I decided to write this in WORD form so I wouldn’t lose it due to some computer glitch. I was half-way through my last account when my computer rebooted or something and I lost it all. Having had about 12 hours sleep in the last 90 (none during the race), that made me pretty pissed off. Anyway, here goes….

Team “Two Be Determined” consisted of me and Erich Lyman, an ex-infantry and military intelligence guy who now lives in Alexandria and works for DOD. He had just gotten back from Afghanistan where he’d spent the last 5 months. I had done an ISO through A-list and he took the bait. This is one instance where internet dating actually worked! This was his first AR and I think he enjoyed himself. Even when dehydrated at 3AM with aching feet he was positive, talkative, and fun to be working with.

So…on to the race. This race was billed as good for beginners. Believe me, this was NOT a beginners race. I don’t think Odyssey could plan an easy race which is fine, but don’t be lulled into any false sense of security with Ronnie Angell and his crew.

Erich and I were ready by the 1PM start, had plotted everything, and set off on the short “sort out the wheat from the chaff” prologue at a walk/jog. We were about last by the end of that (35 teams)– figured we had 24 hours to go. We chose the road route for the first 2 CPs rather than the trail and though it was a sweat-fest it paid off. Of course we had to go up long hills and scream down long downhills a-la Tour de France, but that’s what Odyssey loves to do – find as much vertical as possible. We were 9th at CP2 – pretty good move up the field. Note to self: always chose the road in an Odyssey race. A quick ride down the hill brought us to the river put-in at Buchanan, VA.

The river was probably the nicest/best part of the race. About 3 hours and 20 miles brought us to the take-out (~6:30PM). We dumped once which really just meant climbing out of the boat, dragging it over to a sandbar and dumping out the water – took maybe 5 minutes. Had a couple of cloud bursts, beautiful scenery, passing fishermen, and a number of easy but fun Class I rapids. The take-out was easy-ish but it had begun to rain and was pretty muddy.

Then the O-course began! The maps were on regular paper so they immediately got wet and were difficult to plot on. By the way, thank you very much HRA/ARS support-guy for letting us use you SUV’s front seat to get out of the rain a least a little to plot our points. We started up the hill in the rain, which was now quite strong, but my pants were feeling wetter than they should – don’t get any ideas! Checked the bottom of my pack and it tasted like Accelerade! That sent a cold chill up my spine; I knew we had hours of trekking up 6 different mountains and my worst fears were confirmed. My Camelbak tube had come apart from the bladder and I lost all my fluids except for maybe 15 ounces. Erich had a full bladder and a Red Bull. We had drank a ton and fueled up well at the take-out so we figured we were OK. Going back for the other bladder would have been a pain and at least the bladder was OK so we could use it later. Off and up we went. CP-A was easy but CP-B proved elusive; though we did see a black bear which was pretty cool. In retrospect we should have been pace-counting better. We gradually began running into more and more teams who were lost/backtracking/frustrated/grimy from bushwacking and realized our mistake. Some helpful directions and better navigating found us CP-B as night fell. Better pace-counting, teaming up occasionally, finding overgrown trails better by using BOTH the small and large-scale maps (this was a key tactic), got us slowly from CP-B to CP-E. All the points were off-trail, on the top of hills, and sometimes in the fog. At CP-E we popped the Red Bull, celebrated, and that put us out of fluids completely. We teamed up with Team 118 for quite a while and 4 heads was definitely better than 2 with both teams making good choices and correcting eachother’s mistakes while having good talks and comraderie. I think that’s really a good part of AR; joining with others to share skills, experience, and just plain human interaction in the middle of adversity. As we hiked to CP-F we stopped quickly to refill the bladders in North Creek and took some much-needed swigs of iodine-tainted H2O. Couldn’t find CP-F to save our lives. Spent 1 ½ hours doing that and adding the 3 hour penalty made that very costly. We’d been running 9-10th place, but we found ourselves in 17th by the ropes course (some of that was probably teams who had decided to only go for 3 O-points).

The ropes course was fast and wet with a gratuitous dunk in a waterfall and some slip-and-slide across some slimy rocks. Went quickly and woke us up nicely after the all-night trek in the woods. But it didn’t help the “saddle butt” whose pain was slowly entering my consciousness more and more, and the soles of my feet were definitely telling me it was time to get off them and back on the bike.

A quick trek around the corner put us on the bikes again for the final haul. The dawn was breaking and it was a little cool with the breeze. We chose the road route again to CP-7 and it turned out to be the best choice again. Still involved climbing forever up a fire road where we finally met the lucky lady who signed us in, surrounded by hundreds of flying bugs; we left quickly. We now had 2 hours to get to CP9. The fire road eventually degenerated into a horse trail that most horses would have trouble with; and you definitely couldn’t ride. So hike-a-bike it was for a while. Found CP8 at about 8AM. We figured we were doing OK but this was not to be the case. The Greenwood Horse Trail ended up being mostly hike-a-bike with steep descents, raspberry bush patches just for a few more scratches, lots of rocks, and eventually another uphill switchback set that went nowhere. We were now past 9AM and not all that unhappy about being shuttled down to the amateur route when we got to CP9. We picked up an exhausted soloist named Dirk on this leg and together we found an overgrown fire road which took us to Route 43 and CP9. The re-route from CP9 basically took us back along the roads we had started the race on, with an endless climb up route 645 and some blessed downhill. Sitting on the bike was now a painful experience and the route seemed to go on forever; we hopefully thought each corner would reveal Camp Bethel and the finish line but it took its time. We finished at about 11:10 AM. Cokes, chile, sandwiches, a shower, and Ronnie Angell’s smiling face greeted us as we stiffly climbed off the bikes and hobbled over to hand in our passports. Odyssey has a reputation for being a real test and this race was no exception.

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18 Hours on the Farm
By Tom Doyle
PHOTOS................

- Completed 18 laps (180 miles), Chris was an animal and did a 6th lap to secure our 3rd place, of 7 Mixed Teams.

- Many of our laps were between 54:30 - 60:00 minutes, resulting in 18 laps in 17 hrs, 50 minutes.

- No flats, no broken chains, no trees hit

- John crashed 2 times in one lap, once at high speed on Big Ring but didn't hit any trees and still finished in 61:00 minutes.

- Ed's expanded course turned out to be right at 10 miles, all good, and our team could do all climbs on the middle ring.

The 1st 3 laps were hot, even hot in the woods. Everything went perfect through the night, all of us even got a little sleep. No dew at night fall so no wet routs to contend with through the night. Kept fearing the predicted rain for Sunday morning, but it never came. Chris said it was worth his drive from Maryland for a great course, accommodations, and a most wonderful Brunch. Chris, thanks again for adding so much to our teams success.

We are already looking forward to next year.

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How Far Would You Ride for a Pint Glass?
Shenandoah Mountain 100
Stokesville, Va
Sept 2006

For a week now, since completing the Shenandoah Mountain 100 on September 3rd, I have been trying to decide what to call this article. This epic race has so many things going for it, from its incredible pre/post events to the unbelievable Aid Stations, there were just too many to choose from…. So let me explain the story behind the name for you..

I arrived Saturday afternoon to Stokesville Campground to a subdued but energized crowd. After I set up camp with some friends, I ventured to the check-in, where I stumbled, literally, across an ole friend, Jonathan Pozner, Trek Team Manager. He told me it was his idea to do the 100 and the rest of the Team followed. It was funny at the time, seriously. The rest of check-in was a breeze; well organized and simple!

As the evening started settling in and everyone got their gear set up, the post race events started with an awesome dinner orchestrated by Scott Scudamore and crew. Friends convened over pasta and salad to converse about the summers events and tomorrows impending race. Team Trek was out signing and talking with everyone. Chris Scott was busy making sure tomorrow’s event would go smoothly. Then the kegs were tapped for anyone wishing to calm the nerves or compete in the Rockstar Cat!!

Let me tell you that being awoken by a gong in the middle of the Virginia Mountains is a sign! 5am comes earlier than you want when you are looking at 100 miles to ride on a mountain bike! The gong sounded and everyone scrambled for the caffeine and their bikes. With everyone assembled at the start line at 6:30, we were off. Four hundred riders went screaming out the back exit of the Campground and down the road across the old Iron Bridge. Fixed gear, single speed, multi speed, you name it; they were riding it on one of the biggest races around these parts.

I’ll spare you the little details and get to the point. The course is tough! It sounds rhetorical being 100 miles but not even looking at the distance, its tough. We climbed and descended around 13,000 feet through out the day. Then Ernesto came to visit briefly before the race to add an additional 2 inches of rain to the trails. The climbs, six in total, were serious and well placed. The toughest was mile 72. From that point to Aid Station #5(mile 75), the climb took you roughly two thousand feet. It was fire road but nonetheless you got to know your granny gear, if you had the ability (fixies and single speed, ouch). And there, I said it, Aid Station. These volunteers are best Aid Stations I have ever witnessed in a race. They raise the bar. The second you arrived, they were all over you: do you need water, something fixed on your bike, food, whatever you needed. They had it! I mean there should be a competition between the Aid Stations. They rocked! Not one bad one among them.

Anyway, enough digression! The point to the story: How Far Would You Ride for a Pint Glass? After riding for 9 hours and arriving at Aid Station #5, some of us weren’t feeling that good. Imagine that. Well about that time, Bill Swann and Tim Shariff mentioned the pint glass you get at the finish line. Hence, our goal from that point on was all about the pint glass! 100 miles, 13,000 feet, 15 hours of riding, whatever, it was about getting that Holy Grail of Pint Glasses. When we crossed that finish line and grabbed that Old Dominion brew, now that’s a day in the woods!

Chris Scott and crew do an excellent job of running this race! The amount of effort is beyond compare. This is not a beginner race. Out of the 400 that went in, about 315 finished. Everyone I saw and noticed around the dinner table were serious about this race. Jeremiah Bishop won the race and set a course record of 7 Hours and 15 minutes! I am not sure who won the Rockstar Cat but I am sure they kicked butt, either on the course or at the tap.

Congratulations!

From CycleVa.com by Woody Elliott

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STORM 2006

TEAM #8: TO BE DETERMINED

It was raining on and off as we started out from Richmond Saturday morning. The weather forecast had said it would be beautiful, sunny, with high in the 80’s. The reality didn’t bode well. Brian had suggested we pack the truck Friday night so we had all met at CR’s house and made sure we had all the stuff. That’s half the fun of these things – all the stuff. It’s an obsessive-compulsive’s dream. Buy it, make it light, organize it, and pack it; so it can be found and used exactly when it’s needed. Never does work that way though, does it.

This was Andrea and CR’s first “real” AR where navigation matters, it makes no difference if you’re out of the start in last place, you don’t have to do any special “tasks,” and the nature you encounter is raw and “in your face.” Grant prides himself on running races like this; races that “aren’t track meets.” Andrea was understandably nervous. Neither she nor CR had kayaked before and Dave at Southeast Expeditions had suggested 4 solos for the race. The thought of having her own boat was a little daunting, and if the weather got bad it could get hairy. That worry became reality a couple of times by the end of this race.

Cape Charles was a quaint as ever, but there were lots of “For Sale” signs. The weather remained overcast with a fairly strong wind out of the northwest. I hoped we would be doing some southerly kayaking and that the current and tide gods would smile sweetly. We checked gear, signed in, got the maps, and thankfully didn’t have to do the kayak rescue in the present conditions. We learned the first leg would be biking so that helped a bit with the planning. A short meeting at the gazebo sent us scurrying to the cars for the short ride to the start. After parking we did a bit more packing and planning, attended the captain’s meeting, and started plotting. Some teams were right out of the blocks – I never quite understand how they do that. I had bought nice expensive mytopo.com maps and we started plotting only to finally figure out that the UTM markings were wrong! I guess we were lucky to figure that out before we set out across the Eastern Shore, but it set us back a good 30 minutes and made us virtually last out of the start. This was a bit of a downer. We hadn’t laminated the given maps, etc and knew we better be careful with “the precious” for the duration. We set out at a good 16 mph pace and were glad to get moving.

CP2 was on us in no time and we transitioned quickly to the kayaks, a little too quickly. Nothing drastic occurred due to our haste, but I had forgotten the bilge pump and realized that the rental paddles were pretty short. The wind was still strong, the pack was most definitely way ahead, the current was against us initially, and Andrea was definitely worried. She later confessed to being near tears with fear but never showed it. Frankly, sometimes teams see their female members as a bit of a drag; not Andrea! She repeatedly kicked our butts into gear throughout the race, enjoyed herself at every turn, and never stopped. However, we were moving kind-of slow as a team and had to pick it up. Our tow rope now came into play. I hitched Andrea to my stern and off we went at a better clip. This soon became a necessity as the sky to the north started turning really dark. Sheriff’s boats and later Dave in the race monitor boat came by to warn us of the impeding storm. First we had 45 minutes until it hit, then 30, then 20. We luckily hit “The Narrows” through the marsh, just off a channel marker, for a more direct route to the Observation Towers but they were still small and distant as the darkness kept encroaching from behind. We hit the beach, littered with kayaks from about every other team, just as the storm opened up. I shouted for all to break out the jackets and pants because hypothermia was a distinct possibility with too much of this.

Warm and soaked in our jackets and having found Morgan for the checkpoint punch, we set out for CP6 at a good jog, knowing we had to be back by 7PM. Many teams passed us returning from 6; not all that encouraging but we plugged on. I was the weak link this time due to some chronic knee issues, but we passed a few teams and kept it up. The run back along the beach was the last solid ground we would see for a few hours. CP5 was due east from a creek inlet off the beach so we launched off into the salt marsh. I remembered this terrain from last year’s race when we could walk pretty comfortably across the mud at low tide while under a full moon. This was very different. A thigh-burning slog through the brackish water interspersed with swims across water courses kept us guessing and working hard. The maps had to be kept above water at all times making swimming a pretty lop-sided exercise. CP4 was another slog north from CP5. Luckily it wasn’t too cold and the water was warm. It could have been a very different story if it had been 10 degrees colder. We caught up with some teams, one of which was literally dragging a partner through the water, and headed back to the observation towers knowing that CP3 was completely out of the question. A quick change into kayaks launched us back across the channel.

This was definitely a “pucker” moment. Brian had Andrea on tow this time and in the fading light, it was difficult. A strong northerly wind and 2 to 3-foot seas made towing very hard as we had to go across this to get to CP8. CR almost went over once and you definitely had to keep an eye on encroaching waves from your back quarter. CP8 was a nice place to finally be, but it was cold and windy. We sought shelter in the U-Haul van and changed into dry clothes. A quick review of the maps sent us out into the night on the bikes about 15 minutes before the 8:30 cut-off. We felt much better being off the water before dark, having on dry clothes, and tanked up on food and fluids. And we were definitely back “in the mix.”

We quickly marked off CP9, 10, 11, and 12 along with a large crew of teams and were moving well. Finally we could look up in the heavens and see a vast expanse of stars – something you don’t see in the night sky above Richmond. It was still fairly warm and the wind was dying. CP11 was surreal as we coasted onto the pier in Kiptopeke Park while in the half-light fishermen and women stared at us as if we were alien beings invading their sanctuary. We probably were. I was having a bit of “gastric distress” at this point, but some well-placed port-a-potties and Pepto bismol tablets, brought along just for this inevitable part of adventure racing, remedied that by the time we reached camp. But I get ahead of myself. The ride from CP12 to Cape Charles and CP13 began to get hard. We were getting tired, and seeing the bridge across the train tracks was a welcome sight since we knew we were almost there. Then, a little surprise was waiting.

We checked in at CP13 and were told we were now on the alternate course and were to skip CP14. We’d missed the time cut-off. Turns out that only 5 teams made the time cut-off, but it was still a bummer. We had completely missed reading the front of the race booklet where it mentioned the time cut-offs and we had no one to blame but ourselves. So, off we went. Remember now, we’re warm, and dry, and tired. A leisurely trek brought us through old Cape Charles and then into a rather surreal new development complete with Greek columned entrance-ways and a still busy bar. We felt decidedly out-of-place and ducked past and onto the beach for a short walk up to the northern tip where Grant was waiting, all bathed in glow-stick splendor. The swim across the channel wasn’t as bad as expected, but we were now soaked and had to get moving quickly to stay warm. I had taken a chance with the maps and sealed them up double tight in the map case for the swim so I could have both hands free. It didn’t work. Quick inspection found them swimming in their own little lake encased nicely in a closed map case. Some were still safe having been placed in another layer of plastic, but we were going to have to use the nice new waterproof ones for tomorrow’s section, transposing as best we could the plots that would be given to us in the AM. We followed the wet footprints back to camp, stayed warm, set up a tent for me, got the car ready for sleeping for Brian, CR, and Andrea, and were at least horizontal by 1AM.

The 5AM darkness found us up, eating, and packing. Rumor had it that kayaking was first, followed by a trek and more kayaking. The first transition would be to bikes. CP24 had been eliminated, and after reviewing that post-race we had been spared a monster bike ride north up the peninsula to a winery. It would have taken forever!

The weather was perfect. An imperceptible north wind was there but the sun was coming up gloriously on our right and the water was glass smooth. Once again we were close to last out of camp, tow-lined Andrea to Brian, and headed north to CP17. Seventeen was a gazebo on the water and it was decision-time. The choices were (1) portage about 1 ½ miles across a peninsula or (2) paddle roughly 4 to 5 miles around said peninsula. Having two fledgling kayakers and figuring that the northerly wind would build quickly as the day progressed to make the Chesapeake pretty unfriendly, we portaged without those handy wheel-deals. It became a drag-fest but ended fairly quickly. Morgan was at CP18, seated comfortably but looking a little bleary-eyed. A quick trek through the dunes, accompanied by man-eating mosquitoes, and following many tracks revealed CPs 19 through 21. We were now back to Morgan and CP22 (same as 18). During part of this route we watched a number of teams struggling hard against the wind and waves as they had chosen the paddling option. We were glad of our choice.

However, we now had to launch into the same wind and waves and head north up the west coast of the Eastern Shore. Brian started with Andrea’s tow but he was tiring. We switched tows and continued to slog our way up the coast, but could see the U-Haul truck and CP23 in the near distance. Brian got tired of kayaking and continued on to CP23 dragging his boat along the shore, joining us as we beached our craft. A haul up the bluff, a final goodbye to our kayaks, and we were off on the bikes.

By this time our thighs were pretty tight due to all that slogging through the marsh and a fair bit of biking on Saturday. CR was feeling pretty “green” at the start, was sweating way more than he usually does, but kept going. A great navigation choice by Brian allowed us to avoid a circuitous route through Eastville and took us past an abandoned nursery with rows of overgrown crepe myrtles and boxwoods. The weather was great, the wind was at our back, and we got a pace line going at about 16 mph. Cape Charles appeared in no time, CR was feeling better, and we dropped the bikes at the infamous gazebo. A short scavenger hunt for cornerstones, veteran’s names, abandoned vehicles, and hradventure stickers through Cape Charles brought us back to the finish. As we jogged down the path to the gazebo, Brian mentioned something about optional checkpoints. We all turned to him, mouths open. He broke into a huge grin obviously having got a good one over on us – plenty of laughs at that one! I retrieved the car from the start area thanks to a ride from Ron, an outdoor shower revived us all, and we headed to the awards ceremony. Real food always tastes great after these things. The ride home was a snooze fest except for CR who faithfully drove all the way home and somehow managed to snap a few pictures of his team passed out all over the car, mouths agape, and snoring soundly.

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Run For Africa
April 14-15,2007
Black Mountain, NC
Camp Rockmont

24 Hours Run for Africa – 35, 24, 9, 1

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to run in the 24 Hours of Africa in Black Mountain, NC. This 24 hour trailrun team relay event was held to raise funds for a group called Run for Africa. Run for Africa is a group committed to providing clean, sustainable water to villages in Africa. So, when I was asked to help participate on a team going from Richmond by a friend, Patrick Burns, I couldn’t refuse.

Our team consisted of strong athletes from varying disciplines: Ironmen, Marathoners, and other such Endurance events. Jason Faulkner took the reigns and coordinated a great race effort. Many thanks for the invitation to participate and in coordinating go to him! If only our team had known what lied ahead, they may have stayed at home in a warm bed. But, they didn’t, and they did an awesome job!

Our adventure, though, began before we even arrived at Camp Rockmont. On our way to the event on Friday, we decided to stop over at Patrick Burns cousin for the night and rest up before the race began at noon on Saturday. Well, his cousin turns out to be none other than, soon to be legendary, Charlie Engle. In the trailrunning world, his reputation was catapulted by a recent effort by him and two others to run from the Atlantic Ocean in Senegal to the Red Sea in Egypt. That’s 4300 miles, 111 days and 24 pair of sneakers running 50 miles a day across the Sahara! (http://www.endurancemag.com/). If you were to run into Charlie on the street, you would never have known what he has done. An incredible athlete and an amazing person!

Saturday morning, we jumped in the truck and took off for Camp Rockmont! When we pulled into Camp Rockmont, we were very impressed: gorgeous mountains, cabins, and a lake in the middle of nowhere. The course was 5 miles of trail, fire road, and footpath. When reading the course description, you think what gives since you are near Asheville, NC. The first mile is an eye opener, a single track consisting of 12-15% grade the first half mile followed by flat traverse and ending with a 25%+ climb. How are you breathing now! The second mile is the exact opposite of the first, fast sloping fireroad downhill. After that the course ran around a lake back up another short-lived climb and then back down into the finish area. Our team had its work cut out for us!

The race started with amazing weather, 60-70F, sunny skies, and great attitudes. The first few hours drew a comfort you knew had to change. And change it did. The clouds started moving in and you could feel the temperature drop. One touch of my new Rino 530 and the Weather Alert was calling for 1-2 inches of rain over night with 30-40mph winds. OK, turn off the new gadget! We managed to get relatively lucky, though. The wind remained light as did the rain until about 3am. When I was finishing my lap about 2:30am, I thought the first flash was a bright camera flash except followed by that train-like rumbling. From then on, we encountered heavy rains and more lightning throughout. Our team endured incredibly through all this to finish 36 laps in 24 hours. Great Effort on our team: Jason, Beth, Jen, Cary, Patrick, Raleigh, Tammy, and Erin.

35 Teams
24 Hours of Trails
9 Teammates
1 Cause – RunforAfrica.org

Congratulations on a Great Race!!

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2007 Edition of HRAdventure’s Tidewater Traverse
April 28th



What a cool way to start a 15 hour race- Saturday, April 28th at 9:00 pm found us in our boats sitting in the Chickahominy River waiting for the glow sticks to drop signaling the start of the 2007 edition of HRAdventure’s Tidewater Traverse. It was a pleasant evening with a few harmless showers as we paddled about 8 miles down the river to our first TA and the last time we would see our gear until the next morning. As a 4 person team, we had elected to use a single kayak and a canoe with three in it. The canoe was slow- no other way to phrase it. We came off the water in about the middle of the pack.
We left TA 1 on our bikes with what we hoped would be everything we needed to bike and trek thru the night. A strong pace on our bikes took us to the first few CP’s quickly and helped push us back up among the front runners. At CP 4 we were faced with a decision: to follow what looked like a road on the topo map, but in reality it was heavily overgrown, or take a much longer route around on the hard surface road. After looking a little ways down the “trail” we opted to try it. This trail took us thru many small pine trees and over several downed trees but after only a few minutes of ride-able bikewhacking we came in the back way to Freedom Park. At CP 5 we checked in with the volunteers then started a six point bike orienteering leg in the park. This section was a lot of fun and included some single track riding, paved road riding, a lot of bike drops and long hikes into the woods. Of course HRAdventure threw in a little excitement by posting CP 11 in the middle of a swamp. There was quite a party going on in the swamp that night. Many people were having a hard time finding the flag but were going waist deep in the muck looking for it. Rob and Daniel spotted the flag and we were out of there relatively quickly. Those two were invaluable the whole race for spotting the CP’s. After collecting 6-11 we checked out at with the volunteers at CP5/12 only to find out that we had jumped up to second overall and 1st place coed team. This was a great morale booster as it was now about 4:00 in the morning. The night was going by fast and we excitedly pedaled away from Freedom Park to pick up a CP enroute to another manned CP14/ TA 2.
At TA 2 we dropped our bikes and headed out for a five point trekking section. We could gather these points in any order. We could tell that there was going to be some ground to cover as the points were fairly spread out. We picked an order and left the TA at a slow jog. We made our most time consuming navigation error at this point. CP 18 looked to be at a road and trail intersection and we decided to approach from the road side even though it meant passing the trail entrance and going around. It looked like it would be easier to identify the intersection by going that way. Well we found the road all right; we just couldn’t locate the trail head. We cruised up and down the road a ways with no luck then decided to go back around and come in from the trail side. To our credit remember it is still dark outside. Well we picked up the trail and actually followed it to CP 19 first then on around the peninsula to CP 18. Once we located CP 18 in the early morning light, we realized we had been within 50 meters of the bag an hour or so earlier. Big bummer- but we moved passed it and went in search of the other three trekking points. They turned out to be mostly on this old mountain bike trail that Rob had ridden several years ago when there used to be races at Waller Mill Park. So we were able to follow these trails for the most part to pick up the last of the points here. We left the trekking section still in the lead of the 3-4 coed division but in about 5th place overall.
We headed back to TA 2, jumped on our bikes and headed for another section of bike points that took us near the College of William and Mary and at one of the points we had to locate an abandoned car and write down the odometer reading. The race directors had decided during the night that all the points in this bike section were optional and worth a time bonus of 45 minutes each. We were able to collect 3 of these points with enough time to safely get us to the next TA before the time cut off. All teams that didn’t leave the trekking section by a certain time were directed straight to TA 4 at the back of New Quarter Park where we transitioned back to our boats.
We were out of the TA pretty fast because we realized we only had an 11 mile paddling section then we would be at the finish. So after quickly changing into our paddling gear we loaded our boats in a large creek that quickly dumped us into the York River. This section for me was the hardest of the race. We were fighting a cross wind most of the way down the river; which meant as the steersman in the rear of the canoe I was unable to paddle in a normal manner but was mostly doing correction strokes to keep our bow pointed in the right direction. The wind seemed to really affect the canoe more so than the kayak although Rob had a tougher paddle than the evening before. We were again passed by a few teams on the paddle leg due to our slowness but none of them were 3-4 coed teams thank goodness. The other hard part about the paddle was we knew our destination was just on the other side of the Coleman Bridge in Yorktown. Well, we were able to see this bridge for a long time and it just didn’t seem to be getting much closer. In the end it didn’t take us that long to cover the ground and about 2 hrs and 10 minutes later we were standing at the finish line- pleased, tired and dirty but with big grins on our faces.
We finished only 2 minutes ahead of the next coed team but because of the time bonuses we collected, we actually ended up over 2 hours ahead of the next 3-4 person coed team. A good day for our team: Richmond ASR- Serenity Now: first in our division and tied for fourth overall. Two of my teammates (Daniel and Tish) were new to the team for this race but will be joining us for other races this year. It was truly a team effort with each person filling particular roles. I cannot wait for the 30 hr. Untamed VA race in June!

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TIDEWATER TRAVERSE 2007
“The Swamp Thing”

Those of you who did this race know what I mean by “the swamp thing.” Yes, I mean CP11! Anyway, on to the race.

As is the case with a lot of races, getting a team together is half the race. My original teammates, being too darn multitalented, were busy having other worthy goals and had to bail. Then another teammate had to back out for personal reasons. I was solo about 2 weeks before the race start and was decidedly nervous/depressed. Luckily, my longtime friend Mike had off-handedly said he was sort-of maybe interested in ARs so I gave him a call. He accepted and so off I went for round 3 of team forming. We did an orienteering meet a week before the TT and it went great. We were navigating like Magellan and had a good time. Mike’s a good biker and still obviously remembered those Boy Scout orienteering skills; so borrowing some equipment, doing a short stint in the kayak together, and discussing food issues found us in Williamsburg for a Saturday 9PM start. As luck should have it, Dan Hamilton showed up to volunteer for the race. They didn’t need him so he offered to be our support crew – we snapped that up!

The start was way up the Chickahominy River with the first leg being roughly a 7 mile kayak. We started about 5 minutes late but had pulled up to mid pack by the end of the leg and felt good. The paddle had been great. There was a little rain at the start but then the clouds scooted away, the moon came out, and it was pretty darn gorgeous. Dan was at transition with our bikes ready and food all laid out. We changed some wet clothes quickly and hopped on the bikes. We hit the next few points like clockwork and were moving fast on the bikes, passing teams left and right. We made it to the next manned CP in the now infamous Freedom Park and started out on some serious night navigation.

This was our downfall. When you can’t find those points your emotions take a not-so-fun rollercoaster ride from high to low and hopefully back again. We found 3 points just fine but they really wouldn’t make us tramp through the swamp for that CP, would they? They would. Not only that, we lost our trail map halfway through the night and stupidly kept riding the trails despite this. We finally got smart and went back to the manned CP to get another. CP11 was mucky and gross but finally satisfying after many hours of fruitless search. The last two were easier with some help and guidance from other teams and we left Freedom Park as dawn was breaking. This gives you an idea of how much fun we had in the park, and for how long.

Another fast ride on roads across the peninsula put us in Waller Mill Park where we had to dismount and walk around finding some more CPs. Sheriff Brian checked us in and off we went. These were much easier to find than the Freedom Park CPs and just involved a lot of walking to the end of peninsulas in the lake or trail junctions in the woods. We weren’t into doing much running at this point and we didn’t make the time cut-off that would have allowed us to go for some optional CPs. This was too bad because Mike is a local and knew exactly where all these extra points were. Besides, we were still a little bummed by our floundering around all night in swamps, etc. Back we went to Sheriff Brian and our bikes.

Some easy “nav” and scrambles down embankments put us in New Quarter Park for the last leg. Dan was there with the kayak all ready, fresh coffee, and dry paddling gear. By the way, it was now a beautiful day – not too hot and bright sunshine. We seriously considered just biking to the finish at Yorktown since we were now out of the running and pretty tired, but after milling around for way too long we decided on the 9 mile kayak down the York River. It was a good choice because the wind was behind us, the current was in our favor, and the weather was perfect. People had predicted this leg taking 2 ½ hours. It took us 1:45! The finish was the Yorktown beach where Dan was once again waiting. A few pictures were snapped, a quick wash in the river felt good, and pizzas were inhaled. We ended up about mid-pack and once again cursed Freedom Park. However, it was the first AR that Mike had ever done and was definitely a “baptism by fire” type of experience for him. Just to let you know, he’s been bitten by the bug and is now planning to do the Untamed Virginia AR next weekend with me, Mark Parrish, and Dan as support. Off we go!

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ODYSSEY SPRINT AR – MAY 25, 2007
“Two Be Determined”

“Two Be Determined” had done well in the first of the Odyssey Sprint series back in January. Unfortunately, “Maggie the Fearless” had crashed on her new mountain bike two days before this race so Brian and I were on our own. This put us into a different division but we were still determined to have fun.
This race was out in West Virginia near the New River Gorge and took all of 4 hours to get there – no easy task after working all day Friday. Brian had gotten there earlier to attend the race brief at Camp Washington Carver. This wasn’t too complicated and both of us got a good night’s sleep before the 7:30AM Saturday start.
The weather was perfect! About 30 teams started all together on a 4 mile loop trail run. The plan was to thin us all out before the real race began on the bike section. We finished mid-pack but were pretty hot by now and figured that hydration was going to be key for this day.
The bike started downhill from Camp Washington Carver and quickly turned on to an abandoned railbed heading north. CPs weren’t hard to find and people were pretty bunched together. We started passing teams but were wondering about this being too easy for your typical Odyssey race. Whoever heard of level biking in an Odyssey race. This abruptly changed after finding a few CP’s and turning right on to Corliss Road. True to Odyssey standards, this went straight up for a good long way! Brian and I did a good pull up this and found ourselves 1st by the last biking CP and 1st back to Camp Washington Carver where we transitioned to the O-course. We had figured this would be where the real race started and we were right.
Each O-point had time bonus values, anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes. Immediately we got frustrated. O-point “J”, a wimpy 30 minute point, wasn’t where we thought it should be and so we bagged that and headed for “B.” Brian’s friends the briars figured heavily in this O-course and he thoroughly enjoyed being back amongst them. In fact, he later said he didn’t care if he got a certificate for this race because the permanent scars on his shins were all the memories he needed. True to Odyssey standards again, most of the O-points were on the top of mountains. This made navigation a little easier (just spot the next mountain top) but pretty darn tiring. Add un-crossable briar patches into the mix and you get the picture. O-point “B” was a scramble up a cliff, “A” and “C” and “D” were all mountain tops and briar patches, and finally “E” was found in a ravine coming down from “D”. We now had 5 of 10 points, were pretty tired, and figured that the big, juicy 90-minute bonus points might be navigation nightmares. We plotted a course for the finish. We came at “J” on the way home using another method and found it easily. We finished at about 1:30 making it about six hours of fun in the woods.
A number of teams had come in earlier but we were looking good having bagged 6 O-points and done well on time. As other teams came in, our decision not to go for those big money points started looking better and better. “K” was reported in the middle of a briar patch and few people had found the others. But, we were tired and had a 4 hour drive ahead of us so we hit the road loaded with Red Bulls and coffee. Final results put us 4th overall and 1st in our division - not too shabby.
So, if anyone is looking for presents for Brian some briar vines for his backyard would be ideal. He could have his own little patch to wade around in whenever he pleased.


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UNTAMED VIRGINIA – JUNE 2007

This time “To Be Determined” had gotten it together a little sooner than last time. We’d actually practiced paddling and biking together two weeks before and done well. We’d discovered problems with my bike that had plagued us at practice, but at least that wouldn’t bother us somewhere in Virginia at 2AM during the race. One less worry to be had. This time “To Be Determined” consisted of Phil Dawson, Mike McDonald, and Mark Parrish, who had done races before but never with this dubious duo. Dan Hamilton once again joined us as support crew and had probably worked as hard as we had by the end of the race. Friday night before the race found us all together again at Blue Ridge Mountain Sports in Charlottesville for a delicious pasta dinner and a talk given by “Amazing Marshall” who must enjoy going to every end of the earth just to race. We packed and planned well into the evening and finally got to sleep around 11PM.

Map handout was scheduled for 6AM Saturday at a local Boys and Girls Club. In hindsight they should have made it a checkpoint because most of the teams were driving around south Charlottesville quite lost asking each other how to get to the meeting point. We eventually all found it, were issued maps and once again started dragging out gear and organizing. UTM plotting began in earnest and was somewhat complicated by the scale being 1:30,000. Not too many people had the appropriate map tool so we broke out the calculator and tested our elementary school math by converting all readings from the 1:24,000 tool (80% if anyone is trying to figure it out). We soon discovered that all the previous guesses about where this race would be were completely pointless; and the start was not going to be where we presently were. A short 8AM race meeting brought us all together again for last minute questions and then we scattered. Having plotted everything, we quickly packed up for the short drive to an elementary school in Shadwell, just southeast of Charlottesville.

The first leg was to be a paddle down the Rivanna River, but this race was organized by Grant and had a have a twist. So the start whistle blew and one team member from each team had to scurry off down towards the river to retrieve a hammer to be used later in the race for an unknown task. The day was already pretty hot and the runners soon came back already sweating hard. A mad dash back for the narrow path to the put-in ensued, each team having a boat to carry down the steep trail and precarious short cliff that passed for the actual put-in. Portage wheels were minimally helpful at best. You can imagine there was a bit of a log jam as teams waited patiently in the poison ivy as others manhandled their boats into the water.

Teams settled into a rhythm for the roughly 3 hour paddle. Some teams were motoring well, but most of us kept up a steady pace. The leaders probably burned up the course, but we were not privy to any of that having started out decidedly back in the pack. We dumped once but basically just stepped out of the canoe, drained it, and kept going – maybe a minute was wasted. We finally reached our take-out at Pleasant Grove Natural Area, quickly attached some portage wheels and ran the canoe up the hill. Dan was waiting with everything ready, having bought sub sandwiches and chilled all the drinks – amazing considering it had taken him a good deal of time to get to this transition.

The mystery task was now revealed. Along the River Bluff trail we had to nail up four signs. We could therefore count how many teams were ahead of us by how many signs we passed. This proved a bit depressing. Anyway, at the end of this 3 mile run/jog we found our bikes kindly left by Dan, had a gear check, and headed off towards the next CP in a now decidedly hot afternoon. We took a longer yet hopefully less hilly route and found ourselves pretty much alone. This always makes me a little nervous, but it turned out well. We reunited with other teams along the route and found we had made up some ground. A quick stop at an old corner store to read some faded Pepsi signs found us on the road to the next river put-in at the Hardware Wildlife Management Area.

It was really hot now and a paddle section was definitely a good idea. At least one team member had to “Ripboard” this section so Mike and Mark paddled while I kicked my way to CP6 where we all got back in the boat for the remainder of the James River section. The “Ripboarding” was cooling and relaxing and we made up some time, but it was hardly “ripping” as the water barely managed to ripple over most of the rocks. The remainder of the paddle was easy, at least until the last 200 yards. We unceremoniously dumped in the rapids just before the take-out. It was pretty deep and the water was moving well. We lost the canoe extra seat and my swim fins to the bottom of the James, but luckily about everything else was in dry bags and attached. We bailed like crazy after getting some footing and cautiously made it to the take-out. The swim was somewhat of a blessing but we had to get going so we could still use the daylight for at least some of the upcoming orienteering.

Dan once again had everything laid out perfectly and we inhaled subs and fluids while Mark plotted the O-points that had just been given to us. Distances were estimated, we hopped on the bikes, climbed the steep hill out of the New Canton Boat Launch, and headed to the first O-course. It was about 7PM so we had to keep moving.

Checkpoint 8, the first O-course, was at the Willis River Crossing in the Cumberland State Forest. There were only 3 points to find and we figured we had enough daylight to find them all before dark. This assumed we wouldn’t get lost. We passed Ronnie Angell trekking out of this O-course just as we started so we had to keep moving. The walk in exposed us to a new joy, stinging nettles. So, after finding the first O-point in tandem with Richmond-ASR, I quickly put on the gaiters and kept on walking. We decided to go for O-point 32 while Richmond-ASR headed to 31. We crossed paths later and basically finished this course together. Unfortunately it was now almost dark.

A short bike ride to Cumberland Clearing North and CP10 found us plotting 8 more points, O-points 34 through 40, and heading out into the dark for some enjoyable bramble-filled bushwacking. Scott and Beth had checked us in at CP10 while emailed messages to each team were called out – a very high-tech touch.

On top of this, we were constantly running into “the video guy.” He was everywhere. We tried to sneak a peek at his map but he was too smart for that. He was filming everyone all through the 24 hours in order to compile a DVD for us and also for broadcast on a small resort-based group of TV stations. This proved pretty fun – but on to the race.

We started for O-point 40 and worked backwards around the course. We passed a team that had got 5 points in the daylight and were just finishing up – pretty depressing. But the night was made much more enjoyable when we teamed up with Team Gung Ho from York, PA, shared “nav” skills, and worked our way through the dark. The whole course went pretty systematically and we finished well. Scott and Beth mentioned that we were now in the top 10. This was a real boost since all of us had dreaded this night O-course. A huge weight had been lifted off our shoulders as we headed into the night on our bikes for a relatively short ride to the ropes course and CP 13.

The night had turned cool but by the time we reached the ropes course we were overheating in our fancy coats. These were quickly taken off at the start of the ropes. The course was fairly simple, took only 45 minutes or so, and consisted of clipping into a line, following it down a hill to a stream forded by two huge trees that we had to walk across. There wasn’t much technical skill involved but balancing across trees suspended 6 feet over chest deep water was a definite pucker moment. Mike particularly enjoyed this since he’s definitely not comfortable balancing up in the air. And remember, it’s 3AM. Luckily none of us got soaked though rumor has it that a number of teams got wet and the couple right in front of us on the course definitely took a fall into the wet rather than stay on the logs. A scramble back up to the start brought us back to our bikes and CP14. CP15 was a short distance on bikes and promised a cherished visit with Dan our amazing support man. We tried calling before leaving the ropes course but service was pretty poor in the Cumberland Forest.

We rode into CP15 and found the place pretty alive. A nice fire was going at the check-in, we found ourselves in about 5th place, and Dan was easy to find. It was now about 4AM and we suited up as to not get too cold during our transition. This is when Mike really started to feel the strain. Remember, this was Mike’s second AR and a 24-30 hour race is definitely a “getting thrown in the deep end” initiation. He quickly lay down in a sleeping back and had some semi-shuteye. We realized as a team that we needed to rest a bit and recharge. It was a little hard to hear Ronnie Angell’s team coming in from the next trek at about 4:30 but we took our time and did some healing. I took a light 30 minute nap and during the 90 minute stay we ate and drank as Dan cooked up scrambled eggs, instant noodles and coffee. Man was that fine! We were also waiting for a little dawn to start peeping over the horizon before we started out on the next trek.

We got Mike roused, fed, and hydrated and started out at a steady walk for CP18. The dawn was breaking and it was definitely one of those fine moments of an adventure race: sun peering over the trees as the mist cleared across the fields. We once again teamed up with Richmond-ASR but they had lost one to dehydration so were continuing on “minus one.” CP16 through 18 proved fairly easy in the light and we definitely started running across many other teams as we trekked through the woods. Our “nav” was good and we steadily made our way back to CP19 (same as CP15) to find Dan waiting with all our bike stuff ready. We had one more major task, a loop ride around the Cumberland Multi-use Trail to find 6 flags and punches for our passport. At this point in any race single track is definitely a burden, and the trail needed some major maintenance work done. We were very happy to find the 6th flag and hit the road back to what was now CP20 (same as CP15/19). A quick check-in put us on the road to the finish in Bear Creek State Park. The last climb into the park was trying but the finish line quickly appeared. It was anticlimactic as always but you really don’t mind. The thrill of having done some amazing things over just a simple weekend is feedback enough. We joined the other finishers for some delicious food including pancakes, desserts, salad and plenty to drink. We’d arrived 10th overall and 2nd in our division – this despite a long stay at CP15.

Now remember, we’re a good 90 minute drive from the start where my car is still parked! There had been no time for support crews to go back and fetch extra cars so I had a bit of a dilemma. We finally decided to drive straight back to Richmond, now only 45 minutes away, and I would get my car later that evening. I knew I might catch some grief for this at home but it worked out fairly smoothly and probably more safely considering my sleep deprived state. I caught a few “Z’s” at home and then Lisa and I drove to Charlottesville to pick up the car. It was a good end to an exhausting yet thrilling weekend. Work looms for Monday.

I don’t think we can thank Grant, Eric, Ron, Scott, Beth, Mike, Pam and all the other organizers and volunteers enough. I find these events life-affirming and there’s always some moment during a race that you never forget and gets engrained in your deep psyche. The teammates and teamwork require all your life skills and I truly believe make you a better person. As most of you would probably agree, your true self often comes out in these events – and that’s just fine! Phil Dawson
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Douthat Review
By Bill Swann

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ODYSSSEY SPRINT AR – JULY 21
“TWO BE DETERMINED”

A cold front had come through Friday, cooling things off and drastically dropping the humidity. The weather was perfect for racing. We set out for Roanoke early on Saturday and 3 hours later found ourselves at Explore Park just off the Blue Ridge Parkway where it crosses over the Roanoke River. Rain had been scarce so we were a little worried about water levels in the river since Odyssey had finally included a paddle section in this sprint race.

This time “Two Be Determined” consisted of Phil Dawson, Mark Parrish, and Dan Hamilton. We’d all worked together on the Untamed race but had not raced together since Dan had been our support crew for that 24 hour race and had not considered himself physically worthy of actually racing at the time. He handily proved to be up to the challenge for this race. Mark, considered the old guy of the team, had taken his Geritol and my knee was in pretty good shape. Next time we made need walkers.

Explore Park is a neat park designed to show visitors the lifestyles of Blue Ridge pioneers in the 18th and 19th Centuries. It’s really nicely done and a beautiful location, but we were there to bike, trek, and paddle. Maybe we’ll return to do the tourist thing.

Since we’d registered early, Odyssey was supplying the paddling gear and we just needed bikes and required gear on the trip from Richmond. Check in was easy and all of us actually had time to lounge around before the start at noon. Eric Cone was there doing the 24-hour version solo and also was ready with time to spare. Both races started together by running up the hill out of the transition area located next to the river. It was a mass of humanity which quickly slowed to a walk up this initial steep hill. The run took us on a 3 mile course of road and mountain bike single track with some navigation requirement and one check point before returning to the transition area. As you can imagine, navigation was not too hard with a thundering herd to follow through the woods. We were all sweating and keyed up by the end of this and quickly transitioned to the O-course.

“Two Be Determined” chose to scurry up a stream bed to nail O-point “M” first, but this proved elusive. Ronnie Angell had designed the race such that we had to be off the O-course by 3PM or we’d lose an O-point credit for every five minutes we were late. The winner would really be determined by how many O-points you could find before 3PM since Ronnie made it very plain that finishing time, assuming you were in before 8PM, didn’t matter. So, if you finished by 7:59 but had bagged all the O-points you were still golden. Pressure was on! We all realized we were too keyed up after the run so we took a short breather and saner heads began to take over. Not being able to find the first O-point is always a killer but we chose to bag it and began a systematic nailing of the other 14 points. We could basically follow a counter-clockwise course through the park and our spirits quickly rose as we nailed O-points. Of course the maps we were using did not include any of the new roads constructed for the park (back in the 80’s!) so finding “H” and “K” were difficult since a huge concrete bridge and embankment appeared in the middle of the woods blocking what we thought would be an easy climb up a reentrant/draw. Remember, we’re racing the clock and knowing we really have to find all 15 points. Luckily we could try again for “M” on our route back to the TA but time was tight. Dan spotted it down a reentrant so we quickly punched it and then stream-hopped our way back to the TA with about 3 minutes to spare. We arrived about 10th but were only the second team in to get all 15 O-points!

Next was a mountain bike single-track extravaganza, still inside the park, to find 4 points and return again to the TA. We knew we were all strong on this and took off at a good pace. We passed teams, fought off cramps, had no mechanicals, nailed all 4 points and returned to TA in just over one hour and in 6th place time-wise. We were about 25 minutes behind the leading team and quickly transitioned to the canoe.

We grabbed a canoe, three paddles, donned PFDs and headed into the water. Mark was the lucky winner of middle seat but we’d brought knee pads which made his journey at least tolerable. We had to drag ourselves over a few rapids since the water was low but the river quickly widened out to a flat obstacle-free paddle. It was still a beautiful day; there was no one on our heels, so we steadily paddled knowing that it’s pretty unlikely we’d pass anyone on this leg. We had 2 CPs to find, both of them easy, and then a paddle back up the river, a short walk up the rapids, and a finish at the TA. It was about 5:45. We were still 6th out of the water, but after Ronnie had crunched the numbers we were 2nd overall and 1st in our division. We thought this was pretty good for a weekend of running around in the woods.

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Pikes Peak Marathon 2007
-Erin Fuselier

Months of preparation- hill repeats, mountain running, swollen Achilles tendons- I was very excited for race day to finally arrive! The weather was perfect and there was not a cloud on the peak at the 7am start. The course is relatively flat for a half mile and then it’s all over with an incredibly steep climb on the way to the trail. Within five minutes of the start runners were already panting and beginning to walk. I felt great and passed quite a few folks until we got to the narrow rocky trail. I fell in line with the pack and chatted with anyone that would indulge me.

The first section is referred to as the ‘W’s” which is a series of never ending switchbacks. I ran most of this section but passing was difficult to impossible so when the runners ahead stopped to walk, so did I. The top of the W’s is 7,000” and the course smoothed out to packed dirt. I did some real running until mile 6. Then trail became very rocky and I alternated running and walking until reaching Barr Camp (10,200”). I was feeling hydrated and energized and was 2 hours and 45 minutes ahead of the cutoff. Leaving Barr Camp, the trail got steeper and rockier and running was out of the question. You could hear heavy breathing all around and heart rate alarms blaring. I reached A Frame (10.2 miles, 11,950”) still feeling alright however anxiety set in as I popped out above the tree line. Thankfully I only had a few iffy moments due to the altitude. I was still able to breathe and talk but passing people caused my heart to race. By mile 12 (13,000”), dizziness and an intense fear of heights had settled in. The first pack of runners were coming down at this point and those of us still heading up had to yield which meant hopping off the trail or ducking behind a rock. At one point I apparently stopped and rested my head against a rock with my eyes closed. A volunteer shouted that I only had .4 to go which brought me back to consciousness. Near the top of the trail are the 16 Golden Stairs- 32 steep rocky switchbacks. I reached the top and tried to run over to my mother who was watching, but I was quickly turned around by volunteers and told to keep running down to the oxygen! My ascent time took 4:01- well ahead of my predicted 5 hours. My descent down the Golden Stairs was quick and clumsy and the photographers managed to get a photo of me biting it over a rock. I had only managed to eat 2 skittles and my belly full of Gatorade felt disgusting as I stumbled my way down the steep rocky trail. At the ‘10 miles to go sign’ I settled into a brisk walk with a few pathetic attempts at running interjected. By mile 23 I finally felt good enough to do some real running and I even managed to put a smile on my face as they announced my finish coming down the final stretch. Round trip took 7 hours and 7 minutes. I took a quick shower and Mom and I set up camp at an open air Mexican restaurant where we could cheer the other runners crossing the finish line I nurse my aching muscles with beer!

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TransRockies 2007

Billy Moffett/Woody Elliott
August 12-18, 2007
Kootenay Mountains, British Columbia

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STORM 2007

We started out pretty late from Richmond due to work schedules, but we were on the road by 5PM and loaded up good. The van looked like an outdoor adventure commercial: 2 kayaks on the roof, four bikes hanging off the rack, and the inside stuffed with 22 gallon bins and four excited racers. The four members of “Yeren ASR-To Be Determined” were Eric Cone, Phil Dawson, and Greg and Birgitta Klisch. This was Greg and Birgitta’s first serious 24-hour race and I’m betting they were a little nervous also. The trip took a while and it was dark by the time we got to Fisherman’s Wharf for check-in. We signed waivers, got maps and goody bags, and before unloading the bikes headed up to the boat drop at Folly Creek, about a ½ hour drive north.

There was lots of gear switching, light testing, food divvying at the boat drop since we’d been told to have everything we needed for a potential 8 hour paddle. And remember, you need to have all your mandatory gear with you at all times so better not leave that at the boat drop. I guess half the fun and half the hassle of Adventure Racing is getting all the gear right. We took a quick look around at the other boats and felt pretty good about our Chesapeake Triple I’d built over the winter and our Chesapeake 16 which we’d borrowed. We’d done some paddling together in these boats before the race and had figured out a good and fast towing scheme. We’d find out tomorrow morning if the work had all paid off.

We drove back to Fisherman’s Wharf in Quinby and did the same drop for the bikes. We’d been told to have enough supplies left here for a potential 12-hour stint so once again gear, bikes (with properly inflated tires), lights, food, and drink were stashed in gear bins and left on the lawn. We helped Scott from New Jersey, who’s departure had been held up by sick children, figure out where to go for boat drop and relayed the instructions that had been given to us earlier. It was getting to be about 11:30PM but we were glad we didn’t still have a much to do as he did. We drove back to Cape Charles, found our rental house and were in bed by 12:30 – 1AM knowing we had to get up at about 6:30.

By 6:15AM the temperature had dropped quite a bit and the humidity had disappeared, but there was still a stiff northeast wind blowing through Cape Charles. The forecast had sounded perfect for racing, but we hadn’t anticipated the wind being so strong. At the race meeting they told us that all Atlantic Ocean paddling was off-limits and no sails would be allowed. This was a bummer since Eric had rigged this awesome sail for the deck of the triple. It was unceremoniously furled up and stowed in the van.

The 7:30 race meeting gave us our first clues. It amounted to a relatively short run through Cape Charles to get 5 CPs, three of which were in the woods and the last of which was manned. We’d get the race booklet at CP5 for the rest of our CP UTMs. We’d figured (Eric, mainly) that the first leg would be a short run in Cape Charles so we’d packed light. Frankly, our bikes were 25 miles north of us and the boats another 15. They’d have to get us up there someway other than a 25 mile trek! So, the horn blew at 7:52 and off we went. There was some confusion right off the bat since it wasn’t yet 8AM. So Eric quickly found Mike, asked if we could start, got an affirmative, and we all started running south and east to CP1. After 35 minutes of running CP5 appeared complete with a fleet of 4 buses, or “cheese wagons” as one of the drivers called them. Eric had been right; here was our ride north!

We got our race booklet, unfolded all the maps, and plotting began in earnest. We’d also been given a pre-plotted nautical map and found out that paddling would be the next leg. Birgitta and I studied that for the most efficient route through the marshes knowing that the Atlantic was off-limits while Greg and Eric worked together on the rest of the course. We noted a potential LONG portage and let the team know. Luckily we got nearly all the plotting done before they herded us on to the first bus for the 45 minute ride north to Folly Creek. Each couple of plotters switched maps, checked each other’s work, and “Yellow Sharpied” the most efficient routes across the peninsula. The two O-courses became obvious and we did some preliminary talking about them.

10:05 found us at the boats where we quickly donned paddling gear and lugged the boats to the water. The tide was high but still coming in at a good pace as we hooked Greg up with the tow rope and shoved off. This is where our boats really paid off. We were flying! We got to CP7 on Cedar Island in the lead with about 4 other teams and had to make our first big decision: portage or not. All the teams started portaging so we did the sheep thing, panicked a bit, and joined them for what Eric said was a 7 mile trek down the beach. We probably should have paddled through the marshes on the bay side to CP8, but by the end of all the morning/afternoon paddling we were all ready to get out of those boats; an extra 45 minutes in them might have been too much. The kayak carts worked well, the sand was firm enough, and the abandoned beach house that was CP8 was soon upon us. We hopped back in the boats and with some amazing navigating by Eric found CP9 (a marker with a tricky punch due to a wicked current) and then Quinby and CP 10 by roughly 3PM. Now, we’d been chasing a boat the whole leg and just couldn’t catch them. They didn’t gain on us nor we on them. We’d gone by Scott Pleban and his merry band as they were having boat trouble and had left everyone else behind. Rumor has it that we were now even ahead of some teams who had paddled to CP8 and had been there and gone before we even got to it. With our fast boats we were a little bummed, perplexed and even more pissed. When we got to Fisherman’s Wharf we figured out why; they were paddling a Chesapeake triple too! Since they were first out of the water, with us second, it says a lot for the Chesapeake Light Craft boats.

TA2/CP10 took some time but it was a big shift. We loaded the boats on the trailer (thanks to Bob and his many pads!), wolfed down Subway sandwiches, changed into biking gear, packed the trekking gear (even had time for a 30-second hose shower), rehydrated with Ensure and Red Bulls, and took off right after the 1st place team with 12 hours of supplies.

We settled into a good pace line with a nasty headwind. CPs 11 through 15 flew by as we averaged about 17 mph. We made one wrong turn which added about 2 km but other than that were right on. We passed the 1st place team as they headed back to find CP13 since they had overshot it, but Yeren ASR 1 was right on our heels. We were leaving CP 15 as they rode up, and both teams rode into TA3/CP16 together.

CP 16, the first O-course, was supposed to be a night navigation but we’d arrived with about 1:15 of sunlight left! Time was precious and we quickly changed and started running to the first CPs. We decided to try the ones around the marsh first (CPs 20-27) since those seemed the hardest and light was fading fast. We bagged 5 before dark and had also found some handy dams across the marsh allowing easy access to the CPs south of the muck. The first 8 CPs had come easily and we headed back north to find the last three. This proved a little more difficult. CP17 and 18 came easily but 19 took us three tries into the brush. My gaiters had worked great in the brambles, but I got seriously gored going in to find 19: no fun! We found it after doing the police line method the last time and Eric’s HID light finally lit it up. We’d run across Yeren ASR 1 a couple of times on the O-course, but upon our return to TA3 we found they had left more than an hour before us. However “Wishful Thinking Fools” was right there and the race was on again.

Some more flawless bike navigation from Eric and a good sustained pace line got us quickly through CP29 to 33. CP29 and 31 required a little looking around old ruins and such, but we pulled into Eyre Hall Gardens and CP33/TA4 neck-and-neck with “Wishful Thinking Fools.” It was now 11:20PM. The cut-off for TA4 was 9AM Sunday; we were doing OK! A quick transition to paddling gear, some more foraging in the gear bins, and a short paddle over to Morgan, his tiny blinking light, and TA5 brought us to the start of the second O-course. This course had been designed as a daytime navigation so there were no reflectors on the flags of this O-course. It would prove a real trial as we started out at about midnight and headed into the brambles.

We started at the southernmost CP by attacking it directly from a turn in the road. A few small trails helped a bit and almost by luck, and Eric’s HID light, we found CP35. Some more scrambling through brambles brought us to CP36 at the top of another hill. We started to see a pattern but this is where our luck began to run out. Reading the map was difficult, brambles were annoying, and we were frustrated not being able to find CP37. A trip to the beach was in order; at least there weren’t any brambles on the beach. Both Eric and I had done the Storm race in 2006 and knew this had been the site of the second day’s orienteering. So we looked for the trail to the beach where Morgan had sat bleary-eyed in 2006, found an old “Natural Area” sign with an HRAdventure sticker on it, and trekked in to find CP38 pretty easily. A trip back to the beach, some pacing north and then back east was our approach to CP39. Once again frustration set it. Scrambling through, under, and over brambles as well as scaling steep dunes got old fast. A few other teams had begun to join the fun in the dark and thanks to “Crash and Splash” we finally found CP39. We then went back to find CP37 by more systematically walking along the sand ridge until it dropped down. Greg let out a whoop when he found it and we were finally able to head back to the boats. Eric was demoralized by this point thinking that 5 or 6 teams had passed us, and Birgitta’s ankle was really starting to hurt. Greg was helping her walk, luckily at a good pace, and my knee was making me limp. Despite this, all of us except Eric were pretty sure that we were still third, perhaps second, and we were proved right when Morgan told us that only two teams had been back and that “Wishful Thinking Fools” had only left about fifteen minutes before our arrival. Back in the boats we clambered (the water was pretty cold as we stepped in) and off we paddled towards Cape Charles.

We knew it wasn’t very far and we could see the light of Cape Charles easily. The water was glass smooth and almost eerie. A distant cloud was so perfectly reflected that it looked like a nearby fogbank. We paddled pretty easily through the dark, watching the occasional shooting star and the still almost-full moon, knowing that we probably couldn’t catch anyone and there was no one close on our heels. Eric leaned forward a few times to eat and drink, but then he leaned forward and stopped. He had a nice grip on his paddle but he’d fallen completely asleep. Birgitta and I let him sleep for a while until it was time to head in to the Cape Charles beach and the waiting gazebo. We were all tired and pretty cold. The last job was to carry the boats across the beach and on to the top of the waiting car. This was almost too hard since we were all shivering and Eric was cramping up. We checked in with the sleepy volunteer attendant at the gazebo for the anticlimactic finish (not an unusual occurrence in adventure racing and it was “Oh-dark-30!”) and then slowly headed back to our house for some showers and sleep. It was about 5:45 and dawn was just breaking.

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Endorphin FIX 2008
New River Gorge, West Virginia
April 24-27

I’d never done a multi-day event before, but I remember going into adventure racing to push the limits of my comfort zone. I bit the bullet, sent an email to Susanna at Odyssey Adventure Racing, and asked if she’d put my name out there to see if any teams were looking for more members. Dima, the captain of Calleva responded fairly quickly and we met as a team about a month before the race. A cold day in Maryland was spent practicing rappelling, orienteering, paddling with the new Wing paddles, and trying out towing procedures on the bike. The team consisted of me, Dima, Sasha, and John. Dima and Sasha, two crazy Russians, had raced together before, luckily spoke English well, and have a reputation for running a fast and tight team. John, a member of our armed forces from Fort Bragg, NC, had met Dima at a previous Odyssey event but had not raced with him; and I have raced before, but never with Team Calleva and never for more than thirty hours. Even though we seemed to work well on practice day, a multi-day event is a completely different animal.

The next few weeks entailed multiple emails, filling out Google spreadsheets, figuring out who had what, as well as training for the event. Training and planning went well and April 23rd found me driving the four hours to Pipestem State Park with the canoe on top and the Honda Odyssey loaded with all kinds of fun adventure gear.

Pipestem is a place you must visit! It’s gorgeous and has a great hotel with pool, restaurant, a gondola that takes you to the bottom of the gorge, and even a golf course (didn’t get to try that out). It’s definitely a great weekend getaway for any outdoor types you might know. We all arrived about the same time, checked in and started getting the gear figured out. This took until at least 10PM but we’d done what we could by then and settled down. Sleep came pretty easily.

A 7AM race check-in time got us up early so we could stand in line for gear checks, climbing checks, etc. We finally got the maps for the first half of the race and started plotting. The weather was great and promised to be good for the whole race. Some rain was predicted for Saturday but sunscreen was applied and luckily had to be re-applied a number of times over the next 3 days. The race was to begin with a 1 ½ hour drive to the start of the white-water guided section. White-water rapids would quickly give way to a short paddle and then portage up a trail to the small town of Ansted where we would transition to bikes. An extensive bike led to a trek to the climbing site. More trekking would bring us to bikes and then a boogie-board river swim and on to the first O-course, probably at night. That’s all we knew at the start.

So, we loaded up the van (I mean LOADED up the van) and drove to the Cunard put-in. Oleg and Vlad would be our support crew and we came to love them over the next three days. I cannot say enough good things about them. Hot soup was always ready, bladders were always full; they even replaced brake cables on John’s bike and plotted points for us later on. Fantastic!

For the rafts, a random lottery system determined who would be in which boat for the start since we couldn’t all paddle off together down Class IV and V rapids. Five boats would be in each wave and teams were randomly assigned to paddle together in 8-person rafts. Odyssey spiced the whole thing up by making one person from each team run upstream about a quarter mile, jump in and swim to the raft. I was the lucky teammate; so the whistle blew, a short run with PFD and wetsuit booties, a sharp in drawing of breath as I hit the 55 degree water, and a fast swim to the raft started our course downstream with Jackie our guide yelling near-obscenities at us to get us moving. It was a blast! And to add even more excitement, John’s shorts kept creeping downwards so much so that the raft next to us couldn’t stop laughing at the sight, a weakness we quickly took advantage of as Jackie continued to scream at us. Dima, who sat just in front of her, still claims to be deaf in one ear from the decibels.

The Teays Landing takeout was a blur of activity as we transitioned to canoes for a short flat-water paddle to Hawkes Nest State Park. I took a few pictures with my fancy wrist camera but was quickly reprimanded by Sasha who said something about not wanting to lose a race because Phil was taking pictures. At Hawkes Nest we strapped on portage wheels and followed the crowd up the road. It was the wrong road, of course. There was Ronnie Angell about 25 minutes up the road telling us all to turn around and head back down the hill to get the Mill Creek trail which we had seen off to our right. We had violated Dima’s second rule of adventure racing; something about “others are not better navigators than us.” So, like the lemmings we were, we all ran back down the hill and trudged up the trail as night fell. A couple of miles brought us to the Ansted ball field and our support crew waiting with bikes ready.

We pedaled into the night looking for CP4 and 5. Both checkpoints proved difficult and we burned a lot of energy doing more elevation change than we needed but after six hours of biking and a wade through a creek we had found both checkpoints (thank you Team 95 for your guidance for CP5) and cruised into Winona (CP6/TA2) at about 3AM. Many teams missed CP5 and there’s some dispute over correct UTM coordinates, etc so we consider ourselves lucky (and persistent) in finding it. More experienced racers would have seen the wisdom of following the Rails to Trails motif mentioned in the race rules and some teams did just that.

Trekking now commenced and we knew the initial route from CP6 would be tricky. We were lucky, and relatively little backtracking and bushwhacking found us at the climbing site just a dawn was breaking. Rappelling off a 100’ cliff as the dawn broke over the New River Gorge was awesome. This was one of those “adventure racing moments” as I said “this is soooo cool” all the way down the rope. At the rappel bottom, the Endless Wall Trail gives access to fantastic climbing along the south rim of the gorge, but it’s a tough trail to navigate and we were thankful that we were doing it in daylight. After stumbling around a bit to find CP9, a hike down Route 82 into the gorge (only 800 vertical) and back up the other side (only 800 more!) brought us to CP10/TA3, warm soup, sandwiches, and waiting bikes. All these transitions were fast as Dima and support crew were keeping a close eye on the clock. We were efficient and fast and quickly sped off east towards the next CPs.

At this point we had a cut-off to make: 4:30 at the Grandview Sandbar campground. This was where we would do the boogie boarding through some rapids on the New River. We figured we had it in the bag but then a wrong turn before Cunard, a double-back and then an endless up and down along McKendree Road on the north bank of the river made us pretty nervous. Sasha and Dima consulted some locals who said we could ride along beside the railroad through a tunnel and save a lot of energy and time. Some minor bushwhacking (after climbing up a hill too far) brought us to the tracks and a very dark tunnel. We popped out the other end, scrambled up an embankment, crossed the river and made it with only 20 minutes to spare. We had to be walking with all our swimming gear up the road before 4:30 to make the cut-off so transition was lightning fast. It was about a 4 mile trek up river and we had to be in the water by 6PM. For me this is where endorphins kicked in. My knee didn’t hurt, I could run with a pretty full pack and I felt good as I tried to keep up with my fast-trekking teammates. We were in the water with 10 minutes to spare.

So, we’d been biking and hiking for 24 hours, awake for 36, and here we were immersed in cold river water, flippering our way through Class I and II rapids. It was nice to be cool and somewhat clean, but you can imagine that cramping was an issue. Calves, quads, and hamstrings each had their turn and standing up after the swim was quite a feat for me. I also distinctly remember a fellow racer from Berlin Bikes saying “I think this is the last fun part of this race;” not a good omen.

This is when we got the map and coordinates for the rest of the race. We spent a bit of time in transition as Dima plotted, and we all ate and tried to get about a ½ hour of sleep. The sleeping really didn’t happen but lots of food was consumed as we determined we wouldn’t see our support crew for a long time. It turned out to be 36 hours.

We started off into the night for a trek to the Bragg O-course. It was about an 8 mile trek to the beginning of the course, the end of which was straight up a hill beside a waterfall along something you could hardly call a path. Our navigation stayed good but it was tough and we were getting tired. We bagged two points (all 6 were optional), Dima fruitlessly searched for CP18 while we three caught about 20 minutes of a chilly nap, and as dawn broke we also grabbed CP19 up a reentrant. So we had 3 of 6 and were really ready to get out of there. It had definitely been a low point for the team with all of us tired and Sasha feeling sick at regular intervals. Being an MD has some advantages as a little Zofran (anti-nausea medicine) helped her get through that a little easier. Dawn found us at Bragg-Samuel lane and the bikes. Our support crew had been allowed to drop them off, but was not allowed to stay and could only give us a couple of bike bottles; no food was allowed. Thus began the bike odyssey.

The map for this section basically consisted of a black and white copy of the West Virginia Gazzetteer at 150,000 scale and included six mandatory checkpoints; and talk about hills! This whole component took us more than 24 hours, must have covered about 100 miles and at least 10,000 feet of elevation. The route choice was mandatory, part of which entailed hiking up and over a ridge (which we did in the rain as day was ending), and must have taken us up and down every hill in Southeast West Virginia. Except for the rain that night though, the weather was fantastic. Sunscreen was definitely a necessity.

Living off the land was part of the plan. We stopped at small town stores for food and drink (I had forgotten to pack sunglasses and had to buy a pair), begged Mennonites for fresh spring water, and even bargained with a family for a new tire for John’s bike; that’s right, a new tire, not just a tube! John’s tire developed a nice bleb as we tore down a hill on this fairly hot day and it wasn’t going to hold the rest of the race. While John was driven off to a neighbor’s house to get said tire, we sat and watched the clouds roll in and bantered with “dad” about the Talladega race that was going on at the same time. I’m sure they were a little perplexed by all these strange people riding by in groups in the middle of their nowhere.

With the rain came nightfall and plenty of hallucinations. As pavement dries, it leaves fairly complex patterns. I could not believe how creative I was as I saw faces, landscapes, and friends crawl by under my tires as we climbed yet another hill in the dark. Dima and Sasha started talking Russian to John and I without much effect and I kept thinking John was someone else. Just before CP28 we stopped to try and get some sleep for an hour. I couldn’t believe how fast I had fallen asleep on cold gravel with a couple of shirts, a shell, a cap on, and a fleece draped over my legs. An hour later found me waking up shivering but somewhat rested. A few push-ups got the blood flowing again but something wasn’t right. Dima had not slept. As we all came out of our own personal fogs, we realized he wasn’t making any sense. He was delirious, talking about quitting, flipping the bird at us a few times, crying on John’s shoulder; something I’d never seen. We finally got him horizontal (he fell asleep immediately), left him with Sasha, and John and I went off to look for CP28. We were joined by Mike and Karen but all four of us had no luck. Two hours later we woke Dima up, coaxed him back to humanity, filled up the bladders at a convenient spigot, and slowly went looking for the elusive CP28. Of course it turned out to be about 50 feet further along the road that John had explored. Dima matter-of-factly said “there it is” in a thick Russian accent and off we went, up and down more hills (almost one too many for me) towards our next transition, the canoes, CP29, Dickensen Branch Campground, and a new day.

We had planned to sleep at this transition but fortune had not smiled on us and Dima was again barking orders (he seemed to recover completely) as we wolfed down more soup and sandwiches, slathered on more sunscreen, and barely made the cut-off out of there. We had a 1PM deadline to reach at the end of the paddle and we weren’t entirely sure we’d make it.

On the paddle down Bluestone Lake there were also optional CPs. Of course they weren’t floating around just waiting to be picked up, but Dima figured we could get one that was fairly close to shore and not too technical. He didn’t factor in the steep climb and rocks made slippery by a nearby waterfall, but he bagged it and we clambered back in the boats. All the other points were really too far when considering our time constraint, but we made the final transition with about 55 minutes to spare. N.B. Paddling and dreaming at the same time is not something I had experienced before! The whole thing was very surreal.

Once again transition was a blur since it was now 12:30PM, the finish cut-off was 5PM, and we had 14 miles of trekking, river-crossing, and climbing up the gorge wall to do. Everyone started off at a blistering trek pace and I tried my best to keep up.

We were approaching 72 hours of racing, had been up for about 80, and had about 1 ½ hours of sleep under our belt; and we all seem to feel pretty good. I was amazed. As Instructor McGuire, a former Navy Seal and our instructor at SealteamPT workouts says, “it’s amazing what the body can do;” and he’s right. That had been one of my worries and now it didn’t seem to matter. I’m sure longer races need to be handled differently, but Captain Dima had managed our team well. Tempers had been short at times and delirium is never good (hallucinations and “dream paddling” are OK) but we had functioned as a team and prevailed.

The trek was relatively easy and time passed without incident. We passed a number of teams questioning the route, wondering where the river crossing was, consulting maps, but there was only one option up the Bluestone Gorge and we kept hiking without concern. We spotted the hotel up on the ridge, hiked passed the tram station, downed delicious Jelly Belly Sport Beans and Clif shots (thanks Sasha and John), and waded across the river at the rope crossing. Only a climb up the gorge wall remained. We passed a couple more teams on the way up as John was determined to “beat their a…. up the hill” and the blessed finish line appeared at the hotel where we started a mere four days ago.

The finish was anti-climactic as is de rigueur for most adventure races and after some hugs, pictures and handshakes we quickly found sandwiches and soup. It’s amazing how the body shuts down when it knows it’s done. One sandwich and one bowl of soup essentially locked up my legs and kept me glued to the chair unless I made a superhuman effort to stand up. As I mentioned before, the weather had been near perfect; but the clouds were rolling in for some afternoon storms and as we packed up hastily for the drive home the heavens opened up. It seemed a fitting way to end the race. The drive home was luckily uneventful except for a three hour nap at a rest area, and I crawled in my front door about 1AM with the knowledge I had to work that morning (that was bad planning on my part!). The rest of the team also made it home safely and since then there’s been much exchanging of gear and pictures. I’m still not sure if I want to do that again since the passage of time has not yet put a rosy glow over the whole memory – but ask me in a month or two. It will probably be an enthusiastic YES!

Phil Dawson

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