Revenge on Hibernia

Well I returned to the scene of "the Incident" from the previous week, determined to get rid of the bad taste in our mouth from our wreck-induced DNF. I came ready, but it was a different team this week--"Last But Not Least" with my newly found partner John Magee--a fellow Nova guy and great teammate.

The morning is “weather-whiplash” from yesterday's perfect sunny day.  Now it's cold, grey and drizzly this morning. First race is always a bit nerve wracking, and the threat of a rain-soaked day ratchets up the butterflies. I felt like an over-packed rookie with my big blue Rubbermaid tub full of gear, but I felt better as John unloads a ton of gear too.

As I ran back to put something in John's truck, I feel tired and out of breath. Crud. Did I wear myself out with the travel and running the HRC yesterday. I can't let my partner down.

Looking over the route map I start to get stoked. I've already visited every spot except two. But my detailed orienteering maps show the best way for them—always good to do homework. Now I'm really getting jacked. First time is gonna be fun.

The prologue is short. One teammate removes a shoe and the other puts it out in a shoe pile on the far side of Fiddler Field. I lose odds/evens, so I get the cold wet foot.  But John comes up with the great idea of putting a blinking red light on my shoe—I guess it was good to have all that gear in the transition area. I work my way to the front of the pack and I'm off with leaders at the start. Partway over I'm still running with the lead dogs--then I remember I'm not a sprinter. Still, I show up before the mass of humanity, find the blinking light among all the earth tone shoes and head back with the leaders. Pick up our passport, and we're off to the obstacle course.

Ordinarily I know a guy longer than a week before giving/getting a piggyback ride, but that's the first obstacle. Then an army crawl, a great cargo net obstacle and finish with the follow the rope obstacle. We're just behind the first few groups.

Next up orienteering. First two check points-no problem. However, I’ve already learned my first adventure racing lesson--no matter how cold 40 and drizzly might feel while you're waiting for the race to start, go with the light weight shell. I’m starting to get too warm, but it'll be o.k.  For the third CP we decide to go off trail, guessing we can get a better approach to the island CP.

A little more bushwacking than I thought, but the approach was correct. No river crossing for us at CP3. Unfortunately, CP4 was on the far bank, so we needed a river crossing after all. I volunteer, so John stays on one side while I cross for CP4 in nearly thigh deep water. I find a shallower return, and we're off to CP5. I know the trail has to be here somewhere, but I'm not seeing it yet and I owe John dinner if we get lost.

Bingo there it is. Head down the trail to CP5. Coming from our optimal angle, it's an easy cross along a downed tree and it turns out John has the niche forte of crossing tree bridges. He's back in no time—in fact, he’s back so quickly that he has to wait for a lesser skilled racer to creep across. We're off to CP6, which, or course, Bill (the course setter) had to put at the highest point possible. We find it without a hitch, then use some local knowledge en route to CP7. From CP7 it’s one of the longest runs of the section to CP8, which I think is going to be the hardest to find. Turns out it wasn't hard to find, except for some misdirection--we hear a couple of guys bushwacking on Lions Head and one seems to say he's found it--but it seems too low to me. After searching where they came from, we decide to ditch the area and head up the hill—bingo, CP8. Off to CP9. Not exactly where it seems like it should be, but that only cost a minute or so. Now for the climb back up to the transition area. Not a fun run and John's knee is not happy with the abuse. It's ready for the canoe.

We check in and confirm we maxed out the orienteering section. Off to the canoes. Out on the water we're rocking. CP1 no problem. John drops me off halfway to CP3 and I run up to get CP2 while he paddles solo toward CP3. Running in a life jacket is hotter than I expected even on a miserable day like today. I grab CP2 and my partner is waiting for me near CP3—I love it when a plan comes together. We cross the lake for CP4, which requires a jog back up Lion’s Head. Coming back I feel like Forest Gump as I'm sprinting to the canoe. Holler to John to get ready, and we make a clean get away to the final CP. Halfway from the last CP to the dock I realize that my training program is woefully lacking in upper body strengthening--I'll have to work on that after the Delaware Marathon in May.

Now for the slog back to the transition area. Uphill the whole way with bikers coming and going. Someone's gonna get crushed, but it's not gonna be me.

After we check in, we change into our biking shoes. Nice to have dry feet again. Little did I know how short-lived that would be. Off to the first bike CP, which we saw down by the dock. As we head downhill I see why John wanted the bike section: he descends like a madman. Unfortunately, the slippery climb back up is a pain, and I have to walk further than I'd like because I keep slipping—sorry partner. Grab the second CP and then up to the White trail for CP 3&4--what a bucket of joy that swamp is going to be.

Just as we enter the white trail a female team is stopped at the first "bridge". John rides through them slowly and promptly falls over into the rocks on the right. I decide to stop, but I lose may balance and fall into the rocks on the left, almost hitting the front wheel of one of the lovely young ladies. Smooth move old guys.

We slog through the 3" of mud and muck getting stuck a few times--so much for the happy feeling of dry feet. Find CP3 & 4 before mercifully exiting the white trail. Take the quick route to the next section to pick up CP5-7. After the climb to CP5 we watch a rider miss the turn to CP6 and his teammate wonders whether to make the descent to stay with his partner or wait for his navigationally challenged partner to realize the mistake and make the tough climb back up. Bummer for him/them. Not a problem for us as we breeze through to CP8. We've set up an interesting yo-yo rhythm as John blows down the descents and I catch back up on the climbs.

We opt for the thigh burning climb to the final bike CP, which we promptly miss and have to make a short climb back up to grab. Having blown through the bike section, we haul back to the finish. We realize that we're close to going sub 4:00, so we push to the finish, throwing In a small shortcut for good measure. Final time--3:57.

As we leave the finishing tent, out pop K-rocks, Dog and Mama Bear. What a great surprise on a fun day. Checking the board our time looks good--especially for a couple of old novice racers. In fact, there's a lot of empty space on the finishing board, and there's only one other time in our bracket. We hang around to find out we finished 2d in our bracket. This far exceeds our team goals of: (1) finishing (2) with no crying and (3) not being beat by any 2-person female team with a combined age over 110.

What a great introduction to adventure racing. Great partner, great course, and even though the weather wasn’t great it was much better than we thought it was going to be. Can’t wait for the next race—it’s been a great weekend for sure.

Final numbers:
Cloudy 46 degrees and misting (but mercifully, not raining)

Time 3:57.18

Second in bracket (Masters Male 2)

19 of 71 overall (take that 20-30-something guys)