Rod's Account...

Pre Race
The team’s 2005 curse struck again a week or so prior to the race when Angie’s IT band started hurting her again. It was decided to have Al fill in instead of her and Al, Shannon and I would race together. Never the less, we would be racing two teams with two goals in mind. Team 1 would get Shannon through her first race ranked, and Team 2 would kick some butt!!

We were up very early as the maps would be available at 4:00am. As soon as we had the maps in hand Peter and I we were plotting the UTMs and mapping out our course while the rest of the team got the gear ready for the day. Personally, I was pretty nervous about this race given our performance in the Planet Adventure Race a couple weeks prior.

Section 1 – Paddle / Orienteering
The race began with a run up to the top of the hill by one of the team members to get an egg to return to the TA. From there we hurried the canoes down to the water and put in for a paddle to the first orienteering section. The paddle went smoothly and we were quickly finding CPs. About 6 or 7 checkpoints in, we ran into Team 2 who had apparently made a wrong turn and lost a few minutes (this would be the last time we would see them!!!). We continued on finding all the CPs and were back in the canoe to head back to TA. The paddle back proved to be demoralizing!! The wind had picked up quite a bit, and at times, it didn’t seem like we were going anywhere. The waves kept splashing up over the side drenching all of us and getting us rather cold. We finally finished the canoe back to the TA and Al and Shannon could not stop shivering. We started up the car and got them heated up as I got the necessary equipment ready for the next leg. Unfortunately, we killed around 15 minutes in this transition, but that is better than hypothermia!!

Section 2 – Bike
We headed out on a rather long bike leg to the next orienteering section picking up a few checkpoints along the way. The ride was one of the hardest I can remember. We had a very strong headwind for virtually the entire time, the hills never stopped coming, and we were fighting the rain, sleet, and snow. Shannon was doing great as she had never actually chosen to be out in conditions like this, let alone racing in them. After a couple hours, we made it to the orienteering section, and man were we ready for it.

Section 3 – Orienteering
Our motivation to run this section had long since left us, and we were at a brisk walk and refueling on our way to the first CP. We found most the CPs relatively easy in this section, but there were a couple we struggled a bit with. It was about half way through this section that Shannon’s IT band really started to bother her. She really toughed it out though, and before I knew it we were heading back to the bikes to ride to the ropes section. We fueled up on our way back so we wouldn’t have to dork around by the bikes before leaving. This strategy helped us to pass a few teams that were sitting around eating and drinking.

Section 4 – Bike
The bike to the ropes was a welcome one. We finally had the wind to our backs for most of it, and we were clipping at a pretty good pace. Al had Shannon on tow for a lot of it which seemed to help, but would later prove devastating. We gathered a couple CPs during the ride and were about 2/3 of the way to the ropes when disaster struck. We were coming down a hill that ended in a bend and Al had Shannon on tow. I was first around the bend and suddenly I heard a crash. I looked back and saw Shannon on the ground. By the time we got to her, her face was covered in blood. We quickly got out the first aid kit and did our best to get the bleeding to stop. A motorist that witnessed the crash stopped and offered a ride to the hospital. Shannon quickly declined her offer and insisted on finishing the race knowing we had a couple of hours to go. We started up again walking the bikes to give Shannon’s adrenaline a chance to subside and soon we were riding again.

Section 5 – Ropes
We arrived at the ropes section to find a zip line and a climbing wall….a very high climbing wall!! Two of us would have to climb to the top and the third would have to do the zip line. We figured given Shannon’s condition, the less strenuous the better and she did the zip line while Al and I climbed. Although Al doubted his ability to make it to the top, he succeeded without weighing the rope once! Shannon’s face was starting to swell pretty bad at this point and she was getting a lot of looks from other racers and staff. Most couldn’t believe she wanted to go on.

Section 6 – Bike to finish
After completing the ropes, we were back on the bikes and headed to the finish. We were all ready to get back to the cars and partake in the post-race meal. The ride back went smoothly and believe it or not, we were holding a faster pace than any previous section. I guess that’s what the promise of food and New Castle will do for you. We crossed the finish line in 10 ½ hours (which was good enough for 19th place) and quickly exchanged hugs and tears. We had just endured a very difficult race and still finished ranked!! Team 2 had finished more than two hours before us and would have placed 9th had they been ranked. Both teams accomplished the goals they outlined and went though a lot to do it.

Adventure North did a fantastic job with this race and we will definitely be back next year. Although she may need a bit of dental work (her teeth got pushed in a bit), Shannon has recovered beautifully! This race proved to be one of the most challenging races to date both physically and mentally. Thanks to the race staff and volunteers for making the race possible. See you next year!!

Peter's Account...

The REI Mad Dash is the second official race that Team Fat Otter decided to tackle in 2005. It would be the second race for Christian Ramaker and Peter Semenchuk (me), and the first for Andrew Wells this year. By the time the Mad Dash rolled around, everyone on Team Fat Otter was in full swing, training, living life to the fullest in Fat Otter style and enjoying the now warmer early spring weather in May. I think we all had racing in our minds. Christian and Andrew had raced together before. Andrew and I had raced together before. Christian and I had raced together before. But we had not yet all done a race together as a team. This was our first. Racing alongside us would be the other Team Fat Otter, comprised of Rod, Al, and Shannon.

Friday, April 30, 2005, Afternoon. – Andrew, Christian, and I rendezvous at my house to pack the car for the Mad Dash. We are joined by Christian’s wife Jennifer, who is our unofficial support and cheering section. We hop in the car and head north towards Madison, in anticipation of the Holiday Inn we have booked at. Christian and Jen keep going on about “free pizza buffet”, and “waterslides”, and “hot tubs”. For some reason, we are all in a festive mood, relaxed, happy to be in our hotel early. We check in our pre-race at REI in Madison, browse some cool gear, buy some stuff (hey, they gave us a really good coupon in our schwag bags). We head back to the hotel where we sip some beers, eat some pizza, and take a load off. We go back to the room, sort out all of our gear, mix sports drink concoctions, and keep drinking beer. At this point, Andrew, the youngest and perhaps wisest Fat Otter, decides to go to sleep. Christian, Jen, and I head down to the hot tub, beers in hand, and put off to bed around 1:30 am, slightly buzzed and very happy.

Saturday, May 1st, 4:00 am. – We wake up, and start getting prepped for the race. I recall a night of moderate drinking and think, “Why?”. I did not sleep very well, and I can tell that neither did Christian. At any rate, at least Andrew is fairly well rested. We hurry out of the hotel, check out, get in the car and head to the start / transition area for our maps. We park, get our maps, and quickly begin prepping our gear. We meet up with Rod, Angie, Al, and Shannon who are also hurrying to get everything together. The race starts soon after.

6:00 am – Race start. One team member is elected to run with an egg and retrieve a passport. We are then to portage our canoes to a put in on a lake, several hundred meters away. Christian is gung ho to get running, so he takes off with our egg. Soon he is back at the front of the pack, and we are off to the lake. We push into the water very quickly, perhaps 3rd or 4th overall upon hitting the water. We are, of course, not a strong paddling team (the name’s not “fast otter”), so we are quickly overtaken by several faster paddling teams. We arrive at a small shoreline where about 8 teams have run ashore ahead of us. This is our first orienteering section. We are to collect several checkpoints on foot in a very easy trail based orienteering section. We set off at a good jog, warming and stretching our muscles. After reaching the second checkpoint, we realize that we have been punching the clue sheet and not the passport, so we run back, punch the passport, and run back yet again to the rest of the checkpoints. This is right around the time when I wished I hadn’t drunk beer until 1:00 am the night before. The feeling of working through a mild hangover with a run is not something you should save for race day. Nonetheless, we pressed on and ran into Al, Rod, and Shannon who had now caught up with us. This motivated us to press forward faster than before. Andrew took the initiative and set an ambitious pace for us, and we moved ahead, grabbing checkpoints and getting back into the canoes and onto the lake in the top third of the field.

We finished the paddle on what was now threatening to be a very cold day. The wind was blowing, and sleet was spraying on us. The waves from the lake were rather large and were sometimes breaking into the canoe. We were forced to put three in our canoe, and the middle seat received the brunt of the water. When we exited the paddle, we were all soaked. Still not having learned from our previous cold weather disaster, we proceeded to shiver, squeeze water out of wet gloves and socks, and shiver some more as we attempted to warm up, get onto the bikes and get moving in what was turning into a 30 degree day in early May.

We got moving, and, fortunately, we were able to warm up. We rode onward past several bike checkpoints, meeting and passing teams along the way as we buzzed forward in our pseudo-paceline. We arrived at the next section, an orienteering course in a forest preserve. At this point, we were a couple of hours into the race, and the sun was shining. Up until this point we had seen weather of all sorts: cold rain, sleet, blowing snow, wind, and now sunshine. Now thankful for some bright day, we started walking uphill towards our checkpoints, unzipping layers and eating gel packets as we moved.

At this point, our team dynamics started to work themselves out. That is to say, we almost got separated by moving in different directions, we got angry and argued a little bit, and ultimately ended up at a checkpoint quickly anyway. We decided that we should move forward together, and that it was better to make decisions as a team instead of “on a whim” as is sometimes the case in orienteering.

We ran through most of the O course without incident. I found myself actually enjoying the sport of orienteering: this was one of the first orienteering courses I have ever been able to complete quickly up until this point. We finished the O course, moving with or past several teams along the way. While hiking back to the bikes, we decided to re-hydrate and eat, prepare our gear while we walked, and when we hit transition, we passed another 2 teams by quickly sitting on our bikes and moving while they were fumbling with all sorts of who-knows-what.

Back onto the bikes and down the road we went, several more miles of hilly Wisconsin terrain coupled with cold wind. We continue to bear down on a team or two, and we passed the first. The second team, we could see, a couple of hundred yards ahead of us. We slowly but surely lurched forward, eventually meeting and passing the team as we rode by a checkpoint. Not soon afterwards, I stopped our team’s progress when I checked a map and couldn’t find the road we were on. We watched the team we’d been working so hard to pass zoom by us, and coolly turn in the direction we needed to go. We waited another 30 seconds and rode on, finally understanding our navigation mistake. On our way to the next section of the race, a climbing wall and zip line combination, we would meet and pass another team. We were working so hard up to this point that it wasn’t until we passed the third team member that we realized who we’d been riding next to. It was our friends from team “V”: Lisa, Todd, and Dean. They had been in 1st but had to drop back after Todd’s knee started to bother him tremendously (they still ended up finishing right behind us, bum knee and all, a testament to their strength or our weakness depending on how you like to look at things).

After miles and miles of hilly biking in which I kept assuring everyone, “just one or two more miles…” we finally reached the ropes section. We agreed that Christian and I would climb and Andrew would run the zip line so that he didn’t have to remove his gloves. All three of us love to climb so that part wasn’t an issue. We transitioned to climb quickly, but we were again pressed in a mini-bottleneck. We had to wait behind the team that had passed us and team “V” had to wait behind us. (this would end up being our order of finishing as well). Before we finished, we had to get back on the bikes and pedal another 7-10 miles back to the race start / finish.

The final bike leg was a true test for us. Having to navigate a city or residential area with a map (like a USGS quad) that does not include any street names can be challenging. I’ve often found this to be the most frustrating aspect of adventure race navigation: trying to discern where we are on a map that shows some (though probably not all) roads but doesn’t name any of them, or only names certain ones and omits others. The result of all this confusion is that with only 3 miles to go, I accidentally turned us down the wrong road. I jumped the gun and had us move north through a residential subdivision which we followed for way too long. When we finally realized our error, we had to make a quick decision. We knew we had only minutes before we would lose a place or two to any teams behind us. We had to act quickly. We couldn’t turn back because it would take too long. There had to be a way through this subdivision. Here, I guess our suburban instincts kicked in. We were able to cut through parks, across side streets, through public trails and dirt trails until we finally popped out on an actual identifiable street. We made it… it worked. We pedaled our butts off until we came to the finish, and congratulated each other as we learned that we had grabbed an unofficial 9th place finish and had not given up any places in our unofficial quest for glory.

We had a great race and the folks at Adventure North were flexible with our registration issues and provided some good post race eats! (we are learning one of the benefits of getting to the finish earlier is that there is still food left, and it is still warm!) Thanks to all race directors and staff as well as Angie and Jen our unofficial support people and general information gathering cheering section.

Race Report by: Peter Semenchuk, Team Fat Otter