turns out we won. who knew! crazy course but a win is a win. some details:
the race was in 3 sections: A, B, and C. the night before the race, we received the number of CPs in all Sections, plus info/map about Section C. the morning of the race we received maps for Sections A and B and had to plot 20 points. Section C had 22 points. There were also 6-9 additional points available at the shooting range (Section A) and the 2 different rappels (both Section C) that teams were allowed to split up and get, while other team members did the shooting/rap (to avoid bottlenecks). all CPs counted the same value, all CPs were optional/not mandatory, no penalties for skipping CPs. confused yet? we were, but we laid out a race plan with the goal of leaving plenty of time for Section C where most of the points were.
Section A - 1000-1600
started on bikes in an ATV park, with the park map, 1:36k with 100' contours. yeah...big. and not all trails reliably mapped. we went A6-A7-A3-A5-A2-A8-A9. we skipped A1 (between A2 and A8), which broke all of our hearts to skip so early, but we had wasted a lot of time already and that one was farther away. punched A9 with WEDALI 1, came into TA, Jeff double flatted.
Jeff and Doug did the shooting range and changed the flats while David and I did the 2 optional points, AA and AB. David and I had a lot of confusion leaving TA so wound up doing these points on bikes, but in trekking shoes. but, Biz and Mari from WEDALI 1 were just leaving too so we ended up doing both points with them. that was fun, except we had to reattack on AB which cost more time.
Section B - 1600-midnight
got 2 free-choice points, B11 and B10, on the way to the bike drop (BA) for this trekking section. it took us 2.5 hours to ride from TA to BA on trails, and we only got 2 CPs. that was disheartening, but was the catalyst for changing our race plan. clearly this 1:36k park map was suboptimal. so why spend more time on it when we knew we had a 1:24k USGS waiting for us for Section C? we got a few points, B1-B3-B2, on Section B because we were already there. we also attacked B4 but bailed because the veg was bad and contours weren't matching up.
Section C - midnight-0300
back at TA, we got 2 maps which routed us from TA to the paddle put-in. nothing but a long road ride. pre-race info told us this was 27 miles but i haven't measured our exact route yet. we got C3 on the way out of the park and were ecstatic to shove that map in a pack pocket. now we had a 1:50k USGS which was infinitely easier for David to work with.
Section C - 0300-1100
pre-race info told us the paddle was 28 miles. we put-in the Tennessee River at Concord Park. the night was clear, no wind, minimal current, so i was navving! not 30 minutes into the paddle, fog rolled in and i couldn't see anything. i panicked and gave the map (now 1:36k) back to David. he took it from there and worked his map-whispering magic. i have no idea how he did it, but we paddled slowly and carefully through the white-out and pinged C1 and C2 (only paddle CPs) with ease. we all fought sleep monsters. Doug's were particularly bad so he took a nap for a bit while Jeff and I towed. sun rose, and we made another heartbreaking decision to skip the 3 trekking points (C4-C5-C6) at IC King Park since we thought they would take too long.
Section C - 1100-1532
now on our beloved 1:24k USGS!!! we paddled to C7 which was a cave. teams could split up to get C8 and C9 while 1-2 teammates did the cave. Jeff and David trekked while Doug and I hung out in the cave. when the boys got back we completed the short remainder of the paddle. there was a small crowd at the final take-out (heart you so much WEDALI 2 and Swiftwick!!!) and they inspired us into full-on race mode. ran back to TA, got on bikes, and rode out across the river. we knew we had to try and get both rappels because they had the extra CPs. we picked Fort Dickerson first because it was closer. got C12 on the way, the C10 and C11 at the rap site, then 3 extra points on the mini-trek. looked at the map, looked at the clock, decided the second rap was out but we could get one more CP, which would be C21 in the Urban Wilderness. had a hard time getting there because of an unmapped 4-lane road, but finally worked through it, punched, and flew back to TA. got the instructions for the final trek which was actually really interesting, through a LONG underground tunnel with creek water. cool. punched C22 and then finished in downtown Knoxville.
WEDALI 1 finished 10-15 minutes afterwards. we hugged and congratulated them and then started comparing CP numbers. David and Biz thought we tied on points. i didn't trust anyone because we had all been racing for so long. found out later they were right, and because we had finished sooner, we won.
report
http://silkychrome.blogspot.com/2013/10/race-repor...