Training Log Archive: kpoire

Phil dropped me off at the Indy airport in the morning for my 3pm flight that eventually left at 7:30 (but then sat on the tarmack until a storm blew over) which meant I missed my already rescheduled flight out of TO. Air Canada was nice enough to put me up in a hotel for the evening and eventually got home on 12 May... All part of the adventure...

Event: DINO MISSION 4/18hr AR
 

MISSION AR. Finished with 10 seconds to spare. 3rd overall, 1st 2-pers male.

Report 'stolen' from Phil (bugeater)...

“What is 10 seconds?”

10 seconds in a competitive event can be an eternity or a fleeting moment. In adventure racing, 10 seconds is tying your shoe, stopping to check the map, refilling a water bottle, waiting for a car to pass by to cross a road, digging in a pack to find a required piece of gear, or leaving a helmet in a transition area and having to quickly go back and retrieve it. 10 seconds in adventure racing is the equivalent of less than the blink of an eye. It is also the amount of time we had left when we approached the finish line at the 2014 Mission 18 hour Adventure Race…

Event order: trek, bike, paddle, trek, bike, trek. 6am to midnight.

Prologue (1 hr)

We initially received instructions that at the word “GO”, we had 60 minutes to find 7/10 checkpoints that were all placed at the 800’ elevation within 1 km of the start TA with none of the CPs plotted on our maps. All the teams took off and after about 45 min, my teammate from the Great White North, Kevin, and I came back with our quota and received the first coordinates to plot. It was slim pickings at first but near the end we picked up 4 CPs in quick order – a few of them by luck and chance.

Bike (CPs 1 – 8) (3.5hrs)

After a short ride on the road, we headed onto the sweet single-track of Versailles State Park and we clicked off the first few without issues. For CP 3 we managed to ride right past it. It turned out the CP was located directly behind a tree and due to our direction we simply missed it. When it didn’t make sense on the map, and after trying different things, we eventually backtracked and found it (right next to the trail) - 25-30 minutes lost. It was early, so we soldiered on with much of the race left to go. Once we got the CPs on the single-track, we headed to some gravel / paved roads to get the last couple CPs before returning to start TA and the next set of coordinates.

Paddle (CPs 9 – 15) (6hrs)

After a quick run from the TA to the boats we jumped in the water and headed north to grab the first couple of CPs. There were 6 CPs in total, four of which you could get by any means, which included splitting up to retrieve them. We hatched a plan that Phil would jump out and pick up two of the CPs on the West side of the river while Kevin paddled back to a link-up point directly across from the put-in point. But before that, we had a couple CPs to pick up. On one of them, we pulled over too early on the river and searched the wrong reentrant - 30 minutes lost… grrrrh. It rained fairly steadily for a while but wasn’t miserable and the lake side of the paddle was comfortable. After we dragged the canoe up and over the dam, we followed the river/creek down river to the last two checkpoints. This was the paddle that never ended - paddle, push, drag, get-out, push, drag, paddle and repeat. Total paddle was 6 hrs and we were told that the lead teams were 40-50 min ahead.

Trek (CPs 16 – 23) (4hrs)

We quickly plotted the trekking points, downed some food, and we were off. We knew the lead teams would be tough to catch without a major hiccup, so we just stayed steady and pushed as hard as we could without completely torching the legs – pretty much ran / AR shuffled the flats and downhills and power walked the ups. We ran this clean and in good time; one giant Rottweiler, an ankle biter, and a cool little waterfall later, we arrived to the portion that included a rappel from a water tower, which was fun (although those things are taller than they appear! 120’ to be exact…).

Bike (CPs 24 – 31) (3.5hrs)

After getting back to the start/finish TA, we were able to plot the bike leg CPs, reload on water/food, change socks and shoes in about 20 minutes and we were off. Kevin and I thought we had time to clear this leg, with potentially time at the end to get a few more checkpoints on foot before the 18 hour time limit was up. We quickly got the first 2 CPs, which included a surprise mystery eventof paddling inflatable boats across a bog, get the CP on ‘Hilltop’, and back; this was about 20 min that was unplanned…sneaky RD. We were now in a time crunch – the penalty for arriving at the finish line after the 18-hr time limit was you were penalized 1 CP for every minute we were late which meant we could potentially lose all our hard work to penalties. Now we figured we had to really move well to have a shot at completing the bike leg and knew we would have to make a hard call on CP 30. We plucked the next three CPs without issue, pulling and drafting – biking in fear, if you will. Then, with 1hr 40min left was our first decision point; do we play it safe and snag CP 29 before heading to the finish and leave one CP out on the course? Or do feel lucky and drop down to get CP 30 at the ‘Fort’. We spent 60 seconds debating options, to Kevin’s credit, he was feeling it. We decided that if we didn’t make it to CP 30 by 2300hrs we had to bail and start heading back. Luckily (and with some hard work from our legs) we made our next time check on the nose. Now it was gut check time with a good sized climb out for the return trip back. With 26 minutes until midnight, we were on a Vegas-heater and it was time to place our biggest bet… go big (get CP 29 but add some distance) or go home (leave CP 29 out on the course and head straight back to the finish). We made the turn… we were going big… but half-way to the CP, I started to second guess the decision but we were committed. We both tried to be positive, but I was wondering if we were going to make the cut-off. We punched the last CP with 21 min until cut-off. I had estimated we would need 20-21 minutes to get back (about 11 km with a short 150 meter, almost granny gear climb, after nearly 18 hours; not good). This was top-of-the-redline effort all the way back. We quickly blew through Versailles, flew down the hill through the covered bridge and at the base of the dam, we blew past teams on foot, that unfortunately were not going to make the cut-off. We hit the climb to the finish as hard as we could with around 2 minutes left; my HR was probably the highest it’s been this entire year. Our lungs burning, legs screaming to quit (SHUT UP LEGS!!), Kevin motivating, and me fairly certain that I was going to die. But after coming all that way, there was no way we were going to be late!! I was sure my legs would give out before the top, but they held. At the top, Kevin leapt ahead the 30 meters to the finish, and yelled “team 44 is in”. Our time was 17:59:50 and that ‘bold move’ put us in 3rd overall behind Bushwhacker and Alpine Shop.

Hotel Quito, ECU

Hotel Quito, ECU

Hotel > Loop of La Carolina Park > Hotel. Got caught in a hail storm… ouch!