Adventure! By Eric Tatum
I was lying in my car, wide awake at 2am on June 29th, wondering what events lay ahead of me and my Adventure Race team partner, Brian. I couldn't have possibly imagined what would transpire in the next 24 hours. The next thing I remember is Brian tapping on the car window to notify me it is 4:30am and we have to get up and begin to prepare.
Brian and I have participated in adventure races for the past few years, but usually just sprints - ones lasting 3-4 hours and having only a few checkpoints and obstacles. However, June 29th was very different. It was an all-day event. We did not know what to expect for this race, nor did we know how our bodies would react.
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Team C.O.P. (because COP was providing one of our two kayaks, we offered our namesake in exchange) along with most of the other two-person teams (there are also soloists in the race as well as 4-person teams) were to be on the first bus leaving the transition area at 5am.
So after one last check of required gear, food, and our amount of liquids, we quickly began to scarf down an assortment of high energy bars, performance drinks and fruits and candies - which is no easy task when you are half-asleep and extraordinarily nervous.
We arrived at the middle of downtown Portsmouth, where the race will begin. Once all the buses arrived, we were given maps and 20 minutes to plan our route before the starting gun went off. What happened next can only be described as a controlled chaos: There were 200 people with backpacks running around the streets of downtown Portsmouth from checkpoint to checkpoint. Once we had hit all 4 checkpoints within the city (Post Office, Court House, Shawnee State University Bookstore, and Stadium) we made our way to the flood wall, which is covered by a mural that is about ¼ mile long. There, we had to answer 15 questions that pertained to the mural and get them all correct before moving on to the first transition area - the put-in for kayaks and canoes.
Once we got our kayaks packed, camelbacks strapped on, energy bars and map tucked into our PFD's, and spray skirts secured, we were off. We now faced an 8-10 mile paddle down the Ohio River to the 2nd transition area, the Shawnee State Park Marina. The river, unfortunately, was like a sheet of glass. Not only was there no current, there was a thick fog hovering over the river valley which kept us from seeing either bank. However, we were able to stay within 50-100 feet of the north bank to ensure that we didn't zigzag back and forth and lose valuable time.
We reached the transition area at 10:15am, portaged our kayaks to the drop off point, and received our maps for the orienteering/trail running and trekking section. Once on the trail, we quickly learned that good navigation decision-making was going to make or break our ability to finish this race.
Brian the Navigator - and an excellent one at that - and I decided to do some bushwhacking. Bushwhacking for those that aren't familiar, is when you decide to leave a trail and use your compass points and map to get you to where you need to go. Although bushwhacking cut down on the mileage, it was very slow going because of all the trees that were down and the thick over brush, which included large thorn bushes that were constantly sticking into our arms and legs. We bushwhacked a few more times when we felt it was advantageous and when it was not too steep of an incline or decline. We also cut off mileage by wading, and sometimes swimming, across small rivers and lakes. While this served to cool us off, the stinging of the dirty water entering our cuts and scrapes took a minute to overcome.
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We finally reached the third transition area at 3pm. We stopped to re-fuel, and ate a make-shift and hurried lunch of bananas and energy bars. We also took time to refuel our water supply. This is where I realized that at some point, either while I was bushwhacking or while we were swimming, my pack had come unzipped enough for one of my Gatorade bottles and a ziplock baggie which contained my extra pairs of socks to fall out. Socks are the single most important piece of equipment in an adventure race. Doing anything in wet socks for an extended period of time would lead to blisters, which severely hinders your speed to do just about anything. I had already changed socks twice but knew now I would need to make this last pair last. Even with this setback, we were feeling pretty good knowing that we had already completed 13 of the 23 checkpoints and were about to get on our bikes. We knew little of what lie ahead.
Brian and I quickly learned that the bike segment would prove to be quite challenging. The trails had steep elevation changes on gravel, dirt and some paved surfaces. Further, some of the trails were completely blocked by downed trees. This meant carrying our bikes on our backs as we climbed over and around the foliage. It sometimes took up to 15 minutes to go 50 feet. It was breaking our spirits as well as our backs.
By checkpoint 17 we took a gummy-bear and Starburst break to hopefully give us more energy. We later learned that the mountain bike section totaled 48 miles. It was 8pm and we still had 3 checkpoints until we reached the transition area. When the morning began, we hoped to be crossing the finish line by this time, although we now knew we still had many miles to bike and over many treacherous mountains. The good news was that Brian and I, rookies to this type of race, still hadn't made any crucial mistakes that might have cost us valuable time or that might have gotten us way off track. We had managed to stick with different teams for miles at a time, which helped us to keep going even though we had been pushing our bodies for over 14 hours now. By the time we reached checkpoint 19, the one before the transition area, it was dark and the lights on our bikes were the only thing keeping us on the trail. The checkpoint guide informed us that it was now 9:36pm, and although he was supposed to stop all teams passing the checkpoint after 9:30, we talked him into letting us continue.
Even though it was pitch dark and our lights only did so much, we flew down the mountain hoping to get to the last transition before we were disqualified.
As we rolled in, we received word that we could try to finish but that we would not make the midnight cutoff. The last 3 checkpoints included a swim across the lake and a 6 mile jog up and back down the mountain. At this point only 6 of the 65 teams had finished and we were currently in 18th place. We managed to complete the swim, but at this time, we were not only wiped out from the day's activities, but now soaking wet and a little chilled. On top of that, my headlamp, which we used to light our way as we swam across the lake, had come apart and was not working.
At this point, 15 ½ hours in to the race and 10:30pm at night, I decided that we were not going to make the last 6 miles in the allotted time and we conceded the race. It was a heart breaking decision and one I that have questioned ever since, but must except.
All and all, we had a great time, learned some invaluable lessons that will help us complete our next race, and were pushed to our limits both physically and mentally. This day, will go down as the hardest of my life - until, of course, the next race.