Triangle Adventure Racing Team

Three members of Triangle-AR tackled the Umstead 100 Mile endurance run over the weekend of April 5 and 6. Known of it’s hills and of course not to mention an insane 100 miles of running, the races draws hundreds of runners from across the country. For the 2008 version Ernie Chilcott joined the ranks of finishers with a 26HR effort, Brian T. reported having to drop at the 62.5 mile mark as a result of stomach issues…yeah he ONLY ran 62.5 miles…….and Charlie Roberts stopped after completing the 50 mile option due to foot problems….if you see his blog on the Umstead Run you will quickly see why. He casually mentioned that maybe the 77 mile run from just a few weeks before Umstead might not have let his feet get cleared up in time to tackle the 100 miler……..go figure

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 From Bruce Dale (Team 5-0), Bruce raced with Dale Long of Conway SC. Dale is the current Columbia Chapter President, check out their entire race report and results here! Read the rest of this entry »

Ivestor’s Gap CP, Morning prayers, Day two dismay, Back on the trail, Farlow Gap CP, Long way home, Heading Out, Rolling out, Double Dare Start

Well, what can I say it was an epic…truly an epic.  I had been considering jumping in this one for 3-4 years now and went ahead and took the bite.  Let’s not say bite..let’s say smorgasboard of rocky singletrack, gravel roads, 40 MPH paved aero tuck descents and spectacular views of the Pisgah National Forest.  Saturday’s festivities included 11HRs of riding with a total mileage of 70 or so, the computers shut down during the slow hike-a-bike sections (and yes there were a few) we ended the day at 11pm and immediately went into resupply mode for the second stage 6am start time.  God knows those cowbells rung early at 0530am, I just told myself to not think,  got up walked down to the start in the cold and dark conditions and starting turning the pedals over.  Dave and I rolled through some checkpoints after not recieving our passports until reaching the mandatory check-in point some two hours from the start.  Between tiring, seemingly harder terrain and Dave shearing his rear deraillaur off, we were slowed but continued just pushing forward.  Day two ended with 11HRs 50Min of riding with a mileage count again in 60’s again due to alot of walking it was likely a bit short.  In was a big relief to be done and the beer at the end was a most fitting reward to the effort.  Once the calculations were finished we ended up fourth, with only 7 teams completing both days officially.  Check out our photo section for race pics.  In the meantime checkout my teammate Dave’s Race blog at:  http://www.davesbikeworld.com

Starting Line, Bruce Dale/Finish, Jeff Thompson

Well, what can we say the toughest offering yet of this classic…Bruce and Jeff took it on the chin with 73.8 miles of riding over 11HRS10MIN in the saddle…..classic rocky singletrack climbs….barbwire fence crossing bushwhacks…cramped feet and hands downhills….missed the damn connector trails navigation and very nice West Virginia born and bred BEERS before and after. The director threw it all at the racers this year with some serious long legs between checkpoints…as one rider from Asheville NC commented…”I’m fron Asheville NC, and it doesn’t compare” though I don’t necessarily agree, especially after the PMBAR…it was tough and we were definately glad we took it on! 4th Place DUO team at the end of the day, no major injuries or mechanicals, we’ll gladly take it…………………

View from Hanging Rock Checkpoint

From Brent Eischen of Team Northern Lites!

The oldest mountain range in the continental US was the venue for the most recent Adventure Race for Team Northern Lites. This weekend’s team in the Uwharrie Mountains had a younger look as we lowered the median age from 42 to 35, switching out Dale and Charlie for Brent and Alex. This was Alex’s first big race and he should be awarded rookie honors for jumping into a 12 hour race for his initiation. At 27, he thought keeping up with a couple of 40 something’s would be no problem. HA!

The Panther was set as a 12 hour Rogaine format with 28 possible Control Points to find of which 3 were designated as mandatory (200 pts each). The remaining 25 CP’s were worth between 5 and 30 points depending on difficulty, distance, elevation, etc. The team that finished by the cut-off time with the most points wins (possible 1000 pts.). There were 18 teams racing the 12 hr course with an even split between all male and co-ed. The race began at 6:00 AM with a quick briefing then maps and passports were distributed. We plotted all 28 UTM’s, devised a quick strategy and were on the bikes departing for the first CP in 22 minutes. The plan was to pick up the 6 CP’s all down the East side of the park on the way to the first mandatory CP, Transition Area 1 (TA1). We snagged 5 with no problem and left the 6th to pick up on the way out. We dropped the bikes at TA1 and grabbed the canoe which already had our portage wheels attached. We opted for the 1.8 mile run with the canoe to the last possible put in point off the road thinking this would be much faster than being on a twisting, turning, shallow, Uwharrie River. It probably trimmed about 40 min off the canoe leg.

The portage wheels worked perfectly. This was the first time they had been used in competition. Alex designed and built a set of wheels that were lite, compact and strong enough to survive adventure racing portages. When expanded they measure 40” wide and can carry over 100 lbs. When collapsed in the boat they measure only 16”x16”x6” and weigh in at only 10 lbs. We might have to go into production and sell this competitive advantage to fund our AR habit……after a couple more races.

TA2 was easily located at the end of an uneventful paddle and then a short half mile up hill portage (yeah wheels!) to TA3, the final mandatory CP. The volunteers were just finishing setting up when we arrived a little earlier than they expected. Alex volunteered to do the high rope challenge and covered their course in surprising time. We were the first team to all 3 TA’s. This doesn’t mean much in a Rogaine format where you can achieve CP’s in any order but as part of our strategy I wanted to be off the water before the wind and boat waves picked up.

Transitioning to the running stage we tackled the entire center section of the course on foot. This choice could be debated but the bikes were now 5 miles away in the wrong direction and all the ORV and horse trails were going to be extremely rough. Of the bikers we saw, most were on foot pushing their bikes up the hills. The flip side is the down hills would have been much faster. The bikes would have also prevented me from making the one navigation error of the day that put us on a bushwhack that we were lucky to recover from. It cost us the 40 min advantage we earned on the portage. Standing on another unmarked trail checking the map, we saw our nearest competition (AdventureUS) come around the corner on the same trail heading where we wanted to go. The race was on.

We tucked in behind and out ran them to the next two CP’s creating some distance between the teams as we criss-crossed paths through the middle section. We ended up teaming up again later on in the run for the last couple of CP’s and on comparing notes we had secured one more CP than they did on the running section. Both teams slide down the hill from the highest point in the mountain range but we each chose different re-entrants. They beat us back to the bikes by a couple of minutes as they took what turned out to be the more direct slide. At the TA, in typical adventure racing spirit, Brent loaned them tools and parts to fix their damaged bike and we left the TA on our bikes about 1 min apart.

With the bulk of the course already accomplished and mainly bike accessible CP’s left, Brent lead the charge up the hills and on the trails encouraging us to 6 more CP’s. There was still the possibility of clearing the course before the cut-off time. This went up in smoke when Alex’s rear tube did the same. Poof, Brent jumped on it and put in the spare tube in record time. The only problem was the spare had more holes in it than the original. Patches didn’t hold. Our other spare was larger for Brent’s 29er. 29 inches of tube crammed into a 26 inch tire will actually hold air if treated gently. 20 minutes after the blowout we were rolling to the final 4 CP’s which all had to be achieved on foot. We were able to get 2 of the 4 and checked in at the finish line tired and hungry but pleased with our effort. Northern Lites covered 20 miles running on foot, 15 miles on the bike and 5 miles in the canoe for a race total of 40 miles, scoring an 988 out of a possible 1,000 points

Well, what can I say it was another classic gut check in the Pisgah Mountains with over 10 hours in the saddle to clean the 4 checkpoints. I really shouldn’t say “in the saddle” due to the wet and muddy trail conditions which resulted in significant hike-a-bike opportunities for all the riders.

My teammate Juan Pedrazza and I, along with Jeff and Brian Thompson plotted our Checkpoints back at the camp and after quickly settling on our route of attack, set off for Turkey Pen Gap the 1st mandatory point. The trip up Black Mountain was a familiar one with a similar start to the 2006 race..up and up the trail climbed with a combination of granny gear grinding and walking the bike. It was tough push through to the checkpoint where we gathered our thoughts, took in food/water and e-caps and set off for CP2….it was relatively non-eventful ride across despite the on and off rain and muddy trails. CP2 went well and the four of us set-off in search of CP3 at Cantrell Creek. Just barely out of the Checkpoint my trouble started. While rolling along my rear dérailleur hanger was torn off the frame. At this point the decision was made for Jeff and Brian to ride on as to not ruin their time and momentum.

Juan quickly went to work and the bike was configured as a single-speed. We pushed on riding when we could..pushing when we had to. We surprisingly arrived at CP3 with Brian and Jeff about 10 minutes ahead of us. After another short break we set off for CP4 at Club Gap. In looking over our map we realized we were in for a long push/walk but decided it was a matter of pride to finish. Unfortunately on the way across, my rear hub stripped leaving me with no pedaling ability. With nothing left to do but walk the bikes we pushed on with me coasting the downhills and walking the rest of the trails. We eventually arrived at CP4 running across Charlie and Ernie on the way in to the CP. In looking over the map and our options regarding our mechanical situation we opted to make a downhill run and return to the finish via a forbidden road. Upon hitting the gravel road, Juan and I configured a towing system reminiscent of Sanford and Son and we towed the broken down bike on in to the finish. For our sins we were hit with an 8 hour penalty but still managed an official finish by finding all four Checkpoints.

When we arrived at the finish we met up with Ernie and Charlie who were showered and drinking beer already with their 10HR 01 minute finish. Brian and Jeff soon rolled in at 11:01 relieved to be finished as well. After a couple beers the pain went away and I imagine we will be back to exact revenge in 2008!! Check out the pictures from the race PMBAR.

Held in Unicoi State Park near Helen, GA.
3/23/2007

The race started around 8:00am (after a 1 mile prologue run to separate teams, which didn’t really perform because there was still log jam of canoes trying to get in the water) with a canoe paddle for about 15-20 miles on a lake. This was the worst part of the race for me. We were in a three-man canoe with a “temporary” middle seat that I was sitting on…basically a flat piece of plastic that snapped in to the gunwales of the canoe. At any rate, every time the canoe rocked from one side to the other (with every paddle stroke), I’d have to squeeze my butt cheeks together to keep from sliding to one side or the other. In spite of Jon’s “positive thinking” guidelines (such as, “say your name over and over to induce positive thoughts that you know to be true”), I repeatedly thought…”a F&%$#^G back rest would be ideal”

It probably didn’t help that I’m a crappy paddler and I HATE flat-water paddles on a lake where the scenery changes very slowly. Anywho, we didn’t lose a whole lot of ground during the actual paddling part, but got passed several times at the paddle CPs. I had to pee at two different checkpoints, which cost us time at each. So, we came in from the paddle in 34th place at CP5/TA1…I would have never guessed we were that far back, but Brian checked when we came in.

After that we hopped on the bikes for maybe an 8 mile ride to CP6…I was slow on the hills up to it, but I felt strong and we did manage to gain some spots on this short ride. We got to CP6 where we were to drop the bikes and hit three CP’s in any order, on foot. We planned our strategy to get 7,8, and 9 in order (counterclockwise), which turned out to be not the norm since it appeared to us that most teams were hitting them in clockwise direction, but we made good time on our route. From 6 to 7 was a road for a little ways up to a saddle and then a bushwhack down a long steep draw which involved a lot of buttsliding. It was obviously a relatively quick decent, and we found CP 7 after a few minutes searching at the bottom. When we arrived at the CP, the guy says, “Do you have a passport?” I give the smartass reply of, “I sure hope so” then dig into my empty jersey pocket…then the other one…then the middle one…gone. At 6 hours into the race, I had lost the passport. I hadn’t lost a passport before and it’s a terrible feeling, especially when you’re the one that loses it and you’re only a third of the way into the race, after you feel like the team is making a decent comeback from a slow start. My immediate thought was we’ll back track and find it…but we bushwhacked down a mountain in deep leaves…the chances of finding it were non-existent in my mind. There was a specific rule about losing a passport…disqualification. We decided to continue on the course, unofficially. We nailed the next two CPs on this short trek leg and then made our way back down to CP6/CP10 via bushwhack…a slight nav error here cost us some time, but not a whole lot in my mind…maybe 30 minutes. I still think we probably had a relatively respectable time from CP6 to CP10. Once back at CP10, we were told that someone had found our passport near CP7 and it was at CP7. We were given the option of returning to CP7 to retrieve it and continue from there “officially” once again. Considering the time it would have taken to get over the mountain and back, we opted to continue unofficially.

From CP10 to CP11 was a long uphill bike…it seemed like miles long, again we were able to gain a few positions here. I was still feeling strong and just fell into a slow climbing pace and cranked it out. I think Brian was having some stomach issues at this point and once we got to CP11, mentioned throwing up…I don’t think he ever did, but did gag on some Ecaps. I don’t remember CP12, but we hit it on the bike. Then there was more very long uphill on the bike to the attack point for CP 13. This was to be a bikewhack that proved fatal for our “keep your hearts in it strategy.” It plotted about 800 meters off the road and at the end of a spur in a flat area. We opted to terrain navigate, but in the dark, it was difficult and in hindsight we should have followed a bearing from an attack point. We spent probably 2 hours looking for it, but the terrain on the map looked so easy and we kept thinking we must be close. I kind of gave up looking for it and just stood in one place while Brian and Jon searched for a little while longer. Several teams came through while we were there and none of them found it either. As it turns out (so we heard) only 7 teams found it and it appears on the TB board that they all shot a bearing from an attack point and did so in the daylight. I tend to lean towards terrain navigation rather than using the compass a whole lot, so I get screwed if the terrain doesn’t match the map, which I suspect may have been the case here. At any rate, we left CP13’s general area pushing, pulling and dragging our bikes (and our egos at this point) through the woods. I’m pretty sure Brian even threw his bike several times. I just want to re-iterate how much this bikewhack sucked. There was a rule that on the bike leg (except for CP 7-10) you couldn’t be more than 10 feet away from your bike. So, CP13 was essentially a mandatory bike whack. I thought to myself at one point, “would I rather be back in the canoe?” but while I couldn’t convince myself that was the case, I sure was looking forward to riding this bike that I was constantly lifting over tree fall.

At the bottom of CP13, was supposed to be a small creek we’d hoped to cross and get onto a road on the other side….well it turned out to be too fast and deep to cross with the bikes. We stopped there for about 10 minutes with about three other teams who evidently had the same plan. Eventually we all went back up the hill a few yards to an overgrown trail we had passed on the way down. We traveled with these other teams for a while on this trail to an eventual opportunity to cross via some slippery rocks that were not ideally located for a crossing but figured the going must be faster on the other side where the road was. Two teams continued on, hoping for a better spot, while we and one other team made this hairy crossing, it was slow, but we made it with no casualties. Finally on the road on the other side, more bike whacking (tree falls for what seemed like every 10 feet) and several shallow stream crossings later, landed us on a rideable road that matched the map perfectly…although we didn’t check the compass direction since it was such a perfect match to what the map showed, it never crossed our mind that we might be going in the wrong direction…but on the map we needed to go right so that’s what we did. We soon found ourselves at a dead end and spent some time scratching our heads trying to figure out where we were (because we knew (or thought we did) where we had started from just 15 minutes ago). We headed back the way we came (not because we thought it was right, but we didn’t have any other options) and eventually came to a road and were able to determine our location. CP14 was more very long uphill on the bike. I was still feeling strong and just fell into my climbing gear once again…slow but constant up the hill. We passed several teams on these late night/early morning uphills. At one point we stopped for a quick nap. I was very cold at this point, as I hadn’t planned to be out on the bike this long and had only bike shorts and jersey (the lows in the mountains were forecasted at 50 and I knew I could manage even if I did get stuck out there) so I busted out the space blanket during this little siesta. Having never used a space blanket before, I decided that it’d work in a pinch but I did run by REI in Raleigh on Sunday to pick up one that would be more substantial should I ever feel like my chances of actually using it are above 10%. After this quick 15-minute break, back on the bikes for more uphill climbing. Finally we reached CP14 where a couple of teams were holding up and at this point we saw the race claim it’s first victims. One team was huddled very comfortably by the fire that the race staff had going and weren’t going anywhere in a hurry…their volunteers were on their way up to get them. Back on the bikes and back uphill to what would be CP19 later in the race, but for us it was just another stop and another fire and another team that had fallen victim to the comforts of the manned CP’s and were waiting for their volunteers to come get them. One girl was in a sleeping bag lying by the fire! I’m not sure if she carried it with her or borrowed it from the race staff at the CP. For us it was a quick stop with some welcomed hot chicken soup. Then back on the bikes to the start of a long down hill single-track descent. I hadn’t used my headlight until this point, and was looking forward to some fast fun single track after all the boring uphill gravel roads. With a bright headlight, it’s great to be able to see all the action in front of you on a busy singletrack section. I kept coming up on different teams who were either walking or going very slow since the trail was full of baby heads and deep water bars. I saw three people endo right in front of me. One guy’s was about a 9 on a scale of 1 to 8. It was perfect! He ran into what was apparently nothing (I didn’t see anything in the trail) and just flipped completely over, back wheel directly over front wheel (no sidesway), landed on his back in a tangled pile of bike, racer, backpack, and water bottles…all right in front of me. He turned out to be OK, but didn’t respond for at least 20 seconds, until his friend came back for him. From there it was more downhill singletrack to the road which would carry us to the lodge/CP17/TA2 right at about 5am.

At this point the course would have had us trek for about 10 to 12 hours (obviously not enough time to get all the CPs) and we decided to call it here since there was a hot shower between CP17 and my trek poles and a hot buffet breakfast just a few steps away from that. We showered, ate breakfast, and went to the TA to officially end our unofficial race.

The best comment of the race was from Brian’s Dad (he and Ellen were our support crew) at the end of the race after we had explained our story to them. Brian and I were headed to eat breakfast and Ellen asked if she could come with…Brian’s dad chimes in, “Ellen, I don’t know why you would even want to be associated with this debacle.” ha!

I thought it was a good course, my opinion of the paddle is biased for the reasons I stated above, nevertheless, I hated it. I didn’t necessarily like the copious amounts of biking on gravel roads but looking back, I think he did a good job getting a 30-hour course into the area. It was worth the trip and worth the money, I just had high hopes of a better finish, but it’s tough to stay in the game after what seemed like setback after setback. I went directly to REI after we got back to Raleigh to purchase a passport holder that will be modified to better ensure passport security and a better space blanket.

JT

All in all we had a very good race….we finished 5th of 45 entries and 1st in the 3 person team category at 8HR 47MIN. The race started out with us plotting UTM points and then going out on foot after them, all the markers had a code which upon completing the course had to be deciphered into a word….we cracked the code pretty quick and started on the boat leg in fourth place..we linked a two person kayak and a solo kayak together and moved pretty well….lost a couple places to some duos in two person boats but otherwise held our own…it was a seriously cool boat leg…even had two dolphins follow us for about a 1/2 mile or so, seemed curious about what we were doing……the boat leg gave way to the bike transition..and we had some options to pursue some bike check-points or ride straight line to another very long 0-course (6 points=10miles) this consisted of us having to triangulate our Checkpoints from known points on the map…while my team-mate plotted…I took up the task of throwing a tomahawk into a board about 6ft away….after 5 or 6 throws…I stuck it and we took off running…..

We made a wise choice in going straight to the running with fresh legs, because we needed it all to push through and keep in contact with the top teams…one marker was up a tree requiring a decent climbing effort..one up a rope ladder…and one required a swim across a 10 foot creek……after clearing the course we set back out on the bikes to collect the bike points and ended up totaling 30.9 miles on the bikes….had a bit of trouble with one point but it didn’t really hurt us in the end as we were able to keep moving fast and took some shortcuts that just made sense to us in looking over the course….I would definitely recommend this race or any of the Kandoadventure series races……and oh yeah..won a set of Maxxis MTB tires during the awards….pretty sweet….

Jeff and I headed over to Virginia Beach to participate in the Kraken Challenge. The Kraken was comprised of three races over two days…The Sea and Sand 12hr Adventure Race was held on Saturday, and the 5mi Bear of the Beach trail run and the Va Beach Metr-O, a 6hr urban rogaine, took place on Sunday. Racers would be ranked according their cumulative finish in the three events.

We received our maps for the Sea and Sand Friday night. The first leg was a 5mi ocean kayak followed by a mile portage. We had guessed that there would be a lengthy portage from some hints that were dropped on their website, so both Jeff and I had invested in kayak caddies. As we were plotting points we theorized that we could actually run with our kayaks faster than we could paddle in open seas. There were some off limits areas that needed to be avoided but there was in fact a reasonable route, about 1mi on paved road and 4mi along the beach, that would allow us to portage the entire leg. After confirming that the 6am race start would be during low tide, we were convinced that the strategy was sound.

Early the next morning, we drove the 30mi south to Little Island Park (at the southern end of Sandbridge) and the start of the race. After the short pre-race meeting we talked with the RD to make sure our strategy was kosher. He said that it was but he was a little skeptical about our plan. At 6am racers started paddling into the surf…it turns out that actual race start would take place in the ocean at 6:30am. This gave us the chance to watch everyone try to paddle past the surf. People were paddling everything…from tandems to sit-on-tops. We even saw one team in a canoe. I would guess that less than half of the teams made through the surf on the first attempt. Teams were capsizing all over the place…I have to admit that it was somewhat entertaining. The race started promptly at 6:30 (a few teams hadn’t even gotten out to open water yet) and we raced from the beach back to the parking lot where we had staged our kayaks. The first mile was on a paved road which made for relatively easy portaging. Jeff found it easier to pull his kayak while I opted for pushing. There were dunes along the side of the road which prevented us from gauging our progress against the rest of the field. At the end of the road we had to cross the dunes and continue along the beach. When we crested the dune we could see the pack of leading teams immediately across from us…which meant we were holding our own. Almost all of the lead teams were paddling tandems. There were several teams paddling single kayaks a few minutes behind the leaders and then the rest of the field. Bolstered by the knowledge that our strategy was paying off, we continued our portage down the beach. We continued holding our position relative to the leaders for the better part of the remaining 4 miles, and despite the slower sand and fatiguing legs we managed to arrive at CP1 in second. We had another 1 mile portage across the bank before arriving at CP 2 on the Back Bay. The previous 5 miles were taking their toll and a few teams sneaked by us. We dropped the kayaks at CP2 and started on a short trek to find 3 points scattered around False Cape State Park. The maps weren’t great so there was a little bit of hunting and pecking to find the points but we managed to find them without too much delay. We headed back to the kayaks to start a lengthy 8 mile paddle back to the race start. I think we were still in the top 5 at the time but that wouldn’t last for long. The teams paddling tandems quickly passed us on this leg (and who says that gear doesn’t matter). The paddle was long and largely uneventful (with the exception of Jeff taking a swim while trying to get back in his kayak). After a few hours of paddling we reached the race start/CP 9 where we exchanged the kayaks for mountain bikes. We basically retraced our initial portage down the beach. However, this time it was high tide which made riding the beach nearly impossible. What we thought was going to be an easy ride turned out to be a nearly 3 mile hike-a-bike. At the end of beach we turned onto a series of dirt and sand roads that crisscrossed through False Cape State Park. There were 4 CPs on this leg which could be obtained in any order. The CPs were plotted on a standard 1:25k quad but not all the roads were on the map. A more detailed map of the area was provided but we found it challenging cross-referencing the two. We overshot the first CP but felt confident we knew where it was and could easily get it on the way back. The second CP proved difficult as well, and we wasted 45min on a wild goose chase. We found the remaining CPs without too much trouble but we felt we lost any chance of a top finish. The frustration on this leg was compounded by the difficult terrain. The roads were a mixture of hard packed dirt and deep, soft sand. You could ride a hundred or so feet then you would have to dismount and push your bike through deep sand for another hundred feet. It was like this for miles. We finally got back to the main stretch of beach which meant just 5 more miles to the finish line. We picked off two teams in this final stretch. We closed to within a hair’s breath of a third team but they were able to pull away in the final mile. We were surprised to see that we had finished 11th. We were sure that our navigation mishap had put us further back. We picked up some pizza on the way home and got some shut-eye for the next day’s events.

The Bear of the Beach trail run was hosted at Fort Story, an Army base on the north end of Virginia Beach. The run was open to the “public” so we were expecting a much larger crowd than was actually there. The 5 mile run took place on “trails” that were really dirt and sand roads that wound through the wooded hills on base. The sand was deep in sections which made it feel like you were running in place. At one point during the race we ran by some old overgrown concrete bunkers which looked like something out of a WWII movie. Anyway, it was relatively uneventful race. I was little dissatisfied with my finish time but it was good enough for 13th overall. Jeff was a couple of minutes behind in 17th. It started to rain so we headed back to the condo to prep for the Virginia Beach Metr-O.

I’ve never done an urban rogaine so I was excited that the Metr-O was part of the Kraken. This was the event that Jeff and I thought we could make up for the previous day’s navigation fiasco. The 6 hour Metr-O was split in half…the first 3 hours were on foot and the last 3 were on mountain bike. We got a series of quads that were pre-marked with controls. As with a standard rogaine each control was given a certain point value and you had to collect the maximum number of points within the specified timeframe. Instead of the orienteering punches you would find in a traditional rogaine, the Metr-O required answering specific questions at each control. Questions like “what color is the roof at 1313 Crescent St.?” and “what year was the first surfing tournament held at Virginia Beach?” were examples of the types of questions we had to find the answers for. We got the maps about 15 minutes prior to race start which gave us little bit of time for map study. It was pretty clear (at least to us) that the maximum points could be gained by hitting the southern part of the course (which included 4 controls in the Va Beach aquarium) on foot and the northern part of the course on bike. The race started promptly at 11:00am and, as luck would have it, what seemed like a tropical storm had arrived at 10:30am. The wind and rain were unimaginable. Neither of us had raced in conditions like this. The rain was coming down in torrents. By the time we had reached the aquarium we were drenched…like just stepped out of the shower drenched. We received more than a couple of glances as we were running through the aquarium looking for the answers to the four questions. The answer for one question regarding an anemone could only be found if you hit one button on an interactive exhibit. Luckily we were in the right place at the right time as a couple behind hit the button and read the answer out loud. We found two other answers after searching around a bit. The last question however was unanswerable as the exhibit containing the answer had been closed a week earlier. (On a side note, don’t let me baby sit any of your children…Jeff is much better suited for that. As we were running through the downpour along a half mile nature trail between aquarium buildings, we came across two lost children looking for their father. I ran right by them but Jeff stopped and gave them directions back to the main trail. We did happen to run past the father and let him know where we saw the children.) Anyway, we continued collecting points. We had to run/walk for most of it and so we did not get as many controls on foot as we had hoped. We did manage to squeeze in a quick stop at McDonald’s on our way back to the TA (a key benefit to racing in a city instead of in the woods). It seemed as if the storm intensified as soon as we got on the bikes. There were several roads that had flooded out (riding through them was sorta fun). We were headed north straight into the wind which forced us into our granny gears for parts of the ride. As with the aquarium, it turned out that one of the controls had been demolished recently (that’s strike two for the course designer). Our plan was to travel counter-clockwise because the majority of the high point valued controls were in or west of Fort Story. We collected a few controls along the way up to Fort Story. Once we got to the base, we were turned away at the gates. The rent-a-cop manning the gates just said the base was closed and told us to turn around. There went our strategy. We had to head back the way we came and try to attack the north part of the course from a clockwise direction. We knew we couldn’t reach the few high valued controls in time so we had to pick out several lower valued controls instead. I made a big navigation error because I switched maps too soon and we wound up riding around residential neighborhood for what seemed like an eternity. After picking up a few more controls we decided to head back. We were able to pick up some of the controls we had skipped on foot on our way back to the finish. We got back with a couple of minutes to spare…just enough time to transpose our answers onto the question/answer sheet (Jeff had the brilliant idea to write down the answers in a separate waterproof notebook to avoid getting the question/answer sheet wet. We actually ran into one team whose sheet had gotten wet and become unreadable/unwritable.) As soon as it hit 5:00pm we turned in our sheet. The problem was that we had forgotten to transpose all of our answers. We did some quick math and figured that the additional points were worth more than the late penalty so we retrieved the sheet and finished transposing the answers. Between the Fort Story fiasco and our navigation woes we thought we were going to be relegated to a mid-pack finish.

As it turned out, we finished second in the Metr-O. We’re not sure how the scoring worked out given the missing controls, Fort Story issues and penalties, but we’re not complaining. The 2nd place finish gave us a boost for our overall Kraken positions. I finished 3rd and Jeff finished 4th. The disappointing finish in the Sea and Sand probably kept us out of 2nd and 3rd but there was no catching Scott Pleban who took 1st. I thought The Sea and Sand AR, run by the guys at HRAdventure, was a great 12 hour race with just enough suffering to make it feel like a longer race. I definitely plan on doing another one of their races next year.