2011 DINO X-Terra Versailles
Sponsored Athlete Patrick Haab
Since there weren’t that many adventure race choices for the weekend of the 23rd and 24th, I decided to try a new event that was being put on by the same group that I’ve done some adventure races and trail running with in the past, Do Indiana Offroad (DINO). They had been putting on X-terra off-road triathlons for a few years and I’d thought about competing in them before but my schedule never worked out to allow it. They had two events scheduled this year and this race was held at the beautiful Versailles State Park in southern Indiana. X-terras are more my style of triathlon rather than the usual triathlon of road biking, road running and swimming, you can choose kayak rather than swimming and then the other events are mountain biking and trail running.
I’ve done some trial running and even though I can’t do much more than jog due to the condition my knees are in, I still find it fun to navigate the roots and rocks encountered along the way (much more interesting than a boring strip of asphalt). I have yet to find a mountain bike that I’d be happy to own, so I borrowed a friend’s again and I have a nice, lightweight fiberglass kayak.
I had just returned from a trip that took me from my girlfriend’s in Lexington, KY to the northern part of Detroit to pick up my new home on wheels that I had purchased on eBay and had driven from 5:30 in the morning to 11:00 at night the day before and after driving the 4 hours to the race location, was working on about 3 hours of sleep over the past 48 hours. Luckily, from my experience in the military, I can push on indefinitely with little to no sleep given if I hydrate and eat sufficiently. The hardest part of the day was definitely the weather. With the recent hot streak, the day saw a high around 95, little cloud cover and what felt like 90-something percent humidity- not really ideal conditions for a race like this.
As we all got lined up at the starting line, I thought I could gain a good lead in the kayaking section that was first on the list as most of the other competitors had rented the bulky plastic kayaks from the race directors. Unfortunately, my kayak is more whitewater oriented and this was a lake with no moving water and there was the small technical detail of never having used it before. As the whistle blew, I quickly ran to my kayak and was the first one in the water. I ended up being the first one literally in the water as I forgot that my craft was so small and tight that you have to shoehorn yourself in legs first and not sit down and then get your legs in like the plastic boats. I quickly flipped over and the boat filled with water- so much for that lead. I had to drag the now heavy boat up to the shore and dump out the water. Once successfully under way, steering became the next challenge. I hope this kayak handles better on whitewater because it sure was challenging to keep it going straight on the lake. After struggling over 2 kilometers of paddling, I managed to pass only 2 others.
The mountain biking was next and I quickly dried off and pedaled away. I only had time enough to pedal the borrowed bike around a few hundred feet before the race and quickly found out that the chain rings were bent and wouldn’t stay in the higher gears. The next issue I encountered was the seat post not wanting to stay up and after about a mile of riding, slipped all the way down to the frame. I didn’t have any tools to tighten the clamp and found myself standing for nearly the entire 13 mile trail ride. About a quarter of the way through the trail, I broke one of the flat plastic pedals as well, ugh! Not doing much biking showed as a lot of the uphill climbs found me pushing my ride up the incline. Although the ride was quite a challenge for me, I did enjoy flying on the downhill sections since the bike was a full suspension that soaked everything up.
While passing another rider, I hadn’t seen a cutoff to the right where the trail clearly went to the left and ended up at the transition area with the first five competitors in the race and I knew something wasn’t right. I headed back to the trails to try and figure out where I had made the wrong turn. After about 30 minutes of frustrating backtracking, I found the place where I had skidded around the rider that I had ‘passed’ and got going the right way again. Needless to say, the volunteers manning the aid station towards the end of the race met me on the trail and notified me I was far behind and they wanted to make sure I was alright given my tardiness.
After completing the mountain biking, most of the other racers were pretty much halfway through or done with their 5 mile trail run. While discouraging, I’ve yet to DNF or quit a race and this wasn’t going to be my first. I had plenty of endurance and energy left and had stayed sufficiently hydrated to continue. I reported in with the race director and told him that I didn’t want to hold up the volunteers at the aid stations and would take extra water and a first aid kit with me and he agreed to let me finish. I packed up the puppy backpack with their water and bowl and the four of us hit the trial for a 5 mile hike rather than run.
In a way I wish I could have been more competitive in this event but I was also happy to have the opportunity to get the dogs involved. They are always up for a good hike in the woods and not even the extreme heat held them back. I was sure to make extra water stops along our way and by the time we reached the finish line, most of the other racers were already gone. We were all glad to be back and although I was a little worn out from the heat, I felt good to finish the race.
We ended up setting up the travel trailer and enjoyed some nice AC that night after taking a swim in the lake. I helped the race director with some of the pre-race course setup for the following day’s mountain bike events and in the morning, his son and I rode part of the trails with the dogs running along with us. This race proved to be quite a challenge, more mentally than physically with all of the adversity and break downs I endured but I enjoyed spending time in the wilderness with the girls and getting a good workout. It also gave me confidence for next weekend’s event which will be the longest adventure race I’ve done so far, the 12 hour Sheltowee Extreme 3 in Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest.
