Adrenaline Rush 12 Hour

Mark, Liz and Dennis pre race

This weekend I competed with Dennis and Liz in the inaugural Adrenaline Rush 12 Hour at Shenandoah river state park.  We had an early start and drove out to the park the morning of the race.  After hosting our own race at this location and spending many hours exploring the area, I was really looking forward to actually doing a race in the park.

 The Adventure addicts race directors Michele and Andy did a great job with pre race communications and as very active participants in the adventure racing community, understand all the nuances associated with race setup and how to make participants feel welcome, comfortable, and ready to race.  We appreciated the nod to the other race directors who were participating the in race during the pre race brief.

The general course flow was a trekking O-Course, then mountain biking within the park, trekking to a canoe put in, a 6 mile paddle with portage half way, a short trek back to bikes, a 30k bike on surrounding area back roads and then an O-Course back in the park. Maps for the final O-Course were to be given out later in the race so it was difficult to determine how long that sections would take. With every point being equal and only three points out on the long bike, it was debatable if that section was worthwhile doing.

Route choice for first O-Course

We plotted our route for the first O-Course which was in the north end of the park and got ready for the start.  We determined our competition would be imonpoint/Odyssey and one of the teams from the Halfwaythere crew. All experienced and strong co-ed teams. With a Rogaine format for the first leg we know we would be racing our own race and not have to worry about keeping pace and would only know our standings as we pasted through transitions.

After a short prolog up a very steep hill to the visitors center we were out on the O-Couse bagging checkpoints. We stuck to the route we had planned and were back to bikes in around two hours and about 20 minutes behind the lead teams. The bike section covered all the great biking trails in the path.  We hit the Point trail first doing and out and back to the CP and then out and back up the grueling grind of the Allan’s Mountain trail. Then over to Bear bottom loop where we caught up with our good friends Greg and Scott and then ended up at the bike drop.  We saw Mike passing through on the Sprint course and heading back to start line well ahead of the pack.  He went on to win the Sprint race taking first overall. At this point Dennis and I were feeling good. Liz was a little off pace after still recovering from the flu virus a few weeks prior.

Bike route

We had a 2-mile trek to the boat put-in.  We got in the water and were happy to find the current relatively strong.  Kudos to Dennis for controlling the boat so well.  With his background in white water and paddling he kept the canoe as straight as an arrow and did a great job navigating the river.  This makes a huge difference in the amount energy you have to expend and makes up time. We had a protégé over the Low Water Bridge, which we made short shrift of, and continued down to the take out another three miles down stream. On the way down we saw one of the HalfWayThere teams heading back up the river so we knew we were in a least 2^nd place and needed to make up time.

From the boats we had a short trek back up the river to the bikes and then headed out on the roads.  As we were riding we saw Imonpoint/Oddysey fly back to the park putting our standing at 3^rd place.  They were making great time. For the rest of the ride we hardly saw any other teams.  We later found out that most racers opted not to do the bike and instead concentrate on the point heavy trekking O-Course.  This proved to be a wise choice for many teams.  It also meant that we really had to clear the O-Course so as not to get beaten by someone who had not put in the extra 30k to get three points. The ride out was long and up hill but the return ride was fast and quick putting us ahead of our planned schedule.  We aimed to leave ourselves three hours for the O-Course although this was a gamble, as we had no idea what it would entail apart from get 20 CPs.

Liz found her second wind on the bike and really pulled one out the bag to get us back to the park in great time to get our maps for the second O-Course.  I knew we would be completing the last hour and a half in the dark so planned our route to take on the most tricky sections of the park early on and in daylight. With an out and back route planned with a few bailout options depending on time, we set out on foot after a quick transition where we took on some more food and water.  The weather was unseasonably warm making it extra important to take on fluids and stay hydrated.  No complaints from me about that.

Route choice for second O-Course

The second O-Course map had the trails removed, which made navigation a little trickier.  Point to point was the best option and where possible take trails around some of the deep and steep reentrants that sap your energy as you go up and down them.  The course was well laid out and challenging.  It would have been nice to have point numbers on the flags as reassurance that you were at the right one but close inspection of the terrain and the accompanying clues was usually enough to verify you were at the correct CP.  By the time we were at the furthest CP we only had an hour and a half to get back and clear about another 12 checkpoints.  I knew it was going to be close.  We had to get back by 9pm or we would start loosing our heard earned points. With the sun slowly disappearing and the final check points, although closer than previous ones were in some challenging terrain. Liz took on role of timekeeper and kept close tabs on our progress. We dug in, ran where possible and started nailing the rest of the points.  As the darkness fell I found that my navigation improved.  I was able to shoot a bearing and not be distracted by things I normally am during daylight.  You have to forget about the terrain features and follow the arrow on the compass.  This seemed to work well and we made great time clearing the final CP’s.

Podium

The very last CP was on an island.  I charged across the small stream to get to it and then proceeded to run around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.  I had carefully navigated this far and then for some reason thought I could run in random directions on the island and find the point.  With about 15 minutes until cut off, this was not a good tactic.  As I hunted around with one of the HalfWayThere teams we eventually found it.  Disoriented, I shot a bearing back to the trail where I could see my fellow teammates lights bobbing around.  I waded back through the channel that separated the island and I was back with Liz and Dennis and sprinting to the finish.  We arrived with quite a few other teams with six minutes to spare before the cut off. It was great to have lots of the other teams and volunteers there cheering for everyone as they came to the end of a long and tiring day.

As we suspected many teams did not do the bike and I think only three teams cleared the entire course.  We ended up taking third with Imonpoint/Odyssey taking and impressive first and HalfWayThere finishing 20 minutes ahead of us in second place.

This was a good race in a great park.  Thanks to the Adventure Addicts and all there hard working volunteers for putting on the race and also the rangers at Shenandoah River Sate Park who are making this venue a top destination for out door recreation.

2012 Extreme Break Up

Kelly, Dave and Micah after a Down, Up, Down, Up, Day

Friday night began with an informative race meeting where racers from Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, and Wisconsin converged to get ready for the next day.  Once checked in we headed back to our room to plot points and check our gear for the next day.  With plots pointed and routes chosen we took the gear list and made sure we had all required gear with us.  With all individual gear checked, it was time for the TEAM required gear list for our first race of the year.
-1 cell phone fully charged
-Map Case
-UTM tool
-Compass
-Waterproof matches
-Bike and Chain Tool
-Air Pump or CO2 shooter
-First aid kit

Good, Good, Check, Check, and two of most things on the list.

Then, like always we end up tweeking things a little here and there.  Light fleece or heavy fleece(went with light fleece).  How many tubes total do we have?  Six.  We don't need that extra weight. Lets just take 3 spare tubes. Two of us are running tubeless.  Ya, sounds good.   How about nutrition?  8 to 10 hours?  5  powerbars a piece (4 stacked in bento box one in pack) Gels?  Finally we decided to call it a night. 

Before we knew it  we were pushing accross the front of the scenic Milford lake dam to the town of Wakefield where our bikes had been dropped earlier in the AM.

3 teams had seperated and pushed out of transition on to the bikes heading to a series of about 7 cp on bikes.  I chose to laminate my map rather than using my map case in this portion and soon found it to be too slick to stay in place well.  If possible I try to avoid losing track of my exact spot on the map to avoid diving into an area in the wrong place. We hopped on to the wrong set of single track and worked it up and down for about 20 minutes with another top team. Usually not a good sign when no one else is aroung this early in the race.  Lightbulb went on and both teams were back on

on track.  We were starting from the back of the pack, but were optomistic as a lot of race was left. Kelly is a strong biker and helped pull us back into the race. 

Next section was a choice of Canoe,  Orienteering Course, or a single track bike loop with CPs to be picked up in all sections.  We choose to Canoe first as the wind was harsh and most likely going to get worse.  Teams struggled in this section.  With Micah in the back of our vessell I usually like our chances of at least holding our own.



Many teams portaged but Micah choose to remain in the water about 40 meters out from shore. 

Micah and I stayed relatively dry and Warm....
But,,, the person in the middle of the canoe with but down, getting constanstly splattered from that dag gum front paddler was getting cold, fingers turning white, cold.
Kelly was ready to get the blood flowing with a trek on the land navigation portion.  We found our checkpoints with few issues and with a some new scratches we were on our way back to the bikes.

 After a quick singletrack loop and 3 checkpoints
punched we were back to transition area to check out.

We were excited to hear we had worked our way up to 2nd place overall. That gave us a little motivation for a fast transition as we were not far behind.


The team in front of us was soon behind as they had the miss fortune of a flat tire.


 We felt bad for them as it has been a while since we have flatted in a race.  We breezed through the first 6 miles of a bike leg with little problems UNTILL.  Flat #1

Flat #1-pop into action tube out, co2 and shooter out,...., come on lets get the bad tube out,  where is the... stinking, ... anybody have have tire levers...whoops....  After fumbling around a while we did realize we had two bike tools and were able to use the alan wrenches to get the tire off. After a few co2 cartridge errors we had thing figured out for another mile until we had flat #2.

Flat #2  Micah pulled out of his bag, his spare tube for his 29 inch bike.  It did not take long to realize it was a 26" tube and that of the 3 spare tubes we had taken- two of them were 26" tubes and we needed 29" tubes. 

It was now time for the pump and ride as fast as you can until you flat tour. Our distance became shorter with each pump as more thorns were gathered on flats 3, 4 and 5. We were searching out how many cartidges we had until our hand pump would be left and found a patch kit with 6 slime patches.

Micah sat down and methodically began locating holes, until there was one patch remaining. We had watched two teams pass us and began to wonder if we would finish. Kelly and I wanted to throw on the tire and save the last patch.  Micah said, Lets find one more hole while and patch while its out.  With the last patch on we were off and retaining air!

 We went by short course teams who were having their own struggles.

We showed up in the last land navigation section about 25 minutes off first and 15 minutes off second.  The second place team was also competing for the USARA National Qualifier champion honor that we like to chase when in reach. We had a quick land nav and found ourselves down about 10 minutes.  We were tired and starting to cramp as it had been a warmer day than expected. 10 minutes seemed like it would be to much until we stopped on a bike whack section on the way back to firm up where we were at in relation to the next point.  It was then we saw the team we were chasing and they were looking for the same point.  We proceeded to the next point and Kelly spotted it down to the north of us.  We quickly hydrated, decided our route to the final few points and when the other team started our way, the race was on.  Micah quickly grabbed the point, and we powered to the finish on our bikes.
 

Thank you to Char race director for Lake Adventures Racing, to her willing volunteers and to the Manhattan Running Company for the many prizes they provided.  Char puts on a quality race for athletes of all abilities and ages. She has results, splits , photos and video of the events to share with your family and friends.  All photos were graciously provided by Char and her volunteers. 

Fire, food and fun were provided prior to awards.



Looking forward to next year!

Skunk Ape 24-Hour Adventure Race

The Skunk Ape 24-Hour Adventure Race was held in southeastern Florida, near the city of Jupiter, on 4 Feb 2012. I was well rested and ready for this race, my first solo event since Checkpoint Tracker nationals last October.

I drove down from my home near the Kennedy Space Center the night before, checking into race HQ in Hungryland Wildlife Management Area. Teams and soloists were provided maps and a clue sheet then sent off until the pre-race meeting at 0600 the next morning. At the race director's recommendation I had booked a campground for the night (local motels were over $100/night and as a soloist I didn't have anybody to share the costs). Since my campground was over 30 minutes away I elected to pitch my tent at the race HQ and save the drive time. No teammates to smell me as I raced, who needs a shower??

2 reasons why that was a bad idea.

1) It rained that night, and rained hard. Ever try to sleep in a tent with wind driving rain? Not easy, but I tried hard until...

2) Local kids arrived around 2am. Monster trucks, stereos blazing, they circled my tent a few times and did some doughnuts in the grass. I stayed in the sleeping bag and hoped they would go away. Instead, they stayed until around 4am drinking, blasting music, and occasionally revving up their trucks and driving around. Recalling how I acted similarly as a teenager, I just kept cool and let them eventually tire out and head home.

I finally got to sleep around 415am and was woken up a 0545 by racers and volunteers arriving. About 90 minutes of good sleep. Not a great way to start a 24 hour race.

Pre-race photo with my GoPro camera. Green lights are my SPOT GPS tracking device, and necessity when racing 24 hours as a soloist.

Good news, weather forecast was beautiful for the entire race. Temps in the low 70s, partly cloudy, no rain forecasted (key word “forecasted”). Wonderful!!!

Race plan was a "mystery" run, short bike to a paddle TA, paddle in some very shallow/narrow canals in Loxahatchee River Bend Park, return to Paddle TA. Hop on mountain bikes and ride back into Loxahatchee River Bend Park, then heading south along a canal for 2 CPs and a fairly long ride. Returning to the paddle TA, there was a relatively short run with some technical CPs to locate. Back at the paddle TA, there was an 8-mile paddle to the boat ramp in Jonathan Dickinson State Park and then a monster trek (~15+ miles) with some technical CPs that took you all the way back to the original paddle TA. Back on the bike for a moderate ride and some more technical CPs, then back to race HQ for a late night/early morning trek and finally the finish line. All the switching sounds complicated, but it makes for a fun race and keeps a single muscle group from getting too tired. Kudos to the race director for the course design.

The mystery run was revealed at race start, and had intended to be a hash run. Unfortunately heavy rain that night had washed away most of the flour trails the race director had left out the day prior. So instead we did an out-and-back trek, about 5k. This type of "prologue" event helps separate the teams early in a race and keeps them from bunching up on the bike and paddle.

A veteran of long races, I kept near the back during the trek and conserved my energy. Arriving back at the main TA I witnessed some racers sweating so hard their shirts were wet...and all of ~30 minutes into the race!!! I was already looking forward to passing those teams later in the day.

Quick flashback: As I pulled up to race check in the night before, several members of the staff came over to my car and asked about my kayak. For this race, teams were provided canoes but solo racers had to bring their own kayaks to use. My boat is a 17 foot surf ski made by Epic Kayaks. It is very, very fast and designed for open water. However, the race staff suggested I find a shorter boat and preferably one I didn't mind getting struck by underwater logs and rocks. They said the paddle for this race was full of tight turns, underwater obstacles, and was often very shallow in places. Fortunately a friend from my local racing team, Florida Xtreme, lived nearby and offered me the use of his personal kayak for the race. Thanks Mark!!!!

The first paddle section was moderately technical to navigate and paddle. The canals in the park were often less than 10 feet wide, and only a few inches deep in most sections. Water lilies and grasses would grab my kayak and slow progress, requiring strong paddle strokes that drained energy. Fortunately this was a relatively short paddle, around 90 minutes.

1st paddle section. Tight, shallow, and full of vegetation.

The following bike leg looked easy on paper. The first set of CPs were on trails in the park, navigation was very basic. I dropped my race passport between two CPs, lost 5 minutes riding back and found it right in the middle of the trail (whew!)

The final two CPs were a long ride south and west of the park along a dike. It was impossible to tell on the map, but this dike was mostly loose sand. Riding was not easy, and on the return leg it was mostly into a stiff wind coming directly from the east. There were two teams ahead of me at this point, and I was using a significant amount of energy on the bike trying to rein them in. In hindsight I should have backed off a few MPH and taken a 10-20 minute time loss, instead I fell behind on my nutrition and energy levels and didn't feel good when I got off the bike. Roughly 2 hours on the bike, now in 4th place overall.

Biking on the dike. It was hard packed here, but quickly turned into soft "sugar" sand.

Next, about 4 miles of trekking. All of these points were technical navigation, at least 40 meters off the trail. I had been focusing on sharpening navigation for the last 6 months, and had attended several Florida Orienteering Club O-meets. That practice paid off as I ended up in 1st place after nailing the first 3 CPs. Unfortunately that lead didn't last, as I was still suffering from the bike and mostly walking. 1 soloist (Greg from M-K/Rev3) passed me on the final 2k back to the boat TA and I started my next paddle section in second.

I can't say enough great things about this next paddle! Starting from West Indiantown Road, racers headed towards the ocean on the Loxahatchee River for approximately 8 miles. We started out going over a 1-foot spillway, with a big sign warning about alligators and cottonmouth snakes that lived in the waterway. The first section was full of old Cyprus trees, the water was a blackish-brown due to the sediment in that area, and a moderate current flowed in our direction. Yes, you read that right. An adventure race where you paddled WITH the current!!! I would have kissed the race director on the spot for making that call.

Grabbing a CP on the paddle

The Cyprus trees gave way to mangroves, the waterways opened up, and it was easy to see the evidence of large alligators along the banks. Greg even scared a few as he led the paddle, and one 10+ foot gator slide into the water about 2 feet from his boat!!! We had gotten sound safety advice from the race staff for just this type of situation: Whatever you do, DON'T get out of your boat!!

Near the end of the paddle we were going directly into the wind and once again I felt drained of energy and ready for a break. Catching up with Greg as the pull-out came into sight, we were both happy to leave our boats and those gators behind and begin the long trek.

For the next several hours I played yo-yo with team Green Paw (exiting the water in 3rd place, about 20 minutes behind me) and Greg (exiting the water just ahead of me). Too tired to run, I stood by helplessly as Green Paw and Greg would disappear into the distance on the long, straight sandy trails. However, he CPs in this section were far off trail and my navigation was on fire. So I would pass them in the bushes and end up a kilometer ahead. 10 minutes later they would go by again...

It got dark during this section of the race, and I was able to eat and drink to regain strength. Greg and I traveled together for an hour or so, I was grateful for his company and I don't think he minded slowing down for a while (he can run forever it seems!) I'm looking forward to racing with him in our 4-person coed team this April at the Rev3

Finally back to the bikes and original boat TA, I knew it was just 2 sections left until the finish. At this point Green Paw was about 1 hour in front of me, they had run almost all of the long trekking section. Very impressive. Greg was about 45 minutes behind them in 2nd. I made a very quick transition and headed out to catch Greg on the bike.

Luck was with me, I found Greg searching for the 1st CP on the bike leg. This one was diabolical...located low in a dry canal, completely blocked by vegetation (we had to crawl under some trees to get it). Nighttime navigation is it's own sport, it takes a true master to do it well. Together we cleared the last bike CPs and rode into the main TA together.

Biking at night, bright lights make a big difference! Love my Lupine lights.

At this point Greg needed to head back to his wife, as he had agreed to leave the race around midnight. They were driving to the Florida panhandle on Sunday, and he needed sleep before the 8+ hour drive. Team Green Paw was around 90 minutes in the lead, and there was no sign of anybody close to catching up. Just a few trekking points to get and likely a 2nd place finish. I left the main TA just after midnight and headed out for the final 5 points.

Up to this point in the race the terrain had been relatively dry, except for the paddle section of course. Hungryland Wildlife Management Area was a surprise...about half of the trekking we did there was in marsh/swamp with at least several inches of water. It's difficult enough to navigate at night, and to do it in a swamp, and by yourself with little sleep. What else could go wrong? Well, how about...

1) It started pouring down rain. Hard. From above. Sideways. And from below, splashes from the swamp water. Completely drenched me.

2) I startled a large cat (panther?) It gave me a very hungry look, but decided to eat something else and ran off. It...was...big.

3) Tired. I started to have trouble concentrating. Started seeing snakes in the water, no snakes. Almost fell down a few times. Just dreaming while awake.

After getting 3 of the 5 points and sitting in a metal spillway to regain body heat and attempt to dry off, I called it a night around 330am and checked back in at the main TA. It was still pouring rain. The race staff offered to let me camp out on a picnic table until breakfast and awards at 8am, but I hopped in my car and headed home instead. Well, at least I got about 30 miles before I had to pull over and sleep in the car for a few hours.

Team Green Paw won the race and cleared the course. I finished 2nd overall and 1st place male soloist. Greg would have given me a run for my money on 2nd if he could stay longer, we'll never know. But he did make it home safely the next day.

Nice job Green Paw & Greg and thanks to the staff and volunteers of the Skunk Ape Adventure Race!

~Dash

Boar Adventure Race

Authors note: Team Florida Xtreme 3 is a developmental pick-up team focused on novice racers gaining experience in running elite length courses with an experienced team captain. Race team captain is Dave "Dash" Ashley, a local racer from Merritt Island with several years of elite level racing experience and a navigator for team Florida Xtreme and Mountain Khakis/Rev3 Adventure. If you are looking to move up from the novice to elite class but would like some backup assistance the first time, drop me a line! ~Dash

Saturday 3 March welcomed back RC, Shammy, and Thumper to Team FLX-3. The 6-hour Boar AR was looking to be a hot and very windy race. The four of us had been to Christmas, Florida, back in December’s “Christmas in Christmas AR”. We knew to expect some sand, dense undergrowth, and unpredictable paddling conditions mixed in with almost a sure sighting of a few alligators!

We arrived at race HQ a 0700 when registration opened up. Avoiding the long lines we set up a sun shade, some chairs, a folding card table, and unloaded our bikes and race gear.

All smiles right before race start

RC was our lead navigator, and this was his first time leading an entire race. We checked in and he began marking up the map with our most likely routes, identifying roads, trails, off-limits areas and making measurements with a digital map measurer. The map Pangea provided was going to make navigating difficult…it was an aerial photograph of the race course, similar to what you would see on Google Maps, and lacking in detail. While it had a legend with distance, there was no printed map scale and no labeled roads, trails, or waterways. Fortunately our digital map measurer is programmable to common map scales and is user-programmable, so we used the legend to program the map reader (about 1:11,000) and were all set to mark meters and kilometers for our planned routes.

Lesson learned #1: Always bring something to measure the map with, and be flexible if you don’t get a “standard” adventure racing map (1:24,000). You can use a fancy digital tool, a piece of string, or make your own plotter with a piece of paper cut at 90 degrees, a pencil, and the legend provided on your map.

Arriving 2 hours before the race start was a great idea, and we had ample time to mark up the map, pack our gear, and make one final visit to the port-a-potty before the race started at 0900. Order of race was either bike or run first (teams could choose), then bike from main TA to paddle put-in, run from paddle take-out back to paddle put-in, bike back to main TA, then either run or bike (whichever you did not do to start the race), and ended with a final combined bike/run.

Since the weather forecast was calling for 88 degrees and it was only in the mid 60’s at race start, we opted to run first.

Lesson learned: Running consumes more calories and generates more body heat than paddling or biking. Given a choice, always run in the coolest times of the day.

RC did outstanding during the run section, we hit all the checkpoints on our first attack and ended up back in the main TA in the middle of the pack. We hoped on our bikes for a short and uneventful pedal to the canoe section.

Jogging across a Florida cow pasture

Here is where things got interesting. If you have never raced in Florida or some other swampy location, it’s hard to imagine how difficult navigation can be when there are multiple channels, dead-end creeks, 10-foot high reed grass, and lots of mud, plants, and countless unfriendly critters out there. To top off that list, the wind was blowing around 15 mph steady and gusting over 20. The paddle was TOUGH.

Beautiful sunny day for a paddle

We found the first few points quickly, but then it was around 45 minutes to locate two CPs that were hidden deep in the reeds. For both points we made the mistake of continuing past our initial attack point, spreading out and looking around without maintaining our bearing, distance, and map location. CP 15 was a real morale-buster, as it was only 50 feet from our initial attack point but we moved away from it during our first search. Later in the race we discovered that several other teams just gave up on these CPs. It turns out we would have been able to gain several more points if we had cut our losses earlier, as we didn’t “clear” this course and there were easier CPs later in the race that we ended up missing due to the time cut-off of 6 hours.

Infamous CP 15

Lesson learned #2: If you don’t locate a CP on your first attack, re-group the team, get back to a known location on the map (trail intersection, key terrain feature, bend in river, etc) and re-attack the point. It’s almost always faster than continuing to search, moving further from your initial attack point and likely getting lost in the process.

Lesson learned #3: Identify your likely difficult/time consuming CPs before the race. Assign a time cut-off for those points if you can’t locate them, and be prepared to skip a CP if you are likely to get more CPs later by doing so. At the end of the race it’s the total number of CPs each team gets that determines the winner, there is no penalty for skipping a CP.

It looked shallow!

After almost 3 hours we finally cleared the paddle and had a short jog back to our bikes. Two teammates were showing signs of heat exhaustion at this point: Sweating heavily, not very responsive in conversation, tiring easy on the run, and complaining of cramps. For the last 2 hours of the race they continued to slow down despite drinking extra water and taking electrolyte supplements.

Lesson learned #4: Don’t get behind on food, water, and electrolytes in a race. It takes time to re-hydrate, digest food, and stabilize electrolyte levels. In a race you have to be ahead of your nutrition or your performance will decrease steadily until you’ll have to stop and deal directly with the side effects (cramping, blacking-out, dizziness, low-blood sugar bonk). I strongly recommend using a stopwatch timer set to continuously count down for a reminder to drink and eat, and always dissolve electrolytes in drinks.

Despite suffering from the heat, RC continued to navigate dead-on back to the main TA and out for our bike section. We arrived back at the main TA again with the combined bike/run section remaining, but only 10 minutes until the cut-off. Of the last 7 points remaining in the race we only collected one before returning to the race finish at just under the 6-hour cut-off. Very hot and tired, we dropped our bikes and did a toast with some ice-cold beverages. Another race complete!

Beautiful sandy fire roads in central Florida

Wrap up from the Boar AR:

• No bike mechanical issues
• 2 teammates had heat exhaustion
• 2 points we had extreme difficulty finding during the paddle
• 1 Alligator sighting
• 1 “mystery” animal brushed up against Thumper’s leg underwater while in the swamp
• 1 canoe almost flipped over (soooooo close)
• 1 teammate threw up (I promised her I would not say who….)

Thumper, Dash, Shammy, and RC (L to R)

Come join FLX-3 for the next Pangea race, the Myakka Mud Slide, on 31 March!

~Dash

Click here for a GPS map of our race thanks to my Garmin Forerunner 310XT: