I spent the week of the race on a motorcycle trip with some friends in New Mexico which isn’t the ideal way to prepare for competition.  However I did try to eat somewhat healthy and got a couple of short runs in.  I got back late Thursday night and spent Friday unpacking from the trip and packing up my adventure race stuff.  As usual I had a terrible night’s sleep before the race and got out of bed at 0430 and ate a bagel and had some coffee.  I hit the road at 0600 which had me rolling into the parking area at 0715.  I got my packet, hooked up with NB and set up my TA in three different areas as NB searched for the perfect spot.  The race didn’t start until 0900 so we had some time to kill and it was nice not to feel rushed.

We gathered up for the start and took off following Scott on his electric dirtbike as he led the way to the marked run course.  NB took off quickly with the front group but I started off a bit slow since I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to feel.  I didn’t want to go out too fast and blow up.  After about 10 minutes I started passing a lot of people who did exactly what I didn’t want to.  They had gone out way too fast and were sucking wind after the first mile.  My only problem at this point was that I needed to pee.  Really bad.  I made it back to the camp made a hole in three at the Putt Putt, ran across the balance log and then crabwalked under the volleyball net before running straight to the bathroom.  I was about 1.5 mins behind NB at this point but my bio break added at least another 1.5 mins on top of that.  I made it to the TA, switched shoes and put on my Camelbak and ran to the kayaks. 

I had never paddled an inflatable kayak before.  They have a mind of their own and will turn 90 degrees on a dime with no user input.  Although the paddle across the lake was only .4 miles as the crow flies I felt like I went twice that far due to all the unplanned turns.  I took a tad under 10 mins on this leg and got passed by a several two person kayaks.

Next was the bike.   I thought it would be pretty easy to find my red bike but when it is hiding in the middle of 100 other bikes it really wasn’t.  I doubt I spent more than 30 secs looking for it but it felt like 10 mins.  I had to jump out of the kayak to pull it to shore and my shoes were soaking wet so I thought I’d try to wring out my socks before the bike leg.  I did the right one and then realized this was a waste of time and put my shoes back on.  I jumped on the bike, clipped in, hit the trail and promptly unclipped to follow the short line of people climbing up the rocky ledged hill.  I made it around a few people on the rocky traverse and tagged on to a coed team of Troy and Claire.  I had run into Claire before at Muleshoe and had seen a couple of her ride reports on mtbr so I knew she was quick.  We set off on a pretty good pace and made it to the hill of death that went on forever.  I like hills.  They are an easy way to make up time on people who don’t like a little pain in their life.  However even I didn’t like this hill very much.  I eventually shifted down into my granny gear and ground it out over the top.  Next we hit some dirt for a few miles and had to spot an object on the hillside and then go run some bleachers before heading back.  It was mainly downhill from there.  I was in the big ring trying to make up some time on NB.  I hit 40 mph going down the big hill while thoughts of nasty road rash went through my head.  I’m always geared up on my motorcycle but here I am doing some of the same speeds while only wearing a helmet and spandex.  The rest of the ride in was pretty uneventful.  I was able to ride down the rocks that we had to walk up earlier and we were back at the kayak area before long.

My return kayak trip didn’t go so well.  The blades on the paddle I grabbed weren’t rotated correctly and I wasted some time trying to get it back to the correct position before I realized it was broken and wouldn’t lock into place.  The trip back across took a couple of minutes longer than the first one and my arms and abs were pretty much spent by the time I got to shore. 

Based on our previous race I should have known that the race wasn’t over when it appeared to be.  NB was there to greet me and told me to take of my pack and run over to the other side of the finish area. 

There was a steel cable across the water with rings mounted to it.  You had to make it as far as you could and then swim to the other side.  The fourth ring had been spun up and over the cable and was sitting about 4” higher than the third ring.  I doubt it really mattered much since my arms were spent and I made a half-hearted attempt at #4.  I dropped into the water and back stroked to the side, climbed the ladder and ran to the finish. 

Overall I was pretty happy with the result considering my week of “preparation”.  I did have some good lessons learned though.  I need to quick drinking so much before the race since that cost me 1.5 mins for the bio break.  I also wasted some time on the bike TA searching for my bike and wringing out my socks.  In hindsight I could have pushed harder on the run and the climb on the bike.  I do need to add some hill work to my runs and do some 5-6 milers on the weekend.  Finally I need to crank out more pullups and pushups for upper body strength.  That hurt me on the kayak and the rings.  It was a fun race though and the location was fantastic.

The end.