Somehow our Tardy Rooster blog got messed up and doesn't work anymore:( So I am posting here. Dave may add his thoughts in a different color.
Dave and I did an Adventure Race over the weekend. I have reported about many races that I have done. Somehow, every time I do a race I end up having several "firsts". This race was no different. Beginning with the first time I raced with Chad Hannon. Hi Chad! Dave has raced with him but I haven't. Chad is awesome. He trains a lot (which I only know from seeing his posts on facebook, which cracks me up) so he is super good at racing and he's an all around good guy.
Our 12 hour race was called Plot, Peddle, Paddle and started at 10 p.m. on Saturday night. Yes, I said 10 p.m. Which brings me to my next first. Racing at night. Oh my word. Did I sign up for this? I had my usual freak-out-Dave-can-I-please-not-do-this-I'm-so-nervous moment. Or day. I finally told myself I would go through with it and that was it. We left about 2:00 on Sat. and drove an hour and a half to Dixon, IL.
At the pre-race briefing we were told to turn in our bike helmets and there would be a special event at the beginning of the race. We didn't figure out what it was until the race start at 10. They explained there was a difficult section of biking and wanted to spread out the teams at the start with this "prologue". So they called for one person from each team to meet in a group. The fastest runner. Chad was it. By group consensus, although it was a given:) Then Dawn, one of the Race Directors, came over to the rest of us and had us line up by the sidewalk. That was the start of the pit in my stomach. There were 2 and 3 person teams so for the 2 person teams the other person was automatically told to step onto the sidewalk. For the 3 person teams, she pointed at one of the two remaining people and they had to step up. She pointed at me. And the pit in my stomach grew. Dave looked really nervous because he knew how much I would hate it. Anyway guess what, the fastest person in each team wasn't running, the others were! So that was me. Crap. So I have to run through the woods for a mile, grab our 3 bike helmets, and run back. Sure no problem! We were told to just go left, left, left. The last thing I heard as I took off running was "Leisha, just walk!" But, of course, I couldn't just walk. I was going to run until I gave myself an asthma attack. So I ended up making it back, but I was last. Dead last. I knew I would be. I just owned it. So that was another first for me. A solo run. I'm so used to ARing being a team sport that it never occurred to me I might have to do that. If it had I would have gotten off my butt that last two weeks!
Anyway, we started off the race on foot, we found three checkpoints in the woods and then came back to get our bikes.
We did start off in last but we had a plan to head to cp 1 and went right to it, I am not sure it was in the right place but we walked right to it. In fact, when Chad was punching 1 Wedali the team that won nationals last year came up behind him. We went from last to nearly first in the first 10 minutes so we made up for the prologue. cps 2 and 3 were pretty easy to find then back to TA 1 for bikes.
On our bikes, we did pretty well, I thought. Dave made a few navigational mistakes
(Well, lets see where to start...on the way to 5 turned on the wrong road, the way out of cp 5 lost the bike path, both only cost us a couple minutes but frustrating. Cp 6 no problem then we were to follow the red and yellow signs on single track. We followed the signs to 8 no prob, kept following the signs around, we knew we were headed back the way we came but were following the signs, turns out we went all the way back to cp 6. I was fuming! We quickly corrected and found 8 then to cp 9. I have made no secret of the fact that I hate single-track. I feel that I'm bad at it and it scares me. The RD made a comment on e-mail that it was harry in the daytime so nighttime would be worse. So my worst discipline, in the dark. Perfect. Turns out, it wasn't as hard as ours that we train on here in the Quad Cities. I walked a bunch of it but that was mostly because it was new. I have an unnatural fear of the unknown. It really slows me down.
We went right to where I thought it was, I could see where it should be but I thought it was a off limits road so we went back to the path and went right to it between the road and path. Again I thought the road was off limits so back to the path but it went the wrong way an circled back to where we were before cp 9. Then Chad helped me realize it was not off limits so we took it and we were off, cruised by cp 9 because we already punched. On the way to cp 10 we missed a turn, I think it was because we were flying down a huge down hill and was not paying attention enough. Which took us a little out of the way but we made it to 10 after some back tracking. Then to cp 11 with no mistakes. All in all we lost maybe 30 to 45 minutes with all those mistakes. I was so made and in a bad mood. I am pretty sure my teammates were not enjoying racing with me at this point.) but he's so good at making good route choices that we were sitting well by the time we made it to Chad's wife, Cortny at around 2 in the morning
(at cp 11). She and her daughters were volunteering at a checkpoint and making s'mores. It was exciting to see them. Cortny is super sweet and fun to be with. My stomach wasn't feeling the best but I choked down a marshmallow because her cute little daughter was making them.
Don't know what was going on but Leisha and I had been fighting puking. Neither of us knew it until I wouldn't take a mallow and she asked why. When Chad took two bites of his he also said that his stomach couldn't take it so he gave it to Cortny. I think it was because we hadn't eaten anything because we were on bikes pushing so hard also with lots of single track so it is hard to eat. One thing that we did get in us was a small can of Coke. Leisha and I have been trying it out after hearing about other racers trying it.
After all of this we were very surprised to find out that we were in 7th place at cp 11. 7th doesn't sound great but Teams Alpine Shop, Wedali, Bushwacker, and two Rev 3 teams were 5 of the ones ahead. All of these teams compete nationally against the best teams in the country. This along with the Coke helped to lift our spirits quite a bit especially me, after that I wasn't such a grump. After 11 it was pretty straight forward to pick up 12 and 13 and then 14 which was the TA to canoe.
By the time we got to the canoe portion I knew I was having intestinal issues. I had told Cortny that I have never had to...well
(poop) you know...in a race. Peeing in the woods is no big deal. You-knowing, now that's a different story. I know there is a first time for everything but the way my stomach was feeling, I knew it would probably be this race. Let's just say I was right. I didn't make it. Ewww.
I think we did great at the canoeing.
(we were headed up river and making really good time, it was going way better than any of us guessed it would because we knew the current was crazy fast) At one point, we had gotten really close to the shore and I heard Dave go "Ahhh!" and felt the canoe wobble. Chad and I were wondering what was going on back there. A fish had jumped out of the water, right into our boat! Oh my word, it landed on Dave's lap
(as a matter of fact it had me singing a higher pitch). Hahaha. I'm cracking up just thinking about it. I did my fair share of ewwwing because I'm a weanie and it was flopping around on the floor, right under my seat! But when he finally caught it and held it up for us to see, we could see the proof. It was at least a foot long, probably more but I don't want to tell a fish story. I think that is my favorite memory of the day because it's so cliche and yet unbelievable at the same time. Another first.
So we were canoeing around a point of an island, in the middle of this big river. We had to go through a patch of current, for lack of a better term. Dave was yelling to paddle hard and we all were, but the current pushed our canoe to the side and pushed the bottom under and WHOA we were headed over. I'm pretty sure I didn't even have time to scream. And screaming is my favorite thing to do. I feel slighted. I ended up under the boat and panicked. I found my way out and to the surface. Dave was holding onto two paddles and Chad was holding onto two packs, a paddle and the boat. I was just worried about my life!! Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a water person. To say I panicked was an understatement. Chad said something about at least we were alright. I said "No, I'm not alright!" I may or may not have tried to climb on top of the canoe to catch my breath.
Oh yeah, that was another first. Well, we tipped over one other time in a race but we were only in thigh-high water. Not the same!
So there was a DNR officer in a boat pretty close to us
(was close because he knew that was the worst part of the river. He mentioned later that the river was up at least 4 feet from the day before because of all the rain). He came over and got us into his boat and towed us and our canoe back to the beach. He told us he had been looking away but another canoe saw us and pointed. "And I saw the chaos (as he's flapping his arms)".
So that was the end of our race! We were freezing cold and just done.
Poor Dawn, this was the same race we did two years ago when I broke my arm. I think she was worried we wouldn't come back. No worries, Dawn!
All in all, I think we did great. I know Chad was very gracious to schlep along with us. To read his report,
click here. I would be honored to race with him again. Oh yeah, except for the fact that I may be headed into retirement. We'll see...
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