With Zac and Shubhangi

25 miles of foot travel

12/20 overall, 2/6 in mixed division, 20 of 64 possible CP’s

For my 47th birthday I wanted to do the 24 hr version but I didn’t want to go solo for that long. I wasn’t able to convince anyone else that it would be super fun so I  had to be happy with a 12 hr race! I was joined by Zac and Shubhangi, Zac having done a couple of races and Shubhangi doing her first. The weather dawned cold and trended colder for the morning. This was the third race I’d done in the last month where the week before had wonderful weather but the day of the race was much colder! The maps were pre-plotted with 64 CP’s! Knowing there was no way we’d even come close to clearing the course, we planned a rough circular route that stuck to the northern CP’s. We also didn’t realize that a rogaine race is scored differently and that the CP number was the amount of points earned. So, had we realized this during the planning phase, we might have made a different route choice! We headed out from the boyscout camp just as a short lived snow squall rolled in.

CP 26 was a quick out and back off the road. Then down and back to get CP 40 before crossing the river and heading out on a small loop. This is where we ran into our first snag. CP 31 was marked as a cemetery but there was for sure no cemetery around! As we were expanding our search, we noticed that the CP was on a pond, which made it most likely CP 30, and we also ran into Steve. We made our way cross country to CP 52 and then from there down a fairly steep ridge and across the creek to CP 25. We had an easy 2 mile road walk to end the loop and get back across the bridge. Steve took off at this point, jogging to the next CP and we kept fast walking pace. This CP was a challenge for us! My first plan was to cut in on the east side of the marshy area on a trail. We ended up going in following the large creek channel but then spent about 20 mins bushwhacking around to find the correct creek junction. In the end, we exited in the direction I intended to enter from and I think it would have been a much easier approach! Someday I’ll learn to stick to my plan!

CP 41 was a gimme CP right of the corner of the road, with CP 57 following up and off the road a bit. We nailed the trek to CP 73 and then went up and took a short break at the top to do some foot care for Shubhangi. She had been trooping like a champ but I noticed her pace was slowing and when I asked if her feet were ok, she admitted they hurt a bit. Dude, when we took her shoes off, she had giant blisters on the backs of both heels! I think we were over half way in our time by now, maybe it was close to the 6th hr? I wish I could track time and remember it during races! Feet doctored and a snack in hand, we took the trail out to CP 63. At this point I knew exactly where we were since this area is the same place we take our W111 survival class at IU camping for their overnight experience!

A quick hike to and up the fire tower for a bonus, then out the same trail I’ve hiked over 150 times with our class to CP 81. From 81 to 51 to 45 is what I would consider my win for the day. I read the topography and we came out exactly where I thought we would! I love it when the plan and the nav work! At CP 45 we once again found Steve but after a quick chat, he was off running again. We trekked down to CP 59 and with time and energy were both running a bit low, combined with sore feet for Shubhangi, so we made the decision to short cut our route and head back to the main road. The map showed a trail leading up and out from 59 but in reality the trail didn’t exist. We kept up with the relentless forward motion (which would make a pretty good team name!) and finally hit the road. The hike back on the road allowed us to pick up three more CP’s, all of which should have been easy except for the part where we completely blew by the turn off to CP 34. We ended our race at 7:31, on course for 10 hrs and 26 mins, earning a total of 20 CP’s and 1088 pts. This was Zac and Shubhangi’s first O meet and also the first major off trail travel for Shubhangi!

When we finished our dinner, they surprised me with birthday cupcakes and Fireball! This meant a lot to me, as birthday’s mostly just come and go anymore without any fanfare! Thanks friends for adventuring with me!

Ps. The following week I would make a complete ass of myself as a navigator when I attempted to lead our IU class from CP 81 to 45… I took those poor kids on a fairly epic hike that I have no trace of since I didn’t have my phone with me. In the end, we bailed on finding the other pond, found a ridge with a trail (all ridges in Indiana seem to have a trail) and then hiked to the road. I did go out again the following week and do that hike one more time to confirm that I could do it and wasn’t a complete failure!