Bonk Hard Chill

March 13, 2010

It has taken me a little while to get around to it, but here it is. Chris and I once again traveled to Osage Beach to compete in the Bonk Hard Chill. This race had been originally scheduled in February but had to be changed to March 13. Though the weather was great last year, this year would have shown racers the true meaning of "chill".

I met Chris at his house around 3pm and we headed off to the lake. We stopped and checked in at our hotel and saw several other racers checking in as well. Then we were off to visit one of the race sponsors, Oz Cycles and Kayaks, racers that stopped in and bought items were given a free entry, for every 5 dollars spent, into a raffle to win a kayak. The store had some pretty good deals on some cycling clothing. Unfortunately for us, we were not the right size to take advantage of the good deals. After this it was off to check in for the race. We arrived at the church and were pleased to find out that all gear checks would be done on the course. We checked in and headed off to eat some dinner. We arrived back at the church for the pre-race meeting, received our maps and directions to the bike drop and race headquarters. We didn't win the kayak, but the guy that did was a volunteer, so I guess you could say that he probably deserved it as much as any one. Once the meeting was over we quickly headed out to hit the road for the bike drop. We knew that the bike drop would be about an hour round trip, and there were still points to plot, so we didn't want to waste any time. The bike drop was at the park in tuscumbia, the bikes were left under a pavillion and there were volunteers to watch the bikes. We got back to our motel, plotted our points and made it to bed by around 11. Which was plenty late since we agreed to wake up at 4:45 to make it to race HQ by 5:45 to board the buses by 6 and be bussed to the start.

We were bussed to the lazy river rv park just off of 54 hwy, right on the Osage river for the start of the race. We sang the national anthem acapella and lined up for the start. Check point one was about a mile run up the road, and then a run back to the start for #2 and into the canoes for the paddling leg. The run spaced the teams out a little, but not too much. Once teams hit the river they started to spread out though. Last year we had learned the lesson of needing a kayak paddle and once again the teams with their own paddles were able to gain some serious ground on those that didn't, and once again we didn't. We made pretty good time on the river and were only were passed by two teams, both had kayak paddles, and even passed a few other teams. We were off the water and at the bikes in 2:19, this included the run for the first check point. Which wasn't to bad, and since there were no checkpoints on the river all we had to worry about was paddling.The fastest team was just under two hours, and of course they had kayak paddles.

After the river, we arrived at the bikes, and we were glad. It felt good to give the shoulders a break and stretch the legs. We hit the roads and clicked off the checkpoints as we went, 4,5,6 were along the road, #7 was at a gas station, which was a treat because all racers had a 1.50 credit in the store which was good for a water, gatorade, or a slice of pizza. Chris and I both opted for the slice of pizza, even though we were a little hesitant that it would cause stomach problems, we quickly scarfed it down and were back on the road. # 8 was at a cabin that we had drove past on the way to race HQ, then #9 was at the trail head for the beginning of the single track, this was also the location for the gear check. The volunteers were great, they had a sign showing what needed to be shown and we were able to make good time of this. Before we departed, one of the other racers who was waiting to do the gear check, asked if the trails were very muddy. The volunteers said, they might be a little big soggy. This was the understatement of the day, the trails were very muddy, probably 5 or 6 inches deep in places, very tough to pedal through. Navigation was pretty simple at this point, due to all the bike tracks from previous teams. There were a couple of hills that were pretty much unrideable, but things seemed to be going good, and we hit 9,10,11, and 12. At checkpoint 12 Chris informed me that he thought he had a low tire. Once we made out to the road we checked, and sure enough his front tire was going down, and quick. We found a spot off of the highway and started the process of changing it. We had been staying right with several other teams and were feeling like we were doing well. It was at this point that we realized just how much of a toll the 30 or so miles of soggy gravel roads and 5 miles of muddy trails had taken on us. We got the front wheel off of the bike, but then we had some difficulties getting the tire off of the bead, the tire was muddy, and had obviously been off in a while. We eventually got it fixed and headed off to camp pin oak. I would say that the tire cost us a good 15 minutes or a little more. We made it #13 to receive or next set of points for the trekking section.

While we were plotting our points there were teams coming in that had already completed the trekking section, not a lot , but the word was that there 4 or 5 teams already finished. This was a little bit discouraging, but not near as much as Chris discovering that his camelbak was completely empty. This was not a good discovery, seeing that all water was off in the park. Chris had taken only a drink or two, but had said earlier that he was having a hard time getting any water. It still remains a mystery as to where the water went, best guess, while in the canoe the bite valve got pressed and it leaked out in the canoe. We plotted our points and headed out on foot. I have to say at this point we were definetly feeling the effects of the ride. But we still had hopes for achieving our goal of getting all the checkpoints. We opted to head down the road and look for a clearing to head to the first checkpoint, and this would give us a chance to stretch our legs and loosen back up. We continued down the road for what seemed like a long timeand passed several landmarks that I asked if were on the map. It was at this point we had our first navigational error. We ended up going way past where we needed to, and had to do some significant back tracking. This took some serious wind out of our sails, but we found a landmark and were soon back on track. We hit another checkpoint or two before things took a turn for the worse. We missed a couple checkpoints and soon became very discouraged. It seemed that we should be close, but couldn't find them. Daylight was fading quickly, and with a 7 pm cutoff to be back to the bikes, things were not looking so great. We decided that no better luck than we were having navigating in the daylight, it would not be a good idea to try it in the dark. We got on course and headed back to the bikes. We crossed the finish line in 11:19 with 16 of the 26 checkpoints. We changed into dry clothes, enjoyed some post race pasta and headed home.
In closing, we were 18th out of the 22 2 person male teams, not near what we had hoped for. But once again we refreshed a few previous lessons ie; If you have the opportunity to use kayak paddles, have them and use them. When you think you are strong enough in one area, train some more. Be familiar with your compass, practice, and stick with it, no mater what. While this was not a highlight in our racing career, it happens, and it will only make us stronger.

Racing 2010

Soon to come.

Well it is official, I signed Chris and I up for the Bonk Hard Chill on March 13 @ Lake of The Ozarks. We attended this race last year and had a good time. I am hoping for a little bit better finish this year. I know that we have not trained as hard yet, but I am sure it will pick up starting this week. This year we should definetly be able to shave some time off due to more experience navigating.

After the chill there is not a lot scheduled yet. I would really like to attend the LBL in April, but with our baby due on the 20th my wife is reluctant to let me head to a race 6 hrs away. Probably not a bad idea, but I really do want to go to this race, maybe next year. May will bring the Greenways race, unsure about the team, but this year the staff have changed it up and coed or all male/female teams of two will be allowed, also a solo division. So not matter what, I will attend the race, and with a little luck it will be a better experience than last year. Maybe we will hit a few duathlons or 5ks for the summer and hopefully hit the Berryman in the fall. I have hopes of doing a 24/36 hr race in the future, maybe even the Berryman. It should be a fun and exciting year.

Castlewood

Castlewood

On December 4, Chris and I met up to head off to the race. We met at the base and then headed to Wal-Mart to meet up Marc and Kenny of Team Cyclewerx and Kenson who would be joining them for this race. We followed them to St. Louis to Jill's house where we would all be staying for the night. We all headed to race check in at Alpine Shop, I must say it appeared that there was everything an outdoor enthusiasist could ever want. After check in we headed to the bike drop off. It was a tough decision on what we should leave with the bikes hydration wise, due to temperatures being forcasted in the low teens. I left two bike bottles full of gatorade, hoping the freezing point would be lower than that of water. I think Chris just left water with his. We all put our bikes together outside of the pavilion where the rest of the bikes were, for the sake finding them easier the next day.

After the bike drop we headed back, stopped and got a few last minute necessities, ie. gatorade for in the morning, water to fill the camelback ( city water in the St. Louis area just doesn't taste very good), and some poptarts for breakfast. While we were in the grocery store Marc and the gang grabbed a couple of pizzas to stave the hunger off until dinner was ready. We all made our way back to Jill's and she prepared a delicious pasta dinner. Since we did not receive any maps to plot on or to study, all we needed to do was get our gear ready to go in the morning. After this we were able to just hang out and share some war stories about past races. I have to say it was a very enjoyable time to get to hang out with Team Cyclerwerx. They are a fun group of people and I look forward to seeing them at future races. A special thanks to Jill for the wonderful dinner.

Now to get down to business. We woke up around 4:45 to load our gear and eat breakfast, before heading to race HQ to board the buses. The thermometer in Kenson's truck showed a temperature of 16 degrees, all I know is that it was cold! We boarded the buses and headed out to the start location for the race. We unloaded and received our first map, but no passport. It appeared that we would have approximately a 2 mile run to where our passports were located. We all took off running, for the most part the pack stayed together for about the first mile and then everyone started to spread out, a few teams decided to cut off the road and hike through the woods. I am not sure if it was any quicker or not, but the big hill right before the pavilion slowed everyone down. We got our passport and headed out to get the first 12 checkpoints, they could be done in any order, but I think for the most part we hit most in order. After the first couple we were feeling pretty good. However it was somewhere around this time that we realized our tubes on our camelbaks were frozen solid. For future reference always blow the water back into the reservoir. For the most part I was spot on with my navigation and we were making decent time. However when we headed off to look for # 9 we strayed a little from our course thinking that we knew right where we were and soon were looking on what was inevitably the wrong hillside. Knowing from past experience that when this happens it is best to go back and start over. However on our way back to # 7 we ran into Team Cyclewerx, they were jogging right along and since we knew them and they appeared to know where they were going. We decided to follow them. ( We have tried this same thing at past races when we had less experience at navigation, and it usually never works) We kept up and followed them to another hillside, which looked like the right one. Long story short, we spent about an additional hour and a half, searching and climbing multiple hillsides, none of which held the elusive checkpoint. We eventually made our way back down and found a creek which led to #8. At this point knowing that we still had 2 more checkpoints until we were headed back to where we started. The guys of Cyclewerx only needed # 9, so we parted ways. We headed on to 10 and they shot a new heading to locate 9. We made our way to the next checkpoints without any trouble, checked in at 12 and headed off on our way to 15 which held our bikes. The next few were relatively easy to find, 14 took a few minutes, but not to long. We arrived at 15 and much to our suprise Cyclewerx's bikes were still there. We went in to transition and receive our maps and they weren't inside plotting either. We received four additional maps two were pre plotted, and two needed to be plotted. We made quick work of the plotting, despite the scale changes which nearly threw us off. We have a pretty good system of plotting and were ready to head out in 20 minutes. We were preparing to leave when one of the volunteers received word that there had already been a coulpe of teams finish the race. I have to say that was just a little bit discouraging, knowing we still had so much to do, and people had already finished.

We headed out on the bikes and were breezing right along until we made a turn and hit the hill on the Alt Rd I believe. This hill went on forever, I have seen steeper , but I don't know if I have ever seen a hill this long. I am not sure, but I would guess it was around 3/4 of a mile long. The only good thing was getting to the top and going down, it was cold though, especially when the bike computer was showing 36 mph. We kept pedaling and came to the Al Foster trail and continued on with the checkpoints. We did have a slight error at one point which led to a small hike a bike, it seemed rough, but I think it actually saved us time. We arrived to find several other teams in the area of #20. The ground had thawed out by this time of the day and there was some horrible mud. Chris left his bike and walked to get the punch. He came back and we headed on down the trail. The mud just seemed to get worse, it was slick to ride on, and eventually clogged up my brakes preventing me from even pedaling. I stopped several times, trying to clean it out, but just couldn't seem to get it out. I eventually caught up with Chris and actually had to take off my front wheel to get the mud from around my brake. This didn't suck up a lot of time, but it definetly zapped my energy level. We eventually made our way to the canoes and prepared to head out on the river. We had to load our bikes into the canoe, which we have done before, but we were having a little difficulty getting them both in. We eventually got them secured in and headed out on the river. Knowing that there was a five o'clock cutoff we elected not to go up river and get the checkpoint. Shortly after starting down the river, we realized that we had put the bikes in preventing Chris from paddling on the left side of the boat. Which meant that I would have to do all the paddling on that side. We made it down the river and arrived at the take out point, I think it was around 4-5 miles of paddling, but it seemed longer, only paddling on one side. We checked in, carried our canoe up the bank, and went back and got our bikes. There was a gear check before we were allowed to continue on. The volunteers said that there was about an hour or so of riding to get the last 4 checkpoints. After careful consideration, knowing that the hour was for a team probably faster than us, we elected to just head in to the finish and skip the last four checkpoints. This put us missing a total of 6 checkpoints, not what we had hoped for, but better than we have done in any other bonk hard races. We finished the race in 9:01, with 5 missed checkpoints. Definetly not a strong finish as far as standings go, but not bad considering we did not train at all prior to this race. On the plus side, my navigational skills have greatly improved from previous races. Chris was so comfortable with it, that he never even took out his compass all day! Castlewood was a fun and challenging race and I look forward to returning in 2010.

Castlewood

Well it is official, Chris and I will be traveling to St. Louis this weekend for the Castlewood 8hr Race. We are looking forward to it, even though we haven't done as much training as we normally would have. It looks like the weather is going to be cold too! We will have to wait and see how it goes. Full report to follow.

Sand Springs River Race

On the 31st of October, Sheldon and I once again teamed up to tackle the Sand Springs River Race. We did this race together last year and had a lot of fun. We had high expectations for this race, this year Sheldon had a better idea of what to expect, and we had trained together some this year when we could.

Race day arrived and the weather looked nice, with a good forecast. 40's in the morning with daytime temps in the 50's. I met Sheldon at the gas station, loaded his gear and we were off. We arrived and checked in. Soon the announcement was made that the start of the race would be delayed to some changes in the mode of transport for the river due to high water levels. This year we would be using rafts instead of canoes. As we would arrive at the river we would need to team up with another team to go down the river. This was pretty exciting, though we knew this would probably be slower than canoes.

We boarded the buses and rode to where the run would start and anxiously awaited. It was a shotgun start and we were off. We knew this run would be approx. 2 miles, and it was the same route as last year. We had decided on the bus ride that if we got there around the same time that we would team up with Chris and Jeremy , my co-workers who were also competing in the race. Both teams covered the run in about 20 minutes and we piled into the raft. The river was up, but it still wasn't as fast as we thought it would be. We came to the technical run a couple miles down the river and hit the trail. We all stayed together through this part until right at the end and Chris pulled a little ahead. When they arrived at the rafts there was a twosome waiting for another team and they jumped in leaving us to wait for the next team to go with us. Lucky for us there was another team only about 20 seconds behind and we were back on the river for the rest of the paddling. We maintained our distance and pulled out right behind Chris and Jeremy. Now it was time to hit the bikes, and I was feeling good. I always seem to excel on the bike and thought we might be able to get ahead in this area. We ran and jumped on the bikes and were off, suprisingly enough we got out ahead of a couple of teams that were changing into their bike shoes. I took off quick knowing that Sheldon could eventually catch up. I kept looking back but it seemed that they just were not catching up. I eventually came to where we would do our mystery event, and at this point it was mandatory to wait for both members to be present. The mystery event was to split a block of wood and carry the pieces up the hill and put them by the outdoor furnace. I have to hand it to Jason and Amanda this worked out good for them, and it was neat for a mystery event. I had gained several minutes on my parter and my co-workers and took the opportunity to have a little water and watch some of the other teams split their wood. Some of the people had obviously never split wood and it was rather entertaining. Chris and Jeremy came and went and Sheldon arrived soon after and we split our wood and hit the trail again. We completed the rest of the first lap and then the second without any notable problems and covered about 7 miles on the bikes. We crossed the finish line in 3hrs 16 minutes, just minutes behind Chris and Jeremy at 3hrs 14minutes. It was a fun race with the rafting and though the trail was muddy and challenging, a good time was had.

Duathlon

Wildcat Sprint Duathlon

Chris and myself attended the Wildcat Sprint Duathlon on Sat. October 17 in Rogersville. This was my first duathlon, Chris had done a few in the past. Check in was at 0700 with the race starting at 0800. The race started with a 2 mile run followed by 12 miles of biking, and then concluded with a 2 mile run. We knew going into this event that we wouldn't be placing high in the rankings due to the fact that we would be riding our mtn. bikes, but saw this as a good opportunity to train for the upcoming Sand Springs race. Our only hope was that maybe we could win some of the good giveaways.

My wife and I met Chris in Marshfield and he followed us up to the race which was located at the high school in Rogersville. The weather was clear, but a little chilly with temps in the low 40's. We arrived and checked in and received our race bibs, t-shirts, and race packets. We unloaded our bikes and layered up with what we thought would be the appropriate amount of clothing, and hurried to stage our bikes before the start. Chris ran the first two miles in 18:40 and I ran it in 20:02, we were both quick in the transition and took off on the bikes. The race flyer had said that the bike route would be flat and scenic with "ozark inclines". Well there were a few flat portions, and there were definetly some "inclines" as they were called. Lol. Chris finished the biking in 1:00:29 and I finished in 1:03:29. We felt pretty good about these times since our pre-race goal had been to cover the 12 miles in about an hour. We transitioned and were back out to run. After climbing off the bikes it took a little while to get the legs going again, though we didn't post a fast time on the bikes, we had still pedaled hard riding the mtn. bikes. Chris completed his second 2 miles in 20:37 for a total time of 1:42:26. I completed my second 2 miles in 23:54 for a total of 1:48:38. Overall a pretty satistfying race, completed within our goal of around 1hr 45min. We enjoyed some post race gatorade and snacks and called it a day.

OGAR

Greenways Adventure Race

Still under the affliction of adventure racing fever I dedided to put together a team for the greenways race. Racing with Chris would not be possible as he already had a team from previous years. So I set out to find some teammates. I needed a four person team and it had to be coed. It isn't that easy to, convince people that have never done a race that going and tromping around in the woods for 12 hrs is going to be a good time. I ended coming into contact with female personal trainer from a fitness center here in Lebanon through a co-worker. I met with her, she was really excited and her fiance was even going to do the race as well. I had three people now, so I just needed one more. Chris came through in the pinch and put me in contact with his pastor whom had done the race before. Sweet! The team was set, and it seemed as it would be good. Everyone had some conflicting schedules and getting together to train just never seemed to happen. I met with everyone and got the waivers signed, things still looked good.

Time passed and the race came around. I sent a message to my team to remind them of necessary items for race day, ie. bike, helmet, hydration pack. I din't receive a reply from anyone and thought this a bit strange, but knowing that people get busy, and the reliability of cell phones I didn't get to worried. On the day before the race I decided to call everyone and make sure that they knew what time to arrive. I soon found out that my female and her fiance had decided not to do the race and had never elected to tell me. I had paid the entry fee and had agreed to collect from everyone on race day. Big mistake! I frantically began to call everyone I knew to try to locate some people to do the race with me. I was desperate and agreed that anyone that would do the race could do if for free, because I was going to be out the money one way or the other. Not having any luck, I headed up to Richland to check-in and pick up our race packet. I called the remaining team member to explain what had happened, and found out that without a full team he would rather just sit it out as well. I explained my dilema to race officials and was told that there had been some other teams that had somebody drop. I came back early on race day and waited to meet with one of these teams hoping to join up with them and make a team. I was soon approached by a team that had heard of my situation and needed a person to make a full team. We agreed that we all had the same goal, finish the race and I joined up with team OZAIR. I was just happy to be with a team. With the rains the night before, the canoeing portion of the race had been taken out due to safety reasons, so a few last minute changes were made and maps were passed out. We headed out on the bikes and eventually came to the technical run and then the orienteering/trekking portion of the race. This was the first time that the entire race had been map and compass based. Even though my navigating experience was very limited, it was soon discovered that compared to the rest of my team I had a lot of knowledge. With my navigating and their pacing we made our way through the orienteering section and found all the checkpoints.
We made it back to our bikes and headed out for the technical bike portion. The trails were very muddy and did make for a challenging ride. About midway through this, while waiting for some of the team to catch up I discovered that my left pedal and crank arm was very loose. The bolt holding it all on had stripped out. I made several stops and tightned it using a multi tool from another team that had been keeping pace with us. We eventually made it back to the highway and had about 7 miles back to the finish. At about one mile into this part of the ride I was riding along, the bolt fell out and bounced into the grass and tall weeds on the roadside. I knew that I would probably never find it and didn't want to waste the time looking for it. I don't know if you have ever tried to ride a bike with only one pedal, but it is probably almost impossible. I soon gave in and would push it up the hills and ride it down, coasting as far as possible. This cost the team a considerable amount of time, but everyone took it in good spirits. We made it to the end and sprinted across the finish line as a team. We ended up 49th out of 57 teams with a time of 10hrs 35mins. Thanks to Mark and Debbie Burgess, and Brandon Franklin for letting me race with them.