Well, my stern determination to not design/direct any races in 2010 didn't even last to 2010.  Sad.  But, it will be fun to get involved with this years "Sprint"!

You may have noticed that Planet Adventure has greatly expanded the number of adventure races available in and around the Indianapolis area. In 2010 there will be three "Amazing Adventures", four traditional sprint length races, the always popular Urban Sprint AND the AR boot camp in March. All of these races serve as great "entry points" for first timers and great tune-ups and all around fun for the more experienced racer.

However, with all these short races it got me thinking about what the PA Sprint could or should be. For that reason this year the PA Sprint is growing up a little. It's format is changing and it's getting longer!

In short, the intent is to have the PA Sprint serve as a better stepping stone from the shorter sprints to 24 hour races. Although it is possible to jump right in to longer races (and many have and have great stories to show for it), it's nice to build up to the longer events.

The hope for this years Sprint is to have it be more of a "mini-24" that will better prepare you for PA in June (and any other long race you might have on the calendar this year). As such it will have/be the following:

• 8-12 hours in length, maybe a little longer (We'll no more as we get the course ironed out)
• No special challenges (traditional longer races generally don't have special challenges that are not related to your movement through the course, by removing them you'll have more time to spend riding, running and paddling!)
• Plotting of points will be required (although there may be some premarked maps, people that are adept at plotting maps will have an advantage)
• Multiple maps, mostly 1:24,000 scale
• Longer legs (probably won't be able to get by with a few gels and a bottle of water any more)
• Harder nav/orienteering section (where possible route selection will be key, and the orienteering specific sections will be more challenging)
• The need for a headlamp (you may actually be racing in the dark!)
• Transitions, but no TA (You'll be transitioning disciplines multiple times, but there will likley be no access to gear at those times.  This will hopefully give everyone a better feel for how to handle gear on longer races.)

Got any other ideas about how to make this race a better intro to long racing?  I'd love to hear them.  For that matter, with all these changes it kind of begs the question as to whether this race should really be called a "sprint". If not, anyone got any ideas?

Labels: AR, pas2010

Raced the 2009 Midget AR with John McInnes this past weekend. It started well for us with a lead after the short opening trek, paddle and run back to the TA. Then, about 1/4 mile out of the TA John's front tire exploded.

Labels: AR

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.

Labels: AR, pa242009

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: AR

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.

Labels: AR, pa242009

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.

Labels: AR, pa242009

Labels: AR, pa242009

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.

Labels: AR, pa242009

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.

Labels: AR, pa242009

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.)  

Labels: AR, pa242009

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

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

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

2009 Planet Adventure Sprint Race
Jackson Washington SF, Brownstown, IN

This years PA Sprint was supposed to be the first race that Cristal and I would get to do together. Unfortunately Cristal found out the Tuesday prior to the race that what we thought was a neuroma in her right foot was actually a stress fracture in her third metatarsal. Needless to say no race for her. (She was less than thrilled to find out she'd be spending four weeks in a walking boot.) Fortunately for us Whitney Diggs of Mystik/Gray Goat was able to fill in and we would still be able to race as a coed team. (On a side note, if any of you want to know how to NOT find a substitute for your wife, shoot me an email and I'll hook you up...)

The day of the race turned out to be awesome with a cool start. The pre-race briefing went by quickly and we learned that the standard course teams would have three additional checkpoints on their opening O course that were to be plotted "on the clock". We would not receive the UTM's for these points until after completing a quick special challenge where we would have to retrieve our teammates shoes that had been removed and placed a short distance from the shelter at the start. Shawn volunteered for this figuring the enormous size of his shoes would help with our finding them. Must have worked as Whitney found them quickly and we were off to get our UTM's.

We got the points plotted, our map checked and were off for OP2. This was our first mistake in my opinion. I really like races where you have to make route decisions on the fly. You pretty much have to go by your instincts and experience without a lot of analysis and consideration. My first instinct was to avoid the big climb to OP1 and hit OP2 first. In hindsight I'm not sure this was the best choice.

The rest of the O course went pretty well and we pushed the pace pretty hard. Made a little slip on 5, but probably didn't cost us too much time. OP7 was a doozy, at the top of a monster hill. Little did we know that monster hills would become a repeat theme for the day! We came off the O course within seconds of IndyRootstock.com and the two man Mystik/Gray Goat team.

The next leg would be a hilly ride to Starve Hollow Lake. On the way out of the campground we had to stop for a balloon launch challenge where the goal was to launch a water balloon through a hoola hoop at about 30 feet. Although I have to give Shawn credit for some serious distance on his two attempts, and I came close on my throw, we ended up having to sit a three minute penalty for failing at the challenge.

Back on our bikes and on our way we were met with a pretty serious climb on paved roads along Skyline Drive. After the effort on the O course this additional effort started to take a toll with the heat of the day, (the warmest day of the year so far!).

The relatively short effort on the paved roads led us to our first trail riding of the day. The opening sections of the trail were muddy and pretty tracked up by hoof prints. With Shawn and I on semi-slick tires this slowed us down right off the bat. Luckily the trail cleared up fairly quickly and we were able to make decent time.

This section was essentially a bike O with three points to be obtained in any order. This was our first introduction to how brutal the bike portions would be on the day. We found ourselves pushing bikes up some pretty steep uppers and even walking a downhill or two as there were a couple crazy technical downers. To make matters worse I had a flub on the nav that cost us somewhere around 10 minutes as we had to bike-whack a small portion to get back on the right trail.

It was on this section Whitney executed the first of three rather spectacular crashes that she had on the day. Luckily she escaped all of them relatively unscathed and uninjured! My poor bike didn't fair so well though as I managed to snag a stick in my rear derailleur and shred the cable. Fortunately the bike still rode (others weren't so lucky during this race), but I was reduced to two gears, medium and medium/high.

After leaving this section of trail we had a short shot on paved roads, then back into trails that surround Starve Hollow Lake. The first section was fast singletrack and some gravel. The last section of trail between us and the paddle was some seriously brutal hills that reduced us to a little more bike pushing. This may have actually worked for us as I was having a really hard time climbing with my reduced gears.

Even though we spent a lot of time pushing the bikes we were still pushing the pace, and the quick splash through the stream near the put-in felt great. We rolled in to the CP in second place overall, about 10 minutes behind Mystik. Although the flub on the bike-O cost us, we hadn't lost a lot of time since then. We copied the paddling CP's, hopped in the boat and were on our way.

The paddle went well and pretty quickly. The last CP was manned, with a special challenge where you were handed a pie pan with a piece of twine strung across it and a small magnifying glass. The instructions were to burn through the twine and return to the volunteers. Although I'm proud of us for succeeding at burning through the sting with the magnifier, we were all a little embarrassed when the volunteers pointed out that we were not told that we had to use the magnifying glass, and matches were part of our mandatory gear... Oh well!

After completing the paddle we had to rewind the brutal hilly bike hike on our way back to the road that would take us to the finish. We were completely out of water at this point and Shawn and I were both just barely keeping the cramps at bay. We managed the trails and upon returning to the pavement took out some aggression by picking up the pace.

We got to the last special challenge just short of the finish line and learned that Mystik was still about 10 minutes ahead. We wouldn't catch them, but a good effort nonetheless. We knocked out the last special challenge and rode to the finish where we all proceeded to drink as much water as we could get our hands on!!

The final results would hold with us finishing 1st place in the coed division, and 2nd place overall. Not too shabby. All the teams out there agreed that the course was incredibly challenging, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves immensely. There is something about beating a course that's tougher than normal that makes the whole experience even better!

Thanks to Jerry and James for a great course and as always a HUGE thanks to all the volunteers that make these events happen. You guys rock!!

Mike Garrison
Indy Rootstock

Labels: AR

Yesterday's PA Sprint was a tough one!  The weather was phenomenal, (actually, almost a bit too warm as most of us aren't used to the heat yet), and the course was a handful.  For the second race in a row I managed to disable my bike, this time by jacking up my rear derailleur on some sticks on the trail.

Labels: AR

2009 LBL Challenge (click for results)

Indy Rootstock had a strong start to this race season participation wise, sending two teams to the first ever LBL Challenge in Land Between the Lakes KY. It's a new Bonk Hard race and we've always enjoyed their races in the past. My team (Indy Rootstock) would consist of myself, Deseri Garcia, Greg Grossart and Angelia Kneisley. Cristal Garrison, Sumitra Ghate, Jerry Lyons and James Nichols would be racing as IndyRootstock.com.

Land Between the Lakes is only a little over 5 hours from Indy and we were all carpooling together in Angelia's Suburban along with James' sweet AR trailer. The combo got all 7 of us down there with ease. Greg would be driving in from TN on his own. (We learned post race that if you don't secure the back wheel of a bike on the outside of the rack, that it will track nicely along the trailer up to about 65mph after it bounces off the rail. It is however best to remove the tow system first. Good to know, but hopefully the last time we test this function of the trailer.)

Checkin for both the race and the hotel went quickly and by 8:00 or so we were settled, fed and sitting in the pre race meeting. Jason Elsenrat of Bonk Hard took some time to thank all the sponsors but more importantly the efforts on the part of the local outdoors lovers, Wood n' Wave staff and the Forestry Service. The area was decimated just three months prior by an ice storm. Pretty much the entire surroundings had been declared a Federal Disaster Area. But, thanks to some seriously hard working volunteers trails were cleared and the race was able to be held, and I for one saw minimal effects to the course from the conditions. (My shins may disagree, they're still healing a week and a half later).

We got a pleasant surprise at prerace in that the 24 hour course would be starting at 8am on Sat. We'd be getting almost 6 hours of sleep prior to the race!! After receiving our maps and instructions we took our time going over the course prior to heading back to the room to pack up gear. The race was without TA's, but each team had two "onion bags" which we would be able to use for a gear drop roughly midway through the course. Ours consisted mostly of water and a little food.

The race started promptly at 8 with a run to CP1 then on to the bike drop at CP2. We chose a slightly longer route to CP1 on the road to both get our legs warm, and to avoid any potential storm related deadfall issues right out of the gate. We figured it would be best to survey the condition of the woods a bit prior to making aggressive route choices through nasty downed trees. After CP1 there were actually a number of routes possible to CP2. I imagine a lot of teams went cross country/trails. Some teams chose a large powerline cut that was on the map. We chose a smaller power line cut that we had noticed ran directly to the bike drop, without coming too close to the off limits Trace highway that runs through the middle of the park. I actually think that we were the only team to take this route and it actually was pretty advantageous as we came into CP2 as the top teams were rolling out after having lost sight of them on the way to CP1.

After hopping on the bikes we had some single track riding which caused a number of teams some problems with flats and mechanicals (this would become a theme throughout the race, and we would be no exception). Our ride to CP3 and 4 was fairly uneventful and we were bouncing around positions with EMS, CITGO, and a few of the other top teams. They were getting bit by the bike problem bug early, our time would come later... Worst luck was probably had by Alpine Shop, as they completely spaced on CP3 and didn't realize it until they got to CP4, then had to backtrack to 3. Everyone makes that mistake at some point, but it doesn't make it hurt any less!

After CP4 we were met with another plethora of route choices, but we decided to stick with the familiar, and bike whack the power line cut we had used earlier. Although it was fairly quick, I don't think it was as advantageous as it was on the opening trekking section due to having our bikes to lug along with us. The payoff was nice though as we had paved paths and roads complete with a screaming downhill to CP5.

As we neared the trail that would take us to CP5 we saw EMS's bikes so we knew we had made up a little time on the ride. Our route had us riding to CP5 then backtracking and heading out on some single track. Problem was, we were at a dead end road with a nasty little section of bike whack to the trail. After a 10 minute effort we were clear and on the trail, just in time to see EMS running back form CP5. According to them, we had made a good choice to ride to 5, as it was farther than they had anticipated. (Unfortunately, I missed the little access trail from the road to the single track, which would have made the 10 minute bike whack a 24 second ride...)

We got the first of our flats (me) on the way to 5 but fixed it quickly and were on our way. We also saw Wedali and CITGO on their way out from 5 so despite all the different routes, everyone was still in relatively close proximity. CP A was a random point to be obtained any time during the race and we got it on the way to 6. I'd like to say that was exactly how we planned it, but I missed the potential shortcut I was looking for and we ended up taking the slightly longer "backup" route past CP-A.

From 6 it was some quick riding through CP7 and on to CP8. At this point we were somewhere between 7th and 9th. Alpine Shop had managed to fight back from their mistake already! There was another team that passed us here from Nebraska, but we never got their name. They were wearing lots of red and yellow so from that point forward they were "Redyellow" team. (I suspect they were Proformance Physical Therapy as they are the only team with Nebraska inhabitants on their roster, but after 20+ hours of calling them "RedYellow" I"m going to stick with that for the rest of the race report.)

From the bike drop it was 3 trekking points to CP12, the paddling put-in. All the points turned out to be straightforward, although I had a minor whiff on 11, as I took my team down a nice big hill only to head right back up to the saddle where 11 was located. It wasn't until I saw another team hiking the ridge that I realized had we not turned as early as we had I could have saved us some climb. Fairly small mistake, but frustrating all the same.

By the time we reached 12, we were less than an hour off the lead and put in within minutes of Alpine Shop and Redyellow. Now, I should be clear that we had no aspirations of a win in this race, but we were trying to push a little harder and see how fast we could move. To only be this far back at this point was definitely rewarding. Unfortunately, the wheels were about to come off.

Paddling is by no means our strong suit as a team, but we started this paddle OK. We would head north around the northern tip of the actual land that is between the lakes, and then turn south to CP15, which was the same location as CP8. The problems hit when we started to turn south and the wind picked up. We had to fight harder and harder, but were moving slower and slower! Both ladies proceeded to get constantly wet as the waves started to break over the front of the canoes.

At the manned CP14 there was a gear check. At this point I realized as I dumped my pack that I had left my rain jacket back at the start!! (I had been wearing it to stay warm prior to the race and when I took it off, I just chucked it in my bin, rather than into my pack like I had intended). Thankfully Angelia saved my ass by pulling a backup jacket out of her pack. Anyone familiar with Angelia's luck with April races will understand why she had two rain jackets when the gear list only required one... I still owe her that six packed I promised her at that point.

Now when we got out of the boats for the check we all got rather chilled. But, instead of piling on clothes prior to getting back into the boats we just hopped in and took off. In hind sight this ended up being a pretty foolish move.

The paddle from 14 to 15 was tiring both physically and mentally as the wind whipped us and the ladies continued to get doused. Greg, who is generally very congenial, looked like he wanted to hurt someone or something. By the time we got out at 15 we were all hit with pretty bad chills as all the cold blood in our legs hit our core. This is NOT a good way to have a fast transition.

I have to admit I'm not the fastest in transition to start with. Add in the increased degree of difficulty of opening zippers etc. with shaking hands and I was downright slow. I think it affected my brain too as I went to fix one of Des's two flats that she somehow got (while paddling no less, apparently the bikes felt neglected sitting at 8/15) and proceeded to forget which tube was good, and which one was bad.

Turns out it didn't matter as they were BOTH bad. Either I blew one with the CO2 cartridge, or she had a bum spare. Either way it made for a lengthier than desired transition and by the time we rolled out, all the teams that were there when we got there (CITGO, Alpine Shop, RedYellow, Dynamic Earth) were long gone.

As soon as we got rolling we stopped almost immediately to top off our water at a spigot Greg spotted on the way in, (which was a great catch). A needed stop, as we were all out of water by now, but more time off the clock.

Now the bike fun really began. At the top of a climb heading away from the shore line I hear Greg say "what the, my crank fell off!". Sure enough I look over and there is his left pedal and crank hanging from his foot. Sweet. And the crank bolt that was absolutely needed to get that crank back in? Gone. If my face looked anything like my teammates' at that time it definitely had that "holy crap, our race is over" look on it. I was trying to estimate how long it would take to bike to CP18 towing Greg while he pedaled with one leg...

Thankfully Greg convinced us all it was worth it to backtrack and look for it. And believe it or not after about 300 meters or so (and about 20 meters past where I was about to give up) I spotted the little bugger in the middle of the road. Race saved! Just goes to show a cool head and never giving up pays off!

From CP15 to CP16 there was an option for a 2k-ish bike whack or a 7ish mile ride that we debated at length the prior night. Ultimately we decided on the safe route and rode the whole way around the long way to 16. Considering all the bike issues we had, I'm not sure how much longer that route choice was compared to at least one team that I know took the bike whack. I do know one thing though, if Greg had lost that crank bolt in the woods? Forget about it.

CP17 was uneventful but shortly thereafter my bike started to feel like it was riding a little soft. Yup, you guessed it. Not one, but TWO more flats. We ended up just topping off my tires with as much air as was needed to get to 18 at Hematite Lake. We'd worry about the fact that we had no more tubes after the O course.

Now at this point it was around 10pm and it was full on dark. We had discussed the importance of not "flailing" on the O course and I was feeling the pressure after having a horrible outing on the night nav at my last 30 hour race last summer. (I completely whiffed on the first control, wasting over 30 minutes, blew another 30 minutes on another control midway through the course, and finally had to make the decision to bail completely on the last one when met with the possibility of missing a cutoff. Not good.)

After the first control was easily in the bag we hit the next 5 or 6 with our headlamps off. Turned out the clear skies and moonlight made it possible to see the topography better with the lights off. It's the first time I've done it, but I'll be damned if we didn't walk right up to a couple of the controls without even having to turn our lights on! Eventually the moon got too low in the sky for this approach, but it was fun while it lasted.

We were navigating well, and my fears of a relapse to 2008 form seemed to be unfounded. However, we had all gotten a lot more comfortable with a slower pace as fatigue started to set in.

Now, all in all we had a good run at the O course. I overshot one control by about 300 meters when I was probably at my lowest physically and mentally. Other than that there were a few course corrections where we started down a wrong spur for example, quickly realized it, then got fixed. But, we lost no more than 30 minutes absolute tops on navigation mistakes. My teammates were great at constantly talking and reminding them to give them distances for pace counting and features to look for. We finished the last couple points during sunrise and were back at our bikes by about 7am.

However...

Our nav time was over THREE HOURS slower than the top teams. Ouch. I knew they were faster AND we had slowed down a bit but it wasn't until this point that I realized by how much. Our aggression had slipped completely away at some point between 12 and 18. Cold, bike problems, or just getting tired. Not sure why exactly, but that's when it happened. Now, I'm honestly not sure how much any of us had in our legs at that point, but one thing is for sure... The last half of the race is as much mental as it is physical, and that's where these things are won and lost.

The upside is that we were only the 5th team to complete the whole O course! We didn't know this at the time, we just knew that "very few" teams had knocked out the whole thing. Turns out that Wedali basically did the whole course, but failed to get a punch at 24. An absolutely horrible break for them, as they were the first team across the finish line!! We were now in almost straight "survival" mode and knew we could beat the cutoff on the final biking section.

Now, I should mention that this was only possible though thanks to our teammates on IndyRootstock.com. The bad luck bug bit them harder than us and amongst other things James' knee had taken a real beating. It was swollen to the point where there was pretty much no choice but to drop. Cristal and Sumitra had ridden back to the Start, while Jerry accompanied James at CP 18/33. The only upside to all this was that they were able to provide us with spare tubes, which turned a 30-40 minute patching operation into a 10 change of two flats. Thanks guys!!

The final ride was straightforward and it actually got pretty toasty towards the end. There was one section of fire road, about 1-1.5 miles worth, where we had to repeatedly get off the bikes to hop logs, but this was honestly the only time on the whole course where downed trees significantly affected how fast we moved.

Just to add a little flare to our finish, Greg's freaking crank fell off again less than a mile from the finish. Turns out that towing someone while they pedal with one leg is NOT as easy as you might think... Our Rootstock teammates were there to greet us and we found that thanks to Wedali's unfortunate mistake we had actually finished 5th!

All in all it was a great race with some great teammates. The only part that really sucked was that 5 hour drive home on no sleep. Thankfully Cristal's self preservation instinct kicked in and she managed most of the driving, again! She did the same thing last year after a similar push home post race from WV. After seeing the three boy play bobble head behind the wheel, she decided to take matters into her own hands then too.

Mike Garrison
Indy Rootstock

Labels: AR

Spent all day yesterday scouting for the race coming up in June.  Getting pretty excited.  Without giving too much away, the area I was in yesterday was beautiful and should meet our needs pretty much perfectly.  Any concerns about whether or not ropes will be included in this race should be answered by the pics!

Labels: AR, pa242009

Got home from the LBL Challenge Sunday night, and yesterday was a blur.  I'm actually still pretty sore, and need one more night of good sleep I think before I'll feel back to normal.  I swore that I'd never be a part of a "drive home immediately after the race" effort again after the Wild Wonderful last year.

Labels: AR

The trailer is loaded and we're on the road. No problems getting ALL seven bikes and gear in Angelia's Suburban and on James' trailer.

First team challenge? Deciding on a place for lunch...

Labels: AR