FLX - Navigator Holder Mine, Elite 8hr

Race director Ron Eaglin hosted an 8hr orienteering event, where legendary Gord Hunter designed a marathon of a course at Holder Mine.  Gord was of great significance in our humble beginnings.

course 1

We got there a little later than we thought and had about 5 minutes to plan the route.  I chose a clockwise route starting with the lower left quadrant (the start/finish is in the middle of the map).  The first course was flowing with most control points deep in the woods.  I had full focus and held sharp bearings.  After CP116, my knees were getting torn up and you can see I was making route choices based on not having to bushwhack (going to CP204 and 115).  I was noticeably slower during the bushwhack because of it.  Once I put long pants on for the 2nd course, I was able to bulldoze through the brush, but then I was feeling the effects of the heat.  There's always a trade-off with going shorts or long pants.  You can see the temps make a jump to 97F during the 2nd half below.  I finished the first course in 4hrs 6min.

course 2

On a rogaine race, you are penalized one point for every minute you're late, so time management was key during this second half.  Up to the half-way mark, I was giving myself 10minutes for every control point, but during this second half, I was falling behind.  There was no way I could keep the speed and efficiency of the first half.

I don't know what happened to me after half-time.  I had a series of mini-mistakes until CP240, including running out of the transition area and then back to click the "start", and then doing it again--running out and then back to get more food.  Usually my teammates help me do all that other stuff, but today we were all solo to brush up on navigational skills.  Once I got to CP240, I had to tell myself 'that's enough, concentrate!'.  This course also had the same clockwise route, starting with the lower left quadrant.

Overall, it was great exercise in many areas--physical, mental, contour reading, on-the-fly route planning, and pace setting.  I finished the race with 5 minutes to spare, good for second place overall.  I also literally ran a marathon in the woods today.

FLX - Turkey Burn AR, Sport 4hr

(awaiting race recap...)

FLX - Lighterknot AR, Elite 8hr

It's been about half a year since we did a race, so things started out a bit rusty as I forgot to pack my camelbak bladder.  Luckily Craig, the race director, let me borrow his.  There was a few other common things I typically do during races but forgot on this one as well.

course map with our GPS overlaid

Anwyays, the race started with a quick prologue, running around the pavilion to find answers to several questions.  It would transition onto canoe, where we kept neck and neck with team Chub Solo (Mac Kelly and Ron Eaglin).

We paddled to some island, where there was an orienteering section.  In Canyonero fashion, not enjoying following other teams, we split ways with team Chub Solo and did the course in reverse.  We figured the hardest CP would be 10, and hitting it off of the lake might be easier of an attack point, rather than following some vague set of trails that Craig enjoys putting us on.  We were kinda wrong, as it was a little hairy picking up the trail that lead to CP10.  Actually, there was no trail, as we blazed a path directly west of the lake corner (mapped red below).  We were knee high in rotten-smelling swamp until we picked up a berm that led us to the control.  Also, whilst shaking off rust, I completely skipped the easiest CP of the course, 15.

After completing the orienteering section, we got back on the canoe and paddled the inland channel to get to CP18.  From there, we portaged our boat over the to the adjacent channel to go north for CP19.

Once arriving at the TA, we got on bikes, cleared the top half of the park controls easily, and then headed out to do a counter-clockwise sweep of the controls, starting with WP4.

From WP4, we swamp/bike whacked down to CP33.  It seemed the logical thing to do on paper, but once we got down near the control, it was a foresty, marshy swamp jungle--not ideal for bike whacking at all, as our legs were sinking down into muddy quicksand.  We had to abort without any punch.  Conditions became worse, and thus, there went our fairly clean race up to that point.  We burned 50min here, including figuring our way back out, feeling completely demoralized.  Just bad luck...bad luck.  On an 8hr race, a 50min mistake is not something you can recover from.

Nate was good sport about the mishap, and probably expected it due to us not racing for so long, so we shook it off and kept marching forward.

the view of trying to find your way out of the "middle of nowhere" with absolutely no clear features around

We eventually hit a trail, if you call it that, and found our way back to the road to take the long way down to the rest of the bike controls.  Along the way, we met some animal friends, including a gator, an eagle, and a copperhead snake.

young eagle slid down a tree and got entangled in this mess--he got out though

Nate tells me we have to enjoy the water in the backyard of Jon Sheriff's house

other racers joined in on the fun

cars were prohibited from traveling on this flooded paved road, but not bikes

Once Nate was done bathing in Sheriff's backyard, we raced back to Tomoka Park and picked up several more controls on the south side of the park.  With time ticking down, we decided to drop a few more biking points, in favor of clearing the trek section, which seemed like great bang for the buck.  We cramped up while getting the fastest time on that leg to finish the race in 2nd place.  How did that happen?  Because there were only 5 teams competing in the elite division :/  Fun, grueling race overall though!

Craig Sheriff crafted up some really cool "lighterknot" trophies

AR Georgia - Blue Ridge AR, Elite 24hr

Unfinished races have untold tales...