Training Log Archive: Garrison

Leg 8 - Bike - And now began some of the coldest hours of racing I've ever experienced, replacing the couple of hours from the previous night. We left the bike drop and climbed to CP31, which helped, but that was followed by a long sustained downhill to the flats north of Redmond. The sun was not quite up yet and I was truly miserable. With the lack of sleep the prior night I was really fighting the sleep monsters too. In fact, there was a solid 40-60 minutes that I do NOT remember. Which would be kind of funny except for the fact that I was riding my bike at the time. This might be the worst I've ever been during a race when it comes to sleep.

But, the sun did eventually come up and things got warm. We spent some quality time with NYARA (they were our "unofficial partner" team like you always seem to get in long races) picking our way through some surprisingly tricky points on our way to Bend.

The final ride through Bend was actually kind of brutal for me as the sleep monster made one last impressive effort to take me out. But, we finally arrived at the finish after 102 hours of some of the most memorable racing I've ever done. It was a fantastic, technical course and my teammates were second to none.

I can unequivocally recommend any race that Bend puts on. You WILL get a lifetime experience. But be prepared, really prepared, because they are going to provide a fantastic opportunity for you to complete an expedition if you show up ready and willing.

C • Cheetos 4

Leg 6 - Bike - Staying with the theme of bathroom sleep we left TA and headed to a nearby rest area. Yes, I was laying on the floor 10 feet from a rest area stall, but it was heated and it was amazing. Probably some of the best sleep I got the whole race. Scaring the crap (literally one could argue) out of a couple of unexpecting rest area users was a bonus.

Immediately after the rest area nap we had a "underpass crossing" that will rank as one of the most memorable experiences of the race. 10" flat ledge with an upward sloping underpass slab on the left. 300' of exposure to a clean kill on the right. We were DEFINITELY awake after that. The rest of the ride was largely uneventful to TA6.

Leg 7 - Trek - We budgeted 6 hours for this and that's exactly what it took. The better overall strategic move would have definitely been to skip one of these (which is what most people did), but the paddle cutoff forced our hand. O-8 and O-9 were particularly technical with steep loose slopes which just made for slow going. The screaming winds helped with the high alpine ambience though. This section was steady and clean.

Leg 8 - Bike - It was straight the hell up right out of the TA and I was feeling it. Julia jumped in right away to help with the hike-a-bike section. Hike-a-bike is by far my worst discipline even when I'm feeling good so it was definitely not a strength while dealing with the chest funk. CP31 at a radio tower on a mountain top was originally in the plan on the way to the climb site but with the cutoff at the ropes we opted to grab it after climbing. This section had some nice exposed and fast single track towards the end with another ass kicker of a hike-a-bike to the designated bike drop. The winds were still howling and the clouds on the western horizon were starting to cause a little concern.

Leg 8 - Climb - This was an ambitious move by Jason, Chelsea and crew and one that I believe paid off in the race experience. I feel like they could and should have been even less forgiving with the racers as far as their expectations of competence. They told us months in advance the skills we needed as well as the gear we would need to provide and use. There were literally no excuses for teams to not be prepared. I only wish we could have done this section in the daylight!

Julia and I spent 3+ hours on the rock knocking out the 3 pitch lead climb while Kevin and Anna tackled the top rope. We had some slower climbers in front of us to start which had an impact on our climb. The wind was still screaming and the temps were dropping so this took a toll. On top of that my adrenaline was redlined on the leads. I was confident in my abilities to do the moves, but late on day 4 with the accompanying fatigue had me pretty frayed by the end. We grabbed 20 minutes or so of sleep before making our way back up to the bikes. (Which was no small feat. Scrambling up that loose slope in the dark while pretty shot mentally was a chore.)

Leg 5 - Whitewater packraft - We had a longer TA here as we had to box up the bikes and get the packrafts ready to go. I think it was about noon or so when we rolled in and didn't get on the water until almost 2pm maybe? All in all this section was a blast. We were moving slower than expected and actually cut it way closer than we wanted to at TA 4.5 with only 12 minutes to spare before we would have been pulled and DZ'd for the night. Kevin and I flipped twice with the second including a pretty lengthy swim with an inconvenient outcome. I was on river left with the boat. He was river center on a large rock with both paddles, and Julia and Anna were on river right. Thankfully Julia was a whitewater guide in a past life and she got us all sorted as the sun was setting. This left us with about a km of whitewater to do in the dusk/dark. Those last couple rapids were a little.... Interesting.

Leg 5 - Trek - Pretty straightforward trek other than CP26 being tricky. It was a clue for a grave, so no getting close and pinging the control. I missed it on the first try (not by much according to tracking) and the reset of the private property fence line was costly. Cold and sleep monsters were hitting us hard here and we ended up taking a quick nap to try to stay sharp. After finally getting 26 it was a bit fo a long slog to finally arrive at TA5 just prior to sunrise.

Leg 2, part 2 - Packraft/trek. Freezing ass transition to the boats just before sunrise. Valves were freezing up, boats had ice on them, and we did some wind sprints on dry suits to try to warm up. Fought of the pre-dawn sleep demons and within a couple hours I was overheating in the dry suit. Paddle was pretty straightforward across the lake and down the river. Back to heavy awkward packs for the hot trek into TA2. This was a burly leg that we underestimated. My feet took some damage from the last trek due to lack of dry anything to wear. Ended up keeping it in control, but was a silly mistake. Ran out of water on this one too, and we knew there was little to no water on the next leg. Our water strategy was NOT winning so far.

Leg 3 - Orienteering. There were 16 total O points on two courses. 3 O-points equalled 1 Pro point, so you got a skip. You received maps for both at this TA so you could make and educated skip. Better skips were DEFINITELY on the second O course due to technicality and elevation of the terrain, but we decided to skip O-1 on the first to save some time to hopefully still clear the bike points on the next leg.

Leg 4 - Bike. I was not feeling well to start this leg. I got a chest cold days before the start and it really got me on the bike. A couple coughing fits almost sent me off the road. We had a prolonged stop at a gas station so I could get some cold meds and we could all get water. Oh, and some salty fried chicken! I was bonking a bit at this point which was terrible timing. My nav gets a little panicky and desperate when I'm like this and I know that. I bobbled CP17 badly due to lack of discipline. Anna did a great job of figuring out where we were and avoiding a complete reset. Sill, we spent 3:15 covering a km that should have taken at the most 0:30. Once we were back on track we got to CP18 and had a team pow wow. It was obvious that if the rest of this leg were even remotely similar to what we had seen terrain and nav wise, it didn't make sense to even go for CP19. Plus, it was cold and we had not slept yet. Decision was made to cut CP19-21 so that we could make the critical paddle cutoff at TA4. On the way to CP22 we found a luxuriously sized "rustic washroom" (pIt toilet) in a state rec area. So yeah, we slept there for two hours. It was out of the wind, but the concrete floor was not ideal. Based on teammate accounts of my snoring, I actually got a good sleep here. Thankfully we had a healthy climb immediately after our sleep to get warm. CP22 was actually a little tricky due to deadfall and snow. Would have been a real treat in the dark. From here to TA 4 was smooth sailing with lots of outstanding singletrack. The sun was up and we were warm, which always makes things better after freezing your ass off all night.

800 - Leg 1, snowshoeing. Teams were tightly packed. We actually went without shoes until the lake at CP1. Post holing across was a good sign it was time to swap. Timing on this was about perfect. Stayed with lead pack through CP3 on Maiden Peak. Technicality of glissading in snowshoes slowed us down a bit here. Reconnected with some top teams at CP5, we apparently picked the right route/tracks on this one. Awkward downhilling with more glissading and really variable snow. All out of water at this point. CP6 was the "manzanita" control. Exposed and sunny with now water, this one was not fun. Reached the TA around 1700 hours.

TA1 - Efficient transitions are tough with a new team. We lost time in TA's throughout the race. They weren't horrible, but all could have definitely been shorter. Not sure on times based on results available online.

1800 - Leg 2, part 1, packraft and lava trek. Wind picked up on the lake crossing but it wasn't unbearable. I hit the wrong cove for the takeout which slowed down the mid leg TA, and caused a little stumble on CP7. Packs were unpleasantly heavy and off balance which made the next hours on the lava extra fun. CP8 was no problem. Tried to just shoot straight at CP9 but in the dark with the lava it was foolish. Ended up knowing we were off but travel in the lava field was so slow, you didn't want to go questing around. No reset points other than the road intersection, which we used. Based on tracker data this cost 2.5 hours, and a lot of legs. First part of this trek was named "broke pack mountain" by Julia, and rightly so as hers broke in multiple ways. Lava field was dubbed the "are you ok?" part of the trek based on how many time we both said and heard other teams say it. Even heard the Uraguayans, "Esta bien?" after a teammate took a nasty fall.

Event: Expedition Oregon