Florida Coast-2-Coast

[ODB]

This is a race I'd like to do next year - what do you say JP?

6am Friday- We began the C2C in our long, kevlar canoe, waiting impatiently for the race to start. We'd already scoped out MOATS, and their scary-fast 4 person kayak. We knew we were going to have to work really hard to do well in this race. The race finally began- 30 minites late, with every team paddeling hard. We had to cross Tampa Bay during this paddle, and it was already getting hot. As an hour passed, team Ecaps, Moats, and Village Bike (and solo guy) passed us. We kept them in sight, but were more concerned with keeping our boat from getting rolled or swamped. Out in the bay, there were whitecaps and lots of wind, so we did a lot of bailing and paddeling. We stayed upright, but there were some tense moments. We blazed through TA, with the help of our wonderful support crew, David and Sherry.

The next leg was a bike leg, with several unmanned points to be found. The second unmanned point was in the wrong place. All the teams piled up where the cp was supposed to be, scouring the woods. We spent almost 3 hours looking for this cp, and finally broadened our search. We finally found the cp, not at all where it was supposed to be. Ecaps and Moats also wasted time searching for the missing cp, but abondoned the "correct" area earlier and found it a lot sooner than us. I enjoyed hanging out with our buddies Team NADS while the futile search was on.

We finished this section, and went on to another leg of paddeling and then biking. Next was a night trail run, for about 20 miles. We ran most of it, passing Team Village Bike in the process. We transitioned on to a fun trail ride. Everyone seemed to be feeling good, and moving as fast as possible. The sun came up, and we transitioned to a pretty long paddle. I stole a pirate flag off another team's boat, while they were still out in the woods. Ha! Now we are Team Pirate Mighty Dog.

It was getting quite hot as we got ready for the next biking leg. We knew it was going to be long and tough. We churned through miles of sugar-sand, pushing our bikes at times. We traded places with Team RUOK out there in the heat. Another checkpoint was misplaced on this leg, and Ardie and Brandon spent a good 45 min. trying to figure out where they really put the cp. I sat under a bush, starting to feel the affects of heat exhaustion.

Somewhere during this leg, I started to not be able to keep any food down. Rob called it my technicolor yawn. This is when my awesome team mates began to tow me. They must have towed me for at least 5 hours of heat and sugar-sand hell. Talk about some strong guys. 12 hours of biking in 95+ degree heat, and we made it to the TA. I was taken care of, and we spent a few more minutes in this TA than usual. I was a little worried I would make it through the race, but wasn't about to quit.

We began an epic paddle across Lake George. The race volunteers had told us it would take about 4 hours, so we knew it would take about 8. I tried to paddle, but was still too ill, so I laid down in the bottem of the canoe, and proceeded to sleep for almost 2 hours. It began to get dark as we proceeded across the lake. We used the stars and a blinking tower to keep a bearing. The lake was quite rough- almost as rough as the bay had been. We were slow in the lake, as the canoe was blown around by the wind. I had to pee during the incredible paddle, so had to get creative with a ziploc bag.

We found our way into the inlet we needed, and paddled into the TA. The next leg was a short bike on roads, and it was still dark. As we sped along the road, a red neck drove by and threw a beer bottle at us. Brandon's bike computer got hit-- luckily everyone was ok. We caught up with solo guy, to hear that he had been hit by a beer bottle too. At the TA, David called the police regarding the incident. I don't know if the person got caught, but the police began looking for them.

Next was-- you guess it-- another paddle. It was still dark, and we had to enter a swamp and portage w/ the canoe to a road. We heard it was really tough to navigate to the stream we had to find, so we took our bright bike lights. Staying on a bearing, we managed to get through the swamp pretty quickly. Other teams had been lost out there for many hours. It was eerily beautiful in the swamp-- the alligators and frogs seemed primordial.

The last legs were short and blurry. We knew we were minutes behind Team RUOK, and an hour behind Ecaps, and several hours behind MOATS. We finished the last bike and boat as quickly as possible, then began the 7 mile run up the beach, to the finish. It was a great feeling to make our way up to the finish line. We arrived to Sherry, David and the race official, who let us know we placed 3rd overall. Team RUOK had not found 2 checkpoints, so we placed ahead of them.

Great race--- absolutely beautiful course, and quite tough. My team mates are the best. And hats off to Team MOATS and Team Ecaps. And to the teams who were coming in the next morning-- holy cow, what endurance!

Mileage breakdown- 100 paddeling
174 biking
30 trekking