2021 USARA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Race report courtesy of Glen Lewis
Sights had been set on this event for more than a year. We even planned our summer trip to Wisconsin around the Stubborn Mule so that I could get some intel into what the races were like in the area. I had very little issue with getting myself and my bike to Minneapolis and then to Cable, and was happy to visit with the Rootstockers for lunch when I arrived at Lakewoods. As racers and reams arrived, I was reminded how much I had missed the people part of racing!
The field for this race was super deep - especially at the top end. We felt like we would be lucky to nab a top 10 spot and were instead focusing on slow-and-steady-ing the race course, doing everything that we could to remain official to get the necessary points to stay at the top of the rankings.
We got minimal info pre-race, but understood enough to know that we'd probably be staying at start/finish at Lakewoods for quite some time. Using that knowledge, we packed some extra food/gear to leave by our bikes. We also discussed our race plan - slow and steady and pick teams off on the back end. I tried to be honest with the team too - I was nursing a hurt shoulder and was concerned about my ability to paddle. Thankfully, through some combination of prayer, ibuprofen, and adrenaline, it was a non-issue for the entire race.Tired but excited, sleep was relatively easy to come by, and a relatively relaxed schedule for the morning meant that I slept until close to 6.
Race morning itself was busy - dropping off paddle bags and bike, shoveling breakfast into my face, and eventually getting the maps at 7:00 sharp. We snagged a table inside and scoured the course, first to get a feel for the general layout and then to try to plan our route. The biggest struggle that Kate and I had was trying to find the CPs on the topo map! While we plotted the course, Cliff looked through the different supplemental maps and planned CP order, which was incredibly helpful. I think our best idea was taking the CPs from stage 2 and plotting them on the supplemental trail maps. I only wish that I had spent a little bit longer comparing the two, as there were trails on the topo but not the supplemental that would have been useful to save some time. When marking maps my preference is to not mark them much at all, so I felt we had juuust enough time to get through most of the course. Our last decision was to decide our order for the massive cloverleaf on stage 1. We selected the short trek first, hoping that it would get our heads around the map and minimize transitions (we could do nearly everything else in bike gear - even paddling). A brief pre-race meeting followed by the National Anthem, and we were off!
Stage 1 - Leg A - Trek
We started off a bit quick trying to get some space on the pile of teams surrounding us - this seemed like a popular first leg. The 1:12000 map was greatly detailed, but I found myself surprised at how quickly we approached the first CP - A1 - I chalked it up to moving quickly at the start and pointed the team towards A3. Again, we got there really quickly, but I was feeling good. The trip to Wisconsin (and subsequent implosion) in June was paying off. I set a direction towards A2 and told the team it was about 800 meters. We passed two trails; "must not be mapped" I said, and we pushed on. No Complaints was right with us, so I felt fine. Then Cliff's pace count got higher and higher, and there were no more teams around, and we noticed a large open area ahead of us - could that be the lake??? Kate suggested we turn around, and we headed back to the trails, realizing that they were the mapped trails - but why did we get there so soon?!?! As we dropped in to punch A2 I noticed my fatal mistake - the boxed on the map were 500m, not 1km. As I tried to bury my head in the dirt, my team assured me that we were still doing well and that we had tons of race left. We smoothly A5 (with a broken epunch box), cleanly nailed A4 right past a team who was struggling with it and finally grabbed A6 on our way back to TA, moving well but a bit frustrated (only me - my teammates are great people). As we began our TA, RD Paula approached knowlingly and asked "too big or too small?" fully aware that the 90 minutes we spent on this leg was due to some type of map-miscommunication.
Stage 1 - Leg E - Bike/Trek/Bike
We had decided to tackle this larger leg next. It had a time cutoff (8PM) that we wanted to comfortably beat, and it was the sight of some iron deposits which would render our compasses useless at times. The ride out took ~45 minutes - we passed WEDALI and Quest on the way out. Despite our struggles early on we felt like we were making good time. We dropped our bikes quickly and transitioned to foot. Kate and I devised an order starting with E6 - it was close to a known bend in the road and would give us some confidence attacking the rest of the leg. The volunteers there captured our TA on video - we made some special requests for our friends Matt Hayes and Dave Lamb. We didn't realize then how much we could have used them!! On the way to E6 we experienced our first wonky compass right after we passed Rib on their way back to TA. We nailed the point easily and then used trails to expertly grab E5 before hitting E4 with a great piece of teamwork on reading the midwest contours (serious sidenote: the terrain is so much different here than on the east coast. As you will read soon, I struggled mightily to adjust despite the practice we had in June). The pace count, timing, and groupthink was working flawlessly. We even perservered well through Kate's too-close encounter with a wasp. We returned to the road and approached E3, which was probably our best CP of the day. Contouring well, reading the features as a group, it was (almost) like navving at home. From E3 we took a minute to get our head around the last two points - we weren't going to mess these up. We moved past E3, and I pointed a direction for Cliff to pacecount in. The details of what happened next have been sealed and destroyed, but we spent nearly 2 hours wandering off the map, finding new rivers, digging deep into ourselves and making hard decisions to get re-found. I have no idea how it happened, but the tracker revealed that we went east instead of south - the compass must have been whacked out (Jim Driscoll told me post race that the exact place where I gave Cliff a direction was an exceptionally bad spot for the compass), and this was compounded by our altimeters, just reset at E3, being off by 150 feet. The tracker shows us very close to E2, but we never found it, begin convinced that we were nowhere close because of the altitude problems. My teammates were wonderfully helpful here, helping me deal with my frustration while providing concrete choices and wise decision making. We ended up shooting a panic bearing, which was made especially nervy because we weren't sure if it was in the correct direction!! We eventually pulled out of the woods right near the TA. Way too much time on the leg, two points fully lost, my confidence destroyed. Not the race that we drew up at all, and I was laying all of the blame on myself. We hopped back on the bikes and motored home, determined to get more out of this race, finding some high moments and saving our ranking in the process. On the way home we passed Rootstock - Brent yelled "I blew it already!", to which we got a great chuckle.
Stage 1 - Leg C - Paddle
Kate had decided that the shorter paddle should come next so that we could maximize daylight for the impending singletrack. We quickly dropped our bikes and went to pick up our paddle gear - we were nearly the last team to paddle!. We grabbed one of the remaining canoes and pushed off right next to ARGeorgia, who were a full leg ahead of us. I took the middle seat in the boat and navved us around the course. The points were easy to find, and we only wasted a few minutes here and there looking for the correct channel or location around an island. I had to switch seat with Kate after 3 points - my legs were numb from the sagging seat. She was happy to switch and let me get comfortable. My shoulder was feeling great too, so I was able to give some power from the front. As a team, we paddled really well. We saw WEDALI but were able to stay ahead of them on the way home.
Stage 1 - Leg D - MTB
Our TA wasn't the quickest, but we got ourselves out towards the trail system just ahead of WEDALI. This leg is one of my least favorite in all of AR. We were instructed to ride the prescribed route to find CPs hanging on the trail. I hate the uncertainty of not knowing where they are. I like the spirit of riding the singletrack, but I would much prefer RDs find a way to mark the CPs on a map. The riding here was tough - technical singletrack is not our team strength - but we never stopped moving and kept pushing. In fact, we only ever saw one team besides WEDALI - Quest passed us as we stopped to turn on lights just as the terrain turned from black diamond to green circle. We exchanged pleasantries and sent them on their way. We pulled off of this leg just after dark, and saw Quest heading out towards Stage 2. We had budgeted 3 hours for this leg, but it ended up taking closer to 4. Lots of good teamwork here to keep everyone motivated, but we nabbed the 6 cps with relative ease and headed to the TA to get ready for a night paddle.
Stage 1 - Leg B - Paddle
I was able to negotiate a deal with Kate whereby she would sit in the middle seat and also navigate. We TA'd rather quickly, only to add a layer where needed, before pushing off towards the lake. The night sky was beautiful, with the stars perfectly lighting our way. Even the sound of Cliff violently vomiting from the stern couldn't ruin the beauty of nature around us. We had some good chats on this leg while paddling hard. Kate navved us perfectly across the 10+ miles of lake paddling - I was supremely impressed with how well she guided us. Our time was a bit slower than those who paddled in the daylight owing to the need to stay close to shore to identify our waypoints and also to my need to pee at every CP. I developed some blisters on the back end of this leg, but was able to tape and glove them until they weren't an issue anymore. I think that I also skimped on food and water here to keep ourselves moving. The night paddle was great in that the lake didn't look so big and the distances weren't as ominous for us. We turned for home around 11:30, with the bright lights of the TA guiding us home from across the lake. We landed right at midnight. The TA was more purposeful and ended up being a bit slow. We partook in the warm mac and cheese, added another layer, and loaded up on food and water before heading out onto Stage 2.
Stage 2 - MTB
The 24 miles on this leg were estimated at 4 hours for us. More technical junk combined with the need to be on the map meant that it wouldn't be very fast. I navved from the supplemental trail map, and I thought that it went really well. It missed a bunch of detail and undercut most of the distances (I was way short on my estimated from that map) but it was accurate enough for me and kept us found the entire way - having the intersections uniquely labeled was a big help. We hit CP1 before slowly, slowly, slowly working towards CP2 on Danky Dank - a trail that seemed to have picked up a bad reputation from the racers. I honestly didn't mind it that much, it was just too slow for our team. I was fortunate to be able to nav efficiently to CP2, using the topo to hone in on the exact location. After CP2 we finally got a reprieve from the painful singletrack and using snowmobile trails to get close to CP3. It was around here that my stomach aslo began to turn. I needed more food, but it was tough to get caught back up. I was fortunate that my head was still dialed in, and I was able to use the trail map to get us right to CP4 and then CP5. The ride to the TA was strange from there, as the trails didn't really match the supplemental. We were happy to follow a rather confident all-female team in the last ~300m to the TA. The trip out here took nearly 5 hours. 5 hours of bumping, bouncing, and being bucked off of the seat of my poor bike. I don't often wish that I had a full suspension, but this was one of those days.
Stage 3 - O-course
We set out around 5:45 and started slowly to get dialed into the map. The points started coming pretty efficiently. We went in numeric order from 6-20 around the course. Cliff had planned a nice route for us here, and I was fortunate to get us to each point really efficiently. Kate and I were both struggling with our stomachs, so we couldn't move much more than a fast walk. We had a tiny bobble (only ~1min) at 7 with some logging trails, but got on course, albeit a bit longer, right afterwards. We continued to use trails as much as possible, just shuffling along quickly to each CP. The trails weren't always the most direct, but we were found for the entire time. We shuffled back and forth with Deviate for most of the o-course, first passing them at 7 and then seeing them at most subsequent out-and-backs. They caught up to us at 18 when we had to reattack after initially hitting the wrong depression. We broke away when we decided to get 19-20. Time was getting away from us but it seemed like 2 easy points that we could grab. The topo did some strange things that I wasn't expecting around 19, which caused us a ~5-10 minute bobble. We got easily refound though and hit it on the reattack. I think it was around here that my body began to recover a bit, but Kate was still suffering. Still, we perserved on to 20 right near the Fragile Flowers, and then flowed down the power lines back into TA. Despite walking the entire o-course we still had the 9th fastest time. Had we been able to combine our normal speed with our navigation we could have cut close to an hour off of our time.
Stage 4 - Bike
Another quickish TA and we were out just before 11. We had decided in TA that we didn't have time to get the 3 points on this leg. Although they appeared to be a re-ride of the previous MTB leg, we later heard that there was some nice riding that we missed - oh well. We took roads out towards TA4, stopping when Cliff suggested that we see if any of the point were close by. 22 wasn't far away, so we detoured up to it, getting to ride some fun trails in Dirt Candy near the CP. The flag itself eluded up for a few minutes, but we got it before sailing back down the trails to roads and then onward to TA4. The gravel riding here was monotonous. No steep climbs or descents, just some punchy things followed by washed out sections. We thankfully arrived in TA, but with time ticking away.
Stage 5 - Trek
The volunteers were audibly shocked that we decided to head out to get a CP here. 28 was accesible by 95% trails, so we hightailed it out of TA with the understanding that we would turn around if something didn't look quite right. The pace quickened once the team was able to get their (literal) butts in gear. We passed ~5 teams who all remarked at the size of our collective cajones. We needed 30 minutes to bike back, and left TA with only 90 left in the race. We initially missed the correct side trail but I was able to relocate it on the return. My legs began feeling stronger and stronger, thanks to the peanut butter pretzels I had eaten on the bike. I took the epunch from Cliff and led the way down the trail, the team yelling at me to stop going so fast. When I finally saw the flag, I sprinted through the brush as fast as I've ever moved. I punch the CP with exactly 30 minutes left to get to TA - we had taken the same time to get out. My pace was a bit higher then the rest of the team, so I motivated them to move with the excited news of mine and Rebekah's soon-to-be-born second child, coming in March! With joy in our steps, we flew back through TA and got on our bikes, heading for home.
Stage 6 - Bike
This was painful. We were able to finally sit up a hair once we realized that we had time on our side, and that no team was able to pass us (MRA had still been on the trek when we left, but they were guaranteed to be late). One final dose of excitement came when Cliff and Kate began hollering about a flat tire ~ 2 miles from the finish. False alarm: Kate just had a pack of Shot Bloks stuck in her spokes. This short bike ride ended with euphoria, the kind that only comes when finishing a long day(s) in the woods with great friends!
Post Race
We loved hearing everyone's stories as we slowly relaxed. Garrison told us that the points had come down to us and Rootstock, thanks to them having an uncharacteristically poor do just so that we could benefit. In the end, it was only 2 points that kept us in the lead - a single CP in a single race could have been the difference. Super exciting to get that trophy to cap off a year of hard work for the team! We also finished 11th in the mixed premier. A decent result, considering, but it certainly didn't feel that way for most of the race. Super happy to have gotten another race in with Cliff and Kate. They are wonderful teammates, and we laugh enough that the bad times aren't so bad. We also enjoyed a terrific post-race dinner with Quest. I really enjoyed hearing Dusty's thoughts on how he went through the course and how he approaches things. I have a crazy amount of respect for what they did in this race - coming across the country to an unknown territory and pushing WEDALI super hard - both of those teams (along with Rib) were so impressive on the whole weekend.
Personally, this race was both demoralizing and uplifting. I blew the race only a few hours in, but Cliff and I had a great chat on stage 2, which helped me put things into perspective. I often put the entire race on my shoulders, owning the successes but also shouldering all of the errors. Cliff and Kate have helped me realize that a nav error isn't always a "me" mistake, but a "we" mistake. The whole team got lost, and there was something that each of us could have done better.
From this race, I'm taking the confidence that comes with a super-clean final 24 hours. From the moment we returned to the bike drop after leg E, we had less than 30 minutes of errors. I'm super happy with that. I'm also left hoping that I can get myself in a better mental spot for next year. My expectations were way too high after 2020; that was a lose-lose for both me and my team. I know that I can be a key player in stronger results. My plans to do that: figure out some better nutrition (both in and out of the race), get back to the level of fitness that I had 2-3 years ago, return to orienteering more frequently, and, most importantly, be a better teammate from top to bottom.
Some small races await me in the near future, but I',m planning on sighting my training towards a big event. The Endless Mountains are calling, and I must go.
Sights had been set on this event for more than a year. We even planned our summer trip to Wisconsin around the Stubborn Mule so that I could get some intel into what the races were like in the area. I had very little issue with getting myself and my bike to Minneapolis and then to Cable, and was happy to visit with the Rootstockers for lunch when I arrived at Lakewoods. As racers and reams arrived, I was reminded how much I had missed the people part of racing!
The field for this race was super deep - especially at the top end. We felt like we would be lucky to nab a top 10 spot and were instead focusing on slow-and-steady-ing the race course, doing everything that we could to remain official to get the necessary points to stay at the top of the rankings.
We got minimal info pre-race, but understood enough to know that we'd probably be staying at start/finish at Lakewoods for quite some time. Using that knowledge, we packed some extra food/gear to leave by our bikes. We also discussed our race plan - slow and steady and pick teams off on the back end. I tried to be honest with the team too - I was nursing a hurt shoulder and was concerned about my ability to paddle. Thankfully, through some combination of prayer, ibuprofen, and adrenaline, it was a non-issue for the entire race.Tired but excited, sleep was relatively easy to come by, and a relatively relaxed schedule for the morning meant that I slept until close to 6.
Race morning itself was busy - dropping off paddle bags and bike, shoveling breakfast into my face, and eventually getting the maps at 7:00 sharp. We snagged a table inside and scoured the course, first to get a feel for the general layout and then to try to plan our route. The biggest struggle that Kate and I had was trying to find the CPs on the topo map! While we plotted the course, Cliff looked through the different supplemental maps and planned CP order, which was incredibly helpful. I think our best idea was taking the CPs from stage 2 and plotting them on the supplemental trail maps. I only wish that I had spent a little bit longer comparing the two, as there were trails on the topo but not the supplemental that would have been useful to save some time. When marking maps my preference is to not mark them much at all, so I felt we had juuust enough time to get through most of the course. Our last decision was to decide our order for the massive cloverleaf on stage 1. We selected the short trek first, hoping that it would get our heads around the map and minimize transitions (we could do nearly everything else in bike gear - even paddling). A brief pre-race meeting followed by the National Anthem, and we were off!
Stage 1 - Leg A - Trek
We started off a bit quick trying to get some space on the pile of teams surrounding us - this seemed like a popular first leg. The 1:12000 map was greatly detailed, but I found myself surprised at how quickly we approached the first CP - A1 - I chalked it up to moving quickly at the start and pointed the team towards A3. Again, we got there really quickly, but I was feeling good. The trip to Wisconsin (and subsequent implosion) in June was paying off. I set a direction towards A2 and told the team it was about 800 meters. We passed two trails; "must not be mapped" I said, and we pushed on. No Complaints was right with us, so I felt fine. Then Cliff's pace count got higher and higher, and there were no more teams around, and we noticed a large open area ahead of us - could that be the lake??? Kate suggested we turn around, and we headed back to the trails, realizing that they were the mapped trails - but why did we get there so soon?!?! As we dropped in to punch A2 I noticed my fatal mistake - the boxed on the map were 500m, not 1km. As I tried to bury my head in the dirt, my team assured me that we were still doing well and that we had tons of race left. We smoothly A5 (with a broken epunch box), cleanly nailed A4 right past a team who was struggling with it and finally grabbed A6 on our way back to TA, moving well but a bit frustrated (only me - my teammates are great people). As we began our TA, RD Paula approached knowlingly and asked "too big or too small?" fully aware that the 90 minutes we spent on this leg was due to some type of map-miscommunication.
Stage 1 - Leg E - Bike/Trek/Bike
We had decided to tackle this larger leg next. It had a time cutoff (8PM) that we wanted to comfortably beat, and it was the sight of some iron deposits which would render our compasses useless at times. The ride out took ~45 minutes - we passed WEDALI and Quest on the way out. Despite our struggles early on we felt like we were making good time. We dropped our bikes quickly and transitioned to foot. Kate and I devised an order starting with E6 - it was close to a known bend in the road and would give us some confidence attacking the rest of the leg. The volunteers there captured our TA on video - we made some special requests for our friends Matt Hayes and Dave Lamb. We didn't realize then how much we could have used them!! On the way to E6 we experienced our first wonky compass right after we passed Rib on their way back to TA. We nailed the point easily and then used trails to expertly grab E5 before hitting E4 with a great piece of teamwork on reading the midwest contours (serious sidenote: the terrain is so much different here than on the east coast. As you will read soon, I struggled mightily to adjust despite the practice we had in June). The pace count, timing, and groupthink was working flawlessly. We even perservered well through Kate's too-close encounter with a wasp. We returned to the road and approached E3, which was probably our best CP of the day. Contouring well, reading the features as a group, it was (almost) like navving at home. From E3 we took a minute to get our head around the last two points - we weren't going to mess these up. We moved past E3, and I pointed a direction for Cliff to pacecount in. The details of what happened next have been sealed and destroyed, but we spent nearly 2 hours wandering off the map, finding new rivers, digging deep into ourselves and making hard decisions to get re-found. I have no idea how it happened, but the tracker revealed that we went east instead of south - the compass must have been whacked out (Jim Driscoll told me post race that the exact place where I gave Cliff a direction was an exceptionally bad spot for the compass), and this was compounded by our altimeters, just reset at E3, being off by 150 feet. The tracker shows us very close to E2, but we never found it, begin convinced that we were nowhere close because of the altitude problems. My teammates were wonderfully helpful here, helping me deal with my frustration while providing concrete choices and wise decision making. We ended up shooting a panic bearing, which was made especially nervy because we weren't sure if it was in the correct direction!! We eventually pulled out of the woods right near the TA. Way too much time on the leg, two points fully lost, my confidence destroyed. Not the race that we drew up at all, and I was laying all of the blame on myself. We hopped back on the bikes and motored home, determined to get more out of this race, finding some high moments and saving our ranking in the process. On the way home we passed Rootstock - Brent yelled "I blew it already!", to which we got a great chuckle.
Stage 1 - Leg C - Paddle
Kate had decided that the shorter paddle should come next so that we could maximize daylight for the impending singletrack. We quickly dropped our bikes and went to pick up our paddle gear - we were nearly the last team to paddle!. We grabbed one of the remaining canoes and pushed off right next to ARGeorgia, who were a full leg ahead of us. I took the middle seat in the boat and navved us around the course. The points were easy to find, and we only wasted a few minutes here and there looking for the correct channel or location around an island. I had to switch seat with Kate after 3 points - my legs were numb from the sagging seat. She was happy to switch and let me get comfortable. My shoulder was feeling great too, so I was able to give some power from the front. As a team, we paddled really well. We saw WEDALI but were able to stay ahead of them on the way home.
Stage 1 - Leg D - MTB
Our TA wasn't the quickest, but we got ourselves out towards the trail system just ahead of WEDALI. This leg is one of my least favorite in all of AR. We were instructed to ride the prescribed route to find CPs hanging on the trail. I hate the uncertainty of not knowing where they are. I like the spirit of riding the singletrack, but I would much prefer RDs find a way to mark the CPs on a map. The riding here was tough - technical singletrack is not our team strength - but we never stopped moving and kept pushing. In fact, we only ever saw one team besides WEDALI - Quest passed us as we stopped to turn on lights just as the terrain turned from black diamond to green circle. We exchanged pleasantries and sent them on their way. We pulled off of this leg just after dark, and saw Quest heading out towards Stage 2. We had budgeted 3 hours for this leg, but it ended up taking closer to 4. Lots of good teamwork here to keep everyone motivated, but we nabbed the 6 cps with relative ease and headed to the TA to get ready for a night paddle.
Stage 1 - Leg B - Paddle
I was able to negotiate a deal with Kate whereby she would sit in the middle seat and also navigate. We TA'd rather quickly, only to add a layer where needed, before pushing off towards the lake. The night sky was beautiful, with the stars perfectly lighting our way. Even the sound of Cliff violently vomiting from the stern couldn't ruin the beauty of nature around us. We had some good chats on this leg while paddling hard. Kate navved us perfectly across the 10+ miles of lake paddling - I was supremely impressed with how well she guided us. Our time was a bit slower than those who paddled in the daylight owing to the need to stay close to shore to identify our waypoints and also to my need to pee at every CP. I developed some blisters on the back end of this leg, but was able to tape and glove them until they weren't an issue anymore. I think that I also skimped on food and water here to keep ourselves moving. The night paddle was great in that the lake didn't look so big and the distances weren't as ominous for us. We turned for home around 11:30, with the bright lights of the TA guiding us home from across the lake. We landed right at midnight. The TA was more purposeful and ended up being a bit slow. We partook in the warm mac and cheese, added another layer, and loaded up on food and water before heading out onto Stage 2.
Stage 2 - MTB
The 24 miles on this leg were estimated at 4 hours for us. More technical junk combined with the need to be on the map meant that it wouldn't be very fast. I navved from the supplemental trail map, and I thought that it went really well. It missed a bunch of detail and undercut most of the distances (I was way short on my estimated from that map) but it was accurate enough for me and kept us found the entire way - having the intersections uniquely labeled was a big help. We hit CP1 before slowly, slowly, slowly working towards CP2 on Danky Dank - a trail that seemed to have picked up a bad reputation from the racers. I honestly didn't mind it that much, it was just too slow for our team. I was fortunate to be able to nav efficiently to CP2, using the topo to hone in on the exact location. After CP2 we finally got a reprieve from the painful singletrack and using snowmobile trails to get close to CP3. It was around here that my stomach aslo began to turn. I needed more food, but it was tough to get caught back up. I was fortunate that my head was still dialed in, and I was able to use the trail map to get us right to CP4 and then CP5. The ride to the TA was strange from there, as the trails didn't really match the supplemental. We were happy to follow a rather confident all-female team in the last ~300m to the TA. The trip out here took nearly 5 hours. 5 hours of bumping, bouncing, and being bucked off of the seat of my poor bike. I don't often wish that I had a full suspension, but this was one of those days.
Stage 3 - O-course
We set out around 5:45 and started slowly to get dialed into the map. The points started coming pretty efficiently. We went in numeric order from 6-20 around the course. Cliff had planned a nice route for us here, and I was fortunate to get us to each point really efficiently. Kate and I were both struggling with our stomachs, so we couldn't move much more than a fast walk. We had a tiny bobble (only ~1min) at 7 with some logging trails, but got on course, albeit a bit longer, right afterwards. We continued to use trails as much as possible, just shuffling along quickly to each CP. The trails weren't always the most direct, but we were found for the entire time. We shuffled back and forth with Deviate for most of the o-course, first passing them at 7 and then seeing them at most subsequent out-and-backs. They caught up to us at 18 when we had to reattack after initially hitting the wrong depression. We broke away when we decided to get 19-20. Time was getting away from us but it seemed like 2 easy points that we could grab. The topo did some strange things that I wasn't expecting around 19, which caused us a ~5-10 minute bobble. We got easily refound though and hit it on the reattack. I think it was around here that my body began to recover a bit, but Kate was still suffering. Still, we perserved on to 20 right near the Fragile Flowers, and then flowed down the power lines back into TA. Despite walking the entire o-course we still had the 9th fastest time. Had we been able to combine our normal speed with our navigation we could have cut close to an hour off of our time.
Stage 4 - Bike
Another quickish TA and we were out just before 11. We had decided in TA that we didn't have time to get the 3 points on this leg. Although they appeared to be a re-ride of the previous MTB leg, we later heard that there was some nice riding that we missed - oh well. We took roads out towards TA4, stopping when Cliff suggested that we see if any of the point were close by. 22 wasn't far away, so we detoured up to it, getting to ride some fun trails in Dirt Candy near the CP. The flag itself eluded up for a few minutes, but we got it before sailing back down the trails to roads and then onward to TA4. The gravel riding here was monotonous. No steep climbs or descents, just some punchy things followed by washed out sections. We thankfully arrived in TA, but with time ticking away.
Stage 5 - Trek
The volunteers were audibly shocked that we decided to head out to get a CP here. 28 was accesible by 95% trails, so we hightailed it out of TA with the understanding that we would turn around if something didn't look quite right. The pace quickened once the team was able to get their (literal) butts in gear. We passed ~5 teams who all remarked at the size of our collective cajones. We needed 30 minutes to bike back, and left TA with only 90 left in the race. We initially missed the correct side trail but I was able to relocate it on the return. My legs began feeling stronger and stronger, thanks to the peanut butter pretzels I had eaten on the bike. I took the epunch from Cliff and led the way down the trail, the team yelling at me to stop going so fast. When I finally saw the flag, I sprinted through the brush as fast as I've ever moved. I punch the CP with exactly 30 minutes left to get to TA - we had taken the same time to get out. My pace was a bit higher then the rest of the team, so I motivated them to move with the excited news of mine and Rebekah's soon-to-be-born second child, coming in March! With joy in our steps, we flew back through TA and got on our bikes, heading for home.
Stage 6 - Bike
This was painful. We were able to finally sit up a hair once we realized that we had time on our side, and that no team was able to pass us (MRA had still been on the trek when we left, but they were guaranteed to be late). One final dose of excitement came when Cliff and Kate began hollering about a flat tire ~ 2 miles from the finish. False alarm: Kate just had a pack of Shot Bloks stuck in her spokes. This short bike ride ended with euphoria, the kind that only comes when finishing a long day(s) in the woods with great friends!
Post Race
We loved hearing everyone's stories as we slowly relaxed. Garrison told us that the points had come down to us and Rootstock, thanks to them having an uncharacteristically poor do just so that we could benefit. In the end, it was only 2 points that kept us in the lead - a single CP in a single race could have been the difference. Super exciting to get that trophy to cap off a year of hard work for the team! We also finished 11th in the mixed premier. A decent result, considering, but it certainly didn't feel that way for most of the race. Super happy to have gotten another race in with Cliff and Kate. They are wonderful teammates, and we laugh enough that the bad times aren't so bad. We also enjoyed a terrific post-race dinner with Quest. I really enjoyed hearing Dusty's thoughts on how he went through the course and how he approaches things. I have a crazy amount of respect for what they did in this race - coming across the country to an unknown territory and pushing WEDALI super hard - both of those teams (along with Rib) were so impressive on the whole weekend.
Personally, this race was both demoralizing and uplifting. I blew the race only a few hours in, but Cliff and I had a great chat on stage 2, which helped me put things into perspective. I often put the entire race on my shoulders, owning the successes but also shouldering all of the errors. Cliff and Kate have helped me realize that a nav error isn't always a "me" mistake, but a "we" mistake. The whole team got lost, and there was something that each of us could have done better.
From this race, I'm taking the confidence that comes with a super-clean final 24 hours. From the moment we returned to the bike drop after leg E, we had less than 30 minutes of errors. I'm super happy with that. I'm also left hoping that I can get myself in a better mental spot for next year. My expectations were way too high after 2020; that was a lose-lose for both me and my team. I know that I can be a key player in stronger results. My plans to do that: figure out some better nutrition (both in and out of the race), get back to the level of fitness that I had 2-3 years ago, return to orienteering more frequently, and, most importantly, be a better teammate from top to bottom.
Some small races await me in the near future, but I',m planning on sighting my training towards a big event. The Endless Mountains are calling, and I must go.
