpine Shop we felt pretty good since we weren't seeing them. Until of course we saw them turning on the road to CP10 a good 5-10 minutes ahead of us, coming from the other direction. A quick glance at the map and I saw where they had used more of an out and back approach to CP9 and stayed on the roads to CP10 and it was obviously faster.

After punching CP10 we again caught up to Alpine Shop and came into the TA together to get our next set of CP's. It was another pair, with the second at the river so it was obvious that we would be hitting the boats. We loaded up on food, grabbed our trekking shoes and took off. Matt did a great job at forcing a quick transition. At one point I opened my mouth to ask him a question and he quickly shoved in a handful of Pringles. I still have no idea what I was going to ask him...

A quick ride through Carrollton with a stop at an old stone jail (scary little place) and we were at the put in. Two more points, both on the north side of the river were next. However this paddle would have a twist as we had to get all three of our bikes in inflatable rafts and tow them to CP15 (which we were assuming was the takeout). I plotted the points while Matt and Whitney got the bikes situated and we were off.

I don't like paddling. The paddling legs always seem to take longer than they should, and I just don't train at it enough. If you don't like paddling, I don't suggest paddling upstream on the Ohio while towing an insanely expensive anchor. It's not fun! The last time I paddled on the Ohio (PA 2007) was also upstream, but it was windy and snowing that time. It's a tough call but I'd say that I'd have to take the short but difficult paddle from this race if given the choice.

We pulled in to CP15, which was in fact the takeout, in second place behind soloist Ron Hart. A quick transition to the bikes and we were able to leave in first place for the 10 point bike section. Having a team of three was a huge help in this transition between prepping the bikes and plotting points. I believe Ron's comment was something along the lines of, "and that's where having teammates pays off" as we rolled out of the TA.

Matt and I spent a good two-three minutes analyzing our route choice for this section and we were both pretty confident in it. There was only one spot that would be a "call it when we get there". Our route was basically clockwise and the first couple controls came quickly with no mistakes. Our third control, CP19, was at the end of a "dashed line" road. Anyone familiar with USGS data knows that the quality of these roads is a total crap shoot. I've seen them be everything from paved to, well, absolutely jack nothing. At first when we got to the turn for CP19 it looked like it was a jack-nothing road, but a little poking around revealed that the path of the old road, although not totally clear, was ridable. Riding was faster and easier than running, and there was the potential for a bike whack to CP20 from 19 so we rode it.

CP19 was located at a ruin which is always cool. After consulting the map again we opted for a bike whack to CP20 and it paid off as we found another old road track that was easy to follow, relatively clear and best of all, going in the right direction. The cross country route avoided a lengthy bike ride on roads around to 20. This seemed to be a good choice until Whit ended up with a flat just as we were reaching the pipeline opening that would lead to 20. I think with the flat change the route choice was probably a wash with the long ride around.

Some more quick riding brought us to a short land nav section for CP's 16, 17 and 18. Our approach was to come at them from the north as we felt the exit route to the rest of the bike course was better, and it allowed us to attack the points from the high ground. CP's 18 and 16 we got quickly but the approach to 17 was rough with thick bush and thorns. Our first attack at 17 was a whiff but it turns out that we were on the correct spur, probably no more than 15' from the control. Visibility was so bad we just couldn't see it. After popping out on another pipeline at the top of the spur we quickly confirmed our position and took another shot at it. Matt was the first to see it and despite the fact that he was all of 12 feet to my right I never even saw the damn thing.

We returned to our bikes that we had stashed just north of CP18 and headed out for some more fast road riding and a couple more controls on the way to CP25 in the town of Vevay (where Matt apparently has relatives?). CP25 was a quick punch with a Q&A and then it was back towards the boats. The ride was fast and we did the best to use drafting and towing to knock it out quickly. On the way we passed Alpine Shop on their way to CP25 so we knew they were still hot on our heels. We estimated our lead to be somewhere around 15 minutes, but it was tough to say not knowing their pace.

Another quick transition had us in the boats and heading back to the original put-in. The paddle started innocent enough and although we still had the bike-boat anchor to tow going downstream seemed to be going much faster. However, the instant we started to cross the river it started raining, the wind picked up and the boat started getting tossed by some pretty gnarly waves. We had to edge our way slowly across staying into to the waves while still making cross-river progress. Nobody said it out loud but I know we were all thinking about what we'd have to do if that raft with the bikes capsized.

We made the crossing with no damage done and a good story to tell. We came to find out later that right after we crossed (and presumably the guys from Alpine Shop as well) the winds calmed and the teams were knocking out the paddle easily. I'm glad for them as we all agreed that we wouldn't wish a capsize in the middle of the Ohio on our WORST enemies. Seriously. It would suck.

Whit and I both took a chill getting transitioned to the bike so it wasn't hard to motivate ourselves to get the heck out of there. From what we were told after the race our lead at the takeout had grown to about half an hour. We didn't know it at the time though so we kept racing like there were teams on our heels (usually the best approach anyways).

Back at the TA we got the controls for a final trekking leg. There were a few checkpoints on the Kysoc camp property and in General Butler SP, but the rest were in Carrollton with one lone control 5 miles to the east of the start/finish. At first we were sure we misplotted, but the clue matched the point on the map and the double check confirmed it. This race would end with a pretty brutal road trek.

Everyone changed in to dry(er) stuff and we hit the trails. The first few controls we knocked out quickly but 35 stumped us as we were sure we had found the intended street sign but the clue sheet stated a punch would be there. We unfortunately spent 15-20 minutes checking other road signs up and down that section of road. We were stuck mentally between not wanting to lose a point by being careless and not wanting to waste time. Looking back I think we probably spent too much time there as we were confident of the location, and it was the only "street sign" there. So we noted the name and took off. This was a good call as the clue sheet was supposed to instruct us to do just that.

After 35 we chose to grab the two remaining controls in the park that were up high. The run/walk up the hill into the park is where I really started to feel it in the legs. Matt and Whit were either better at hiding their pain, or were holding up better than I was. The thought of what lay ahead to 39 had me more than a little concerned After the 33 and 36 in the park it was back down the hill and into the town of Carrollton for two more controls. As we exited the park we once again saw Alpine Shop just in front of us. Unfortunately at this point we really had no idea how many controls they had gotten and therefore no idea if they were behind or ahead of us. So, we assumed the worst and kept pushing the pace.

After the last two controls in Carrollton it was time for CP39. My gross underestimation of how far it was (didn't know about the 10 miles until after the finish) something that I probably won't lived down any time soon I may have said at one point that it would be an 8k round trip... This last push was as much mental as physical. By that time all our legs were pretty fried from the days racing and the road running we had already put in on this leg but Matt continued to tow keeping the pace up.

After getting the answer for 39 we turned and made our way back towards the finish. It was obvious now that barring any major catastrophe we were going to clear the course. Now the only question was how far back was Alpine Shop, and could we hold them off? We didn't cross paths with them until we were well over half way to the finish. At our best estimate that put them 45 or so minutes behind. Even if they had already done the ropes section at the TA it looked like we were going to pull off the win. Alpine Shop were great sports congratulating us on a great race as the two teams passed.

Back at the finish we knocked out the high ropes course, which looked pretty cool from the ground, but I'm not totally sure how cool it was as I had to do it blindfolded. Turning in our passport at 17 hours and 9 minutes we were the first team to clear a Mission course! Brian did a great job with course design and Alpine Shop provided some grade A competition. Those guys are a real class act and we all look forward to racing against them again.

Mike Garrison
Indy Rootstock

Labels: AR

Signed up last night for the first race in a new trail running series.  "TNT" (Tuesday Night Trail) runs are held on, wait for it, yup, you guessed it, Tuesday nights starting on July 21st.  I don't think I've run a 5k since the 2000 Bloomington Corporate Olympics but hey, at least I was first with registration!!!  (www.tntrace.com for more info!)

Labels: Running

It's been brought to my attention that we have spent a lot of time discussing some of the nuances and features of this years "Old School" course, which is essentially a challenging 30-36 hour expedition style course, and have all but neglected the good old stand-by that is PA24.  I just wanted to put everyone's mind at ease who has already signed up for the standard 24 hour course (or intends to) that you are not going to be second class citizens!!  

Labels: AR, pa242009

The 2009 Mission AR is going to take a little longer for me to recover from but I would definitely consider it a success for Team Mystik-Gray Goat/Indy Rootstock.  With a finishing time of just a hair over 17 hours we manged to clear the course for the win.  (Also the first time a Mission course has been cleared.)  Alpine Shop was neck and neck with us the entire race providing a non-stop source of motivation.  They also cleared the entire course in just under 18 hours.  Those guys are truly a class act and a blast to race against.  Full race report coming soon!

Labels: AR

While in the early stages of developing this years PA "Old School" course we were discussing how to provide the best possible race experience for all the teams that signed up for the more challenging Old School course. Making the assumption that teams undertake races like this largely for the challenge, we wanted to offer a course that let even the fastest and strongest teams push themselves and grind it out for as much time as possible.  However, as is the case with any adventure race, the longer the race, the wider the "spread" between your first and last finishing teams.  So the question was how to keep everyone out there as long as possible...

Labels: AR, pa242009

A couple of months ago Paula Pearson began assembling an all women's team for the GnawBone edition of Dances with Dirt. This is the second year for the event in Nashville and they offer a half marathon, a full marathon, a 50k ultra and a 50 mile ultra as well as a 50 mile relay.

Labels: Running

Let's see, packing for an adventure race; pack, shoes, bike, helmet, gloves, food, hydration, glow sticks, extra socks, tire pump, knife, headlamp....

Following are some scouting notes from course designer John McInnes...

May 3, 2009 Old School Scouting Report

I hope this message finds you doing well. It was a very fun and wet weekend scouting the Old School Course. I was thinking that with about 90% of the course in the books, this weekend’s work would be primarily for tying up loose ends and just making sure everything fit together the way we wanted it to. Well, I was wrong about that. It seems that every time I pre-run another section of the course I find 2 or 3 cool things that I want to include. So now we are faced with the task of cutting out really cool parts of the course so that I can include some even cooler stuff. Maybe we should just make this a 3 day race….that work for everyone? Just kidding.

I hope that everyone is honing their navigation skills. The course is shaping up with some fantastic trekking with great route choices and opportunities for decision making. The trekking sections are very rugged and I must admit that I succumbed to a nearly tragic ankle torqueing episode. The navigation does not end with the trekking. Expect navigational challenges both on the bike and in the boat.

Old school teams – make sure that you are working on your ascending skills. You will need them

Labels: AR, pa242009

For a couple of years now I have been hearing about how awesome this century ride is.  An amazing and challenging 100 mile loop course that takes you over three mountains (Signal, Sand, Lookout) and through three states (TN, AL, GA) with somewhere around 7000' of climb.  This year I decided to pony up and head down with a big crew of Rootstockers and others. 

Labels: Cycling