The Coast to Coast 72-Hr AR (2007)

I will try to make this as short as possible, but a report on an 80 hour race is not easy to make short.  So relax, sit back an enjoy....

The Coast to Coast.  After 4 times of doing this race, it still amazes me what we are willing to put ourselves through for just fun.  This race was without a doubt the toughest thing I have ever, ever done.  Harder than any Ironman, and harder than any of the previous three C2C's.  But it was also the most fun, most exciting, and most rewarding race I have ever done.

We arrived in St. Augustine on Thursday afternoon, but I am not gonna bore you with all the details about registration, check-in, and pre-race meeting.  Let's get right to it.

The Start - 15 mile Trek (1)

Friday morning we started the race in a parking lot off A1A in St. Augustine.  The plan was for us to run down the beach, but due to turtle hatching season we were forced to run down the road.  So at 6:28am, we started the first leg, a 15 mile trek.  The first 4.5 miles of the trek were on A1A and the rest were in a beautiful and remote wildernesss area.  There we 2 CP's (checkpoints) we had to collect along the way, but they were fairly easy to find.  We ran a good portion of it just to get a good rythym going.  we arrived at TA1 (transition area) after a few hours.

The Bike (1) - 20 Miles

The second leg of the race was a quick and easy 20 mile ride on paved roads.  It was basically just a way for us to make it over to the St. John's River where we would start our first paddling section.  Luckily, we had a tail wind and so we hammered it.  We kept a good 20-21mph average most of the way.  We did almost get killed once when a dump truck came by us so close I thought it was going to take my elbow out.  The closest call I've ever had on a bike.

The Paddle (1) - 19 miles

We arrived at TA2, ate and changed pretty quickly before heading out on our first paddling section.  We started by paddling about 5 miles across the St. John's River.  The wind was very strong and the waves were HUGE!  So big in fact that we had to be careful in steering our boats in order to keep from capsizing.  A few of the waves hit us and splashed right over us filling the boat with water.  But once we finally made it across and into Black Creek, it was smooth sailing.  Once in Black Creek, the paddling was easy.  We had a tailwind and the water was calm.

Black Creek was a great river.  Really beautiful.  We saw a lot of skiiers, wakeboarders and other types of water crafts.  Fun stuff.  Most of the way we could see Jason (who was racing solo) ahead of us.  We closed the gap on him, but never quite caught him.   We picked up a couple CP's along the way and made it to TA3 sometime in the mid Friday afternoon.

The Bike (2) - 70 Miles

At TA3 we again moved quickly and tried to waste as little time as possible.  Jason was there ahead of us and left the TA shortly after we arrived.  He looking good and so far enjoying the solo race.

This next leg of the race was going to be about 70 miles of mountain biking through several parks and wilderness areas, collecting several CP's along the way.  We wanted to try and get as many as possible before the sun went down, so we moved fast.  And ti wasn't going to be that easy, most of the riding on this leg were going to be off road, which means only one thing...sand.  Nasty, nasty soft sand.

The first few CP's we had to find in a state park were not easy to find.  They required good navigational skills.  On the way to what turned out to be the hardest of them all, CP5, we meet up with about 4 other teams.  We came to an intersection were all of them decided to go one way.  But I was not so sure they picked the right way.  So we let them go and had a quick team meeting to discuss what we should do.  Charlie, Jim and I studied the map and the location of CP5, and after a couple minutes decided to attack it from a different point.  So we continued on and our plan paid off huge.  We found CP5 in no time.  And it turned out that a lot of other teams, unfortunately including Jason, had a very hard time finding it.  This move moved us to the front of the race.  We found ourselves running just behind the leaders along side a couple other teams.

The rest of the bike was a good combination of soft sand and packed roads.  But one in particular, Sapp Rd, was completely miserable.  It was 6 miles of pure soft sand were you would pedal for 10 feet and have to get off your bike to walk.

So after picking up all the CP's and biking nearly 70 miles, we arrived at TA4 sometime around 4:30ish on Saturday morning.  We were the 5th team to arrive.

It was there that we found out that somewhere behind us Jason had huge bike problems.  His tire blew out and he tried changing the tube 5 times before realizing he needed a new tire.  So he walked his bike, all alone and through the middle off the night, until Erica come come by and drop him off a new tire.  He said it completely sucked!  I couldn't imagine walking by yourself in the middle of the night through some of the remote areas we were in.

The Trek (2) - The Death March

We stayed at TA4 the longest, and actually got about 45 minutes of sleep.  We ate, changed, and relaxed before heading out in the next leg which was going to be long and hot.  Just before we left, Jason came in.  He was looking pretty rough, but still in good spirits.  We left the TA around 6:30am.

This trekking leg proved to be one of the the toughest in the entire race.  It looking pretty simple on the map.  Find 3 CP's and go to the next TA.  But actually, instead of CP's they were called SP's, because they were 'Swamp Points.'  Checkpoints located in the middle of swamps.  And getting to them was not easy.

We took a trail that led us to the swamp were SP1 was located.  The swamp was huge, and somewhere int he middle of the thick of it, was a small flag we had to find.  Talk about a needle in a haystack.  So we gave it our best shot and trekked into the swamp.  Once inside, we ran into several other teams looking for the SP.  In fact, every team that had left before us was still looking for it.  We looked around for a while and more and more teams kept coming in.  That was when we ran into Jason making his way in looking for the SP.

Jason joined us in the search, but it was to no avail.  So we decided to get out of the swamp and start again.  This time Jason took his time.  Read the map, picked his bearing, and said, let's go.  For the next 30 minutes the 5 of us played a game of leapfrog.  One person would shoot a bearing to a particular spot while the 4 others would walk to it.  Once there, one of them would shoot a bearing, while the rest would move ahead, and so on.  The swamp was pretty thick so we had to do some serious bushwhack in order to move forward.  Jason had calculated that if we kept a direct bearing for 580 meters, we would hit the SP.  Well, 30 minutes later we got to 580 meter, and wouldn't you know it, the SP was there!!!!  Just mere feet away from where we expected it to be.  We could still hear tons of teams all around looking for it.  But we kept quiet and got of there as quickly as possible.

Finding SP1 turned out to be huge for our race.  In the end we found out that only 4 or 5 teams found it.  Including some of the best navigators in adventure racing.

For SP2 we employed the same strategy and found it fairly quickly.  A bunch of other teams simply followed us and found it as well.

But SP3 was a completely different story than the previous 2.  SP3 was alos in the middle of a swamp, except it was a HUGE, huge swamp.  Simply shooting a bearing and following it was not that simple because it was so much distance to cover, and the bushwhacking was very tough.

But we still gave it a go at it.  First we trekked around a bunch of trails trying to find a way in to the SP.  No luck.  Then we went back and Jason, Jim, and Charlie tried following a bearing to it.  It took them nearly 1.5 hours before making it back.  They were covered in shit from head to toe.  Scratched up and bleeding, and still no SP.  We spent nearly 4 hours looking for the SP before finally giving up and skipping it, like every other team had done.

Now we had about a 8 mile trek to TA5.  It was long and it was hot.  Oh so hot!!  It was the middle of the day and the sun was full on.  And we were all exhausted.  So those 8 miles were probably the hardest 8 miles we did in the entire race.  But when we finally made it to TA5 and found out that we were one of the only teams to find SP1 and SP2, it was all worth it.

The Bike (3)

We left on the 3rd bike leg at around 8:30 on Saturday night.  Jason was now racing with us, which was a lot of fun.  This was going to be a fairly easy, yet long bike leg.  After finding a few more CP's, it ended up taking us about 4 hours.

Although the riding was easy, this is about the time in a long race when the sleepmonsters start crawling in.  Each one of us starts getting to the point were keeping our eyes open is just hard.  Hallucinations begin and anything and everything is funny.  It's a very interesting state of mind to experience.  As Jason put it sometime in the middle of the night, "I've never done acid, but I expect it would feel a lot like we feel right now."  It's during this time that team dynamics become critical.  We have to keep each other talking and entertained.  Basically keep each other doing anything that will keep your mind off how tired we are.  So we talk.  About anything and everything.  we make jokes, some which makes absolutely no sense, but we laugh anyway.  We even start telling each other about our hallucinations and we each other is 'seeing'.  At one point, I could see my legs breathing.  Yeah, try to make sense of that one.

Anyway, after a long 4 hours, we finally made it to TA6.  And then the race really began for us.

Time Constraints

When we arrived at TA6 we were told that we had to be at the ropes section by 8:00am in order to stay on the long course.  The ropes section was about 3.5 miles into the next trekking leg.  So basically it came down to this.  We had to paddle about 30 miles down the Suwannee River in about 6 hours.  That would put us at TA8 by 7:00am.  Then we would have 1 hour to run, yes run, 3.5 miles to the ropes section, and we had to pick up 1 CP along the way.

So as tired as we were, we had no time to waste.  We changed into our paddling gear and in less than 40 minutes, at about 12:45am, we were in the river.

The Paddle (2)

Paddling at night is fun, but also scary.  It's hard to see and in a rive with a lot of turns and a lot of debris, you are constantly having to pay attention so as to not run over logs or rocks that can tear a fiberglass kayak in two.

For us it was slow going at first.  Again we were incredibly tired and we tried to keep each other talking and keep our minds away from thinking about sleep.  I wish I could remember some of the stuff we talked about, but then again probably none of it would make any sense right now.

From what little we could see, the river was beautiful.  Lots of rock formations on the shores and a nice tree canopy most of the way.  We sang, we talked about farts, sex, music, racing, food, etc.  And we got more and more tired with each passing minute.

But at around 5:00am we could start to see the night sky fading away.  We knew that if we just pushed a little farther, the sun would be out soon.  And sure enough, by around 5:30ish the sun started shining through and to us it was like crack.  Just like that we were completely awake again.  It amazing how sunshine affect you that way.  From 5:30 on we paddle our asses off.  We [b]HAD TO[/b] make it to make it to TA7 before 7:00am so we could change and run the 3.5 miles to the ropes before 8:00am.  We had to.

So we paddle hard and fast and we finally arrived at TA7 at 6:42am.

To make matters worse, our support crew did not expect us there so quickly, so they were not ready for us.  They were all sleeping and we could not find them.  We were running around like crazy trying to get all our trekking gear and food supply ready.  It was total chaos!  But we rushed and rushed and finally left TA7 on foot at 7:05am.  And now the fun began.

The Trek (3) - Run Forrest Run!!

And so we ran.  Now over 48 hours into the race and with just about 40 minutes of sleep, and we ran our asses off.  Running right along side the Suwannee River, never stopping.  There was one CP we had to find before getting to the ropes section, and it proved to be a bitch!

CP7 was on a tree overhanging the river and finding it was hard.  Jason and I decided to look for it while the others continued running.  It was here that Jason hurt himself.

We were standing on the edge of the river on a rocky terrain.  J asked me to hold something for him and as he reached out for me he slipped on the rocks, fell on his chest and slipped about 4 feet down into the river.  He hit hard!  I thought for sure he had broke something.  He got back out of the river and he had a nasty, nasty cut on his right chin on his leg.  It was bleeding badly.  But this was not time to be concerned with such things.  He brushed it off like it was nothing and we continued on.  We finally found CP7 and continued running madly towards CP8 (the ropes).

I felt pretty good at this point so I took off running like a bat out of hell.  We quickly caught back up with our group and I continued on.  Running faster than I think I ever have before, even though I was carrying a backpack with about 25 pounds of gear on my back.

I got to CP8 barely able to breath.  I asked the volunteer in charge, "did we make it?'  And he said, "yeap, it's 7:59."  We were still on the full course.  Then I blacked out for a few minutes.  =)

At the ropes section we were able to rest for a little bit because there was a team in front of us, and only one person could get on the line at a time.

We had two ropes sections.  We had to traverse the Suwannee River, then trek up the river about 3 miles, then traverse it again.  It was kinda cool.  I have some pictures of it I will post later.

After the ropes we had another 8 - 10 mile trek where we had to find 3 more CP's.  Again, it was during the hottest part of the day so it was miserable.  We were all still so tired and now after working so hard to get to the ropes, we were really hurting.  But we had no time to waste.  We had other time cut off and we couldn't miss them.

Jason and I worked together in navigating and find the next 3 CP's.  And finally, at around 4ish Sunday afternoon we arrived at TA8.

Again, we had no time to sit around and rest.  We were told that we had to leave TA8 by 5:00pm.  Also we had to arrive at TA9, and be off on our bikes by 9:00pm.  So we had to rush.  We were so damn tire we almost considered just giving up and taking the short course option, but we knew better than that.  We had worked hard and with a little more hard work we could stay on course.  Plus that this point, there were only 5 teams on the full course and two of them were us.

So again we moved fast and got out of TA9 quick.

The Paddle (3)

We freaking HAMMERED the paddle!!  We finished it in 3.5 hours, about 40 minutes faster than the closest team.  The fastest time split for that section!!

We reached TA9 at 8somethingish and had just a few minutes to rest and change as we had to leave there by 9:00pm.

We left on our bikes at 8:52pm.

The Bike (4)

Now over two and half days into the race, with very little rest and just about 45 minutes of sleep, we started the last biking leg of the race.

We had just 4 CP's to find, but there were not going to be easy.  The first one, CP25, started out to be a bitch.  It was in the middle of nowhere and getting to it seemed impossible.  But after trying to find it for about an hour, Jason found another way to approach it.  And wouldn't you know it, we found a couple fire roads that led us right to it!  It was a huge find for us! And got us all pumped up.

Finding CP25 however proved to be hard.  So much so in fact that we made a tough decision and decided to skip it.  We were tired and still had to bike about 25 miles before reaching TA10, and then we had one more paddle before the finish.  So we decided to skip CP's 26, 27, and 28 and just head straight to the TA.  The way we figured it.  We had more CP's than most teams so we should still be in pretty good standing.  And Jason knew he had his race locked.  Out of the three Solo teams, one had dropped out and the other one was on the short course, so J had 1st place locked.  He just had to make it to the finish line.

The ride to TA10 was slow moving.  We actually stopped twice and slept for about 30 minutes because it was getting dangerous for us to ride without causing a crash.  Plus now that we had decided to skip those last 3 CP's we knew we had plenty of time.

Once again on Monday morning around 5am it started getting light out again, so it was like a boost of energy.  Now a full 72 hours into the race, we arrived at TA10 by around 7:15am, and by 7:45am, we were off on the last leg to the finish line!

The Paddle (4) - The Finish!!

The last paddle was about 12 miles down the Steinhatchee River.  Simple and easy paddle in a very calm river, but we were all so tired that it was really slow moving.  We helped each other once again and kept each other moving, knowing than in a couple short hours we'd be finally done.

At 10:40am on Monday morning we finally reached our destination.  The finish line!!  We had started in St. Augustine in what seemed like a lifetime ago, and had arrived in the West coast 76 hours later.

We ate and drank a well deserved cold beer as soon as we got out of the boats!

About 2 hours later the awards ceremony began.

Hoof Hearted (Jason) and Nature Calls (us) were in the top 5 teams.  We were two out of the only 5 teams that had made the full course.  As expected, Jason had taken 1st place in the solo category.  KICK ASS!!!  We ended up in 3rd place in the Coed Elite division!!!  The 2nd place team had just as many CP's and points as we did, but they had made it to the finish line about an hour before we did.

I was so damn excited!!  In the previous three C2C's I've done I have never finished the full course.  The first attempt we bailed after 52 hours of racing, and the next two attempts we finished on the short course.  But not this time.  This time not only did I finish the full course, but I felt better than I ever had before.

So all in all it was an amazing experience.  The course was excellent and the race was fun.  But the best part was my teammates.

The Support Crew

I can't say enough about our support crew.  Erica, Orion, Ashley, Maggie, and Matt.  These guys were simply incredible.  Imagine giving up your weekend to spend it out chasing us around and taking care of us.  It's not a job I wish on anyone.  Yet these guys were the best I've ever seen.  They never complained and took care off us better than I would have ever expected.  Anytime we arrived at a TA, they were there ready to do and help us out in any way possible.  It is a fact that without the incredible help we got from our support crew we would have never been able to finish the race.  The kept us motivated and going when we felt the worst.  And got us moving at times when we felt like quitting.   So thank you guys!  You rock!!

THE TEAM

Finally I want to give thanks to my team.  Jim, Lori, and Charlie were amazing partners!  We worked great together and had excellent team dynamics.  I would race with them across the globe anyday!

And being able to join up and race side by side with Jason made the race that much more fun, entertaining, and better!  Jason still amazes me when it comes to racing.  He is truly the man!  Every time I race with Jason I learn more and more about how to be the best at this sport.  Thanks J!!

---- Race Photos (click here) ----

The BOAR 6-Hr AR (2007)

Yesterday I raced in The BOAR Adventure Race, a short ~4-hour race out in East Orlando.  It was my first attempt at a solo race since I couldn't get any of my regular peeps to race with me.  But I figured if I am ever gonna do a race solo, this is probably a good one to try first.

The race didn't start until 10:45AM.  After opening our instructions packet the first thing we had to do was to remove the front tire of our bikes and roll them (on the ground) around this dirt road which was about 1/8 mile.  It was mainly done to space out the teams.  After that we jumped on our bikes and took off hauling ass North on the Flagler Trail in Snow Hill.

Team Dirty Fish took off first, followed closely by Jason Willems (another solo), and behind him was Team Jim's Bicycles.  I took off 4th just behind JB.  I quickly caught up to Jim's and they were very nice to let me slip by them on the single track.  Ahead of me I could see Dirty Fish.

The bike sections of this race were unique.  We never used a map to navigate the bike, but rather had to reach specified points where we had to stop, shoot a bearing in some direction and ride to the next point where we had to do the same.  For example, for our first bike leg we had to travel at 0° for 1.7 miles.  From there we had to go .8 miles at 40°, and so on.

By the time we reached the first turn I was with Dirty Fish, and passed them.  Now I was riding on soft sand, and I could see the tire track made by the current leader, Jason Willems.  We continued shooting bearings and taking several trails until we finally reached the bike drop off area.  Jason was still ahead, I arrived in 2nd.

After quickly dropping off the bike I took off on foot towards the bridge at Snow Hill Rd where our boats were waiting.  It was about this time that it started pouring down really, really hard!

I reached the boats just in time to see Jason start his paddle.  I quickly grabbed my solo boat (which was a freaking bathtub).  As I was putting in the water Teams Dirty Fish and Jim's Bicycles got there.  So I quickly got in my boat and started paddling West (upstream) on the Econ River.

The paddle upstream was tough.  Not only was I paddling a bathtub, but the water level on the Econ was low, I was going against the current, and against the wind.  And it was windy!  Plus, I hate paddling.  So it was tough going.  The rain was still pouring down.  So hard in fact that I could barely see because the water kept running down my eyes.

About halfway up the river, Dirty Fish came flying by my like they were using a motor.  Those guys can freaking canoe!  The paddle was long and tough, but I finally reached the TA, just behind Dirty Fish and just ahead of Jim's Bicycles who were right on my butt.

After dropping off the boats, we took off on foot for a somewhat short trekking section with 5 check points.  And it was here that I made two huge navigational mistakes.  For some stupid reason, I skipped CP2 (which was the closest) and went straight to CP3.  I got CP3 and CP4 and then started trekking backs towards CP2.  That was mistake number 1.

Mistake number 2 was on my way to CP2.  I came out on the trail I wanted to be on.  And I knew, I FREAKING KNEW, I had to go West to get to CP2.  So I looked at my compass and started heading West.  Next thing I knew, I ran right into CP5.  CP5?!?  How the hell did I get to CP5??  I was so confused!

So I picked up CP5 and looked at my compass again. Turns out that even though I knew I had to be heading West towards CP2, I was reading my compass and heading East.  Basically, I had a huge brain fart and was reading my compass backwards.  DOH!!!  I again I had to completely backtrack to CP2.  After all that lost time, I finally got it.

I ran as much as I could trying to make up some time.  Along the way I ran into Greg and his son Andrew, Team Super Heroes.  They were moving really well.  At CP6 I ran into Jason who was on his bike.  Turns out that he was a bit confused and wasn't supposed to be there.  But that comes into play later.

Anyway, I finally got back to the bikes with Jim' Bicycles and Super Heroes.  We took off on our bikes again shooting bearing and following the predefined track.  But I had forgotten that if we came to an intersection were the trail split up, we were to follow the 'ping markings' that Kyle had put up for us.  So I once again made a navigational mistake, got on the wrong trail, and by the time I figured it out and back tracked I had lost some some time.  But this was a bike section, my specialty, I can make up time right?!  Wrong!

Kyle had decided to put a really nice bike whacking section which was really tough to get through.  There was no biking.  Just pushing your bike through some real nasty crap.  But I have to admit, it was a lot of fun.

This was the first time I realized how comfortable I felt being out there.  I was out in the middle of some swamp, all by myself, carrying my bike through some thick bush, and I felt totally at home.  In fact, I felt more at home and more comfortable than if I was riding my road bike by myself through Bay Lakes.

Anyway, on the sections I could ride I tried to push hard.  The single track wasn't very technical, just a lot of turns and roots.  I ended up once again catching up to Super Heroes and go back to the boat area just ahead of them.  It was there that I found out that I was running in 3rd.  With Dirty Fish and Jim's Bicycles ahead of us.  This is where I wondered what happened to Jason Willems.

So now we got back on the boats and had to paddle back to where we picked them up earlier that morning.  But this paddle was much easier.  It was now downstream and most of the way with a really nice tailwind.

After dropping of the boat we got back on foot for another trekking section.  This time we had to go back to CP6 (where I had seen Jason) and find a few more check points before making our way back to our bikes.  At CP5 I once again ran into Greg and Team Super Heroes.  And shortly after that I saw Jason (another solo) coming up on us.  But it turns out that Jason had missed CP5 and had to go back to it.  Phew!

So I took the opportunity and ran as hard as my legs would let me all the way back to the bikes! I knew if I could only get on the bike ahead of Jason, I could probably hold him off.  And I did.

The last bike leg was basically an easy ~5mile ride to the finish line.  I pushed hard and tried to make up time on the guys ahead, while opening a gap on Jason.

So I reached the finish line in 3rd overall, 1st solo.  But I was not done yet.  I was given a GPS unit, two sets of coordinates, and was told I had to go find two geochaches that were located near those coordinates.  Found the first one pretty easily.  The second one was a bit harder.  Team Dirty Fish was still there looking for it.  So the three of us worked together.  After searching for a few minutes, I found it cleverly hidden behind a tree, underneath a boardwalk.  That has Dr. Ron written all over it!  =)

So Dirty Fish and I ran back to the finish together, finally finishing the race!

Jason was just behind us.  And I think Figjam was the 5th team in.

In my opinion, Kyle did an awesome job!  The course was excellent, well marked (unless you are an idiot like me), and lots of fun.  The bike whack and the trek were great!

And as always, it was fun getting to race with all the AR friends I've made over the years.  Jim's Bicycles, Figjam, Dirty Fish, Greg Owens, Jason, etc.

I really enjoyed the solo race.  I thought I might feel a bit lost out there all by myself, but I never did.  As I said before, I felt so comfortable, it was a great feeling!  Of course, I am sure it would be a totally different experience racing solo on a night race.  Someday I'll find out.

See you guys at the Coast to Coast!!!  :)

The Swamp Stomp 30-Hr AR (2007)

Before this weekend, I had competed in the Swamp Stomp AR two times.  The first time the temperatures were in the 30's and it was raining all day.  Our team wasn't properly prepared for that kinda weather, and we were forced to drop out.  The second time I started the race sick, and since the race was again on a very cold day, I had a very hard time.  And sometime during the night, with uncontrollable shivering, I had to drop out while my team continued unofficially.  So I was 0-2 on this race.  I wanted to change that.

This year I went into this race in what I feel is the best shape of my life.  I trained my ass of trying to stay in shape to at least finish this race.  And Friday afternoon I felt pretty good about our chances.

This is going to be a short report.  I could go into all sorts of detail about where we found some of the CP's and what we had to do to get there, but I am sure you just want to get a quick recap.  So here you go...

Race Morning

We all woke up around 5:30AM on Saturday morning.  The temperature in Bushnell was around 25°F that morning.  It was incredibly cold.  Ralph and I (Team Hoof Hearted) got ready and after picking up some Dunkin Donuts, headed to Waffle House to meet up with Jason, Brent, and Jim & Lori Gabbert (Team Nature Calls).  We had a nice breakfast and some good laughs, and then headed to the race start location at Nobleton Canoe Outpost.

After getting ready and listening to last minute instructions at the pre-race meeting, we got into our canoes, lined up in the water, and at 8:06AM, began the awesome 30 hour adventure that awaited us.

The Paddle

The paddle start was like a NASCAR race: "Rubbing's racing!"  We had boats banging into each other, which in turn makes other boats veer left or right, which hit other boats, etc.  It was chaos.  We fought our way through the craziness trying to get a clear path.  After about 1 mile things started settling down.  The pack started thinning out and Ralph and I found ourselves running about halfway, with our good friends from Nature Calls right next us.

I told Ralph that we didn't have much of a chance of hanging with Nature Calls, as they are excellent paddlers, but we worked hard trying to do so anyway. I figured it'd be fun to race with our friends.

The paddle was 22 miles long up to the transition area.  Along the way we had to pick up 5 mandatory checkpoints (CP) and we had the option of picking up 8 bonus points (BP).  We picked up all the CP's and 6 BP's.  At one of the BP's we had to split up the teams. Half of the team had to run a few miles up river, while the other half had to paddle there.  This meant that I had to paddle the boat solo for a few miles, against a brutal headwind.  That really sucked.  But I was paddling besides Jim and Lori who were towing an empty canoe, and they kept me motivated the whole way.

But we all did very well.  And sometime in the late afternoon, we finished the paddle, right next to Nature Calls.

The Ropes

After portaging the boats for about 1 mile to the transition area (TA), we changed out of our wet clothes and got ready for a long bike ride through the upcoming cold night.

The first CP was a ropes challenge which was one of the coolest we've ever done.  It was a huge wall we had to climb up one side, and rappel down the other side.  It was a freaking blast!!

The Bike (1)

Most of the first bike leg was through a place called Half Moon.  It was a combination of hard packed roads, soft sand roads, and one long ass old railroad grade which was sometimes ok to ride and other times so cluttered that you had to walk your bike.  Plus it was during this section that it started pouring down on us.  It was already cold as hell, and now we had a downpour to deal with.  But we all broke out our rain gear and kept on pushing.

We did pretty well on this bike leg.  We experienced a couple minor mechanical issues with a few of our bikes, but we worked together and fixed them quickly.  And so far we were still having a great time.  Laughing, joking, farting, you name it.

At Half Moon we had just 8 CP's to get, but had the option of getting 10 BP's.  We ended up with all CP's and 6 of the BP's.

The Trek

After a long bike leg for most of the night we arrived at Potts Preserve for the trekking section.  It was around 4:00AM when we set off on foot trying to locate 4 CP's, with the option of getting 8 BP's.

The trek was long and tough.  The navigation was not easy as most points were not right on a trail, but rather off in the woods somewhere.  So good navigation was critical.  We trekked for the last few remaining hours of night time, and when the sun came out it was like a burst of energy.  All of the sudden we all felt awake and ready to go.  We managed to get out with all the CP's and one BP.  At this point we were fighting the clock (had to be at the finish line no later than 2:00PM, so we couldn't afford to lose much time.  So we made it back to the TA, changed, headed off towards the finish line.

The Bike (2)

The last leg of the race was a long bike leg (2 CP's), with 75% of it on the Withlacoochee Rail Trail (paved).  As you would expect, we hammered this section.  We rode nonstop keeping an average of about 16mph and passing about 7-8 teams along the way.  Yeah, I know 16mph sounds slow for most of you, but try doing with with no sleep for 30 hours after racing all night long, and on a mountain bike.  we were all tired and hungry, but we pushed as fast.

The Finish

We hung around for a while after the finish to find out how we did.  Ralph and I thought we had done ok, maybe top 5 in our division, but we just wanted to find out.  But it was a huge surprise when we were announced as the 1st place 2-person male winners!

I was incredibly happy.  Not only had I gotten the Swamp Stomp monkey off my back, but we'd done it in style.   :D

But most important of all, I truly want to thank Ralph, Jason, Brent, Jim and Lori for making this race so awesome.  It wouldn't have been near as fun without those guys.  The 6 of us kept each other in great spirits helping each other out and just plain old having a good time.  Thank you guys sooooo much!!

---- Race Photos (click here) ---

Swamp Stomp (2007) Maps, Passports, Etc.

The Turkey Burn 12-Hr AR (2006)

I had no doubt this was going to be a great race.  Four years ago it was the first AR I did, and I have not missed it since.  I love this race.

When the race was announced I thought it would be a cool idea to see if I could get some of my cycling and triathlon buddies to do this race with me.  So I threw the idea out there and before I knew it, I had 11 people wanting to do the race.  5 or 6 of them brand new to AR.  So I went ahead and signed us all up, as four different teams.

We knew from the beginning that we were going to race as one unit.  Keeping the teams together.  All we wanted to do was have a good time out there.  Jason and I knew that keeping so many people together for a 12-hour race would be difficult, but we still wanted to give it a go.

So Team Hoof-Hearted-Ice-Melted-Speedy-Playas-Slow-Bastards was born.  I like to call us Ocean's Eleven.  :)

The race started at 4:00AM with a bike leg, and we quickly found ourselves leading the pack.  But finding the first check point quickly got us lost.  A lot of teams got confused as to the location of the CP.  But after about 10 minutes of searching, we got it and moved on.

The rest of the bike section was fun, but fairly tough.  A good mix of easy, hard-packed roads and very tough, muddy nasty trails.  The entire group did a great job keeping together and riding through some of the bad sections.  We were having fun and a lot of good laughs.

We found all but one of the CP's.  We went after BB3, and after trekking a while down the Florida Foot Trail we finally gave up thinking we had passed it or missed it.  Came to find out later that we hadn't gone far enough.  Oh well.

We got slightly of course a couple times, but nothing too serious.  Although it did cost some some time.  So when we dropped off the bikes to start the first trekking section, we had to move fast.

On the first trekking section we did a lot of running.  Trying to get as many points as we could, while also trying to make up some time.  we made a big loop and picked up several bonus points along with the one mandatory point.  We made it back to the bikes with just under two hours left to make the cut off time.

The cut off time was at 11:00am.  We had to get back on the bikes, ride to the boats, get in the boats, and paddle about 5 miles down the St. John's River.  All before 11:00am.  All in just under two hours.

When we finally made it to the boats, we had to portage them (carry them) about 1 mile down to the river.  This was probably the worst part of the race.  Nothing worse than having to pick up and carry a canoe.  And for 1 mile!

When we finally reached the water we knew we would never make the cut off time.  But we had a pretty nice paddle and made it to the cutoff point about 20 minutes late.  So we were moved to a slightly shorter course.  Then we continued down the river picking up several more points along the way.  It was during this stretch that we hooked up with Dr. Ron and Jaime of Team Travel Country, with the girls of Team We're Going In, and with John and his teammate of Team Dirty Fish.

We all continued paddling together until we reached the boat drop, where Dr. Ron and Jaime came to within 1 foot of stepping on a water moccasin.  The girls of Team We're Going In actually dragged their canoe right over it without even noticing it. Yikes!

After dropping off the boats we got back on foot for a trekking section.  we now had about 3 hours to make the 4:00PM time cut off at the finish line, so we knew we had to move fast.  But by this time a lot of team Ocean's Eleven was tired so we moved a bit slower than we wanted to.  But we still managed to get several of the bonus points as we made our way to the mandatory one.  Then we made our way back to the bikes.

We started the last bike portion with less than 45 minutes to get to the finish line.  It should have been plenty of time, but it turned out to be a bit harder then we expected.

Along the way there was one bonus point we wanted to get.  We got it.  But unfortunately as we went in to get it Jason got a flat tire.  We tried twice just pumping it full of CO2 to try and make it to the finish line, but it was not working.  So with about 3 miles (and less than 20 minutes to go) we stopped to change the tube.

We got going again with just about 15 minutes left.  And about 30 seconds later, Jason's crank arm fell right off.  What the hell is it with us and faulty crank arms anyway?!  :) So we quickly brought out the tow rope.  I attached it to my backpack and we took off, with me towing Jason and Eric, Greg, and Ralph pushing him.  We had just under three miles to go, in about 15 minutes.

The road we were on was pretty hard packed so riding was not too hard, but the last 1/2 mile was on a trail which made it hard to tow.  So Jason got on Eric's bike, and Eric whose legs felt fresh just ran while pushing the bike.

We crossed the finish line with just under 1 minute to spare, after 11 hours and 59 minutes of racing.  30 seconds later our friends of Team Nature Calls finished with just seconds to spare.

We ended up with 3rd place in the male category.  But most importantly, for us the race was a complete success.  we did what we set out to accomplish.  We had a great time, kept the teams together, and introduced a handful of new people to AR.  Hopefully they had enough of a good time to come back and do it again.

I really want to thank Jason and Greg who did an absolutely amazing job with the navigation.  Thanks guys, you did awesome!!!

And also thank you to the whole gang, you guys especially the new guys, were troopers for the entire race!  I hope you guys come back to racing with us again.

And finally, thank you to Dave and Jim for putting on a great event!  The course was fantastic!  And the post race food was some of the best we've ever had after an adventure race!  And of course, thank you to all the volunteers!

See you all at the Swamp Stomp in February!

---- Race Photos (click here) ----

Turkey Burn (2006) Maps, Passports, Etc.

The Leach 6-Hr AR (2006)

The Leach Adventure Race, down in Jonathan Dickson State Park down in Jupiter, FL, was one of the most fun and best adventure races I've ever done.

The race started at 9:30AM with a run.  Jason and I got up on the front and within a couple minutes were at the front running along side Team Flight.  About 0.5 miles into the run, we came up on an obstacle wall which we had to climb and get over.  We were the first ones over, which was good because teams would no doubt start piling up.  Shortly thereafter we arrived at CP1 with Team Flight and one more team.  The rest of the teams were closely behind.

As we were looking at our maps before the race started, we had decided that we would take a gamble heading from CP1 to CP2.  CP1 was at the edge of the river.  We could run from CP1 to the boats and paddle down to CP2, which was across the river from CP1.  But then we'd have to paddle back up the opposite way to CP3.  So instead of doing that we decided to just swim, literally swim, across the river to CP2.  So when we got to CP1, we jumped right in.

The river was about 200 yards across.  And there was a current, so considering we are wearing trekking shoes and backpacks, it was not easy.  At the other side we walked upstream on the shore until we found and 'opening' to CP2.  The way to CP2 was about 2 feet deep, but really mucky.  You'd take a step and sink down to your butt.  It was impossible to walk.  So we got down into the water and pulled ourselves along by dragging our hands across the bottom.  It was actually quite a sight.  We looked like gators moving along the river.  But we found CP2, made our way back, and crossed the river again back towards CP1.

After this we ran to the boat transition and quickly jumped in our canoes.  Most teams had headed downstream to go pick up CP2, but since we'd already got it, we headed upstream towards CP3.  The paddle was great.  We found CP3 and CP4 rather easily and made out way back to the boat transition.  We got out of the boats in first place and headed off on a long trekking section, with an orienteering section in the middle.

At this point we were leading the race, so we were pushing as hard as we could.  The trek was great.  We did some good bushwhacking, which I love.  Jason did a great job in navigation and got us to each CP and OP (orienteering point) perfectly.  On the way back Team Flight came up on us.  They were moving fast!

We finished the trek right behind Team Flight and transitioned to our bikes pretty quickly.  Then we started the bike by having to climb the obstacle wall again, which at this point in the race was painful.  CP8 was slightly misplotted, so finding it took us a few minutes.  Unfortunately this allowed a handful of teams to catch up to us, but all was good.

From CP8 to CP9 we did some pretty heavy bushwhacking, with our bikes.  Picking them up, putting them down, picking them up, etc, etc.  It was exhausting.  Then came the soft sand.  The dreaded and hated soft sand.  Soft sand sucks, plain and simple.  :)

We then got on a couple single track trails were we had to find 3 CP's.  We ran into Team TCO in this section, and rode with them for a little while.  The trails were a combination of soft sand :x and a lot of tree stumps.  It was good riding, but pretty hard in some parts.

After the single track we found ourselves back in 2nd place.  We rode to CP11, where we had to drop off the bikes and head off on foot to find 3 more CP's.

Finding CP12 and CP13 was fairly easy, but making our way to CP14 was pure hell.  The trail we had to take was an old and unused double track which was riddled with trees, branches, cactus, and all sorts of nasty dry stuff.  It was some pretty nasty trekking.  Our legs have many, many scars to prove it.  :)

After CP14 we went back to our bikes, and rode to the finish line.

We finished in 2-place overall.  About 30 minutes behind Team Flight.  Unfortunately we were told we had been given a 1-hour penalty because we swam to CP1 instead of paddling.  Jason and I were resourceful and used a good strategy which is what adventure racing is all about, but were penalized.  But neither of us cared.  We loved the fact that swam to CP2.  And we loved how we had to crawl along the nasty muck in order to move.  And we wouldn't trade it for anything.  It was a blast.

So in the overall placements we are not sure how we finished, we think in 3rd place overall after the penalty was accessed.  But we did win the 2-person male division even with the penalty.  So that's pretty cool.

In the end, I was extremely happy with the race.  Jason and I pushed hard all day and it paid off.  We used good teamwork and great strategy, even if one of our strategies costs us a 1-hour penatly.

---- Race Photos (click here) ----

The Howl at the Moon 18-Hr AR (2006)

---- Race Photos (click here) ----

The Croom Crusher 6-Hr AR (2006)

---- Race Photos (click here) ----