2014 STUBBORN FOOL AR
Plotting our route.
Our second Stubborn Fool, a fun six-hour race designed with newbies in mind, took place in New Glarus, and didn’t start until 10 a.m. Which is bliss in adventure racing land, where daily life usually entails much more travel, late nights, early mornings, and lots more stress.
On a spring day in March, we gathered our gear and headed over to New Glarus for our first repeat race - the 6-hour Stubborn Fool, which had been our first AR ever in 2013. Coming back a year later, we were ready to prove ourselves as veterans who now had a clue as to what we were doing. The race started late, at 10 a.m., but we were one of the first teams to arrive at the Swiss-themed hotel that was hosting the race. We were given our maps early, and had lots of time to plot out our route, which involved a 5k run around town, a 15-mile bike, a five-mile orienteering section, a short two-mile bike to a up- and down-stream paddle, then a bike back to the start and an optional orienteering section to finish the race.
On a spring day in March, we gathered our gear and headed over to New Glarus for our first repeat race - the 6-hour Stubborn Fool, which had been our first AR ever in 2013. Coming back a year later, we were ready to prove ourselves as veterans who now had a clue as to what we were doing. The race started late, at 10 a.m., but we were one of the first teams to arrive at the Swiss-themed hotel that was hosting the race. We were given our maps early, and had lots of time to plot out our route, which involved a 5k run around town, a 15-mile bike, a five-mile orienteering section, a short two-mile bike to a up- and down-stream paddle, then a bike back to the start and an optional orienteering section to finish the race.
On the start line, with Kate ready to step forward and plot.
The race started with Kate having to step forward and plot the first three points in town by herself. She was one of the first to finish, and we took off at a gallop to the first CP, then were joined by faster teams passing us on our way toward the second CP, up a hill by the Glarner Stube, a fondue restaurant we had patronized several times on previous visits to the town after beers at New Glarus Brewery. There was a slight traffic jam at CP, but we took a fast route to CP 3 and came into the TA in 27 minutes, in the top half of teams.
Kate and Starker looking good on the opening run.
We set off on our bikes and headed out on a tour of the rolling farmland to the east of New Glarus. Our nav was mostly perfect, and we secretly rejoiced at seeing top competitors Team Mad S have to turn around and go back to a CP they missed 3 miles back. We had our only slight navigation stumble as we passed through the town of Belleville. We had trouble understanding the clue, and only as we biked away from the town’s library with what we thought was the correct answer did we realize we had made a mistake and biked back to find the correct sign in the park across the street.
Skipping places with a couple of other teams on the road (including Mad S, who had caught up), we arrived at the nav section in 1:12. The orienteering was composed of nine CPs - six on one side of a wildlife area, and three on the other. We decided to tackle the smaller section with the three CPs first, because the nav looked easier. We found all three CPs with relative ease (the lack of vegetation due to early-season conditions helped), and then, in response to a warning from race director Paula Waite in the pre-race meeting, decided to backtrack rather than face a trek through the thick and nasty brush that separated the two orienteering sections. This turned out to be a mistake, as looking at the detailed results after the race, our decision to go the long way cost us between 10-20 minutes. We headed back to the TA on the path we came in on, jogging some and walking some. We did the other six points mostly clean, with one minor snafu as we went the wrong way over a hill, which cost us about 10 minutes.
Skipping places with a couple of other teams on the road (including Mad S, who had caught up), we arrived at the nav section in 1:12. The orienteering was composed of nine CPs - six on one side of a wildlife area, and three on the other. We decided to tackle the smaller section with the three CPs first, because the nav looked easier. We found all three CPs with relative ease (the lack of vegetation due to early-season conditions helped), and then, in response to a warning from race director Paula Waite in the pre-race meeting, decided to backtrack rather than face a trek through the thick and nasty brush that separated the two orienteering sections. This turned out to be a mistake, as looking at the detailed results after the race, our decision to go the long way cost us between 10-20 minutes. We headed back to the TA on the path we came in on, jogging some and walking some. We did the other six points mostly clean, with one minor snafu as we went the wrong way over a hill, which cost us about 10 minutes.
Another racer finishes up the bike section as Strong Machine takes on the upstream canoe leg.
Having fun on the paddle (we all just realized Cliff forgot to take off his bike helmet).
We hopped on our bikes and did a quick ride (12 minutes) to the canoe put-in. The river was running quite high, with whitewater in some places. Kate directed us to the downstream CP first, and after negotiating through some logjams and a tunnel, we found the answer to the clue we had been given. Then we endured a long upstream slog and we found the other two CPs, with just one little hiccup where we didn’t go far enough down a sidestream at first and Starker started to climb a six-foot embankment before Cliff insisted it couldn’t be right and that we needed to travel farther upstream. That decision probably saved us a lot of grief, but the mistake didn’t cost us much time, as our paddle time (0:46) was right in line with the leaders. We set out on the last bike back, and hit both CPs as we traveled through open, windy farmland back to New Glarus (took us 58 minutes, right in line with the leaders). On the last few miles home, we passed K3, and given that we had both probably cleared the course so far, we knew we would probably get third place behind all-star teams Rib Mountain and Elkbones.
We arrived back in town three minutes ahead of K3, and then faced a decision: head out for the four-CP bonus section, or call it a race. It was 3:24 p.m. and the cutoff was at 4 p.m. We said we’d give it a shot and started out running, but very quickly realized we faced what was likely a 4-mile run round-trip, plus the time it would take to get the CPs. So we turned around, a little unsatisfied but confident it was the right decision (looking back, it took most of the teams at least 40 minutes to get to the park with the bonus points and a safe guess says it would have taken at least 1:20 for us to get them all, so we made a good decision). However, race rules were not specific as to whether we were on the clock due to our initial decision to continue, and we saw K3 turn around ahead of us. Cliff wanted to race them back, but Kate told him to settle down (K3 is a family with a 12-year-old boy, and Kate thought it a bit unsportsmanlike to run them down twice in 30 minutes). Fortunately, we were not charged any additional time (nor were the other three teams that went for the bonus points but came back empty-handed). Our end result was 21 points in 5:21, good enough for third place in the co-ed elite category and fifth place overall. A second third place in a row - we’re starting to feel like we know what we’re doing!
We arrived back in town three minutes ahead of K3, and then faced a decision: head out for the four-CP bonus section, or call it a race. It was 3:24 p.m. and the cutoff was at 4 p.m. We said we’d give it a shot and started out running, but very quickly realized we faced what was likely a 4-mile run round-trip, plus the time it would take to get the CPs. So we turned around, a little unsatisfied but confident it was the right decision (looking back, it took most of the teams at least 40 minutes to get to the park with the bonus points and a safe guess says it would have taken at least 1:20 for us to get them all, so we made a good decision). However, race rules were not specific as to whether we were on the clock due to our initial decision to continue, and we saw K3 turn around ahead of us. Cliff wanted to race them back, but Kate told him to settle down (K3 is a family with a 12-year-old boy, and Kate thought it a bit unsportsmanlike to run them down twice in 30 minutes). Fortunately, we were not charged any additional time (nor were the other three teams that went for the bonus points but came back empty-handed). Our end result was 21 points in 5:21, good enough for third place in the co-ed elite category and fifth place overall. A second third place in a row - we’re starting to feel like we know what we’re doing!
Showing off our classy new "jerseys."
