First adventure race is under my belt, thanks mostly to my teammates. We found out about it a few months ago and decided to sign up and give it a shot. The team consisted of me, a coworker, and out boss. Andy(the boss) is a 225 pound monster of a man that stands about 6'3" Wayne is a 130 pound asian with incredible strenght to weight. They are both avid paddlers, and Andy bikes to work a few times a week. Wayne bought a new bike, the only one he had before was one that he pulled out of a dumpster years ago. Andy also replaced his bike that he got in the mid 80s.
We did a little bit of running, but most of our "training" time was spent mountain biking. But probably not the best way. We knew the terrain was going to be fairly flat, but training on the downhill is so much more fun! Volleyball and the gym kept my training to about half of theirs. I got on the river and paddled once about a month before the race, my third time in a kayak.
Registration was on saturday, 210 teams signed up. Some of the pro teams had little mini clinics, we only made it the the mountain bike clinic, but they also had a little impromptu kayak session. The kayak was going to be paddling duckies across the James river at +8feet from the hurricanes. The race director was a little worried about this after watching some of the pratice that was going on earlier in the day. At 5PM we found out that the race was going to be:
6.5 mile trail run
7 mile mountain bike
paddling
7 mile mountain bike.
This seemed to me to be the best format. I was difinately going to be the weakest link in our team. Running was supposed to be my strength, but I didn't get out nearly enough. At least with this format, I knew we would finish. My goal was to finish, Andy wanted to beat another team, and Wayne wanted to finish under 4 hours.
The start, finish, kayaks, and transition area were on a little island(Brown's Island) in the river. There was a little foot bridge to the mainland, a couple hundred yards down was the kayak putin, and a little further down was the long foot bridge to Belle Isle, where most of the running and biking would take place.
A view of the footbridge and the Path up to the footbridge from last year(low water level last year)
The race started at 8AM, with the co-ed teams leading off first. The all mens teams started at 8:05, and the womens, college, corporate, and masters at 8:10. We signed up as corporate. We started with a pretty solid pace on the run, Wayne thought that we should start a little more conservatively, but I thought I better push the pace since this was supposed to be my strength. There were quite a few pinch points that really slowed the run down, espically during my biggest strength, steep downhill. I did use a few rock bridge embankments to gain a big advantage. At the streem crossing we jumped in way early and ran up stream while everyone else slipped and tiptoed the narrow path to the perpindicular crossing. 3/4 into the run we crossed a bridge, then had to turn down into the steep valley and run along it. This was also becoming a pinch point because the grass was still wet and slippery on the steep slope. I came off of the bridge and turned very wide, jumped as high as I can, and landed on my hip sliding full speed down the hill, my foot hit the dirt at the bottom and I popped up running in stride after passing about 40 people. Most of whom actually stopped to clap. We hit a flat area where I mentioned to my teammates that I was "tapering"(That was the word for the day because the favorite team name was Start slowly, then taper off), they told me to set the pace, but then I found a more comfortable FASTER pace. Then the big pinch point. There was a ladder to a catwalk under one of the bridges. A long single file line waiting for everyone to descend the ladder with no other way around. The catwalk eventually took us to a large pipe(probably 4 foot diameter, but hard to tell since only the top was exposed) running mostly under water and for the last 50 feet or so it was totally submerged up to a couple of feet in fast water very deep on both sides of the pipe. The race director was stationed there, with a few other rescue people with throw ropes and you could tell that he was very nervous about the height of the water. But when we were there, it was a long line of walking, so it wasn't too dangerous. Apparently he had to rescue a member of both Team Balance Bar and Team Nike. The ladder, catwalk, and pipe cost about 20 minutes of walking/standing that was a little frustrating, then there was a short run to the first challenge. Cross a span of 50 or so feet without touching the ground using 3 cindeblocks and one member is blindfolded. We blindfolded Wayne, Andy took the lead with Wayne in the middle. Andy would hop onto the furthest block, reach back and grab Wayne's foot out of the air and pull it down to the block. I would hop onto the middle block with Wayne's back foot and pass the last block forward to Andy. Easy challenge, but some teams looked to be struggling.
We took our time in the transition(remember our goals, we weren't trying to win) then ran off with our bikes. No biking allowed Brown's Island or either of the footbridges. So we pushed the bikes out to the mainland then hopped on and rode down the the long bridge, and pushed across to Belle Isle. The field was still pretty clustered, something I don't really like for the bike portion, my rear brakes barely do anything for me. The course was mostly singletrack with an occasional break of fire road. We seemed to be doing good because we were passing people on the fire road and anywhere that people were dismounting for a carry. About half way through I got a little behind and then got stuck behind a few slow people who wouldn't let me pass. I got tired of one girl and just rode through the trees and bushes to pass her. And made a few good passes when someone crashed. There was a good downhill section where I was really trying to make up some time and someone crashed a few seconds a head of me on some branches that were laying across the trail. There was room to go around his bike and over the branches, but he tried to pick up his bike and it pulled the branches up infront of me and jamed my bike. I supermaned at least 30 feet, and he thought it was funny. I was quick to get back to my bike and get going again, but it caused my calves to start cramping. The next couple of miles were very painful, and it was probably a good thing that I could not tell my team how I felt. The water crossing was good for us again, we seemed much more aggressive than a lot of the teams. We rode across one bridge that wsa nothing more than a 3 story stairwell on the other end. Then a short little ride back to the mainland. I let Andy push my bike across the foot bridge on the way back to the mainland headed to the transition for the kayak.
Before we picked up the kayak we had to play leapfrog in the mudpit, which was just basically there to get us muddy, but gave Andy a huge gash in his knee, big enought that you could fit a marble in it. Team Balance Bar was crossing the finish line at this point. The kayak was a missing man kinda thing where each team got 2 duckies and 2 paddles. We had to paddle across the river into a cove, back up to Belle Isle and drop one person off and then back across the river, while the runner used the bridge to return. That was an easy choice for us. Andy grabbed one boat and Wayne and I the other as we jogged to the put in. I hopped in Andy's boat and he began taking us across the river, Wayne stayed and washed off. He caught up quick, and about half way throught the paddle I jumped into Waynes boat to give him a little more work to do, but I just rested. It would be stupid to give me a paddle anyway, with their skills. I helped Wayne carry his boat across part of Belle Isle, then washed of then headed for the footbridge while they hopped in and headed back into the mighty James. I was fairly slow getting up and over the bridge and back down to the takeout, but didn't get passed at all. As I was running up to the takeout, there were 12 or so 'runners' waiting on their kayakers to return, but Andy and Wayne were standing there yelling for me. I think they were the only paddlers all day who got back before their runner. We jogged back with the boats to Brown's Island to begin the last leg. We dropped off the boats, paddles, and life jackets and hit the spiderweb on our way into the transition area. It was parallel to the ground about 18 inches high. All 3 had to cross maintaing contact with each other, but only 2 could touch the ground. Wayne hops up on Andy's shoulders, and we cross what seemed like a trivial challenge.
Back on the bikes for another trip around Belle Isle. I let Andy handle my bike for the trip across the long bridge again, even though I should be recovered from the kayak section. I am slowing my team down a lot now. I did good to push them through the run, but the pinch points kept us from gaining too much time. I was a little slow on the first bike leg where they both could have gone a bit faster. And they did all the work for the kayak section. I rode hard on the bike and tried to make some better decisions. I drafted better on the fire roads, kept from getting stuck behind other people on the singletrack and rode well technically. I handled my own bike down the stairwell and got going quick again, but Andy noticed that his crank was coming loose. This took a little pressure off of me because I rode ahead, knowing that he would be up and running again in a minute or two. I rode on at a pretty good pace passing 2 people before Andy and Wayne rejoined me as my windblock. A tow would have really helped us a lot. I once again let them have my bike for the trip across the foorbridge, we were hustling knowing that we were almost there.
We dropped our bikes off in the transition and had only 2 challenges between us and the finish. The first was some kind of suspended rope monkey traverse, no real problems there other than the people they had there trying to assist. Then the 12 foot wall. There is a rope that you can use, but nothing to tie it to. We had this one planned out, but Wayne got a little excited. Andy leans up against the wall and Wayne climbw up his back and stands on his shoulders, no problem. Now I am supposed to hold my hands extended above my head and braced against the wall, making a 7.5 foot foot hold for Wayne. But he just jumps from Andy's shoulders and doesn't get a hold of the wall and falls back. We catch his feet and knees and bend his body back upright, and conquer the wall as planned after scaring quite a few people. There is a ledge at 7 or 8 feet on the back side. Wayne wraps the rope around himself and drapes it over the wall. Andy climbs up first, then I follow. We hop down from the ledge and run through the finish after 3 hours and 46 minutes of racing. Everyone's goal was meet. They really pulled me through when I was hurting, espically since it was early in the first bike segment. But I had to keep pushing since I could not catch tem to tell them how much I was struggling.
We finished 73rd overall and 7th of the 18 corporate teams. 3 minutes behind 5th and a medal. We all had a great time, and are planning on running some more. We feel that we could actually become competitive with a little training through the winter. Our only real strenght this race was the paddling and effort level. We have lots of room for improvement in the running and biking department. We will get some pictures up soon.
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