Adventure Racing race 2:30:00 [2] **
(sick)
Sprint adventure race rules state that 3 team members must begin a race. Then if one member drops out, officials may or may not grant permission to the other two to continue unranked. So... there wasn't much choice for me at the Bon Echo Salomon Adventure Challenge. No matter how rotten I felt (and boy, did I feel rotten!), I had to be at the starting line - even if I only walked across it, collapsed in a limp heap, then withdrew from the race.
However, it was an ideal course design for the Tree Huggers (much canoeing and off-road navigation, minimal biking), so I decided to go as far as I could without raising my heart rate significantly. We began with a Lemans start, travelling on foot about 1.5 km on roads to the canoes. Our team walked at first (oooh, it was SO hard not to run with 100 teams charging out), then did some light jogging with me on tow, arriving at the boats well back in the pack, as intended. We paddled the beautiful Kishkebus canoe loop with several portages (one > 1 km), passing beneath the stunning cliffs of Bon Echo as we returned to the campground 2.5 hours later.
On the last long portage, I realized that my race was over. Even walking up small hills, my lungs felt like I was at altitude - nowhere near enough oxygen. My cough had become much worse as I got soaked in cold water from paddling and wading up to waist-deep on a breezy day. To keep going would probably mean being sick for an extra week. So for the first time ever, I dropped out of a race and sent my teammates on alone, unranked. :-( Amazingly, we were still in the upper half of teams at that point - really hard to believe. Our paddling classes have helped so much - we sailed past a lot of teams on the water, even though we kept reminding each other that we weren't racing today.
The good news - actually, it's great news - is that my teammates did really well without me. Bent, who claims that he can't navigate, took the maps that I'd prepared and led the way through a challenging trekking section, travelling with confidence and speed. The Minister offered his considered opinions upon request and stayed right on Bent's heels. Even with our deliberately slow start to the race, the Tree Huggers were one of the earlier teams to finish the regular course - unranked, naturally. I'm *very* proud of my teammates!