4B Ted’s Excellent Double Track Cyclocross Race 2011

Arlen got 8th and Will got 14th. Earlier in the day a pro bunny hopped the barrier and rode up the hill. Arlen thought he would try, but it did not work.

Arlen and Will raced the 4B Norge Ski Cyclocross in Fox Rive Grove, IL. Arlen WON and Will got 5th. This is Arlen’s first podium finish.

My adventure racing season finale was one that I had been eyeing but didn’t think I would get to participate in as only coed teams were allowed to compete. It was the USARA National Championship 24 hour race in the beautiful Cumberland Falls State Resort Park only 2 hours away from my adopted home. My luck changed when less than two weeks before the race I contacted a team who had one of their members not able to make the trip.

Adventure racing in a team is a challenge for teams who have known each other for years,let alone a team that was picking up a new member they had never met before but I was excited for the opportunity.  My new team was from the east coast and both flew in to Cincinnati so I picked them up there on the afternoon prior to the race and we made a few last minute stops for gear on our way south. Upon arriving, we gathered in a pavilion to listen to the pre-race briefing before checking in to our room.

While the other teams slept, we staged our gear into the early hours of the morning. Luckily none of us had problems falling asleep since we had to be at a final briefing at 6, plot our map coordinates and load the buses at 6:45. With a mere 15 minutes to plot a page of coordinates, I made several errors but luckily they were caught during our dark bus ride through the winding and hilly scenery. The buses arrived at the starting point late and about 15 minutes were added to the start time.

Upon arriving at the starting area, the first supplemental map was handed out and we were able to spot a lightly worn path up a hill rather than take the well defined path that most of the other teams took. At the shotgun blast we scurried up the trail and were excited to find ourselves the first to cross a small footbridge that ran from one hilltop to the next. It would be the only time we would see the lead or anything close to it but that’s alright since our goal was to finish the race.

After a short hike up another hillside we found our bikes all arranged and ready to get us on our way. First we had to run down a short trail to a very nice scenic overlook to check in. After a few miles of biking to some checkpoints, the team leader discovered he was missing one of the screws out of his cleat on his clip-in shoes. A little bit of searching didn’t turn it up so we found a screw that held a water bottle cage on one of the bikes to work sufficiently. We set off again and pedaled for a few more miles to get to our first orienteering area.

The team leader claimed to be an excellent navigator but it turned out that he uses an orienteering style when it comes to finding checkpoints. That’s alright for an orienteering meet but in most adventure races more precise compass work and terrain orientation is needed. I knew it was going to be a frustrating race when he totally blew the first checkpoint and wasted at least an hour collecting 4 out of the 5 possible checks.

We were relieved when we got back to our bikes and learned there were still about 6 teams in this segment. After a quick refueling we got back on the bikes to get to our next transition area. The next few hours were monotony as there seemed to be mile after mile of pedaling. I think the next leg of the course was some canoeing where we were warned to wear our life jackets and steer clear of a low overhanging rock that several previous teams had got caught underneath.

After successfully avoiding the overhang, we paddled uneventfully to another orienteering section where we arrived just as the final sun faded away. I’m still fairly new to night navigation and luckily my team had enough lights to make me think the sun was out. We efficiently located the checkpoints we needed to and got back to the water for more paddling. For some reason the leader of the team wanted to take a crack at steering the canoe even though we had heard some swiftly moving water while we were finishing the orienteering. Sure enough, a few hundred yards from the launch we found the roughest water we’d see the whole trip.

It didn’t take long for us to capsize our boat and while my backpack was strapped to the canoe my teammates had skipped that crucial step. After dumping the water out of the canoe we inventoried our gear to realize that each of my teammates were missing a cycling shoe. We spent the next half hour or so paddling in circles using our headlamps to locate the shoes which surprisingly we did. With a feeling of accomplishment, we got back to paddling.

After a few more hours of tedious paddling with little current we reached another transition area where we left the boats and set out on our bikes again. We located a few more checkpoints in the dark and came to another orienteering section where the news was ‘good luck, it’s pretty thick out there’. We tried several different methods of attack but finally gave up on one check and after finding another one fairly easily we decided to ditch the other points and get back on our bikes.

More boring pedaling ensued before we finally reached the finish line, well kinda. The only thing left to do was a few more hours of orienteering in a Rogaine format which means get as many as you want but don’t stay out passed the 30 hour cutoff. With plenty of strength and energy, the only thing bothering me were my knees. Luckily, my truck was right there and I was able to get out my heavy duty knee braces.

Refueled and excited to have one more chance to get as many checkpoints as possible in the daylight, we set off with a plan to spend 30 minutes on each check and collect 8 of the 12 possible. It seemed like I was the only one not to mind going for 3 checks on the other side of the river that came with the caution ‘fording the river inevitable’. Oh well, there were enough other points to grab and remain somewhat dry. Two of the more notable checks were a small waterfall where the choices were spend a lot of extra time going all the way around to the base or figure out a way to get down from the top and then back up. Getting down proved the easy part and to get back up, I had to scramble up as far as I could before ‘climbing’ my teammate’s leg the rest of the way. I had volunteered to be the gopher so it’s all in a day’s fun. The other point was a high fire tower that held quite a nice view of the area.

With only a little bit of time left before we faced huge penalties for being late, we located our last two points and sprinted across the finish line with some 9 minutes to spare!  Needless to say we were the last team to finish but our last minute push for a few more points paid off by moving us into 10th place out of 33 teams.

While I was glad to be finished, I’ve got to say that the only thing holding me back from racing 36, 48 hours or longer is my knees. Guess we’ll see what next season has in store.

I want to thank all of those who made donations to ImONPoint.org to make it possible for me to get out there and stay active. Arlen and everybody involved with this group have been a great help in my continued recovery. Thanks for a great race season everybody!

Thanks again, I really appreciate the foundation and all the work you put into it. Hopefully I’ll be able to repay you in the future in one way or the other.

Patrick