Part 1
SOD1
Cowboy Tough race morning starts like just about any other race morning: with an early wake-up call. Emily called first shower so she hits the hotel room’s bathroom and stays in there long enough for Andrei to wonder out loud if she is taking swimming lessons. Fortunately everyone else is sufficiently prepared to exit the hotel room with plenty of time for a cup of coffee before loading the pre-race coach bus at 0500.
Mike’s initial plan to dump all of his stuff in his own car is scrapped due to having lost the car keys in the voluminous gear bomb the previous evening, so his stuff goes in Andrei’s car. It should be noted that the keys were IMMEDIATELY found right where they were supposed to be after the race.
We're on a bus! |
WABAR grabs seats in the middle of Bus 2 and we are soon joined by other teams including Tecnu and Columbia. The bus ride starts out chipper as we put final touches on our gear prep: custom-inked race jerseys are made, breakfasts are consumed, and sunscreen is applied. After that, we just close our eyes and put our feet up as the Wyoming countryside rolls by. After every single race this year being wet in some way or another (usually torrential rains) it was exciting to watch the sun rise in a bright blue sky over the sage. Then I started to worry about the sun rising over my head, and the troubling probability of dehydration and cramping... Someone (maybe me) asks “Do you know what I’m going to miss this race?”, I quickly and emphatically say “shade”.
tap tap, this thing on? |
After about a 3hr ride, the roads fade from pavement to gravel, and we know we’re getting close. Sure enough, we edge over the next hill and are greeted by the huge Rev3 semi-truck and a glittering field of bikes, smack in the middle of South Pass City. Despite the word “City” in its name, I’m not sure that there are any actual residents. But there is a working bathroom which becomes the most popular attraction once we debark, despite the frequent visits of racers (Tecnu, we’re looking at you) to the bus bathrooms en route. We find our WABAR bikes, all laid out close together, and make final preparations for the race start. Then Mark, Cowboy Tough Race Director, gathers all teams in the “center” of “town” for some final words and the starting blast from an air horn.
PROLOGUE/TREK 1, CPs 1-5, 4mi??
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Maps for the prologue/trek. |
Teams immediately scatter in all directions. We can obtain 3 of the 5 CPs in any order so we take off west towards CP5 at the JJ Marin Stamp Mill. We are running loosely with YogaSlackers (4p coed) and Silent Chasers (2p male) and our three teams scatter apart even further when the trail disintegrates uphill. Mike keeps us heading straight west and eventually the Yogis catch back up and lead us into the control with the ‘Chasers not far behind. Turns out our route was slightly inefficient but only on the order of 10m extra climb...and who’s counting? (Me, I’m counting. Both because I don’t want ANY extra climb, and because I know I’ll catch hell from teammates that figure out I cost them extra climb and distance.)
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Rachel entering the mill. Photo by Chris Radcliffe. |
BIKE 1, CP6, 10mi
Riding with Journey Racing and Silent Chasers on the way to CP6. |
Mike navs us straight into CP6 which is a bike drop and a short, optional trekking loop. Since our goal is to clear all mandatory and optional CPs, we transition quickly and get out onto the trek shortly after Journey. We know the Journey athletes are all Colorado natives (and, thus, better acclimatized to the altitude) so we’re content to let them race ahead as we take a more conservative jogging pace.
The trek is mostly on mapped double-track and Mike starts his theme of spotting CP flags from 1km away. (The sight lines for this race were crazy good. I’m pretty sure we spotted a CP on day 3 wll over 1km away…) We even get to run through some delightfully shady aspen groves on the way to CP10. Once we’ve got all 4 CPs punched, it’s just a straight shot back to the bikes and we use the time to take some photos. In our normal 24hr races, none of us would hardly ever consider slowing for photo breaks, but since we’re “luxury racing” this week, we get to snap away.
I'd say that's pretty open land. |
BIKE 2, CPs 11-13, 25mi
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Map for CP11 to CP12, we were riding northwestish. |
Hangin with Journey, Todd the flagman, and some road cyclist. |
Hi mama cow! Hi baby cow! |
This photo was supposed to show the vast valley below us. I clearly need to work on my group selfie skillz. |
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Map for CP12 to CP13, aka the deth march. |
Right about where our troubles started. |
Fortunately/unfortunately, the next 12 miles have some steep climbs that are more efficiently travelled as hike-a-bikes, an activity that requires ZERO use of the crank! Huzzah! Except it’s still really hard work to push our bikes, especially if your bike weighs as much as Mike’s does. His legs are the first to let us know with a full-on lockdown CRAMP. (Yes, I am now in the same athletic category as LeBron, (ha). Reduced to athletic ineptitude by cramps. As in, “ooh, check out all those muscle fibers” cramps. Worse than I've had in a LONG time.)
Things are not looking good for WABAR. We adjust for this by slowing the pace, having Mike and Rachel switch bikes for pushing (the carbon Air9 is so much lighter than the Moots YBB Rohloff), or just having Rachel take both bikes. She is a machine! We also take some rest breaks wherever we can find a patch of shade, (which isn't all that often) or a cool creek crossing (equally infrequent but SOOO much more effective for getting that body temp down!).
Our progress is painfully (in more ways than one) slow along the Indian Trail fire road/doubletrack. We get a few glimpses of hope with some killer downhills, but they do very little to help overall team speed. We are just in trudge mode, simple as that.
Fortunately, 12 miles of trudge mode eventually come to an end with the sight of a beautiful Rev3 pop-up tent. We’ve made it to TA/CP13!!! Never have we felt more relieved to get off our bikes and onto the race’s biggest trekking leg. We take a luxury racing transition - new foot lube for everyone, new socks and shorts for those who remembered to bring them, garbage emptied from random pack pockets, new layers of sunscreen, all done in the shade of a pit toilet at 8500’. Adventure racing at its finest!
The trek starts out with 4 optional CPs (14-17) which take us around a few lakes and ponds. We pass several teams at CP14 as they are restocking on water, and all of us still have plenty (which was actually a mistake, we carried WAY too much water on our backs during the bike ride). I respectfully and unequivocally disagree in every way imaginable on this point. I in fact brought barely enough but drank WAY TOO LITTLE on the way up. But that’s just me. I don’t have the near dromedary-like hydration efficiency that the ladies seemed to.
Andrei and Mike starting "the big trek". |
Rachel starting "the big trek" |
Emily starting "the big trek" |
Andrei and his magic sack. |
Not only does Rachel punch faster than the speed of light, she takes awesome CP selfies! |
Adventure racing does not suck. |
What's up Journey Racing!?!?!!! |
Screenshot from Legendary Randy's vid. |
TREK 4, CPs 1-10, 6mi
Rev3 has designed the course so that each day ends with 10 optional trekking CPs, on a rogaine-style course of about 10km. We run into the start of this optional section with lots of time to get all of the CPs, which is our goal. The medics give us a quick check (“Everyone feeling good?” “Yes!” “Okay see ya later!”) and we’re off on the final leg of Day 1, with Silent Chasers shortly ahead and Journey Racing nipping at our heels.
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Trail map for the last 10 CPs. These were also plotted on our USGS. |
This leg is entirely within Sinks Canyon State Park at around 6500’. Most of the CPs are on or close-to trails, making the navigation not terribly difficult, but everything’s always a little harder in the dark. Once we find the correct trail to start on, we ping through the CPs at a steady pace. We catch up with our friends the Silent Chasers and work together for a few CPs, then we’re on our own for the two most physical CPs, 5 and 4. Rachel absolutely destroys the climbs on a mission to punch speedily as the rest of us struggle to keep up.
Obviously from earlier in the day, but always fun to post pics of your teammates trekking in their underwear. |
Somewhere along the way Mike realizes that our route choice, although not horrible, was not the most efficient one possible. Although it did allow us some social time with the Silent Chaser boys, it unfortunately cost us a few minutes. Towards the end, Emily’s knees start hurting a lot so she digs out her trekking poles for joint preservation, and shares one with Mike, who is starting to feel some hot spots. Being Day 1, it’s always best to be over-conservative on things like this rather than “tough it out”. We clear all 10 CPs and then enjoy a nice gradual downhill road run into the End of Day 1 TA.
EOD1 TA
On the easy run into TA, we talk through exactly what we’re going to do to maximize our sleeping time. We arrive around 2:15am, and commit to waking up by 5:15am to be ready for the 6:00am start of Day 2. We all work together to unload our bins from the Mobile TA and find a comfortable place to sleep on some playground mulch. Emily runs around to every awake person asking for a 10mm hex wrench, and eventually finds one from JR the medic. Salvation!
We all snuggle into our sleep systems (Which for me unfortunately consists of a down jacket and a space blanket with my bare feet exposed to the air (that part was on purpose). Better than nothing I suppose.) and try to catch a few hours’ rest under the beautiful night sky. Day 1, CLEARED!
I don’t have much multi-day race experience AT ALL. This was my second one. But, I have to say it was WAY easier to sleep “off the clock” knowing we couldn't start racing for a few more hours. I didn't sleep great, but at this point any little bit of rest helps.
Rev3 album from Day 1: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.744762595564813.1073741863.148981488476263&type=3
Rev3 album from Day 1: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.744762595564813.1073741863.148981488476263&type=3
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