Race Report: 2014 Mohican 100

The choice to race the Mohican 100 mile mountain bike race was an not easy one. It fell on the same weekend as Dirty Kanza, a geographically much closer event promising similar self-destruction. But seeing as I'd already gawked once at the beauty of the Flint Hills, and had never raced my bike in Ohio, I chose to make the trip out to Loudonville with Dwayne, Peat, and Adam of Team Noah Foundation. We loaded up the new-to-me Subaru with 4 bikes (thanks to Strove Frodeman for last-minute borrowing of roof trays) and the rest of our gear and hit the road very early on Friday morning. The trip east was pretty relaxed, we knew we were good on time so made some longer stops at lunchtime looking for a mom-and-pop sandwich shop (no dice, we had to go to Panera) and a few extra pee breaks. We finally rolled into Mohican Adventures campground (Race HQ and Finish Line) and learned that our camping spots were PREEEM-OHHH. I mean, less than 100 meters away from check-in, the bathrooms, the showers, the finish line, the food tent, and most importantly, the beer truck. We were in the heart of it all!

4 bikes, 3 dudes, 1 Subaru, and me.
http://instagram.com/p/ooYB0Nq7R6/

After checking in, the first priority was a pre-ride. I was super excited since due to travel logistics I've never been able to pre-ride an NUE course. The four of us kitted up and just as we were about to hit the trails, we were bombarded by friends: Tom from dirtwire.tv and Dan and Ryan from Toasted Head Racing. Team Noah is known for riding fast, but for also talking a lot so we had to catch up with them a little bit before hitting the super-sweet trails. Once we were on the singletrack, I was so glad to get a pre-ride in. Conditions were great and the trails had lots of roots that I needed to remind myself to be aggressive going over them. Dwayne tried to get us lost but we eventually figured it out, meanwhile we played The Repeater and No-Hands games, did some fake openers (fopeners?) in the parking lot, then spun over to Loudonville to check out the start line and opening hill. We rode right past a big party at race sponsor Kim's Bikes, and had to stop to eat free pasta and beer (and for Peat to show off his impressive shotgunning skillz). Then we rode back to Mohican Adventures and met up with Trevor and Rafal who had arrived from Iowa and Nebraska (respectively, but in the same car), and had dinner with Toasted Head at Trail's End. It was dark when we got back to camp but I took some time getting my drop bags sorted before heading to bed.

Peat, Dwayne, me on the pre-ride. 

Race morning starts with early bird Trevor's alarm going off and the rest of the crew gradually getting up-and-at-'em. Everyone pretty much has their own routine and Adam and I ride over to the start line in downtown Loudonville together. I find a spot about mid-pack, and say hi to Simona, my friend rom Cohutta 100. I scan the crowd as race director Ryan makes final announcements, and am surprised to see a Momentum kit - turns out another St. Louis rider has made the trip to Ohio, it's Roggo! He is a super strong racer and will probably surprise a lot of folks out there today. Ryan counts us down and then it's time to race!

START to AS#1 to AS#2 
(5mi road opener, 27mi Mohican singletrack and horse trails, 3mi gravel)
We're off! My main goal for the road opener/separator is to just stay out of trouble. Last year there was a big crash and I don't want any part of that. So I just pedal by way past Kim's Bikes, up the stair-steppy hill, onto some rolling country roads, and then into the doubletrack that will connect us with the Mohican singletrack. There are people all around me, but everyone's behaving themselves, even at the parts where the doubletrack is crazy muddy and we have to run around it. There is really no drama here, and that's just the way I like to start out my hundos.

Rafal, sounds like waffle, riding some roots.
http://s1155.photobucket.com/user/Photoglyphix/media/2014%20Mohican%20100%20MTN%20Bike%20Race/_DSC1529.jpg.html?sort=2&o=152

And then we're into the singletrack! It's just really, really fun. There are people everywhere, but for the most part everyone's keeping their egos in check and when they make a mistake, they get out of the way. I make my own share of mistakes too, and just try not to screw anyone else up with re-mounting. There are a couple of bottlenecks too, but again, just gotta go with the flow on these things, we're all in for a long day and might as well use the (short) waiting time to get an extra sip of water or extra snack. There are volunteers at every road crossing, stopping traffic for us which is super awesome. I don't need anything at Aid Station #1 (Mohican MTB Trailhead) but I stop anyway to check my rear tire - it's been feeling phantomly squishy on a few of the rocks. I stop/unclip and 2 seconds later a volunteer is there asking if I need a mechanic. What service! I give my rear tire a couple squeezes, reassuring myself that it's fine, say thanks but no thanks to the volunteer, and boogie on out of there.

Peat, shredding the horse trails.
http://s1155.photobucket.com/user/Photoglyphix/media/2014%20Mohican%20100%20MTN%20Bike%20Race/_DSC2024.jpg.html?sort=2&o=254

After zipping through Aid Station #1, there is even more Mohican singletrack to be shredded! There are a couple of rather gnarly spots where knowing the line would have really helped me, and I'm off my bike as a gap forms to the group in front. There's one rider ahead, so I catch up to him, he introduces himself as Glen, he's local, and he tells me there's a huge hike-a-bike coming up in less than 1 mile so there is no reason to burn extra matches now. I am very grateful for his advice and just follow his lines. Pretty soon, sure enough, there is a sharp left hand turn straight up a gasline hike-a-bike. It's packed with racers so I just take my spot in line and push. With my adventure racing background, I really don't mind hike-a-bikes at all, so pretty soon I'm at the top and following Glen again. We are on a horse trail now that's sloppy muddy and Glen tells me about the water bars coming up - they are the real deal and we need to be careful. Also good to know! Thanks, Glen! The water bars are definitely difficult to begin with, and especially now that they've acquired a thin coating of slimey mud from the front of the field. I ride some, I walk some, but I make it to the bottom of the hill in one piece and then it's onto the gravel. Almost immediately, I spot a very familiar-looking pink kit in front of me. Could it be Simona, my friend from Cohutta? I know she is a great technical rider and I would be thrilled if I'm this close to her after Mohican singletrack. I pedal faster. It IS Simona! I catch her wheel in the final meters before Aid Station #2 (Buckhaven). We say hi and both execute a pretty fast pit stop. I make a snap decision to keep my CamelBak on, add 2 CR bottles to the SegSlayer, some more food to my bento, and I'm off!

AS#2 to AS#3 

(15mi gravel, 4mi Tree Frog singletrack)

Simona aka pink Hammer girl!

I'm just slightly behind Simona as we roll out of Aid Station #2 (Buckhaven). From here, we have a longish section of gravel roads which, based on my experience at Cohutta, I know I can ride well. I've almost caught back up when we hang left onto Giffen Road, and the gravel points sharply upward. I stand and, oh no! I feel the beginning tingles of leg cramps. This is abnormal for me, usually I'm a cramp-free rider, but evidently I've got issues today. To me, cramps require on a "pay a penny now to save a dollar later" approach, so I stop, drink a huge gulp of water, and dig out 3 e-caps from my bento. Then I get back on the SegSlayer and focus on spinning easily for the next mile or so. My legs seem much happier and that means I am too.

Elevation profile of the course with Aid Stations shown.

So I start reeling Simona back in. I am by myself, dealing with the surprisingly swirly winds in the Mohican valleys, and trying not to get too angry about not having drafting buddies. On the longer straight-aways I catch glimpses of what I believe to be Simona's pink kit, and I am riding really hard to catch up. Around mile 45 we enter some freshie-fresh singletrack in the Tree Frog Zipline Park. This stuff is way slower than the Mohican singletrack and it's hard to stay motivated, except I catch Simona on a short hike-a-bike and do my best to stay in front. We roll that way into Aid Station #3 (Mohican Cabins), and with her only seconds behind me, I rush through the aid and hurry back out onto the course.

AS#3 to AS#4 

(1mi gravel, 1mi Tree Frog singletrack, 5mi gravel, 3mi Mohaven trail, 4mi gravel, 11mi rails-to-trails)

"green girl"
http://s1155.photobucket.com/user/Photoglyphix/media/2014%20Mohican%20100%20MTN%20Bike%20Race/_DSC1584.jpg.html?sort=2&o=167

Also right in front of me is someone I've started to call "green girl". She's riding in, duh, a green kit with her man-friend. Unfortunately, they are stopped on the side of the road, dealing with what looks like a flat tire. Bummer! I ride past, through a field and into some more slow Tree Frog singletrack. My legs are threatening to cramp AGAIN so I repeat my routine - stop, water, e-caps, spin to bring them back to life. While I'm spinning easy, green girl and guy pass me again. Bummer! But at least they got the mechanical sorted. We finally make it through the surprisingly challenging Tree Frog singletrack and I'm once again by myself on gravel. I reach into my bento and...oh no. Only one bar left, 235 calories of Amrita goodness. I check my bottles - one is filled with water, the other with about 100 calories of CarboRocket. Do the math yourself - this means I've got about 300 calories to fuel me the remaining 20 miles to Aid Station #4 (Glenmont). For me, this amount of calories for this particular portion of the race teeters on the border of "just barely-maybe-probably-not enough" and "woefully inadequate". I'm in disbelief. I put a huge emphasis on planning my nutrition and I've obviously made a big mistake, either not putting enough food in my drop bag at AS#2 (Buckhaven) or not picking up enough race food at AS#3 (Mohican Cabins). I don't have many fears when it comes to big endurance races, but running out of food and subsequently bonking is a big one. So I ratchet my pace back and start mentally preparing myself to suffer for the next few hours. I keep telling myself that everything's going to be fine, that I'm well-fueled up to this point, that there's probably not that much singletrack left, that I have plenty of water instead, basically any reason I can think of to quell my fears. And then the course turns right up a gradual doubletrack climb and I just about lose it. 20 miles of roads I could squeak out in less than 2 hours, but throw some trail in there? Uh oh. I've got an express ticket to:

But there's nothing left to do but pedal, so I slowly make my way uphill. There isn't even any other rider around me that I could maybe bum a bar off of. I'm actively looking for discarded gels/bottles/anything as the trail continues to climb. I'm also thinking that Simona is going to catch me any second! And then, at the top of the hill, I hear voices. There are people up here! And...they are standing behind a table. WITH FOOD ON IT. Is this a mirage? No, it's a secret aid station that I didn't know about! I literally freak out with happiness, pull the SegSlayer right up to the table, and start dumping little cups of Peanut M&Ms and pretzels straight into my bento while simultaneously stuffing my face with PB&J sandwiches. It's not a pretty sight, but I am just so happy. I thank the volunteers profusely, stuff a few extra PB&Js in my bento, and get out of there in a superior state of mind.

http://www.strava.com/segments/7376988

There is a little bit more trail to shred, then some gravel, then the course brings us to the infamous rails-to-trails section - about 10 miles of wide, pea-graveled, false-flat trail. Most mountain bikers, especially my singlespeedy teammates, dread these miles. But today I am really thankful for them - the false-flat terrain helps me refocus and restart my motor. Mohican country is famous for its Amish population and I pass a man driving a horse-drawn cart. We exchange smiles and I say hi to his horse, which helps me "conjure up a sense of gratitude" for this perfect day, my awesome bike, and the ability to ride it 100 miles for Team Noah Foundation. I roll into Aid Station #4 (Glenmont) with my motivation on the upswing. 

AS#4 to AS#5 to FINISH 

(8mi gravel, 1mi trail, 4mi gravel, 1mi trail, 2mi gravel, 4mi Mohican singletrack)

Final 25 miles of Mohican 100 course.

A volunteer brings me my drop bag and it's FULL of delicious things - CR333, a turkey sandwich, a Clif bar, and some gels. REJOICE! I reload my bottles and bento and notice that green girl and guy are just leaving. Wow, they're closer than I thought! And just as I'm about to leave, Simona rolls in! We congratulate each other on a good ride so far "You're killing it!" "No, you're killing it!" and then roll out together to tackle the final 25 miles. At first we just chat and reveal that we both had goals to finish under 10 hours, and agree that it's probably not going to happen today. We keep chatting until the first of several sawtooth climbs, where Simona just rides away from me and I don't have the motivation to respond. I don't know why, but I just can't convince my legs to work harder. This bums me out and I pedal solo in full-blown pity party mode.

A few miles later, I unintentionally swerve across the doubletrack and hear a rider exclaim in surprise. I hurriedly apologize for taking their line, and in response I hear "Are you Emily?". I say yes, and turns out the rider is Mindy! She's a triathlete/adventure racer from Team Tecnu whom I've competed against only a handful of times, but enough to know that she is seriously fast. I've spent the whole race convinced she was way ahead of me, so I'm surprised to see her now. But turns out she's recovering from some hard training the weekend previous, and a hard crash in the first 10 miles today. Ouch! We chat a little bit about the race so far, and then Mindy rides away. That makes TWO girls making me eat their dust in the past 5 miles. Something snaps in my mind. I can't take it. Full-on racer mode comes roaring back, I add a couple gears, and chase.

I am able to pass Mindy on some slippery slimey doubletrack that's peppered with short hike-a-bikes. Not too much farther the trail opens up into gravel and I pass Simona. Then just a few minutes later I pass green girl and guy at the top of a grunty hill. I don't have hardly any gap though so it's pedal-to-the-metal all the way home. I pass some 100k riders, some other 100 mile riders, and one guy jumps on my wheel just as we're approaching Highway 3. I explain the situation ("there's three women back there and I've got to gooooooo!") and he takes the time to talk me through the remaining course, including the cloverleaf turn under Hwy 3, the ride through Aid Station #5, and then into the singletrack. This is the second time that a local has helped me out - thank you!! There is no way I can afford a stop at AS#5, but I don't need anything anyway, so I whoop it up for the Kim's Bikes volunteers and cruise into the remaining miles of Mohican singletrack, certain that Mindy, Simona, and green girl are just seconds behind me.

There's a rider on my wheel as I enter the singletrack, but I'm relieved to hear the voice is distinctly male as I ask if they want to pass. They do not, so I continue riding until I glance back on a hairpin turn and see that the rider is my teammate Adam! I had no idea! But no time for chit-chat when I'm trying to redline the rest of the course. There are plenty of little tech sections left and I do my best to ride when I can and run when I can't. There are riders to pass too but everyone's super courteous. I can see, through, that Simona is inching closer to me in the singletrack. I feverishly ramp up my pace, doing my best to keep riding smoothly. My legs respond, and my mind is thrilled to see a "2 Miles To Go" sign. I think I can hold her off! Then there is a tandem mountain bike up ahead and I can only laugh. I'm barely leading a group of 4 women, less than 2 miles to go, and I have to pass a tandem in the singletrack? Good one, Noah. But we find a spot that works for all of us and I motor on by. I've picked up another single speeder (in a Toasted Head kit!!) and he squeaks by the tandem, too, and starts cheering me on. Awesome! The two of us bomb down a hill into the campground. We've GOT to be close now. Except there are cars driving in the campground so I move to the right to let them by. In the process, I lose sight of the course markings, and all of a sudden find myself in no-man's land - an unmarked intersection. What? Where do I turn? Panic! I sit up, glance around, and hear a race spectator yelling at me: "You missed the turn! It's back there! Turn around and go right!"

Well that's unfortunate.

F!!!! I turn around and see Simona making the correct turn just a few hundred meters behind me. Me and the Toasted Head rider are super bummed, but he yells "Let's go get her!" so we take off in pursuit, making the correct turn and re-joining the course. There can't be much left before the finish line so I chase HARD after Simona. I have to pass the tandem AGAIN but the graciously let me by. There's a downhill, the metal bridge crossing, then a hard right onto the finishing road. I can see Simona just a few seconds ahead, and Toasted Head guy yells at me "You can do it!" I sprint. I tell myself I'm closing the gap. But, it's too much. Simona makes the final right turn 3 seconds ahead of me and we both ride under the finish line, done for the day.

Dead to the world. Photo by Trevor Rockwell. Ha ha.

I can't believe it. I'm really, really angry at the situation so I immediately ride to our campsite and collapse, ignoring everyone around me so I don't say or do something embarrassing. I just need to cool off a bit before good sportsmanship can re-emerge. So I lay there and moan while teammates take pictures. Ha! One of the race volunteers has followed me from the finish line and sets the Mohican Finisher's Growler down next to me, along with a cup of ice water. She definitely didn't have to do that, and her kind gesture clicks me back into non-angry mode. I stand up and go find Simona to congratulate her on an excellent finish. It really was excellent - it wasn't her fault that the course markings were obscured by traffic, and I would have done the same thing if I had been in her shoes. AND it turns out we BOTH made it in under 10 hours. VICTORY!

POST-RACE

Mohican 100-mile women's podium.

The rest of the evening is superb. Mohican knows how to treat its racers right: the showers are hot, the food is plentiful, and so is the beer! I catch up with the rest of my teammates (Trevor, 3rd place singlespeed! Dwayne, 7th place singlespeed! Peat and Adam, sub-10 hours!) and meet some more friends as we wait for the podium presentations. Turns out my battle with Simona, Mindy, and green girl was for 6th place, and Simona gets to represent on the podium! Whoop! Congrats to Brenda on a fantastic win and the rest of the women's podium for crushing it! Let's be honest, Mohican 100 is a pretty awesome way to spend the day. I will definitely be back next year!

The SegSlayer, post-race.
http://silkychrome.blogspot.com/2013/01/meet-segslayer.html

WANT MORE?
my Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/148147890
Results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11WpesUkj0jBGUbE8wbpBc8nsLNRRHior4a1u-XK7sjA/pubhtml
Dirtwire.tv interviews and highlights reel: http://dirtwire.tv/events/mohican-100/
Trevor Rockwell: http://ridinglifeschallenges.blogspot.com/2014/06/nue-3-mohican-100-redemption-race.html
Randy Shoogs Larrison: https://www.facebook.com/notes/randy-shoogs-larrison/mohican-100-2014-nue-2/10152170580822106
Quickdirt 100k: http://quickdirt.com/2014/06/03/mohican-mtb-100-2014-race-report-graphs-photos/
Gerry Pflug: http://pfunwithpflug.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-mohican-100-2014.html
Tom Roepke video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly62eizDIPE

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Race Report: 2014 Odyssey Wild Wonderful 24hr AR

Tuesday, 12:38pm. I get a bookface notification on my phone. New message. From Mark Lattanzi?!?!?! Of course I open it right away:

"Emily, Team Odyssey might need a 4th for Wild and Wonderful this weekend. Interested? We should know today if Jen can't make it. Race fee is all paid so you just have to get to New River Gorge..."

The "Wild and Wonderful" he's referring to is a 24 hour adventure race in the New River Gorge area of West Virginia. It's directed by Ronny Angell of Odyssey Adventure Racing, and staged out of ACE Adventure Resort. It's a race I've been wanting to do ever since visiting this area in 2012 for Checkpoint Tracker National Championships, a course designed by Mark and directed by Ronny. This part of West Virginia has very challenging terrain, and Odyssey puts on very high quality events. Mark and his teammates are very experienced, fast, and friendly racers. Did I mention the race starts with 2 hours of Class III-V whitewater rafting on the New River? The only bugger was travel - it's an easy but long 8hr drive from St. Louis to Oak Hill, and I'd need to move some work commitments around. So the next 24 hours were filled with emails and phone calls and we eventually figured out that I was able to race! So exciting!

Almost there! Ready for some Wild and Wonderful adventure racing!

So I loaded up my iPod with listening material and made the drive over to Oak Hill on Friday. I actually listened to the TA1 podcast that Mark did with Legendary Randy Ericksen and called it "team research". There are also tons of country music stations all throughout Kentucky and, judge me if you will, I love country music. So I was a pretty happy girl until Frankfort, KY, where I'd planned to stop and ride some singletrack...I mean "off-track bicycle trail"... at Capitol View Park, but it was raining, so I just kept on driving. I rolled into Oak Hill pretty much on time, and met Mark in his Sprinter van for some pizza, tea, and chat before Andy and Shane arrived.

Andy declares victory over DC traffic. Shane agrees.

Eventually the boys made it to ACE (also with Kristen from TeamSOG, I mean TOG. Side note: this is what adventure racing is all about - carpooling with your toughest competitors!) and we proceeded to piddle around with bikes before the race meeting. Since I don't make it out to the East Cost area very much, I don't know hardly any of the racers here, but it's really cool to see the adventure racing community alive and well. Sure, there are a few faces I recognize from one of the Nationalses last year, but for the most part I feel anonymous which is awesome. What is not awesome, though, is the Oak Hill weather - cold and drizzly. The forecast is not predicting much improvement for race day, which will make staying warm overnight a challenge. We also learn that recent rains have put the New River above flood stage, making it unsafe for commercial paddling. We're not sure what Ronny plans to do about the start of the race now, but we do know that with the rafting being cancelled, we'll be on our feet and bikes a whole lot tomorrow.

We're clearly up to no good. Mark, me, Andy, Shane.

We attend the pre-race meeting and it's nothing unexpected. Ronny announces that we will be given maps in the morning, and be bussed to the start. There is a vague course overview but really, we just need to show up with all of our gear/water/food for the next 24hrs. So with that, we check into our hotel/motel and mess around with gear until it's time for bed.

What, you don't see the girls bathroom sign?

When we arrive back at ACE in the morning, we learn that Ronny has decided to bus us to the original paddle take-out, and start the race from there with a short LeMans run to CP1 and then a quick TA onto bikes. So we plot maps, waterproof them, load busses, and strategize on the ride down to the New River bank, which requires the bus to make a few three-point turns to negotiate the switchbacks. Love it! Once we unload, me and a few other girls declare a random pick-up truck as the girls' bathroom and all pee. Bonding! We also get a good look at the New River and....dang. It would have been very scary and probably very fun to raft that. But it's also nice to be alive. So Ronny counts us down and it's time to race!

Uh, yeah. Lotta water.

TREK 1 (CP 1, 0.3mi)

The first tiny trek.

There isn't much to this first leg. We run uphill a ways, get the punch, and the run downhill a few hundred meters and transition onto our bikes.

BIKE 1 (CP 2, 4k)

Biking from CP1 to CP2.

We get everyone into their bike shoes, under their helmets, and onto their bikes and pedal our way out of the New River Gorge. I think TOG (3-person coed) is already in front, and GOALS (2-person male) is right ahead of us and we can see them as we ride the singletrack up the western side of the gorge. Mark knows these trails really well and is surprised when GOALS takes the same (unmapped) shortcut he was planning. So we all ride into CP2 together, and see TOG just leaving the area on foot. We quickly transition, and I take Mark's mandatory gear so we only have three packs between us. Fun!

TREK 2 (CPs 3-5, 7k)

The second trek. 2-4-5 and then return to 2.

Before the race started, Ronny threw out CP3, so we only had to go to CPs 4 and 5 before returning back to our bikes. We run through the town of Fayetteville with TOG and GOALS leading the charge. I'm feeling just about as good as can be expected for a slow starter like me, and the boys all seem happy with the pace.

Yes. I navved the whole thing. NOT!

Since the urban-style nav is pretty easy, we goof around a little bit to pass the time between CPs on the outbound leg. On the way back, we get to cheer for a lot of other teams, and then Mark takes my pack for the last 1k. What a difference it makes! I feel amazing now! To me, that really highlights two things: a) the large effect that 10 extra pounds has on my pace, and b) I need to log more training hours with a pack. Noted. We run back into TA just on the heels of GOALS, excited to continue putting Mark's trail knowledge to use for the next leg.

BIKE 2 (CPs 6-13, 12ish mi)

The first part of the bike - left CP2/TA and rode to the Arrowhead trail system.

Our next route is to punch 6-7-8 in order, and then we can get 9-13 any way we chooise (aka rogaine style). So we use some singletrack connectors to get into the Arrowhead trail system which is pretty great. We think we've made up some time on TOG as we punch CP6, and then even more time on the attack to CP7. Our plan is to bikewhack across a switchback (see map) and then land directly at 7 for the punch. Mark leads us into the really open woods (almost ridable, they were so open) and I'm last of the bunch. About a hundred meters into the woods, I see something that is really, really not good - Mark on the ground, grabbing his leg, with Andy and Shane standing by him looking concerned. Something is definitely up, and in my mind I rule out cramps because it's early in the race and Mark is pretty experienced with managing nutrition/hydration/effort, so I figure it's a snakebite. This all happens in the few seconds it takes me to catch up with the boys. Once I get there, Shane says, "Get out your phone and call 911." This is bad!! As I'm digging my phone out (yes, the SAME ONE I was grateful to be carrying at the BRAWL), I take in the situation. Mark has a stick in his leg. As in he is impaled on a stick. As in he walked into a stick and it skewered his calf. As in he is a human shish-ka-bob. And it does not look comfortable.

In one side, almost out the other.

I get ahold of 911 and hand the phone to Shane, who is a former paramedic, to talk medical to EMS while Andy and I try to comfort Mark. There is very little blood, which is surprising to me, but evidently the stick's wedged in there pretty good. Mark even threatens to pull it out and continue racing, but Shane pulls rank and denies that request. We strategize how to get Mark out to the trailhead parking lot where the ambulance is going to meet us, and it turns out that he wants to use his bike as a crutch to hop back through the woods to the trail we attacked from. But before we leave, Mark is sure to tell Andy to "go get CP7 while we're this close anyway". So Andy goes and punches CP7 as the rest of us bikewhack back through the woods. Surprisingly, or perhaps not surprisingly to those people who know Mark, he's really fast at this. Faster than I am with no sticks in either of my legs. Amazing.

Apologies on the orientation of this photograph. Blogger dislike.

We make it back to the gravel doubletrack, and my phone rings again. It's EMS. "Is this the guy who was biking and got a stick in his leg?" Yes, yes it is. They are asking for more specific directions to the trailhead that I cannot give them. So, logically, I hand the phone to the actual guy with the stick in his leg, and Mark responds beautifully, chatting with the EMS folks and giving them perfect directions. A horrible situation, for sure, but definitely one of my favorite race moments this year! Andy bikes ahead to fetch the ambulance, and pretty soon it's trundling down the gravel with the Park Ranger right behind. We load Mark up, making sure he's got his pack with calories and water, none of the mandatory team gear, and at the last minute I grab his race camera so we can document the rest of our day. It wasn't much of a discussion that the 3 of us would continue. Mark even cheers us on to go after TOG and GOALS. We wish him the best medical care possible, and then re-mount our bikes for the remaining CPs.

Given our current location, we have to ride right past CP10 on our way to get CP8, which is a slight bummer but race rules are race rules. Andy's taken over the maps which isn't that far-fetched because I'm told he does a lot of co-navigation with Mark anyway, and I completely trust his leadership. I have a hard time getting back into race mode, and am not especially speedy on the singletrack. It's hard to endure such emotional swings like that. Teammates are teammates, regardless of how long we've known each other, and it's difficult to see one of us injured. We work our way through the remainder of the singletrack (8-10-9-12-13) and by the time we get to TA/CP13, we're back on a roll. Sure, we've lost a bunch of time and positions, but a lot can happen in 24 hours and we aim to make the most of our Wild Wonderful race!

TREK 3A (CPs 14-15-18-16-17-19)

It's fun in TA because the boys are plotting (something I normally do for Alpine Shop) so I get to do the "other" TA tasks, like switching everyone's shoes, packing up bikes, getting food out, etc. I notice one of my hair ties has gone missing but a race volunteer gives me hers - it's the little things that mean the most! Thank you! The bikes get loaded up for transport back to Race HQ and we are staring at a looooooooong trekking leg. Honestly, I couldn't be happier because I have been lacking in time-on-feet-with-pack recently so this will help my trekking toughness a lot. Ronny is not making it easy on us, either, it takes three pairs of eyes on the map to determine the "best" route. We settle on 14-15-18-16-17-19 and run out of TA.

Here beginnith mid-race selfies! Mark's got an old-school camera WITHOUT a rear-facing lens so this shows some real skill on my part.

We are in the mix with the Halfway There/Spokes, Etc, but they find a better way through the rhodo to CP15 and we are by ourselves again. Then we have some trouble with CP18, located in a shallow reentrant that we attacked too late. While we're relocating, we run into Rafael, aka Lone Wolf, who's racing solo male. Andy and Rafael work together to find our subtle reentrant and boom, there's the flag! Awesome! The four of us end up staying together for 16 and 17 too, and we both use the road route to CP19, since we are all running a bit low on water and are hoping to find a house with a hose. It's always exciting meeting non-adventure racers during a race, since we usually look all crazy (in spandex and very dirty) and unexpected. But, almost unfailingly, people are so kind. This time it's no different - we find a man with a hose and a beautiful, fierce Rottweiler. The four of us all fill up, say thank you, and hit the road running. After we hit CP19, it's down to the red trail (I don't know the name but it contours quite nicely along the New River Gorge) for some more easy trail running. Everyone's feeling pretty good at this point, and we're able to keep a great pace all the way to CP20.

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I think CP20 is the one where we had to climb a cliff to check a code stamped on a utility pole. By this time we'd caught another team in front of us (Race Day Rush, but we just called them "The Canadians"...because that's where they're from, eh?) so now we've got a 3-team convergence on the pole. Of course it's the girls who are sent scrambling up the loose cliff, and after we write the code down (after some confusion), the Canadians continue up the power cut while we (Odyssey) and Rafael (Lone Wolf) continue to CP21. 

We love adventure racing! So does Rafael, he's in the background.

One picture, three teams: The Canadians, Rafael, Odyssey.

TREK 3B (CPs 20-21-23-24-22-26-25-27-31-29-30-HQ)

1:24k USGS map. Our route from CP20 to HQ.

ACE Trail map.

Now that we've hit CP20, it's time for the real strategy to begin. We can collect the remaining 16 points in any order, either on foot or on bike. Our bikes are located at Race HQ/CP35 and are available to us at any time, but we also have to finish with them. Ronny's done a devlish job placing CPs - there is no obvious/best route back and we study the map for several minutes, determining which combinations are optimal. In addition to the USGS map, we have an ACE trail map which has a TON of trails marked on it. We decide to trek indirectly back to Race HQ and then pick up our bikes for the last few points. This means A LOT of time on foot, but like I said earlier, I'm thrilled about the chance to bash through the woods with my pack.

Shane and Andy cruising.

We work hard to collect as many CPs in the daylight as we can. ACE property is a confusing place. There are trails everywhere, and while most of them are marked, some of them have developed around-routes to avoid huge mud holes, and some are so overgrown they're hardly visible. To top things off, there are some parts of ACE property that have been strip mined, forming vertical earthen "cliffs" that can be impossible to down/up climb. Of course those areas are best shown on the USGS map and not the ACE trail map. It takes a masterful navigator to assimilate all of this information run cleanly through this area, and Andy's doing a great job. We're being super careful with our route choices, and it seems to help quite a bit that Rafael is keeping our same pace, giving all of us the confidence of staying found.

32? or 23? #racebrain

Night falls just before CP25, and we take a short break to put on lights and for Shane to change socks. Andy nails CP25 easily and then we make our way through the spiderweb of trails to CP27. We have a fairly obvious trail bend as an attack point, and we stride off into the briars confident that we're heading up the correct reentrant. Except, we can't find the punch. There are loads of other lights thrashing around the area, and it's so hard to tell if anyone else has found it. We have to relocate multiple times, first using the road to the NE and then the powerline to the S to re-attack. But then, success! There is nothing more satisfying than pinging a control flag after it's given you trouble. The next few controls are along the same powerline, so we trek along the powercut and cross our fingers it doesn't get too briar-y. I happen to be holding the USGS map at this point (Andy has been switching between them all night, and whoever's closer between me and Shane holds the other one) and have the itch to pull out my compass and help with the nav a little bit. Sure, these are about the easiest controls on the whole map because they have a HUGE handrail, but it's still fun to play navigator.

Realities of overnight racing - not really seeing your teammates for 8-12 hours.

Andy resumes navigational duties for CP30 and then back to HQ. Rafael is still with us and it's pretty awesome to see him doing so well. His navigation is solid! On the way back to HQ, we start seeing other teams and get word that TOG is finished. FINISHED! I'm not going to lie, it feels somewhat depressing to still have a TA plus 4 controls left at this point. We were hoping to be neck-and-neck with them for as long as possible, and now the gap is clearly going to be larger than we'd hoped. But the only way for us to enjoy a finish line is to keep trekking! So we do! We don't have too far to go until we're back at Race HQ. TOG is there, huddled by the fire, and we have a quick congratulatory chat with them as we transition onto our bikes for the last 4 points.

BIKE 3 (CPs 33-34-28-32-F)

USGS map of our final biking section.

ACE map of the same thing.

We bike out to CP33, punch that really easily, and then trek down to CP34 in our bike shoes. It requires a little creative footwork, but we make it and then climb back up to our bikes. We overshoot the attackpoint to CP28 just a bit, but Andy adjusts and uses a trail junction instead for another successful spike. Now we just have 1 more control left! And it's a toughie. We get to our hilltop easily enough (basically...go UP), but then have a really difficult time descending the spur to the correct trail. There seem to be a couple phantom trails in the area and none of us are processing that information very well right now. But we doggedly keep at it, and pretty soon Shane shouts that he's got the punch and we just have to ride home! On roads! Mostly downhill!

POST-RACE (21:20 total time, 4th overall but unranked)
We finish about 5am which is awesome. The sky is just starting the lighten up, and we've made it through the coldest part of the night without getting chilled. We have plenty of time to chat with Ronny and shower before breakfast is served at 7am. As we're walking to our cars, the door to the Sprinter van slides open and out pops Mark! He reports that he had surgery to remove the stick and is now on pain meds and antibiotics. The doctors wanted to keep him for a second overnight, but he somehow negotiated his early release and is eager to hear race stories. Of course we share them with him, and with the rest of the Wild Wonderful racers. It's a great finish line atmosphere, and especially because of the delicious pancake-and-eggs breakfast! Yum!

Overall, I was SO GLAD I made the trip out to West Virginia to race with Odyssey. I have to admit I'm proud that I can add in a 24hr race with only a few days' notice and not freak out. My body and my mind are familiar with the challenges that overnight adventure racing brings, and every race is another chance to work on getting stronger. The Odyssey boys, Andy, Shane, and Mark, were excellent teammates and I really enjoyed tromping around the woods with them, all sticks aside! These three are also racing Untamed New England with Jen in June so you can be sure I'll be cheering them on!

WANT MORE?
Team Commie Bar: http://teamcommiebar.blogspot.com/2014/05/team-commie-bar-at-odyssey-wild.html
Photos from ACE: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152212430814748.1073741918.6328979747&type=1
Team TOG: http://teamtoyotagbg.blogspot.com/2014/05/odyssey-wild-wonderful-race-report-2014.html
Results: http://www.oarevents.com/events/2014/documents/ResultsforWebWWAR14.pdf Pin It

Race Report: 2014 Mission 18hr AR

The MISSION 18hr adventure race in Versailles, IN was hotly contested this year, with the lead bouncing around between several teams throughout the day. I could share with you the race from Alpine Shop's perspective, but if you're a regular reader, you've seen plenty of that. I wanted to do something a little different for this race report. Turns out, members from the top 3 coed teams each wrote a quick race summary on AttackPoint, an online training log used by adventure athletes and orienteers across the world (and you can use it too, it's free!). I asked Hilary from Michigan Racing Addicts and Rachel from Bushwhacker if I could combine their race comments with mine, and give you a birds-eye view of the race as it developed over 18 hours. They agreed! So here it is! I've made a few edits for clarity and brevity, but kept true to their narrative as best I could. Also, sorry I don't have photos of the main USGS map we used, it's buried in David's van and we all know it could take months to extract it. 

MISSION follows the beat of its own slightly deranged drummer, and by that I mean there are always one or two "twists" that can be different from a traditional adventure race. First, the race almost always starts with a crazy prologue challenge. Second, the race consists of multiple loops that keeps teams returning to Race HQ/TA. Instructions for each loop are not revealed until the team has completed the previous loops, so the race is constantly evolving and requiring teams to adapt to new challenges. 

Part of the Race HQ area at Versailles State Park.

PRE-RACE
RACHEL: Friday night was rather enjoyable as we didn't have to do any race planning or plotting. So the evening was filled with gear prep and jokes of the gutter nature. Mike and I both forgot to bring our sleeping bags and made do with sheets from my car that had bike grease on them and whatever extra clothes we had for pillows. Thankfully it wasn't too hot or too cold, but I still didn't sleep all that well.

HILARY: We got pretty much NO info Friday night - not even what clothes to show up in. I guess we got a little extra sleep without having to plot and plan our routes, though I would have liked a general overview. We showed up in trekking stuff assuming some sort of foot prologue. 

EMILY: Alpine Shop rolled into Versailles ("ver-SALES") State Park right as dinner was about to start, and quickly met up with our friends from Bushwhacker, Silent Chasers, Michigan Racing Addicts, All-Terrain Females, and a bunch of other teams. We scarfed down a delicious lasagna dinner while listening to the Pre-Race Meeting, and then piddled with our gear until well after dark. Rachel had kindly reserved spots for us in their cabin, but when David and I went to go to sleep, everyone had already turned the lights out! What, like we have a race the next day or something? We tried to be as quiet as possible getting to sleep (or did we...), but I'm not sure anyone slept the best. I didn't find out about Rachel and Mike's sleeping bag situation until the next morning, and I'm sorry I didn't offer them any extra covers!


PROLOGUE
EMILY: Race HQ was located at the top of a hill/spur (about 880'), and at 0550, Brian revealed the prologue challenge: there were 10 CPs hung at 800' elevation, and we had to find 7 of them within 60 minutes to be given the maps and coordinates for the first loop. We were not given a map for the prologue - it was a true Easter Egg Hunt! At 0600, we made the choice to run down the northwest side of the hill/spur, given that it was the steepest hillside and we figured we had the best chance of spotting the first CP, which we could then use to gauge the rest of them. This strategy worked great initially as we found the first flag almost immediately. We debated going right (clockwise) or left (counterclockwise) from that CP, and guessed left. From there, we struggled to find the remaining flags and at the end of the 60-minute time limit, we only had 6. We knew Bushwhacker and MRA were ahead of us, as well as several other teams. We were frustrated with losing time on a chance decision, as we knew that every minute counts against teams of this quality. But, the only thing we could do was keep racing hard!

RACHEL: We were a little unsure of how to approach this at first, but Mike was wearing his altimeter watch, so once we found one we used that to track along the same elevation. The first area we went had some thick undergrowth and we only found 2 after 20 minutes, so we were concerned this wouldn't pan out for us. Then we found 2 more and headed to the north side of the hill the HQ was on. There we found 3 CP's in quick succession and were suddenly running back to HQ already! We were the first team to find 7, in 45 minutes. Teams were already lining up to get the instructions for the next segment once the hour mark hit - strategy to just save their legs since there was no penalty for not getting 7. 

HILARY: We took off on one direction... and were the only team to go that way. That doesn't bother us, though. We found one, and then continued on that contour and eventually found all 7. We got our 7th, and got back to the race start 10 minutes before the hour cutoff when they would mass distribute UTMs to those who didn't get them. Only 2 or 3 teams found 7 to get any advantage, so it didn't really have the intended effect of spreading teams out. Not a fan of this even though we got lucky and got the slight advantage.

BIKE 1 (CPs 1-8)
RACHEL: The first real section of the race was singletrack and road biking. We hit the singletrack first and Mike did a great job of navving us through the many trails in Versailles State Park, and picking select spots for some bike-whacking. We saw Michigan Racing Addicts a lot here, ahead of us after one of their own bike whacks, but we beat them to the first road point after we were done with the singletrack. We tried to push the pace on the road, taking advantage of our teammate Greg's super bike strength. Rode into HQ and transitioned to a paddle/trek. I think MRA came in not too long after us. Saw Alpine Shop biking in as we ran down the hill from HQ to the paddle put in, so we knew they weren't far behind.

HILARY: We quickly plotted and took off on the bike leg. THIS was a fun leg. It started with bike orienteering on the local single track trails, which were very nice. We did some creative route choice and managed to take the lead for maybe 20 minutes. Then, Bushwhacker made a better route choice and passed us back. Darn. We did a little road riding with CPs off the road for short runs into the woods. 

EMILY: We plotted the first 8 CPs and took off on our bikes. David was a little nervous with the trail mapping and on our attack to our first CP, we took a jeep road instead of the singletrack we wanted. We took a few minutes to figure that out, then bikewhacked up a short steep spur onto the singletrack and proceeded to hit the rest of the points cleanly. The trails contoured and switchbacked a lot, giving several opportunities for creative bikewhacking, and we took advantage of that where we could. There were several teams bouncing around us as well, but we were able to get some separation once we popped out onto the gravel and hit the two road points. On our return to Race HQ, we saw Bushwhacker running with their paddle gear and estimated their lead at about 10-15 minutes. MRA was plotting when we arrived in TA but left before us.

PADDLE 1A (CPs 9-13)

18hr teams starting the paddle in the banana boats!

RACHEL: The paddle gave us some strategy options - we were able to split up for the CPs which were located on the north part of the lake. Everything had to be punched on the same passport so this really just meant we could drop one person to trek to the points while the others paddled to a better location to pick them back up. We chose to get the only CP on the east side of the creek together on our way up to the northern-most point, drop Mike off to get the 3 CP's on the west side, then paddle back south and meet him back across from the put-in. I flubbed where to get out for the first CP and cost us a few minutes there. After we dropped Mike off and turned back downstream, we saw Hilary from MRA paddling alone upstream, quickly followed by Alpine Shop all together still, meaning they had the same strategy as us. Sure enough, after Greg and I made it to the southern meeting point, we saw Emily and Jeff pull up not too far away. Then it was a waiting game...will we see Mike or David first?? Otherwise Greg and I lounged and relaxed. Well, we did get water out of the boat and tie a daisy chain (part of our required climbing gear) to the front handle to help with the boat dragging Mike knew we would be doing soon due to a previous race experience in the area. We finally heard someone crashing down through the woods, thankfully it was Mike! He threw himself into the boat and we were off, lead intact for the time being. 

EMILY: We made it to the put-in in about 5th or 6th place overall, and immediately paddled northward to CP12. Since we could split up, we let David get CP12 on his own while Jeff and I waited in the boat. We ran into the all-boy team Youth For Christ here and chatted with them as David and their navigator worked together to punch. Jeff said something like "We're just waiting for our boy to get back" which the YFC people interpreted as Jeff and I were David's parents, racing as a family team. Ha! (It's funny because Jeff and David are closer to my parents' ages than my own.) We laughed about that for the rest of the race. David returned from CP12 and on our way up to the northernmost paddle point, we passed Hilary who was paddling MRA's boat by herself as Phil and Mike attacked the trekking. We also saw Bushwhacker paddling the opposite direction, having already dropped off their Mike. So we knew we were 3rd but anything could happen on the mini-trek. Jeff and I dropped David off again for CPs 10-13 and paddled south to pick him up, where we waited with Bushwhacker for a weirdly relaxing but also tense several minutes. Finally Mike emerged from the woods, and they took off! David came through about 10 minutes later, having made up some time which we were thrilled about. We portaged over the spillway/dam into Laughery Creek with MRA hot on our stern. 

HILARY: We got back and, as expected, we were paddling next but with a twist - we were allowed to split up on the first 4 points. We decided to drop Phil and Mike off on the south end so they could work together to get the points that were up on the ridge. I paddled the canoe solo north to what I figured was about to CP10. I had a little hand-drawn map with the river bends. It was an oddly leisurely paddle for the middle of the race. I got there, ate, drank, took a bathroom break, and maybe 5-10 minutes later, the guys showed up. Cool. We paddled back down, at a much faster pace, stopped for CP12 and somehow didn't notice the big wide path to it, probably losing more than 5 minutes looking for the reentrant in the thorny mess of roses. As we paddled up past where the guys had gotten out, we saw Alpine Shop pushing out to continue the paddle a hundred yards in front of us. Dropped to 3rd, but in sight of 2nd. 

 

PADDLE 1B (CPs 14-15)
RACHEL: We had to portage over the dam, then were paddling in a small, at times very shallow, creek. Lots of boat dragging and teeth gnashing. Then we got hit by a pretty severe thunderstorm - super heavy rain and some scarily close lightning. Quite a treat! Thankfully the storm passed without issue, but we were still paddling...and still paddling more after that. I didn't keep track of how long the paddle was but it was a serious section of paddling for an 18 hour race. Might have been quicker if we could have actually paddled the whole time, but who wants to do that when you can jump out and run with your boat instead? (sarcasm..) We started to see a yellow boat in the distance behind us, and our assumption that Alpine Shop would catch us on this section was coming true. They have some serious river reading skills and seem to be more efficient at the whole in-and-out-and-in of the boat thing. Finally we saw the bridge that signaled the takeout, and Alpine Shop pulled up right after us. 

EMILY: Laughery Creek was a slog...think USARA Nationals "adventure paddle" except longer and with less portaging and more pushing. Jeff and David were in and out of the boat hundreds of times. I was in the middle and only got out on the worst ones - it turned out to be more efficient to have just the boys hopping in and out, but of course this made me feel lazy. We hit CP14 with MRA right behind us, but after we started "paddling" again we were able to gain time on them. In the middle of this section we got rained on quite hard. but we kept working the creek and towards the end we caught up with Bushwhacker. I am proud of my teammates all the time, but after this paddle I was especially proud of them - they worked really hard on a difficult section, and we made up a good chunk of time on Bushwhacker.

HILARY: We saw this river before the race and talked about how we REALLY hoped we wouldn't be hauling canoes down this super low river. Oh, we were... for 4 hours. We did get out once to get CP14 up a hill. Oh, and we got out probably a hundred times due to being stuck on rocks. Well, Mike got out a hundred times. Phil and I got out fewer times than that, but too many times by probably a factor of ten. This would have been a fine paddle with 6" more water in the river. This was one instance where whitewater was neither exciting nor scary. Just a sign of annoyance to come. About halfway down, the thunderstorm started. If it was hard to see hidden rocks before, it was pretty much impossible in the rain. It felt like forever, but it was probably only 15-20 minutes. Eventually it cleared up. We tried to tell ourselves that this would help with the water level, but I think it was wishful thinking. Not a fun section.
 
TREK 1A (CPs 19-23)

Rachel returning back to Race HQ.

RACHEL: Unfortunately our map was too wet to plot the next section, but we could see we had a significant road run to start with, so we just decided to take off and air out the map for a mile or two and try again. After a while we saw a dumpster that looked like a great table for plotting, and gave it shot. While we were finishing up the plotting and route planning, Alpine Shop came into view, running up the road at a pretty good clip. We finished plotting right as they passed, so we ran and chatted with them for a bit. They had picked up a stray dog as a fourth teammate who looked quite content to run alongside, and he stayed with them as we eased back and they pulled ahead. The first CP on the section (CP22) was in the woods and we both used an obvious road intersection to dive in. We got to CP22 pretty much together, and then we decided to book straight north through the woods instead of heading back out to the road. Alpine Shop took a different route, to our relief as we didn't want to be navving next to them for the whole trek. When we hit the next road, we had a couple of route options to the next CP (CP21). We decided to run the road east then north until we hit a trailhead that would take us to a distinct trail bend that we could use to hit CP21. The CP was in the middle of a very flat section and had no distinct feature (and the clue was "change in forest maturity" - what??), so we wanted to be careful. Alpine Shop chose a different route, taking the west trail instead of the east one that we used. The trail map we were given didn't match reality exactly, but the distinct trail bend we were looking for was at least there, along with a nice old horse trail that led us directly to the control. We then tried to take another trail but ended up back in the woods when that didn't match up with where we wanted it to go. We thought we saw Alpine Shop running close by and assumed they were now ahead of us. We hit the next two CP's without issue and then headed into town for the rappel. 

Coordinates and supplemental trail map. We plotted all of these on our USGS map as well.

EMILY: After seeing Bushwhacker leave TA in a hurry, we turned our attention to our sopping wet map. MISSION is one of the only races I've seen to have "extra socks" on the mandatory gear list, and normally we would never consider carrying them for an 18hr race. But here, they turned out to be actually useful as we used David's extra socks to dry off our map and get the CPs plotted. Then we got going on a longish road run after seeing MRA take-out just as we were leaving. Close race! After a few kilometers we saw Bushwhacker relatively stationary on the roadside and were surprised to have caught them - turns out they were plotting. We had some friendly banter with them, and introduced our newest teammate - a collar-less black lab that was happily running beside us. We kept thinking it would turn around but it hadn't yet. We pulled just barely ahead of Bushwhacker on the road, but ended up all attacking CP22 together after Mike executed a freaky-fast bushwhack. We took different exit routes from CP22 which I know we preferred and I think Bushwhacker did too. 

CP21 had a sketchy clue "change in forest maturity" and a sketchy location - hung in a nearly featureless (i.e. flat/no contour lines) location on the USGS map. The supplemental trail map showed a large bend in the trail so we took a super-conservative route to the second western trailhead, then onto the "X" trail looking for the bend. Very little about the western portion of the trail matched the supplemental map and David was going crazy trying to assimilate both maps. We also couldn't picture what a "change in forest maturity" would look like. We ended up attacking off of the property corner boundary but no luck. We canvassed the area, no luck. I tried to ask the black lab for help but he just wagged his tail. We finally popped out onto the eastern portion of the trail and were going to relocate from one of the eastern juctions. But before we got there, we noticed an obvious bend with an unmapped, overground connector trail branching off of it. We took it on a whim and found CP21. We were happy to have got the CP but frustrated at how much time we lost! Time to GET OUT of those woods!

With the dog still with us, we ran north to CPs 20 and 19. We tried to shoo it away before Hwy 50, but it crossed with us and was almost hit twice. I screamed. The dog made it to the other side alive, and we caught up with MRA at CP20. We each took different routes to the waterfall at CP19 but they were about equal after we both had trouble finding the physical punch, hung several meters above and to the side of the waterfall itself. We knew the next CPs were in town so yelled at the dog and tried hitting it with a stick. It wasn't fun but finally stopped following us. We ran as much as we could on paved Hwy 50 climb into Versailles.

HILARY: We finally got out of the water a bit before 4:00pm. Alpine Shop was in TA finishing plotting the next section - a foot trek back to Race HQ. With our soaking wet map, the plotting was challenging - even with a sharpie. We got our points and started moving, but we were tired and stiff, so not as much running as we would normally do. We weren't feeling a lot of hope for catching the two speedy teams in front of us. We picked up the few points that brought us up to the North, including a "vegetation boundary" that wasn't (CP21), a weird building foundation on a hill, and a waterfall. At the foundation CP, we were surprised to run into Alpine Shop, who had picked up a buddy along the way - a friendly black lab, who befriended us as well. As we all headed out toward Versailles they yelled at the dog to make it run away, effectively pawning him off on us. We tried doing this as well, but eventually, the dog joined back up with us. Highway 50 was "legal but discouraged" by the race director, but it was the shortest way into town so we took it anyway. Unfortunately, this dog kept finding us and then randomly running out on the highway. Cars were giving us evil looks like we were the worst people ever running down the road with our backpacks and unleashed dog. I was mouthing "not ours" at them. I doubt that helped.

TREK 1B (CPs 16-18)

The water tower!

RACHEL: I am not exactly a heights person, so climbing straight up a water tower on a rung ladder 120 feet, then rappelling back down didn't look like a ton of fun to me. Somehow I made it through getting up there without freaking out (using a song to keep my rhythm of climbing and mind off the height helped!), but once ready for the rappel, it took an extra 5 minutes for me to figure out exactly how to get over the railing. If I were taller it would be no problem, but it was awkward for me. I closed my eyes for most of the way down too!

On our way out from the tower we saw Alpine Shop running towards us, to our surprise. David said something about CP21 (the forest maturity one), and we realized they had had trouble and we now had a good 20 minutes on them.

Somewhere on that trek section we all ran out of food, too. I had packed all of my food for the whole race, but knew I was short and was planning to bum off Mike and Greg towards the end of the race. However, when we transitioned to the paddle, we didn't restock their food as much as we needed to, so neither of them had more than just a few hours of food with them. I shared mine and ran out myself as well, so we were all in a definite hole calorie-wise by this time. We somehow managed to run the rest of the trek through town and back up to the HQ (okay we walked the last hill...more like plodded). I think Mike's comment was that he felt "hollow," so we knew we needed to eat, quickly!

EMILY: Finally dog-free, we ran straight into town and got a split on Bushwhacker as they were leaving the rappel - I think we were about 20-30 minutes down at that point. We got to the water tower, climbed up the 120' ladder, and rappelled off. I went first and took my time getting over the railing, then everything else was fine. Except, the dog was at the bottom!! It had followed MRA instead, and I felt really bad that they had to deal with that not-smart animal on the busy road. Once the boys were done with the rappel, we got the other CP in town, and the covered bridge CP18 on the way back to Race HQ. The dog was still with us entering the park. Once back at HQ, we learned that Bushwhacker had left about 5 minutes ago but we still needed to plot the next section. 

HILARY: We made it to the water tower for the rappel with the dog still alive. We had to climb up the ladder to the rail on the water tower and then rappel down. The safety on the climb was a prussic, but I would have much preferred an ascender. I would have felt safer and it would have been easier than manually pulling this prussic up the rope. The climb was the hardest part. The rappel was a rappel. After picking up 2 points on the way back to the TA, we moved on to the bike section, which they said wasn't the last leg.

BIKE 2A (CP 26)
RACHEL: Once back at Race HQ we gorged ourselves. I even ate some protein frog gel thing Mike had that was absolutely disgusting. We had a big biking section ahead of us, and knew there were even more CP's once we got done with that. This transition took a little longer because of that, but it was much needed. Finally we were on our bikes and ready to hit it.

We could do the bike loop clockwise or counterclockwise, and Mike chose clockwise, which worked out really well. The first CP (CP26) actually had an extra challenge at it - we had to paddle a raft across the river and get the punch on a hilltop. The hill was insult to injury for us since we were still waiting for our food to hit our legs, but we made it back across and were happy to do that in the daylight instead of later at night. As soon as we got back to our bikes, Alpine Shop rolled in, looking strong. So we knew they chose the same route, and had made up some time on us to boot.

EMILY: We plotted and zoomed out after Bushwhacker. The bike section was a big road loop that we chose to go clockwise on. It should be noted that Jeff decided to put on dry socks and his "good" mountain bike shoes for this. At the first CP, we saw Bushwhacker and initially were surprised to have made up that much time. But it turns out CP26 was a surprise paddle event and they were just leaving. We took an inflatable raft and toy paddles down to the lake, hiked it across a mud flat and then paddled to the opposite shore, hiked up a pretty steep hill for the punch, then paddled and mud-slogged back. Jeff's shoes were not dry after this fun little event and we were sure to remind him of that for the rest of the bike. 

HILARY: We took off on what looked to be a clean road ride so everyone put on dry stuff except me (I hadn't brought it). Our first planned point changed things. When we arrived, they told us we had to paddle a raft with mini paddles across the lake and get the point up on the hill. I hate surprises and "special challenges" like this. The water was too shallow, so we were mid-calf in muck. It was really just a gratuitous out and back in the mud to get us dirtier. Annoying and time wasting.

BIKE 2B (CPs 24-31)
RACHEL: After CP26 it was just digging deep to keep a fast pace on the bike. Greg and I took turns pulling while Mike waited for his calories to kick in. Mike's calories kicked in right about the time Greg started to really feel the fact that his rear brake had been rubbing the whole time, probably taking an extra 10% effort level out of him. We made it through a couple of out and backs without seeing Alpine Shop, so we were holding on to hope that we could see it through.

EMILY: Once back on our bikes, we chased HARD. Jeff and David alternated the biggest pulls and I put in a couple shorties. We kept hoping to see Bushwhacker's blinkie lights appear ahead of us and it just didn't happen. Even after the sun went down, we all still felt good and I was starting to lose hope that we would catch them. The nav was simple enough on roads, and all of the drivers we encountered were very polite. On the last out-n-back, we finally saw Bushwhacker's lights, cheered for them, and guessed that they had about a 10 minute lead still. We knew the race would come down to the final trek so we rode back into Race HQ pumped up.

HILARY: We got back on the bikes and hammered as much as we could. At least I felt like we were pushing the pace. About a third of the way through, my rear derailleur started acting up when I was in middle ring, so I was only able to use my big and small rings. I eventually settled on using mostly big and standing on the hills. Cross-chaining! At CP28, we had to make a choice - go down and get CP30 to try to clear the course or skip it and be sure to get back before the cut off. I was thinking we would probably make it, but the guys thought definitely not, so we skipped it. 

TREK 2 (CPs 32-35)

Supplemental map for final trek.

RACHEL: Once we made it back to the Race HQ, we quickly plotted the last trek. We were down to a little more than an hour of racing before the cut-off, so we knew immediately we weren't going to clear the course. Mike made the decision to just go for the two closest and easiest points, and maybe a third if there was time when we got the second. We ran down to the first one, another mile or two of road running since we hadn't had enough earlier. On our way back up we saw Alpine Shop running down to it as well, and estimated that we still had about 10 minutes on them. The clock was ticking, and at this point we knew it was impossible for us to get the third. We were just going to get the second one and then wait and see if Alpine Shop was moving quickly enough to get the third CP themselves. We soldiered through the last two climbs, up to the CP and then up to Race HQ, finishing with 34/36 CP's in 17 hours and 37 minutes. After a mere 11 minutes, Alpine Shop finished, having only punched the same two CP's we got. The third place team was our friends Silent Chasers, who managed to finish the full bike loop with less than one minute to go to the cutoff!! 

EMILY: We got back to Race HQ with about 55min remaining and 4 points left. Bushwhacker was gone but we TAd quickly and got out as well. We thought we had time for 2, mayyyybe 3, of the remaining CPs. We saw Bushwhacker on our first out-n-back for closest CP so we knew they had same route choice. As we were running to our second CP, we had a big strategy conversation and decided that we would not have enough time for a third, so our only chance for the win was to hope that Bushwhacker got greedy with 3 CPs/overtime. We ran back to Race HQ and saw Bushwhacker waiting for us at the finish line, having made the smart choice of getting only 2 CPs and therefore the win!

HILARY: We arrived at the finish missing 1 CP at 11:22pm. We still had almost 40 minutes , but DINO said we had to get 2 CPs to make continuing on the final trekking loop worth it and it didn't look doable in the time we had, so we called it a day.

POST-RACE
RACHEL: The race was tough in the regard that there was a lot of road running, which seems to be common for DINO races, and the paddle was probably one of my more memorable ones as well. I actually felt pretty good the whole race, though, so that was nice. Exciting and close race, awesome job to Alpine Shop, Silent Chasers, and Michigan Racing Addicts for pushing hard and getting it done!

EMILY: Obviously we were bummed about the prologue and CP21 but what can you do. Bushwhacker ran a great race and I was stoked to see my 2 Cowboy Tough teammates crush it. As always, it was really fun to hear everyone's race stories as we all hung out eating meatball sandwiches and SALAD!!! 

HILARY: A 2 Male team, Silent Chasers, came in 10 seconds before the cut off with all the bike points, and edged us out for 3rd overall. We ended up with 3rd in the 3-coed, though. Overall, it was a solid race and we were happy with how we did.

WANT MORE?
Final results: http://www.dinoseries.com/storage/results/2014/mission/MissionResults2014.html
Adventure Capitalists/BDAR: http://heathersyapcrap.blogspot.com/2014/05/2014-mission-18-hour-adventure-race.html

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