http://www.pangeaadventure
Pre-Race:
We pull into Orlando Wetland Park at about 7am. The sun is just breaking, but the temperature is still in the 40’s. We quickly set up our staging area and picked up the map giving us plenty of time to plan our race strategy, warm up our legs and do one final gear check before the 9:00 race start.
Prologue (Bike 1): 9:00am
Greg does his traditional war cry signaling go time! All elite teams take off on a 3km loop down the roughly paved entrance road before heading off to the bike/boat TA. No CPs to collect on this leg, just a race to get into the water. Unlike most our previous races, we did not make an attempt to sprint to the front of the pack. We formed a line and maintained a 19kph pace on the 8km jaunt to the bike/boat TA.
Boat:
We got into the water where the reclaimed water canal spills out into the St Johns River and start paddling east towards CP5. The first couple kilometers of the paddle were torture on our cold shoulders. Once we saw our first congregation of 6’-12’ alligators we were less worried about our shoulders and more worried about moving fast and staying in our canoes.
Despite our intentions and attempts to keep our feet dry in every race we always fail miserably, this was no exception. Within 10 minutes of our paddle we were slogging through some of the soggiest, slipperiest, shoe-sucking muck we’ve ever come across; we went through a lot of it as we had to do quite a bit of portaging. After picking up CP5 we headed south against the river picking up CPs 4, 7, 6 and 8. We then paddled back north to get CPs 3, 2 and 1, with the current, but against a steady wind that made the return paddle north more challenging than the paddle south. It was clear that we attacked the paddle checkpoints in a different order than most teams as we did not cross paths with many teams. Thanks to our improving paddling skills and Matt’s flawless performance on navigation, we sped through the paddle in 1hr 46mins, extremely confident in our performance.
Bike 2:
We left our paddles at the bike/boat TA and rode off to CP9 which was a few kilometers down a rough jeep trail dipping in and out of the river. The clue for CP9 was “palm tree along trail”; this CP was particularly frustrating because from a distance we could see small clusters of palm trees lining the trail in approximately 400 meter intervals, and just when we thought we reached the last palm on the trail, the trail kept going. When we finally reached that elusive palm we punched our card and used the camera attached to the CP to take a team picture as proof of our team’s cohesion. We returned to the B/B TA to secure our paddles before moving on to CP11. Bart was experiencing mechanical problems and suffering from muscle fatigue, so we put our leash system to work and I towed him for the remainder of this bike leg. We carried on toward CPs 11 and 10, passing the start/finish TA at about 11:30am where we saw the sport racers preparing for their 12:00 start. We returned to the S/F TA just after the sport race started.
We replenished our supplies and changed into dry shoes and socks (another feeble and failed attempt to keep our feet dry).
Trek:
This trek was a great physical challenge and test to our navigation skills and easily the most difficult stage of the race. We had to shoot bearings to find 3 of the CPs, as if that was not enough of a challenge, we also had to keep our bearings while bushwhacking through the swamp, circumventing unexpected lakes and slogging through chest-high grass fields. When we finally got back out onto a trail and thought the worst was behind us, we quickly discovered that the next couple kilometers of trekking would prove the most challenging (going from 17 to 19 to the T/A). The path we trekked toward CP’s 16, 17 and 19 was heavily traveled by herds of cattle leaving the surface riddled with hoof depressions and fecal matter making it prime terrain for ankle injury. Our only relieve from dodging holes and piles of cow shit was sloshing through a wreaking mix of mud and shit. These CPs were not too far off the trail, but I made the mistake of reading the clue for 18 when we were actually looking for 19 causing us to pass it by about 100 meters. Chris paying attention to our backstops was key to quickly recognizing and recovering from this mistake.
Bart, Chris and I were exhausted after that section of the trek, but Matt was suffering from debilitating cramps. As illustrated in the log of our trek, we slowed down significantly after CP16. After a couple of km of dry/even terrain I recovered enough strength to use our running harness to tow Matt the last couple minutes to the S/F TA.
Bike 3:
And we’re off to finish our last leg of the race! Not so much, Matt mounts his bike to find his rear tire completely flat (of course it had to be the rear tire). We make an attempt to put air in the tube and save time, but the hole is massive and the tire won’t hold air. So we summon our inner pit crew and change the tube in just less than 3 minutes. In our haste, we forgot to check inside the tire for the source of the flat, we all knew it could have been a disastrous mistake but, no one even wanted to mention it, so we carried on to the final 7 CPs with less than an hour to go.
Because of the hard packed surface surrounding the system of lakes, the last bike leg was a sprint to the finish requiring little navigation. The fields were mostly open, making the CPs easy to find, but also made the wind more of an opposing factor. Fighting the wind and fatigue, we formed a draft line, tucked our heads to pick up CPs 25, 24, 22, 23, 20, 21 and 26 in less than 40mins.
Completion time: 5hrs 37mins
Takeaway:
I think our most important lesson learned from this race is the importance of accuracy over speed. It seems like an obvious concept, but during a race we have so much adrenaline pumping through us that we sometimes forget that in addition to endurance, mental and physical fortitude; a successful adventure racer requires discipline, restraint and a clear head to stay safe, accurate and on course.
We also learned that whenever possible we should try to include the wind factor when plotting our plan of attack.
Posts
