5 days until the race. In theory training is over, I'm either ready for it or I'm not. We'll find out this weekend.
This final week is spent thinking about all the logistics that go into an event like this. It's no joke to go 5 hrs from home to spend approximately 24 hrs in the woods, travelling 100+ miles by bike, foot and canoe.
Each race has a list of mandatory gear that the Race Director (RD) has decided that each racer and team is required to have with them at all times. We must produce the mandatory gear at check-in on Friday night and also at any time during the race when a race official asks to see it. So at 11 o'clock Saturday night a race official may very well ask to see your whistle or tweezers or water filtration kit. This is the easy stuff though, you just use the mandatory gear list as a checklist and make sure you have it all with you at all times. It's a level playing field because everybody must have all the same stuff.
The more difficult decisions to make is what non-mandatory gear to bring. How cold will it get overnight? Do I need pants? A jacket? A hat? What if it rains? My rain jacket is great but takes up a lot of room in my backpack, do I really need it? How many pairs of socks should I bring? Will the canoe sections be long enough to justify carrying the carbon fiber double-wing paddles or should we just use the lame heavy ones provided for us with the boats? The idea is to travel as lightly as possible, to only bring what you'll need. The final decisions won't be made until right before the race starts Saturday morning.
The other critical decisions being made now are how to deal with hydration and nutrition. This is a non-supported race meaning we get no outside help of any type so I must bring with me everything that I will eat or drink during the race. These are the decisions that make or break the race. I expect to be burning 500- 800 calories per hour or a total of 15- 20 thousand calories during the race. There's no way to consume that many calories while racing. There are web-sites devoted to these issues and experience has taught me that I can get through on 250-300 calories per hour. The secret is to maintain the hourly intake and not fall behind. I plan on consuming at least half those calories in liquid form through powdered energy drinks. The rest will be energy bars and gels. I may bring some trail-mix or something with me but I don't know if I'll eat it or not. I'm very cautious of what I eat during a race, I have a sensitive stomach and don't want to risk getting sick by eating other solid, fun, "comfort" foods. I've seen guys puking on the side of the trail or running with diarrhea running down their leg and it isn't pretty.
There's lots of info coming to us from the RD about the race. It's going to be a pretty cool race in many ways. These guys consider themselves to be high-tech and are trying some new stuff. As I get more clearer info this week I'll put it here.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Ric's review of EFix Adventure Race
Folks,
Stan Green and I successfully completed the Endorphin Fix Adventure Race this past weekend. Billed as "the toughest 3.5 day race in the country," E-Fix lived up to its reputation by dishing out 82 hours and more than 300 miles of mountain biking, trekking and paddling through the Virginia and West Virginia mountains as well as the New River Gorge. Our team name was "Angelman Syndrome Awareness" and the race blog, map, pictures, etc. can be seen at http://www.checkpointtracker.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.showDashboard&eventID=157
We were lucky enough to realize our goal of an official finish in addition to capturing 3rd place in our division and 10th place over all. Of the 24 teams and solo racers who started the race, only 13 enjoyed an official finish.
The race started at the Pipestem State Park and Resort in Monroe County, WV at 6 AM Wednesday morning. In reality, the start was the night before as we worked until 10:45 PM wednesday night plotting checkpoints and choosing our route. When the gun went off, we first had a 50+ mile mountain bike leg that took us on a dark, screaming decent into the New River Gorge and then into Virginia on some very wet and slow double track. We were carrying all our food and gear for the next 24 hours, as it was possible that we might not would not see our gear boxes for a day. Thus, we had all the mandatory safety gear, climbing gear, paddling gear and clothing in our packs as well as extra gear like a double bladed paddle, our trekking shoes and additional clothes to combat the 30 to 40 degree expected night time temperatures. As Stan exclaimed, we were "loaded down like bastards."
We eventually made it to the rappel site at about 11:45 AM and immediately got stacked up in a line of other racers waiting to get on one of the two ropes available. When our turn came an hour later, we were sent over the edge of a 200 foot drop in an old rock quarry. Loose rock were everywhere, we could not touch the wall and a tangle of mature brambles met us at the bottom. It was miserable and its going to take someone with a gun to force me into another one of those.
At about 2:00 PM Thursday, we strapped our bikes and gear into a canoe and started out on a 35+ mile paddle down the New River. The trip took forever and was peppered with dozens of class I, II and III rapids. After successfully running the rapids most likely to swamp us - the Narrows and Shulte Rapids - all our daylight faded away and we were left to paddle the last 5 miles in darkness. We had a headlight, but did not see that large rock in a little class 2 rapid that turned us sideways and swamped our boat. In the water, Stan stayed with the boat, but I was separated. We made it to the same rocky bank, soaked to the bone in 40 degree weather. As we tried to pull on dry clothes from our our dry bag and assess our situation, Team Nature Cure come out of the darkness to offer help. They saved our bacon, spending 30 minutes with us helping to get a fire started and making sure we were okay on our own. After another hour, we dried out and warmed up enough to continue down the river, but we had lost one of Stan's bike shoes and we were antsy about every little piece of white water we heard approaching in the dark. I was a big relief to find Transition Area 2, our gear box parked next to a nice camp fire.
Once out of the damn boat at TA 2, we dried out some more and readied ourselves for an 85 mountain "covered bridge tour," an 85 mile mountain bike leg with 11,000 feet of elevation gain. With Stan down one bike shoe, we duct taped his tennis shoe clad foot to the pedal and he was able to ride very effectively for the rest of the race. We set out at 3:30 AM Friday, the temperature at 31 degrees. Once the sun came up, it got warm as we wound our way around the boonies, navigating to the covered bridges that served as checkpoints, eventually getting up a horrific climb to Mountain Lake, VA, the next transition area, TA 3. We tumbled into Mountain Lake at about 11:30 Friday night and, after eating, decided to get some sleep there. We had only caught an hour of fitful sleep since the race had started and that was an uncomfortable nap on the rock strewn, bug infested north side of Peters Mountain from 3 to 4 PM Thursday. TA 3 at was in a barn type building that had been used in filming "Dirty Dancing." The floor was cold, but with all our clothes on, we got 2 hours of snooze time time before we shivered ourselves awake. We ate again and packed for the 35 mile trek out of Mountain Lake and set out at about 3 AM Saturday.
We climbed mountain after mountain, collecting more check points for the next 12 hours, seeing only one other team the whole time - another two man team called "Murphy's Law." We had been trading spots on the leader board with Murphy's Law and another team called "Towanda" for the last 24 hours and we were starting to realize that our race was going to center on trying to beat them both. Before we finished that trek, we started to hallucinate. It was subtle at first, each of us remarking on how the area and the trek seemed so familiar. In a few hours, we were having deja vu about everything that happened. Then Stan stared to see animals in the rocks and trees. When we saw a large boulder sitting 30 feet up in the crux of a tree, we thought we were loosing it. Not 5 minutes later we saw a fallen tree with water shooting out of two holes in its side. Everything but these last two sightings was bogus. We continued to have weird deja vu, even when we were zooming on bikes through Pembroke, VA, stopping at the Subway on the way to the next trekking legs at the Mill Creek area near Narrows, VA. We were certain that we had both been in that Subway before, but we could not figure out how, when or for what reason. We eventually just chalked it up to lack of sleep and ignored all the subsequent deja vu.
Having finished off foot longs from Subway (and armed with two more stuffed into our packs) we rode the interminable forest service roads to TA 5 at Mill Creek. Once there, at 9:45 PM Saturday night, we were directed to the canoe put in for the final two legs of the race. So, after a few more hours sleep around a comfy fire, we headed out of TA 5 at 1:30 AM Sunday, riding another 35 miles to Dickinson Camp Ground on the New River where we were reunited with our gear box for the first time since late Thursday night. There were many other teams at Dickinson with us, all of them getting ready to set out for the finish. Towanda was there, but Murphy's Law was not and was officially listed as "unaccounted for."
We ate a ton of food very quickly, strapped the bikes to the boat again and headed out on the last water leg, a 16 mile paddle to Bluestone State Park in WV. Towanda was in the water well ahead of us and put considerable distance on us during the paddle. Once at Bluestone, we had a 13 mile hike, a rough river crossing and a 1200 foot climb to the finish. We tucked in behind Berlin Bike for the hike. We have known this team for a few years and they were happy to let us join them, as they are in the primer co-ed division and had more checkpoints than us, so we were no competition for them.
Berlin Bike set a torrid pace, passing Towanda and two other teams on the way to the river crossing and the foot of the climb. We were all in danger of missing the final time cut at 4:00 PM Sunday, so the pace was appropriate. When it was apparent that Berlin Bike had to nurse an ill team mate up the mountain, Stan and I decided to go it alone, so we set our own fast pace, reaching the finish with only 18 minutes to spare. Towanda came in about 13 minutes later with Berlin Bike just a minute behind them. Murphy's Law toughed it out to finish unofficially at about 6:30 PM Sunday.
We are not too bad off from the experience. The worse problem we have are a couple of blisters on our feet. We feel lucky to have been able to finish E-Fix and to have placed pretty well among a stacked field. We appreciate the shout outs we received from friends and family along the way (we received them 3 times during the ordeal) and we also appreciate the latitude our families have given us to engage in activities which induce a mild psychosis. I do not know if I will ever want to do E-Fix again, but if any of you want to try it, I will support you in any way that I can.
Thanks to everyone,
Mort
Stan Green and I successfully completed the Endorphin Fix Adventure Race this past weekend. Billed as "the toughest 3.5 day race in the country," E-Fix lived up to its reputation by dishing out 82 hours and more than 300 miles of mountain biking, trekking and paddling through the Virginia and West Virginia mountains as well as the New River Gorge. Our team name was "Angelman Syndrome Awareness" and the race blog, map, pictures, etc. can be seen at http://www.checkpointtracker.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.showDashboard&eventID=157
We were lucky enough to realize our goal of an official finish in addition to capturing 3rd place in our division and 10th place over all. Of the 24 teams and solo racers who started the race, only 13 enjoyed an official finish.
The race started at the Pipestem State Park and Resort in Monroe County, WV at 6 AM Wednesday morning. In reality, the start was the night before as we worked until 10:45 PM wednesday night plotting checkpoints and choosing our route. When the gun went off, we first had a 50+ mile mountain bike leg that took us on a dark, screaming decent into the New River Gorge and then into Virginia on some very wet and slow double track. We were carrying all our food and gear for the next 24 hours, as it was possible that we might not would not see our gear boxes for a day. Thus, we had all the mandatory safety gear, climbing gear, paddling gear and clothing in our packs as well as extra gear like a double bladed paddle, our trekking shoes and additional clothes to combat the 30 to 40 degree expected night time temperatures. As Stan exclaimed, we were "loaded down like bastards."
We eventually made it to the rappel site at about 11:45 AM and immediately got stacked up in a line of other racers waiting to get on one of the two ropes available. When our turn came an hour later, we were sent over the edge of a 200 foot drop in an old rock quarry. Loose rock were everywhere, we could not touch the wall and a tangle of mature brambles met us at the bottom. It was miserable and its going to take someone with a gun to force me into another one of those.
At about 2:00 PM Thursday, we strapped our bikes and gear into a canoe and started out on a 35+ mile paddle down the New River. The trip took forever and was peppered with dozens of class I, II and III rapids. After successfully running the rapids most likely to swamp us - the Narrows and Shulte Rapids - all our daylight faded away and we were left to paddle the last 5 miles in darkness. We had a headlight, but did not see that large rock in a little class 2 rapid that turned us sideways and swamped our boat. In the water, Stan stayed with the boat, but I was separated. We made it to the same rocky bank, soaked to the bone in 40 degree weather. As we tried to pull on dry clothes from our our dry bag and assess our situation, Team Nature Cure come out of the darkness to offer help. They saved our bacon, spending 30 minutes with us helping to get a fire started and making sure we were okay on our own. After another hour, we dried out and warmed up enough to continue down the river, but we had lost one of Stan's bike shoes and we were antsy about every little piece of white water we heard approaching in the dark. I was a big relief to find Transition Area 2, our gear box parked next to a nice camp fire.
Once out of the damn boat at TA 2, we dried out some more and readied ourselves for an 85 mountain "covered bridge tour," an 85 mile mountain bike leg with 11,000 feet of elevation gain. With Stan down one bike shoe, we duct taped his tennis shoe clad foot to the pedal and he was able to ride very effectively for the rest of the race. We set out at 3:30 AM Friday, the temperature at 31 degrees. Once the sun came up, it got warm as we wound our way around the boonies, navigating to the covered bridges that served as checkpoints, eventually getting up a horrific climb to Mountain Lake, VA, the next transition area, TA 3. We tumbled into Mountain Lake at about 11:30 Friday night and, after eating, decided to get some sleep there. We had only caught an hour of fitful sleep since the race had started and that was an uncomfortable nap on the rock strewn, bug infested north side of Peters Mountain from 3 to 4 PM Thursday. TA 3 at was in a barn type building that had been used in filming "Dirty Dancing." The floor was cold, but with all our clothes on, we got 2 hours of snooze time time before we shivered ourselves awake. We ate again and packed for the 35 mile trek out of Mountain Lake and set out at about 3 AM Saturday.
We climbed mountain after mountain, collecting more check points for the next 12 hours, seeing only one other team the whole time - another two man team called "Murphy's Law." We had been trading spots on the leader board with Murphy's Law and another team called "Towanda" for the last 24 hours and we were starting to realize that our race was going to center on trying to beat them both. Before we finished that trek, we started to hallucinate. It was subtle at first, each of us remarking on how the area and the trek seemed so familiar. In a few hours, we were having deja vu about everything that happened. Then Stan stared to see animals in the rocks and trees. When we saw a large boulder sitting 30 feet up in the crux of a tree, we thought we were loosing it. Not 5 minutes later we saw a fallen tree with water shooting out of two holes in its side. Everything but these last two sightings was bogus. We continued to have weird deja vu, even when we were zooming on bikes through Pembroke, VA, stopping at the Subway on the way to the next trekking legs at the Mill Creek area near Narrows, VA. We were certain that we had both been in that Subway before, but we could not figure out how, when or for what reason. We eventually just chalked it up to lack of sleep and ignored all the subsequent deja vu.
Having finished off foot longs from Subway (and armed with two more stuffed into our packs) we rode the interminable forest service roads to TA 5 at Mill Creek. Once there, at 9:45 PM Saturday night, we were directed to the canoe put in for the final two legs of the race. So, after a few more hours sleep around a comfy fire, we headed out of TA 5 at 1:30 AM Sunday, riding another 35 miles to Dickinson Camp Ground on the New River where we were reunited with our gear box for the first time since late Thursday night. There were many other teams at Dickinson with us, all of them getting ready to set out for the finish. Towanda was there, but Murphy's Law was not and was officially listed as "unaccounted for."
We ate a ton of food very quickly, strapped the bikes to the boat again and headed out on the last water leg, a 16 mile paddle to Bluestone State Park in WV. Towanda was in the water well ahead of us and put considerable distance on us during the paddle. Once at Bluestone, we had a 13 mile hike, a rough river crossing and a 1200 foot climb to the finish. We tucked in behind Berlin Bike for the hike. We have known this team for a few years and they were happy to let us join them, as they are in the primer co-ed division and had more checkpoints than us, so we were no competition for them.
Berlin Bike set a torrid pace, passing Towanda and two other teams on the way to the river crossing and the foot of the climb. We were all in danger of missing the final time cut at 4:00 PM Sunday, so the pace was appropriate. When it was apparent that Berlin Bike had to nurse an ill team mate up the mountain, Stan and I decided to go it alone, so we set our own fast pace, reaching the finish with only 18 minutes to spare. Towanda came in about 13 minutes later with Berlin Bike just a minute behind them. Murphy's Law toughed it out to finish unofficially at about 6:30 PM Sunday.
We are not too bad off from the experience. The worse problem we have are a couple of blisters on our feet. We feel lucky to have been able to finish E-Fix and to have placed pretty well among a stacked field. We appreciate the shout outs we received from friends and family along the way (we received them 3 times during the ordeal) and we also appreciate the latitude our families have given us to engage in activities which induce a mild psychosis. I do not know if I will ever want to do E-Fix again, but if any of you want to try it, I will support you in any way that I can.
Thanks to everyone,
Mort
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