Mike Garrison

Personal Summary

Always striving to push my limits and see how good my best is.

Mike Garrison

Main Blog Page                      

 Subscribe via RSS              Receive updates via email                          

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Twenty mile sprint

Despite the title of this post, the twenty mile sprint does not, in fact, exist. (And by sprint, I mean actually standing up and pedaling hard, the standing up part being key to this story.) Feel free to try if you want, but don't say I didn't warn you.

My saddle fell off 15 miles in to a 35 mile ride last Tuesday. So, I rode the remaining 20 miles with my saddle in my jersey pocket and the inability to sit down. Seemed like the logical thing to do.

Funny thing is, everyone on the ride seemed to think that I had a screw loose. Got a lot of comments like "I would have called my wife!" and "It fell off all the way back there?!?". To most of those folks, finishing the ride wasn't just an undesirable choice, but a non-choice.

But when you're used to doing adventure races your decision making might just be a little goofy compared to normal social standards. There may not have been a race director there telling me that it was time for the "riding without a seat" special challenge, but finishing out the ride not only seemed to make sense, I kind of looked forward to the challenge.

Maybe we do all kind of have a screw loose...

Labels:

posted by Garrison at 8:46 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Things I learned at the 2009 PA Challenge

Now that I've had a few weeks to process everything:

1) It's borderline disturbing what you can get an adventure racer to do with no questions from them. It's tempting to test this behavior and is certainly something that has crossed my mind.

2) If you're going to work a single checkpoint for 20+ hours do it with Monty Wilson and my wife Cristal. Hot dogs, chicken, wine, beer, S'mores, you name it. I had to warn them early that they'd be in big trouble if any teams dropped the race in favor of the creature comforts they filled their CP's with!

3) Time math is hard. Time math after being up for 36 hours is beyond hard. Discussing time math after being up for 36 hours with someone else who has been up for 36 hours is nothing short of completely absurd.

4) Witnessing the discussion outlined in item three is wildly entertaining.

5) It never gets old watching people push their limits and enjoy something that most people would classify as "crazy", "nuts", or just plain "weird".

6) Farmers seem to give free Cokes to weird people. Not sure if this is out of fear or a belief that adventure racer money is akin to Monopoly money and can't be used in the real world, or if farmers are just nice people.

7) Ticks suck. (no pun intended)

8) Poison ivy sucks. (no pun possible)

9) Poison ivy with ticks is still better than 35 degrees with rain, snow, sleet and flooding. (And from what I've heard since the race I'm apparently not the only one that feels this way.)

10) There appears to be an as of yet unnamed emotion that is some combination of relief, gratification, accomplishment, delerium and whatever it is you feel right after something that hurts real bad stops hurting. This emotion is easily readable in peoples faces immediately following a race like this years PA!

Labels: ,

posted by Garrison at 10:40 PM 0 Comments

Monday, June 22, 2009

FINALLY, a link to detailed PA "results"

And yes, there is a reason that "results" is in quotes. The link below is actually to a spreadsheet still in process. It was promised last Friday, and I'm not getting it until today. Not too impressive. What's even less impressive is my ability to get a damned spreadsheet from Excel 2007 into Google Docs. (which is where I generally put stuff like this for easy sharing.) Here's the link for what it's worth.

2009 PA Results

I ended up scrapping a large portion of what I had done due to the two programs not agreeing on how to do some time math. (Apparently some computer software is about as competent at this as sleep deprived race directors.)

I'll keep updating it over the next few days, so bookmark the link and keep checking back for new info. I'll post again once it's all done!

posted by Garrison at 10:39 PM 2 Comments

Friday, June 19, 2009

First rule of going on vacation

When you go on vacation, don't come home.

Somehow in the space of four days my yard became the Amazon and more than an appropriate amount of work piled up at work. In case you were wondering this is my lame excuse as to why I don't have the fully detailed results posted yet.

Anyways, I WILL have a link up to the majority of the splits today sometime. I'll also have a sheet for each course showing which CP's teams obtained. This should help you figure out what parts of the course you did compared to other teams, or which orienteering points other teams chose to obtain. As always, feel free to contact us with questions.

Hopefully all your feet have healed and you feel fully recovered (including poison ivy rashes and bug bites). I'm fairly sure that it took me longer to recover from this race than most others, and I didn't even race it!

posted by Garrison at 8:13 AM 0 Comments

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Shoe Dogs


These things seem pretty cool, although I'm not sure they are intended to be effective on a pair of Salomon's worn through stank nasty creeks for 18 hours, then tossed in a bag and left in a car for a couple of days. Worth a shot though.

I wonder if they can make one in an appropriate size for a '99 Subaru Outback...

posted by Garrison at 3:52 PM 0 Comments

Friday, June 12, 2009

2009 Midget AR Summer Sprint

Just signed Cristal and I up for this race yesterday. We're hoping that her foot will be close to 100% by then, or at least good enough to race without causing any further damage. She's been an increasingly good sport about the rehab but needless to say the frustration is building. Even 4-5 hours out racing will do a lot for her mental state!

For anyone that has not done an adventure race, this event is more than likely a great place to get started. The distances are short and the navigation should be fairly straightforward. So, if you have any family members, friends or coworkers that have shown even the slightest interest in AR, start leaning on them to give this race a shot!

It's also great to see another TWO races on the Indiana calendar. (They'll be doing a Brown County race this fall.) We're at the point now where you can almost fill your race calendar without even leaving the state.


(For those of you waiting for more detail on the PA OS and 24 results, I promise they're coming. I've got 6-7 hours of travel tonight to work on them, then it's just a matter of finding some internet, which has become increasingly easy...)

Labels:

posted by Garrison at 10:13 AM 2 Comments

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Preliminary standings for 2009 PA Challenge

If any of you are like me, you like to dissect all the splits from a race that you can.  Unfotunately we don't quite have those done yet.  However, we can at least provide the preliminary standings as well as the time that each team finished.  As was mentioned post race (at least I think I mentioned it...) we attempted to score based on how early a team deviated from the whole course.  So, even if a team got more points on the second O section than another team, if they had less on the first, they will be ranked lower.  I know it's not ideal, and one could spend DAYS debating how to most fairly score a race, but we feel it's the best solution.

And for the record, despite how trite and overused "you're all winners" might sound, it definitely applies to this course.  We've never designed a course this long and the Old School course was really brutal, even more brutal than anticipated in a couple spots.  In case all you 24 hour course racers hadn't already figured it out, your course was a bit longer than normal (around 110 miles without the "bonus" mileage you may have added yourself!) thanks to it being designed concurrently with the Old School course.  Despite this we had a great finishing percentage!

Please don't hesitate to send any and all feedback our way wither positive or critical.  We tried a number of new things and would like to know what you all think.

Here are the rankings, we'll do our best to get all the splits and O course details up by the weekend!

Old School
1) Wedali - full course - 10:32 AM
2) Alpine Shop - shortened course - 9:18 AM
3) Team Bushwhacker - shortened course - 11:08 AM 
4) Enviro - shortened course - 7:21 AM
5) FreeSpeed - unofficial - 11:03 AM
6) MAAR - unofficial - 12:08 PM
7) Indy Rootstock - DNF
8) BAM - DNF

I'd like to note that both Freespeed and MAAR chose to underake the Old School course with unofficial teams from the very beginning.  Four person coed was required but BOTH of these teams opted for the challenge of the longer course over a chance at prizes!  That is awesome guys!

24 Hour Challenge (with the small field there are no divisions)
1) DINO - 9:08 AM
2) Planetadventurerace.com - 12:10 PM
3) Silverbacks - 12:20 PM
4) Dark Side - 8:24 AM
5) JAMBS - 10:14 AM
6) Crossfit - 12:10 AM
7) No Sleep Till Brooklyn - 12:48 PM
8) Plotigy - 10:38 AM
9) Rest and Relaxation (DNF)
10) Team Ragged Glory (DNF)

For the 24 hour race it's worth pointing out that our top three teams all coed (in the traditional nature of coed AR teams) AND our second place team was 1 male and 3 females!!  Way to go everyone!

Labels: ,

posted by Garrison at 5:33 PM 1 Comments

Monday, June 8, 2009

Dazed...

I anticipate writing up some kind of summary or report about the PA race this past weekend, but my brain at this point is way too dazed to do it effectively.  All in all though, things went fantastic.  The field of teams, although small, was one of the best groups of teams I've been around.  Everyone was attentive to the rules (and followed instructions!!), great to the volunteers, and really got into the spirit of AR.  Both courses were VERY tough and even the teams that were unable to complete their entire course enjoyed their experience and appreciated the adventure.

The volunteers for this race were unbelievable!  With the added length and the two courses, having a crew of experienced dedicated and level headed volunteers ended up being a must.  Thank God we had them!

Time to go find some more coffee...


Labels: ,

posted by Garrison at 8:35 AM 0 Comments

Friday, June 5, 2009

Course setting complete...

A dozen ticks, two bashed shins and a cold dip in the water later and the course is set for 2009's Planet Adventure Challenge!!
 
I hope the teams are ready for both an adventure AND a challenge...

Labels: ,

posted by Garrison at 7:52 AM 0 Comments

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Eductional info that might be pertinent for teams racing the PA Old School course

It's been brought to my attention that some of my updates about the race course for the OS teams are bringing all kinds of happy thoughts to our racers.  In attempt to maintain that trend I've found a few points of information related to sleep deprivation that you all might be intrigued by.

Sleep Deprivation (per wikipedia...)

First we should cover some basics...

Generally, lack of sleep may result in:
  • aching muscles (presumably above and beyond what you'll already be feeling)
  • hallucinations (my favorite)
  • hand tremors
  • irritability (this explains some of the grumpiness from my teammates)
  • memory lapses or loss
  • severe yawning
  • temper tantrums in children (no comment)
  • symptoms similar to psychosis

Some other select items from the wikipedia entry for Sleep Deprivation:

"Sleep deprivation can adversely affect brain function"

"People who drove after being awake for 17–19 hours performed worse than those with a blood alcohol level of .05 percent"

"Sleep deprivation can be used as a means of torture"  (Remember, you all signed up for this.  See the next point...)

"Sleep deprivation has sometimes been self-imposed to achieve personal notoriety in the context of record-breaking stunts."

Rest up, and we'll see you all on Friday!!

Labels: ,

posted by Garrison at 10:34 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

More PA Challenge info

I'll try to keep these updates to a minimum so as to not be identified as a "spammer" but I thought you all might find this tidbit from race manager Jerry Lyons to be useful.

While hanging some controls this past weekend Jerry discovered that the stinging nettle is out.  And it's apparently pissed at us.  We'd suggest long pants (kevlar would be optimal, but synthetic trekkng pants will still be helpful).  In my time racing through nettle I've found that long pants, quick movement and a full arsenal of colorful language are the best tools when dealing with the stuff.  Those of you that are especially sensitive to plants and such might want to bring a couple extra antihistamine pilss, although usually this stuff fades after an hour or two.

Labels: ,

posted by Garrison at 9:23 AM 0 Comments

The "Old School" course is long...

For some that won't come as a surprise.  Actually, I hope it won't be much of a surprise for anyone but while reviewing the course timeline last night with course designer John McInnes we took a step back and said "wow, that's long".  (Those of you that know John will be unsurprised to hear that he let a little of his maniacal baritone giggle slip at this point.)  

Without getting too much detail out there too soon, we don't expect to see the winners in much earlier than 30 hours after the start.  So, those of you that were maybe thinking about knocking this one out and getting a full night's sleep before driving home on Sunday might want to make a slight mental adjustment and prepare for one heck of a race!!!

Labels: ,

posted by Garrison at 8:16 AM 0 Comments

Monday, June 1, 2009

2009 PA 24/OS Update

Greetings all!

The 2009 Planet Adventure Challenge is just around the corner, hopefully your training has gone well and you are ready for one of the most challenging 24+ hour races you've ever done!

First we'd like to stress a few points that are especially important

1) Ascending for the Old School teams.  As has been mentioned before you will be expected to be proficient at ascending and will be required to demonstrate your ability during check-in.  BE PREPARED!  It's not too late to practice.  If you are not able to demonstrate your ability to ascend proficiently and safely, it will affect your race.

2) Gear checks.  There will be no pre race gear checks (other than climbing gear for Old School teams).  However there will be on course gear checks and a lack of mandatory gear will result in penalties.  Please take the gear list seriously and ask any questions ahead of time.  Do NOT make assumptions about what will or will not meet the requirements!

3) Camping - there have been a lot of questions about camping, see below for all the details.

4) OLD SCHOOL TEAMS - Be prepared to start your race as early as MIDNIGHT FRIDAY.  That's right, midnight.  (24 hour teams, you can start to feel bad for the OS teams right around then.)  Exact start time will not be disclosed until the prerace meeting but you NEED to be ready to race at midnight, so plan accordingly...

Below is a lot of additional information about the race next weekend.  Although a lot of it is the same information available on the website, we suggest you read it through carefully!!

-----------------------------------------------

SCHEDULE
(All scheduled events will be at the Elk Ridge Ranch)

June 5, 2009
12:00 to 6:00 p.m Check-in and skills tests. PA Old School
5:00 to 7:30p.m. Check-in PA 24
8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Pre-race Social
9:00 p.m. Pre-Race meeting

June 6, 2009
Before 7:00 a.m PA Old School
7:00 a.m Race Start PA 24

June 7, 2009
1:00 p.m. Course Close
1:00 p.m. Post race Party starts
2:00 p.m. Awards

Camping and Lodging and Elk Ridge Ranch.

All teams will be required to camp in the tent village on Friday night.  (Both 24 hour teams and OS teams.) Crews are welcome to camp with their teams. Also available for crews are the camper/trailer spots, two with water and electricity ($50/weekend) and one with just electricity ($25/weekend). The Lil Cabin on the Hill will also be available for $250/weekend. These will be on a first come first serve basis. PLEASE CONTACT Jerry Lyons at 317 590-0762 or email jerry@planetadventurerace.com if you are interested in these other accommodations.

There will be showers available for those camping. We will also have a buffet meal (pasta, sandwiches and salad) available Friday for $5 per person. The nearest restaurants are 8 to 10 miles away.


Ropes

There will be ropes. As we have stated there will be multiple rope sections. At a bare minimum you will need an approved climbing harness, two locking carabineers, and two runners (2' or 4'). 

Old School teams WILL need to know how to ascend up to 50 feet without your pack. You WILL be required to demonstrate basic ascending skill at check in. Failure to do so may jeopardize your ability to attempt these sections of the OS course!

We are providing ascenders for your use during the race.  However, I strongly recommend that you bring your own ascending setup (i.e., foot loops etc.)  You will be much faster if you bring your own setup that you can simply attach to the provided ascenders.  We will have Petzel Ascension ascenders (or the equivalent) available for your use.  Although we will also have various foot loops and runners that a clever climber could use to fashion a serviceable ascending rig, it will be to your benefit to have your own ascending rig that you are used to and is sized accordingly. 

You will have the option to use your own APPROVED ascension and rappel gear and it may save time at the ropes sections but remember, you will be required to carry it the entire length of the race.

Advanced Loop Rules

Something new in this year's race is an "advance loop" near the end of the race. In an effort to allow more teams to be official finishers and to increase the challenge for the faster teams there will be one or more advanced loops near the end of the race. There will undoubtedly be many questions about the precise mechanics of the advanced loop(s), so I hope that the following provides a clear explanation of the advanced loop concept. Please feel free to ask questions so that we can refine the rules and make sure that this is clear to everyone.

  • Teams arriving at the start of the advanced loop prior to a specified cut-off time will have the option to continue on the advanced loop or to take a more direct route to the finish line. Teams arriving at the start of the advanced loop after the specified cut-off time do not have the option to complete the advanced loop.
  • Teams are not required to complete an advanced loop to be considered official finishers. Teams that do not complete the advanced loop but reach the finish line before the race cut off time will be referred to as "Standard Course Finishers".
  • Teams that complete the entire advanced loop and reach the finish line prior to the race cut off time will be referred to as "Advanced Loop Finishers"
  • Standard Course Finishers will be ranked behind all Advanced Loop Finishers.
  • A team that elects to do the Advanced Loop must complete the entire loop to gain any advantage. There is no advantage to completing only a portion of an advanced loop.
  • If a team starts the advanced loop and fails to finish before the race cut off, they will be unranked.
  • Teams that fail to complete the entire advanced loop, but reach the finish line prior to race cut off will be ranked with the Standard Course Finishers according to the time they reach the finish line.
Water Travel 
(note - only OS teams will go 1.5 miles, although 24 teams will swim, the distance will be much shorter.)

There will be non-boat water travel! Yes, swimming, kick boarding, doggy paddling what ever you want to call it. You will have several opportunities to get in the water. The race is during the summer in Indiana so getting wet may be a plus. There will be one section where you will travel about 1.5 miles in the water. Those of you that are wise will develop the best method and technique for this mode of travel. We will have trash bins after this section to dump any items you can part with. Anything else you should plan on carrying the whole race. We do not expect any team to spend more than an hour and a half or so in the water during this section. Plan accordingly!! Remember you will always have your PFD on when you are in water over waist deep.


Labels:

posted by Garrison at 3:55 PM 0 Comments