Patrick Haab On Point Foundation Sponsored Athlete -
Destination Unknown 8hr Adventure Race
Team ImONPoint.org – Labrador Adventures
My second race this year was the Metzger Outdoor’s Destination Unknown 8 hour. I’d done the 4 hour race last year, as itwas the only option, and this year the organizers offered both a 4 hour and an 8 hour. The longer race was said to be more of a challenge and for serious racers, which I took to mean that it would involve some actual orienteering vs. the shorter ‘fun’ race. Well, I’ve gotta say that this was the first race that I didn’t really enjoy and it let me down.
The start of the race was at 6 am and started out with a ten to twelve mile mountain bike on the county roads to the first TA. After seeing the first map, I knew I was in for a long day since I’ve had troubles on deciding what bike to buy. I had just got back from a VERY long road trip out to Phoenix and back which wouldn’t have been that bad if not for the truck breaking down 3 times and costing me over a day and half of delays. I ended up getting back just in time to unload the truck and load up enough stuff for the race, borrow my friend’s bike that was horribly undersized and had 24” tires, and drive down to the check-in area and pitch my tent.
Due to the delays in getting back to Indiana on time, I had to scramble to get some last minute items on the required gear list. This was a team only event and I ended up finding a teammate on craigslist who was interested in this race but hadn’t done an adventure race before. That night she called and told me that she got hurt at work and wouldn’t be able to make it. Having raced in this one before, I called up the organizer and got the ok to race solo. It was quite the hectic night but the pups and I finally got to sleep around 11 or so.
Waking up at 4 the next morning, I began to stumble around and get my gear ready for the day. Nothing beats being exhausted from the road trip, little sleep, and not being prepared. I was able to get everything ready and just make it up to the start area before the race began. To spread out the teams, we had to run across an open field of grass and locate our life jacket and bring it back to the truck that was to take them to the water portion where they were needed. After finding my jacket and taking it to the truck, I remembered I didn’t have any gloves with me, a required piece of gear. I quickly rode my bike over to my truck, grabbed the gloves and said goodbye to my dogs. After this delay, I wouldn’t see another racer on the road for a couple of miles.
The Winona Lake area has some very nice mountain bike trails and I was looking forward to them even though my bike was less than suitable. The course took us right through the trail area on the paved path and out into the country. At the end of this first bike stretch, we were told we needed to remove a wheel from the bike, leave the wheel, and then carry the bike to the bike drop area about a half a mile away. Luckily I had packed a multi-tool since this cheapy bike didn’t have
skewers. After the bike drop area, we were sent through a drainage ditch where we had to make our way through a metal tube and slosh through the muck to get a CP. The next CP was in an open field and the following one was in a wooded area. Next we headed to a barn where the clue for the CP was ‘this CP stinks’…once there, we needed to shovel a bucket full of manure and spread it into a nearby pasture and then count the number of horses in a field. Not too hard except for the fact that these critters didn’t want to stand still and there were mini horses as well as full sized ones. I counted correctly on my second try and then headed off to a nature preserve.
I was relieved that I might be able to make up some time in an orienteering section but once another map of the non-topographical type was handed to me I knew that wouldn’t be possible. While jogging through the nature preserve, I did come across a nice big snapping turtle which I just had to tap on the back of its shell to get a reaction and see who was quicker. It didn’t seem to be in the playful mood so I continued visiting the few CPs and then made my way back to the bike drop point to retrieve my heavy piece of steel.
Another dreaded ten to twelve miles of road riding ended up at a small pond where we were instructed to wear our life jackets and bike helmets for some reason and swim to a CP. I think the last time I actually wore a life jacket was when I was a kid and it turned out to be a challenge to swim in the thing. After getting back to shore, we were given another cheesy map with a few CPs already marked on it. No need for a compass here, just run to the points and punch your passport.
The next stage was a knife throw where you had to get a knife to stick in the wood before advancing. My 3rd throw stuck
and it was off to the ‘bike jump’, what? When I got to a small lake, I was given a cruiser style bike with some foam noodles attached to the frame and told to pedal towards the lake and jump it off of a ramp they had built. I built up some good speed and made a nice splash down before floating the bike back to the pier for the next contestant.
A long swim was the next challenge and somewhere between the two checkpoints in the water, my legs cramped up for some reason. I just took a little extra time and changed to a back stroke style to get back to shore and continue. It was little
surprise that the next section was more road miles on the bike to return to the start/finish area. Upon getting back andchecking in there, we were given another map with some final CPs. After 32 miles of miserable road riding on a seriously undersized bike with a 2X4 for a seat, I was done. I turned the map back in and told them I was finishing early.
This was my longest race to date and I wasn’t physically tired, just frustrated that there was no true orienteering and the fact that there was no way for someone better at making smart decisions and locating CPs to gain ground on the fastest racers. Oh well, there’s always the next race to look forward to.
Special Thank You to our Donors and Odyssey Adventure Racing
