Hogback Adventure Race - 8/8/2015
Race Report by Mark Harris
We originally signed up for the Hogback, an inaugural
adventure race in Ocoee, TN hosted by BDAR/Adventure Capitalists, as a three-man
team way back in March. Greg had never
done a 24-hour race before and Chris and I had not raced together for a few
years and were looking for something to do together again. The timing was
right. But Chris unfortunately had other commitments arise, and so Greg and I
finally managed to recruit his wife, Julie, about 4 weeks out from the race.
She’s another newbie to the 24-hour AR scene. Both Greg and Julie had 6- and
12-hour ARs under their belt, so they knew what they were generally in for. We
talked a bit about the husband and wife dynamic on the team and everyone seemed
OK with it, so the three-person coed team was all set. We had no great
aspirations; we were just out for the adventure and the main goal was to have
an official finish.
After the 8-hour drive from Virginia to Ocoee we checked in,
picked up maps, and began prepping for the race. All points had to be plotted with UTMs, which
we made quick work of. The course had
four main transition areas and these were the only mandatory points on the
course. Everything else was
optional. Stage 1 was a Class III-IV
guided whitewater paddle, stage 2 was a 30-40k biking leg with mixed road and
single track (CP1-10), stage 3 was more biking on gravel fire roads (CP11-15),
stage 4 was a foot orienteering section where we would plot the points once we
arrived at that TA (CP16-22), stage 5 was another gravel fire road ride (CP23-31),
stage 6 was a flatwater paddle with provided canoes (CP32-38), and the final
section was a road ride back to finish collecting 2 additional points. A lot of
biking, which is great as we had only spent a day paddling on the river
together and Julie and I are not great fans of big trekking sections but we all
love being in the saddle.
Starting order for the white water was creatively determined
by teams collecting a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle and then putting it together.
First to finish went first, and last started at the back. Nice little challenge
to start the weekend out.
When morning rolled round, we boarded buses and headed to
the rafting put in. The Ocoee is dammed,
and daily releases provide the water for the rafting companies. The section we were running was used in the
1996 Olympics and had some tasty class IV drops and hydraulics. The river bed
is almost dry most of the time and so had trees and undergrowth in
sections. At the beginning of the paddle
we worked our way through wooded sections in fast flowing water, which was
pretty interesting. The paddle took just
over an hour and we were treated to some big water—a great way to start the day
and the race. Most of the rafts stayed together, so the real race did not start
until we got through the pull out.
We had a relatively quick transition to bike at the take out
and started biking up the road toward the first section of single track. Up is the operative word. We would eventually climb around 10K’ over
the duration of the race.
Before the race I had tried to set up a bike computer. I don’t usually ride with one, but it is
always handy to have when racing. The guys
at the Bike Stop in Warrenton had given me a free computer that just needed
batteries, which was super nice of them.
The issue was finding a 1620 (no at 2016) battery was almost
impossible. After ordering on Prime and
paying for expedited shipping the batteries finally arrived on Friday when I
was on my way to TN. Lucky Julie and Greg had a plan B. They had bought me a
nice, shiny new bike computer that I installed on Friday night. As we headed up the hill out of the TA, speed
and distance read 0. I had checked the computer the night before and everything
had been working fine. I thought that
maybe the magnet had been knocked during the bike transport that morning and I
would check it when we got to the first few CPs. Next between CP1 and CP2 I
looked down and the bumpy single track must have knocked the computer loose and
it was gone. Probably the most short-lived
bike computer ever and now the calculated distanced between the bike CPs I had
worked on that morning were moot.
Computer loss downers were soon replaced with single track
high. The riding though the first
section was great. All points were just
off the trail and we hit most of them straight off. I overshot a few and at one point we merged
back with a big pack of racers. Our goal was to keep clearing all the points
along the course until we got to the trek section and then reevaluate how we
felt. I overshot/undershot a few points but did not lose any great time. At one point we were swallowed up by a large
pack of racers but managed to pull back away and ride and navigate on our own
terms. We rolled into TA2 feeling OK. Julie had succumbed to the heat a little
on the trail but after a quick rest was up and riding again. We took 10-15
minutes in the TA to get water and eat and then we headed out on the next
section, which we had been warned had a killer hill to start with.
The hill was steep and never ending. We did a mixture of pushing
and granny gearing to finally get to the top. Julie developed a cramp in her
calf and was set to throw in the towel at the next TA. After a quick pep talk
and deferral of any decisions we were off again and heading toward the foot O-course. All the biking points were just of the road
but still required navigation to locate.
Greg did a great job being the runner and getting torn up in undergrowth
as he punched the points just off the side of the road.
We had not seen anyone for a while and then all of a sudden
we came across 5-6 teams hunting for CP14. I pulled up short, Julie rode into
the back of me, and then she cramped up big style in the calf. A few e tabs and
water helped clear up the immediate issue and she got to rest a bit as we
joined the hunt for CP14.
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| CP14 Punching |
Teams had been there for 40-50 minutes looking for the
point. I never really like to join the crowd, so I found a good landmark at a T
intersection and then followed features and terrain back to where the CP should
be off the road. At this point all the other teams had moved on without finding
the point. After a quick review of the exact location and a check of the plot, we
found the point within about 10 minutes. Kudos to Josh the RD and his crew for
his consistent placing of points. I had
no doubt that the point was there and in the right location. This meant we had a few teams in front of us
that had not been able to clear the course so far, and we started putting
podium ideas in our head. But I knew
there were at least 3 teams ahead that would have found and cleared the course
up to this point.
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| Refuling |
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| Refuling |
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| CPsomething |
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| Heading out on the foot O-Course |
CP16 was tricky. When we arrived in the vicinity there were
probably 6 other teams looking for the point.
This is never a good sign. We scoured the area working off an old single
track that was marked on the map and match the clue “Spur on west side of old
trail.” We hunted for a good 30-40 minutes and soon the light was fading. I
decided to head back to a known good trail by bushwhacking east. As we set out we lucked out and ran straight
into CP16. The point was in the right spot; it was just that there were two old
trails and we were on the one that was not marked on the map. In hindsight I
should have taken a bearing from a known good point on the main trail. The bushwhack
was dense and made me think that the other off-trail points would be hard to
navigate to.
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| CP17 |
We hit CP17, and then as darkness became complete, we
decided to head back to the TA and head out on bikes. Looking back we should have tried to hit the next
CP to see how hard they were to find, but that is not the decision we made at
the time. We got back to the TA to find
Checkpoint Zero had gone unofficial and TOC/Rock Creek was having mechanical
issues. These were two of the top teams
on the course.
We looked at a possible shortcut back to the next TA to help
save Julie’s legs, but Josh (RD) advised against it. Much thanks to this advice as the next road
section was, after a relatively painless climb, a great gravel road with mainly
long downhill sections. We picked off points and after a missed turn and a
2-mile climb back uphill (sorry, Greg and Julie) we arrived at the paddle put
in at around 1:30am.
None of us are a big fan of paddling and we decided to just
get two of the nearest points and then call it a day. The boat seemed super unstable and we
probably should have rearranged some seating.
Greg is the heaviest and he was up front, which made steering difficult. The boat continually bore toward the right
and I struggled at the back to keep us straight. We missed the first inlet and tracked around
to a further point. Greg did a heroic scramble out of the boat to get the
point, realized he left the passport in the boat, and after another heroic
scramble, bagged the first water point. We made our way back around the
shoreline and grabbed a second CP before heading back to the TA. There was a
great mysterious feel to the lake and the steam rose off the water in front of
our lights, making for a very eerie paddle.
We were on the lake for just over two hours and only snagged
two points so I think we made the right call to head back in when we did.
The final ride was on road and we were back at the finish
and punching in within 40 minutes. We
rolled in exactly at 5am after getting all the bike points, two foot points,
and two paddle points. Everyone was in good spirts, and after a quick shower we
managed to get 4 hours’ rest before awards.
We ended up taking 4th in our division, which was
well above our goals and expectations. Having two of the top teams drop helped
with that ranking but we were still really happy with the results. As a married
couple, Greg and Julie did a great job.
Not sure many other couple would have the same experience.
BDAR/Adventure Capitalists put on a great event and thanks
to Josh and his crew for hosting. More impressive, this was the first event
they produced. It was nice seeing lots of faces that were out at the Cowboy
Tough. It’s always great to actually race alongside people who come out and
support the Rev3 Adventure events. If
our calendar is clear, we will probably be back next year.
