The Ozark Challenge Basic Course this year was tough. Hats off to Zen for putting on a great course. We found that alot of thought was put into this years course, and on that occasion when we stopped to look around, found some breathtaking views. Here is the blow by blow from my team Ozark Extreme on the basic course.
The race start was the same for the basic racers as it was for the advanced ones. Once at the start we learned that the basic course started on the water with a 15 to 20 mile paddle. After plotting our coordinates we took off to the water near the front of the pack. Our paddling skills aren’t the best so we were steady in our pace and were overtaken by faster teams. The river was fast and tricky, as usual. I know that we took a swim or two during that part…that water was cold! About half way down the paddle we stopped at a checkpoint where we tied off our boats and climbed up to a rock face for the climb and rappel. The climb and rappel was a welcome break from the paddling and wasn’t all too difficult. The lack of climbing helmets at the area, led to a bottle neck since only one team at a time could climb, even though there were four spots to climb. Once through the climbing section, we finished the paddling section and started the trekking phase. At our transition we changed into dry clothes and ate a bite or two. Starting the navigation we opted to cross the river and cut through to the checkpoint. We crossed with several teams and lost them as we navigated closer to the CP. Our teams navigation was on point through the navigation phase…that is until we miss-plotted CP9. The actual checkpoint was located in a valley. Once the mistake was caught, we realized that some numbers got inverted and placed it up on a plateau. After this three hour detour to circle around to the checkpoint, we met back up with several teams. We found all the checkpoints through CP11 when it started to get dark. We proceeded to CP12 as the dark set in. Following a ridge, then our bearing only (it gets dark quick in those valleys) we found ourselves in a spot where we could not determine the topography. The valleys sides were steep and our only course was to follow a creek to a road. Our decision to skip CP12 and hike out on a road led us to meet up with three other teams that were also stuck in the valley opposite of ours. The sixteen of us decided to hike it out and all of us co-navigated our way to CP13 and then to the first days finish. I have total faith in my team, but I will admit after being stuck in the bottom of that valley in pitch black, it was nice to see other teams. The second day didn’t fair as well for us since we were pretty beat up from the first days racing. It is never easy to say the course beat us, but it was inevitable. Not knowing what lay ahead, it was hard to put my team through another day of that abuse. We opted to stop there, knowing that we did not fail, but succeeded as a team through one hard course.
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