Friday, March 07, 2008

2007 USARA Nationals Race Report


November 2-3, 2007
Potosi, MO

Team: BlackHART (Tommy Fuchs, Jackie Bludworth, Phil Shrader)

This was my second trip to nationals and I was looking forward to it. My team was to be with Tommy and Jonathan. But about 3 weeks before nationals, Jonathan got tied up with work, and informed us he was not going to be able to make it. So, after some scrambling and emails, Tommy tells me he has found our 3rd! Turns out to be one of Kenny’s RTNX teammates, Phil Shrader, from MICHIGAN! Well, so much for any training! But, we figured if he lasted for 6 days in Canada, he could make it through 30 hours in Missouri.

Our team drove up/down. Phil drove down from Michigan. Tommy drove up with Vera and his parents. I drove up with Michael Mey (racing on a different HART team). It was an uneventful, stress free drive. Got to the lodge about 11am. Met Tommy. Went for some lunch and any last minute grocery items (and to pick up a Domino’s pizza for race food!!!). On our way into town, Phil calls us; he had just arrived at the lodge too! Cool, everyone accounted for!

We checked into the race, got our goodie bags. Went back to the hotel and packed our bags. Phil couldn’t believe the amount of food I was taking. I couldn’t believe the amount he WASN’T taking! Before we knew it we were eating dinner and then attending the pre-race meeting. Nothing special really was mentioned at the meeting. Just standard race stuff. Oh, and the RD (Jason with Bonk Hard Racing), said we’d probably hate him after the paddle. The water was rather low, and we’d be doing lots of walking! Great.

We weren’t getting our maps until the following morning, so that meant a good night’s sleep since we wouldn’t be plotting and figuring out routes into all hours of the night! Maps were to be handed out at 5am.

I got a really good night’s sleep. Got up. Got the maps. Phil called out points for Tommy. All seemed to go ok. It was decided that Phil was to carry the passport/dipper, and I was to carry the clue sheet.

We were doing last minute race checks. The race was to start with a paddle, then an O-course. We would then grab our bikes, and not be back to the lodge until the finish. So, I left my bike lights (heavy) and the majority of my food (heavy) with my bike, helmet, and bike shoes. It would make the first 3- 4 hours of the race bearable.

Before I knew it, we were off. We had nominated Phil to be our runner up the hill (to get the passport for the first part of the race – paddle and O-course) and back down to meet Tommy and I (in a canoe) at a pick-up point. He claimed he wasn’t that fast of a runner, yeah, whatever. J So, we leave Phil, go and grab a canoe. Tommy runs down a pier, and drops the boat into the water! Great idea! Neither of us would get our feet wet! And it was 25 degrees that morning, and getting colder before sunrise! The paddles were covered in ice and so were the canoes! There was a lot of mist rising from the warmer temperature of the lake water. So, it was kinda weird paddling into nothingness. Hearing other teams, not seeing other teams. We came to the bank where we to pick up Phil. It dawned on me then, that we just met him. How would he be able to distinguish us amongst all the other boats? Phil was somewhat easy; he was one of the only crazy northerners to wear SHORTS!!! Yeah, shorts.

So we pick up Phil and paddle a bit to an island for the first checkpoint. Tommy and I just sat in the canoe freezing. It was a bit tough paddling in the center of the canoe with out a seat. But, I had to paddle, or freeze. So, not sure what good I was doing for forward momentum, but it kept me warm! We paddled to the far end of the lake to get a manned CP. But there was a line of canoes! Too funny! Felt like we were in Houston traffic!

A short paddle back to the boat drop and we were done with that portion of the paddle. We could get the next 11 CPs in any order. They weren’t numbered, rather lettered. Lettered C-M, with A and B being the first 2 paddle points. We started in a clockwise fashion. And sure enough, as with all these long adventure races, within 30 minutes of the O-course, we were all alone! Crazy! Tommy hit every point pretty much spot on with his (I’ve heard it called) “magic compass” ! That combined with the gazelle like run of Phil running to punch the CPs, we had a good section. We passed Ali/Mey/Tracie and Ashley’s team at one point, but they were heading in the other direction. That’s what’s fun about a rogaine O-course – people are running all sorts of directions. For the last few CPs, we started seeing more teams. The very last O-course CP was “stone ruin” and we crossed a small stream to get to a road on the other side for quicker travel. Went right to it, although the CP was in a ruin behind us, not the one we first saw! Tricky! We then had a short run back to “TA”.

Shockingly enough to us (well, to me anyway), we were in 34th place. Turns out we would pretty much hold that number until almost the end. And it was odd since we would pass teams, but still be in 34th. Weird!

Next we load up our packs with everything we would need for the next 24+ hours. Food, water, lights, clothes….everything. We hop on the bikes and take off. As in Berryman, the race course proved to be quite hilly! Tommy cruised up the hills effortlessly as usual. Phil was right there with him. And then I brought up the rear. Didn’t have to get off and walk, but made a whopping 4mph uphill pace! CP2 was at the top of a hill/road. At which point the race photographer sped by. Stopped, and took pictures of us. CooL! We midpackers get some press! So we go on to CP3, still on pavement, when SNAP! Grinding up a hill, my chain broke! Uhh oh. I haven’t the foggiest clue what to do with a broken chain, but I remember Monty giving me a “spare link” before I left, saying “you never know if you’ll need this, but take it since the race is expedition style.” So, I get it out and ask Tommy if this is what he needs to fix it. He was very happy I had that part. I think it must have been a record chain fix. I believe it was 43 seconds! And our photographer guy was on the ground snapping photos of Team Tommy inaction! Too bad I’ve YET to see these photos anywhere. L

We get to CP3, no problems. Next we got to ride the FUN trails to CP4. I remembered from berryman what fun the Ozark trail was to ride. At nationals we got to ride a different section of the Ozark trail, plus the Berryman trail (34 miles of “the best singletrack in Missouri”. We got to CP4 however, and the sign said, this is not CP4! It gave coordinates for an other location where we were supposed to punch CP4! That was a twist! Tommy makes a smart nav choice to get us to a 5 road intersection. We were with a group of 3-4 teams. We rode past where we eventually bushwhacked into the woods, but not by much. Maybe took an extra 3-4 minutes. Then we bike whacked about 150m to the CP. A few other teams left their bikes at the road and bushwhacked. I think we did the right thing, taking our bikes to the CP, since it was a BIKE leg. No worries. Next point was really close, a pond. Then from there we went to a camp. Tommy was looking over the map with Phil, and I heard him mention roads. I looked at the clue sheet and said, no, wait a minute, we “must take berryman trail to get from CP5 to FR 2901”. We rode a really fun trail to CP6. It was a manned CP. Shortly afterwards, some other team came from a different direction (not using the trail obviously). The next CP was also manned. It had a well that we could refill drinks at. The volunteers there also had candy for us! Yum! There was a lot of exiting activity at this CP. Found out we were still in 34th. Also found out that our local hometown team, MOAT, was in 1st!! Woohoo!

And this is where our team (me) made a mistake that ended up costing us about 12 placements! I didn’t look at the clue sheet. All I looked at was that CP8 was a campground/TA. We’d be doing a trek after this. So, I’m in my own world, eating and filling my camelbacks. Tommy and Phil are looking at the map. Next thing I know, we are off again. We actually saw 2 other teams on this road, so nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Then we get to CP8. We are first greeted by Mo! Then by Cara! Then the CP volunteers informed me and Phil that we were supposed to come in from the other direction. What?!?! We were both utterly confused. She said we had to take the trail. Oh. Ooops. I get back to our bikes, and I look at the clue sheet, and sure enough, it says ABOVE CP8, IN BOLD PRINT, “all teams must stay on trail from CP7 to CP8”. Whoops. I had blown it. I remember from the race rules that the penalty for taking an off course road was 4 hours. Darn it. I was so distraught in my mistake, I forgot to take out my bike lights (heavy) from my pack before our long (8+ miles) nav to the boats.

So, after Tommy told me to “get over it.” We start jogging to CP9. Within about 5 minutes, I was clearly getting left behind. I couldn’t understand it. I was ok in the morning nav section. I just ran right beside Tommy while Phil cleared the way. Now, however, I just couldn’t keep up. And usually I get stronger throughout a race, not weaker! Then, while walking up a hill, I realized that I had the bike lights in my pack! About that time too, I see Tommy unhooking his tow belt and asking if I needed I tow. First, I couldn’t believe my ears when I thought I heard Tommy asking that. Tommy? I said yes. Then he gave me the rope and said Phil was towing me. Knew it! J Phil said “what am I going to do with that?” I hooked the rope up to a tree, and said, leave me here! Lots of jokes. Good times. So, Phil became a horse, and had to tow me. We started jogging, and then my left knee started hurting!! WTF?!?!? I haven’t had my knee hurt since LAST years nationals! I ask to walk since I started limping! Geesh. All of a sudden I felt like I was really becoming the downfall to this team! Yikes! At one point during this section, we saw our photographer again! So we promptly started running of course. Except, the funniest thing happened, right when we started to run, my map case (with clue sheet) falls out from my chest straps on the backpack. Then I trip over it. I almost fall, except I am hooked up to Phil on tow, so I almost bring him down too! The camera guy is laughing, his driver in the car is laughing. Tommy is laughing. And the film is still rolling! So we have to keep running! We keep looking behind us, and the camera guy says, “ok, I turned it off.” So we then walk again! Surely it made the bloopers reel!

Luckily for us, Tommy’s magic compass got us to the next several CPs and the boat ramp licketly split. We took about 15 minutes to eat and change to start the paddle. It was still daylight, and thought we’d get a good portion done in the daylight. We start the paddle, and it is in a nice lake. I was in the center again, kneeling this time, with my butt resting on the wooden cross bar thingy. All 3 of us could paddle this way. No sooner than we had reached cruising speed, the lake ended. And we assumed the way to exit was to the right. It was a pretty steep climb down to the river we would be paddling in (ok, more like a creek). My first thought was those poor folks who have to do this portage at night! I took the packs and paddles. And the guys took the canoe. Thank goodness for rental boats and paddles! You can be as rough on them as needed, and the gear can take it!!

The “river” appeared to have a good flow at the put in. That was to be short lived. We had about an hour or more of daylight to “paddle” in this “river”. It was a lot of paddle, paddle, paddle, then hit bottom, get out, get back in, paddle, repeat. As a result, we were accumulating a lot of water in the canoe each time. So, quick thinking Phil, gets out one of his mountain dew bottles (he pre measures perpetuem in each bottle and carries them around, and adds water as needed to drink). He cut off the top with his knife, and voila! We have a bailer! So my job ended up being paddle when I could, bail water when I could! Cool! I was able to keep busy! We were pretty much all alone, and soon enough, the sun went down and we had to negotiate the low and high water and roots and rocks at night! I think our mph was like 2. Something slow. At one road crossing I ask to stop for a second while I put on more clothing. I would rather put on clothing BEFORE I got too cold. I know once I get chilled, it takes forever for me to warm up. So, I end up putting on EVERY piece off clothing in my backpack on! I had a shirt, a long sleeve short, a jersey, another long sleeve shirt, a windbreaker, and a waterproof rain jacket!!!! Oh, and the race jersey and PFD! Can you say layers??!?! I also put on gloves, which I never do to paddle, but it was a bit frosty! Now I was WARM! ! I kept my same position (with help of Phil’s knee pad thingy) which was kneeling in the boat, with my butt resting on the cross bar. I could paddle this way….drop down if the going on sketchy. I was able to keep very warm too….between paddling and bailing. At some point during the paddle, super strong Phil told Tommy and me to stay in the boat when it hit high ground and he towed us through it! Wow!! Soon enough we were done. It was about 9:30pm or so. And there was (just like Berryman), a HUGE fire at the boat take out point! Too nice. Makes it really hard to make a fast TA. I think we spent about 45-50 min hear. Really! We all warmed up, dried our clothes off. Tommy heated up a slice of his pizza over the fire. Yeah, Phil couldn’t believe the food we took! We finally leave the fire and go to retrieve more land CPs. Tommy was pretty much spot on for all of these. The last CP (20) in the re-entrant gave us some troubles. But we ended up following a team that was approaching the point from a different angle, and looked like they were still on the attack phase and not the search phase. And they lead us right to it. Sweet! Then before we knew it we arrive back at the Berryman campground where our bikes awaited us! We also realized too, that the GREAT volunteers had made a notation by our team name about us arriving at Berryman campground the wrong way. Shucks!

Of course, there was a huge fire at this CP too! So, of course we had to warm up! Tommy had to make a pit stop at the facilities. I took the opportunity to heat up a sausage roll that M. Mey had made for the race (for his team, but I stole/begged for one). it was still in foil, so I put it in the coals, and voila! Hot sausage rolls! Yummy! So more and more teams come in. Phil and I are pretty much ready, but still no signs of Tommy. More and more teams are leaving, but still no signs of Tommy. Finally what seems like forever (it probably wasn’t), he emerges from the depths of the campground boy’s room. He warms up, eats, and then is ready to go. I think we spent about 30 minutes at this “TA”.

Being very careful now to check the clue sheet obsessively for restrictions, I see that we must take the trail from the campground to CP22. It also helped that the volunteers at the Berryman campground were very vocal about this clue too. YOU MUST TAKE TRAIL. Cool! Wish the folks at CP7 would have done the same! L

This was my low point in the race. It was dark. It was 1:30am. And we were doing some decent technical trails in the dark. And the last time I rode trails in the dark, was, oh, last year’s nationals!!! I was very slow. Tommy was FLYING! But had to wait on us! Sorry Tommy! So, we check that CP, and then proceed down a paved road to another campground. We ALL were CRUISING down this hill. Maybe 35 mph or so! Very cold though! We crush into this campground….with a fire! Dang it!! The volunteers there offered me a S’more. So, I took it (how could I refuse a fresh roasted marshmallow, MELTED chocolate, and graham crackers?!?!?!?! Before I knew it (no resting at this fire!!), we were off! Then the climb came. This was the only time (I think) that all of us got off our bikes and walked up a hill. All the others we all rode, no matter how slow!!). There was a bit of confusion by a SIGN, of all things, that said “welcome hunters”. I think we all though it was private land, we shouldn’t go through, and heck , hunting season had started, and we were right at prime hunting time….dawn. So, Tommy takes us down a different road (wrong direction, but we didn’t want to go into the hunter’s paradise). Then we see an ATV. Great. Hunters. So, I bring up an irrelevant piece of info that in Texas you have to allow an easement through your property….But we weren’t in Texas. So, with no other road options, Tommy takes us down the hunter’s road. And before long we came across the point! Cool! Then another team came within 3 minutes! Yikes! Just 1 more CP and we’d be finished! Tommy picked us an excellent route to take. Although these jeep roads must have been the roughest I’ve ever pedaled on! Yikes! Talk about bone jarring! We get to a power line that we probably will take. Tommy checks his map to make sure, and get us a distance, when I swear, 4-5 teams come zooming past us and go down the power line we are about to go down! Geesh! ! Where did THEY come from!?!??! I felt like we were alone since the Berryman campground! So, we get the last CP, and then it is like a freaking SPRINT race at the end of 25 hours of racing! Geesh! We took a “short cut” by the pool/play area. And beat 2 teams to the finish. But we were all within minutes of each other! Crazy!! We ended up 26th. Finished in 25 hours. But, when the official results came up at the banquet that night, we were assessed a 4 hour penalty (and our “short cut” was only about 20 minutes faster….oh well) for the road mess up, and were 38th overall.

So we all ate breakfast immediately…at the all you can eat buffet at the lodge. Nice! Ate with Tommy’s parents, Vera, Cara, and Mo. MOAT was there, so we chatted with them about their WIN! Woohoo!

Then it was bedtime. We all took quick showers then headed to bed. It felt so good to sleep! We woke up and had lunch (great reward of adventure racing is the EATING!!!). Ended up eating with the other HART teams that finished. It was great to swap stories and adventures!! Then we all went back to bed. Whether it was lack of sleep, full tummies, or good cookies from Mama Tommy, but we all had the giggles back in the hotel room. Tommy’s mom made mention that she’s never heard Tommy talk so much! It was a fun time.

It was a great nationals. All HART teams finished. The RD was a great one. He did Berryman too. Challenging course. But a doable one for the average adventure racer if they kept on moving. As always it was great to race in a different state with the top teams from around battling it out. Hope to make it again next year!

The trip home proved to still be an adventure. We were going to make the entire trip in one day. M. Mey was driving since I was still sleepy. I told him to “stay on 67 through Little Rock”. Well, before we know it, we are at I-55…IN MEMPHIS!!! Oh boy! Nothing like adding 3-4 hours to the trip! Yikes!

Until next race…

Jackie

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