Mission 18 hr AR – May 10, 2021

Weather: 45° start, 63° high, 55° finish. Light misty rain at times, mostly cloudy after noon.

Team: Chickpoints with Karen and Kristy

Field: 32 total teams, 1 in 3F division

Placing: 19th overall, 1st in division

Checkpoints total: 27

Checkpoints found: 13

Time on Course: 17:35 – (6 am – 11:35 pm)

What a great way to bring in the 2021 race season! I’ve historically (4 times) raced the 4 hour lite version, twice as a solo, and twice with people new to racing. I knew I wanted to try the 18 hr but I also knew I didn’t really want to go solo since night navigation is a big challenge for me. Luckily I was able to team up with Karen and Kristy again! These ladies are kick-ass navigators and overall super experienced racers. After dragging me through Nationals in 2019, I wanted to race with them again now that I have more endurance on the bike! When racing with more experienced people I tend to take a backseat and absorb the knowledge they offer. What do I bring to the team? I am an A+ transition area provider and a good general donk who won’t quit!

Here are some pointers I’ve gleaned from racing with Karen and Kristy:

• Attach a bandana to your pack strap to mop sweat off your face
• Get a thin dry bag that is large enough you can stuff your entire pack into it for the canoe section. I use this for colder weather racing when I don’t want to add to my cold and wetness.
• When steering the canoe with all members using kayak paddles, don’t try to rudder. Instead call out the number of strokes and the side you need them on. We did a lot of double left, single right strokes in order to go in a straight line.
• Use the bike computers effectively when allowed! Bike nav happens quick, so having Kristy call out the rough distance to the next intersection, Karen and I could note the distance on the bike computer.

Race Breakdown –

Friday: Drove to the Tipsaw Lake recreation area and set up our camp. I usually prefer to hotel it but given that the nearest hotel was a drive and the weather was cold enough for camping, we decided to tent it. Karen and Kristy had their own issue when the tow-behind camper had issues with the brakes! They ended up tent camping at the last minute. TA set up was easy, and the pre-race dinner was delicious! Brian gave the typical be prepared for anything answer and explained the segment scoring. Any CP’s skipped in the first 3 segments would result in a double penalty, after that you would just missing the point.

Saturday: We had a frantic start, for no discernible reason! I went to bed feeling really prepared for race day, even had my pack mostly packed! Up at 4:30 am, boiled water for coffee and breakfast. The Peak Refuel breakfast scramble was delicious! We loaded all the last minute items into the truck and headed down to the TA. We figured out the pedal wrench situation in case the dreaded bike board made an appearance. Packs packed, paddle bag in hand, we were told to head to the beach for the race start.

6:00 am – 6:47 am: Canoe Segment (2.7 miles) – No maps were given at the start, instead we were given a bearing and a description and told to canoe there to receive a token to bring back. The location turned out the be the dam, about a 0.6 mile paddle on a nice flat lake. We made the trip over, got our token, came back to the beach, got a map, went back to the dam, got the plotting instructions, and then returned to the beach! The paddle gear went back into the box truck and we went to plot the first CP’s.

7:18 am – 10:56 am: Bike Segment 1 (32 miles) – There were only 3 CP’s to find in this segment but lots of elevation changes! As this was my first time on my bike since the Fig in November, I was curious to see how my Assault Bike training (10 miles of legs only on Saturdays) translated to real biking. It went better than expected! I did have to walk occasionally up hill but overall I’d say I was a stronger biker than when we did Nationals. We started the bike leg by going around the Tipsaw Lake on the trail, which I’m sure is lovely when it is dry! The rain the day before had made some really thick mud areas. This plus the occasional rock garden made some slow biking until we hit the forest roads. From there it was easy cruising to CP 1, up in the cemetery. Then off to CP 2, which was an amazing downhill, but as an out and back, also a grueling uphill! Off to CP 3, which had more hills but a beautiful view of the Ohio River. From there we were off to the TA by the river, assuming we were canoeing again. It did feel wonderful to get off the bikes for a change!

11:01 am – 2:40 pm: Trek Segment (8.5 miles) – Surprise! Nope, no canoes for this segment, even though we were on the bank of the river! This was the trek section, so we plotted the next 2 points and headed out on foot. My legs were a little toasted from the bike so our pace at first was pretty slow. We didn’t jog any of this leg, but after about half an hour, our walking pace evened out. This was a pretty straight forward trek on trails, the tricky bit being finding the right trail at intersections. After CP 5, we decided to cross country over to the next trail. This was through a big flat marshy area, criss crossed by one big creek and several smaller ones. We heard later that a lot of teams waded chest deep or swam across. We lucked into finding a log jam that served as a bridge! After a couple of back and forth discussions on the best course once the trail we were looking for didn’t appear as planned, we headed northeast-ish and came out right at the trail by the pond! Swamp nav on point! Then it was simple walk to CP 6, which is also the TA for the next section. We broke out our big ticket food items at this point (Karen – small sandwiches, Kristy – thawed veggie burrito, Me – PB & J since I had forgotten to pack my Arby’s sandwich).

2:55 pm – 5:39 pm: Canoe Segment 2 (10.3 miles) – Kristy mounted her cobbled together 3rd seat for the canoe, Karen to the front, and I took the back and off we went on the river. This was a very slow moving body of water, not a bright and bubbly brook, more of a thick soup. Oh Indiana, your waterways are so… majestic. No tricky water, just 3 hrs of non stop paddling. This was good practice for me, since I usually steer with a canoe paddle when we go out for fun, but race with a kayak paddle. Kristy shared the secret of calling out the side and stroke number in order to turn the boat without ruddering. We made our way to CP 7, in a small inlet. The CP itself was in a poison ivy THICKET, fingers crossed I’m not breaking out yet! After punching, we had a short stop on the bank/boat launch so that everyone could put on more layers and Kristy could regain feeling in her feet from kneeling on the pseudo third seat. As soon as we took off, the misty rain started. From CP 7 we had about the same distance to go until we hit the Ohio River. From there is was a downstream paddle to 8, and then back upstream. We were a bit fatigued with paddling at this point but we made our way slowly up stream, mostly to a cadence of right, right, right, double left, right, right, right, double left! I’m sure a more musical person could have made a lovely paddling song. Getting out of the canoe was a challenge, I think we all did some form of interpretive dance!

6:34 pm – 10:07 pm Bike Segment 2 (19 miles): We had noticed while canoeing that racers were headed down the road by the river that just happened to pass a gas station! I was out of water and really not excited to filter the Ohio River if I could avoid it. Since the station was on the way, we made a hasty exit from the TA and headed to the store in search of water and hopefully something warm! We did lose a lot of time at the store but considering how we all felt, it was time well spent! We each purchased a hot chocolate and 2 Bosco sticks and they were delicious (time and place man, time and place)! Karen and Kristy also picked up some cheapo but dry gloves. After plotting the next CP’s (10-16) we made the decision to skip 10. This was the cliff jump one were you had to swim to get the point. If the weather had been warmer I would have done this no problem, but given the bike ride back and the sun setting, it was a no go. CP 11 was marked cemetery but it was so old, I only saw one grave marker. We also chose to skip #12 since it was a long ways out of our route. CP 13 was pretty quick for us, then it was a choice between road route or trail to #14. We opted for roads since it was dusk at this point and we knew our speed would be better on smooth pavement vs potential nasty trails. We met a 2M team at 14 who had biked over and they said it was doable but interesting. We spent probably 40 mins searching for CP 14 before finding it hiding behind the mother of all rosebushes. Kristy did find a really cool deer antler as a consolation prize! CP 15 was another quick stop and grab for us then back to the TA. The trail around the lake was even worse mud at this point but we pulled in to the TA at 10:07, plenty of time to head back out!

10:17pm – 11:57 pm Trek Segment 2 (2 miles): We plotted the next 10 CP’s and headed out for some nighttime navigation. The ladies let me try my hand with the map and yeah, it didn’t go great! We had somehow mis-plotted every point! None of us know what happened but needless to say, we didn’t find any points on this section. We were awfully close to CP 19 at one point but had we found it we would have been super confused since we were looking for 18! In future, I’ll pay more attention during the plotting and try to be more helpful!

All in all, it was a great race! Sunday was a chill recovery day for us, mostly just slowly putting gear away and then lots of couch sitting. Today (Monday) I’m pretty much back to baseline, just my seat bones are sore from not biking much!

Race Notes (Mostly for me but read on if you want!)

Food Packed vs Food Eaten:

• 1 PB & J – eaten
• 1/2 zip baggie gold fish pretzels – eaten
• 1/2 zip baggie wasabi, soy, garlic almonds – eaten
• 1 2 oz bag sweet and salty trail mix – not eaten
• 2 shok block sticks (ate the margarita one)
• 4 mini candy bars – ate 2
• 1 pack sport beans – ate 1/2
• 2 packs Skratch chews – ate 1
• 1 GU Cold Brew Coffee – not eaten
• 2 Skratch powders – not used
• 1 Ultima power – used
• 1 Clif Bar – eaten
• 2 fruit gummy packs – ate 1
• 1 Arby’s sandwich – left at TA – eaten before last trek.
• 4 turkey sticks – left at TA – ate 1
• On bike – 1 Honey Stinger Chew -eaten, 1 sport bean – not eaten.

Clothes worn – I was comfortable 95% of the time. Fingers went numb at the end of the paddle but with hand warmers I was able to bring them back!

• Zip off Pants
• Randy Sun waterproof socks – tried a thin smart wool under layer but it bunched up weird on my left foot.
• Calf Sleeves
• Under Armour mock neck long sleeve
• Merino Tec T-shirt – love these!
• Smartwool arm sleeves
• Rain coat
• Hat
• Bike gloves during paddle, warm insulated (but not waterproof) gloves for biking.
• Altra trail shoes

Misc. Stuff Packed – Here are some things I packed and used and would want again, plus some stuff I wish I HAD packed!

• Hand warmers – packed 2 packs, used one. Dumb Reynaud’s syndrome causes my fingers to go white and numb.
• Excedrin – the boost of caffeine along with the power to kill a headache was great!
• Wish I had some goo or anti chafing cream – my glasses were rubbing my ears pretty bad.
• Fenix spotting flashlight was great, especially for nighttime nav.

Misc. thoughts on stuff to do for next time:

• Find a better way to attach compass to pack if not using map bag
• Bigger back red light for bike