Training Log Archive: JayXC

Travel day home.

C • Congratulations! 1

On Day 4 racers were allowed to start at 4am. As with every morning before I arrived within seconds of the word go to punch onto the course. Just like the day before it was only Tecnu, the YS and us who started then. All three teams rode in a paceline to the bike drop for the paddle down the N. Platte River. It was actually kind of chilly on the bike in a short sleeve.

C • Great Report! 8

Once on the river EG and I moved pretty well and were able to put some distance on the other teams. The current from the dam releases occurring made the slow boats seem fast as well and it was a very enjoyable paddle. We saw 3 bald eagles and 4 beavers, nearly passing over one from behind before it slapped its tail and went under.

We arrived at the take-out before the first set of rapids just as the sun was warming everything up (fortunately).

We packed up our paddles, put everything in our dry bags, grabbed our paddleboards and jumped into the river just as Tecnu was arriving on canoes.

When we were looking for paddleboards earlier in the week our thought was a swimmers kickboard would be sufficient. Fortunately what we found was more like a boogieboard someone would take to the beach. This was fortunate as the normally tame rapids were actually significantly enhanced with the current release into giant haystacks with long glassy run-ups and sharp peaks. A smaller board would have made them a real challenge.

We made it thru relatively unscathed except for the fact that we were both shivering uncontrollably.

Thankfully the last section was a 2k run to the finish along the river running path which helped to warm us up. We crossed under the finish banner first for the day happy to be done with the race.



We had a nice breakfast burrito provided by Taco Johns and cheered as the rest of the field finished, warming up as the sun rose.

Final thoughts-

When I raced the Rev3 Epic in the Shenandoah Valley earlier in the year I was a little let down by the lack of navigation required. This was a little concerning for this race as the same organization was putting it on. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the course put together in WY and thought it had nice mix of options and highlighted a lot of what that region has to offer with the exception of the long bike ride out to Martins Cove on the highway.

The logistics for this race were superb and it was obvious a lot of thought went into it. The roving TA worked perfectly.



It was basically a tractor trailer which had just enough room for all of the bikes hung from the ceiling and one 35 gallon Action Packer per person below them. When we’d arrive at the End Of Day we’d unpack our bins which contained all of our gear/food for the weekend. At the Start Of Day you’d simply re-load your bin and take off. Fortunately the bins got lighter by the day as I worked through the food. It must have been over 70 lbs at the start.

It was a great race in a beautiful area I’d never been to before. I’ll give serious consideration to racing it again next year as the course will be in the Wind River area and finish in Casper again.

One thing that has puzzled EG and I is the finishing order. Mark indicated that we were the first overall finishers but if I add up the cummulative time for the 4 days Tecnu ends up beating us by about 40 minutes. If the bonus time is ignored then the finishing order and times (2 days, 23 hrs, 33 minutes) reported in numerous media outlets would be correct. Guess this is something I should understand a little better next year...

Morning of Day 3

Day 3 would start on bikes as well. It was immediately apparent that the long trek the day before had taken its toll as only us, Tecnu and the YS answered the 6am start. We passed DART on our way out and they were just arriving after spending a few hours trying to help revive a sick teammate during the night.

The route was more jeep roads which seemed to climb for the first 2 hours. We rode with the YS and chatted as we went along. Near the end of the section we crested the climb and it was about 10 miles of coasting downhill on pavement which was a nice break finally. AS we approached the Pathfinder Reservoir TA we crossed over the Fremont Canyon and it had some treacherous whitewater ripping through it.



(american whitewater photo, not nearly as high of flow shown)

'This is a perfect place for a packraft section' was the prevailing thought in the group.

We dropped our bikes and took off on a 3 pt o-course (a peak, a jail and a footbridge) where Tecnu caught back up to us.

Back onto bikes with Tecnu and we decided a paceline with them made the most sense since we would be on paved roads (highway) for the next few hours. We had a nice tailwind and made it to Independence Rock pretty quickly where we had to scramble to the top for a CP. We were also able to fill up on water at the Visitors Center.



From there it was a short distance to the Mormon Push Cart section at Martin's Cove.

Martin’s Cove is a historic site along the Mormon trail to Salt Lake City where in the late 1800’s a severe snowstorm took the lives of a group of Mormons traveling west. Our task was to push an authentic push cart from the era along an 8k gravel/sand path stopping it twice to run to 5 CP’s and then return back to the bikes.



We hit this location right in the heat of the day and I drank 3 liters of water during the section. Fortunately there was potable water back at the bikes to refill our bladders. We again traveled the entire section with Tecnu, not really on purpose but we just seemed to be traveling at the same speed all of the time. The YS were not too far behind and Tecnu kept the pressure on.

The next bike section was back on the same road we had ridden out on and the tail wind from before was now a head wind. We pace-lined together again all the way into Alcova with the highlight being the trucker who stopped to yell at us only to get scolded by Super K and sent back to his truck. In seriousness, we really didn’t belong on that road despite the wide shoulders.

We arrived in Alcova and dropped the bikes for the last foot-O of the day. Super K informed us that they intended to swim across some of the coves to get a few of the points. We weren’t opposed to it but thought it might be more fun to go a different loop to see if we could beat them. The benefit being it would force both teams to stay focused.

My favorite CP of this section was the one in the cove which required a swim to punch it. Legendary Randy happened to be there and listened to us debate who should go. Erik- “Do you want me to go?” Me- “No way, I’m going.”

After 3 days of heat, sweat, dust and cactus it felt great to wash a bunch of it away. As we were approaching the TA DART arrived on bikes and we chatted briefly before they headed out on foot. At the TA we found out that Tecnu had finished 16 minutes before us.

Day 2 started on bikes and it appeared the group leaving at 6am was a little smaller than the entire field. The route to the bike drop was a fairly flat jeep road with wide open views in every direction for miles. We set up a paceline with the YS, DART, Tecnu, Rev3 and a few other 2 person teams and made relatively quick work of it.

A quick transition to running gear and onto more of the same jeep roads which we'd have to run all the way to the reservoir. Erik and I both felt decent and ran most of it making it into the paddle TA with a few minutes lead over Tecnu.



It was very warm when we arrived and the race doc advised the organizers to provide some fluids if possible. We both took a cold Gatorade and downed them in seconds.

We would be paddling royalex canoes and we were able to pick out one of the few 169 versions available.



The TA was on the very edge of the reservoir and you couldn't see your paddle in the water it was so silty. We were both completely out of water but decided to wait until the larger section of the reservoir 2 hours later to fill up. Smart move as it was completely clear by then.

With a slight tail wind we baked in the sun but still made good time. We hit one CP along the way and then made it into the next TA at the Miracle Mile.

This next trekking section was going to a mix of bushwhacking on the state land and trails, roads and more unnamed roads for the rest. We made it out of the TA just as Tecnu arrived so we knew they weren't far behind. By the 3rd CP they had caught us due in part to a channel swim.

As it turned out we both had selected the same route for this section and ended up travelling the entire section together for the most part.

I started using trekking poles early in the hopes that it might save my feet and quads for later in the race. The terrain was very rugged and we topped out at 8400'. There was very little flatland for running, either hiking up or shuffling down.

We made it into the End of Day 2 transition just after 1 am and again enjoyed warm food and a few hours of sleep. Fortunately we had set up the tent as it rained during the night.

Event: Rev3Adventure Cowboy Tough 3.5-day AR
 

Rev3 Cowboy Tough 3.5 day AR with Erik Grimm as Untamed New England.

Up and onto the buses at 5am for the 2.5 hr ride to Curt Gowdy State Park. We sit down right next to Tecnu, Dart-Nuun and the Yoga Slackers. We couldn't even manage to ride to the start separated.

Its not every race that gets started by the governor of the state with a shot from a pistol but apparently that more common in Wyoming.



Seemed kind of cool to have the complete backing of the state for the event.

The first section was a foot-O for 5 points and we traveled most of it with the 4 person team from Rev3. We tried a few bushwhack routes but it seemed no quicker than the trail options to most of them.

After the foot-O we ran back to the start to pick up our bikes and the remaining gear for the rest of the day. The bike-O also had 5 CP's to pick up on some fun singletrack. We overshot one CP due to a cameraman distraction and then over shot the flagging out to the road allowing Dart and YS to get ahead of us by a few minutes.

Once out of the Curt Gowdy we had a short bikewhack section along a road under construction and then headed into Medicine Bow National Forest. Once in the forest we rode to Vedauwoo for the rappel then up into a great network of trails in Happy Jack topping out at 8900' which I certainly could feel.



We ran into Dart quite a few times in there and passed Tecnu going the opposite way once so we knew we were close to the lead. We managed to get out of the trail network in first but were caught by Dart heading into Laramie. Once we punched at ATS in town they took off on the long road ride in the rain on route 30 towards Rock River and we didn't see them again until the end of the stage. I wasn't feeling particularily well here and EG pulled a good portion of it.
Tecnu caught us right before the TA to the final o-course and we rode into the TA together.

A quick transition to treking gear and we were just behind Tecnu heading out for the last 5 CP's of the day. The first few went ok but we completely screwed up the hillside CP on a unnamed road, wasting about 45 minutes searching and re-attacking it. We would eventually learn that 'unnamed road' meant nearly nonexistant.

Since we completed the course for the day before the time limit of 8am we would receive the remaining time before 6am the next day as a time credit and bank it as sleep. Fortunately we thought this was possible going in and packed sleeping bags, thermorests, a tent, a jetboil and folding lawn chairs into the 35 gallon Action Packers. It was just like home. Unfortunately the generator running nearby and the latter finishers commenting on our tent prevented me from sleeping very well but at least I was off my feet.

Buy food, assemble bikes, pick up ActionPacker, search for cheap riverboard (success!).