Pre Race
As Andrew and I got our gear together the night before the race, we were in agreement that it didn’t really feel like we would be racing the next day. Andrew had in fact agreed to do the race only a day earlier, neither of us had trained much over the winter, we were drinking beer and wine, and were about to sit down to some tasty steaks. Since there wasn’t much required gear for the race, we were able to avoid the late night gear scramble and were asleep by 11:00pm.
We woke up the next morning at 5:00am and neither one of us felt quite right. Our stomachs were feeling a bit off and we were a bit out of it. We’re not sure exactly what did it, but we’re guessing the steaks were the reason we would be visiting the bathroom a number of times throughout the day. The sky looked ominous as we were driving to the race start. At one point it started raining so hard I could barely see the road in front of me. We knew the weather was calling for storms throughout the day, but it hadn’t really sunk in until that moment.
We arrived at the start with plenty of time to get ready. The pre-race meeting was the shortest in pre-race meeting history. It lasted only 5 minutes and there were no questions. The instructions were simple; the team captain would be given an envelope at the start of the race. The envelope would contain clues to find our course maps and instructions. We would be allowed to split up for the start if we so chose.
race Start
I quickly opened the envelope as it was handed to me and found 2 clues. Each was to go to a nearby landmark and follow a given compass bearing for a given distance. We decided to each take one of the clues and meet back at the transition area. My clue led me to a volunteer that in turn handed me the next clue. This time, Andrew and I would have to combine our clues to give us the bearing and distance from the flagpole near the start. I ran back to meet to find Andrew waiting, and we combined our clues quickly followed the clue to our maps and instructions. The race would begin with orienteering, followed by paddling, and then biking with a ropes section midway through the bike leg.
Orienteering
After quickly going over the map, we decided to find most of the orienteering points in order. We immediately ran up a nearby hill to find the first checkpoint and then followed a nearby trail which would take us near the next several. We ran most of the flat and downhills and hiked the majority of the uphills. The terrain was exhausting! Much to our surprise we saw very few teams during this section of the race. We completed it in an hour and half and learned we were in 1st place.
Paddling
Our transition lasted only a few seconds as all we needed to do was pick up our paddles and PFDs. We ran to the paddle put in and headed toward the first of three paddle checkpoints. We easily found the first two and were paddling to the third when we noticed no one else had started the paddle section yet. We knew we couldn’t take the lead for granted though because one mistake could allow the pack to catch up. We reached the area we thought the third checkpoint would be and we didn’t see anything. We paddled a bit farther down river and still couldn’t find anything. We identified where we were on the map and realized we had gone to far down river. We turned around and headed back to where we though the CP would be and ended up in the same place we had already looked. At this point we had spent 15-20 minutes searching and were fairly certain we were in the right spot, and now there were two other teams in the same area. We made the difficult decision to stop looking and head back. If the CP was in fact there, and we just didn’t see it, it might mean disqualification. We paddled hard back, ditched the canoe, and ran back to the transition area. Once there, we told race staff that we though the paddle CP might be missing. They informed us that someone had checked a couple hours prior and the CP was there at that time. Our stomachs dropped as we heard this news. Did we miss it? How could we have?
Bike to ropes
Our transition to the bikes was equally as efficient as our first. Chug some Gatorade, put on bike shoes, leave. The bike section started out with 4 CPs in the park, country road to the ropes section, and then return. Within minutes of getting on the bikes, we were walking. The hills were too steep and long for us to ride. Our legs were already drained from the orienteering and we were really starting to feel the burn. We found the park CPs with ease and headed out of the park. The country roads were a combination of dirt, gravel, and pavement. At one point during the ride, it began storming again. It was probably the hardest rain I’ve ever biked in. We arrived at the ropes still in 1st place and headed to the rappel.
Ropes
We hiked up to the rappel section and were told by the race director that the paddle CP from earlier was indeed missing and we would be given a time credit for the amount of time spent searching for it. This definitely put our minds at ease. We had been going over and over in our heads what we might have done wrong to miss it when it in fact wasn’t even there. We blasted through the rappel and the very fun zip line and were soon back on the bikes. The ropes section took us around a half hour to complete, and no other teams had arrived yet.
Bike to finish
As we started the ride to the finish, we both knew that short of a catastrophic bike failure, we had a good chance of winning this race. It was about 10 minutes after leaving the ropes that we saw another team on the road. We estimated our lead to be around 40 minutes, but both of us knew that a broken bike can easily cost that much time. We continued to press on as if our lead was much less and arrived at the finish at 1:25pm in 1st place. It was another 50 minutes before the next team rolled in.
Finish
Out of breath and soaking wet, we initialed by our finish time and hobbled to the cars. After changing into more comfortable dry clothes, we headed back to the finish to enjoy some delicious pasta, chili, and brownies. Much to our surprise, race staff handed us two very cool North Face packs as our prize for winning. Frank and the rest of the GMRAS race staff did an excellent job putting on the event. We had a great time and definitely plan on coming back for the next one! Great job and thanks again.
