Training Log Archive: MichaelDurham

Event: Western States + Intercollegiate Championships
 

Event: Frozen Gator Adventure Race
 

First leg of the Adventure Race. We miss plotted the points (the race director put in an extra cordinante that threw us off) So we went the the wrong place for the first control! A disapointing start. Justin ran back and go the cords. again and we replotted. Found the next one perfectly. Went right to it. Point number three we searched for (along with every other team) for almost an hour. I navigated us RIGHT to where it should be, but it was not there. USGS map did not show any trails, so we had to guess where it was along the trail. I use the one contour line to help, but nothing. We finally gave up on it and went back. To our suprise, we were the first back. The race director was suprised that no one was back yet. We found out later that the control had been stolen!

Short MTB leg. Only had two controls.

The first control was about 200M off the main road threw the woods, or about 4 miles down the road and around. We decided we could do 200m. Had to bushwhack through thick veg. for about 150m of that 200m to find the road. I was a little nervous about it since we were trying to hit it straight on and not from a side, but I took us right to it and the point was were it should have been. The next point was a no brainer, just 3 miles up the road, and 3 back. Back through the woods (we found a much easier, thinner veg. route on the way back) When we hit the road, Dusty suggested that we leave a marker of some kind in case we had to go back in that way again. So we left a stick in the middle of the road. This turned out to be a great idea later!

Three legs of paddleing. First two legs were somewhat close but we had to go over lots of hydrilla (sp?) growing in the water. I was suprised the kyaki could make it over this thick stuff, but it flew right through it.

The third control was WAAAAY up the river, going up stream! This leg took us close to 3.5 hours! It was about 5:30am when we got there. We knew we were in second place heading up there, and the team in first place had kevlar canoes! They made up about 15min on us every hour we were out there!

We got to the control and it was a manned control. They had a fire going and some food. I was not cold while in the boat, but when I got out I was shivering! I was so cold!

Short O leg at the manned control on the paddle. I took us right to it, no problems. We did, however, catch the team in first place at this section. They were coming off of it as we were ariving. We got to see that they carried their boats across the land to cut off some of the paddleing. We decided to do this too when we left.


When we got back to the manned control after the short o leg, we had to do a quick test answereing some questions. During the pre-race meeting, the meet director kept telling us random facts that we knew would be important later on.
For example, he said he saw lots of Cardinals out there. Did you know that cardinal comes from the greek word cardinales meaning important?

This was one of the true false questions and we had a punch for true, and one for false.

We got them all, as we kept saying all the "facts" he told us all the way up there on the paddle leg

Back down the river. Took a lot less time going back down!

Controls were easy, but I took us into the wrong chute for the second to last control! :( We lost about 10min there. Warmed up a little bit during this section.

Light broke about 15 min after we left the manned check point. We saw our first team that was behind us about 45min after we left the check point, they still had an hour paddle, then the o course, then 45min to where we were. We estimated we were about 2 hour ahead of them already! Not bad

C • So you guys won? 5

Long MTB leg. The first control we were able to use Dusty's stick in the road to find out way in again! Worked perfectly as we avoided the thick stuff to either side and were able to follow the way we came out before. The map we had did not have any trails on it, yet there was a plethrea of trails. We plotted out point, and it looked to be in the middle of no where, but the clue was 4 wheeler trail. We had passed down the road that it was about .6 mile off, and knew it was down one of the trails. We used a electronic measuring wheel on the map (Justin picked this up from REI) and found that it was right at a mile up the trail, and .5 mile off it. Right at .98 miles up the trail, we found a 4 wheeler trail. We looked down it and could see it down there.

Next one was super easy, up the trail, down the road, and bingo.

Next was the manned control, very easy again.

At the manned control we found out that we were in first place! Woo Hoo!

Headed off to the next point, found it no problem. Headed out to the next point down a road that looked clear on the road. The road disapeared and we had to bushwhack through the woods. We hit a marshy area and stream. I tried to cross the stream and found water up to my hips! We messed around trying to get through it for about 20min. Finally we found the road and headed to the next point.

The final two point we assumed were on the same 4 wheeler trail since they were lined up. Since we did not have a map that showed the trails, we guessed at a distance down the trail and when we found a 4 wheeler trail, we took it. Problem was, it split and we did not know which way to go. I took one way, and it seemed to dead end. We tried the other way, but no control. Back to the road and looked around for another 4 wheeler trail, but nothing. Back to the original trail and the way I thought dead ended. We went a little further and found it did not dead end! About 200m down the trail we found the control!

Straight down the trail to number 14 and back to TA

Last leg! We knew we were in second place by about 30 min or so. We only had two controls on this leg.

First control we were able to cut in where Dusty marked the trail again! Headed down and found another trail that should lead the the point (that was in the middle of no where) Once again, the trail splits and we don't know which way to go as we don't have a map with trails. Took it to the left. Wandered around for a few min and could not figure out where it was, or where we were. While standing at a junction we saw the point about 100m off in a briar patch! Crazy bingo control!

We left that control and around the corner, and found the other group looking for that one we just found! We were very motivated at this point! We took off for the next control (about 2 miles away) Found it and headed back (about 3 miles) Got in and found that the other team had only finished 17min ahead of us! Out of 12 hour and 45 min we were happy!

Mountain Biking at Stoner. Been raining for the past few days, so we expected the trail to be a little wet. Ran into some water up to knee height, but made it through it. Then, we found some pretty deep water, that kept getting deeper....Justin jumped off, and it was waste deep :D I some how made it through it w/o stopping. :)

No running today. My left knee is giving me some troubles. Pretty tender right now. Trying to rest it for this weekend.