For the first time, Team Fat Otter had two entries into a race! Team 1 consisted of me and Angie, and Robert Crawford came back for some more teaming up with first timer Amber Pilling.

This race has a bit of an interesting twist. We had to go up to Devil's Lake the day prior to the race to do some climbing which was used to determine our start time the following day. This was only my second time climbing outside and it was the first time for everyone else. We had all gotten some practice in at a local climbing gym and had high hopes for the climb. Much to our surprise, it actually took some REAL skill to do some of the climbs. There were various routes set up ranging in difficulty from 5.4 to 5.10 (a rating system used to rate climbing route difficulty). The first of us to try was Amber who got stuck at the crux of the 5.4. Kudos to her for even trying after being dropped 10' - 15' by a belayer weeks prior to the race. Next up was Robert who ran the entire 5.4 route GO ROBERT!! Next up was Angie who also got stuck at the crux of the 5.4. Me, being the show off I am, tried a 5.7 crack. Yeah right. I pealed about a third of the way up had to run the 5.4 to be sure we got some points. It was a great idea to do the climbing, not only to test the racers, but to also expose people to an exciting sport.

Race day began a little earlier for Robert and Amber as they had to do a little gear shuttling before the race. Angie and I met up with them at the start and began unloading gear. Robert and Amber somehow lost a piece of a front axle and almost didn't get to race at all, but another team was lucky enough to have a spare. I personally woke up feeling flu like and was focusing on not vomiting! The race began with a paddle on Lake Wisconsin with our bikes in the canoes. We all found the first check point with ease and proceeded to the transition area. Angie and I arrived first and worked on a quick transition. I had anticipated a short bike section in this part of the race (WRONG) and decided not to bring my bike shoes which proved to be a BIG mistake. We gathered the bike CPs and proceeded to the final bike CP on top of Gibraltar Rock. We were required to take a 2 minute rest on top of the bluff and recite the 10 names we had been required to memorize. Upon reaching the bottom again, Amber and Robert were about to begin their trek to the top. As we pulled back out onto the rode on our way back to transition, my derailleur threw my chain. I FREAKED out because I don't know the first thing about bike repair. Anyway, after a couple of minutes dorking around, I got the chain back on and we rode back to transition. We loaded the bikes back into the canoe and headed back to the first transition area. The wind really picked up since our last paddle leg, so we really had to kick it in. Right after we rounded the last point and headed across the lake, my finger caught my bike fork and began bleeding. The cut looked pretty deep so I wrapped it in Angie's bandana thinking I may have to go to the ER. My paddling was hindered the last 15 minutes and Angie really had to step up and take control of the canoe. She did a wonderful job. Once back to the transition I took a closer look at my finger and saw that the bleeding had stopped and it was only cut to just below my calice. Amber's mother cleaned it up and bandaged it for me and before I knew it we were on the last bike leg.

The last bike section was only around 5 miles, but it seemed like 50. Again, I didn't have my bike shoes and Angie's legs were spent and she needed towing. We finished the bike leg with an hour and a half to find orienteering CPs until the cutoff at 1:30. We headed up the trail and found the first one with little problem. We decided we didn't have enough time to look for much more, so we decided to head north to the finish. During our bushwhack, I noticed that we might be veering East a bit. My suspicion was confirmed when we stumbled upon a CP that was slightly off our course. We finally arrived to the edge of the bluff to find an impassible boulder field. We scrambled around looking for a way down with little luck. I finally hear the trickling of water and headed to it in order to follow the path of the stream. At this point we had already missed the cutoff and were focused on safety alone. We finally found our way out and made it back to the finish 38 minutes late. Robert and Amber finished a mere 20 minutes behind us. Much to our surprise, none of the 2 person coed teams had made it back before the cutoff which meant the awards went to the teams with the most CPs. Amazingly, our coming across that remote CP amid our bushwhack gave us the extra point needed to WIN our division.

Kevin put on a great race; we had a lot of fun. We definitely learned not to give up because you never know what is happening with the other teams. I also learned (AGAIN) to focus on the contours a little more. Had I done that, we probably would have finished in time. Thanks to Wisconsin Adventure Racing Society and Kevin Teschendorf for ANOTHER GREAT RACE!!