Training Log Archive: JayXC

One benefit of Shrine Mont was regular meals included with the lodging. We took full advantage of this with breakfast, lunch and dinner scattered between naps and gear sorting.

5pm, awards and a great presentation of pics and videos taken by Vlad, Chris and Legendary.

I left shortly after the awards and made it home by 1:30pm. The drive home was surprisingly easy.

Rogaine cont'd

As we approached the TA we passed MRC/Main Nerve heading out on their bikes so we knew we weren’t too far behind them. Our transition wasn’t the fastest compounded by a flat on JYD’s bike which required some attention.

We eventually set off with USWE for Reddish Knob around 3:30am. Fortunately we were now allowed to use the paved road instead of the singletrack trail to climb the 3000’ required to get up to the peak but it was still very slow and we were all battling sleep dep. We stopped for a quick 10 minute nap along the way which actually was very helpful. Once at the top we moved well along the jeep trial on the ridge as the sun came up.

The descent was on an improved gravel road and very fast. Once near the bottom we ‘enjoyed’ the bikewhack along the creek just prior to hitting the road. We were only on the road for a few seconds it seemed when the next climb started. We had brought our trekking shoes and put them on for the climb up which was much easier on our feet. The climbing was too bad and we were able to ride quite a bit of it.

Eventually we made our way down the backside and onto a sketchy trail which led into an improved gravel road then onto the paved road leading to the TA. We arrived just before 5pm and quickly transitioned knowing that the 10 pm cut-off was looming over our heads and that it had taken us 5.5 hrs to do it as the first leg of the race. The advantage here was that we were now familiar with our previous mistakes and it would be daylight for a few hours.

The pace of our travel was very good during the entire portion of this leg. Around 7pm the ridge started to get socked in by fog significantly effecting our field of view as the sun set. We were at the area of CP2 by 8:30pm and started hunting for the control but with no great attackpoint we struggled. Eventually we decided to attack it from the intersection of the trail down and found it. We now had 1 hour to get down the mountain, punch the cross CP and get to the TA before the cut-off.

We descended very quickly and made it to the base of the last hill with 15 minutes to go before the cut-off. The map seemed very confusing in this area. We couldn’t put the info together quick enough in our sleep-deprived state and watched the clock strike 10pm just a few kms from the TA which was quite a letdown for the team. We casually trekked back down the hill to the finish line from there, finishing in 3rd place.

Event: Shenandoah Tough
 

trek cont'd

We transitioned in a parking lot and then headed out on our bikes. The route early on was rolling on paved roads then onto gravel and we pace-lined the entire time trying to make up ground. Eventually the route made its way towards the first climb. We were on jeep trails and only portions of it were ridable. This was better than I expected as in previous versions of the 24 hr Epic the routes over mountains were all hike-a-bike.

We made it over the first mountain and had a great decent down the other side only to be met by the second climb. By now the sun was up and the route was much less rideable so it seemed to take forever. Once at the top we rode the ridge towards the tallest point in VA, Reddish Knob (4300’+). Fortunately there was a break in the clouds and we had an awesome 360 degree view of the area.


ok, maybe it wasn't 360 degrees.

The route from here was a fun singletrack section highlighted by about an hour long swoopy decent towards Stokesville. I recognized the area of last year’s 24 hr Rogaine as soon as we hit the muddy road at the bottom and remembered what we would soon be into.

Stokesville Rogaine

We arrived at the Stokesville campground, changed into out trekking shoes and loaded up for 12 hours of orienteering. We had a shot of local whiskey (awesome tradition now) and then set out. We had to collect 9 of the 12 controls on the original course plus an additional 3 mandatory controls in another nearby area which had been added once the course was changed. 2 of the control locations would not have flags (ghost controls) to add to everyone’s confusion.

We nailed the first 4 controls and found flags at each of them and we could feel our momentum picking up. We ran into Bend and they indicated that they had already found the 3 missing controls and that Storm also had found 3 missing controls but when comparing notes they were different locations. Great. We continued on and our next control was a ghost control (boulder in center of reentrant). At this point our route took us over to the area of the 3 mandatory controls and we found them without too much trouble.

Back into the ghost control portion and we hit the next 5 controls. Unfortunately we were not counting very accurately and thought we needed to climb up to the mtn top control for our 9th control. Only after determining that it was a ghost control location did we re-count and find that we already had 9 controls so we essentially had wasted an hour of time. In retrospect its now unclear if we actually punched one of the controls as our SI card didn’t record it and neither Alex and I can now remember the details of its specific location.

C • Shenandoah 6

We went through the registration process, labeled our bins and bikes and turned them in just prior to getting our maps. When the maps were handed out we discovered that there was now only 6 legs and that the course was essentially an out and back to Stokesville, VA. This was due to the fact that the George Washington National Forest had been closed and gated Tuesday afternoon. ~60% of the original course was in this forest land which forced Mark Harris and team to come up with a new course using what portion of it was left in just few hours and in retrospect I think they did a remarkable job in such a short period of time.

At 8pm everyone gathered at the start line and with a few words we were off. A start in the dark is a rare occurrence in adventure racing and created some cool pictures with the addition of the fog and the headlamps. As expected the front group formed with the Yogaslackers, MRC/Main Nerve, Storm, the duo from USWE and UNE. We chose the trail option up the first mountain but struggled a little to identify the intersection we were looking for. Once on the correct trail we headed towards the second control and ran into the rest of the leaders coming from their bushwhack route. The group continued along the ridge towards the first TA. Unfortunately we missed a trail intersection and had to bushwhack down a reentrant to get back on course. This put us behind the lead pack by about 90 minutes when we arrived at the TA.

Travel to Orkney Springs, VA.

Arrived around 5:30pm and wandered around Shrine Mont then out to Bryce Resort for dinner.


Virginia House, built in 1850

Afterwards we divided up our pre-sorted food and gear into bins A, B, C and D given there wasn’t a lot of time to do it Wednesday. The potential for impact from Hurricane Florence was already being felt as the paddle portion of the race was cancelled and the race would be starting Wednesday night at 8pm.



That is not Santa's route...

C • Racing in a Hurricane 3