As I sit at my computer, all I can think about is the amazing experience that me and my team mates had this weekend. To put it simply, adventure racing is an opporunity for me to test my physical and mental limits. These longer races are a test of attrition, strategy and preparation. In all of my life, I have never been so at peace with myself as I was this weekend.
If you have been reading my blog, you know that I have been training hard for this race. I was looking forward to each discipline and here is my breakdown as to how the day went.
We were told to meet at this gazebo in the quaint town of Blue Ridge, Georgia at 5:45am. Blue Ridge sits at the north west tip of Georgia, snuggled into the mountains. When we arrived, we saw a train and knew exactly what the morning was going to entail. According to our maps, we knew that we would start with a paddle. The train was waiting for us at the gazebo and we hopped on and went for a 30 minute train ride to a drop off point. From there, we had a prologue that consited of a short orienteering section. Once completed, we hopped into our canoes. Now, first let me tell you that I love paddling. However, this paddle...will go in my books as the most uncomforable one to date. There was no middle seat--which meant that I had to sit on my knees. So, I spent the entire paddle (about 3-4 hours) trying to get comfortable and stable enough to paddle. We were somewhere around 25th (out of 85) out of the paddle because we kept choosing the wrong lines and getting stuck. The water was fairly low in a lot of points and we aren't a team that practices this discipline outside of racing.
We had to carry the boats up to the next checkpoint and then do a run/treck to the bikes. This portion was about an hour long and we didn't waist any time transitioning. That was probably not a smart move, because Brian and I were overheating with all of our rain gear on. My stomach started to get upset during the run because of the shear humidity that was trapped in my clothes. When we finally got to the bike pick up, we headed off onto some awesome single track. The rain started and all of our clothes were now drenched! From there, we went up hill for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.
I have never climbed so much in my entire life. These hills were never freak'n ending. It was just switch back after switch back and I just put my bike in my small ring and chugged right up. We passed a lot of teams at this point and I was feeling really good. I was in a zone and quite content with the climbing.
We looked at the map and Matt made a strategic decision to skip a bunch of checkpoints that were not easily accessible. We headed out to a short orienteering section and had to climb to a point that was about 3500 feet. It was called Mule Top and it was the highest point in the area. It took us about a 1/2 hour to get to the top and Matt navigated us right to the checkpoint. We headed back down and picked up our bikes to attack the next checkpoint.
More biking, more hills...forever and ever uphill.
At this point (probably 7pm), Brian started to vocalize that he was getting cold. I was sweating bullets! I thought it was all in his head and so I tried to motivate everyone to keep going. After all, we have been in way worse conditions than this. So, we kept going...more biking, more hills...forever and ever uphill again.
We got to the next bike drop and picked up a checkpoint. Brian, again started to vocalize that he was not in a good state. And again, I just said keep moving. So, we headed to the next checkpoint. It was straight up hill and we had to get off and walk the bikes. When we finally (an hour later) got to the top...we got the checkpoint.
Brian did not look good. I started to really get worried because he couuldn't get warm. The next section was all single track and it was going to be a 5-7 hour ride and hike. Not only that, but we would be inaccessible to help if we needed it. So, I said "let's go back to the campground". We rode back down that huge hill and tried to get him warm by the fire.
I knew our journey was over and I was sad. But, in the end...I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I have an incredible desire to push through regardless of the pain. Even though I wanted to finish that race more than anything, I was not willing to risk the safety of one of my good friends.
Races will always come and go and you learn something with each race. We learned that we, as a team, need to be better prepared (pack more food and dry clothes). We have the athleticism to keep up with the best of the best and now we just need to work on the small, but very important details. Looking at the results, our strategy was dead on and the top teams skipped quite a few checkpoints. Good thinking MJ!
I look forward to the 2009 adventure racing schedule. I love this sport and I appreciate everything that it has taught me. I am a better person for enduring it and I can't imagine my future without it. I love sport in general. I love the competition, the elements, the terrain, the thresh hold and the burning desire to do it over and over again.
The good news is that I did not see any bears, nor did I see the panthers and wild boars that they warned us about. Whew!
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