2014 STUBBORN MULE AR
The 2014 Stubborn Mule was our best chance so far to take an overall win, and but for one navigational mistake, we could have had it. The race took place near Rhinelander, WI, and that played to our advantage given Kate and Cliff’s familiarity with the area.
Of course, with how familiar we are with Rhiney, we probably shouldn’t have gotten lost on the way up, but with Kate and Cliff leading out in the Subaru and Starker following behind (hysterically driving with huge earphones on listening to a podcast), we missed the turn for Wausau and continued all the way to LaCrosse before noticing our error and doubling back on local roads. We lost about an hour, but that was actually lucky since we missed out on an epic thunderstorm hitting Wausau.
The storm clearly had done some damage before we arrived at the local campground, where we set up our tents on high ground away from some huge puddles. When we went to check in, we saw that we had just missed a tornado in the LaCrosse area as we turned around. How come it always seems there's crazy weather before or during every adventure race we do?
Despite bedding down in tents, we managed to get a good sleep, but with maps being dispersed at 4:30 a.m., we had to wake up at 4 a.m. to give us enough time to plot everything out. We got to race HQ and found that most other teams had already arrived and were busy plotting. Finding a little space on the concrete floor, Kate and Cliff got plotting and the course revealed itself: a 4-mile, four-CP rogaine, a 20-mile bike ride, a "mystery event," a six-mile upstream paddle on the Wisconsin River to a four-point rogaine, followed by a six-mile downstream paddle back to the bikes. Once mounted up, we faced a 15-mile bike ride to a park with an optional 3-CP mountain bike then a 20-CP orienteering rogaine. Finally, it was vital that we leave ourselves enough time before the 9 p.m. cutoff to do the 10-mile bike back to the finish.
The race started with a mile-long run on pavement, which we took easy, then ducked into a wild area for a warm-up orienteering section, which took us an hour and half to complete. We hit all the points okay but didn’t do it very quickly, as we went through a swamp for one of them (fun but slow) and had troulbe understanding the clue for the final one. Making things interesting was RD Paula’s twist that one of the points was just identified through bearing triangulation. We found it no problem though. Then the mile back on roads and a quick TA to bikes.
Mounted up on bikes, right off the bate we found a shortcut through a bike path and took it for a ways, then settled in for some nice paved country roads (about 15 miles) to get us to the canoe put-in. Before we could get going, Cliff attempted a bike polo special challenge that seemed incredibly difficult. He tried for 10 minutes and then the volunteers mercifully let us go.
We got in our canoes and paddled with a rather large group of other teams upriver but downwind. The wind was ripping at our backs at a good 30-40 mph, which meant we were all absolutely flying. It was unclear exactly where the canoe take-out was so we steered toward what looked like a nice area and dismounted. Not 10 feet into the woods was a double-lined wire fence, which we helped each other climb over. The fence was a sign we had gotten out of our canoe too early, which worried us, but Kate went to work on the maps, located our exact position, and then proceeded to absolutely dominate the 4-point O-section in the Holmboe Forest Natural Rec Area.
We got back in the boats and started paddling back into the main channel of the river, and we noticed none of the teams we had pulled in with were done with the O-section yet, putting us up near the front of the field (though we knew Elkbones was way ahead of us). However, our joy was short-lived as we hit the main part of the river and faced a howling headwind that was creating curling whitecaps. We tried to hug whichever shoreline blocked more of the wind, but it was a futile effort. We passed ENDracing/Yogaslackers going the other way and wondered how they had gotten so far behind - we found out later they had forgotten a helmet and needed to wait an hour for Paula to arrive at the TA and give them her extra. The wind was so strong we couldn’t stop paddling even for a moment as we would then be pushed backwards and lose progress. About halfway through, we were passed by Thunder Chickens, a four person male team, but arrived not far behind them to the TA, thankful just to be done with that very heinous challenge.
The bike to the Washburn trails was uneventful, and when we arrived, Kate and Cliff had the same realization - we had just biked these same trails a month before! The next stage was a three-point mountain bike that looked doable on the map, but Kate and Cliff both knew it was more difficult than it looked. It didn’t take us long to say no to that. The volunteers then handed us the 20-point O-map and we had a mini-panic attack when we couldn’t find our cluesheet. But the very nice guys on Thunder Chickens, who had just pulled in, offered us theirs to copy, which definitely saved our race (Cliff later found the clue sheet in his backpack -argh!).
We headed out perhaps with a little too much confidence, as we were very familiar with the area. Fittingly, it took us way too long to get to the first point, as we tried to take trails that we thought led in the right direction but actually didn’t. Then we got on a roll, hitting four in a row with minimal difficulty (except for the occasionally thick brush). The sixth point, however, was our downfall. Kate got a bit turned around on the map and guided us through an extremely painful thorn briar for about ⅓ of a mile. Then, perhaps distracted with the pain, we overshot our destination by ½ mile. We worked back to it, picking up a flag in a depression before finding the one we had missed by using a cardinal direction bearing to nab it. We had enough time to pick up one more and then we headed out. On our way, we saw Anthony and Kelcy of Elkbones, who said that Mike Prucha had gotten heatstroke and had to quit the race. We felt really bad for him, but our eyes suddenly widened at the fact that all our toughest competition was now out of the race and we had a legitimate chance to grab first!
We hustled to the TA and mounted up for the sprint to the finish, only to realize that at least half of it was going to be on really rough roads. Kate was "in a spot of bother", as Phil Liggett loves to say, and so Cliff tried to tow her, but mostly unsuccessfully due to the rocky and rolling dirt track.
There were two CPs to get on the final bike ride and the clue for the first was “bridge.” Cliff had his eyes peeled on the odometer and when we got close, he kept a close eye out but didn’t see any bridge. It was on a downhill and we continued on down, with Cliff thinking his odometer reading was just a bit short. But we got to a trail intersection signifiying we had gone ⅓ of a mile too far. We took a look at our watches. We had 40 minutes left to go 5 miles. We stared for a moment at the hill behind us and the nasty road ahead and then bailed on getting the point.
That was the decision that moved us from first to third.
The point, it turned out, was off a side trail, which Cliff had seen but hadn’t pursued. We got the last CP and made it to the finish line on fumes with 13 minutes to spare before the cutoff. The volunteer at the finish asked Kate if she wanted to take a guess on the correct answer for the CP we had missed (the clue for it was "number of ribbons tied on the bridge") but Kate guessed wrong and we didn’t get credit. I don’t think we would have taken it anyway. Frustratingly, the first place team had a 12-year-old on it, and only won because they did get the 2 CPs on the bike ride to go one up on us. Even more frustratingly, the second place team (our nemises Medicus WRX) finished with the same number of points than us but were 1 minute ahead of us at the finish. Most frustratingly, we finished with enough time to have gone back and gotten the CP (barely, but doable). These are the types of races that drive you mad!
Of course, with how familiar we are with Rhiney, we probably shouldn’t have gotten lost on the way up, but with Kate and Cliff leading out in the Subaru and Starker following behind (hysterically driving with huge earphones on listening to a podcast), we missed the turn for Wausau and continued all the way to LaCrosse before noticing our error and doubling back on local roads. We lost about an hour, but that was actually lucky since we missed out on an epic thunderstorm hitting Wausau.
The storm clearly had done some damage before we arrived at the local campground, where we set up our tents on high ground away from some huge puddles. When we went to check in, we saw that we had just missed a tornado in the LaCrosse area as we turned around. How come it always seems there's crazy weather before or during every adventure race we do?
Despite bedding down in tents, we managed to get a good sleep, but with maps being dispersed at 4:30 a.m., we had to wake up at 4 a.m. to give us enough time to plot everything out. We got to race HQ and found that most other teams had already arrived and were busy plotting. Finding a little space on the concrete floor, Kate and Cliff got plotting and the course revealed itself: a 4-mile, four-CP rogaine, a 20-mile bike ride, a "mystery event," a six-mile upstream paddle on the Wisconsin River to a four-point rogaine, followed by a six-mile downstream paddle back to the bikes. Once mounted up, we faced a 15-mile bike ride to a park with an optional 3-CP mountain bike then a 20-CP orienteering rogaine. Finally, it was vital that we leave ourselves enough time before the 9 p.m. cutoff to do the 10-mile bike back to the finish.
The race started with a mile-long run on pavement, which we took easy, then ducked into a wild area for a warm-up orienteering section, which took us an hour and half to complete. We hit all the points okay but didn’t do it very quickly, as we went through a swamp for one of them (fun but slow) and had troulbe understanding the clue for the final one. Making things interesting was RD Paula’s twist that one of the points was just identified through bearing triangulation. We found it no problem though. Then the mile back on roads and a quick TA to bikes.
Mounted up on bikes, right off the bate we found a shortcut through a bike path and took it for a ways, then settled in for some nice paved country roads (about 15 miles) to get us to the canoe put-in. Before we could get going, Cliff attempted a bike polo special challenge that seemed incredibly difficult. He tried for 10 minutes and then the volunteers mercifully let us go.
We got in our canoes and paddled with a rather large group of other teams upriver but downwind. The wind was ripping at our backs at a good 30-40 mph, which meant we were all absolutely flying. It was unclear exactly where the canoe take-out was so we steered toward what looked like a nice area and dismounted. Not 10 feet into the woods was a double-lined wire fence, which we helped each other climb over. The fence was a sign we had gotten out of our canoe too early, which worried us, but Kate went to work on the maps, located our exact position, and then proceeded to absolutely dominate the 4-point O-section in the Holmboe Forest Natural Rec Area.
We got back in the boats and started paddling back into the main channel of the river, and we noticed none of the teams we had pulled in with were done with the O-section yet, putting us up near the front of the field (though we knew Elkbones was way ahead of us). However, our joy was short-lived as we hit the main part of the river and faced a howling headwind that was creating curling whitecaps. We tried to hug whichever shoreline blocked more of the wind, but it was a futile effort. We passed ENDracing/Yogaslackers going the other way and wondered how they had gotten so far behind - we found out later they had forgotten a helmet and needed to wait an hour for Paula to arrive at the TA and give them her extra. The wind was so strong we couldn’t stop paddling even for a moment as we would then be pushed backwards and lose progress. About halfway through, we were passed by Thunder Chickens, a four person male team, but arrived not far behind them to the TA, thankful just to be done with that very heinous challenge.
The bike to the Washburn trails was uneventful, and when we arrived, Kate and Cliff had the same realization - we had just biked these same trails a month before! The next stage was a three-point mountain bike that looked doable on the map, but Kate and Cliff both knew it was more difficult than it looked. It didn’t take us long to say no to that. The volunteers then handed us the 20-point O-map and we had a mini-panic attack when we couldn’t find our cluesheet. But the very nice guys on Thunder Chickens, who had just pulled in, offered us theirs to copy, which definitely saved our race (Cliff later found the clue sheet in his backpack -argh!).
We headed out perhaps with a little too much confidence, as we were very familiar with the area. Fittingly, it took us way too long to get to the first point, as we tried to take trails that we thought led in the right direction but actually didn’t. Then we got on a roll, hitting four in a row with minimal difficulty (except for the occasionally thick brush). The sixth point, however, was our downfall. Kate got a bit turned around on the map and guided us through an extremely painful thorn briar for about ⅓ of a mile. Then, perhaps distracted with the pain, we overshot our destination by ½ mile. We worked back to it, picking up a flag in a depression before finding the one we had missed by using a cardinal direction bearing to nab it. We had enough time to pick up one more and then we headed out. On our way, we saw Anthony and Kelcy of Elkbones, who said that Mike Prucha had gotten heatstroke and had to quit the race. We felt really bad for him, but our eyes suddenly widened at the fact that all our toughest competition was now out of the race and we had a legitimate chance to grab first!
We hustled to the TA and mounted up for the sprint to the finish, only to realize that at least half of it was going to be on really rough roads. Kate was "in a spot of bother", as Phil Liggett loves to say, and so Cliff tried to tow her, but mostly unsuccessfully due to the rocky and rolling dirt track.
There were two CPs to get on the final bike ride and the clue for the first was “bridge.” Cliff had his eyes peeled on the odometer and when we got close, he kept a close eye out but didn’t see any bridge. It was on a downhill and we continued on down, with Cliff thinking his odometer reading was just a bit short. But we got to a trail intersection signifiying we had gone ⅓ of a mile too far. We took a look at our watches. We had 40 minutes left to go 5 miles. We stared for a moment at the hill behind us and the nasty road ahead and then bailed on getting the point.
That was the decision that moved us from first to third.
The point, it turned out, was off a side trail, which Cliff had seen but hadn’t pursued. We got the last CP and made it to the finish line on fumes with 13 minutes to spare before the cutoff. The volunteer at the finish asked Kate if she wanted to take a guess on the correct answer for the CP we had missed (the clue for it was "number of ribbons tied on the bridge") but Kate guessed wrong and we didn’t get credit. I don’t think we would have taken it anyway. Frustratingly, the first place team had a 12-year-old on it, and only won because they did get the 2 CPs on the bike ride to go one up on us. Even more frustratingly, the second place team (our nemises Medicus WRX) finished with the same number of points than us but were 1 minute ahead of us at the finish. Most frustratingly, we finished with enough time to have gone back and gotten the CP (barely, but doable). These are the types of races that drive you mad!
