the curse of the rappel continues
sadly i see a trend beginning.... the 3 races i've done that have included ropes work are the only 3 races i've never finished (in fact, never even got to the ropes section to experience that wonderful bit of fun). first was the southern crush in 2003... then fall creek falls last summer. and to that i now add the 2005 raging russell.
the race started at 2pm on saturday, a gorgeous, sunny, mostly blue-sky day. clifford, lisa & i raced as team ride eat sleep repeat (their mtn bike team's name). we took our time plotting our points, since clifford and i are both fairly new to this. we began on foot, hitting CP1 quickly. confident, we took a direct route to CP2. but oh, we somehow didn't judge our distance accurately and blew by our turning point. thanks to the strangers on the hilltop that pointed out our error. 20 minutes later, at CP2, we tried to bushwack to 3, but decided the thick brush wasn't worth the effort. back to the road, longer in distance but an easy trek. at CP3, we were helped with our incorrectly plotted CP4, although we might have gotten down ok following the specified bearing. this was a pretty cool area though, very steep all around with few accessible routes to the bottom (but that 76ยบ laid a nice path).
the trek from 4 to 5 included a nice easy bushwack, but then the trail we got on, while nice by definition, did not fit the description on the map. since we had already made several nav errors, we were second guessing ourselves constantly. finally we got 5, but the trail took a nice detour into the broad river. not wanting to get wet, we scrambled up a steep, already muddy slope, to catch the trail a little ways down - flashback to the gorge incident at FCF!!
our support crew (thanks ashlie & charles!) had warm food waiting at the transition area, and soon we were off on our bikes. we overshot our turnoff to CP7, but another team (on their way to 12!) told us their route which helped. they also gave us some pointers to get to 8 - "cross the river. you'll want to cross it again, but don't. there's a sign for a trail, but don't follow it. instead, go over a few fallen trees and you'll see a trail that looks like it doesn't exist. follow it. it'll be muddy. you can't ride it. go over more trees. it'll look like the trail ends, but it doesn't. keep going ....." this went on for awhile, but thankfully did help us as otherwise we mighta thought we were totally off course (again).
CP 8 & 9 went ok, but 10 took it's toll on us. again, we missed our turnoff and ended up 5 miles down the road in some residential area. took us awhile to get back on course. frustrating for sure. then, after a nasty long singletrack (that clifford & lisa loooved, but i of course didn't!), we ran into 3 teams hanging out in the middle of the woods with a campfire. apparently we all took the wrong trail down, although it looked right on the maps (with both direction & terrain). after warming up for 30min (the rest of them had been there for 2 hrs!), we all trekked up the nasty hill and found a much more pleasureable trail. CP11 was easy... 12 though remained elusive, even with 12 of us searching for 45 minutes. we heard rumors one had been misplaced, so we moved on to TA2, where we sadly learned that the rappel section had been closed. sniff sniff. alas, fate has spoken and i'm destined not to play on the ropes during a race.
while we could have continued on an alternate course, lisa & clifford were a bit whooped. we had 2 more biking legs and their bikes were acting up too. so the consensus was to stop. while this wasn't the first time not finishing a race, it's the first time i didn't have a say in it. it's much more difficult to stop something when you're still energized and ready to go. but alas, guess that's part of the whole team sport thing. still though, i had fun and definitely learned a lot.
next up: SMAR!!!
the race started at 2pm on saturday, a gorgeous, sunny, mostly blue-sky day. clifford, lisa & i raced as team ride eat sleep repeat (their mtn bike team's name). we took our time plotting our points, since clifford and i are both fairly new to this. we began on foot, hitting CP1 quickly. confident, we took a direct route to CP2. but oh, we somehow didn't judge our distance accurately and blew by our turning point. thanks to the strangers on the hilltop that pointed out our error. 20 minutes later, at CP2, we tried to bushwack to 3, but decided the thick brush wasn't worth the effort. back to the road, longer in distance but an easy trek. at CP3, we were helped with our incorrectly plotted CP4, although we might have gotten down ok following the specified bearing. this was a pretty cool area though, very steep all around with few accessible routes to the bottom (but that 76ยบ laid a nice path).
the trek from 4 to 5 included a nice easy bushwack, but then the trail we got on, while nice by definition, did not fit the description on the map. since we had already made several nav errors, we were second guessing ourselves constantly. finally we got 5, but the trail took a nice detour into the broad river. not wanting to get wet, we scrambled up a steep, already muddy slope, to catch the trail a little ways down - flashback to the gorge incident at FCF!!
our support crew (thanks ashlie & charles!) had warm food waiting at the transition area, and soon we were off on our bikes. we overshot our turnoff to CP7, but another team (on their way to 12!) told us their route which helped. they also gave us some pointers to get to 8 - "cross the river. you'll want to cross it again, but don't. there's a sign for a trail, but don't follow it. instead, go over a few fallen trees and you'll see a trail that looks like it doesn't exist. follow it. it'll be muddy. you can't ride it. go over more trees. it'll look like the trail ends, but it doesn't. keep going ....." this went on for awhile, but thankfully did help us as otherwise we mighta thought we were totally off course (again).
CP 8 & 9 went ok, but 10 took it's toll on us. again, we missed our turnoff and ended up 5 miles down the road in some residential area. took us awhile to get back on course. frustrating for sure. then, after a nasty long singletrack (that clifford & lisa loooved, but i of course didn't!), we ran into 3 teams hanging out in the middle of the woods with a campfire. apparently we all took the wrong trail down, although it looked right on the maps (with both direction & terrain). after warming up for 30min (the rest of them had been there for 2 hrs!), we all trekked up the nasty hill and found a much more pleasureable trail. CP11 was easy... 12 though remained elusive, even with 12 of us searching for 45 minutes. we heard rumors one had been misplaced, so we moved on to TA2, where we sadly learned that the rappel section had been closed. sniff sniff. alas, fate has spoken and i'm destined not to play on the ropes during a race.
while we could have continued on an alternate course, lisa & clifford were a bit whooped. we had 2 more biking legs and their bikes were acting up too. so the consensus was to stop. while this wasn't the first time not finishing a race, it's the first time i didn't have a say in it. it's much more difficult to stop something when you're still energized and ready to go. but alas, guess that's part of the whole team sport thing. still though, i had fun and definitely learned a lot.
next up: SMAR!!!
posted by cathi at 2:48 PM
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