Multi-Sport RacingTriathalons and Adventure Racing have been sweeping the nation at a phenomenal rate. Multi-Sport Racing is one of the few sports where just completing a race is often considered a victory. Learn all about this sport, post photos, meet potential teammates or brag about your performance in a race.
I have to go to the party/awards ceremony, but I just wanted to drop a quick line to say that we finished 8th out of 53 teams. We lost some time a couple of times that we got a little lost, but I am happy with our results. Last year we finished 13th out of 48 teams so this year was a vast improvement.
Hey JP...just saw this. Congratulations on the improvement and on the finish! And that with a fill-in teammate to boot.
-What's your goal for next year?
-Did you see Sarah - she said she was either going to volunteer support or see if she could fill a slot on a team.
-How'd your shoulder hold up?
-What's this about making a boat out of a barrel?
The race was much harder than previous years. Probably more people showed up for this one because it was "sanctioned", meaning that it was a national qualifier, so there were teams from all over the country. The race started in pitch black at 5am, with 9 checkpoints hidden over a 12 mile course (longer if you couldn't find them quickly) in such deep underbrush it is almost a miracle that we found all of them. They only gave us the 10th through the 32nd check points the night before (we all only got 2 hours of sleep!) We had to plot our first 9 points "on the fly", in the dark. My legs are still so shredded they look like I was thrown into a briar patch. Ground beef thighs. With good reason, because there were so many "wait-a-minute" vines with thorns covering the ground that we might as well have been thrown in a briar patch, or a bunch of briar patches. Our legs were literally pouring blood.
We missed one checkpoint and had to hike back to it, losing 3-4 positions, but we made them back up over the hike up Pinnacle Mountain, where we actually did quite well despite the fact that I bonked on the way up. By the end of the hiking leg of the race we were in 8th place. We hit the canoes fast and headed off for a 12 mile canoe leg. That is where we made our money. When we finished the canoe leg we were in 5th place. One little thing that really pissed me off... We had to carry the canoe across a 200M feild of cockleburs. The worst kind. Dry, sharp stickers! Did I mention that I was wearing TEVAS on the canoe leg? I was screaming with nearly every step. My feet were bloody when we finally put the canoe on the rack. Josh and I had to pick stickers out of our feet for a few minutes before we could continue.
In the transition area we didn't dally, and picked up a place in the race. This was the funny part. They had us ride our bikes into this park that ended on a pennensula. I had no idea what they had in store for us. We showed up and found out that we had to build a raft out 3 barrels, 3 4X4s, and a few pieces of twine. The raft had to hold all three of us AND our bikes, and we had to paddle about 150 meters to the other side. So funny though... we spent our last transition taking special care to dry our feet and put on dry socks and pants. So much for that!
We didn't really even know our rank at that point, but apparently we were in 4th place! Then the bike leg got hairy. Thank GOD I knew my way around because we were not moving really fast, but teams that would pass us would end up missing their checkpoints and have to pass us again. I was really hurting by now. The bike leg was about 35 miles! Of all places I got lost in a park too. We passed by a check point and didn't even see it. The guys even called out to us and tried to wave us down, but we were fatigued and dilerius so we rode right on by. We wandered around for 30 minutes before we found the point, which was the entrance to a long and hairy single track portion. I came back to life there. I LOVE single track. But I don't deserve any credit though. Denise, who has not trained at all for the last few months, and has never ridden single track in her life, and doesn't even have SHOCKS on her bike, did a great job keeping up with us. In fact, she had to stop twice to throw up, yet she still kept riding! We had learned that we had dropped to 8th place while wandering around like idiots. We decided that we weren't going to give up any more places (we didn't know yet that the next closest team was over an hour behind us). We rode downtown and learned that we were going to have to do an 80 foot free rappelle off our local concert hall, then ride to the last check point and then on to the finish line. We had to do a zip line off a 75 out-of-commission rail road trellis, over a portion of the Arkansas River, down to the finish line. We hit the zip line in 10.5 hours, but we had to wait for a while because it was thundering and lightening so heavily. As we had neared downtown a massive cold front had rolled in and it was pouring rain! I am so glad we finished when we did. Apparently MANY teams didn't even finish, giving up when the cold rain moved in while they were still on canoes. When we went to the party a couple of hours later there were still more than 30 teams out still plodding along.
All I had really hoped for was making the top 10, but when we found out we were doing so well we had gotten our hopes up for making the top 5. In light of it all, I am actually quite pleased with our 8th place finish.
I will be adding some photos to this thread later. I just looked at all of them and I loved them! Also, because one of my racing partners is a local news anchor, her station had a videographer and photographer at all the transition areas and did a great little story on the local news tonight. It was pretty cool.
Hey-congrats JP and company. Good job. I regret that I couldn't see you guys finish, but I had to jet for the climber's Rendevouz this weekend. Currently, we're sippin Fat Tire while hoping the rain breaks for tomorrow. They did a good job and looked like they had a blast doing it.
I was heartbroken when I found out they were going to Boyle park for part of the singletrack-that's my home. The second time my tires ever hit dirt was in that park, and I still try to go once a week. It's mostly hard pack singletrack with some practice logs and a nice descent built into it. I built up a nice log jump section out there a couple of months ago. Trash corner-otherwise known as AC Lane-is my favorite.
Thanks Sarah. And thanks for coming out and helping too. I was disappointed not to see you at the post race party. When we got there though there were apparently still over 30 teams out there. Many teams had to drop out, and one got disqualified. Here is a link to the story from the paper, although they don't have the photos on line that they had in the paper. Sarah, check out the very last page on the sports section of the Sunday paper in the Democrat Gazette this morning. It is pretty cool! Our team got pretty good coverage to say the least.
Raiding the Rock
STORY AND PHOTOS BY STEPHEN B. THORNTON
Participants in the Subaru Raid the Rock Urban Adventure Race spent Saturday biking, hiking, canoeing and rappelling through Little Rock.
The course and activities were a well-kept secret to the 52 coed teams of three (at least one woman per team). Racers were given rough coordinates the night before but arrived at Lake Maumelle to get final directions for the 5 a.m. start.
From there, they began a 15-mile hike with only a contour map, flashlights and compass directions to guide them through rough terrain up and over Pinnacle Mountain.
"Basically, what we call bushwhacking," race director Nathan Siria said.
Teammates Josh Davis (front), Denise Whitaker and Jean-Paul Francoeur (back) work to straighten their canoe after bumping into a tree on the Big Maumelle River early Saturday morning for a 10-mile trip to Two Rivers Park off the Arkansas River.
Next was a 10-mile canoe trip from the Big Maumelle River to the Arkansas River. After a transition to bikes for a 2 1/2-mile ride, the racers built rafts out of three 55-gallon drums to transport themselves and bikes across a quarter-mile river inlet.
Teammates Jean-Paul Francoeur (from left), Denise Whitaker and Josh Davis paddle across a quarter-mile-wide inlet of the Arkansas River aboard a raft they constructed from 55-gallon drums, wood planks and rope during the adventure race.
A 25-mile bike ride through Little Rock followed and took them to Robinson Auditorium, where they rappelled down its columns. A short trip to the Junction Bridge in the River Market and a zipline ride down to the finish line at the Riverfront Amphitheater completed their day.
Little Rock’s Bikeseller.com team of Steve Kirk, Roberta Orr and Craig Zediker finished after more than 9 hours to win the event, sponsored by the Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department, for the third consecutive year.
And thanks for coming out and helping too. I was disappointed not to see you at the post race party
You're welcome. I must admit though, not being able to jump on a team or put one together in time, made me feel like a diabetic kid in a candy store. I really just wanted to fulfill my obligation and continue with my weekend.
I'm happy you guys did well, and I hope the press is good for business.
Yeah, I could tell you were jonesing to jump on my bike when we were in the TA, but you needed to save your energy for the next weekend anyway. Where is your race? Kansas City? Well, where ever it is, good luck on it!
Nah, I've been in here when I'm home to pick up clothes or meet with my trainer to check things out, just not posting. I've been riding every day and climbing 3-4 times a week. Picked up a team for the Ozark challenge, and catching creeks in the middle of the night when it rains. Living life as a bum and eating fast food while sleeping a few hours inbetween things. I'm kinda living out of my truck, right now, since I've been hanging out in russellville and Jasper riding, paddling, and climbing.
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