Training Log Archive: awentz

Event: Ashurst Lake 5 Hr AR
 

Ashurst Lake 5 Hr - Flagstaff, AZ

There was a small, but mighty field at the AR. 4 solo racers and 2 duo teams.

1st segment of the race had 1 control, straight across the lake! Racers were allowed to paddle, swim or go by foot. 3 of us choose to do the ~1.1 km round trip paddle vs the ~4.2 km round trip trek. Kayak Lake Made with the legendary Robert Finley at the helm, brought out their carbon fiber, 2-man Everglades Challenge record setting kayak and crushed everyone else on the paddle. Paddling a packraft, I didn't have a chance on the paddle. Kayak Lake Mead was finishing up the paddle as I was just punching the first CP. Luckily it wasn't too windy and Tim Stefek and I came in from the paddle tied for 2nd at ~17 min into the race and 5 min behind Kayak Lake Mead.

The 2nd segment of the race a bike section with 5 mandatory controls and 6 more optional controls. Ron, the RD, claimed 'strong mountain bikers' could finish the bike in ~2 hours. So I planned my route to get for all 11 bike points. The mileage wasn't long ~25 miles w/ 600 m of elevation gain, but the fire roads were fairly bumpy and full of rocks, which made the riding slow going. Made one small nav mistake due to a road not being on the map, cost me about ~5 mins. Just as I was nearing the TA, I saw Tim coming in from a different direction and we both rolled in the TA within 10 seconds of each other and ~90 minutes left in the race. Tim had gotten 8 of the controls on the bike and I was the first in with all 11 of the bike controls. Team Quail on the Trail opted for only 6 controls and finished much earlier, trying to gather more controls on the final foot segment.

The 3rd and final segment was a score-o, using the same map as the regular Score-O held that day. Expect for the AR, each control counted as 1 point. My Nav was pretty solid until the last 15 minutes as I was trying to get a few of the controls close by the finish. I was sloppy on CP12, and lost a precious 3 minutes. Thinking I had time to grab CP11 on the way to finish, I jumped off the road to punch it but took the wrong angle towards and missed it completely, wasting ~90 seconds and causing me to get to the finish ~39 seconds overtime (and as result losing 1 point for being overtime)

In the end. I ended up with the most points at 26, Quail on the Trail followed in 2nd with 20 pts, and Kayak Lake Mead in 3rd with 18 pts. It was great seeing the regular Phoenix adventure racers out there again and I'm happy that Ron enjoys putting on adventure races, I hope we can go grow the competition for next year's race. It's only $20, there's no excuse to not come out and race!