CNYO Sugar Hill Rogaine - designated the 2010 U.S. Champs. Day 2.
Finger Lakes Region, NY
Tiny and I teamed up for this event because our regular rogaine partners had the audacity to make different plans for the long August weekend, i.e. running the 125 km Canadian Death Race (M&M) and exploring the temples of Kyoto ('Bent and his brother).
Since Tiny is accustomed to a speedy teammate, I planned to move as quickly as possible so I didn't carry my camera on the race course. There were some fantastic views of low mountains and lakes which you'll just have to imagine!
Pixie and Shirley, Tiny's wife and sister, came along to do their first 24-hr rogaine. They planned to get some sleep during the night then head out for another round in the morning. The idea was that they would be wider awake for driving home.
Tiny and I planned a good route, I think, using about 70 km of string (straight line distance between controls). Our goal was just over 2400 points. We knew where we should be when the sun set and it looked good in that part of the map. We would have to purify water in streams because the weather was hot and we wouldn't reach our first official water stop for a long time. (It turned out that we reached the first bottled water cache after 12 hours.)
This may have been the best rogaine I've done for keeping the pace up and sticking closely to our planned schedule. If anything, I wondered whether we should have been more ambitious. It's my fault since I chose the appropriate string length. We did light running on some flats and almost all downhills when we were on trails and roads where the terrain wasn't overly conducive to ankle rolling. Tiny turned a little green during the hottest part of the day but he kept soldiering on. I forced myself to drink more than I wanted to but I'm sure it was still less than a doctor or exercise physiologist would recommend. Regardless, I felt great. It helped that my summer rogaine pack was so much lighter than my usual load since I didn't have to worry about getting cold at night.
With two navigators and strong lights, our night navigation went very smoothly except for one low value control (40) in a re-entrant that managed to elude us after a particularly heinous bushwhack through thick forest and tangled blackberry bushes over our heads. (My poor legs aren't looking good today!) We came across the well-lit
Monterey Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility but in spite of our curiosity to check it out more closely, we had no desire to be seen running past their gate in the wee hours. We saw a sign for it with a cartoon head of a fierce dog and the slogan "Home of Shock". Hmm.
By 5:30 a.m., we had 1690 points and were on schedule to head into the "densest point value" part of the map to collect the remainder of our controls closer to the Hash House. But that's when the Bash Rogaine Partner Curse kicked in. Tiny had been nursing a painful Achilles tendon for a few hours - something he hadn't experienced before - and it wasn't getting better. With Untamed New England coming up next week, it would be crazy to take the chance of damaging it further. It had been great racing with Tiny and we'd worked well together for as long as we could. So we hiked back to the Hash House and were served our own private breakfast of scrambled eggs and cereal before getting a good sleep in Pixie and Shirley's tent. The results aren't up yet but I think our score will stand up reasonably well even though we only raced for 75% of the time. C'est la vie.
Pixie and Shirley went out for a second round in the morning and ended up earning about 1100 points. Fantastic job for their first 24-hr event!
We had a wild time with the other GHO racers after the race ended.
GHOSlow was the life of the party.
Pixie and Shirley won the bronze medal in the female category. Ray & Terri won Super-Vet and I believe Team GHO Slow was 3rd in Super-Vet. (Awards were a little confusing due to the many categories and the issue of U.S. Champs eligibility.) Congrats to all!
One day later, I'm a little tired but feeling good. There are a couple of minor foot blisters that should heal quickly. It helped that I was able to keep my feet dry for much of the race - an all-too-rare luxury. The blackberry bush scratches are fading. My muscles aren't screaming and my Achilles was only a little tight this morning. So I'm in reasonably good shape to start tapering for Untamed New England!