Newcastle Boyz – Aaron (left), Nate,
Omer, Nathan
Pre-Race
This was my (Nate) and my
son Aaron's second time at attempting a sport race with myself at the navigation helm. For this race we were joined by first-time racers, Omer and his
son, Nathan. We would be relying on my navigation (Hien is the driver when I
race with Canyoneros) and Omer would be backing me up. Whilst I’ve became
proficient with navigating orienteering maps, I knew that this race would be my
first test with google maps.
My idea of a typical,
high feature google map.
Within a minute of receiving
the map, and cross referencing against the terrain around me, Omer observed
that I was interpreting the map upside down…..
….. Not a great start….
We quickly recovered and with
the help of Hien, quickly came up with a solid plan for attacking the foot
section, which we would be tackling first. Our team of four then used the
remainder of the time to plan how we would attack the bike, paddle and tubing
sections. We were confident in our pre-race plan and as an additional bonus,
we’d be leaving for foot at the same time as Canyoneros. If my navigation
really did start to fail, we could fallback to tailing Hien for the remainder
of the race. Solid plan until we drew marbles for which discipline we tackled
first…. Of course Canyoneros landed foot and we landed bike. OK, the training
wheels were off…..
Our discipline order for the
race would be bike -> foot -> canoe -> tubing.
Bike
The bike section looked
particularly daunting. We were to ride about a mile out of the park to a trail
head where we would ride a network of interconnecting trails. We were given
instructions to look for specific numbered trail markers where we could take a
right turn. If we navigated all markers correctly then we’d ride the prescribed
route, collecting all CP’s en-route, and eventually end up back at the trail
head.
Once the race started, we
headed to the trail head. Once we reached it, I stopped the team for a couple
of minutes. I had not arranged my maps correctly in my case prior to race
start. By the time I had reordered the maps, other teams were no longer in
sight. I had all visions of getting my team lost for the duration of the race,
making their first race a miserable experience.
Once we started actually
rolling down the trails, we were able to follow the prescribed course with
ease. At some point we came to a downhill / semi-technical section and I
realized my team mates had never ridden anything but the flat, wide trails of
Wekiva State Park. I rode ahead and kept listening behind for the sounds of my
teammates struggling. I never heard such a sound, instead I heard cheers and
laughter as they quickly became comfortable with blasting up and down the
single track. They were having an absolute blast riding the trails and we even
passed a couple of teams in the process!
Before too long, we had
exited the trail system and were heading back to the main TA. As a bonus, we’d
manage to collect all CP’s too. Confidence was building...
Foot 1
We quickly transitioned at
the main TA, then quickly dispatched the 3 controls within the main TA area (6-7-5).
We then headed towards the boardwalk area and quickly picked up 1 and then 2.
Things were going really well, then some cramps kicked in within the team. Not
a problem, we slowed the pace and a couple of us scouted out in front whilst
respecting the 100m distance rule. I did not have the punch but quickly found
CP 3 and pointed it out. All going good, we then headed down to collect the 2-point
“Superhero CP”. Using a a bearing we plotted earlier, the control was quickly
located, and I called for punch. As the punch card was handed over it turned
out that we’d not punched CP 3, we’d walked straight past it. J Never mind, we quickly headed back to CP 3 punched
it, and then started working towards CP 4. We’d lost a little time but we knew we’d
easily collect CP 4 and head back to the TA. … Wrong!!!!
Whether it was too much sun
to the head, or the google map simply having its revenge, who knows.. either
way I went a little crazy here. First, it all started when I somehow misread the clue and started
looking for an “evacuation sign”. The real clue was along the lines of along
“evacuation route”. I first took the wrong trail whilst looking for this elusive
signage. I then figured it was the wrong trail and homed in on where the CP
really was. In fact, I saw and then ran right past the evacuation route. “Nice
looking trail, really great looking place for a CP, but I am looking for a sign”. Eventually, after a quick consultation with the rest of the team, and a quick look
at the clue sheet, the mistake was realized and CP 4 was punched. We headed
back to the TA at a slow pace, seeking shade when possible.
Boat
There were three CP’s to collect on boat and we were able to
find them all with ease. The paddle was great, the boys paddled hard and we
spotted some cool wildlife. The spring itself was crystal clear and we spotted
huge Gar swimming right under us! We also spotted a couple of Gators too
including one which we estimated to be 10-11 foot in length (10x the distance
from eyes to snout, right?).
Very cool! Beautiful location!
Tubing
At this point we had cleared the course and we were
confident that we’d be able to collect the remaining tubing CP’s quickly and
return to the main TA. We grabbed a tube each and inflated them as we walked to
the launch area. The team then quickly entered the water using a variety of
techniques. Omer went in first and sitting on the tube, he quickly started
heading to the first CP, backwards. Aaron and Nathan then went in, laying down
on top of the tubes. As they quickly paddled into the distance, I followed suit
and went in laying on top of the tube. Rather than quickly moving
forwards, I started inching along despite all my best efforts. Ok, I don’t
float good but I had the map and started calling out directions and distances
to each CP. This strategy worked well until we reached the CP where we were to
take the team picture-“Oops! Forgot about that”. The team then took a good few
minutes to regroup, take the pictures and move on.
To save some time, Nathan decided he would lose the float
and swim ahead to collect the remaining two cp’s. This was a great move, he
swam like a dolphin and before too long, we’d collected all CP’s and were back
at the main TA!
where is the underwater CP?? are we in the right location? no? party anyways!
Conclusion
We had two first timers and my son who had only raced once
before. Everyone was fantastic and the team’s hard work had netted us a podium thirdplace finish! Thanks to Pangea for again laying on a
great course. We all had so much fun!
PS I still don’t like google maps (kudos to Hien and the
other elite navigators for processing them with ease).
Time to clear course: 2:28’52.2
Distance: 11.42
mile
Calories: 1399
(quickly added back with a post-race trip to Texas Roadhouse)
